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A couple of months ago I was keeping Sword web site monitored, waiting for the release of their 1/48 Reggiane RE2005 Sagittario. My friend @Gene K kindly provided me with the heads up for this very interesting Italian WWII fighter kit, and once it became available, I just had to throw in something to justify the shipment cost, as you do ... So my choice fell on something very British, to wit Sword's Lightning, in 1/72 T4/T5 boxing (end opening box, they should be decalred illegal! ) Since I didn't feel like starting the Sagittario yet, being rather still in a jet mojo, I decided to tackle this. The kit contains only two sprues (the loose piece is the cockpit tub, which separated from its sprue gate due to its weird positioning, middle right in the above pic) the transparencies and some nice complementary bits, like resin exhausts resin seats and a photo-etch fret, mostly pre-painted The decals/transfers sheet is quite big and looks good Instructions seem to be well laid out, although the colors call out is generic and finally, these are the proposed schemes Now, in my recently completed Eurofighter Typhoon WIP thread, I conducted a little poll among fellow BMers on which scheme to build, and the general preference went to the 111 Squadron bird (which coincidentally was also my preference ), but here commence the trouble: the proposed aircraft is a T4, while, as @keefr22 pointed out and a quick search on the 'net confirmed, the IP photoetch is only good for a T5. So what choices do I have? - Build it as 111's T4 and pretend nobody knows the IP is incorrect (that really bothers me, though) - Scratch build a suitable T4 IP (the above mentioned quick search didn't show any pics of it though, so any hint or help would be appreciated) - Choose one of the two T5 schemes in the box (none of them is actually enticing enough to me, but I'm not ruling them out yet) or .... while searching for references, I ended up finding this website lightningt5.com, with loads of pics of this airframe (posted for modelling purposes, will remove if asked) Of course the serials and tail letters are different, but I was already going to cut my own masks for the markings (except for the squadron badge, of course). The trouble is about the small serials on the fuselage sides (XS458); actually, mixing up the ones that already are on the decals sheet, I can go as far as XS45, I just miss a couple of 8.... Bottom line, I'm asking for expertise here to help guiding my choice What do you guys think? Ciao

Next to my Silver Spitfire I felt the urge to start another one as well and in this case is it a 111 squadron night fighter based at Debden in December 1941. I always liked that specialist edition from Airfix ( box A82015 )and bought two of these in the past as I liked both schemes very much! cheers, Jan

Kit – Airfix Paint – Tamiya acrylics & AK Xtreme Metal lacquers Decals – Aeroclub & Kit Extras – Master pitot, Quickboost resin seat. BAC / EE Lightning F3 Sqn. Ldr. George Black 111 Squadron RAF Wattisham 1965 * Built for (a total of) three RAF 100 Group builds on various modelling forums, this is Airfix’s original 1997 issue of the Lightning. Cannot recall when I bought it, but was a considerable number of years back and was always going to be a 111 Sqn. machine. Build was very straightforward with no fit issues to speak of, the Quickboost resin seat simply drops into place without any surgery. Have to admit I was very worried about the original Airfix decals and the replacement sets from John Addams Aeroclub, especially as they were all looking a little aged. But quality control at both printers were obviously on top of their game on the days they were printed because they worked perfectly. Didn’t want any weathering other than a panel-line wash as I wanted to depict my Lightning as it was just prior or just after the 1965 Paris Air Show, when 111 Sqn. sent a flight of virtually factory fresh Lightning’s to participate. As ever thanks for taking the time to look and / or comment, please feel free to ask any questions or fire any criticism. AFN Ian.

My contribution to this group build, the 1/48th Italeri Tornado F.3, marked as Royal Air Force 111 Squadron on deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia in 2003. I struggled a bit with the personal connection and 'iconicness' of the Tornado F.3. I live in the UK so guess that counts. Also have wanted to build a Tornado ADV for some time. For me the Tornado F.3 is iconic because it is the last British interceptor from the Cold War, first entering service in 1987, and took part in Operations Granby and Telic. I also remember the 56 (R) Squadron Tornado F.3 Display for 2005 which was very memorable. I did build the Italeri Tornado IDS kit a few years ago and it turned out well although did take some effort, so hopefully the same here. On to the photos: