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Hello everybody, I'd like to enter my build of the immortal Bell helicopter, it will be finished as one of the many examples used by the Italian Air Force Helicopter School at Frosinone. The base kit is quite an hodgepodge because I had a started Italeri Sioux AH.1, where I robbed the engine, part of the tubular structure and both rotors to scratchbuild an AB47J. That is unfortunately a stalled project after the issue of the LF Model kit, but that's another story... Then I remembered I also had somewhere the horrendous Pavla short-run kit, so I thought I could try picking some of its useable parts and make a complete airframe. You can see here below the raw materials: in the last few days I assembled the cabin from the Italeri kit replacing some parts I had robbed for the AB47J and then I tackled the photoetched tailboom 😱 The more I look at it, the more it seems a bad approach to remedy the coarseness of the Italeri kit, but in this case I had no choice. It is hopelessly flat and nearly impossible to assemble straight and true without bending some brace here and there. I hope it will get better once painted. Thanks for looking!

As the P1A has about reached the finish line and the Meteor in the STGB awaits paint, I am looking at another build. This going to be the Pavla kit of the Supermarine S6B, the winner of the final Schneider Trophy air race in 1931. It is a short run injection moulded kit with some resin for detail parts, cylinder fairings and beaching gear. Going to be fun, as basically no location tabs etc at all. The plastic parts have a fair amount of flash. This kit is going to be interesting.

Hello all Here is my latest, the Trumpeter kit of the An-2. It was completed using the Pavla resin cockpit and vac form canopy with the decals and scheme coming from the Lift Here Big Bipes sheet. The kits huge wing struts were replaced with scratch built items and the propeller was detailed with parts from the spares box to make a more accurate representation of the real thing. The rigging attachment points were made from spare etch seat harnesses and the substantial rigging from silver nickel rod. I think replacing the canopy has made the biggest difference as the kit one is completely the wrong shape. Overall I’m pretty happy with it and it was fun to do a biplane for a change. Hope you like it Although difficult to fit, worth doing I think. Thanks for looking Pete

Heather's @Heather Kay latest build has galvanised and motivated me to join in the GB with this. It doesn't have an 804 NAS option but as far as I can see there wasn't too much in markings so should be able to sort something from a combination of the kit markings, left overs from other builds and some generic markings for the serials. I won't go much deeper into 804's contribution to the BoB bur they used Sea Gladiators initially for the defence of the Fleet at Scapa Flow out of RNAS Hatson, with a sojourn on HMS Glorious, before re-equipping with the Martlet towards the end of the Battle. The boxing is a double option of a Gladiator/Sea Gladiator. And one of the Gladiators is a BoB option based at RAF Rosborough to defend Plymouth. The plastic is quite soft and has a bit of flash. Mind you there are only 33 parts, 32 if you take into account the fact there are optional props. And a nice bundle of detail as resin. and a couple of vac form canopies to allow for crack handedness. A nice transfer sheet for 5 options, with a variety of schemes.

Here's another build I did over on the 'In the Navy' GB, an Airfix new tool Swordfish. Build thread is here; A straight forward build, had to lengthen the Pavla Radome a bit but apart form that just the rigging was tricky with my fumbling fingers! The extended exhaust, bigger oil cooler and wing aerials are from the Pavla set which also includes the cockpit hood and seating for the |Mk III. This is a machine featured in Xtradecal sheet X72144, all Swordfish aircraft. Apparently this is a Mk II airframe brought up to Mk III standard but retained the standard cockpit and 3-man crew, so I used a fair bit of modellers licence as to where to put the radar gear, eventually deciding to install it under the pilot. The observers scope can be seen under the coming behind the pilot in one of the shots. Paints were the usual Vallejo ModelAir with Vallejo and Galeria Varnishes. Uschi thread for the rigging. Weathering kept to a minimum, just a bit of dry-brushing to bring out some detail. Comments and critism welcome. Davey.

