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Having built the 72 scale one last year, when the 48 version was released, it was a no brainer to get one! It is typical short run quality in respect that there are no location pins and plenty of dry fitting and fettling is needed, but the detail is very nice and includes resin exhausts and ejection seats. To overcome the lack of location pins, I added some plasticard on both halves to act as tabs making assembly easier and the joins stronger... The intake assembly is complete. This was quite fiddly as you have to ensure that when everything goes together, it all aligns centrally or else it's going to look a little drunk on completion! The cockpit rear bulkhead has been busied up a bit using brass rod although not much will be seen once the bang seats are in place. As people have mentioned before, the wing to fuselage profile doesn't quite align near the front of the wing, so some fettling has been done to improve the joins. TonyOT also gave me some advice to reinforce the fuselage between the wings to enable pressure to be applied when fitting the wings, so I'll use some large diameter plastic rod to beef the interior up. Quite enjoying working in the larger scale, the old eyes are particularly pleased with the decision!!! Cheers Neil

As I'm getting near to the finishing post on my two current builds, I thought I'd start another. In both of my Sword Seafire III boxings, there are spare wings and fuseleage which means that, with some additions from the spares box, a Vc can be made. Here are the Sword bits: and the spares: Clockwise from top right: 'early' tailplanes from an AZ MkIX; interior bits from a Sword XIV (I realised, after taking the photograph, that they're for a low-back and have been replaced with parts from an AZ MkVb); wide cannon bulges from an AZ MkIX; resin cannon from a Sword MkVc; above them are an Airfix MkV oil cooler and an AZ radiator; wheels are from an AZ MkVb and; undercarriage bits from a Sword MkXIV. Missing is the canopy, which I forgot to photograph, which is from either an AZ Vb or a Sword Vc (I'm not sure which). I just need to work-out what exhausts to use, I'm thinking MkV ones would be appropriate. I'm using decals from the Hannants sheet X72228, 'Fighters over Africa and the Mediterranean Part 1'. The schemes were researched by our very own Tony O'Toole. This one caught my eye: It'll make a nice change from my recent diet of Middle Stone/ Dark Earth over Azure Blue. Thanks for looking.

Although I have three currently have three Spitfires on the go in this GB, I thought I'd do something different... a Sword Kittyhawk. I already have one of these twin-packs in the stash but bought another as my track record with Sword kits isn't great (I suppose I make too many mainstream kits and am not a careful enough modeller for short-run). Here's the obilagtory box-top pic: And the options: As I have four kits, I don't need to decide which one to make until I get to the painting stage (in fact, until I get to paint the dark earth!). Here's the sprue: Oddly, for a short-run kit, the fuselage has location pins... An out-of-focus photograph of the clear parts: The decals: Not only do I not have a lot of sucess with Sword kits, I also have little sucess with Techmod decals. The lower wing had some ejector marks that needed removing. I've done the port wing (as if you couldn't guess). Wheelwells assembled and painted: The wheelwell bits are one of the reasons why I have 'trouble' with Sword kits, they usually make assembling the wings tricky, not in this case though. Some interior bits have been painted: I used a 50/50 mix of Humbrol 81 & 120 for the green as suggested by Nick Hillman in this thread: The thread is about Tomahawks but by casual research suggests that Kittyhawks had the same or similar colour interior. A close-up of the seat and instrument panel, to demostrate that I shouldn't show close-ups of my painting. I'm sure I took a photograph of the cockpit sides but can't find it, so I'll post it next time. Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Beard

As a change from things with propellers on and 72 scale, I've just completed this in 48. It's been an enjoyable build (HERE) which apart from a bit of extra plumbing in the cockpit and some additional surface riveting, it's OOB including the decals. Painted mainly with Citadel Chainmail silver and Tamiya rubber black for the anti-glare areas. XS452 entered service in 1965 in the scheme it is modelled in here. It's career followed on with 11, 111 & 56Sqn before ending the first chapter in its life doing fast taxi runs having been delivered to and restored at Cranfield. 452 lived a charmed life compared to many as it was then purchased by Mike Beacheyhead and flown in Capetown with several other classic jets along side its sister XS451 which was tragically lost in 2009 resulting in the grounding of the fleet. XS452 took to the air again in 2014, although from what I can gather is currently up for sale again. Thanks for looking, Neil

