At Sea

Ahh, my lack of knowledge seeping through. I presumed that the B.1 shared nose and tail, which would have made it simple to do. So very typical of a British manufacturer to make a updated version of something that shares nothing with the Mk.1!

Looking at the parts breakdown of the new Airfix kit the wings being a separate sprue would allow (with the addition of a B.1 specific sprue containing intakes nose leg and tail cone (tail cones if you wanted) a B.1 to be made. Alternatively if someone very enterprising decided to make a B.1 conversion kit comprising wings nose leg and tail cones that would fit into Airfix's existing parts that could work too. You know more than I do if this is possible.

I was quite touched that this was my wife's response!

Aircraft involved for those that want to model them: Skyshield 2. 27 squadron from Bermuda. XJ824, XH555, XJ823, ?. 83 squadron from Lossiemouth. ?

There seems to be a renewed interest in Skyshield of late. A couple of YouTube history channels have made content relating to 'When Britiain Bombed America, twice' by Mark Felton. I doubt Airfix are priming influencers but it's a nice coincidence.

I have 2 waiting for me at home. I imagine that there will be a Black Buck boxing as well as a future XH558 standalone boxing with the correct (incorrect) roundels and the decals for the inside of the bomb bay. This has to have been Airfix's greatest success for years. I can't wait to see mine and will be looking forward to your builds too. Off the back of the reception this has had, the 1/24 Typhoon and Hellcat I imagine a similar response will await the 1/24 Spitfire IX which must be on the cards surely!

Fixed that for you! 🙂

Beautifully built.

Loving this kit. It is so well designed and moulded. I had great trepidation with the multi part exhausts but they went well. I will definitely be building another one of these with the engine covers off to show off all that detail. Anything I think may be visible through the engine and gun cowl vents got a coat of matt black with some gun metal and then silver dry brushing.

The picture looks familiar. I can't place it...

Brilliant work, it always amazes me that the size of these ships and the mass of pipework on deck they don't make it high enough up to walk under, or low enough to work on. It's always just at head banging and need a ladder to do anything height.

Captured the look of a Typhoon really well. Nice to see the seekers on the LGB's at idle as well, so often they are modelled horizontal.

That's stunning. Really nice and an inspirational build.

Hello. I got a bit carried away so it's not very 'step by step'. Having limited supplies aboard ship I made some homebrew RLM02 using RAF Dark Sea Grey and Sky. as it's down inside the cockpit I hopefully will get away with it. It looks so much worse in the picture than it does in real life! My love hate relationship with PE continues and as this will be cockpit closed I will not bother with the little PE levers and throttles etc. For those that are concerned I have a full set of the necessary RLM colours to finish this properly, and the flat areas behind pilots seat are easy enough to paint once the whole thing is zipped up. This is the first and last occasion when I shall sully my proud Luftwaffe machine with inferior Tommy paints!

Inspirational work! I should really do some of these. I love an XJ-S and have had 3. The only reason I don't have one now is I struggle with the current prices when a good one used to be £5k! Blue distributor caps are interchangeable with black, it's just a question of what was available when you had your car serviced. The black ribbed can thingumy in the vee of the engine is the pneumatic bellows for the cruise control system (which I always used to rip out because it is not great when working and a source of vacuum leaks). The oil filler is on the near side cam cover and the pipe stood up at 45 degrees represents the A coil. There is also a B coil on the panel behind the grille and in front of the radiator. If you are interested Jaguar used a Lucas licenced version of Bosch D-Jet. On a BMW 3.0Ci (E9 shape) the D jet system fires injectors for cylinders 1,3,5 then 2,4,6 on alternate crank cycles. The Jaguar system utilised a signal amplifier, to fire twice the number of injectors on alternate cycles, so fires injectors on A bank, then B bank. The dual coils were to provide a stronger spark with the very high compression used in the HE (1982 onwards) version of the V12 engine, 12:1 compression ratio, with swirl shaped heads to provide greater turbulence and a leaner mix. This raised the consumption from a woeful 11-14mpg to a tolerable 15-20 mpg. The power remained about the same, and varies across all 5.3 engines from 1975-1990 at around 280-299bhp. My personal best as a reasonably high speed run from Stirling to Somerset at 21mpg. which shows if you use these cars as designed they aren't a terribly thirsty as they are reputed to be!

There is the Fujimi and Airfix in 1/72. I'm currently mid double-build of an Airfix F-4K and F-4M in 1/72, stencil hell! (Apologies for the thread drift...) I believe the ambition is that ZM will kit every version of the F-4 for their SWS series in 1/48, including the F-4K and F-4M. I have a savings account specially set up for this eventuality!

I'm (appropriately) at sea right now and won't be home for a few weeks, If you are still waiting I can look in my K.2 box then.

Love the dot camo, looks very realistic, was it just done with a brush and a careful eye? Very nice indeed.

Thanks. I'm looking forward to it, will do!

Hello all. I read this entire thread over the last couple of days and have been inspired to have a go. A RFM Tiger 1 Initial (1943) is on order from @Duncan B, Given the last German Armour I built was my Afrika Korps set using Tamiya kits this will be an education! As an side, 14 year old me obviously thought that the war in the Western Desert went on until about December '44 as my Afrika Korps had: Tiger 1 King Tiger Jagd Tiger Which would have changed the balance of some of the battles for sure! I only wish I had pictures or had kept them!

Looking really good.

Off Cyprus during the Gulf War. (Picture from Wikipedia for educational purposes)

Lovely work. No idea if the USS Nimitz ever ventured into the South Atlantic as far down as the Falklands, but as an Atlantic Fleet vessel if she did I'm sure the scene you depict would have occurred as she approached the FIADZ. I bet the Pilot in the Tomcat is telling the younger RIO that he flew F-4's in 'Nam!

I'll be using this boxing of the Bf 109 G-2, which differs from the G-1 in the head armour and the minor difference to the pressurised canopy, so I will be checking as much as I can and if necessary raiding my G-6 kit for the necessary parts to make a G-1 from a G-2. But in all honesty I think it won't make a huge difference.

Having inherited 'I flew for the Fuhrer' from my Grandfather and read it repeatedly though my life I can think of no better subject to model. I plan to use the Peddinghaus decals for Knoke's personal aircraft, a Bf. 109 G-1 when he was with 5th Staffel JG 11 at Jever in 1943. My well read copy! 1953 First Edition! I have wanted to build this aircraft for a long time, and now finally feel I have the skills to do it justice. I'll be working on them in chronological order, so will build my Bf 109 E-3 of Obstlt. Hans-Hugo Witt first.