Every second post I see on social media at the moment seems to be modelling related, lockdown must be doing wonders for the modelling trade! I'm lucky enough to be able to work at home, so don't have endless days to fill. However, still feeling the other to get something else on the go after finishing my Phantom a few weeks back. I won an Airfix Vampire at a raffle held at once of the Sywell Aviation Museum's talks over the winter. Since it was free, thought I'd splash a bit of cash on it. Got myself the Xtradecal Vampire part 1 sheet and a set of Pavla resin bang seats. First foray into resin extras, I think it'll certainly test my painting skills! Haven't actually started yet, hopefully putting this up will give me that little push... Obligatory box artwork shot (although there can't be many on here that haven't seen one of these!) The Pavla seats. Look pretty good to my (untrained) eye. Presume I have to shave off the big block of resin at the bottom.. And the decals. I had originally thought of going with the Shawbury ATC school markings as the nose at Sywell is in that scheme. However, I'm currently favouring the Leuchars Station Flight machine with the 43 and 151 sqn marks. It'll go nicely with my 43 sqn Phantom. Also means I don't have to get involved in painting that awful dayglo orange again! That's about it for now. Helping my son with an A-4 he got for Christmas in an attempt to inspire him and give him something to do other than stare at screens, so progress may well be slow. Cheers! Al

The Sea Hurricane's coming along a treat so I had a scan of the stash to see what I could squeeze in before the end of the GB. I spotted Airfix's Swordfish and on opening the box it seems I bought a Pavla Mk III conversion at the time. I was ordering some decals from Hannants for other projects and came across a set of Xtradecal's for the Swordfish. The scheme that intrigued me was NF119/X, 'Black Mischief' of 819 NAS Knokke-le-Zoute 1944. Apparently a Mk II brought up to Mk III standard with radar system installed but it still has the normal open cockpit and 3-man crew? I can't find any info on this aircraft, can for the Sqn with a couple of period shots, but I was wondering if anyone knows anything about this particular aircraft? Where does the third man go with all that gear in the cockpit?! I want to start this while the decals are on their way but need to know the internal layout, if it's the same as Pavla have in the instructions as there are a few changes to the kit parts. Davey.

Got this S.6B done recently, here's the building link of it. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235054914-pavla-172-supermarine-s6/ Overall a good kit straight from the box. I know there are some who would go crazy and super detail it.

Just started something different, a Supermarine S.6. This is the Pavla kit. My intention is to keep it box stock as much as I can except for adding flying wires. Here I have the fuselage glued up. I found on here another post of the same kit and noted the snags and hints encountered. I can't find the thread but it was very well done. There's no line up spots on the inside of the fuselage. So the seat fits flush to the rear cockpit opening and the instrument panel fits flush to the front opening(with the bulkhead attached) I had to trim the bulkhead and seat bulkheads to fit the contours of the fuselage inside profile. I tried out a truck for seam filling. I took stretched sprue from the same kit and glued it to the top fuselage joints and sanded it all down, works really good and won't shrink. I also drilled out the individual exhaust ports. Another thing from the other thread was to make spars from rod, I used brass, it's not shown here but I put two per side. I epoxied them the first time but didn't put enough hardener in so I took the wings off and redid them with some cement and superglue. There is no dihedral, the wings are flat. I did the same with the tailplane, two brass rods but went through to both sides with two pieces. The struts I thought would be a pain so I drilled in small rods on each end. The rods going into the flats are bent vertically so I can plug the plane onto the floats later. There is a lot of flying wires on this plane and you can see how small it is. 0.25 x .5mm or less flat strip would be ideal, but i don't have any. I have 0.5 x 1mm. I'll see if it works, at least on the floats. There will be some filling where the struts meet everything. The bottom spine didn't quite meet the fuselage halves so it did need some filling with superglue. You can see the dark area just behind the rear strut. I'm going to use the beaching gear as a jig for the floats.

HN862, was used as a trials aircraft by Royal Aircraft Establishment and A&AEE before transferring to 1634 Flight. It crashed in July 1943. I found this Pavla kit a trial - and I have another in the stash

I'm going to start with these two challenging ones. The Martinet already has had the resin parts cleaned and some paint on. I've added the white paint to the underside as a starter undercoat for the yellow. Here's the sprue shot and although some paint on nothing clipped off or assembled, so well within the 25% rule. Nice transfer sheet and a fair amount of resin but not too much and thankfully two vac canopies. This is the version I'll be doing, 772 Squadron NAS in South India near the end of the war. Thankfully there is also a nice paint guide for the 'stripy' underside.

