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Hi I'm currently working on some RAF ground vehicles from Airfix Vehicle Set and Refuelling Set, however I wanted to make them into 1950's vehicles, not Second World War. As far as I can find, vehicles around that time would be blue/grey with yellow tops. Is this correct for every vehicle, and are the vehicles I'm building from the sets ones they would use in the early 50's in Germany? And would the markings they have in the set still be the same? Many Thanks PlasticSoldier

Seatbelts RAF Late 1:72 Eduard This set contains six sets of harnesses for late-war RAF types such as later Spitfires, Mosquitos or Typhoons. If you don't want to spend a lot of time or money on aftermarket bits and bobs, a simple seat harness can still make a big difference to a kit's cockpit, particularly in this scale. This set should prove to be good value if you manage to use all of the belts. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Jaguar GR.1/GR.3 1:48 Kitty Hawk We discussed the creation of the Jaguar in our review of the French Jaguar A release here, concentrating on the French airframes for obvious reasons. The British order of 165 of the initial GR.1 models with a further 35 T.2 two-seat trainers resulted in the formation of two active squadrons and one Operational Conversion Squadron in the mid-70s, which became operational with the British nuclear deterrent in 1977. As the fast-jet training aspect of the Jaguar's initial requirements was by then removed, further squadrons were raised to carry out reconnaissance tasks. After an avionics upgrade they became GR.1As with more powerful engines that went at least some of the way to dispel their reputation for being underpowered. The GR.3 upgrade saw the avionics and power plants upgraded further still, but only 10 years after this upgrade they were retired before their time (as usual), which marked the end of the Jag's faithful service with the RAF. During her time at the front line, she served in Bosnia, and the first Gulf War, narrowly missing the later invasion of Iraq after Turkey withdrew permission to overfly their airspace at the last minute. The final scheme was a stunning salute to this interesting aircraft, consisting of a blazing orange Jaguar pattern showing through the simulated torn outer skin of the aircraft. After a number were sent to museums the rest were reduced to main assemblies for storage, thus ending an era. India and Oman still operate a number of license built and former RAF airframes, with India carrying out upgrades of their own, including radar systems similar to those proposed for the Jaguar-M in the 70s, with a projected out-of-service date of around 2020. The Kit This is the follow-up to the water-testing (in the UK market at least) that was the French Jaguar A, and as such has seen a couple of changes following comments made about the initial release. The kit arrives in a similarly small box with a desert liveried Jag down in the weeds over from scub land with his wingman in the background. While a lot of Jags will doubtlessly be built in the Gulf War era camouflage, it might have been better to differentiate the two kits by putting another scheme on the box in order to stop the myopic amongst us from choosing the wrong one! Inside the box we get to the important part - the plastic. There are two loose fuselage parts plus seven sprues of pale grey styrene of a type identical to the last kit, so good to work with. There is also a clear sprue of parts, a small sheet of Photo-Etch (PE) brass, a pair of decal sheets and finally a small instruction booklet with a glossy cover and two fold-out pages with full painting and decaling guides in colour. One of my gripes about the A boxing was that the painting guides were incomplete and small, so likely to confuse the hard of thinking like myself. Well done for listening, KH! My name also appears on the cover with a thank you, but my input was so slight that it didn't warrant such a gracious gesture, but thanks anyway Anyone that has the A boxing will be very familiar with the contents of the box, as the majority of the parts are the same, for obvious reasons. The fuselage is split between fore and aft just forward of the engine intakes, and again, I'd consider gluing the two parts together before proceeding. It worked well for me with my A build here, but it might work just as well following the instructions. I did find the filling of the seam to be nice and easy with none of the sticky-out parts installed though. The cockpit is different, and uses a Martin Baker seat that was actually present in the other boxing. Detail is nice and a set of PE seatbelts are included, which are a bit thicker and more detailed than the earlier ones, so again KH have been listening. The instrument panel has the option of a large PE MFD screen for the later mark, or the original circular screen fitted in the GR.1s, although the instructions seem to imply that you put this on behind the main panel, but that could just be my enfeebled brain's way of looking at it. The PE is of higher quality in general this time around, and the instrument panels and side consoles are all much busier. There are also additional instruments applicable to the British machines on the edge of the coaming, which sit either side of the HUD enclosure. The New Sprues The gear bays are identical in this edition, as are the gear legs. The nose gear bay is still a little over-sized, but the main gear wheels have been reduced in diameter to closer replicate the actual size, and are now only a fraction of a millimetre from the now-extinct Paragon replacement parts that were made for the old Airfix kit. The nose of the British Jags were almost without exception of the chiselled variety with the glazing panels beneath the pitot probe. This is depicted by a single piece of clear styrene that depicts the nose, glazing, and a socket for the probe. Behind this is placed a large clear hemisphere depicting the lens within, so a little black paint in the nose might be wise just in case anything can be seen through them. The other glazing is identical, and based upon the two samples that I received, the glazing issues seem to be behind us, and no cracks were visible in the windscreen part. It might be my imagination, but it looks a micron thicker than the one on the A that sits to my right here in the workshop. The error with the two APU exhausts has been carried over to this kit, so you'll need to remove the starboard one from the equation and place a box in the bay instead, using some of our detailed walkaround pictures (found here) as guidance. Of course, if you're leaving the air-brakes closed this that would save a lot of work, but it's entirely up to you. The engine bays are exactly the same as the A