Hamster Volant

All in 1/72 Heller F-84G, EC2/1 Morvan - restoration of a kit I built 40 years ago Academy kit converted to a Norwegian (R)F-84E, 717 Fotorecognoseringsving Italeri RF-84F, ER 2/33 'Savoie' Italeri F-84F, EC 3/1 'Argonne' Airfix F-84F, EC 1/3 'Navarre'

Personal opinion (I'm an aircraft modeller, and strictly 72nd scale): Phoenix Aviation Modelling is the current best magazine *Very closely* followed by SAM... ... and then MAI Airfix Model World is quite good too but it's a separate category for me. Nowadays I read the ones I buy digitally on a 12" tablet with a good resolution so it's not as bad and with less constraints than on a PC screen (and it takes much less space on the already overloaded shelves) SAMI (or more exactly SAaMMi as they're called now) had its quality go down the drain since they merged Aviation and Military title -although it was not really great before that for quite sometime already-. And when I say quality, I mean both in kit builds articles and quality of the typesetting and photos. In the past I used to buy Airfix Magazine (the original one!) and I loved it because of the conversions - and tbh I still re-read some from time to time. Scale Models was also a regular buy and I still have quite a few in the magazine stash (fond memories of a 1976 issue that made me discover the Me262 with quite a few nice profiles, one of them I dutily copied on the JoHan kit!). I originally much appreciated SAM because they included scale plans and profiles -still happy they continue in their "Aircraft in Profile" series; nowadays also much like their "Colour Conundrum" column.

I am currently building the Italeri kit - I also referred initially to the Warpaint drawing and discovered it is quite wrong in length. Measure on the drawing leads to a length of 14.8m, whereas all other sources I have found agree on a 14.48m length (from tip on nose to end of the tailplane). The height of the tail on Caruana's drawing is also suspicious - compare it with the height of the F-84F on the reverse and you'll notice it's higher, which is not the case on the real plane as the height is the same according to the sources. In fact, even the Warpaint disagrees with itself... Here are the results of my research: Warpaint (characteristics table) : 47ft 7 3/4in or approx. 14,50m Aircam: 47ft 5in or approx. 14,45m Profile: 47ft 5in or approx. 14,45m Aerofax Minigraph: 47ft 6in or approx. 14,48m F-40 Flugzeug der Bundeswehr: 14,48m Fly Brukt av det Norske Luftforsvaret: 14,48m Measure directly on the Warpaint drawing: 14,80m Measured directly on the Italeri kit: 14,45m

Agreed - that's probably the least watchable Bond of all imho - Craig's Bond in this one is no Bond as I appreciated him, he's just not "in" the role and looks bored by what he is doing. For me the best are in order Connery, Brosnan, Dalton, Moore, Craig, Lazenby (though this one may be deserved by the OHMSS story). As for the next one, I think they'll go for a woman in the role -they introduced a female 007 in the movie to test the public I guess and wouldn't be surprised they go that route. Regarding the books (they are on the shelf at an arm length right now), I always saw them as quite separate from the movie character. Both enjoyable in their own style still.

Mmh... let me think about it... I was in middle school / early high school at the time, trying my hand at various types of models... Soon I decided 1/72 planes was what interested me most. 1/43 Heller Peugeot 403 1/43 AMT '69 Mustang Fastback 1/48 CGGC Grisoni Range Rover, Dyane 6 and Citroën CX 1/25 Revell "Mother's Cherry Pie" ('31 Ford Model A) 1/24 Heller Matra FII MS5 None has survived... I still have a started AMT 1/25 '55 Chevy Nomad on the shelf of doom... I shall try to remove my ugly mess of paint and finish it, someday...

Great plane - good work. One note - I see on the decal sheet they put 2 scorpions... which is wrong unfortunately. There should be a dog head on one side as shown on the box top (photo of another plane of the same unit) https://abpic.co.uk/pictures/view/1632170 The shape of the "O" in "ZO" is also suspicious if you compare with the one on this photo http://www.pictaero.com/fr/pictures/picture,8303 Sorry if I seem nitpicking, but Cambrai was my next door air base and the SMB2 is my favourite plane ever... especially when from the 12 Esc.

If you're airbrushing, use this to paint the wheel rim by choosing the appropriate size. Kind of always available standard-sized mask...

Definitely Mont-de-Marsan. They were often seen in Cambrai for Tiger Meet or other Open Day though.

Avoid the RV kits like plague! I built their MiG-23MLD and it was an absolute dog of a kit, with nothing fitting together. The wings are not the same thickness. The vertical tail just floats around in its slot The top/bottom halves of the rear fuselage do not match, and the shape at the back (right under the tail) needs quite a bit of sanding to match the shape of the tail The left/right halves of the front fuselage need some spacer otherwise the canopy won't fit - neither the nose cone. There is no positive way of positioning the front and rear halves If you align the intakes with the outer fuselage surface, you have huge gaps to fill between them and the cockpit sides. And that's just the most obvious...

The colours I found closest to the decals were: Revell Aqua 31 Gloss Red Tamiya X-8 Gloss Yellow And for the rotor blades I used Tamiya XF-63 Dark Sea Grey About the glazing - yes it'll work. That's what I did, mask them separately and then fit them. Way easier as nothing comes in the way.

I built this kit last year - If I may: Forget about the red and yellow decals - they don't conform and don't cover correctly the shape of the fuselage. Better take some time to mask and paint all. The cheatline is a bit hard to put in place but there's not much choice for this one... Consider separating the side windows and fit them individually - otherwise they won't "seat" properly. The windscreen leaves quite a gap at the top part - Kristal Klear helps there. The windscreen wiper needs some work to thin it and open the gap between the arms. I also assembled the boom halves with their respective fuselage half, it helps to reduce the seams. Apart from that, it's a nice little kit that goes together quite well and with a nicely detailed interior - a pity it has to stay hidden if no surgery is considered.

You also have USN QT-38A 69-1600 from China Lake in 1978 - blanked off rear cockpit, red scheme.

Hi I usually spray the shine enhancer to protect the metal paint, stick the decals on, and add another coat of shine enhancer before going on with the weathering. No problems at all to keep the sheen in these conditions.

Strange about your windscreen issue - I did not have this one, it was exactly the opposite with a good fit... I start to wonder if we built the same kit!🙂

Optical illusion - likely because it's painted matt black. The fit is like on post #14. As for the PE panel I just didn't care - not much can be seen through the closed cockpit. I used the plastic part and painted it.