Hello all, As indicated in the GB chat a number of months ago, I will join and doing a Kyushu Q1W1 Tokai (allied codename, Lorna) in 1/72 by Pavla. The Lorna was the first purpose-built anti-submarine aircraft: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyushu_Q1W Sprue shots: This project will need some masking (although the product is for Fine Molds kit, not Pavla): Some extras I may use. I'm still undecided how to model the Lorna... This should be a great GB, and I look forward to checking in on all builds! Regards, David

After posing a question in the Cold War forum regarding the B-47, I thought why not start a WIP-thread on this build. That might put enough pressure on me to hopefully eventually complete this build. It all started with a visit to my LHS where I spotted the Pavla resin cockpit set for the Hasegawa B-47. Turned out a customer had ordered it, but in the end never bought it. I had long been considering getting this set for the B-47 kit buried somewhere deep down in my stash since... well, a long long time ago. So I thought this is my chance, and bought it. So after a bit digging deep in my stash I eventually found the kit. If you look carefully you can actually read the price tag. Yes, it says £6.95! That's how old it is. Bought at W.J. Walker's in Hackney, a shop now long gone, on one of my visits to the UK. This kit has been reissued a couple of times over the decades. But I think this is one of the very early ones.It was top of the line when first issued, But by today's standards it is a very simple kit. It is reasonably accurate, but has raised panel lines and rivets (B-47s were flush riveted!), nice wheels but simplified gear legs, a very thick canopy, very little cockpit detail, the RWR antenna and bomb aimers periscope on the tip of the nose incorrectly positioned on the centre line instead of offset to port, missing landing lights on the inner engine pods, substandard decals which have yellowed over the years. But nevertheless, with a bit of work it can be made into a very good model. So the Pavla set is quite extensive and will do wonders for the cockpit. It will require some very fine detail painting, especially the two instrument panels. Unfortunately the vacformed canopy has some nasty scratches on one side. Luckily I have a Falcon vacformed canopy which I will use instead. The main resin "lump" has to have some of the resin trimmed off in order to fit inside the fuselage. This is clearly shown in the instructions. The areas that have to be removed are also marked on the resin. After that I did a dry fit which looked promising. But when I dry fitted it in the port half of the fuselage, the crew access passage didn't line up properly with the crew door. The whole resin piece needs to be moved 4-5 mm to the rear. But to do this I had to remove just over 3 mm from the rear end of the cockpit insert in order to clear the front end of the forward wheel well. For the time being the cockpit has been put aside and will be dealt with later. In order to be able to start this project, I had to make sure that I had proper decals for it. A search on the net showed that Warbird Decals had issued four sheets for the B-47. One sheet with stencils and wing walk/ways, and three sheets featuring individual markings. Unfortunately most of these were sold out almost everywhere. But Warbirds themselves had the stencil sheet in stock, and Sprue Brothers had one of the other sheets in stock. So both of these sheets were ordered last week, and three days ago the sheet from Sprue Brothers arrived in the mail. (Sorry for the slight out of focus. Printing is actually very sharp.) Just waiting for the other decal sheet to arrive. Since the kit has raised panel lines, I have started to rescribe the kit. She scribing is actually not that difficult and doesn't take that much time. What actually does take time is the sanding afterwards, especially since some areas on the wings are not even and the thickness of the trailing edges are not constant. So I have spent several hours scribing, sanding and polishing. So far one wing, one stabiliser and one wing tank is more or less done. Meantime, I'll carry on scribing and sanding, scribing and sanding...

I am looking to get a cockpit detail set for my Revell 1/48 Mi-24 Hind, and was wondering which one was better, the Cobra Company set or the Pavla set? They're about the same price, once you figure in shipping to Florida. Larry

Well, having finally sorted myself out & found all the bits I thought I had, but couldn't find, here's my entry for my first GB: It's the well known Airfix kit, with 3D Kits Mk.II LR conversion, to which I hope to add the Quickboost seat & Pavla improved parts. I may leave off the Pavla vacform canopies as I've only once tried to use one of these & it didn't end well!

