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1/72 scale Victor K Mk2 XL163 RAF Marham History, Construction number HP80/66 Awaiting collection 15/05/1961, delivery date 07/02/1962, to Handley-Page Ltd 14/01/1969 then Hawker Siddeley 20/05/1970 for conversion to K2 standard, l/f? 01/07/1986 to St Athan store, to St Athan 29/09/1986 for Battle Damage Repair Training as 8916M, scrapped during 12/1991 by Hanningfield Metals, Stock, Essex "An order was also sent out to the remaining Vulcan Squadron to go on to a War Footing and in a show of force 4 Vulcans were deployed to Wide-awake Airfield at Ascension Island and from there the then longest bombing missions took place. Code named Black Buck, their mission was to deny the Argentinians the use of Port Stanley Airport to their Mirage Fighter jets with 21.000LB's of bombs. One sole Vulcan XM607 Piloted by Sqn Leader Martin withers which was the standby aircraft for the first mission after its sister aircraft XM598 piloted by John Reeve suffered a ruptured windscreen seal in flight and couldn't pressurize. The first raid was successful and placed a bomb right in the centre of the runway. The missions themselves would not have happened if it wasn't for the Victors of 55 and 57 sqn refueling the Vulcan on its route as well as refueling the Victors its self, one specific Victor XL189 piloted by Bob Tuxford gave most of his fuel to XM607 and left with the bare minimum fuel to get back with." The Vulcan was over its normal maximum take-off weighteach carried, as well as extra equipment like the DASH 10 and a chemical toilet, a highly experienced Air to Air Refuelling Instructor (AARI) from the Victor tanker force who would fly the Vulcan during refuellingand fuel usage was higher than expected. As a result of the fuel demand and problems in flight with refuelling, two of the Victors had to fly further south than planned, eating into their own reserves, and one of these, the last Victor to refuel the Vulcan, was past the last refuelling bracket before turning home. Tankers had to be sent south to refuel these Victors so they could reach Ascension. A total of 11 Victors were used to support Black Buck One: XH669, XH672, XL162, XL163, XL188, XL189, XL192, XL232, XL511, XL513 and XM717 XL163, 57 Sqdn, with two wing roundels (copyright prevents posting) ( http://www.57-630sqnassoc.org.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=8353 ) On ascension (copyright prevents posting) ( http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1402175/ ) This kit was a "pig" all bent and distorted, raised panel lines etc. etc. I can't scribe but I can sand and boy did this kit need sanding AND filling, the wing needed steaming, it needed heavy duty clamps (carpenters type clamp, that's what I used them for originally! ) to pull the fuselage halves together, everything went up a few notches for tooling to build this thing. I learnt loads while building this, I am used to 1/72 fighters this thing would dwarf most 1/48th kits and even some in 1/32, the wing span is close to a 1/24 spitfire. All techniques I know for assembly went out of the window on this! I used tamiya green/grey and humbrol acrylic white as the tamiya pot looked a bit empty for this job! First go with humbrol acrylic, I must say this, I painted the white before I steamed the wing, the paint held up. The only things I added were a couple of vanes/fins on the fuselage, the centreline one just aft of the cockpit was replaced as it was severely damaged during sanding, otherwise it's out of the box. It's a simple finish but it wasn't without a great deal of effort. Decals, standard format onto gloss with 50:50 Matt/Satin humbrol topcoat, revell decal soft. Box option. This is the first of my V bomber fleet, hopefully I will be able to achieve the remaining aircraft to complete the line up. This type truly has a remarkable history.