boxing, and here you have the opportunity to show the basics of the engine un-fettered by the cowlings that surround them. The fit is good either way, as long as you make sure that everything is correctly seated and test-fit at each stage. I built one open and the other closed, and they both fit pretty well. The engines are the same too, and you have the full body supplied, with forward and aft engine faces, plus a nice PE burner ring that sits inside the rear. The nozzle outers are styrene with a PE inner and petals that you fold in to create the constricting inner exhaust. There is an overlapping tab to secure the end, and careful rolling will result in a nice cylinder that fits snugly inside the plastic outer. Tweak the petals inward, and secure them with super-glue from inside when you are happy with their angle. The intakes are built from two L-profile parts, and as with the earlier kit, they fit together well with minimal sanding or filling, and if aligned carefully with the fuselage, there should be little work there either. Don't forget to paint the insides white or very light grey, and mask off the insides 5mm or so with the body colour, as it'll save a lot of faffing later. There is no forward fan-face or deeper trunking in any of these kits, so a set of FOD guards will ensure there is no see-thru look - there's not much to be seen inside anyway once all the bays are installed, but I have heard stories of modellers with torches at shows. The wings have the slightly concave curved inner panel that caused some scratching of heads on release, but the slats have been reduced in chord, particularly inboard, which as well as showing that KH listen, should also result in a better looking leading edge to the wings. The flaps, aileron and spoilers are all there, with the spoilers the only parts that can be easily placed in either deployed or stowed positions. Drill a couple of holes in the wing underside for your pylons, and install the clear wing-tip lights, and you're done. Just remember that you'll need to hide the seam on the upper side when you install them on the fuselage, but underneath they pretty much sort themselves out. Oddly, the construction of the tail fin and elevators has been omitted and the instructions jump from section 18 to section 22, back to 21 and then on to 22 again. Somewhere the printers have managed to bind my instructions up incorrectly, missing out steps 19 and 20, that would presumably cover the construction of the fin, the under-fuselage strakes, chaff-and-flare dispensers, sundry antennae and lights both underneath and on the upper spine, as well as the important cockpit heat exchanger on the spine just behind the cockpit. Hopefully this is an omission peculiar to my copies that will be rectified in later printings. I'll scan the omitted steps later and post them up for reference, but the fin will differ from the French version, so I'll update it with the correct part numbers. The weapons fit for the RAF Jags was different from the French, but the same "cross-over" sprues are included as well as the same pylons. The over-wing pylons for the Sidewinders were in the box for the A, but unused, and here they are designed to be used, as there is no cover-strip included for when they are not installed. There's not much to them however, so a little scratchbuilding should see you sorted, and it's a good thing, as the over-wing pylons weren't always present in service, especially when there was no perceived air-threat. The weapons included for use with the British Jag are as follows: BGL1000 x 2 Matra 155 x 2 OBL755 x 2 BGL480 x 2 AIM-9M x 2 Fuel Tank x 1 The PHIMAT pod and Magic.2 missiles are hangovers from the A instructions, so shouldn't be used. The load-out diagram also shows the French weapons, and shows the single fuel tank installed on the centreline pylon, whereas the RAF often suspended them from the inner wing pylons in pairs. Markings There are three schemes included on the decal sheets, and it's safe to say that they should please a lot of modellers. The basic schemes are Desert, Green/Grey camo, and the unsual winter distemper scheme. The majority of the decals are printed on the larger sheet with the smaller sheet having the loviz roundels and a rather fetching caricature of Saddam Hussein for use on the Desert scheme. From the box you can depict one of the following: GR.1 XZ364 "Sadman" Gulf War 1991 - all over desert sand GR.1 XX732 54 Squadron, Coltishall 1979 (Bull's Eye '79) - green/grey camo with red shark mouth and blue/yellow checkerboard on the intakes GR.3 XX725 54 Squadron - green/grey camo with white distemper overpainting of the green. Blue/yellow chequerboard motif on tail and intake sides with crest. The latter shows a little of the colour underneath showing through, but unless my eyes deceive me, it has been depicted as grey, when in fact it should be green, matching the green that was over-painted for the Arctic Express exercise in 1994. Decals are well printed and in good register with the exception of the white background printing, so there are likely to be some touch-ups required in places, unless you elect to cut the offending white sections of the roundels off. It's not the end of the world though, as roundels are easy to source, but it would have been nice for KH to have got it right, or ensured that their printers were aware of the need for precision. On the upside, the representation of the Sadman figure with a British combat boot up his backside is excellent, and shows some subtle shading on his uniform and the attacking boot. Stencils for the weapons are included, and annexed off on a per-weapon basis by dotted lines, and KH have thought to include a few white boxes with "Training Use Only Suspension Capable" written upon them. Conclusion A number of issues have been fixed with the RAF boxing, which will please a lot of British modellers (British by birth or interest). Like any model, it's not perfect, but it has got closer as a result of the additional work that's been put in - compared to the old Airfix kit though, it's streets ahead for both the "out of box" builder and the detailer. It's not a kit that you can blunder on regardless and expect everything to fit regardless of application of skill, but if you take your time, learn from others' successes and failures by studying online builds, you will end up with a very good replica of the famous RAF Jag. The instruction goof could have been avoided, but in this online world, it's not insurmountable, and now it's out in the open, it is easily resolved. Now we wait with baited breath for the two-seat trainer, which I'm seriously looking forward to, as it has some unusual lines that if done right should sell plenty. Highly recommended Review sample courtesy of and available soon from major hobby shops

