Jinxman

The 300mm is a lens that sometimes is the perfect option - I think if you have a crop body it is a great option, relatively easy to handle and great contrast and sharpness. Just think about the results at one of those Northolt night shoots! At Chitose the guy with the 300mm got some great shots of F15s taking off in near dark so it proves it can do the job in low light. I wish I had taken my 200-400mm to Japan as it would have given me more options - but lugging around too much kit becomes a chore at best I think. cheers

What Black Knight says - got my last lot from John - it's the same as the Contrail product.

hi Radleigh, The 300mm f2.8 is a great lens, (Canon or Nikon), for sure - do you use a body with a crop factor on it? I think without it the reach can be a little limiting - certainly around european airshows, but not so if you can get base access. The problem with the 500mm is carting it about, and getting it in cabin luggage is a challenge as well. cheers

Having been in Japan recently and seen that they seem to have P3s, (some R1s), E2s, E767s and so on coming out of their ears it is difficult to understand what our approach to defence is, given the similarities between our geographic locations.

Fabulous!

You got it! What a sublime sight she is..

Now I feel uncomfortable, and yet engaged at the same time! A properly engineered welding solution from a 1960s animated movie - cool! Will it be weathered?

hi wal, May I direct you to a previous thread regarding the subject matter? http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/63650-dh-88-grosvener-house-markings/?hl=dh88 As beautiful as she appears now, my personal opinion is that the colour scheme she wore on the way to Australia is very different to the one she wears now. If it is not too intrusive this is how I captured her during the summer?

chuckle, - I see a career beckoning within the BBC..

..and don't forget many of our NATO partners are in exactly the same boat, run down capabilities and lack of funding, etc. I wonder where it will all lead?

Thanks all, hi Radleigh - the shots were all taken with a 500mm f4 - one of the guys on the trip was using a 300mm f2.8 with a full frame body and he got some amazing shots - definitely easier to use than the 500 but without as much reach I suppose, cheers

Hi, Our next visit with the 4Aviation group was to Chitose for a couple of days - weather was a little cooler, and a bit claggy at times, but there were plenty of Eagles about to keep us occupied. I hope you enjoy the pics and thanks for looking in, cheers

My Heller 1/72 Breguet 693 is ready and waiting, bring it on!

Missed out on the F1/Moto GP - so its plan B for my white metal 1/43 Meri Kits Brabham BT58 - hooray!

hi Pat, The filling has been relentless on it - not sure if it is my building skills, the kit, or a bit of both. Yup, they are very tail heavy - Airfix even provide you with a small support that fits underneath the rear fuselage to stop it from being a tail-sitter. My cunning plan gets round this though as it's a wheels-up build - once she's done I will place her on an old Airfix display stand - it will either be one of the 1/24th ones or something like the old 1/72 B29 stand - hopefully the stand can go under the c of g, as I won't be fitting the gun pack on this build. cheers

hi all, managed a little bit of work on this - though it feels like one step forward, and two steps back, which is why it ended up on the shelf of doom in the first place I think. I spent a couple of nights getting my head around where i had got to, and then ploughed on.. Ongoing filling here and there.. I didn't like the look of the tail boom - too pointy, and so started to make it a little more rounded as well, I also tried to sand the bomb aimers view window to the correct size, but the inside part remained the same size, and it looked odd, so off it came with a view to replacing it with an A2Zee part. I also filled the lines around the side windows with a view to altering the shape to match photos, The ailerons needed thinning down - I read somewhere that you can build them up so one is too thick and one is too thin - both mine were too thick, so don't know how I managed this. Hopefully more progress to be made next week, cheers

The Sea Fury - perhaps the ultimate piston-engined fighter- beautiful shape and sounds great in the air. Looking forward to seeing this one develop..

Thanks - yup, it would be nice to see some of this more unusual stuff kitted, who knows for the future. The FDA stuff doesn't ring any bells - can't be sure though until I look in a week or so's time. cheers

Thanks chaps, Still gutted we missed CVW-5, but on the bright side still to come are 2 days at Chitose, 2 days at Misawa + the museum, open day at Iruma and last but not least we had a day at Hyakuri for the F4s. Might do a civils compilation as well from the bits and pieces we saw there. cheers

hi All, I bagged these whilst on a 4Aviation trip - variable weather on the day, and unfortunately much of Carrier Air Wing 5 was on deployment.. Hope you like 'em and thanks for looking in..

Great collection - very difficult to pick a fave.. but I think the Apache is a stunning shot, cheers

hi, Only if they really need it - I use PEC-12 and pec pads - and always give 'em a good blow beforehand using a hand held blower. Much easier to do if they aren't mounted as well.. cheers

Thanks All, Appreciate your kind comments - really a lot of the credit goes to the amount of movement we saw out in Japan - lots of opportunities and some great aeroplanes on display, cheers

hi Pat, Yup, just doing a bit of late night catch up/research to try and remember where I got to with it - decals have gone walkabout at the moment but everything else seems to be present and correct. Let's see how we get on later on in the week! cheers

hi all, This one has been stalled for some time now. It's an OOB build, wheels up, (to sit on an old Airfix black stand) and with an attempt to fix some of the known issues with the kit as listed on BM and elsewhere. From memory the bits still to do apart from the assembly/painting etc are; Add wing leading edge inlets inboard of the engines Change bomb aimer's glazing or reshape (spare clear part from A2Zee might be used) Ailerons need thinning down to match profile of wing Bomb aimer's side windows need reshaping Ejector cartridge positions to add on nacelles Some rescribing to take place The usual filling sanding/filling/sanding to complete. I was planning to finish with the kit decals as XM277, but with light grey undersurfaces rather than the high speed silver. Planning on re-starting next week! cheers..