Hi all, Seeking a bit of advice from anyone who knows. I want to build an F-80 in 1/72 and the choice that I have is either the Airfix kit or to bodge an Airfix nose on to a Sword RF-80. Having matched the two up their are very clear differences, apart from the obvious (RF- nose ). Any ideas which is best to go for? I am tempted to think the Airfix is better but I'd bow to the collective knowledge out there. Thanks. Martin

Greetings. This is my first RFI post and my first completed model in about seven years. It’s the Sword F9F-8T/TF-9J Cougar. The Cougar (along with the S-2 and F-111B) holds a special place for me. My father worked on these aircraft at the Grumman Bethpage facility as an electrical assembler and installing wiring harnesses. Unfortunately, when the F-111B program was cancelled, so ended my father’s employment with Grumman. Since I pretty much limit myself to /72 scale, I was rather excited when Sword announced the “Twogar”. In the box, the kit looks very good, but it doesn’t take long for the some of the short-run “features” to pop up – maybe that’s why I haven’t seen any of these built up yet. It looks like a two-seat Cougar and the shape looks good to my eye, but the detail is very soft. The panel lines are complete, but too soft to do my usual pin-wash. I ‘m not ready to re-scribe and entire model yet, and maybe a white finish should just have fine penciling to accent the lines anyway. The series of “fish gill” vents along the lower front fuselage are perceptible as a series of small bumps, not all of the center fuselage vents were open on my example. I elected to drill out the airbrake holes (don’t look to closely at the alignment) and the cannon troughs. The axle holes in the wheels are just dents, but that matches the very short axles on the main gear legs, the wheels ending up in full contact with the brake stacks. The result is a toe-in of the main wheels. The tail bumper wheel, which is typically extended with the gear, is represented as a lump just below the exhaust. I found late in the build that the left main gear leg extended further than the right from the wing. Both legs looked to be the same length, so this may have been an error in my assembly of the gear bays. I had already removed the locating pins on the gear legs as the didn’t seem to have any place to go in the wells, but ended up removing some of the gear leg to get things to look level. I also found that the nose wheel fork was not deep enough to grip the nose wheel at the axle line. I filed some of the inner fork away, but was concerned about breaking the fork. So it is now only just deep enough to take the wheel and looks more like a one-piece nose gear reminiscent of 1960s kits. The cockpit is painted ModelMaster Dark Gull Grey with details picked out with Prismacolor pencils. The kit provided resin seats have surgical paper tape seatbelts and wire overhead ejection handles added. Not taking any chances, the nose is filled with lead shot encased in Epoxy Sculpt External colors are Floquil Reefer White and Testors gloss red (the little square bottle). The standard markings are from the kit decals. They are printed by Techmod and are very thin and fragile. Many of the two dozen or so stencils had a tendency to wrap around my tweezers or fold upon themselves, making it difficult or impossible to get them onto the model. The unit specific markings are computer generated with a laser printer. It wasn’t until I started applying the decals that I realised that I had scaled the aft fuselage MARINES AIR FMF PAC legend too large and had to reprint tem about 30 percent smaller. Maybe this wasn’t the best choice to get my modelling legs back under me, but I have two more of these kits, so maybe I’ll take on more of the detail deficiencies in future builds, particularly the landing gear and the tail bumper. Thanks for looking. Sven Old Viper Tester

Over in this topic we started chatting about accuracy/dimensions of kits, in 1/72 scale, and that prompted me to break out my caliper and do some measuring. I was asked to start a new thread with just the measurements, and here it is. Hopefully others can add for the other kits out there. I find it useful to know which kits are just a bit off (I've yet to find one that is perfect) and in which dimension (chord, span, length, height). Error is ~+/- 0.0025 (I can reliably judge the value to halfway between gradations, which are 0.01; but it may be off by half that half. Any errors are my own. All measurements in inches, unless otherwise noted. Reference is "Spitfire Mk. IX & XVI Engineered", Paul H. Montforten, 2007. Full size values taken from Montforten. Frames are vertical members in the fuselage, stations are vertical members of the wing (aka ribs). First, wings. Measurements from pages 7.28 (span) and 7.31 (chord). Edit: Removed original photo to avoid confusion with update. Next fuselage. This started as an effort shared by Edgar Brooks, I simply took his original idea and expanded on it. For those who may care: A = Frame 5 (aka datum or firewall) B = Frame 8 C = L/e of door opening, not on a frame D = Frame 11, albeit Frame 11 is slightly aft of the panel line (an inch?) E = Frame 15 F = Empennage break, aft of Frame 18a, last vertical G = Rudder post 0-G = 326.64 inches or 4.537" at 1/72 Measurements of full size is on page 2.32 of Montforten for fuselage, for empennage on page 6.18. Edit: Removed original photo to avoid confusion with update. Summary: Overall the Airfix F IX is the closest to Montforten, both for the fuselage and wings. The AZ and Sword kits are short in the fuselage, but not the empennage, strangely. However, and I have to stress this, no Spitfire kit is "perfect" in terms of dimensions. All are off by just a few thousands of an inch, and unless one is comparing them at the mating surfaces, it is very difficult to see them as "off", to my eye. Personally, I prefer the Airfix IX for an early, full span IX, and the AZ for the later clipped wing IX/XVI (standard high back), but the Sword for the XVI RV (rear view or bubble top) (although I have quite a few Heller XVI RV on my shelf!). Both the AZ and Sword kits are lean in the fuselage at Fr 15 by about 1mm. See photos below... First - AZ left fuselage superimposed on Airfix right fuselage half: Secondly - AZ right fuselage superimposed on Sword left fuselage half (near perfect alignment, albeit length is obviously short): I am still doing some analysis of the Airfix PR XIX. The wings and fuselage are interchangeable with the Airfix IX kit (great for cross kitting to make the PR X/XI or F XIV) to determine how "off" it may be. Preliminarily it seems the nose is not too far off, but I still don't have a great reference value for the nose lengths (0-Fr 5), so much more to do in this area. Since I had the fuselages taped together... Left photo: AZ is on left (tan) and Airfix on right (light gray). Right photo: Sword on left (dark gray) and AZ on right (tan). Hope you find this useful. Tim

I've been wanting to do this triple build for a while now and I'm glad it's complete (my fourth Spitfire triple since December!), but it may be time to go back to single builds. All three are 1/72 Spitfire V's representing 'A', 'B' and 'C' wing versions, all belonging to 303 (Polish) Sqn. The build was part of the Spitfire Group Build dedicated to the memory of Edgar Brooks, and the build thread can be found here. First up, a Spitfire VA from the 1/72 Airfix Mk I/IIA kit reperesenting K9871, RF-P, flown by Boleslaw Gladych on 8 Dec 1941, where he, alongside Mieczyslaw Adamek, protected a downed Spitfire pilot over the English Channel. K9871 was built as a Mk I, but was modified into a Mk V and assigned to 303 Sqn in late 1941. I built one of Gladych's P-47's in that STGB, and I thought it would be nice to build one of his Spitfires. I've not been able to find any photographs of this aircraft as a 303 Mk V, only as a Mk I, so I had to apply 'typical' squadron markings from that period. Next to Gladych's P-47. Next up is Spitfire VB, BL670, RF-K, from the new 1/72 KP kit. This Spitfire was assigned to S/L Wojciech Kolaczkowski, who commanded 303 Sqn from Nov 1941 until May 1942, and had his name "Wojtek" painted on the nose, as well as the name "Krysia" formed with the individual squadron letter on the fuselage. Last up is Spitfire VC, AB174, RF-Q, from the 1/72 Sword kit. This aircraft was the mount of PO Antoni Glowacki, a Battle of Britain 'ace in a day'. The individual squadron letter, 'Q' formed the word "QQWCA" on the fuselage side, apparently meaning 'cuckoo' in a transliterated Polish/English pun! All three together.

Here's my contribution to this GB, a Seafire MkIIc from Sword. Two options on the transfer sheet, a Seafire LIIc from 809 NAS from HMS Unicorn at Salerno and standard MkIIc from880 NAS from HMS Argus from Operation Torch. Although the LIIc with its clipped wings detracts from the beautiful Spitfire wing form it is a little different from the norm so I'm going with that. And how can one not have a sharkmouth Seafire? The box contents is a single sprue with effectively a Mk V Spit, with an additional sprue with a new fuselage, four bladed prop and parts for the arrestor hook. There is also some resin cannons and a clear plastic transparency. Nice transfers and the modifications to the Spit Mk V fuselage to strengthen it for deck landings are nicely moulded. Hopefully a first coat of paint on the little parts before the end of this afternoon

