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Morning all, I've been tinkering with the Sanger (ex-Contrail) 1/48th scale Halifax of late. Having wrestled an ID Models' 1/32 version as well as the 1/48 Fonderie kit into submission (eventually) I have developed a real soft spot for the venerable Halibag so, having had this in the stash for a while, I thought I'd give it a go. This kit is the old Contrail mold, now available from Sanger - as vacs go it's not too bad at all and is probably an easier starting point than the Fonderie kit in all honesty! The kit comes in two forms: the RR Merlin powered MkI/II, and the later Hercules powered MkIII through to MkIX variant - the one I have here. The fuselage, as those familiar with the Halifax will see, gives a more of a MkI/II fuselage as a starting point, but careful removing of the molded windows and opening of others gives you the later MkIII onwards variants: It didn't take long for the fuselages to be removed from their backing sheets and rubbed down, ready for removal of the aforementioned windows and cockpit, etc: After an evening's work, the fuselage halves were ready for work to begin on the interior: The plastic isn't the thickest, so I set about making interior bulkheads and the roof of the bomb bay from thick plastic card - as well as some of the cockpit internals: This will serve as a good starting point to add some more detail - I've run out of Evergreen strip so will have to wait for the ribs and stringers to be done. I'm not going to go mad here, as having built the Fonderie version I know not a great deal will be seen. However it's too big-a-model to be able to leave the interior walls blank. With the interior paused, I've test-fitted the fuselage halves and began working out the positions of the top escape hatches and mid-upper, as well as the rear undercarriage bay: Whilst I wait for my Evergreen stash to be re-stocked, I've begun working on the wings - I'll post an update when more work has been done. More when there's more... Tom

Hello all, I've gathered reference for this reclusive bomber but there are a few gaps left. There are plans available in the remote corners of the internet, but I wonder which are the most correct. A site is asking 36 $ for the M-Hobby drawings, which they may or may not have a right to sell! What do you think about interior colour? What little i've seen shows very dark colours. I'm leaning towards dark grey à la Tu-2 but I'm open to suggestions.

This kit has been nagging me to be built for ages. It's a Torpedo Bomber that was in RAF service in Fife, Scotland in the early 1930's I have been neglecting my Vacforms in the stash for a while, so hopefully this will allow me to rediscover my vacform mojo. Best of luck everyone Cheers Pat

This is a place setter for my stalled build in the last GB, pictures and link to follow. Cheers Pat

With my Bentwaters F-16 done I was all set to get in to an F-4G kit, but a Vacform kit I got on eBay a while back was looking at me from the stash. Now I have done some modifying & some scratch building before, but never a vacform. Couldn’t find the right subject at the right price. Then one day on eBay this Contrail 1/48 TSR2 popped up. Now I am sure the Airfix one is a better option, but at the price & as a first vacform kit I thought I would give it a go. I have had a bit of a fascination with TSR2 since seeing the Duxford example with panels missing back in the late 70s. I did wonder if I should have made progress with this before posting, but I figured there might be some useful guidance that people could offer. I am planning to go with anti flash white rather than ‘what if’ camo. And since it was never operational I guess weathering is a bit pointless. This could take a while...

Finally finished a Contrail vac in time to start a project for the Frog GB, so here is a 1/48 Bristol Blenheim prototype. Like all vacs the kit needs a lot of patience and filler but I was lucky enough to have a spare set of nose glazing and resin interior from a Special Hobby kit. K7033 went through a number of changes before being painted in camouflage and delivered to the RAF, the spinners were soon ditched in favour of easier access for maintenance and was fitted with the standard dorsal turret rather than the trial one on the model.

This post is in response to a question posted on a related thread. I thought I had posted this model, but can't find it, I may have posted images of it in reference to vacuformed kits, though. I am very grateful there is even a kit of the Kangaroo but... Many moons ago Contrail released this now somewhat outdated vacuum-formed hefty kit. It is surely not state of the art, and has many inaccuracies, but it is nevertheless a starting point, if you are willing to spend time and effort. Many of its shortcomings, some subtle and some not, have to be corrected. No little time was spent on this one. Uncountable hours of research and building and no little grief has been endured in correcting the various kit's faults, let alone the complicated building and subject to start with. This rather basic kit was given a full interior and a very high number of details not present in the molds. Needless to say the almost inexhaustible jungle of struts and rigging was the happy occasion of many a well-deserved Martini. There are myriads of pieces of advise I could list regarding this kit. The kit has some obvious but fixable mistakes. Retrospectively there are two things you shouldn't do: do not follow the kit's pre-marked locations for any of the struts, they are misaligned and will cause frustration. Measure and drill your own strut locations, and try to be as accurate as you can. And do not use the white metal exhausts, radiators and props (I used the radiators and props). They are way too heavy and will give the engine gondola too much weight and mass, making it prone to detachment at the least provocation and almost surely during transport or handling, since its securing frame is too fragile. The radiators are easily scratchbuilt, the props may need plastic or resin substitutes. Able modelers may cast the kit's metal props into resin ones. The Arctic Decals set fortunately facilitated an accurate and pleasant decoration providing its usual well-researched, easy-to-handle, well printed graphics. There were many civil Kangaroos, each one with its own quirks. Fun is to be had by those wiling to take the bold step. The British did actually design very beautiful planes, but this one is more, er, sculptural one may say...looking for some redeeming adjective, and that's precisely why we love it so much.