Good morning! Today the sun was shining, so a good opportunity to take a few pictures of my Sea Harrier. It's the well-known kit from Italeri/esci, even built with the kit decals. Some parts are from Pavla, like the cockpit, intake with open doors and the exhausts. Colours were white and EDSG from gunze, the Sea Eagles are from a Hasegawa kit. Thanks for attention! Alex

Spitfire MkI/II 1:32 Pavla Although having a number of problems from the box, the Revell 1:32 MkI/II Spitfire is still a very nice kit. Since there is always room from improvement a number of manufacturers have released correction sets and detail sets. With this in mind Pavla has released three new sets to improve the cockpit area. All three sets are contained in a blister pack with card backing and header. The first pack contains a replacement seat, which looks a lot closer to the real metal seat, but is still not 100% correct, although the missing detail on the seat back will probably be covered by the seatbelts. The second pack contains a replacement access door. This is very nicely moulded with some very fine surface detail on the outer skin and nice rib detail on the interior. The door does not come with a moulded on crowbar, nor is any provided, which, I believe is correct for this era. The final set contains the cockpit sidewalls, which are drop in replacements. As per the other sets the mouldings are very well moulded, with lots of detail such as the cabling between electrical boxes, the longerons, stringers and frames, along with numerous smaller details. Some careful painting and the use of washes will pay dividends in making these details pop. In addition to the sidewalls the set comes with separate throttle quadrant, oxygen bottles and trim wheels, another smaller oxygen style bottle and the undercarriage control box and lever. Conclusion Pavla have produced some very nice detail in these three sets. I thinking the sidewalls are the best of the bunch, although the door is a nice easy addition. I’m not sure when the metal seat was used, but if the aircraft you’re modelling uses this style then go for it. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of

B-57B Night Bomber Cockpit Set for Italeri Kit 1:72 Pavla The B-57B was the licensed built Canberra produced in the US by Martin. The B-57B would differ from the Canberra by having a tandem cockpit and wing mounted guns. The kit avaiable from Italeri is a good one, but these cockpit upgrades from Pavla are always nice. The new set from Pavla contains a complete cockpit tub, two ejection seats, forward and rear cockpit instrument panels, canopy jack and pilots control column. I am reliably informed that this set captures the early B-57B cockpit much better than the kit which is more like that of a B-57E. Conclusion This set from Pavla will enhance your B-57B model. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi Another bird from my shelf - Siebel fh 104 Hallore. This is a personell a/c of of German WWII ace, Adolf Galland I made this markings from my drawer, and now, when I wanted to post it I found two new data. First, that I omitted at least one emblem. You might see it here: http://falkeeins.blogspot.com/2011/11/adolf-gallands-siebel-sh-104.html Second one, that Pavla made this markings as a limited edition, but it was not available in Poland, I think... In Pavla markings there are two more emblems. Anyway - when I add this emblems I will post new photo. Comments welcomed Regards Jerzy-Wojtek

B-57G Night Hawk Cockpit Set for Italeri Kit 1:72 Pavla The B-57G Night Hawks were B-57Bs modified as night intruders with FLIR, LLTV, and laser designator in the nose, capable of using laser-guided bombs; 16 converted for The Vietnam war. Italeri have brought us a decent model of the B-57G but it is lacking in the cockpit area. The kit supplied seats are good only for the first test version and the kit cockpit does not re-produce the Night Hawk. To remedy this Pavla have now brought us a complete new cockpit set. This includes the main tub, correct ejection seats, correct front & rear instrument panels,control yoke; and canopy ram. The parts are well cast though one of the rear ejection rails was missing from the review sample. It had not broken off in the box as its not in there at all. Conclusion This set from Pavla will enhance your B-57G model. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

B-57 Seats. 1:72 Pavla Pavla have brought us two sets of seats for the B-57 in 1:72 scale. The first is the Mechanics Inc Seat. The second is the ESCAPAC seat. The "production" B.57G had the ESCAPAC rocket seat, as did the RB/WB.57F in both cases though the prototype aircraft had the Mechanics Inc. seats, as did the B.57A, RB.57A, EB.57A. B/RB.57B, B/RB.57C RB/EB.57D B/RB/EB.57E. Around 1972(ish) the USAF introduced a Mod for all B.57's to get the new rocket seat. But in effect this only applied to the EB.57E's (Thanks to John from the Canberra SIG for this info) Mechanics Inc Seat ESCAPAC Seat Conclusion Kit seats in 1.72 will never match resin seats for detail. These seats from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

