JonP

Sphere Products on Martlesham Heath carry the Darkstar Metallic acrylic range along with a few Vallejo. Stocks are somewhat depleted post Telford but we can always get some in for you.

Winsor & Newton Galleria varnishes are very good; they can be brush painted or airbrushed. The matt varnish dries very flat.

I've had an interest in British Airborne Jeeps since researching my wife's grandfather's service during the second world war. He was a signaler in the 53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment RA and was killed during Operation Varsity. When Airfix announced the release of their new kit I bought a few to see what I could come up with and I've made the first two as a British Airborne Jeep with 75mm Pack Howitzer and the a US Airborne armoured Jeep as used in the Ardennes. The kit comes with quite a few alternative parts which are not all mentioned on the instructions. For the British version I used the bonnet with the rack on and sanded of the MG pintle mounting, cut off the shrouded lamp from the LH mud guard and mounted it over the LH headlamp. I removed the grab handles from the body and cut back the front bumper as per instructions and mounted the jerry can between the seats which is shown in some of the stages of the instructions. I filled the holes for the hood rails and windscreen and added the tools to the front bumper. The US version was built from the box with the addition of PE armour and all the markings are from the kit. They were both painted with Vallejo Model Air British Bronze Green Modulation set and weathered with Broken Toad pigments.

I'll be joining with these if that's ok

Has to be the later Heron colours;

As I recall ( and it was over 20 years ago) the Tornado always had to run up the APU before it could start the engines. The APU was started with a conventional electric starter motor powered by the GPU or aircraft battery. Once the APU was up to speed it drove the RH gearbox which ran one set of generators and fuel and hydraulic pumps. Then the cross drive would be engaged to drive the LH gearbox which was used to start the LH engine and drive the second set of pumps etc.; then the RH engine would be started. The main reason GPUs were used is that the APUs suffered from wet starts and the batteries couldn't cope with multiple starts very well; we only used battery starts if the AC had landed away at a small airfield or we were really pushed for GPUs on the line.

Here's one plugged in in a HAS which gives you an idea where the socket is.

Not sure about the F3s but on the GR1s we nearly always had the GPU connected to start the APU. The GPU was normally parked in the GSE bay on the right (stbd) side of the aircraft and plugged in on the RH side of the nose.

Now they are pretty cool pictures!

Good advice; but they do know the most inconvenient time to break down The best advice I ever got from an engineer ( my grandfather ); "you'll never get rich or famous in engineering boy!" I'm still trying though

If the writing wasn't there I can see the 700 entry being; Snag; "HUD inop" Rect; "Bright red HUD cover removed. Unable to reproduce fault"

We had a student pilot report a brown humming noise!!!

I used W&N Galleria on this Airfix fw190 straight from the bottle; just one coat over the top of Klear.

Many thanks for you comments guys, much appreciated.