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Finish no6 of the year and probably the last one is Airfix's Hawker Tempest in 1/72, its a nice little kit that has some advantages over the earlier Typhoon but has the same fit issue around the nose area. Been slowly putting together along side the Blenhiem IV that was finished a few months ago and finally completed yesterday. Built straight out of box as an aircraft of N0486 sqn, Royal New Zealand Air Force, Castle Camp, Cambridge, Apr 1944. Painted with the usual Tamiya and Mr Hobby Colour acrylics with some oil paint washes and Florys Dark Dirt clay wash. I ended up painting the leading edge stripes as I couldn't get the decals to sit right and lost some of the smaller underside stencil data.

Hi everyone, Here's my next project; the little 1/72 Airfix Hawker Hurricane Mk.1, with the early fabric wing. I've been collecting a few bits and bobs over the last year or so, with the idea of having a couple of engine and gun panels off, to add a little more interest. The Airfix kit is a nice little kit - not quite up to Arma standards, but still the best game in town for an early fabric winged aircraft. I will state up front that I am very much NOT an expert on these aircraft... so be gentle! I have a plan to perhaps finish this one as a Belgian or Battle of France aircraft (noting I'll need to get a two-bladed prop from somewhere, if I want to do the former). A very small start this afternoon - I started prepping the engine bay for the CMK resin engine set. It's always daunting hacking into the nose of a perfectly good kit...! I did think about extending the removal of the cowlings to the panel in front of the cockpit (to scratch build and show the fuel tank), but the CMK firewall is not quite the correct shape to do this, so I settled with only having the front most three cowling panels off, as per the set. The CMK set looks very nice at face value, with some crisp details on the Merlin engine and the firewall. It did take a bit of hacking and sanding to get the parts off their casting blocks (those engine cowls are wafer thin...!). The biggest problem with this set is that the engine bearers are too short and too shallow, which means they don't follow the line of the chin panel. I scratchbuilt new bearers from strip styrene: I also had to shim the bottom of the engine cowl piece so that the nose was long enough to accommodate the engine but still allow the exhausts to clear the fuselage panels aft of the engine bay. A quick test fit: And a quick test fit in the model: Now, the modified bearers are far from perfect, and not quite 100% accurate, but I think this should work reasonably well to give the appropriate impression. I will need to take care as I do a little more clean up of the plastic opening, and as I add details. I'll also need to take care to make sure everything is square on the finished model. As I said, not too much of a start... but it's a start none the less! Cheers BC

Hi all. My entry will be "Old Faithful", the Humber Super Snipe staff car used by Field Marshal Montgomery during the Western Desert campaign (and then subsequently in Sicily and Italy). The car, number M239459, currently resides in the Imperial War Museum London, resplendent in desert camo paintwork. I'll be using the well known 1/32 scale Airfix kit. The kit actually represents Monty's second Humber, number M239485, which he used during the final stages of the war in Europe. The differences between the two Humbers are small and luckily I was able to visit 'Old Faithful' earlier this year to take some useful close-up photos. So, I've got no excuses! It will be well into September before I start, but that's not so far away . Cheers

This will be my second entry to the GB as my Arma Hurricane is not going very well. Got this from Lidl a couple of months ago for the paltry price of £5.59 with the Lidl app 👍 Looks pretty good, with only a minimal bit of flash. The paint and glue have gone in the bin, but I have kept the brush 😄 George

Hi all 😎 Although completed just before Christmas 2020, as I'm new to BritModeller (and I'm quite pleased with how she turned out), I'd like to present my third completed build since returning to the hobby after a 23 year break: Airfix 1:32nd 1914 Dennis Fire Engine. Built out the box with the exception of a few scratch built extras on the engine block, and a couple of lengths of fine brass chain on the rescue ladder supports. Painted with Tamiya acrylics except flesh tones and wood grain on the ladders are Citadel Miniatures. Weathering/stains using Citadel Miniatures shades and the odd dab of Tamiya weathering powder. As always, comments and suggestions welcome 😊👍 Cheers!

.... and we're off. My wife ( blessed be her name) bought me this for my (hrrmph) birthday. It's taken me nearly two months to get started. (I blame the distractions involved in moving from Brazil to Canada). But now here we go. I've completed page 1 of the 44 page instruction booklet in a day and a half - that means I should be finished sometime around christmas....😮 It'll be the RCAF Ian Keltie City of Winnipeg version. I've previously built the 1/24 Typhoon, which judging from other posts, seems to be a pre-requisite for doing this.!🤣

Seems Airfix are doing a stealth drop rerelease of the rather nice 2011 Seafire XVII. https://uk.airfix.com/products/supermarine-seafire-fxvii-a06102a 3 schemes, EDSG over sky in both High and low demarcation and one in TSS Nice to see this kit back, good schemes and presumably in the new dark plastic.

I started this as a quick and scruffy build while I was deep in two GBs- I thought it would make a nice test article for the aluminium lower surfaces of the F-104G I was building in the Italian Classic theme. In the end I just threw caution to the wind as I wanted to finish the Starfighter, and painted that first- turned out quite well with Vallejo Metal Colour. I only really got as far as shooting the interior colours on the F-80C and painting the pilot, as this photo from a week ago shows. Thinking I’d quickly assemble the fuselage and start a KUTA thread, I soon got a bit fixated on fixing the horrible fit of the intakes, and then the wing roots.. so I had to fill and sand, which lost most of the raised detail. So then I began scribing, then priming, and here we are: Black base next..

