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When all is up in the air, concentrate on something familiar and re-assuring - like a Sea Hawk model! This is the 1/72 Hobby Boss kit, with Modeldecal transfers to correct some anomalies in the kit markings. At least I hope they "correct" ! What a marvelous little kit this is, even allowing for the age of the Airfix one that I am more familiar with. Its only real issue is the intake vane arrangement, which is too prominent. I did cut this one's vanes back, but clearly not far enough. I have 3 more in the stash to build and looking forward to them. And the collection grows: Stay safe everyone..... FredT

Hobby Boss Sea Hawk straight from the box except for painted Suez stripes as the kit decals didn't fit. Thanks for looking. Steve

Hi all, Here's my latest finished aircraft: Hasegawa's 1/48 Vought F4U-7 Corsair. The decals are by Sky Models and the paint is all Mr Color. The wheels are CMK, the blade aerial is plastic card, and the T-shaped aerial is from Quickboost. More details at https://jonbryon.com/hasegawa-1-48-vought-f4u-7-corsair/.

Hi folks, this is another quick addition to my IAF collection, the old 'n' good Hasegawa kit built OOB except CMK resin wheels and an ordnance taken from my spares box. The decals for 105.sq. machine from Operation 'Kadesh' comes from DP Casper sheet. Cheers Libor

Airframe Extra No.7 The Suez Crisis Valiant Wings Publishing Continuing with their series of Airframe Extra Books, the latest title Number 7 deals with the first major Post War Conflict to involve the European Powers. It has since been seen by history as the start of then end for the empires. This book is 74 pages in an A4 softcover format. Following the other books of the series it breaks down to sections on History, 47 profiles of aircraft from The RAF, FAA France & Israel; and 7 models of aircraft from the period. The colour artwork features many aircraft taking part; The seven models features in this volume are; Xtrakit 1/72 Meteor F.8. Hobbyboss 1/72 Sea Hawk Mk.6. KP 1/72 Piper J-3 Cub. Tan Model 1/48 RF-84F Thunderflash. Trumpeter 1/72 IL-28 Beagle. Hasegawa P-51D Mustang. Classic Airframes Meteor NF11/13. Conclusion This is a great seventh book in the series from Valiant Wings. The combination of history and modelling is a great idea. Highly Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Redux 1/48 Republic F-84F Thunderstreak (RDXENS-1) built as 29029/1-NX from EC.1/1 ‘Corse’ Armee De L’Air masquerading as 200 Tayeset of the Israeli Air Force at Lod in late October/early November 1956 The model was built for a magazine article last autumn but due to an unfortunate shelving collapse this model and most of my work for the past year or so took its first flight earlier this week and so looks even worse now than it does in the images which include a couple on a mirrored base I was experimenting with. The kit parts are those produced originally by Monogram and more recently by Revell for the 1/48 F-84F Thunderstreak but without the Nuclear Bomb and RATO bottles that feature in some of their many releases over the years. REDUX had planned two different releases each with a single set of parts and different Hi-Decal decal sheet as well as masks for the cockpit canopy, French squadron tail stripes and ‘Suez stripes’. One version would also have included a French/English book on the F/RF-84F however for commercial reasons all of the existing components were brought together in a clear plastic box offering two sets of kits parts, both decal sheets, two sets of masks and the book. The package first appeared on the market about ten years ago and when I bought mine a couple of years later it was definitely cheaper then than two of the standard Revell releases even before the extras were taken into account. The Hi-Decal markings are excellent, thin, in register, apply easily and bed down well. Included on one of the sheets was my choice as shown here of an Armée de l’Air F-84F from EC.1/1 ‘Corse’ in standard squadron markings and codes but wearing Israeli markings in place of French roundels and having the Tricolore on the fin blanked out. This arose from the Anglo-French-Israeli planning behind the Suez affair and was intended to bolster Israeli air defences under the fiction that the aircraft were operated by the non-existent 200 Tayeset of the Israeli Air Force based at Lod for a brief period in late October/early November 1956 from just prior to Israel’s pre-emptive strike against Egypt until the Anglo-French ‘peace-keeping’ intervention a few days later. The aircraft were flown by their usual French pilots albeit as ‘civilians’ and Israeli markings were applied before aircraft engines had shut down upon first landing in Israel, standard AdlA roundels were re-applied once the ‘official’ Anglo-French involvement began a few days later. As can be expected the Monogram/Revell parts fit together well and have good cockpit detail however the kit provides the later deeper ventral brake parachute fairing which needs to be replaced with the shallower early fairing which I sanded from a piece of ‘U’ shaped sprue. Like many kits originating with Monogram it does have raised panel detail which you either live with or build something else. The model was brush painted using various as sold and mixed Games Workshop metallics with varying final lustres on panels achieved from different mixes of Klear and Tamiya Flat Base. Learning from many mistakes along the way with my first use of aftermarket masks the REDUX provided ones for the fuselage squadron stripes as well as wing and fuselage ‘Suez’ stripes were a big help. No stenciling is provided, the original plan being to commission a dry-transfer sheet from a far-east producer but the project foundered before this was achieved, so I used some from a Carpena/Colorado set.