Hello all, my first post at this great forum! Maybe this has been discussed before, but I didn't really find exactly the answer I wan't from prevoius threads. I want to do an Argentinian Dagger A during the Falklands/Malvinas war in 1/72. I plan on getting the PJ Productions injection molded Mirage III E or Mirage V BA/BR. I know the Dagger/Nesher is a copy of Mirage V, but how similar are Mirage IIIE and Mirage V BA/BR? So the main question, if I want to do an Argentinian Dagger in 1/72, is it best to buy the PJ Productions Mirage IIIE kit or Mirage V BA/BR? Are there any differences in the two kits regarding sprue content, or is it just the decals that differ? I know High Planes has released a Dagger, but that is not an option since it's harder for me to get and it's a more expensive resin kit if I'm correct(?). Cheers! /Jesse

Well, I always wanted to build aircrafts of Falklands subject, and after a 1/48 Sea Harrier from Tamiya, I decided to build a T-34C Mentor, used by Argentina during the war. Unfortunately, the two available kits of Mentor in this scale are not good, so I made a lot of scratch work to improve the kit. The complete build pictures and comments can be found here, at IPMS-Rio de Janeiro website: http://www.aprj.com.....php?f=8&t=3036 Some pics during the battle: The finnished model: I hope you appreciate !

Hi, I've been working on this model almost a year now. It's a kitbash of a Eduard Mirage III CJ and a Italeri Mirage III EA. Since 2012 is the year of the 30th anniversary of the Falklands War, I thought I'd do a Falklands War aircraft. I bought a load of books, and some kits (A-4's, SHAR, Harrier Gr.3). This is the only one I've managed to finish so far... The kit itself was a clone between the better detailed Eduard Mirage III CJ and the poor Italeri Mirage III EA. As the Eduard Mirage III CJ is far superior in detail, and looks very similar to the Mirage III EA, I decided to bash the two together using the Italeri cockpit section and the Eduard kit from the area around the intakes and to the rear. I've scratched the weapons stations for the Magic AAMs and used a spare look-alike for the centreline station for the R-530C missile. The droptanks came from Italeri, however I scratched the fins in card. The Magic missiles are from the Esci Mirage 2000 box. I also made the various antennae needed on the fin, back and in front of the cockpit. Decals used were the new Falklands print from Aztec (highly recommended, as it has the toned-down Argentinian markings) and some from Aerocalcas and stencils etc. from Eduard and Italeri. As the engine is different on a III EA than on a III CJ, I used a Wolfpack Atar 9C resin part for the engine section with exhaust. I also used a Pavla MB mk.4 ejection seat and a metal pitot from Master. With regards to the paint; I had a small crisis, as I had pictures of the fin being overpainted in brown to cover som ID panels (probably in yellow). I had no pictures that were good of the top side of the wings, which some also claims were painted with the ID panels and then overpainted. I decided to do the fin, as I had good pictures of this, but not the wings. I used WEMs FS36622 grey, FS 34079 dark green, FS 34102 green olive drab, and grey-toned white for the antennaes. Undercarriage were painted with Alclad. I used RAF Dark Brown for the ID panels. EDIT. Forgot FS30219 tan. I hope you like it, and any comments are welcome - also constructive critque!

First time I've done this and I'm reluctant to post lots of detailed CU pics because I'm really not a good modeller - and this one proved very difficult. I got back into modelling a few years ago largely inspired by the thought of reproducing some aircraft of the Falklands War, of which I was an interested spectator in the UK at the time. Thought I'd concentrate on Argentine aircraft since they employed a greater variety of types than our forces, and although I have always been a huge fan of the Harrier, I was put off doing one of those in 1/48 (my chosen scale) after reading lots about the difficulties the few available kits presented. Anyway, I ended up building a few other things instead, and this is my first Falklands War model! (My build rate is incredibly slow - I'm busy, and I have other recreations.) I acquired the Hasegawa kits on Ebay for the A4B and A4C Skyhawks, plus the Hobbycraft "Falklands" A4Q kit which I plundered for [1] some of its rather good decals and [2] the bomb, which is a good rendition of the 250kg EXPAL bomb carried by FAA A4C and other aircraft - this is intended for my A4C[P] when I get round to it. As a relative beginner, not very skilled, I made life even more difficult by trying paint masks for the first time - I wanted to do my A4Q as 0660/3-A-307 as piloted by Capitan