Fairey Gannet AS.1/AS.4 (A11007) 1:48 Airfix The Gannet was another great British aircraft that began development while the fires of WWII still burned, and was specifically designed to take advantage of new radar technologies that had been developed during wartime to perform the complete anti-submarine warfare task, taking the role of both the hunter and the killer. Early design work experimented with the use of a single turboprop engine for fuel economy to allow the aircraft a long loiter time, but this was found to be sub-standard, and Rolls-Royce cancelled the engine design to concentrate on more pressing wartime needs. The Armstrong Siddeley Mamba engine was considered as an alternative, and it was decided that two of these engines with a common intake and gearbox would be suitable. Known as the Double or Twin Mamba, that gave the design a wide ‘chin’ and twin exhausts. The engine would power two contra-rotating props that had dual roles, eliminating any torque steer effect on take-off and landing, and giving the crew the option of shutting one engine down to save fuel and extend loiter, as there was enough power in a single engine to keep the aircraft aloft. By 1946 Fairey had been given a contract to produce two prototypes, which first flew toward the end of 1949, and the testing programme ironed out the bugs, which included a crash-landing that damaged one of the prototypes and caused some delays. By 1950 the testing process had progressed to the carrier trials portion, carrying out the world’s first carrier deck landing by a turboprop aircraft. The second prototype was completed later, and had benefited from changes to the design based upon experience with the first airframe, which had now racked up two crash-landings. Other changes to the specification were forced upon them too, including a larger bomb bay, an additional crew seat and canopy, and relocation of the radome, all of which was mirrored on the first prototype to ensure its ongoing usefulness to the testing programme. Successful completion and the increasing likelihood of war in Korea led to an order of 100 AS.1 airframes, reaching service by 1954 after resolving a compressor stall issue that had grounded the first production batch for two months. The AS.4 was created later in the 50s, with better engines and avionics, then to replace the ageing Skyraiders in the AEW role, a fundamental re-design of the fuselage was made to accommodate the large radome centrally mounted under the wings, which was designated AEW.3, and was fitted with a new variant of the Double Mamba, which can be easily differentiated from the earlier marks by the fuselage design and the heavyweight radome underneath. Export customers included Germany, Indonesia, and Australia, where they stayed in service for a long time. In the 1960s the Royal Navy transitioned the ASW role to helicopters, effectively making a proportion of the Gannet fleet redundant, but they were found alternative employment with a few alterations, some performing the Electronic Warfare role, and others converted to mail delivery and communications aircraft, travelling between the carriers and shore establishments. By the late 70s, the British Government had mandated a retirement of the Navy’s last carriers, which it was assured were unnecessary, and the Gannets were retired at around the same time, leaving the fleet with a capability gap just in time to make protecting the “through-deck cruisers” and the rest of the Task Force ships during the Falklands War. The Kit 1:48 modellers have never been well-served with Gannet models, although for years the best choice was the Dynavector vacformed kit, with the Classic Airframes coming second, despite being at least partly injection moulded. Both required more modelling skill than your average injection-moulded kit, and both are long extinct, although I still have one of the Dynavector kits on my shelf as I type this. A few months ago Airfix announced they would be releasing a brand-new tooling of this classic post-war British work horse, which caused a great deal of happiness amongst British and anglophile modellers, promising a modern injection-moulded kit that wouldn’t take arcane incantations or selling one’s soul to a deity of your choice to successfully complete. It has now arrived, and the wait has been worth it. The kit arrives in a large top-opening box that is filled with seven sprues in Airfix’s recent dark grey styrene, plus a single sprue of clear parts, finishing off with a large decal sheet and the instruction booklet, which is printed in colour and has two separate A4 sheets of glossy paper depicting the markings options and stencil locations. If you have seen the newly tooled 1:48 Buccaneer or Sea King, you will know exactly what to expect, which is a ton of detail, clever engineering, and multiple options that give you flexibility of completion of your model without the results looking toy-like. The surface detail is excellent, covering the skin with engraved panel lines and fine rivets, plus deeply recessed detail in the bomb bay, cockpit and landing gear areas, which are the focal points of any aircraft model that carries a pilot. The front page of the instruction booklet carries an emboldened note about nose-weight, as the Gannet was a tail-heavy aircraft in real life, a trait that also extends to the model. You are advised to add 12g to the purpose-made box under the cockpit floor, and a further 55g in the nose area, with a cut-off line shown on the instructions to avoid baulking the prop insert and intake fairings. That’s a lot of weight, so ensure you have plenty to hand, and weigh it accurately beforehand, as once you close the fuselage there will be little opportunity to add more. Remember that if you are planning on installing any aftermarket, the balance may change, and you may have to increase the amount of weight to compensate. Once you’ve finished salivating over the sprues, clean the drool off, then construction can begin with the bomb bay for a change. The main length of the bay is moulded as a single well-detailed part, which is completed by adding the front and rear bulkheads, both of which have a gaggle of stencil decals applied to create some additional visual interest. The nose gear bay roof is fitted to the front, and a large H-shaped twin spar unit is laid over the exterior of the bay roof, adding a support on the aft faceted segment, then gluing the first nose weight box over the front of the bomb bay, inserting 12g of nose weight inside. It’s advisable to glue the nose weight in firmly to prevent rattling, and if you use lead shot, it’s possible some may escape if you invert the model, unless there is space to add a lid to the box using styrene sheet – the instructions seem to imply that there will be, but everything is still on the sprue as I write this, so it’s hard to tell conclusively. The cockpit floor is a long part that covers the length of the existing assembly, overhanging to the rear, and at this early stage only a circular decal is applied to the pilot’s side consoles. The model is flipped onto its back to add the tapered side walls to the nose gear bay, inserting a detailed rear wall flat against the front bomb bay bulkhead to give it some visual impact. Another 180° roll is needed to start adding detail into the cockpit, starting with a three-part assembly that includes decals for the 2nd crewman’s instrument panel, mounting over a raised block on the cockpit floor. The bulkhead behind the pilot is applied to the other side of the separator, with a curved part linking it to the instrument panel, adding another bulkhead with added seat backrest for crewman no.2, followed by the seat base with recessed pan to accommodate the operator’s parachute pack. The pilot’s seat is a single part, and a short control-column is fitted in front of this, creating his instrument panel with gunsight and decals to depict the dials, which is attached to the side consoles in his cockpit. Another bulkhead is built with two equipment boxes on the sides, and a rack with another box and three circular screens that all have decals applied for the rear seat crewman. The third cockpit is separated by a bulkhead that is basically a rack with two large equipment boxes mounted within it, behind which the rear seat is fitted, comprising two parts, so that the crewman can play with his toys to the aft. The fuselage halves are prepared for use by adding cockpit side wall inserts at the front and rear of the compartment, painting the rest of the area in grey, and adding stencil and dial decals to the inserts to add more interest for the intrepid viewer. The starboard fuselage half is then slid into position over the two spars, and at this point the large 55g of nose weight can be added under the cockpit, but taking care not to let it creep forward and baulk completion of the nose. The port fuselage half is slid over the opposite ends of the spars, permitting closure of the fuselage and the hiding of seams in your preferred manner. Once the glue is dry and the seams dealt with, you can choose to depict the rear radome under the fuselage as deployed for operation, or retracted for the rest of the flight envelope, bearing in mind that the extended option can only be used whilst in-flight, as it will cause the model to tip forward when on the ground. To extend the radome, the fairing around it has a flat plate inserted, onto which the radome fixes, whereas the retracted option leaves this off, and the radome too is left until later for both options. The main gear bays are built up inside the lower halves of the wings, and are just one of three rectangular(ish) spacers that set the distance between the upper and lower skins. The innermost spacer has bay wall detail inserts applied all round its inner face, with a small fire extinguisher installed in the starboard bay, and remembering to test-fit the inner bay doors so that they fit easily into their slots, saving anguish later if you find that they don’t fit. Someone has clearly test-built this model, which is good to know. The ailerons are made from upper and lower halves, as are the inner flap sections, the outer flap panel are single parts that have two fairing bumps inserted into recesses, putting them all to one side until near completion of the wings. You have the choice of building the Gannet with its wings folded for storage below decks, or deployed for flight, with different parts included for both options so that there is no fiddling with wing sections to align them in relation to each other and the ground. To build her ready for flight, the full wing halves are prepared by drilling out flashed-over holes in the lower surface for rockets and pylons if you are using them, then gluing the three internal supports into position on their raised brackets, the innermost one being the gear bay with inserts applied earlier. The roof of the bay is detailed with moulded-in ribbing, and should be painted at the same time as the rest of the gear bay, closing the wing halves and installing them over the spars once the glue is fully cured. The ailerons are then inserted into their cut-outs at the ends of the wings, and a clear wingtip insert is slotted in, masking the tip lights off so that they remain clear after painting. Building your Gannet with its wings folded is a necessarily more complex affair that will result in a more impressive model that will take up less space in your cabinet, but will take more care when building and painting, so it’s a two-edged sword. The only way to get around this thorny decision is to buy two, which is a tempting prospect. The fixed inner wing portion is built first, fitting the already assembled bay inserts into the lower inner wing panel, adding the fold mechanism, then applying the upper wing surface, and installing the flaps into their tracks in the retracted position. Both the inner wing sections are then slipped over the twin spars and glued into position. The central section has holes drilled out for rockets if you plan to use them, adding the inner support box and a two-part fold mechanism to the outboard edge, the outer flap panel (retracted again), and a rib is inserted into the inner edge. The wingtip panel is joined around its support box, adding a clear wingtip to the outer end, a landing light in the leading edge, and fitting a rib into the inboard end. They aren’t added to the model at this stage however, instead putting them to one side while you build the rudder from two halves, the two elevators from two halves each, and the flying surfaces, again from two halves. The fins are inserted into slots in the tail, gluing their flying surfaces to the rear, and adding the little finlets into sockets above and below the elevators, taking care to align them with each other. The version with extended wings can be modelled with the flaps deployed for landing and take-off or flush for normal flight. To pose them flush, they are glued into position without further parts needed, while the deployed option adds two actuator arms inserted into notches in their thick leading edges, which have extra plastic moulded into the forward mounting point, which should be removed after painting and before installation, presumably to aid handling during this process. They are glued into position in their tracks, taking care to have everything painted and weathered to your liking before you do. In case you were wondering, the installation of the mid and outer panels for the wings-folded option are left until much later in the build. The nose of this turboprop is a particular curved shape, and the exterior is moulded as a single part, into which you slide a long prop shaft without glue, instead gluing a washer over it, taking care not to flood the area with too much that may seize the prop shaft inside. A pair of conjoined cylindrical inserts are glued behind the intakes that add extra strakes and some depth to the intake, with a scrap diagram showing how it looks from behind. The completed insert is then offered up to the front of the fuselage, which is when you will find whether you left enough space between the nose weight and the fuselage front. If you can’t fit the part as it stands due to the nose weight taking up too much room, my callipers suggest that there is around 2mm of styrene at the base of the trunking part that could be removed if necessary. Sand and check as you go however, or be prepared to paint the front of the nose weight black if you accidentally break through. This short diversion leads us to the landing gear, which can be portrayed retracted or deployed for landing by using certain parts and omitting others. As you’d imagine, the retracted gear option is the easiest, first building up the main wheels from two halves plus two hubs, which will be used for both options. They are attached to their respective retracted legs that creates enough of the structure to pass inspection once the outer bay doors are installed over them. The nose gear bay is a single part that covers the whole bay. To deploy the gear, the outer main bay doors are slotted into the grooves that you test-fitted earlier, then the gear legs are built from three parts and inserted into the bays, plugging into sockets moulded into the roof, ensuring that the scissor-links point aft. The nose gear bay is prepared by installing a retraction base in the roof, then building up the leg from three parts, plugging it into the bay roof, and fitting the retraction jack frame at the ends of the base and to the forward face of the strut, which requires the jack to be slipped over the leg, and must be done before installing both two-part wheels on the axles, adding another part to the axle between the wheels. The bay doors are split into two sections per side, and they open at the centreline, hinging down at slightly different angles, the large doors supported by retraction jacks near their forward edge. I do love a contra-prop, and have a few in my cabinet already. Each prop has four blades moulded into a central boss, which mounts on a plate behind it. The rear prop has a tapered spinner portion fixed to the front, while the front prop has the tip of the spinner glued to it. The rear prop is pushed over the axle without glue, fixing the front prop in position with a little glue on the tip of the axle. If you used too much glue when securing the prop shaft earlier, the front blades won’t be movable once glued in place, so take care. The next choice is to have the bomb bay open or closed. Again, the closed option is simple, requiring one part with an engraved join line moulded into it, sealing the bay detail away forever. If you want to show the detail, first you must choose one of two weapons loads that you will find on the sprues, which comprise the following elements: 2 x Mk.30 passively-homing acoustic torpedoes 6 x Mk.11 250lb depth-charge 5 x Sonobuoy The torpedoes are built from two halves, a two-part fin/prop assembly, plus an annular stabiliser, the depth-charges two halves plus flat nose and fin sections, and the sonobuoys are made from two halves and two flat ends. The torpedoes are fixed into the front of the bay on mounting blocks, the depth charges are fitted to two supports in racks of three, while the sonobuoys are bundled together on two rails in a pack of five. One loadout has the torpedoes plus sonobuoys in the rear, the latter on an adapter plate, while the other load has four depth charges on individual mounting blocks instead of the sonobuoys, fitting bay retraction jacks at the front and rear of the bay on each side, supporting the two double-thickness bay doors in the correct open position. The Gannet can also carry underwing stores on pylons just outboard of the main gear bays, which are made from two halves plus a mounting plate that is contoured to the wing, so take care to mark them with L & R or S & P to prevent confusion later. The individual rockets are carried under the mid panel of the wings, and are fitted on single-part rails that slot into the holes made earlier, installing one three-part rocket to each rail after painting. A scrap diagrams shows that the rails are fitted perpendicular to the wing surface, not the ground. It's now time for some small parts, starting with a short blade antenna on the spine that should have a hole drilled 28mm behind the second cockpit. An alternative requires two holes drilled in the spine, one each side of the centre, which sounds a terrifying prospect until you see the jig that is included. This curved jig has a pair of lumps on the inside, which should marry up with two depressions behind the second cockpit, and the two holes in the rear should allow you to drill two 0.8mm holes accurately to fit the antenna into position. An antenna glues to the fixed portion of the canopy between the front two cockpits, which is next to be glued into place. Most of this will be painted, leaving just two small windows on each side of the part. The windscreen gives you options too, supplying windscreens with and without a moulded-in wiper blade, catering to those that purchase aftermarket sets that include replacement wipers, saving you some time removing the moulded-in blades and polishing the screen back to clarity. That’s pretty thoughtful of them, and an option I’d like to see more frequently. There are a trio of pilots in the hands-on-knees pose if you wanted to fill the cockpits, and they’re all moulded identically with bone dome helmets and oxygen masks, unlike the guy pictured in the instructions, who has a WWII era leather helmet. There are three individual canopies for each crew member, and they can all be posed open or closed, as you prefer. Just when you think it’s safe to put the glue away, you need to flip the model onto its back to install the radome, and hope you built the landing gear option appropriate to your choice of radome position. Radome down – wheels up. Radome up – wheels down. While the model is inverted, the arrestor hook is inserted into the step under the tail, fitting a small T-antenna under the port elevator, a small light under the starboard wingtip, and a pitot under the port wing. Lugs are attached under the wing roots to hold the looped ends of the catapult strop, and the tubular exhausts with angled tips are inserted into their fairings on the fuselage sides, the longer edge closest to the fuselage. You were probably thinking we’d forgotten the folded wing panels, but they’re on the very last page of the instructions, starting by adding long pivots to the fixed inner panels to mount the centre panel, helped by a scrap diagram. The outer panel is attached to the centre panel via a hook-shaped pivot, adding the ailerons to the rear edge, so that the wing forms a Z-shape when viewed from the front. A rod is used to prop the wings when folded, fitting into the inner rib of the centre section, and a hole under the wingtip, as shown by a silhouette drawing in the top corner of the step. The port centre section has the pitot probe inserted, and here I got rather confused, as for the straight winged option, the pitot is under the port wing, and the tiny light under the starboard. The folded option shows the light and pitot under the port wing panels. Markings There are three decal options included in this first boxing, both wearing the well-known Royal Navy scheme of Extra Dark Sea Grey over what Airfix calls Beige Green, or Sky if you prefer. From the box you can build one of the following: Gannet AS.4, 849 Naval Air Sqn. HQ Training Flight, RNAS Culdrose, c.1959 Gannet AS4, 815 Naval Air Sqn., HMS Ark Royal, 1958 Gannet AS.1, 847 Naval Air Sqn., RAF Nicosia, Cyprus, 1957 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion It’s a fine model of a superbly ugly aircraft that was also very cool, and performed a thankless task of vigilance through the deepest period of the Cold War, quite literally. It’s well worth picking up at least one for the collection, maybe more. Very highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