A most suitable theme for this Halloween night, with the fog-filled streets around my house filled with ghouls, ghosts, goblins etc etc. This months output from the Gengriz workshops consists of two twin boomers, a spooky Frog Sea Venom of 892 Sqn marking the 60th anniversary of the Suez landings, and a ghostly Heller Vampire from the same era, but farther north with 603 Sqn RAuxAF at Turnhouse/Edinburgh Airport. Both are models I have built before in different guises. The Sea Venom is a Ukrainian re-pop of the old FROG kit, which translates roughly as Flash-fest, with Modelart markings, whilst the Heller Vampire is a very nice little model and carries some old Modeldecal markings - the chance to compare it with my recent FROG Sea Vampire conversion leaves me in no doubt that this one is the better of the two! FredT

Hi! Anniversary of Operation Musketeer/Mousquetaire/Kadesh/Suez war is approaching and I have been thinking about building one of more colourful aircraft taking part for a start. French F-84Fs and RF-84Fs, with various stripes and squadron badges, fit this description nicely. From gathered material I figured out about the identification stripes (single yellow stripe with black outline until the end of October, yellow-black stripes from 1st November on) and from available articles and books I learned about not so uniformed reality of improvised use of yellow paint on Cyprus, planes wearing both types of stripes and white, dark gray and possibly even blue stripes. Still, what bothers me the most are supposed Israeli markings on French fighter-bombers and reconnaissance planes, based in Israel. Israeli markings had been mentioned in several publications and there are plenty of colour profiles of both Thunderstreaks and Thunderflashes with stars of David, but I have not seen a single photo of the actual aircraft with such markings. In fact, all the photos of French planes in Israel bases show them marked with standard French cocarde. Any thoughts? Cheers Jure

There's a topic in another section concerning limited use of Meteor before the VE-day, so - instead of asking there - I'd rather go for a new topic here, as my question concerns limited combat use of RAF Meteor during the Cold War period. As all we know Meteor and Vampire were not only two first British jet fighters, but also two most numerous ones in whole history with Hunter and Venom (a Vampire half-brother BTW) far behind and all others still more exotic. Both (i.e. Meteor and Vampire) were widely exported and their final users didn't hesitate to use them in combat ranging from minor skirmishes up to the serious conflicts like Korea or Israeli-Arabian wars. AFAIK the RAF also used Vampires in combat against Malayan and Kenyan guerillas (No 45, 60 and 8 Sq.) and flown them operationally in other "hot" areas like Cyprus and Oman. So why wasn't Meteor F.8 combat-tested by RAF, while the contemporary FR.9 made combat sorties over Suez in 1956 and ex-RAF F.8s fought with RAAF No. 77 Sq. in Korea ? Cheers Michael

Greetings folks, Long time no post and after 18 months, finally a completed model. My fourth instalment in my Suez/Operation Musketeer series. This is the 1/72 PJ Productions Hawker Hunter F.5, a relatively simply full resin kit, with a small photo etch sheet, white metal landing gear and two vac-form canopies. This is my first resin kit and goes together well, the solid wings simply butt-joint to the fuselage. The instructions said to leave off the link collectors, though some artworks on the web seem to indicate they should be present. 'Tis done now. Paints are my usual Halfords Plastic Primer and Xtracrylix Dark Grey and Dark Green with pre and post-shading. Camo was airbrushed free-hand and is not too sharp on reflection. Decals are thin, somewhat translucent and prone to breaking; the roundels got replaced with some from my trusty Xtradecal roundel sheet. After this, it gets a whole lot more serious, to complete the Operation Musketeer series I plan to build a 1/72 CMR Venom FB.4 and an 1/72 Airfix Canberra/Aeroclub B.6 conversion. On present estimates, call back in 2017... On with the photos. Darren

I've finally finished this one after leaving it almost finished for the last half a year... got a bit burnt out with stripey winged aircraft. It's the last of a group of four 1956 HMS Eagle aircraft I've been working on for a while now. The Wyvern looks like it's in the wrong scale next to the Sea Venom and Sea Hawk though, it almost makes that lump of a Skyraider look dainty! It's the Trumpeter kit... I thought it was ok, but a bit boring to make. The rivet detail isn't so bad under paint, but the rest of the detail is quite clunky and toy like in places. I much preferred their Sea Hawk. I also used the CMK wingfolds and wheels- the kit really needs the detail these provide, and they fit great. The other aircraft are the Aeroclub Sea Venom, Trumpeter Sea Hawk, and a mix of Tamiya and ESCI Skyraider

Just finished this today, first completed build of the year. Italeri 1/72 F4U-7 in French Navy markings from the Suez Crisis. Pretty much built OOB, added brass tube gun barrels as the kit ones were a bit soft, tape belts, nitinol radio wires and made the navigation lights out of clear sprue, a first for me and they came out alright. Painted the stripes and the tricolour on the tail even though they are supplied as decals. The kit decals aren't great and if I made another I would replace them. They are a bit translucent and take forever to loosen from the backing paper. The fit of the rockets is a little clubby, not sure if the fins are too long or the stubs need spacing out more. Other than that the kit goes together very nicely and I'm tempted to get another one and do it as a very tatty French bird from Algeria or maybe an Argentine Navy one. Cheers Segan