de Corbeta Alberto Jorge Philippi in the May 21st attack on HMS Ardent, and wasn't aware of any suitable decals. Ian at Adastramasks.com was very helpful, and masks were neither as expensive as i'd feared nor as difficult to use - though I was nervous at first. The masks proved especially good for the main serials, and those anchor symbols on the wings - the Hobbycraft decals proved tricky to get lying flat. (The Hobbycraft decal for the blue/white tail flash was also too awkward, wouldn't lie down: I airbrushed the blue and white, then used a cutout "sun" symbol decal.) The kit in general I found a bit of a bugger! Hasegawa's reputation notwithstanding, the fit of some parts was not perfect; and this plane in 1/48 has lots of bits hanging off it that are difficult not to knock off, damage, lose (and so on) despite arranging the workflow carefully so the awkward tiny bits go on last... I destroyed the refuelling probe! Fortunately I was able to cut off the tip and epoxy it onto some very fine alloy tube I found, just the right size. These A4s have a distinctive dorsal radome: I made mine from Milliput, moulded and sanded to shape, then stuck the red nav light on top made with a scrap bit of clear plastic. The ring antenna on the vertical stabiliser is fine lead wire. I might have overdone the weathering: I consulted various reference photos very carefully and sought to reproduce stains, dirt etc religiously; and I thought that with lots of intensive flying in bad conditions, those planes would be dirty. This aircraft and its mission. HMS Ardent was on isolated picket duty in Falkland Sound and had already been damaged by FAA planes that day when Philippi's trio of Escuadrilla 3 Skyhawks arrived: these guys were more skilled than their Air Force colleagues at attacking ships and they had the correct weapons, US Mk82 snakeyes. (Burden et al in "Falklands - The Air War" say four of these bombs - Luis "Der Grunepunkt" on here says three bombs and I suspect he's correct.) Philippi and his wingman Jose Arca hit Ardent a fatal blow and she sank later. Coming off the target, they were spotted by two Sea Harrier patrols, one from 801 Squadron that had insufficient fuel to engage, and another from 800 Squadron. The latter destroyed all three Skyhawks, Capt. Philippi's aircraft being hit by an AIM9-L fired by Lt Clive Morrel in XZ457; Philippi ejected and survived. This engagement appears to have taken place in late afternoon (-ish) so my "dawn raid" pic showing 0660 bombed up and ready to go is probably a romantic misconception! I'll try to make a better job of my FAA A4C/P, with the experience gained from this sometimes vexing build.

War for the Malvinas / Falklands Part 1 Decals Aztec Models - 1:48 & 1:72 Following a long standing dispute over the sovereignty of the Malvinas / Falkland Islands, war officially broke out 30 years ago on 2nd April 1982 when Argentine forces invaded the Islands. In response the British sent a task force to counter the invasion and fight to recapture the territory. The battle that followed was a challenge for both sides. For the British, the challenge was deploying a force so far from home with limited land platforms to supply the effort. For the Argentineans, despite occupying the Islands, only one airfield out of the three (Stanley) was paved but it still wasn't long enough to operate the fast jets from, so they had to carry out their attacks from the Argentine mainland. The British only had 42 Harriers to counter the attacking aircraft which comprised approximately 50 air superiority fighters and 70 attack aircraft. Initial attacks on Stanley were carried out by Vulcan bombers in the historic Black Buck raids successfully completing 8000 mile round trip missions from the British airfield at Ascension. The war caught the world by surprise and indeed created some challenging political situations where some nations officially backed Britain's interests, but were none the less committed to supporting the Argentineans with the technology that they had supplied to them. Initial attacks on British ships were carried out by A-4 Skyhawks, Mirage III's, Canberra's as well is Israeli supplied Daggers. The initial Daggers fared well boosting pilot confidence in the aircrafts ability to survive modern combat but later a Canberra and a Dagger were lost to defending Sea Harriers. On a subsequent combat between Harriers and Mirage III's one Mirage was shot down and another was damaged. Short of fuel, it tried to land at the Argentinian occupied Stanley airfield but was shot down by friendly fire. Although night combat air patrols were performed by the Harriers, they were deemed too valuable during the day role to make a major commitment during the dark hours. Following the initial Canberra loss, subsequent missions for this type of aircraft were only performed by night. The A-4's and Daggers continued in the Strike Role where as the Mirage was used as decoys to lure the Harriers away from the attack aircraft. Lack of A-A missiles and refuelling capabilities limited it's potential other than in this role. After a successful recapture of South Georgia by British forces, the full effort was turned to the Falklands. 