Here's my sword Lighting purchased at Yeovilton this year as an impulse buy. I normally do 1/32 scale so this was a blast from the past when 48th was the scale of choice!, The kit itself is quite good the instructions I found a bit hap hazard but you can easily work it out, the worst thing was the decals the minute they were in water they rolled up. Built pretty much OOB apart from the FOD guard and some antennas. I did the Bovril/Marmite thing for the radome and experimented with dark wash for the dirt. I've forgotten to take a shot of the cockpit! but that came out quite well also making the rubber boots folded over. I've made a mistake in that the yellow around the cockpit should be white. I've added clear light from little cars and the paints were xtracrylix; the silver was alclad but I wasn't impressed by the colour so perhaps it's going out of date?. The only thing it needs are ejection seat handles and its crying out for ladders. Going back to 1/32 again now phew. Steve.

Good morning! I picked up this kit from Bruntingthorpe on Sunday along with a 1:48 Airfix Lightning. I will be quite honest- this kit is a mixed blessing: Pros: -Great surface detail -Resin exhaust cans and seats -An Eduard photoetch fret included (this contains the instrument panel, belts and various aerials -A large decal sheet (which was barely used, decals sourced from the spares box for my alternative scheme) -Relatively straightforward to build and paint -Positionable flaps Cons: -Almost nothing in the way of guides to tell you where you should place the various parts (cockpit tub, intake cone and nose gear bay) -Nothing in the way of guide pins for the rudder and elevators -Main wheels with no hole through them (a hole had to be drilled to fit the axle through) -A myriad of ejection pins inside the fuselage, specifically of concern were those in the intake area -Wing-fuselage locating pins did not fit at all and these were subsequently filed down -No option to have open airbrakes!!! What I've done: Well, with a bit of fiddling around I apparently managed to get the intake cone, etc and the cockpit to line up correctly in the fuselage- once that was done I closed it up, added the various surfaces and painted her in Alclad. It's my first time with Alclad! I put down a coat of black Vallejo paint followed by a coat of Alclad gloss coat. I then sprayed on the Alclad, building it up to what it currently is. I didn't need to re-paint the black rudder because that was masked over before I sprayed the Alclad. I then masked and painted the yellow stripes on the wings and rear fuselage, added the IFR probe, small intakes and attached the PE aerials. Kit: Sword Lightning t5 1:72 Paints used: Vallejo model air: black, gold yellow. Alclad II Aluminium Note: Decals used and colour schemes are based off reference pictures but are to some extent fictional Thanks for having a look! Many thanks, Sam

I wondered if anyone else was currently building this and what they thought? I started mine a few weeks ago and so far so good - the build has been fairly straight forward and in fact a little easier than the 1:72 version. I made a cock up of the decals (Xtradecal) so am just awaiting some more from MJW so I can finish it off. Here's where I'm at anyway Chris

Hi, Been a while since I last built a model but due to inclement weather, shorter days and the start of yet another reality TV show airing, I decided to "get me out of here" and find a wee project to keep me amused. Decided to build a fixed wing aircraft this time but stayed with the Fleet Air Arm theme and purchased the Sword 1:72 Fairey Gannet AEW.3 from flea bay. Apart from a wee 1970's pilot, this will be built OOB. Hopefully, I will be able to do it justice and if possible, change the airframe number to represent the old gate guard that sat at HMS Gannet for many a year. I do believe that she is now safely on display at the Dumfries & Galloway Aviation Museum - http://www.dumfriesaviationmuseum.com/fairey-gannet/ The following is a photo of her, quite a few years ago, resplendent in the Ayrshire sunshine The kit seems okay with plenty of recessed panel lines and raised detail. The instructions are very good and it would appear at first glance to be a straightforward build. I did notice that there is no numbers on each sprue part but this isn't really a problem as the diagrams are clear and there are not really that very many parts. Included in the kit is some photo etch for seat belts and panel instrumentation, although this cannot really be seen when the fuselage halves are joined together. I built up the cockpit, converted a modern "PJ production" SAR pilot into a 1970's pilot and popped him into place. There was not point in doing anything else with the interior as it is not on show. Having build an ASW version of this model some years ago, it is definitely a tail sitter, so I used some self adhesive car wheel balancing weights and stuck 20 grammes into the nose/cockpit section before gluing it together. I also used some pink tac to create the right amount of clearance and extra support for the nose wheel bay and cockpit tub. Most of the two fuselage halves went together fine but there is no real depth to the locating spigots on each half and there was a bit of sanding/fettling required to get the front section to mate together especially around the cockpit. More work required on this when cured. The wee pilot seems happy enough for now though .. The biggest problem is that the AEW dome on the underside has a huge gap which has required a liberal amount of filler to close. This will mean even more sanding and re scribing one it has fully hardened. Not much else to add at the moment, except that should be a fairly fast build, ie weeks instead of months. I purchased a rivet wheel a few weeks back but will wait and see if I will use it on this. Glad to be back building again, all the best B