PZL LIM-5 A03092 1:72 Airfix Although outwardly similar to the MiG-15, the MiG-17 was in fact a heavily revised design that drew upon the lessons learned in the development of the USSR's first swept-wing fighter. While the forward fuselage, landing gear and engine were carried across from the MiG-15, the rear fuselage was longer and more tapered. The wing was entirely new as well, being both thinner and more sharply swept. This both raised the maximum speed of the aircraft and aided controllability at transonic speeds. Although it shared its armament with its predecessor, it also gained a radar gun sight, cribbed from a captured F-86. The MiG-17F was fitted with an afterburner, which significantly boosted the rate of climb and meant supersonic speed was just about possible in a shallow dive. The MiG-17 was built in huge numbers, with over 10,000 rolling off Soviet, Chinese and Polish production lines. It was used in combat by several nations, most notably in the Vietnam War where it was credited with 28 aerial victories. The LIM-5 was licence built by the WSK-Mielec factory with 477 being built. These were supplied to Bulgaria, and East Germany, as well as Poland. The Kit This is re-boxing of the MiG-17 from Airfix in 2020. The parts are nicely moulded but the panel lines are on the heavy side, which is always more noticeable on a small kit like this. From reading Airfix's workbench blog it's clear that this is a Lidar-scanned model, so the dimensions and general arrangement of shapes should be spot on. There are three sprues plus a clear sprue in the box. Construction starts with the cockpit, and like most kits of the MiG-15 or -17, the cockpit tub is made up of parts that also form the inner part of the intake fairing. Moulded detail is actually very nice. Not on a part with Eduard's MiG-15, but then the two models are not really comparable in terms of engineering and philosophy. Decals are provided to add extra detail to the instrument panel and sidewalls. I'm not sure what happened to the ejection seat, but Airfix appear to have carried this across from the MiG-15 rather than replicating the seat commonly fitted to the MiG-17. Should this trouble you greatly, aftermarket alternatives are available. Once the cockpit sub-assembly is complete, the engine exhaust and afterburner can be assembled. Because the external faces of the jet exhaust also double up as the insides of the air brake assembly, there are alternative parts with and without moulded detail for this area - a really nice touch from Airfix. Once both of these parts are assembled, the fuselage can be joined. A clear part which represents the radio compass cover must also be fitted at this stage. Once the fuselage halves have been joined, the front-lower part of the fuselage, which includes the muzzle detail for the cannons, can be fitted, along with the engine air intake fairing. The wings are next. If you wish to fit the optional drop tanks, you will need to drill the pre-marked holes in the lower wing surface at this stage. The wings are pretty simple to build, with the wing fences moulded in place. The kink in the wing leading edge is present and correct, but you may wish to re-profile the leading edge if the apparent lack of sharpness troubles you. With the wings in place, the tail planes can be assembled. The landing gear is nicely detailed and there are some nice touches such as detail moulded on the inside of the gear doors. As mentioned above, the air brakes can be fitted in open or closed positions, although you'll need to have committed to one option or the other earlier in the build process. The canopy is nicely made and has the periscope moulded in place. There is even an oil drum included to prevent the model from sitting on its tail if you didn't manage to cram in the necessary 20 grams of weight. Decals Two options are provided on the decal sheet: ⦁ Red 905, Jagdbombenfliegergeschwader 37m East German Air Force, Drewitz Air Base 1986 ⦁ Red 1717, 45th Experimental Air Sqn, Polish Air Force, Modlin 1993 The decals themselves look thin and glossy and a full set of stencils are included. They are produced by Cartograf so you know there will not be any issues. Conclusion This is a nice release of the Original Kit with different decals for the Lim-5. Recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Hi All, My next project will be Airfix' newish (2015) Beaufighter TF.X, finished as LZ407 of 455 Sqn RAAF, which was part of the Dallachy Strike Wing. Now I completed a 1:48 Banff Strike Wing Mossie last year, so this is the next stage of the project! I'm very happy to say that I'll be building alongside the Hairy Stick Wizard himself, @bigbadbadge! We thought we'd have a bit of fun with an informal group build, so anyone who cares to join the banter is more than welcome. @AliGauld has already presented a note as he built a Dallachy Beau last year, @mark.auis busy with his Air Ministry ME262, but anyone else feel free to jump on board! I've built a couple of 1:72 Airfix Beauforts and a Blenheim Mk.IV this year - I was enormously impressed with both kits so am looking forward to what this one has to offer. Here's the box art: Here's the sprues, in Airfix usual 'old' soft pale grey plastic: This is going to be largely OOB, although I have a mask set: Now thus far I have been unable to find photos of LZ407. I do have information on the scheme (Chris has kindly shared with me details of the Avieology decal pack, which I shall not publish here for copyright reasons). However, the scheme states that the airframe was originally delivered to the squadron in 1943, and was certainly sometime equipped as an RP-armed aircraft. Here's some shots of contemporary aircraft from the wing (144 Sqn) (copyright IWM - images for discussion only and will be removed on request): These were heavily weathered airframes, so this should be fun! Specifically of note: - Oversized black squadron & aircraft codes - Overpainted areas of the original 'Sky' code letters - Overpainting of both upper & lower invasion stripes - Specific patched areas of flak damage, along with a replacement tail I'll also need to pay attention to the RP layout, as I believe it was specific to the Dallachy Beaus by this time. This is a bit of a placeholder as I'm still busy with my Typhoon & Hurricane II.c at the moment, but looking forward to kicking this one off with Chris! Thanks for looking, Roger