Mirage 2000C Cockpit, Intakes & Control Surfaces sets for Heller Kit 1:72 Pavla Hellers Mirage 2000C Kit has been around for a while now, as with other kits the cockpit and seats are limited by injection moulding in this scale. This resin cockpit is designed to replace the original kit item in its entirety. Due to the front wheel bay being on the bottom of the cockpit Pavla have moulded this from the with minimal clan up required. The set is comprised of a cockpit tub, complete with sidewalls and consoles, a replacement ejection seat, instrument panel, and control levers. All of the resin parts are nicely cast and crisply detailed, and there are no bubbles or casting flaws in evidence. The control and instrument details are nicely rendered, and the straps on the ejection seats are very realistically done. A Vac form canopy is provided; which is available as a part in its own right. Cockpit Set Canopy Also offered by Pavla for the kit are a set of intakes which include FOD guards. These are well moulded and come with the separate fence which is attached to the side of the intake. Intakes Another item for the Mirage 2000C is a set of control surfaces. Flaps and flap actuators are provided here. Control Surfaces Conclusion The Heller kit is a great kit, however it will benefit from these sets. Whether you just want a nice cockpit, covered intakes; or different control surfaces. You could go the whole hog with all of them! Either way these details from Pavla will enhance your kit. Highly recommended. Review samples courtesy of