Hello and welcome to 2016! My last build from 2015, the first to be presented in the new year. Sword 1/72 Spitfire XVIe with photo etch from Brengun, Vacu canopy from Squadron and Decals from Xtradecals. Represents SM309/AU-H, “Panama Bound” of 421(Royal Canadian Air Force) Squadron in 1945. Flown by Flt.Lt. Richard “Hap” Beal. Painted with acrylics from Gunze/Mr.Hobby. Main Inspiration for this build was the model by Mr. Jekl, as seen on Britmodeller: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234949348-supermarine-spitfire-mkxvi-172-sword/ Pictures by Wolfgang Rabel of IGM Cars & Bikes. Thanks for your interest, have a good start into the new year! Cheers from Vienna Roman

Can I join in with this one? Not really a Shelf of Doom but has been neglected as I finished off my BoB GB. It has posed some problems along the way and there is a fair amount of sanded and filled seams under the initial coat of Sky. My favourite 'ugly bird'

This is my most recent completion, Sword's Ki-84. I like the Frank a lot, it has clean lines and good looks, a true fighter aircraft. Some years ago I built Hasegawa's excellent but dated kit, and I've been looking for an opportunity to build another one. When I came across Sword's pre-production version (I believe the c variant), I had to have it. Sword's kit is a popular candidate for best short run kit in these great 'What is the best xx-scale kit?' topics. As such I was curious to see how well it built. I found it to be a typical modern short run kit - nice detail, good use of resin parts (engine and wheel bay) but also somewhat spurious fit in areas (gun cover, engine cowling, wing root). All in all it built rather well but due to general hamfistedness it did take me a bit longer to complete than it should have. I drilled through the top of the wing when widening the locating holes for the gear... not my finest hour. None of the kit's issues are difficult to resolve, the only slightly problematic area is the canopy; this seems to be a bit wider than the cockpit area it sits on, resulting in a small step. I filled this with Perfect Plastic Putty but it's still noticeable, especially when compared to Hasegawa's old but perfectly-fitting kit. Sword gives you a choice of two color schemes, an unpainted aluminium plane and a 'Medium brown' with green mottling. I visited Nick Millman's blog 'Aviation of Japan' to get a line on the shade of brown I needed, and using the color swatches I found I created my own using some RAF Dark Earth as a base, mixed with Tamiya Red Brown and Olive Drab. This was applied over a coating of Humbrol Metalcote Polished Aluminium. The mottling was sprayed using Tamiya's IJA Green. I used some IJA Grey for the control surfaces, but I feel the shade is too green when I look at it now - if someone can verify what this shade should look like I'd love to hear it. Sword's decals worked well but the set has one curious omission. It appears that the lines around the front and rear of the wings are red on an unpainted surface and yellow on camouflaged surfaces. Sword provides sufficient red decals to do to the unpainted variant, but for the camouflaged variant the yellow lines around the front of the wing are missing. I stole these from a Hasegawa sheet I have, but this created another problem, a mismatch between the yellow shades of the lines. In the end I therefore used all Hasegawa decals. After decaling I saw that the yellow on the wing leading edge had a decidedly greener tint than the rather orangey yellow of the lines. Oh well. I was going to weather the plane quite severely, to try out some new techniques, then realized it was in use with a test squadron, and thought better of it - I suppose these guys must have taken some care of their mounts and/or wouldn't have used it for long. I picked some W&N water colors to apply a wash, a toothpick to scratch the paint around some of the panels in order to allow the bare metal to show through, and a combination of pastels and washes to create some staining. I used a couple of minor after-market items on this build; canopy mask by Eduard, tubing for the pitot and gun barrels from Albion Alloys, a lens for the landing light from Little Cars and EZ-line type thread from some eBay seller. In summary, a satisfying result from what is undoubtedly a very good kit of this important and beautiful aircraft. It joins its nemesis, the F6F, in my growing collection of 'Hellcats over the Pacific' - inspired builds.