Apologies to you who have seen these before but since the 'Photobucket event' I have only just got around to loading these on to a new server. In no particular order... XT596 FG.1 No.2 as delivered to A&AEE 1968. XT597 FG.1 A&AEE circa 1982. XT861 FG.1 767 NAS 1970. XV484 FGR.2 31 Squadron 1976. XV492 FGR.2 92 Squadron 1985. XV498 FGR.2 92 Squadron 1983. XV470 FGR.2 19 Squadron 1989. XV492 (again) FGR.2 56 Squadron 1991. All built from the Hasegawa (or Revell) kit in 1/48 using an assortment of aftermarket bits and bobs. Enjoy!

Afternoon All, First post on here. When I was a teenager I was a prolific modeller and thought myself not too bad at the whole thing. That, however, was 20+ years ago (which is being generous). I built myself a Red Arrows Gnat a few years back to try and get back into the swing of things, which was OK but didn't really inspire me to anything greater. For some reason I'm now thinking I want to build a Phantom. Grew up at RAF Leuchars so it naturally needs to be an RAF machine, probably a 43 or 111 sqn FG.1. In that era it should probably be a grey scheme, although I quite like the earlier camo. Having done some reading on here, I see that the Fujimi kits are the ones to go for. I've found one on Hobby Link Japan for £15 plus postage. It's the "Silver Jubilee" FAA machine and also has 43 and 111 markings. Does anyone know what scheme the RAF ones are? From the decals I'm guessing its camo? I guess there's always after market decal sheets. Is this Hobby Link site a decent one? They look OK, but then it's easy to get a website to look OK :-) Towards the end of my period as a modeller I painted everything in gloss and then varnished to get the decals to look better. Can't remember the name of the paint now - think the tins had yellow labels. I assume a similar thing still exists today? I only ever had a cheap spray gun which was frankly rubbish so I never ventured into that game. Any recommendations for reasonably priced spray kit? May not be worth it, though, if I only ever build this one thing and then realise I'm not that fussed any more... Thanks for humouring me! Al.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Hasegawa Mosquito Mk.XIII "Night Fighter" from 29. Squadron, 1945. Released as a "Limited Edition" boxing this summer, the kit contains resin parts for the wing tanks and nose. I added True Details wheels, but forgot to add the White "T" decal for the nose ... sorry. Painted with acrylics from the Gunze/Mr.Hobby range. Photos by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. Greetings from Vienna!

