Mr T

The Comet was no different to any large aircraft of its era, no matter where built and no relation to the decision by British Governments to give independence to territories it controlled. Not saying any further beyond a broad statement of history.

I had completely forgotten about the VC10 kit, but I am pretty sure I had one. The silver plastic was quite tough as I remember.

Planted out my the rest of veggie plants today as we are away at the weekend.while Alison (Mrs T) planted out a lot of other plants and so looking forward to watching them grow.

From my reading of 'Air Arsenal North America', the issue was around availability and the understandable desire of the home military to have suitably equipped aircraft. This makes some sort of sense given that the US aviation industry was gearing up production from a fairly low base. If you think in 1938 the order for Hudsons the RAF was greater in number than the total procurement by the US military. By the time the USA looked like entering the war, American aircraft factories were already producing substantial numbers of aircraft for non US users.

I have a seen couple of builds and reviews that have commented on the not so easy build of the RS kit and I would agree with them. I think the main issues are the parts breakdown to get the maximum use of the moulds in terms of variants and the very nature of short run technology in terms of clean up of parts. Also the Lightning airframe is not the easiest proposition. Despite my best efforts to get everything square getting the booms lined up and the tailplane square was very difficult and I am not sure it is right. Thanks for your kind comment and I am pleased to have made this model in this scheme.

Thank you for the additional history, I kept it brief and so cut some stuff out. My understanding is that the turbochargers were also in short supply and the Air Corps got first call. With the benefit of hindsight it is easy to see that the some aircraft were never going to be a success when it came to actual combat, but it was not that easy to how the air war would shape up in 1939. As an example, the British government thought that there could be a million casualties from bombing in the first few months of the war.

This is another kit I finished earlier this year and represents AE979, one of the few RAF Lightnings actually to wear roundels. The British and French ordered a total of 667 aircraft plus spares of the Lockheed Model 322. These differed from the version being ordered in small numbers by the USAAC in that the the first 143 aircraft would lack the superchargers fitted to the P38. After the fall of France the British took over the entire order calling the initial 143 Lightning I and the rest became Lightning IIs fitted with turbochargers. On test the Lightning I had a relatively poor performance and major concerns were expressed over control due to compressibility effects. This resulted in the USAAF (as the Air Corps had now become) taking over the order. The Lightning I became the P-322 and were used to convert some of the large number of new pilots being trained after Pearl Harbour and the Lightning II became incorporated in to the the P38F and P38G contracts. I have always liked the look of the Lightning in British markings since reading a conversion article by Alan Hall in the Airfix Magazine about 50 years ago and so when the RE models kit appeared I bought one. This is not a kit for beginners, the instructions are vague in places and the part numbers do match the instructions. to squeeze the maximum number of variants RS offer of alternative engine nacelles and I ended up marking the parts for use with a Sharpie to keep track of everything. There is also a lack any indication on a lot of parts as to position of undercarriage bays etc. Most major parts are butt joints and all need fettling to fit together, The cockpit interior needs work to fit it into the fuselage, especially with regards to depth and I do wonder if the manufacturer had built the kit. before release. Having said all that the one piece canopy was quite a good fit. The model was finished in Temperate Land Scheme with Sky undersurfaces using Mr Hobby Aqueous Hobby Colours that gave a bit of a contrast to other models I have finished in Xtracyrlix. Decals came from a Kits At War decal sheet. It needed a lot of weight to stay on its nose, but I am glad I persevered with it. Hope you like, Share and Enjoy!

Very nice build of the the old ex Mania kit. I remember building a long time ago and it was a nice kit with lively surface detail.

Never a truer word said. I like to think that my modelling skills have been sharpened by building kits like the Airfix Yak9 and Whirlwind helicopter when younger. Now I am fearless and tackle Magna resins with relish (either I am kidding myself or possibly have strong masochist tendencies).

What he said, it was a long time ago. My other memory of the kit was that it was not a stunning fit, even for the period

It is the airbrake assembly. I last built a Skyraider in about 1984 and from what I recall one part forms the roof and the other two parts form the airbrake itself. The instructions are not brilliant, but they and the kit are of the time (about 51 years ago). Best of luck with the build and I think you have put this thread in the interwar section rather than post war.

About 16.05 an Atlas came over heading towards Leeds-Bradford. Last few days a Piaggo Avanti has been trundling around, don't see them that often.

I am sorry that you did not like my attempt to help you. Although I have been acquiring books, magazines etc. since the age of 14 in 1968, I had not, looking through my stuff, come across this particular bit of nose art. That is why I asked about the serial or any other information about the Mosquito bomber with the two stage Merlins shown. Steve and Graham are right, mission markings and nose art tend not to be preserved in official archives, along with much else. The only markings apart from serial and squadron codes that seem to have been 'officially' sanctioned were some markings of aircraft flown squadrons made up of exiled pilots (e.g. small flags of the occupied country), rank pennants for senior officers and markings on presentation aircraft and a complete list of those is unlikely to exist. As with all the belligerent nations in the Second World War, British censorship and strict rules on photography were in place and it is amazing that so many personal photos have survived. Unfortunately, but understandably, they often do not have detailed information as to colours and markings on them and so people end up making informed guesses. this is not ideal, but it is what happens.

Given the difficulty of interpretating colours from black and white photos it is difficult to tell and not knowing anything about the individual aircraft (serial or squadron) does not help. Having said that, it is obviously a light colour and my guess would be yellow as it would compromise camouflage less.

I would second the use of five minute epoxy. Magna resin is thick and heavy and on the seven or so Magna kits I have built, I have used epoxy as the weight of the wings can weaken the fuselage joint

Coming down A1 yesterday around Durham a Bedford CA Dormobile in two tone green with a fair bit of chrome heading north. We also overtook an 80's Audi 80 in yellow, one the two door versions with a 'short' roof that never seemed to be that common.