Sword is to release a 1/72nd Mitsubishi J2M2 Raiden model 11 (late version) kit - ref. SW72091 Source: http://www.hyperscale.com/2015/reviews/kits/swordpreviewbg_15.htm 2 decals versions: - 301st Naval Air Group,April 1944 Yokosuka AB/Kanagawa - 302st Naval Air Group,March 1944 Kisarazu AB/Chiba V.P.

Hi chaps, I thought I'd show some recent finishes completed for a Spitfire-related GB on another forum. All were hand-brushed with Xtracrylix paint, over a coat of Halford's primer and finished with Games Workshop "Purity Seal" satin varnish. Firstly, the 1/72nd Hasegawa Mk VIII, finished as a machine from 457 Sqn RAAF in 1945. Decals from Almark, I think: Then we move onto the Fujimi Spit XIVe low back in the markings of 41 Sqn RAF, again in 1945. Decals from Freightdog: Finally, we have the Sword Spit IXe, finished as a "fighter bomber" from 66Sqn in late 1944. The underwing bombs are from the kit, the centre line bomb and bomb carrier is from an Airfix Hampden, with the bomb rack assembly being scratchbuilt. Decals were partly from the kit, but codes / serials were sourced from Modeldecal and Ventura sheets respectively: And the inevitable group shot: Comments welcome. regards, Martin