Complete surprise. They've come up with a Me.410. https://uk.airfix.com/products/messerschmitt-me410a-1-a04066 https://uk.airfix.com/community/blog-and-news/workbench/scale-modelworld-exclusive-new-airfix-messerschmitt-me-410-hornisse-takes-flight

The last 3 months have been nothing short of hectic, but with Telford now done for another year and no builds on the bench, I can build something for myself (kind of)! Airfix's brand new Me-410 is up. Massive thanks to Phoenix Scale Publications for providing this kit for a build review for the mag at some point in the future. I never make things easy for myself though as this kit will be back dated to a standard Me-410A-1, rather than having the /U2 or /U4 modifications as modelled in the kit plastic. It's an easy fix, but I'll provide info on that at a later stage. For now, basic cockpit construction is complete with all base colours down. The only cockpit decals used were the ones for the side panels in the cockpit. Everything else was hand painted after the airbrushing of the base colours. these being Tamiya XF-63 and SMS PL179 RLM02. The decals should arrive soon from Hannants and I'll be doing this awesome scheme as shown in the pictures. Invaluable references from the Valiant Wings Publishing book as well!

Chapter 1 Blame Alistair (and maybe Colin..... but definitely Alistair) Well now, isn't this nice? A nice fresh blank page in a nice fresh topic, ready to build a nice fresh pristine kit. All nice and er........fresh. And new. And as yet unsullied, untouched by the incompetent hand of Quack. What could possibly go wrong? Even I don't know the answer to that - isn't it exciting?? Anyway, cock-ups there will be, cock-ups aplenty - and it'll all be the fault of @AliGauld. Mostly. Why? you ask. Well some of you good people were kind enough to have a look at my Revell 1/48 Tornado.............. ..........and will have noted Alistair's recommendation for building the Canberra PR.9 Well I had a fevered dream visit from Colin, not your one but this one sounded a lot like Andy Secombe. He thinks the Canberra would be a cracking choice. Of course in a purely selfish way I wouldn't be adverse to that one. Asking for a friend you understand. So be it. Canberra it is. And it'll all end in tears as usual just you wait and see, and it'll all be Alistair's fault. So there. Colin, the guardian of Quack Towers dungeon regions (and consequently also Guardian of The Stash), has been kind enough to provide me with the Airfix 1/48 Canberra PR.9 kit. Well, I say he provided me with the kit, but that's because he won't let me into my own dungeons these days. He's been a bit abrasive of late, and I only got the kit by throwing him the dungeon keys at which point he settled into the cellar and polished off my last few cases of the decent Chateau Margaux before dropping the kit into the moat. Hope the decals are ok...... So. Where do we start??? Well we begin with ............the kit I suppose. This one. With a CMK aftermarket cockpit set. 01 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr 03 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr And I'll be doing this one, which is from late in the PR.9's career. I like the scheme and I'll use the kit transfers. 02 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr There have been several astonishingly well researched and well executed PR.9's here on BM, and I've used some of them to glean information about how best to approach the build, and looked through a number of reference photos to try to gain a modicum of accuracy. Some builds are highly accomplished and involve significant surgery to the tailplane mounts - I'll be settling for fairly simple stuff with a view to finishing the build with all of my digits still attached. First list of observations is as follows. (Notes to Self) Fill the atrociously deep lines on the rudder. Fill the access door panel line on the LEFT side of the fwd fuselage, leaving the one on the right 'cos it's meant to be there. Fill the double Doppler (?) panel under the RIGHT wing, leaving intact the one under the left 'cos it's meant to be there too. Plug the antenna mounts on the tail as they are enormous and way too big for the parts to be fitted, then drill a nice new smaller hole. Plug the hole for mounting the ram air scoop low on the LEFT chin as it will need to be repositioned high up close to the cockpit sill. Leave the one on the right side as it seems correct. Fill the slot for the fuel dump vent on the right rear fuselage as it will need repositioned rearward, close to the tail bumper. Plug the holes for the wingtip tanks - not used as far as I can tell. 2 pitot units will need added on the Left fwd fuselage at the end of the build. Modify the openings on the upper surfaces of the forward portions of the engine nacelles. The LEFT side looks broadly correct but the RIGHT side should be identical in layout, not the mirror image moulded by Airfix. These vents (are the starter exhausts??) also need opened up with mesh detail in the bases, rather than the blind pits in the mouldings. May need to drill out circular camera windows on both sides of the nose, low down at the paint demarcation line - these are represented by black transfers by Airfix - not sure if I'll opt for drilling or not....... Open holes for the towel-rail antenna on the LEFT chin next to the nosewheel bay - Left only. There's still a lot of photo research to do to work out the antenna fit for this late-career PR.9. For one thing the large white box near the rear of the spine should be replaced with a small disc GPS antenna. More though needed but for now my brain hurts. Started marking out the bits needing plugged....yes that's what the arrows are for. At the same time, it's important to use the correct cockpit plug for this era of PR.9 which had the radio antenna sited well forward next to the canopy 04 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr Made a small start - plugs of stretched sprue glued in place to fill holes - these will be cut close to the model surface then sanded smooth. The rectangular fuel dump has been blanked at the rear with a view to filling it in layers. I'll probably finish with sprue goo then sand it down to the fuselage contour. 05 by Dr. Quack, on Flickr So - a start has actually been made - glue has been shed though no parts yet stuck together. My builds are usually slow, but I think this'll be a long one. See you at Christmas! Meantime... Keep Calm and Mangle Plastic. Q