I've just posted my Mirage 2000 here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968265-dassault-mirage-2000c/ in Ready for Inspection. Here are some tips for building it, and the Pavla parts I added, in the hope that someone might find them useful. Cockpit Pavla make a cockpit for the Heller kit, but that’s not what I had; I had the one for the Kinetic kit as a review sample. This is very similar but, of course, designed for a slightly different piece of plastic. Still, it’s a better idea than the NeOmega cockpit, which is designed for the old Italeri kit (not the newer Kinetic rebox). Large differences in the way it fits to the nosegear well would have caused a lot of trouble making it fit. (I’m selling it if anyone’s interested!) The cockpit for Kinetic can be made to fit Heller with a lot of sanding of both plastic and resin. This probably applies if you’re putting in a Kinetic kit, of course, but differently. I think I took out too little plastic, which has made my cockpit narrow. I had to mount the side-walls a bit far in: they’re meant to sit on ledges next to the side consoles, while mine are just about on top of them. On one side the ledge was a little too small anyway, so you might want to watch for this. I ended up having to shave off the bottoms of the side-walls to give them room to sit above the buttons and switches. Though it doesn’t really show. Even allowing for this, the fit’s not brilliant behind the seat; but that can be concealed under the rear bow of the canopy. The coaming is much nicer than NeOmega’s (this set is almost worth having for that alone) but, again, it’s a tight squeeze. No matter which set you have, be prepared to shave off corners and to have to remove more kit plastic than you realised. Painting instructions are a bit haphazard. As always, check your references (and bear in mind that not all seats found in a Mirage 2000 use the same colours). Canopy This was the single trickiest stage of the whole build. The Pavla cockpit set includes a vac-formed acetate canopy. This has its attractions: thinner, reasonably clear, separate canopy and windscreen. The detail is a bit soft but it’s on a par with the kit’s. Neither Heller’s nor Pavla’s parts fitted. In part this must be down to my not having trimmed the cockpit tub enough. The effect on the cockpit parts themselves was to pinch in the sides (as above) but the effect on the fuselage parts was to spread them slightly. In the end I pressed on with Pavla. Because neither Pavla nor Heller supplied an actuator, I wanted to leave the canopy shut while allowing the cockpit to be seen, and Pavla’s problems were more manageable. In particular, I knew it would need some flexing and poking to make it fit, which acetate could take better than polystyrene. My diagnosis notwithstanding, I don’t think all the bother was down to me. This is because both canopy and windscreen were wider than the fuselage at the bottom front corners, and narrower at the bottom rear. That can’t have been caused by a wide fuselage. The windscreen also sat too high at the front. This could have been addressed by trimming the front end, but that would have removed the frame and its bolt details; trimming the other end would have removed the rear frame. The only remedy I could find was to plonk it on, then fair in the front end by building up two thin plies of plastic sheet and slopping on Mr Dissolved Putty. If you’re forced to do this, take care over the mounting for the FR probe. If you can leave some plastic showing through the filler, it will be a lot easier to attach. The canopy tended to a different curve from the windscreen - it seemed twisted to the right and so was too high on that side and too low on the other. The soft detail also made it hard to know where there was excess acetate, and on reflection I probably trimmed away a little less canopy than I should have. It might have fitted better but for that. Well, anyway, I muddled through and bodged most of the resulting dips and gaps. The filler here was Clearfix because, as well as all that, the rear frame of the canopy wouldn’t reach the fuselage spine at the bottom corners - not only too narrow but too short. There’s some swarf inside the canopy. I suspect this is not so much unavoidable as obligatory. There’s also some glue. I’d have preferred to use PVA but I knew it wouldn’t stand up to the manipulation. And, despite a coat of Klear inside and out, there was enough CA to create some fogging. The lesson is to use more Klear - I couldn’t have avoided using that much glue. On balance I’d have preferred a one-piece vac-formed canopy with the option of separating the pieces. Who knows how it might have fitted, but at least there wouldn’t have been a mismatch between canopy and windscreen. Control surfaces Pavla’s elevons are nice to have because they show the hinge covers better than the kit parts and have finer external hinges on the underside. Those hinges are how the elevons attach to the wing. But there’s a problem. To fit the elevons you remove the kit parts by sawing along the hinge line. To avoid steps from the remains of the engraved line, you need to remove all of it. This effectively puts the mounting line for the new parts too far forward. On the real thing, when the elevons droop there’s not much space between their top surfaces and the fixed structure. Pavla’s seem to have dropped slightly. They sit low, leaving a large space behind the wing. It’s not a gap - you can’t see daylight through it - but it’s not the correct snug fit either. I suppose I might have attached the hinges in the wrong place. But I followed Pavla’s incised marks on the elevons. And, with the geometry, it doesn’t seem possible to fix it by mounting the hinges further back. That would tend to raise the elevons, but it wouldn’t leave enough room for their leading edge, which is already in contact with the wing. My solution was to attach a length of 1.5mm L-section strip along the wing trailing edge. This give a false impression of how the edge looks, but it covers that space reasonably well. I suspect it also puts back a little bit of chord lost because of Heller’s slightly coarse hinge line. Where it’s not all that easy to fiddle is the wing root, where the Kármánn fairing starts. You can create the curve by building it up with thin plastic, or by leaving the end of the L-section free and bending it before you glue it in separately. I ended up doing both, on opposite sides - still not sure why. One small mystery is that Pavla’s hinges are all slightly inboard of the kit ones. At the outboard end, Pavla also gives you replacement wingtips with slightly better rendered RWR receivers. I discovered only on attaching them that these are mounted nose-up, which isn’t right. I can’t think of a correction. Another feature is that the rear of these bits has a little recess to take the nose of that section of elevon. This is nice to have, but no earthly use when the rest of the elevon hinge has to be sawn away and there’s no replacement structure. I defy anyone to create a hinge line that looks right and still allows room for the elevons. If you’re doing what I did with covering the elevon hinge line, bear in mind that the wingtips are slightly longer in chord than the ends of the wings after you’ve cut away the kit elevons. I should have extended that L-shaped strip into a narrower bit on the wingtip. The antenna fairing is partly on the wingtip and partly on the elevon, so you’ll want to ensure they line up. Judicious sanding of the inner end of the elevon or the wing root fairing should take care of it. Also, the nose of the elevon portion needs chamfering, or it will foul the tail of the