My boyfriend's back, he's gonna save my reputation (Hey-la, hey-la, my boyfriend's back) If I were you, I'd take a permanent vacation (Hey-la, hey-la, my boyfriend's back) -- The Angels, "My Boyfriend's Back" '"He's, he's not my date. He's my fury and my holy avenger."' -- Alan De Niro, "The Caliber" "Now Pallas Athene gave Diomedes, Tydeus’ son, strength and courage to prove himself the finest of the Argives and win glory and renown. She made his helm and shield burn with unwavering flame, like that of Sirius the star of harvest, who when he has bathed in the Ocean depths rises to shine brightest of all. Such was the fire that streamed from his head and shoulders, as she thrust him into the heart of the fight where the enemy were strongest." -- Iliad, Book V “Either, sir, we get the Spitfires here within days, not weeks, or we’re done. That’s it.” -- Squadron Leader Stan Turner, February 1942 I'm going to be building two Sword Spitfire Vc trop kits; one of BR301/UF-S of 249 (Gold Coast) Squadron, based at Malta during the "Spitfire Summer" of 1942, and one of BS164/DL-K with 54 Squadron based at Darwin in northwestern Australia in 1943. For millions of small children since 1940, or possibly even 1936, the Spitfire has assumed a talismanic significance, and I include myself in their number, having fallen under its spell on a rainy midwestern afternoon in 1991, when I turned the page in a large coffee table book on aviation that a family friend had loaned me, and came face to face with the aircraft which has ever since been an important part of my life. I don't imagine that many nine-year-olds were writing fan mail to Spitfire pilots in 1992, but perhaps I'm wrong. In any case, I sent a letter to D.C.O., the journal of The Spitfire Society, asking if any Spitfire pilots would write to me and send me their photographs. In addition to the great J E "Johnnie" Johnson, who I wrote to directly, several other pilots took the time to write: 1st Lt Edwin Dalrymple, 308 FS, 31st FG Lt (A) Peter G H Roome, RNVR 899 and 801 Squadrons FAA F/O M A Collett, 485 Squadron RNZAF F/Sgt F W F Sweet, RAF Several of them continued to write me for some time, sending me Christmas cards, a WWII-era copy of Malan's "Ten Rules for Air Fighting" (from F/Sgt Sweet), and in the case of Lt Roome, an original photo of him with either a Seafire or Spitfire in 1941 or 1942. I wish I could articulate to you how receiving these made me feel then, and how I feel now, twenty or more years later. It might be impossible to do so in a seemly manner. I felt and feel the same unquestioning love for them that a small boy might feel for his own father; they were gods to me, their bodies a shield for everything I have grown to adulthood valuing, all this long before I or my parents were ever born. But perhaps that's too overwrought for your tastes, and for that I apologize. But "there were giants in the earth in those days." I titled the thread "The Repairers of Reputations" because both of these Spitfires were sent "into the heart of the fight where the enemy were strongest", to try and stem the Axis tide where it threatened to sweep aside all before it. The Spitfire V was possibly the mark which compared least-favorably with its contemporary adversaries, but even bedeviled by mechanical difficulties over Australia (chronic cannon jamming, repeated failures of the constant speed units) or hideously outnumbered by the Luftwaffe over Malta, the weaknesses of the aircraft were mitigated by the determination of their pilots, who endured bitter blows and when their time came, struck hard and true, strong enough, as it turned out, to save. BR301 was flown off of USS Wasp to Malta during Operation BOWERY on 9 May 1942, the second time the big American carrier was used to help ferry Spitfires to the island. Bowery was a well-planned and coordinated operation, and despite heavy German and Italian attacks throughout the day, almost all of the Spitfires survived. The following day, for the first time, German raiders over Malta were engaged by Spitfires in Wing strength, and they would never again enjoy the overwhelming advantage. BR301 was flown both by the great Canadian ace George Buerling, as well as the ace John McElroy, who after the war would have the dubious (to put it very, very, very mildly) distinction of shooting down two RAF Spitfires while flying for the IAF; one of the pilots, P/2 Ron Sayers, was killed. I can't seem to find the photo of BR301 that the various profiles are all based off of. Sword suggests DE/MS over the troublesome and elusive "Sky Blue", with all of the upper surfaces aside from the top of the spine sprayed "Dark Sea Grey or Extra Dark Sea Grey or US Navy Blue-Grey [sic]"; way to take a stand, Sword. I welcome the input of the BM Hive Mind here. BS164 was the regular mount of RAF Squadron Leader Eric M "Bill" Gibbs, a pre-war Coastal Command pilot who was reassigned to 54 Squadron and then rapidly promoted to Squadron Leader shortly before it was sent to Australia as part of 1 Fighter Wing RAAF (commanded by the greatest Australian ace of the war, Clive Caldwell), combating Japanese air raids from Timor. Gibbs clashed frequently with his Wing Leader; In the opinion of Anthony Cooper in his excellent book Darwin Spitfires, Gibbs appears to have had a better conception of how the Spitfires should be deployed tactically, in opposition to Caldwell's predilection for Wing tactics. Gibbs would claim six victories against the Japanese, although the evidence suggests that the claiming standards were lax, and several of these are dubious -- a recurring problem with RAF/RAAF scores over Darwin. I also have an old Ventura sheet with markings for Caldwell's Spitfire Vc, painted in the same Dark Earth/Foliage Green/Sky Blue scheme as Gibbs' machine, so I may build Caldwell's aircraft instead, seeing as I've just finished his P-40E. So that's where we are now. The kits are ready, and so am I.

Hi Folks, This arrived in the post yesterday from Hannants... A quick 'phone pic of the box, I'll post up pics of the contents later, but for now there's a brief description of the box contents below. Two Grey sprues of parts A clear sprue for canopy, windows and landing lights Small photo etch for instrument panel, side consoles and seat harness Clear acetate sheet of instruments to go behind the etched panel Decal sheet which looks nicely in register and contains quite a bit of stencilling Instruction booklet. All packed in a zip-lock bag (Which was a pleasant surprise, no loose bits rolling around in the box.) Photo's to follow. Al

These were done for the P-40 STGB, which was very enjoyable (like all Group Builds!) I decided to do an Aleutian theme, since I grew up in Alaska and that campaign has always interested me. All of them are 1/72, and the build thread is here. First up is an Academy 11th FS P-40E Aleutian Tiger. I tried a few modifications in an attempt to correct some of the Academy kit's peculiarities: bulbous spinner, upright canopy and straight spine. The spinner was replaced with the Quickboost resin set, and the canopy was replaced with an AZ one, and the spine was reshaped a little in order to accept the canopy. Next is an AZ/Legato Kittyhawk IA of No 111 Sqn RCAF. This is a Sword P-40K 'deputized' by 111 Sqn and used by Ken Boomer to score the RCAF's only aerial victory to take place over North America. Last up, a Swork P-40K of the USAAF 344th FS based on Shemya Island in 1945.