Hello! This is a realy early of my airbrushed kits, it was made back in 2007. Next to it, You can see an even more older one which was used for tests in the meanwhile. The first time when I used resin upgrade and mark softer. Mr. Pilot from Airfix RAF personel.

Dear fellow Britmodellers, here's my 1/72 Eduard Spitfire IXc built from the 'Profi Pack'. I chose markings for UF-Q, No. 601 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Fano, Italy, November 1944, as I wanted a change in color to my armada of green/grey Spitfires. I painted with Alclad 'High Speed Silver', which does not resemble the quality of Alclad's Aluminium lacquers; it left a rather grainy looking surface, and is reluctant to masking, as it easliy pulls off with Tamiya Tape (something that's never ever happened with Alclad lacquers before). So, while it may not be my best model, I'm happy to have it finished! Thanks for your interest. All photographs: Wolfgang Rabel, IGM Cars & Bikes. With best wishes from rainy Vienna! Roman

Hello all, I really need your help in tracking down an image. As most will know, Phantom FG.1 XV574 of 111 Sqn appeared in two special liveries after it lost its standard RAF Camouflage. The first being the version with the half black spine and black serial number as per the Xtradecal sheet currently available, the other version being the one with the full black spine, and yellow serial number as per the Hasegawa FG.1 boxing in 1/48th. Now when I was in my early teens, I vividly recall seeing the said Phantom in a book I borrowed from the library called "Fighters Of The World" or something to that effect, in what appeared to be a mix up of these two liveries, flying low over the North Sea, appearing to be firing blanks from the Vulcan gun pod. I recall seeing the said image again in a part work called 'World Aircraft Information Files' but never again since. Google is drawing blanks apart from the image I've found down below at The Aviation Picture Hangar. But nothing else. can someone confirm that I'm not completely mad? Best Regards Ben

I just found this photo collection; some of these photos I am sure many of you will recognize, but many of them I have never seen before; some great modeling possibilities here! If this has been posted before, please fell free to delete, Mike. I hope you all enjoy looking at them. Loved the factory-fresh B-26 in RAF markings! Mike http://www.mission4today.com/index.php?start=60&finish=15&name=ForumsPro&file=viewtopic&t=14429

I havent seen this version finished so I thought I would put mine up. I do like the yellow RAF rescue helicopters as the last picture wll testify. This is a superb kit and the interior detail is very good shame a lot cant seen if the doors are shut. I have however opened the aircraft up I did the kit version but have just notice that i missed off the directional spot at the rear of the fusalage. Too late now. I had a spare air filter from a revell kit so I used that instead and when the airfix decals went on and the microset had done its job I was rather pleased with the result. Otherwise all straight out of the box Very good value kit will be buying more. Normal rules view from 5ft Rodders ooops that blade nees bending down A theme is developing here :-)