My entry to this GB will be Airfix’s Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV. I will be building it in the colours of the a Free French Air Force, North Africa 1941, as depicted on the box art. This has always been one of my favourite box art pictures, both the original Roy Cross artwork of the old tool boxing, originally released in 1968, and the Adam Tooby Boxart, inspired by/update of the original artwork for the new tool released in 2017. Link to original boxart. https://www.scalemates.com/kits/airfix-257-blenheim-mk-1v--157363 Not sure when I will get to start this one as I 6 other GB entries in various stages of construction on the bench at the moment. I need to finish some before starting another build!

Hi all Please may I present the lovely Airfix Beagle Basset. I have been after one of these for ages and kept missing them on Ebay at silly prices, luckily Airfix came to the rescue releasing this in their Vintage Classics range. Thank you Airfix. I really enjoyed this kit, it is OOB apart from the Seatbelts which are folded over Tamiya masking tape cut to size. Brush painted with Humbrol enamels twice as I rubbed down the rivets for ghat smoother look . The Kit decals went on very well indeed. Thanks tk all that have offered support and encouragement along the way. Hope you enjoy the photos And a few on a base with a back drop. Thanks for looking Chris

Inspired by a planned visit to the de Havilland Aircraft Museum later this month (3 Mosquitos, including the prototype!), I started thinking about the lack of a de Havilland Mosquito on my shelf . And after looking at what's currently available in 1/72, and the opinions of my fellow Britmodellers - they all seem to have something wrong with them (the models that is, not the BMs) - I was less than inspired. I really want a fighter rather than a bomber version, the Tamiya FB Mk.VI seems to come out tops, but wasn't quite what I wanted. But what about the Mosquito kit I made back in the 1970s? A rummage in the loft, and this was in the 'Box of Doom'. Painted with matt Humbrol Authentic enamels, so naturally the decals are dropping off. I made it so long ago that I couldn't even remember what make the kit was! I knew it was M.XVIII, armed with a 6 pdr Molins gun, but who made it? Fellow BMs to the rescue, it was Airfix, released in about 1973; And pretty accurate apparently. Can I rejuvenate it? Not tried this before, but others seem pretty successful at it. Most of it appears to be there, though the undercarriage seems to have suffered from a bad landing and the port wing tank has gone AWOL. I'm currently looking for spares. So, ignoring the Dambuster Lancaster that I'm supposed to be building, I set about deconstruction... Which went surprisingly well! The cockpit is quite good, even has an i/p. Mostly there... I'd like to keep it in the same camouflage / marking scheme, inspired by the profile in the excellent Ducimus 'Camouflage & Markings' book; Reduced res copy for personal study purposes. Will remove if I'm breaking the copyright rules Though Richard Leask-Ward appears to have simplified the paint scheme, the real aircraft was a bit more complex; De Havilland Mosquito FB Mk XVIII 'Tsetse' of No. 248 Squadron RAF based at Portreath in Cornwall, 5 August 1944. IWM Photo - Public Domain image The whole of the nose appears to be in a darker (grey primer?) colour, and it looks as if the dark green on the port tailplane/fuselage join has been retouched with MSG. A problem I may have in trying to do this scheme again is the code 'O', red on white? 50 years ago I used Almark Luftwaffe Fighter Code decals which seemed about right. But there was only one example of the squared off 'O' on the sheet, and Almark decals are a bit rare now. I may be able to cobble together something from what's left. Thanks for looking. Suggestions - especially about removing the existing paint - most welcome. Cheers,