wingtip portion. Finally, this set includes replacement rear ends for the Kármánn fairings (the bits inboard of the elevons that lie alongside the rear fuselage). I’m not sure why. Neither kit part nor replacement is a brilliant fit and there’s not much to choose in the sharpness of their edges. This Pavla set doesn’t include the fairings with the Spirale dispensers. The kit does - well, sort of, they’re pretty coarse. The only way to get better ones is to buy Pavla’s control surfaces set for the later Kinetic Mirages - eg the 2000D. Two more small tips. The outboard pylons are wrongly shaped at the rear end and will foul the elevons; and the rear end of the rail, where the Magics attach, fouls their rear fins. A little filing is needed (or the Pavla pylon set). On one of my elevons there was also a slight bend. My attempt to flex it back snapped it, but that wasn’t a problem as it was along the panel line and the two halves can be made to marry up again. If I hadn’t also snapped a hinge, I might have done the same on the other side. Intakes These are a shocking fit. Your goal is to ensure that the leading edge of the splitter plate is flush with the intake lip. As designed, the kit will probably make it protrude slightly. There’s a choice of ways to address this. None is “right” in the sense of minimising trouble; your best bet is to dry-fit, see out where the gaps are, and decide which of them you least fancy trying to fix. Personally I fitted the intakes after the wing, contrary to the instructions. This seemed to make the gaps easier to deal with. But, as I should have expected, it all changed between dry-fit and final fit, and there’s packing everywhere. Having said that, I still don’t think attaching them to the fuselage first would have been significantly better. The intake strakes are far too fat. But they fit into plain holes, directly to the outer surface of the intakes, so you can thin them to your heart’s content. A common feature of Heller kits is that the locating pins are smaller than the corresponding holes*, so a bit of filling will be needed too. Be warned that your strakes may actually be fatter towards the ends, in defiance of all that we think we know about mould design. * if you think this is bad, you should see the pitot heads. Undercarriage The undercarriage legs are fairly sturdy and shouldn’t need replacing for strength. But there are problems. The retraction struts on the maingear fit poorly to the legs and have no location at all in the wells. You can brace them well enough but they’re just touching, with no obvious reason to be there. The same goes for the inner doors. The nosegear arrangement, as assembled, leaves the retraction strut floating free. It should attach at the top front corner of the well - still no proper detail there, but at least the location would be right. But it’s too short and barely reaches the lip of the well. If you try to get the leg raked slightly aft as it ought to be, the strut misses the well altogether. On reflection I think this is because the leg is slightly too long, or at least its location points in the well are too low. I realised this far, far too late. All the wells are very plain. You can hide a lot by leaving all the larger doors shut, as is the norm on the ground. But even then a little detail in the outer portions of the maingear wells is worth adding. NB: I don’t think the inner doors are curved to match the underside. My solution was to mount them ajar, which is also seen on the ground. The roof of the maingear well is mostly on the wing parts, but one slice doesn’t appear until you attach the wing to the fuselage - it’s under the wing root fairing. There will be gaps. The fuselage section is the right depth on the outer side, but it’s too shallow and too narrow on the inner side. Even with the doors fully shut, these gaps can be seen, so they’ll need fixing. The small doors to either side of the nosegear fit poorly. The curved hinges are quite nice, but they foul the nosegear leg. File and fit to taste. Overall, I’d say it wouldn’t be a bad idea to seek replacement undercarriage and wells. I love those resin wheels, though. My cavil about the brake actuators is trivial compared with the overall effect. VOR aerials These mount to either side of the fin. Like the intake strakes, they’re far too chunky. But unlike the intakes, Heller moulded little plinths on the fin to attach them to. These are the same thickness and they’d be very tricky to thin. I decided to leave it in the end. Exhaust I used the kit part. It’s a bit plain and it’s stuck in the fully-open position, but I was happy with the representation of the inner nozzle. I scribed some lines on each outer petal and used Mr Metal paints for a passable result. An obvious alternative is an Aires exhaust. Whatever you choose, the ring at the end of the fuselage is in one piece on the kit, but 64 tiny sections on the real thing. If you like, you can scribe them in: four for each exhaust petal. Counterweight No nose weight is mentioned in the instructions. As the build progressed it seemed none was needed - the extra weight of the elevons was balanced by the weight of the cockpit. As it’s turned out the model is just balanced, and I think that’s only because of the position of the centreline tank. If you were to add a resin exhaust as well, you’d definitely have a tail-sitter. So I’d recommend half an ounce or so. There’s plenty of room in the nose. The rest of the kit A familiar problem here: iffy fit, and panel lines not always meeting where they cross the joins. The part where you should pay the most attention is the fin root. If you can get this level, your job when attaching the fin will be much easier. The fin itself needs the right-hand half thinning, or it will sit proud. There’s also rough fit just behind the nosegear well, and the inserted ventral panel takes some fiddling too. I’m still trying to work out why there’s a separate panel there. The wing-to-fuselage junction is very uneven: at some points the wing is higher, at others it’s lower, that’s not symmetrical, and the gaps (just about all the way along) vary in width. If you can leave a trace of them, though, it’s a help, as there are real panel lines there. Note that they’re not smooth curves - they really do kink to and fro as the kit parts do. But at least the wing is in one piece, goes on evenly, and sets the correct anhedral. This is a major plus compared with the Kinetic kit. You can do a bit of surgery on that to fix it, but it’s nice not to have to. Overall This kit definitely falls into the category of some modelling skills needed. I don’t mind this approach where you get, say, basic shapes and you have to add detail. I find it less acceptable where it amounts to having to compensate for poor design. Being fatalistic about it - or, worse, having a go at people who object to it because they’re not “proper modellers” - does nothing to encourage kit manufacturers to improve their fit and finish. (This is an old kit, though, and Heller hasn’t done much of late, so that boat has probably sailed.) Unfortunately the upgrades are also some modelling skills needed. While I created my own problem by using a cockpit aimed at a different kit, a lot of the fit was ropey, the instructions were murky, and I don’t think quite enough thought went into how the resin was meant to attach to the plastic. Nor am I very impressed with acetate canopies. I’m quite glad I didn’t pay for this stuff. But the detail is, on the whole, improved for having it. And, having said all that, I’ve rather enjoyed myself. I’ve always thought the Mirage 2000 was a dainty little thing, and I’m quite pleased with the end result.