Okay, Had a look through my stash and there is loads of stuff that fits this GB. 2 Lancasters, 2 Halifaxs, 2 1/48 Lightings, a Javelin, a Lynx HMA8 with the conversion kit to make a HAS3, a Valiant, 2 Victors... So obviously I went on eBay and bought a Short Stirling. Always had a soft spot for the Stirling. Classically British in so many ways... Second choice from the start (Supermarine's 4 engine bomber was on the cards). Hamstrung by stupid regulations (100' wingspan, carry 24 troops etc etc...). The first of the breed of 4 engined heavy bombers, later eclipsed by more capable aircraft that none the less never had to meet the original design compromises. When Shorts tried to bring out an upgraded Stirling the Ministry told them not to bother. Stayed in service from inception until the end of the war and found it's niche in a role it was never designed for. Remember reading when I was a school boy tales of flying through the Alps to Italy because of the low ceiling. Wow. Huge, majestic, slightly gawky and flawed. The Stirling has it all. Now off to do some research as I will be building one of 7 Squadron's aircraft. I like the idea of building one of the Pathfinder squadrons as the Mighty Stirling should be modelled not as a poor relation to the later Heavies (both developed from mere 2 engined aircraft I might add) or as a bloody glider tug but instead be doing the business, first in, last out in the hard role of Pathfinder / Master bomber. That appeals to me. I also plan to have a Bomber Command display cabinet eventually, with the Stirling, Halifax, Lancaster, Valiant, Victor, Vulcan all together. 4 engined heavy bombers, 3 in Night and 3 in anti-flash white. So fitting to build the Stirling first. Hopefully but the time I finish the Victor Airfix will have a lovely new tool Vulcan out! I'm not home for a few weeks, but will crack on then. See you all soon!

I've been working on this for the last few months – this dio is my first born, so be gentle. It's 1/48 and consists of: Airfix 'Battle of Britain, Ready for Battle' set (amazingly good value), Italeri Mk.I Hurricane, and an entirely scratch built dispatch/billet hut, including corrugated roof & contents. A few words on the build: Airfix – great, Italeri – awful, hut & contents – enjoyable. Rivet counters please note: It's just a bit of fun and not intended to be a totally accurate representation of an RAF base, so please take with a pinch of salt. Apologies if this should be in the dio section, but as it is 90% aircrafty, I thought I'd put it here. Thanks for taking the time to take a gander. The photo on the desk is of my mum during the war and the photo on the bed is of her when she was 19. The orange booklets are pilots notes. Gorby

Hi everyone After completing my Typhoon and the false restart on my Halifax (which has been consigned to the draw of oblivion for now ) I wanted a 4 engined WW2 RAF bomber in my collection. So out came the B17. I asked my wife if I could get some bits and pieces from Hannants to give it a boost and her answer was and I quote "Of cause you can, so you want to pimp out another plane eh" Too much Fast N Loud I think, Bless her! So last night I spent 30 minutes on the Hannants site and I ordered some bits and bobs which should be here shortly. I want to finish the plane as a MKIII which I know didn't have the chin turret does anybody know if there is a conversion for the Airfix kit? The markings I will use are either B-17 Mk.III 'Give it to Uncle' 214 RCM Unit 100 Group or B-17 Mk.III 'Keflavic Cutie' (FA712, AD-C) 251 Met Sqn, Reykjavik RAF Coastal Command, late 1944, both on the Kitsworld (KW172134) sheet. Laters Iain

Any wartime information !

Afternoon folks - am I right in thinking that if I want to build the RAF VC10 C.1K XV105 - 101 SQN 90TH ANNIVERSARY - my only option is the Airfix kit? The Roden kits are the Super VC10 if I have got it right? thanks chris

Hello, someone can tell me what color was the flap vane? Especially on the RAF Hawk T.1 with the dark sea grey/dark green wraparound camouflage. Should be dark green as for the flap... or zinc chromate? CIAO! Piero

Hello, Wonder if these decals from Xtradecals also useful for wartime aircraft's or are they only for pre-war aircrafts? Or are there other decal's available concerning RAF black letters and numbers in 1/72 for WWII aircrafts? https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X72157 / André

Hi all, have been watching Britmodeller for some time now and found it full of really useful stuff and everyone seems very supportive and generous. Finally taken the plunge and joined up. Have been modelling since late 1960's, initially Airfix. Trying to build about a dozen kits a year but failing miserably. Will have to start selling off my 'loft insulation' at some point. Used to be in Chiltern Model Club- moved to NZ, miss the club structure. Now getting the Wingnut bug.

