Jonny

I ‘m getting a ‘Blocked on this website’ message (sob, sob)

Thanks, everyone (he said with his head hanging low in shame). the vid. was sent via WhatsApp and I viewed it on my phone. A small screen, you’ll understand! I have to say that was a very good formation, wasn’t it? Jonny

Many thanks, Mike. I’ve just sent a (fairly modest), sadly) contribution ... more than worth it in my view. I hardly ever look at the home page. I should do d9 more often, obviously! Jonny

I hate to have to ask, but how can I make a donation to BM? I’ve made a couple in the past but can’t remember how. I know there’s a PayPal route but I don’t have an account with PayPal. HELP, please! Jonny

Folks, The good people in my road created a WhatsApp group when this Corona virus thing started. People needing help, or shopping, or prescriptions collected can post their needs and nine times out of ten someone will offer to do tge necessary. Recently the VE Day celebrations have come to the fore. One of my neighbours posted a movie clip of a very good formation representing ‘75’. It’s a mixed formation and having looked several times I think the ‘7’ was formed by F.14s. Not sure about the ‘5’. If there were F14s I guess it’s the USAFE who arranged it. Does anyone know Definitely who provided the formation, and where it flew? The neighbour who posted the clip says he was sent it by a friend and it might have been over London. Just curious, Jonny

It’s appeared on my iPad too. I ignored it. Nice to know Mike has this in hand- thanks! (Edit). Coincidently or otherwise, Apple offered me an update to the iPadOS On my iPad. So now I’m running ver 13.4.1 - no effect on the Certificate issue.

Just my £0.02 worth, as part of the Grand Slam weight-saving measures, the pilot’s armour was removed, and the navigator’s seat was replaced by a wickerwork seat. Not sure of the benefit of that but that’s what I’ve read! I’ve a 1/72 wickerwork seat ready for my Grand Slam (if ever get to build it!). Those seem to be the most obvious and visible internal changes. Oh, wasn’t there just one 0.5 mg fitted in the rear turret? One other thing, the photos I’ve seen of the 617 Squadron Grand Slam aircraft seem to show that the exhaust shrouds were deleted. The Airfix kit has them moulded in place .... . One day, when everyone’s converted & built a 617 Squadron Grand Slam Lancaster, some manufacturer will release an accurate kit- sorry, Hasegawa, but your version doesn’t quite make it in my view. Jonny

FWIW (not much, I grant you), I seem to remember reading that aircraft ‘Z’ had the tail plane marking painted in reverse, looking like ‘S’. Or was it the other way round? I’ve an interest in this, what with an ancient Airfix Grand Slam Lancaster on the shelf-of-doom. Jonny

I've had an email today (March 17) to the effect ALL IWM facilities will be closed from today until further notice. I guess that could mean the May airshow won't happen at Duxford, and Flying Legends might not either. Sad, innit?

Re. the ‘IWM Victor, XH648’, it’s worth mentioning that this airframe isn’t just another Victor but a unique one. It’s a K.1, others are K.2s. I’ve been lucky in that in the past, courtesy of the now much missed ‘Friends of Duxford’, I was able to tour the restoration work ‘up close’. More recently I’ve been able to view the work from the public area. The aeroplane was kept outside for years. Although it was in remarkably good condition there were areas of deterioration (some metal looked more like lace than metal, thanks to corrosion) and some woodwork - yes, seriously, there IS some! - had rotted away, too. Needless to say, one has to hope that IWM keeps the finished airframe under cover. Isn’t there a Victor cockpit in the RAFM, Hendon? ISTR seeing one tucked away in a corner of the very dimly lit Bomber Hall there. Alternatively, there might be scope for IWM Duxford to take on a cockpit section, to let people view it properly - I.e. adequately lit. Well done, Adam, for your efforts regarding XH673. It would be far preferable if the whole airframe could be preserved. Just thoughts, Jonny

To be fair to de Havilland and the Comet, little was known about metal fatigue and stress at the time. ISTR reading that it was the ‘square’ Windows that were the root cause of the decompression. ‘They’ really did not ‘know’ . The ‘safety’ arrangements at the time were very, very different to those we see today, too.

