FRANCISCO

I have just been ploughing my way through Valom's Albemarle ST Mk.V. If you are familiar with Frog kits from the 1960s it is a dead ringer in terms of basic parts and slightly iffy fit. The general shape seems OK, but it needs plenty of cleaning up along the way. The transparencies are not a great fit either but it is the best Albemarle available. ( I believe that it is the only one!) It is OK when viewed from about three feet behind the glass doors of my showcase - so that is good enough for me.

Hi Craig I would suggest the Airfix Gnat T.1, especially in overall Reds' red. It builds easily IMHO.

If you plan to take in Southern England, to include Yeovilton and Weston Super Mare, there is also the excellent Museum of Army Flying at Middle Wallop.

Hi Reini78, I have built two of them so far and used 15g of nose weight distributed under the cockpit floor and in the nose bay using Liquid Gravity fine "lead" shot mixed into a paste with white glue.. But it meant the loss of the beautifully detailed nose interior. Hope that this helps.

Thanks for the valuable feed back. D Day will be my choice with full stripes to wings and fuselage.

Hello Britmodellers I am about to start on Italeri's 1:72 Stirling Mk.IV as part of a D-day theme but I am a bit confused about the application of Black and White D-Day stripes so I wonder if fellow forumites might have any comments or feed back on the matter. The kit offers a choice of three D-Day finished aircraft , and in Italeri's artwork all featuring large Black and White stripes to the outer wings and featured on the decal sheet also. Now I have just obtained Scale Aircraft Modelling Vol 37 Issue 4 of June 2015, which has an excellent 10 page spread on the Stirling IV and SAMs artwork shows a Stirling IV of No 620 Sqn, Fairford as having the D-day stripes only applied to the rear fuselage - not the wings. I am inclined to go for SAMs interpretation of the finish, but would appreciate any feedback on this. I did try a BM forum search to see if I could find any references to this, so apologies if it has already been discussed. Thanks in advance

Hello Neil I have just checked my copy of Warpaint No 34 - Avro Lincoln. There are 1:72 scale drawings as a stapled and folded insert that unfolds to A2 size and the reverse has four A4 size pages of black and white pictures. I recall having to prise the drawings out of the centre fold - sounds like someone got there first!

I have now solved my own problem - by building the kit, initially the basic version that does not require the extensive resin and etch. The nose section is added separately and this gives the opportunity to build up the basic airframe without the nose, then add weight ( in this case lead shot) into the void below the cockpit tub. I closed off the rear end with a plastic card half bulkhead before the fuselage halves were joined. The lead shot was inserted but before the nose was glued on I took the lead out again and weighed it, So the answer is that 15 grams are required to balance the aircraft on its nosewheel. ( I could not bring myself to do a tail sitter) Interestingly, I e-mailed Wingman and they replied to say that their prototypes of the deluxe version, with all the resin and etch, required no nose weight, So thanks for the feedback.

Hmmm............ Now this is quite a conundrum. After fifty ( and a good few more ) years of modelling, to actually set out to build a nose wheel jet as a tail sitter. That had never crossed my mind. But can I bring myself to do it? More sleepless nights..............................

Thanks for the feed back. I understood that the Magister had some glider in its genes, but I did not realise that it was so sensitive. So that's why it has that tiny tail wheel. I guess I shall have to try and tape some of the parts together and see if I can make a rough guess at what is needed. It looks like there may be some room under the cockpit floor, but not a lot in the nose cone which houses the tubing framework to support the nose leg.

Dear Britmodellers ................if in doubt ask for help. The Wingman double kit of the Fouga Magister is one of my Telford Treats for 2014 and I have also invested in the Max Decals sheet for International Magisters, but while I am wrestling with which two I should build out of the 20 options now available to me, I have a query. The Wingman instruction sheet makes no mention of nose weight and I have downloaded Kinetic's version which is also silent on the subject. So has anyone built it yet to confirm whether nose weight is needed? Apologies if the answer is under my nose but my efforts to search this forum and the wider web have not turned up the information. Thanks in advance

Hi Fernando I keep a tube of Plasto by the workbench. It is fairly soft when dry, so easy to sand but does not have enough strength to fill wide gaps in my experience. It is quite fine and smooth and takes a coat of paint easily. I tend to use it to fill scratches after an over-enthisiastic sanding session. I have not tried thinning it. Hope that this helps.

Good news from Blackbird 01 about the new Lincoln conversion. I have previously dabbled with the old DB Conversions and Flightpath set for the older Airfix Lanc. Can we hope that the new conversion addresses some of the omissions from the older sets? Viz. the need to provide the taller astrodome to the rear of the main canopy, a decent mid upper turret, the correct main wheels, the distinctive belly radome and the extended lower corners to the rudders. Looking forward to it. Any idea of a release date?