Found a couple of Airfix starter sets of Hurricane Mk1 and Spitfire Mk1a on offer in Aldi before Christmas, had a play with the Hurricane and was drawn back 40-odd years to my youth when kits were in bags and enamel paint was rather gloopy! A 25 yr career with Betty Windsor's Flying Club fixing the noise-makers took the shine off models, well that and the beer! Now settled down and have discovered that I am a very basic modeller but who cares, I am doing it for fun! Some really good instructional videos on YouTube have got me sorted with some airbrushy stuff, need reading glasses to make them these days, just looking forward to playing once the Memsa'ab is happy(ier) with the house and gives this guy a break. Started on a stash, all Airfix so far, Whitley MkV, Stirling BI/III and the VC set to give me a few kits to play with! Just need the man-cave set up and away I go, hopefully! Have recognised a couple of guys on here from my past, could be scary! 😉

Kits – 1:72 Fujimi FG1 Phantom (original issue) & Revell Eurofighter. Paint – All enamels. Decals – Modeldecal 097 (Phantom) & Xtradecal 72230 (Eurofighter) Extras – None, both models are completely from the box. McDD Phantom FG.1 43 Squadron RAF Leuchars Mid 1988 Built for the ‘Micro Modelling Month’ Campaign (GB) over at Modellers Alliance, Exactly three weeks from opening the boxes until finishing today – well I say finished, both models have a little ‘tidying-up’ still to do. The Phantom needs its ECM aerials on the top of the fin painted, blue 'concrete Sparrows' in the forward bays and the nav lights on the wing-tips. The Typhoon needs the IR sensor painted and again the nav lights on the wingtip pods. The Phantom is the last one in my stash and was bought with around five or six others when they first came-out in 1987 – yes they are thirty years old this year – the others were all built and enjoyed but are no-longer with us. I have to say that I enjoyed every minute of this build and after five previous attempts at building one these things, this is the first time I think I got it right !! – that said a MASSIVE amount of credit must go to Modeldecal, Dick Ward really knew what he was doing back in the day, the decals are around twenty-five years old and behaved flawlessly. Stay tuned more in a min... Ian.

I've attached a link to an interesting story. Ronald Reagan apparently offered Margaret Thatcher the opportunity for the MOD and RAF to be involved in the development of the F-117 for the RAF. I'm getting the whiff of Whiffery!! https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/ronald-reagan-offered-britain-f-117-stealth-aircraft/#comment-367082

This is my contribution to the group build: I shall be building XT601, an HAR 2 that was temporarily based at RAF Coltishall when the Sea Kings were sent off to the Falklands back in 1982/83.

I recently picked up an Airfix 1/48 Jaguar GR3A/ES (Kit 07104) for a great price, as there were no decals. I have to decide which aftermarket decal set(s) to get. I read somewhere that the only Jaguar units to regularly use the recce pod were 2 Sqn & 41 Sqn, is that true? I want to make the kit as either a Gulf War bird that flew recce missions, and as such would have "camera" mission markings on the nose; or make it as one of the Jaguars that I downloaded film from, when I was stationed at Zweibrücken AB Germany (1980-1985). I was a Photo-Sensor Technician in the 26th Tac Recon Wing, and one of our jobs was to download the film from transient NATO recce aircraft (Cross Service Maintenance). A VERY interesting job on the Jaguar, lying on my back on the tarmac, so I could rotate the camera access door and download the film magazine. I am assuming that the Gulf War Jaguar would probably have been a GR3, while the NATO Jaguar in the '80-'85 time frame would probably have been a GR1, is that a correct assumption? Any suggestions as to mission load carried for either option, especially ECM pods and missiles? I see some decal options for the Gulf War jet at Hannants, but can't tell if there is anything for an 80s jet in NATO. I already have a Neomega cockpit set for it, but wonder if I need to get any aftermarket stores to replace the kit parts? I may attempt to scratch-build a ladder for it, based on the posts I have read. I have already seen the different WIPs and downloaded the pics & notes, to print out when I start on my model. Larry, in Florida

Well, I resisted as long as I could but the arrival today of the Xtradecal sheet with markings for a 112 Squadron aircraft with a sharkmouth and desert colours broke my resolve: I've also been waiting for a suitable opportunity to field test Humbrol's excellent new Azure Blue: John