Finally completed my Botha, or rather I can't look at it any longer! This is my fourth vacform, what usually happens is I choose a subject, Bombay for instance and then Valom produce a kit or Sparrow and...you guessed it. There is not much chance with the Botha. Out of my vacs so far this has been the most difficult, even the Iris for the Floatplane GB was easier. Not sure why this one has been so problematic but the main additions/changes are; -total rescribing -replaced cowlings with Halifax ones plus gills of plastic strip -cockpit interior -scratched landing gear -I overcut the front glazing and replaced it with a plunge moulded one -scratched gun turret detail etc Some pictures Hope you like it, very glad to move onto something else, a nice simple OOB Bristol Bulldog in the Airfix GB for instance, it will certainly be less Botha.

New project- Contrail Blackburn Botha 1/72. Guaranteed to be long winded and difficult. Not sure why but I have developed a liking for unusual ugly aircraft and keep acquiring vacforms, this is actually my third following a Bombay and sparrow. I've been tinkering with this for a while so most of the bits are cut out and sanded, the first issue is the nacelles supplied are far too big so I am using a couple of old Airfix Halifax ones with new gills and added detail to the engines. The down side is that my Hali now has two nacelles missing, so if anyone has any spare I would gladly purchase them! Does anyone have definitive proof of the number and distribution of porthole windows along the fuselage? Despite looking at numerous photos and drawings I am still not certain, my current thoughts are 5 on the port side and 4 on the door side? The Aeroplane magazine article is an invaluable source of photos and details, it cost a few quid on ebay. Some pics..

Like many reading this I have the Contrail Fairey IIIF Vacform kit, and would like to build one with one of the colourful interwar colour schemes. Does anyone know of any aftermarket decals and colour schemes for this aircraft. Also if there are any aftermarket bits, and you have built one yourself. All tips greatly appreciated cheers Pat ps happy Christmas and a very special Hogmanay for 2018 !

I have really been looking forward to this Group Build, so it's only right that I should try build something a bit special. So here it is the Contrail Blackburn Perth, the largest Biplane Flying boat ever to see service with the RAF. Until I am corrected by someone with more knowledge anyway ! Pictures below to show it's not been started and despite my best intentions of cutting the parts out of the backing sheet, have done two other Group builds, I haven't got round to it. The decal look past it so, thanks to the interweb I have got in contact with someone in Russia, who is printing some, including the footprints for going on the wing ! This is only the second vacform I have ever attempted, my last one turned out much better than I hoped, but this is huge compared with it. Good luck to everyone on this GB, look out for Bristol Boy who is building the Blackburn Iris, which is the convertible version of this aircraft. cheers Pat

Bristol Boy and I are undertaking the building of these Biplane Flying Boats in the forthcoming Flying Boats and Floatplanes Group Build. As they are both Vacform kits, neither of them provide much in the way of additional parts that allow the kits to be finished with the appropriate amount of detail required to make them look their best. Therefore can I ask if anyone has built either of these before what sources of information are about to get period detailed photos of interior and exterior etc. Also any tips on the building of them greatfully received as I have only built one other Vacform prior to this. many thanks Pat

I voted for "Made In Britain" GB with Contrail Mayo Composite in mind, but knowing my pace and determination I'm not sure that I could complete the whole stack in time so I decided to do one step at time and start with Mercury. Contrail's Mayo Composite kit was a joint effort between Contrail and Airframe each providing one aircraft. Airframe S.20 moulds look very basic but buildable, will require a lot of scratch building, scribing and detailing to look right.

Trying to keep one step ahead of Valom I've decided to tackle another vacform and build a Sparrow. This will be my second vac, the other being a Sanger Bristol Bombay. For those who don't know harrows as they became obsolete as bombers were converted to other things such as refuelling and transport aircraft, rechristened the Sparrow. A plea for info on the WWII forum provided a photo of the aircraft I will be modelling complete with invasion stripes, the thread is here; http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235000817-handley-page-sparrow/?hl=sparrow Some pics; The interior will be a challenge! First step is to get all the components cut out and see if Contrail are better than Sanger when it comes to fit! More soon

Hi, Another very old, archive model - Northrop N3PB made from vacu Contrail kit. Markings are from 330 (Norwegian) Squadron RAF, Reykjavik, Iceland, April-May 1941 I made her more than 20 years ago, in early 1990s, then after some time I changed lettering from red to black when photos of confirmed that code letters should be black... Regards J-W