McDonnell Douglas Phantom FG.1/FGR.2 (A06019A) 1:72 Airfix The Phantom bears a familial resemblance to the F3H Demon due to the company of origin for the type, which was intended to be akin to a ‘Super Demon’ with a modular nose for different mission profiles, but in typical military procurement style the world over, the specification was changed completely at the last minute, and resulted in a two-engined beast that could carry a substantial war load, a large, effective radar in the bulbous nose, and the workload spread between two crew members to prevent the confusion of an overwhelmed pilot in the heat of battle. The type was adopted by the US Navy as the F-4A, and as the F-4C by the Air Force, with a confusing (to me) allocation of letters throughout its career, with more confusion (again for me) when it came to the British airframes, and don’t even mention the engines and other equipment. Following a period of project cancellations, mergers and the resulting upheaval in the UK aircraft industry, the Royal Navy & Royal Air Force found themselves lacking capability in the 1960s, with a potential design that could fill is quickly enough. The decision was taken to purchase the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom that was already in use by the US. Two variants were designed to meet the needs of the British, creating the F-4K (FG.1) developed for the Navy and the F-4M (FGR.2) for the Air Force. These aircraft were decidedly different from the US variants however, as it was agreed that larger and more powerful Rolls Royce Spey engines would be fitted, and the radars would be built under license by Ferranti, in an effort to create work for the struggling British aviation industry and wider economy. While the F-4J was the basis for the UK models, the aft fuselage was redesigned by BAC (BAe) to accommodate the larger engines. These changes would mean that the unit costs would more than treble over the F-4J, resulting in the most expensive and dirtiest Phantoms in the world – the Speys were prolific smokers. Due to changes within the Navy, 20 aircraft originally allocated for their use were transferred to the RAF, then in 1978 following the retirement of HMS Ark Royal, all of the remaining Naval Phantoms were turned over to the RAF. In 1999 the powers that be decided to retire the Phantom from service a decade early, the drawdown starting just two years later, the last aircraft retiring near the end of 1992 after 25 years of service that included the purchase of a number of straight-forward F-4Js to replace attrition. The Kit This kit was originally released in 2017 as a brand-new Phantom FG.1, and by the addition of new parts, it is now possible to build either the FG.1 or the FGR.2 from the same base sprues, this boxing offering both choices, plus a new set of decals to complete the job. The kit arrives in a top-opening box that has a dramatic piece of box art, and inside are seven sprues in dark grey styrene, plus a separately bagged clear parts sprue, a large decal sheet and the instructions folded around it. The instructions are printed in colour, but the painting and decaling instructions are found on three folded glossy A3 sheets in full colour, one side for each decal option, and one full sheet for the numerous stencils that seem to cover every Phantom. Detail is good throughout as we’ve come to expect from Airfix, with fine engraved panel lines, plus raised and recessed features in all the right places to assist in creating a realistic replica in this scale. Construction begins with choosing whether you’d like to build an in-flight model, one that is ready to be catapulted from the deck of a carrier, a parked aircraft, or an aircraft that is stored in the hangars with wings and radome folded to save space, although you also have the option of displaying the radar as if it is exposed ready for maintenance in the last option. These options except the parked airframe are shown with a small silhouette in the top right, with a total of five including the visible radar and parked options, so take careful note and keep it in mind during the rest of the build. Now we’re ready to liberate parts from the sprues, and as you were probably expecting, it begins with the cockpit, starting with the two ejection seats. These are built up from the seat chassis with separate cushions that have moulded-in belts, plus a separate headbox with moulded-in pull-handles. The inter-cockpit bulkhead is made from two parts plus a pair of decals, and this is inserted into the cockpit tub, which has three instrument decals for the side consoles, plus another for the electronics panel on the starboard side of the rear cockpit. The finished seats are inserted between the consoles, adding a control column in front of the pilot, then installing a coaming in front, which has moulded-in rudder pedals plus four dial decals to detail the segments of the panel. A bulkhead installs on the front of the cockpit tub, then a little surgery may or may not be needed to prepare the fuselage halves, cutting off a length of sprue that supports the space for the intakes, and optionally cutting away the radome for the two folded-up options. Two inserts are fitted into the rear of the fuselage under the fin, which provide sockets at different angles to change the orientation of the elevators later. In the run up to closing the fuselage, the intakes are made up from two halves, the inner half having the splitter plates moulded-in, which mount on either side of the rear cockpit on three pins. The cockpit tub is then inserted into the port fuselage half, and the two halves are closed, adding a spine insert behind the cockpit, leaving the lower rear of the fuselage open at this stage. A pair of intake fans are moulded in a figure-8 and are inserted by peg and slot to the rear of the two intakes, adding a pair of linked exhaust trunks with no seams to deal with further back at the rear of the engine nacelles. The lower fuselage insert has a portion of the lower wing incorporated, and two inserts depict two auxiliary intakes under the belly, which are closed during flight, but are opened for take-off and when parked. An insert includes the covers for these openings and a large portion of the main gear bay walls, pinning into position on the inside surface. You will need to open-up some flashed-over holes in a large boomerang-shaped insert in the lower wing, which is glued into position, then the completed assembly is attached under the fuselage in preparation for the next steps. First however, two inserts are fitted at the intersection between the lower wing and the engine trunks, adding a decal to the inner face of the intake trunk, then covering it by adding the outer trunk surface, a task that is repeated in mirror image on the other trunk. The upper wing inner panel for the in-flight or un-folded option is laid over the lower wing, and the tail fin is plugged into the top of the fuselage by a large hollow tab, gluing the rudder into position at the rear, then adding the stabilisers into their slots at the angle set by the inserts fitted earlier. As most aviation fans know, the Phantom’s outer wing panels have a pronounced dihedral, which is achieved by the tabs moulded into the outer panels, which locate on two circular pegs moulded into the inner wing. The two flying surfaces (flaps/ailerons) fill the gap between the wingtip and the root, adding deactivated slats on slots to the leading edges. You have a choice of deploying the airbrakes under the wing, or cutting off the angled supports to mount them flush with the skin of the wing, repeating all this on the other wing. To fold the wings, different outer wing panels are included, mounting on the wing in the same manner as before, with a different angle moulded-in, adding the flying surfaces and slats, but without the option of open airbrakes. Another pair of optional vents near the ends of the exhaust trunks are included, which are closed for flight and opened for launch/take-off or storage, then a pair of chin intake lips are installed under the nose, a pair of small inserts under the exhaust trunking, then the bulky exhaust petals are fitted to the ends of the trunking to complete the engines. The in-flight option has separate bay door inserts that simplify the process by using one part in each bay that has engraved panel lines moulded-in to depict the individual parts, and completes the task with just three parts that sit flush without any juggling. For wheels down, the main gear legs are single chunky parts that have a retraction jack added, with two captive bay doors attached on tabs, and the inner doors locate in the edges of the bays, hanging downwards. Each wheel is a single part that slides over the axle at the end of the single-sided yoke. For catapult launch, the nose gear leg was extended to give a higher angle-of-attack and lift to the wings, and this is built from two parts with an overlapping joint for strength that is reinforced by a peg and slot within. To model the leg in normal take-off or ground-handling mode, the extended scissor-link is cut away, and mated to a shorter lower section, both options plugging into the same hole in the bay roof, using the same retraction jack and twin wheels, as well as the bay doors at the front and starboard side of the bay. We have a break now for weapons and fuel tanks, fitting either a four-pack of Skyflash missiles, or four practice rounds, all fitting into semi-conformal troughs in the underside. There is also a choice of a small two-part fuel tank or a larger tank with an additional pair of fins at the rear, either one fitting on the centreline station, or without any additional tankage by inserting a strip in the mounting slot. There are also four AIM-9 Sidewinders, four dumb bombs, and four rocket pods, all on dual ejector rails, the Sidewinder rails able to be double-stacked under the bomb or rocket pod rails. A diagram shows which stations they can be mounted on under the aircraft, and the pylons are shown overleaf. The options keep coming, with a deployed or closed refuelling arm, arrestor hook that can be show lowered for trapping-on, or cleaned up for flight. The last common steps have the coaming and HUD inserted into the front of the cockpit, and if you plan on leaving the canopy closed, there is a single-part canopy option. For an open canopy, the windscreen and hoop between the crew are glued in place, then the two openers are fixed at an angle to allow the crew access. The final page is dedicated to the radome, which for some options you will have cut off at outset of the build. The parts that were cut away can be discarded, as there are new parts with ribbing moulded into their interior. One option has the radome and radar folded open for space-saving below deck, using a figure-8 insert that has the dish and support fitted, covering the dish with the radome, which will be dimly seen through the interstices, the other side of the figure-8 plugging into the opening at the front of the fuselage. To portray the radome folded to access the radar equipment, the radar mechanism is built from two well-detailed halves, onto which the dish is slipped in preparation. The radome is glued to another figure-8 that is hollow and has a notch in the top of the other loop of the 8. The assembly is glued to the front of the fuselage, and the radar equipment is inserted into the fuselage, using the notch for orientation, and checking the transparent diagram for additional location information. Markings There are three decal options in this boxing, and each one has a side of A3 devoted to the profiles, with the stencils handled by a separate double-sided page of line drawings to keep things as simple as they can be. There are a LOT of stencils, but you probably knew that going in, and fair play to Airfix for including them all. From the box you can build one of the following: Phantom FGR.2, No.56 Sqn., RAF Wattisham, Suffolk, East Anglia, England, 1991 Phantom FG.1, No.43 (Fighter) Sqn. ‘Fighting Cocks’, Air-Speed record between Land’s End, Cornwall, England to John O’Groats in Northern Scotland, February 24th 1988, flown by Wing Commander John Brady & Flight Lieutenant Michael Pugh-Davis Phantom FG.1, No.892 Naval Air Squadron, HMS Ark Royal/USS Saratoga, 1978 – this aircraft was ‘zapped’ during cross-carrier operation, adding a star to the fuselage roundels and adding ‘Colonial’ in front of Navy Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Note that the printed instructions from Airfix state that Option A was flown by 53 Sqn., but as you will see from some of the posts below this review, that wasn't the case, and it was in fact 56 Sqn. It's very easy to hit the wrong key, so we'll let them off Conclusion The number of options you can choose gives a lot of choices to individualise your model, whilst the detail is right up to modern standards given the limitations of scale. Three interesting decal options should appeal to many, and being able to build both an FG.1 or FGR.2 from the same box is a good thing. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Does the 1/48 Airfix Sea King come with mounts for torpedoes and depth charges? From what I can see it does not come with the weapons themselves but shouldn't the HAS.1 and HAS.5 have the mounts for them?