74 days after the invasion by Argentinian forces, the islands were recaptured and the Argentinian forces surrendered. The conflict cost the lives of 649 Argentineans military personnel, 255 British and 3 civilian islanders. The pack Aztec have provided these decals in two scales, 1:72 (set D72-048) and 1:48 (set D48-048). The decals come on three sheets with two colour and two B&W sheets of instructions. I'm really impressed with the amount of individual aircraft that are catered for in this set. If you enjoy building your models with themes and have been looking to do a Falklands one, then you'll be very happy with this set. The aircraft you can build are: British Sea Harrier FRS.1 800 Sqn - XZ457, ZA193 Sea Harrier FRS.1 801 Sqn - XZ451, ZA175, ZA190 Sea Harrier FRS.1 809 Sqn - ZA177, ZA192 Sea King HAS.2, 825 Sqn RN - No. 97 Lynx HAS.2, 815 Sqn - XZ247, XZ691, XZ720, XZ728 Wasp HAS.1 - XT429, XS539 Argentinian A-4Q 1 ANAS Argentine Navy - 3-A-301, 3-A-304, 3-A-305, 3-A-307, 3-A-309, 3-A-312 (with selection of pre & wartime colours) A-4P Grupo 5 de Caza, Argentine Airforce - C0207, C-222, C-228, C-236, C-242 Canberra 2BS, Argentine Airforce - B-108 (Not included in 1:48 set) Mirage IIIEA Argentine Airforce - I-018, I-019, ? MB339, Argentine Navy - 4-A-115 Pucara, Grupo de Ataque 3, Argentine Airforce - A-506, A-528, A-537 Sea King SH-3, Argentine Navy - 2-H-233, 2-H-235 Lynx, Argentine Navy - 3-H-142 The Reference Material The instructions have lots of good and a few bad points. There is a wealth of information about colour schemes with plenty of side profiles and painting tips, for example explaining the variation in colour that can be found on the camouflaged Skyhawks. There are also photographs of the real aircraft and information about who flew the aircraft which makes for an interesting read. The slight downside is that the profiles are quite small and there is a lack of 3 view profiles, so you will probably need some support reference material to assist applying some of the decals. How readily available this support information is to come by, I don't know, so some replies from experts with good reference links would be most welcome. One of the things I really like is a paint chart for the aircraft contained that shows the paint numbers for the different paint manufacturers in comparison to the BS number - Humbrol, Model Master, Tamiya & Revell. Clearly a lot of research has gone into creating this set by Aztec and they've really tried to squeeze as much value into the set as possible reflected by the fact that you can build up to 38 aircraft from the set ! The Decals The decal sheets are jammed with detail, and very fine detail it is. There are three sheets that contain not only the aircraft markings, but a wealth of stencils. On the whole, the register is very good and the colours sharp. The British high vis roundels suffer a slight overlap of the blue and red colours which is visible if you look closely. There are some small British low vis roundels where the pink part is very slightly off centre to the surrounding blue. How noticeable this will be when on the kit I don't know. I'm trying to be objective and critical here as is the responsibility of a reviewer, these really are minor issues in the overall excellent quality of the pack. In Aztecs intent to get as many decals onto a sheet as possible, care will need to be taken cutting the decals from the sheet as they are quite close together. I normally use a pair of scissors, but for these I would use a sharp scalpel knife. Conclusion With the 30th Anniversary of the Falklands war and the recent release of the Airfix 1:72 Skyhawk, this is a timely and exciting release by Aztec. There's a few minor issues as I've mentioned above, namely the aircraft profiles and the British roundels, but you don't get much more value crammed into a pack of decals than this. Clearly there are some key aircraft missing from the pack, Wessex, Argentine Hercules and Vulcan stand out, so I suspect Part 2 will be just as welcome as this. As mentioned in the review, the Canberra isn't included in the 1/48 set. If you have the remotest interest in the Falklands conflict and build in either 1/72 or 1/48th, you really need a pack of these in your collection ! Review sample courtesy of Available direct or from most large Model Retailers