It’s fortunate that the IWM at Duxford is restoring their Victor K1, and have been for some time. I’ve had a couple of ‘tours’ around the airframe and it’s obvious that a great deal of care and attention is being given to preserving / restoring the airframe. I’m not sure when work is expected to be complete but 2 more years rings a bell. What happens then is up to IWM but one must hope that the aeroplane will be kept under cover. Good point made by Andyf117 above, by tge way. A happy new year to everyone, Jonny

Very, VERY, Nice! Wasn’t this one or the old ‘Merit’ or ‘Inpact’ kits? Jonny

I keep coming across adverts for this kit, 05688, which include the words “New Parts”. Does anyone know which parts are ‘New’?

Far be it for me to query this, but didn’t the B.35 also have bulged bomb bay doors? I’ve been wondering about dragging my Airfix 1/48 kit out from its nest in the stash, so I do have an interest! Jonny

What Ced said ... really good. Was the Elsan so exposed? There may be ladies present, after all! one question - I thought RAF ’passenger’ aeroplanes had rearward facing seats (no help if the Elsan is at the rear of the cabin ...) - was the Devon an exception to this? Thanks for sharing, Jonny

Ah! Yes, the kit I had was indeed 1/48. I could not recall who the original manufacturer was. I’d love to build another one ... I keep an eye on eBay and other websites but no luck so far- well, not for a sensible price. I’ve seen Revell and Mauve kits advertised for GBP50 and over. Silly money. Thank you for confirming the scale and original manufacturer. Jonny

Thanks, everyone, for helping me avoid wasting my time and money! it’s rather obvious that Unicraft aren’t anywhere close to the likes of Tamiya, Airfix, Hasegawa, etc. etc. I knew their kit was a resin one but the photos posted by HSR make it look like hardened soap suds. Thanks again, Jonny

Adam, a way I’ve seen described is to assemble the wings then saw the bottom surface at the dihedral point, letting the saw cut extend through the leading edges little, then inserting plasticard into the cut, forcing the required dihedral, then smoothing the card insert to match the original surface. Sadly I’ve no idea of the thickness of the plasticard needed . I *think* the late Ted Taylor this published a description of this technique in some detail. It might be worth Googling his name. UpdaTe:: Go to http://tedtaylor.hobbyvista.com/132-revell-lancaster/page-132.html (Dogsbody makes a good point about the outer engines (below). You *could* deal with that by scraping away some plastic from the inner edges of both engines, as Ted explains). Hope this helps, Jonny

Hi, everyone ... I’ve just stumbled on a 1/72 kit of the Lippisch P.13a aeroplane. Years ago I made a Revell kit of it (I think it might have been a repop of another manufacturer’s kit) but it’s long lost thanks to a house move. Has anyone any views of Unicraft kits in general and the P.13a in particular? The kit I’ve come across is on sale in the USA and although the kit isn’t THAT expensive postage is rather high. Any opinions gratefully received, Jonny

Oh WOW!! What a great model! I do so wish someone would release a mainstream kit (or indeed that I could find a Dynavector vacgorm hough I doubt I could produce anything like yours! I vividly remember watching Simon's Circus perform at Farnborough years ago .... . Thanks for sharing your photos with us, Jonny

Has anyone tried ‘Plastikote’? It’s available in general hobby stores in the UK and supposedly works on plastic (hence the name). I keep meaning to try it but so far, haven’t got round to it. I’ve a 1/48 Hawker Fury in the stash somewhere, and a part-built Bulldog. Jonny

Or - as good as Caramel!!!

Thankyou, Ced, for hosting / looking after our North American friends. I had hoped to meet you all at Duxford on Tuesday. Unfortunately, life matters got in the way and I couldn’t get there. I hope PC pens one of his very well written accounts of the trip. I really wanted to meet him in person to thank him for his always beautifully crafted accounts of progress with his current model(s) with the occasional snippet of family / everyday news. OK, perhaps not this year but possibly another. Thanks again, best wishes to PC, NavyBird, & Cookie, and a safe arrival home in the USA. Jonny

Good morning, AD210 et al ... Problem solved! I use Firefox on my iPad (and on my Win10 devices). I tried to use it last night and all that happened was Ireceived a white screen with the Firefox logo in the centre. This happened several times and still does this morning. I thought I’d try another browser, GoGoDuck. result ,,, AD210’s amazing night-time photos appeared immediately. I’ve since done some research. Mozilla who provide Firefox are apparently fiddling with it, changing the log-in mechanism. It seems that’s a work-in-progress. Be that as it may, I can’t use Firefox for anything just now, especially Britmodeller! Jonny