July 14th / 15th, 1941. No. 7 Squadron at R.A.F. Oakington, Cambridgeshire six crews were briefed to bomb Hannover. Their bomb load was to be 30 x 1,000 lb and 33 x 500 lb H.E. and 42 x 250 lb incendiaries. After take-off they were to rendezvous with the main force of 67 Wellingtons of No.3 Group plus 33 Hampdens and 30 Halifaxes of No.4 Group. Of the six Stirlings only one was able to make it back to Oakington. Hannover was heavily defended, and several aircraft were damaged by flak. Their return journey became a nightmare, storms and strong headwinds causing the aircraft to use more fuel than they had anticipated. The Stirlings could not climb above the weather. An Air Ministry ruling that the Stirling's wing span must not exceed 100 ft (so that they could fit into existing hangars) resulted in the aircraft struggling to exceed 16,000 ft. F/Sgt. B.K. Madgwick was coaxing Stirling Mk 1 N6033 MG-Z along with flak damage, navigation instruments u/s, wireless u/s and the aircraft icing up. Looking for Oakington seemed impossible but, in fact, they had actually flown right over the airfield and were now heading towards Northampton. With the wireless u/s, Oakington were unable to contact them and with fuel gauges reading zero, things were looking serious. The flight engineer, Sgt W.H. Robinson had been juggling the balance cocks trying to make use of the small amounts of fuel that remained in the tanks. The pilot, F/Sgt. Madgwick had trimmed the aircraft to fly "hands off", the early autopilots being unreliable. When the fuel pressure lights started to glow red, he checked as well as he could that they were clear of any towns and gave the order to bale out. Unknown to them they were approximately east of Northampton somewhere near Billing and Moulton. Tragically, when Madgwick baled out, he somehow slipped out of his harness. He may have loosened the straps to become more comfortable when sitting at the controls and omitted to readjust them prior to jumping. He fell to his death, coming down in Kingsthorpe recreation ground. His parachute was found one and a half miles away. While descending, Robinson saw the aircraft bank to the left then straighten up but getting lower all the time. He finally lost sight of it as it merged with the dark background, then a few seconds later came a flash as the aircraft crashed and to his horror, he saw it had come down in the town. Robinson may have recognised Northampton as he did come from the area. It is possible that the port outer engine cut because of fuel starvation. That would cause the port wing to drop slightly causing a yaw to the left and if the starboard engine cut out seconds later that would straighten it up but on only two engines would be losing height rapidly. The Stirling came in over St. James' End, in line with Gold Street, losing height until it hit Burtons tailors and the Grand Hotel on the opposite side of the road. The port wing demolished some buildings in College Street, behind Burtons, which now houses a fish and chip shop. The rest of the aircraft, or what was left of it, finally came to rest alongside All Saints' Church in Mercer's Row. Amongst the wreckage lay two unexploded 500 lb. bombs These may not have dropped for two reasons, either a mechanical fault in the bomb release gear or, the release gear was iced up. The two bombs were removed by an R.A.F. bomb disposal team. Sgt. W.H. Robinson came down in Abington Park and was picked up by a police car, they wanted to take him to hospital, but Robinson assured them that he was O.K. and requested the police take him to the crash site. He was very worried about the damage they might have caused. Upon arriving at the crash scene, he was shocked to see bodies strewn around Gold Street but, thankfully, they turned out to be tailors' dummies from Burtons. In fact, apart from the pilot there was only one person injured. Ernest Gross was a master carpenter and a volunteer fire watcher had been on duty that night fire watching from the roof of Cleaver's building in Wood St (now demolished as part of Grosvenor Centre site). He was cycling home along George Row when he saw the Stirling coming towards him up Gold Street. He tried to get to Bridge Street but was hit before he could get there. He suffered a broken leg and fractured skull and was off work for 6 months. It was fortunate that the crash happened at 0415 when there was hardly anyone about. It is recorded in No.7 Squadron O.R.B. (Operational Record Book) that the Chief Constable of Northampton, John Williamson, phoned Oakington saying "I can't have this!"

This is a complicated one, so bear with me. Some time ago, I was browsing on the DK Decals site and came across a profile for a Wellington in three-colour desert camouflage, so I started this thread to find out if it was legit. While I did eventually find a photograph to prove it was, in the process I unearthed a photo of another Wellington, also in the three-colour camo, but a rather more interesting looking aircraft. While I have also got a photo of this aircraft pre-crash, it’s copyrighted so I can’t post it here. What I can do is link to the post-crash photo here, which was originally posted in this thread, and apparently is from Airfix Magazine Annual No 6. I realise that photo doesn’t show a lot, but the pre-crash photo did, and you can read a lot of the discussion on that photo in my thread I linked at the start of this one. What I can say is this aircraft is a Ic and coded “R”, sadly without a unit or serial, so I’ll leave the serial off unless more info comes to light. The lack of guns also indicates it’s being used as a transport rather than a bomber. It also wears C1 roundels. Colours are always hard to deduce from b&w photos, but we have a few clues (plus my own assumptions): Firstly, standard camouflage for transports in the desert was TSS over azure, so it’s a reasonable assumption to say that’s the likely start of the scheme. Secondly, from the way the blue of the roundel shows up (or rather doesn’t), it indicates a type of film that’s less sensitive to blue. If we assume TSS over Azure (which I am), that ties in well. The lower colour is very light in the photos, indicating a lack of blue sensitivity in the film, which also suggests the lightest camo colour is Extra Dark Sea Grey. Thirdly, assuming a field applied scheme, it’s reasonable to assume the third colour is either Middle Stone or Dark Earth. This third colour shows up lighter than the Dark Slate Grey of the TSS scheme, which would suggest it’s more likely Middle Stone. Finally, when looking at the pattern of light/dark/medium of the camo (admittedly far easier on the pre-crash photo), we can work out that this is a standard Wellington camouflage pattern with every other area of Extra Dark Sea Grey overpainted with Middle Stone. Phew! This is where I have to extend my thanks and gratitude to a number of people far more versed in decoding b&w photos and in the standards of schemes used in theatre than I am. Those people are (in no particular order) @Graham Boak @Ed Russell and @KRK4m. Without the input of you guys I wouldn’t have been able to get to this point with my detective work, so thank you all very much! To build this wonderfully odd aircraft, I’ve got the recent Airfix kit. While I’ve got the GR Mk VIII boxing, all of the parts to build the Ic are in there: All of the sprues are still bagged: To assist, I’ve got Montex canopy masks, Aires wheels, and the DK Decals set I found the original aircraft in, but also conveniently has the right decals for this one: If you've made it this far, bravo for sticking with me! I’m a bit snowed under with group builds at the moment, but I’m determined to get this one built this year. Even better if I manage it by Telford. Expect a start at some point either after I’ve cleared the decks of some of the current projects, or when I get impatient. TL/DR – I’m doing a Wellington Ic transport in TSS + Middle Stone over Azure 🤣 James

