Wandering Minstrel

That's exactly what I'm hoping to achieve, although I'll be using the back end of an Italeri Hawk 100 for my one.

I'm midway through building this kit too and I've found it a struggle from the off. I used strips of plastic card to reinforce the horizontal fuselage joins and hopefully resolves some of the worst alignment issues but it's still taken a lot of filling and sanding to get things even moderately square. I've also found it a struggle to get the LRMTS to fit at all, and the general mess that's been assembling the underwing things has been somewhat demoralising. Other than that, the kit's been a delight and I've been happy to indulge my wife's request for an aircraft with saucy nose art!

Would a Manchester be an easier adaptation/addition to existing moulds vice a Lincoln?

That looks just like I hope mine will (eventually), where's the split between the fuselages?

Thanks for the guidance there, it sounds like a more involved job than I initially thought! I'm mostly planning on using the Matchbox kit as I've had it for more years than I care to remember and as it's missing a wing anyway this is as good a way to actually build it as any. As my plan is a what if anyway it's giving me a little bit of leeway as it only has to look reasonably accurate in the end. Still planning to post pics when i get round to it!

I'm building up to mating my Matchbox Hawk 200 with an Italeri Hawk 100 and a resin Sea Harrier radome to try and make something out of the mostly intact kit that's sat in a freezer bag in my desk drawer for a few years. Has anyone here attempted something similar and how did it go? I'll be building it as a what if IAC aircraft so absolute accuracy isn't my intention but I would like to finish with something that's recognisably a Hawk when sat next to one of its two seat bretheren.

There's a chapter in the Jaguar Boys book by a Brit pilot on contract to the NAF with BAe and there's a certain level of dark comedy in there about the ineptitude of the NAF crews and techs. Rereading the chapter he mentions flying 108 hrs on a two year contract, while in the RAF he was flying about 230 hrs a year, mostly he puts this down to a lack of fuel but also that only aout half of the aircraft were even serviceable when he arrived in Nigeria. He does mention flying with drop tanks and that live weapon carriage was forbidden after an attempted coup, this in a section where he details setting up a bombing range at the NAF's request.

No indication there might be Martel/Sea Eagle in a later boxing?

I've fallen into the habit of using Humbrol 196 for those parts on tornados over the years, LAG always seemed a bit dark in 1/72 to my eye.

Nice one, the Airfix kit builds up into a lovely looking Lightning! When I worked there myself and a colleague had a plan to recreate all the hangars in 1/72nd scale and you're one kit further along than we ever got!

Would anyone know if the recent starter set issues of the Airfix Tornado F3 have the additional weapons and assorted bits sprue that was in the issues from about 2003/4? I'm hoping to bring an Italeri and a Hasegawa kit up to something closer to the aircraft's fit in the early 2000s but I'm not having much luck in finding aftermarket to do it.

'Twould be me, I spent the summer of 2016 working there, just after the newly refurbed hangars opened. It's definitely a painted grey underside which tallies well with LAG, matching pretty closely with the grey underside of the Tornado F.3 next to it. The Lightning came to East Fortune after having spent time at Leuchars as a decoy so I assume that the slightly dodgy paint dates from then as NMS tends not to repaint its aircraft (the Bolingbroke in the corner of hangar 2 being the exception).

Just to throw the cat among the pigeons, XN776 at the National Museum of Flight, East Fortune, has Light Aircraft Grey undersides, thus: In the time I worked at the museum I had quite a few conversations about the grey rather than HSS undersides.

After ebaying and wincing as well I think I'm going to go on with my original plan of fabricating the missing parts from plastic card. As long as it sits at the back of the shelf and I don't look too closely it'll likely pass muster. My wife just thinks the Buffalo looks cool so she'll be happy to have it there.

While sorting through a somewhat harsh stash reduction I came across the elderly Buffalo, part started in a bag. A couple of pieces are missing, however, parts 23 and 24 which form part of the engine cowling. They don't seem too hard to fabricate but would any kind soul have the correct measurements for their depth? Just so it looks mostly right from a distance.

From memory none of the RAF Hawk Mk.1s had the outer pylons, nor were the inners plumbed for tanks. Otherwise it sounds like an enjoyable project.

Could it be that it was intentional? I seem to recall that in the Great War the rudder stripes were painted with the blue forward of the red.

Hello folks, I'm about to embark on a little project involving the old Airfix Mk.6 Canberra and the Heritage T.17 conversion (a rather severe reaction to losing the original canopy of the kit). This is the first time I'll be using resin to this extent, I've never done anything more than the odd bang seat and some lumps and bumps before. Has anybody here done this mod before and are there any pitfalls to look out for? Any suggestions on how to properly use a vac canopy would be welcome also.

Arrived on Monday morning and looking fantastic. Now to source what I don't already have in the stash.....

More importantly, when is Edinburgh ever that sunny?

IIRC the Xtrakit one is just the Matchbox plastic in a new box though....