Should not be a problem provided you use the same brand as not all acrylic paints are compatible. You may need to experiment to get the right sheen.

Thank you all for the kind comments. The kit needed a bit of work on it, but is something a bit out of the ordinary. I do not usually do 'what ifs' unless they were being built, thus I have built the F111K, P1154, P1121 and have the Supermarine 545 to do and the P1154RN. Too many kits to build without building ones that never got off the drawing board!

On Monday, parked near the Canal Basin in Skipton a 'R' Triumph Dolomite in a mustard orange colour scheme. Cannot be many left I would have thought given the propensity to rot and did they not have engine issues. At one time Dolomites were the favoured transport of a Mr Neil Robinson

I think one of the reasons for the portly fuselage was for tankage as a picture in 'Project Cancelled' shows a lot space for rocket fuel. If it ever flew my guess would be that the wing tanks would be a permanent fixture. Mind you, having short legged fighters was nothing new to the RAF, but I would the Navy would want something with endurance. I also am not sure about the 'view' from the cockpit.

Not posted for a while due to family issues which are in other threads. This model is on I finished early this year and is one of the 'might have beens' of British military aviation in the late 50's. The P.177 was developed in response to a desire to have a fast climbing fighter that was capable of intercepting transonic Soviet bombers then thought to be under development. It was thought that as bombers flew faster and higher a conventional jet fighter lacked the climb performance to intercept a nuclear armed bomber before it released its weapons and so an aircraft that had to have a climb rate well in excess of any jet. Post war, a lot of studies had been carried out on rocket propelled fighter, probably influenced by the Me163, a number of which had been studied in the UK along with their engines. The problem with pure rocket fighters was although they had rapid climb and high top speeds, they lacked endurance. Saunders Roe carried out studies into these aircraft (perhaps as work dried up when it was realised the Princess flying boat was a dead end) and came up with the idea of using a rocket motor as the means to achieve high speed and climb rates and use a jet as a means of extending range and facilitating a safe return to base as in the SR53. In the P177 , this idea was taken further by the use of a powerful jet engine to sustain performance and allow a carriage of more weapons, radar and fuel. In 1955 prototypes and preproduction aircraft were ordered for the RAF and Royal Navy and interest was shown abroad, particularly from West Germany. Metal was cut and production was underway when Duncan Sandys unleashed his 1957 Defence White Paper that scrapped most manned combat aircraft in favour of guided missiles. The P177 lingered for a while as a purely Naval project and the hope that the Germans might buy it, but was cancelled in early 1958 and the prototypes scrapped. The Germans bought the F104 Starfighter instead. The kit is the original issue from Freightdog with castings by Anigrand. It was reissued last year with new masters and looks a lot cleaner. The kit is all in resin apart from in my issue a vacformed canopy (some kits have resin canopies). A decal sheet with some nice 'what if' schemes are provided. As can be seen below, the resin is tan, cleanly moulded and has a few air bubbles. My main references were 'Project Cancelled' and 'British Experimental Jet Aircraft' The latter has 1/72nd plans that I am pretty sure were used to design the kit Building the model produced a few issues. The interior was pretty much devoid of detail, apart from an ejector seat and stick. Some consoles were on the fuselage sides, but it was left to the modeller to work out where stuff went. Fortunately the canopy is heavily framed so not that much is visible. the fuselage halves were a little bowed, but clamping and two part epoxy resin cured this and the clean up was fairly straightforward. Incidentally, the exterior detail was quite well done with recessed panel lines and intakes. The faring for the rocket motor was a separate piece and required faring in. Both the movable intake (modelled here in ground position) and the jet exhaust needed some work to get them to fit properly. The diameter of the hole in the fuselage for the exhaust was too small and the intake needed cutting back to match the drawings. The wings and fin had locations pins in resin that were replaced by brass rod and horizontal tail slotted on to the fin with little trouble. The canopy more or less fitted after some careful trimming, but bizarrely the frame lines were moulded inside the canopy, which made painting fun (not) . The undercarriage was in the same resin as everything else and so was drilled through and brass rod added as I do not trust ordinary resin to take the weight. The Red Top missiles were replaced by aftermarket Freightdog ones as the originals had some serious airholes that made them well nigh impossible to clean up. After clean up and priming Xtracyrlix Dark Green and Dark Sea Grey were applied to the upper surfaces and Vallejo white Aluminium was applied to the undersurfaces. Kit decals were applied with no problems before a coat of semigloss Vallejo clear varnish was applied. The markings are of 56 Squadron and various probes and aerials were added from plastic strip and thin brass rod . Hope you like

Nice build of a less common subject. Built one in the Nurses Home at St James's in Leeds in the early eighties when I was a student nurse.

On the A642 at Woodlesford this morning an F reg Riley Elf in a colour that could be described as teal. It was coming the other way so not a good view and it could have been a Hornet, although I thought the badge was more Riley. Obviously someone's pride and joy as immaculate.

Very nice build of a less than perfect kit. I remember seeing this aircraft and the Spitfire in the Rolls-Royce house colours over our house at Mapperley when I was a plane mad teenager.

Built the Magna Buckmaster a few years back, which shared a lot of the parts. Not too bad, but definitely not for the faint hearted. My major memories of the kit were that a lot of care was needed with the undercarriage to get it right and the fuselage join needs to be strong as the wings are heavy. Mine had, a fair few pinholes. The white metal needed a lot of work, but that was the weakness of a number of their kits and nowhere near Aeroclub standards. Replaced by a Valom one as I was not happy with the colour scheme amongst other things.