Almost exactly ten years ago I was given this kit by a generous guy on the Airfix Tribute Forum. Initially, I intended to convert this one to a glider tug. I had built three of these when it was the only IM kit on the block. The first was in my youth and has long gone. The second was built well over 20 years ago with undercarriage down. Not a very good pic, but the only one I have of it. The third one was prior to 2006 and I did that one in flight having found an interesting set of decals for it. So I have previous form with No. 7 Squadron Stirlings. Having acquired this kit, Italeri brought out their Stirling and I thought that might be easier to convert to a tug, (I also got hold of another Airfix one). So the subject for this one changed. If one walks up Gold Street in Northampton towards All Saints' Church, it appears like any other main street around the town centre. There is nothing to make you suddenly stop and ask yourself "What is that and how did it happen?". If you look up at the window sills and the brickwork of the Grand Hotel, you may notice slight damage and chipping. It was caused by a Short Stirling Mk 1 bomber aircraft of the Royal Air Force. July 14th / 15th, 1941. No. 7 Squadron at R.A.F. Oakington, Cambs. Six crews were briefed to bomb Hannover. Their bomb load was to be 30 x 1,000 lb and 33 x 500 lb H.E. and 42 x 250 lb incendiaries. After take-off they were to rendezvous with the main force of 67 Wellingtons of No.3 Group plus 33 Hampdens and 30 Halifaxes of No.4 Group. Of the six Stirlings only one was able to make it back to Oakington. Hannover was heavily defended, and several aircraft were damaged by flak. Their return journey became a nightmare, storms and strong headwinds causing the aircraft to use more fuel than they had anticipated. The Stirlings could not climb above the weather. An Air Ministry ruling that the Stirling's wing span must not exceed 100 ft (so that they could fit into existing hangars) resulted in the aircraft struggling to exceed 16,000 ft. Stirling N6022 MG-D flown by F/O D.T. Witt DFM had two engines shot out, with the third engine misfiring, was planning to ditch in the sea but managed to make the coast just SSE of Norwich. F/O Witt gave the order to bale out. The aircraft crashed at 0340 hrs. at Shotesham Park, Newton Flotman, south east of Norwich. The flight engineer Sgt. J.T. Prentice broke his back but made a good recovery and was later commissioned, rising to the rank of Wing Commander. P/O Keith Deyell DFM broke his ankle but recovered and completed a tour of ops. with No. 38 Squadron. F/Lt. D.A.J. Sanders in N6036, short of fuel, landed at Bircham Newton but overshot and ran through the hedge, fortunately without injury and too much damage. Sqn/Ldr. Speare, also low on fuel, landed safely at Waterbeach. F/O K.O. Blunden landed at Honington although the tailwheel doors were ripped off. Meanwhile, F/Sgt. B.K. Madgwick was coaxing Stirling Mk 1 N6033 MG-Z along with flak damage, navigation instruments u/s, wireless u/s and the aircraft icing up. Looking for Oakington seemed impossible but, in fact, they had actually flown right over the airfield and were now heading towards Northampton. With the wireless u/s, Oakington were unable to contact them and with fuel gauges reading zero, things were looking serious. The flight engineer, Sgt W.H. Robinson had been juggling the balance cocks trying to make use of the small amounts of fuel that remained in the tanks. The pilot, F/Sgt. Madgwick had trimmed the aircraft to fly "hands off", the early autopilots being unreliable. When the fuel pressure lights started to glow red, he checked as well as he could that they were clear of any towns and gave the order to bale out. Unknown to them they were approximately east of Northampton somewhere near Billing and Moulton. Tragically, when Madgwick baled out, he somehow slipped out of his harness. He may have loosened the straps to become more comfortable when sitting at the controls and omitted to readjust them prior to jumping. He fell to his death, coming down in Kingsthorpe recreation ground. His parachute was found one and a half miles away. While descending, Robinson saw the aircraft bank to the left then straighten up but getting lower all the time. He finally lost sight of it as it merged with the dark background, then a few seconds later came a flash as the aircraft crashed and to his horror, he saw it had come down in the town. Robinson may have recognised Northampton as he did come from the area. It is possible that the port outer engine cut because of fuel starvation. That would cause the port wing to drop slightly causing a yaw to the left and if the starboard engine cut out seconds later that would straighten it up but on only two engines would be losing height rapidly. The Stirling came in over St. James' End, in line with Gold Street, losing height until it hit Burtons tailors and the Grand Hotel on the opposite side of the road. The port wing demolished some buildings in College Street, behind Burtons, which now houses a fish and chip shop. The rest of the aircraft, or what was left of it, finally came to rest alongside All Saints' Church in Mercer's Row. Amongst the wreckage lay two unexploded 500 lb. bombs These may not have dropped for two reasons, either a mechanical fault in the bomb release gear or, the release gear was iced up. The two bombs were removed by an R.A.F. bomb disposal team. A photo of this appears on page 95 of "Aviation in Northamptonshire" by Michael L. Gibson. Sgt. W.H. Robinson came down in Abington Park and was picked up by a police car, they wanted to take him to hospital, but Robinson assured them that he was O.K. and requested the police take him to the crash site. He was very worried about the damage they might have caused. Upon arriving at the crash scene, he was shocked to see bodies strewn around Gold Street but, thankfully, they turned out to be tailors' dummies from Burtons. In fact, apart from the pilot there was only one person injured. Ernest Gross was a master carpenter and a volunteer fire watcher had been on duty that night fire watching from the roof of Cleaver's building in Wood St (now demolished as part of Grosvenor Centre site). He was cycling home along George Row when he saw the Stirling coming towards him up Gold Street. He tried to get to Bridge Street but was hit before he could get there. He suffered a broken leg and fractured skull and was off work for 6 months. It was fortunate that the crash happened at 0415 when there was hardly anyone about. It is recorded in No.7 Squadron O.R.B. (Operational Record Book) that the Chief Constable of Northampton, John Williamson, phoned Oakington saying "I can't have this!" I was telling my father about this build yesterday. He was 8 at the time and living not far from Gold Street. He told me that he saw the aftermath. This kit had been started. and I do not know whether it is complete, but the build process will reveal all. I intend to build this, wheels up, in flight, without crew, as it was shortly before 0415 on July 15, 1941. The first missing parts are the seats for the pilot and c-pilot. I remembered having spare seats from a previous B-17 build. They would do as replacements. I had a rummage through my spares and found other parts that came from the Stirling. I don’t know whether I’ll need them, but they can go into the build box for the time being.

Started another Airfix small kit 1/72 A-4B or Q Trial build shows that the fitting of fuselage is not bad. Only option part is the resin ejection seat. Applied a mixture of german grey + Gaia 072 on cockpit area, GSI c156 on the inner wall / structure of air intake and nose wheel well, Modo MX-02 on the inner surface of exhaust, and Modo T-024 on the fans. The resin seat has been filed to fit the height of the cockpit and not exceeding the height of the wall behind the seat. Will have to test fit with the canopy in close position after fuselage combined. For time being, applied german grey as back color and Gaia 072 as highlight. Applied decals on cockpit. Installed both air intake before fuselage combined, and installed the exhaust and air intake inner structure on to the left side of fuselage. Control stick is hand brush with grey, black and white. Installed it into position and ensure it will not block the ejection seat installation in future. Installed some weight (about 5-6g) inside the nose as this kit sure will sit on its tail otherwise. The main landing gear wells have some details while the nose gear well is relatively "empty", added some 0.2mm wire inside. It is time to close the fuselage and the drop tank. Putty and sanding time. Adding the rest of wings and fuselage parts to make it look like a A-4 Overall the seams are manageable. The wings are almost perfectly fitted without filler, however, there is a gap in front of and after cockpit, and another one in front of nose gear well and around the gun holders on both wing roots. Applied some green stuff putty and clean the excessive putty with cotton stick with water. Wait for next steps.

As part of my Spitfires-by-the-Seas project I will join this GB to build a Spitfire F Mk 22. I will use the Airfix kit. And TigerHead decals have my Syrian markings. In terms of desert camo, I'll be using the photo below as inspiration for a scheme that I believe is something like Dark Earth/Middle Stone over Azure Blue. Eduard did a profile which I think is likely a good representation of what I want to do:

So I think I've settled on the idea of an abandoned scrapyard, heavily inspired by this video: Incidentally, this channel has some cracking barn find videos if you've been thinking about going down that direction. Picking a kit wasn't easy, but I'm going with this: Recently liberated from my parents' house, I started it way back in the 90s: The plan will be a little vignette of it rotting away (MGs are prone to that, right?) being consumed by weeds, hopefully with a figure of a YouTuber/urban explorer documenting some new content. The undergrowth will be new territory for me, so I've got this for some pointers: The other problem will be resisting the urge to add more cars to the scene. Don't tell Mr Magnificent, but I've got the Airfix Aston DB5 too and I've found an Ebay seller that makes 3D prints of 1/32 body shells of (mostly) terrible British cars - Allegro, Princess, Minor etc The soundtrack to this build will be: Famously released as an album, a film and a lawsuit. Let's rot!