My latest: Heller’s old 1/48 Mirage 2000C. This has had a fair bit of other stuff thrown at it. You can read about it in my separate hints and tips here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234968266-heller-mirage-2000c-with-pavla-upgrades-hints-tips/ - but, to sum up, I’ve added a Pavla cockpit, Pavla control surfaces, Pavla wheels, a Master pitot probe, and an Eduard tank very kindly supplied by horrido109. The camouflage is the specific Mirage blue-greys from Xtracolor, brushed on as always, and the usual variety of this and that for the rest. I’ve drawn in the panel lines but done no weathering. So far as I can tell, apart from the centreline tank these things stay pretty clean - or at least they did back in 1991. Not like the two-seat attack variants. Markings are from the kit: EC 2/5 Ile de France, at Orange. The decals were twenty years old and most went on flawlessly with only a little help from Microsol and Klear. Apart from a slight register problem, I was very impressed. But can anyone spot where they went wrong?

Harrier Harvest, I was going to go with Harrier Hernia but that doesn't sound quite so exciting! Here is another booby type build followed on from here; http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234964850-wip-booby-harrier-gr3-airfix-172/?view=findpost&p=1694841 This time BOOBS is an abbreviation of Built Out Of Boxed Sets. Airfix harrier Gr1 x3 Airfix Harrier Gr3 Italeri Harrier Gr3 Hasegawa Av8-a Eduard zoom etch for Gr1 x2 and for Gr3 x1, Master models pitots for Gr1x3 and for Gr3x1, Pavla seats for Av8a x2, Pavla Aden gun pods for harriers x2, attack squadron Mk 77 napalm bombs for US aircraft x6 Caracel decals early Av8a sheet all in 1/72 scale. I'm just waiting on a few books (thank you Mr H.Lime for the clue) then I'm going to begin "Operation Vertical" One thing I've learned about model kits, if you find one you like get many before eBay put the price up! Secretly I'm hoping revell release the Hunter Mk6 again. What I'm after is help to make (within the limits of my skill and scale permitting) accurate harriers of Gr1/3 and Av8a types, I'm starting with the American versions as I don't yet have seats for the RAF examples. Any help appreciated for any type under construction (everything in the picture is under construction!) Some builds will be quicker with less effort! Please be patient. . . .