Hi, For a recent review and build of the kit, try this link:: http://themodelgallery.wordpress.com/2014/02/13/mpm-172-dc-2-rebuilt-bomber-hanssin-jukka/ Hope it helps

Hi Guys I am doing what I can to ensure that a new tool Shack is announced since I am currently working on a Frog original! So far I calculate about ten to tewlve hours work in de-rivetting and rescribing. This is my third build of the Frog kit since it first came out. I picked up the current one at a stall at Duxford last Spring for a not unreasonable £15-00 since the decals were missing. I got some replecement decals from MAV decals in South Africa - for a SAAF version. Give me a couple of months to finish it and a new tool version will surely follow.

Hi Guys I am working on the CMR resin fuselage conversion at present. They recommend removing 6.5mm from the Lancaster wing root ( Revell or Hasegawa donor kit). It looks OK as a dry fit but I am some way off completing the project. I am old enough to remember the Alan Hall conversion in Airfix Magazine from way back, probably in the 60s - and even he made the mistake of not reducing the Lanc. wing root!

I have been following this thread with some interest and although I can't help with any leads to original artwork, a chance discovery this week was certainly a trip down memeory lane for me. There cannot be many hobby shops on the planet that have currently on their shelves dozens of new old stock Frog kits. These are not second hand, but discovered recently in a cellar store room where they have lain undisturbed for nearly 40 years. Mint, boxed, unopened and most still in their original shrink wrapping. Some are are even in the window - at Spot on Models and Hobbies in Fleet Street, Swindon. The subjects are : Barracuda, Meteor IV, Typhoon, Avenger, Gannet, Shark, Hunter FGA.9, La-7, Jaguar, Mirage, He 162, Lancaster, Canberra, Lynx, Sea Vixen and there is also a small stack of Hotspur gliders in Novo boxes. It is such a surreal experience to see a Frog display alongside current Airfix and Revell kits. And before anyone asks, there are no Spitfires reported buried in boxes................

Simon I have just checked the Eduard instruction sheet ( never throw anything away!) and the options were 1) Camouflaged Mk.22 PK559 "RAN" of No. 607 County of Duurham Sqn, 1948 in the air race scheme of large white 4 on a red fuselage band. 2) Mk 24 of 80 sqn Hong Kong 1950, camouflaged with black/white fuselage and wing stripes 3) Mk.22 in of No 603 Edinburgh Sqn in silver - just a minor variation of the scheme in the original Airfix release 4) Syrian Mk.22 in Dark Earth/Mid Stone/Azure Blue. As I said the colours of the decals are supect since on my copy, in versions 1 & 2 above they have sky or plale grey fuselage codes shown on the instructions but are printed in a mid/dark grey on the decal sheet itself.

I should learn to edit my own posts properly! I should have said in the last sentence above above that the Mk 1 decals are the large sheet with the wider choice of 15 or so subjects. Sorry to mislead.

Hi Simon I have been collecting 1/48 Sptifire decals for nigh on 10 years. Now I would not claim to have a detailed knowledge of all that's available but I think you have the main options covered with the Mark1 decals and the Eagle Strike sheets. Eduard provided four options with their rebox of the Airfix Spit22 but I found that the colours of the national insignia and unit code letters were way off in my copy. I find that the Mk 1 decals are excellent but they are mainly of use as a source of serial numbers and unit badges since the national insignia on the sheet are restricted in number. One annoying feature is that 6 of the options are in the VN*** serial range but the lettering for the large under wing serials only includes the "VN" once on the sheet, if you then want to do some of the others then further "VNs" must be sourced elsewhere. I found the Eagle stirke decals to be of good quality and the sheet includes one set of airframe stencilling. It is a large sheet, crammed with a choice of 15 subjects including Egypt,Syria, Southern Rhodesia, Hong Kong as well as RAF and RAuxAF

Thanks for the feedback, It looks like we are in the same boat over this one. Masks are on the limit of my abilities, but may be the only solution, I must admit that I have never tried printing my own decals. As to whether there are 26/29 nations/users ( or any other takers?), I should have made myself clearer; the 26 is a self-imposed limit, nominally based around the number of air arms that I have mananged to identify as having Spitifres or Seafires in squadron service. Thus I have so far eliminated Argentina or Germany, but included both the Aeronavale and Armee de L'Air. I have actually built about 65 versions over the last seven years, but I am scrapping and replacing the earlier efforts. Trouble is, I have used the Hasegawa/Revell Mk.IX as the default kit for the Mks.VII,VIII,IX,X,XI - 16 o fthem built so far and now Eduard promises a new state of the art kit for later in the year, so that will be more than a dilemma. Maybe they will include a Greek option? Now that would be too good to be true.

A bit of help needed chaps. I have a collection of 1: 48 Spitfires and Seafires, currently 52 in number and I have been trying to create a colection that shows of all the major variants and all of the major arms of service that operated them. So within that collection there would need to be some 26 different users. I have collected decals for all but one air arm - I have been defeated with obtaining 1:48 decals for a Greek Mk.IX. Any suggestions as to where I can source some?

If you need 1:48 masks, Hannant's web site list them by AML, for both Spitfire I & V, in A and B scheme patterns