Unkempt

Yeah, it did actually have a 'windscreen', except apparently it was a sheet of steel to keep the engine oil from hitting the pilot. (It's around here somewhere, but possibly in the hoover bag...) Oh, and I re-watched Those Magnificent Men yesterday and... it's not in it. What the heck. There's the very similar 'Antoinette' but no Martin-Handasyde. Very disappointing. (Still a great film, though. Wish they'd make stuff like that these days.)

Not my finest build but you don't often see them, so here it is. The wheels should be spoked but I couldn't hack that, I also chickened out on the markings and the 'windscreen' got lost somewhere along the way. I added a seat cushion and redid the 'spoon' undercarriage thingy on the front; otherwise out of the box. Rigging is (a lot of) EZ-line.

It looks like the RAF one never happened; according to this https://books.google.com/books?id=aKQsAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT240&lpg=PT240&dq="International+Air+Freight"+at+Croydon&source=bl&ots=Et0yszX8cX&sig=NpF0eQrS7kLKLV23r-ip1B43rCI&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi0jb3kzZbPAhWCLSYKHcRhAcUQ6AEIRTAH#v=onepage&q="International Air Freight" at Croydon&f=false ... they were bought by the RAF but just sat in a hangar until they were scrapped.

Loving Frosty there. Also, nice post/username combo

Oh Lord, I've got their Fokker C1 in the stash. Every so often I take it out just to marvel at it. I have to say the white metal parts don't look too bad...

This should work - deleted everything outside the tags and after the .jpg. Looking good!

Don't suppose there's any chance they'll replace the old 1/72 one with a downscaled version of this? I love it but it's a bit big for me.

Thanks, guys. It's the French boxing and I'm going for the black-nosed MS-391. I'm pretty sure it doesn't have the black batons but really I'm going by their painting instructions there. Christian, thanks for all that - I'm pretty sure I now have information that exceeds my painting skill level

Thanks guys. Well, this is getting complicated. I'm making the Special Hobby Morane-Saulnier N and photos of the original are rare and not very helpful. It's CDL on both surfaces, so from the above I'm now thinking darker ribs for the underside and lighter for the top.

Ah, that looks a lot more like the models I've been looking at. I think some of it is whether the top is clear or not, so there's more light shining through which would give more shadow - I assume that Camel has PC10 on the upper surface. You can still just see the roundel though. So maybe as the CDL is semi-transparent, - clear upper surface, you can see the sunlight through so ribs look darker, but - dark upper surface, you can see the darkness through the lower surface so the ribs look lighter? One more question, did rib tapes get replaced at all? Could they be newer and cleaner than the rest of the surface? Off to look at more photos.

Mmm. Wings and ribs. Anyway, I'm making a WW1 plane with clear doped wings for the first time in ages and I've been looking around at techniques. It looks like most modellers paint the linen colour then mask the ribs and shade around them, leaving lighter coloured ribs. It looks good but when I take a look at real pics - for example, Google image searching 'Bleriot' - the majority look like the ribs are darker than the rest of the wing. Am I missing something? Is it all just a trick of the light?

Thanks, all. I'm amazed that at least two other people had the same thing. Are there people finding Vampires in their Zero boxes too?

I thought the new Airfix Vampire looked pretty good, so I sent off to that nice Mr Amazon for one. This is what I got: Hmm. I think there may be some shape issues with this. A lot of things don't seem to match up and might need some work. Well, anyway. First things first. The fuselage is the wrong shape. Needs a trim. That's more like it. Getting there. The tailfins are completely wrong and need reshaping I thought Airfix had left out the booms too, but I found them eventually. The actual tailplane turned out to be in a completely different kit I bought last year! Not sure how they did that. ... and finally. Still looks a bit weird. Probably a prototype or something.

Yep. That's exactly what I'd want my stuff to look like (but it sadly doesn't). Beautiful work.

I don't really know what a 'Hi-Mock' is but another website had a little 'build a hi-mock' thing going on so I got one and this happened.

Looks good, I'll have to try it. Thanks.

Haven't heard of that before. Do you just sort of draw it on? Any problems with the top coat sticking over pastels?

Well, I'm convinced. The EZ-line is going on. Thanks chaps.

The Defiant has an odd retractable aerial on its underside, presumably so it didn't get shot off by trigger-happy turretteers. Does anyone know if it had aerial wire strung between that and the front one between the undercarriage when on the ground? It seems to me that it should have, and I can see it on some drawings and models, but I can't see any wire in any photos. For example, it's on drawings here: http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/home/frederick-hughes-and-the-boulton-paul-defiant/ But I can't see it in this photo: http://www.atsx91.dsl.pipex.com/images/Eric_Barwell_Defiant.jpg Opinions?

Oh look, there it is. Well that would've save me $5. Typical. ... well that's just weird. Maybe someone imported a case of them back in the day? It's the only bagged Airfix I've seen in the states.

They tend to be just one of many manufacturers rather than the main one or two, but yes, I've seen plenty of Airfix in the three or four shops I've been in over here. I got the 72nd Spitfire IIa here without too much trouble and I've seen most of the new tool 72nd stuff, plus the 24 scale Typhoon. I've even bought a bagged 72nd Bristol Bulldog in the US, God knows how that got here. Does make it frustrating when the one you really want doesn't show up, though. (Oh, and for some reason nobody sells the Revell Europe paints or filler, which I really liked. Had to switch to Tamiya.)

Got fed up waiting for it to appear on the benighted side of the Atlantic, so mine arrived this morning via EBay and Germany (ironically). Not sure why I wanted it so much, but memories of the dreadful old tool probably helped - I think it's the only kit I got as a kid that I didn't finish because the fit was so bad. So a shiny new one with excellent reviews? Yes please.

Looks a lot better than my 102nd. Blimey.

Well, obviously I could make my own, I was just wondering if there was a site out there that had a bunch of different country/era types already organised that you could just download. I know I've seen similar things for airports and landing fields - this place has some, for example. As for quality - I dunno? I might have to try it and see.

(Wasn't really sure where to post this, hope this is OK) I was just about to paint up some more Tamiya tape seatbelts when it occurred to me that there ought to be a set of templates for various types and scales that could be printed out on a computer printer and then cut out and maybe varnished or otherwise finished. Does anyone know if such a thing exists? It'd be a good cheap alternative to PE for those of us who are too poor/tight/PE-phobic for those.