Hi all, In the run-up to Christmas, I got the urge to do some simpler kits than I'd been doing of late. As I had a number of gaps in my "modelling every mark of Spitfire" theme, I thought I'd do a couple I'd had my eye on for a while. Eventually, I chose to do a Hase HF Mk VII and the Sword LIIC. Both were essentially out of the box, although I added a rear pressure bulkhead for the HF from the Airfix Spit Mk XIX which fitted pretty much perfectly. I also chose to use the Quickboost Spit 4-bladed prop, as the blades were slightly less anaemic than the kit bits. Decals were from the Barracudacals Spit IX sheet and went on fine. Having made a few limited run kits in the past (the Special Hobby Hornet still makes me shudder), I was wondering how the Sword Seafire would go together. I must admit to being pleasantly surprised. The fit was pretty good throughout (no filler was used anywhere) and it just involved a bit of forethought and minor fettling before setting glue to plastic. The biggest chore was cutting off the wingtips and fitting the replacement pieces, which were thinner in section than the wings. If I were to do it again, I'd just cut the wings oversize and file them back to the right shape. Decals were again fine to use, although I did manage to make a hash of one of the serials and have to use black paint to complete it. Camouflage was brush-applied Xtracrylics throughout; incidentally, I do still need to add wingtip nav lights, rear-view mirrors and machine gun patches to both. I'll get round to that *some day*. Anyway, here are the pics. Hope you like: regards, Martin

I'm pulling a bit of an 'Enzo' for this GB and hope to complete four builds, all 1/72: 1. Academy P-40E as a USAAF 11 FS 'Aleutian Tiger'. I know this scheme has been done to death, but it wouldn't be a proper Aleutian collection without it. I bought the Quickboost spinner and propeller set for this kit, and I may try and attach a different canopy if my skills allow. 2. AZ/Legato Kittyhawk IA of RCAF 111 Sqn that served in Alaska, and it points out the fact that the British Commonwealth was active in the defense of US territory and North America itself. 3. Sword P-40K of RCAF 111 Sqn as flown by Sqn Ldr Ken Boomer when he achieved the RCAF's only aerial victory to take place over North America. Of note is that his aircraft was indeed a P-40K and not a Kittyhawk III, as for a period weather conditions were too dangerous to bring in more aircraft and several USAAF P-40K's were 'deputized' by 111 Sqn with RCAF roundels replacing the USAAF stars, but otherwise retaining USAAF markings and serial numbers. 4. Sword P-40K of the USAAF 344th FS based on Shemya Island, in a silver scheme - just because I think it would be fun to make a silver Aleutian P-40. The plan is to start the P-40E and Kittyhawk IA together and then follow on with the P-40K's if things are going smooth enough. I grew up in Alaska, but have never visited any of the Aleutian Islands (the state is gigantic). Even though I now live in 'the lower 48', the Aleutian conflict still retains my interest to this day. It is often referred to as the 'Forgotten War' in Alaska. It is so forgotten that I think that the rest of the country feels that the phrase should refer to the Korean War. Above are a few references for the builds. Thanks Mish, Mungo, Dazdot and Wyvern for organizing this group build - can't wait to get started.

Sword (http://swordmodels.cz/en/) is to release a 1/72nd Grumman F9F-8P Cougar kit - ref.SW72087 Two decals versions: - VFP-61, BuNo 144406,USS Kearsarge(CVA-33),1957 - VFP-62,BuNo 144416,USS Saratoga,(CVA-60),1958 Source: http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SW72087 V.P.

Hello, This morning I took a look through my spares box and found a few Tamiya centre and rear section canopies. It dawned on me that I had a short shot in another spitfire kit and compared them to see if I could make a swap. The Tamiya Mk. Vb rear most section was very skinny in comparison to the Hasegawa Mk. IX. I took out a few more kits and discovered the Fujimi Mk. XIV and the Sword PR. IV were very different as well. Was there a large change in the size of the windscreen, hood, or rear (backlight?) sections between Marks? Taking out of consideration armoured/unarmoured and PR style windscreens. The Fujimi seemed monstrous, yet came from a later Mark. And I won't mention the Academy... Which canopy should be considered "The Best" ? Thank you for looking in.