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And so it begins!!! I've been looking forward to this build for the last month, which has meant the Tiger that was but days from completion became homeless, and I have become restless. Now, however, I can happily assault one of the old, evil, original Airfix lineup. I picked up this kit about 5 years ago on a whim having built it (not terribly) when I was a sprog and after rediscovering my handiwork on top of a cabinet at my parents. This prompted a random purchase and some serious thought about what to do with such an old and generally spotty kit. Cue White Ensign! I was fortunate to get the PE set. At the time they had advised there may be no hope of my obtaining it from them, but a week later a letter stuck to an envelope arrived and behold! a ton of valuable PE to make this old dinghy resemble a Battleship. As to whether I'll do it justice, I have no idea. Plenty of experience with PE but never stuff this fine, and a requirement to use brushes as my Aztek seems to have sprung a fail, may cause more frustration than building OOB, but I am up for the challenge! To steal a line from a well known videogame series - let's do this...

Unlike many of the British subjects present here (and sufferers from around the world), I was never acquainted with Airfix's H.P. 0/400. I cherished, though, for a long time, building the civil transports that derived from it. I started as usual gathering references, and after a few years, once satisfied with the research, I bought (quite recently), a new release of the old kit. When the kit arrived from the Foglands, I just put it in the closet, and only today I opened Pandora's box. My first impressions: 1) A large number of parts were already loose in the bag they came in. Some were so extraordinarily tangled with each other that they made me think of some weird model parts orgy; but then I thought "Nah, it's a British kit, they are quite proper and respectful of formalities". 2) I have hardly ever seen so many ejector pin marks. 3) I surmised that two people were in charge of producing the masters for the flying surfaces. One was restrained and created a normal rib pattern. The other was a madman and thought the masters were for a washboard. Or perhaps was trying to represent rib tapes, in which case to say they are overstated is an understatement. 4) When I saw the three included figures I jumped thinking that they were, like me, Shaolin Modeling Monks! One was even meditating seating in the lotus position! But no, they were stoic British crew members that at the first opportunity asked me what time tea was served. The gall! 5) The "system" devised for the wing upper and lower halves is dismal. Not sure if it was thought to facilitate rigging, but if it was, the designer should be condemned to endlessly hear the deranged rants of certain president. If it wasn't, all the same. Hard to disguise those seams will be. 6) I love it. Now, do not hold your breath with this build, it will not be one my usual flash-builds. I have other business to attend for a while and just wanted to share the opening moves with all of you. Getting rid of the extra weight: the main sprues and the pim-poom-paff-kaboom parts: The washboards are included in the kit: An engineering solution not even a mother would call elegant: Oh boy... @Martian Hale, @general melchett (who reputedly coined the phrase "Bloody Paralizer"), and another crew member half-eaten already by the Martian, who liked to take his snacks on board alive: As it is common knowledge among the members of modeling cenacles in Río Ceballos, Rosario, Timbuktu and Kamchatka, there were several variants derived from the 0/400. I am not interested in discussing variants irrelevant to this build, and of course as usual I have no interest in any military versions. I am focusing at the moment on the somewhat hastily converted for civil passenger service left overs form the war, which need of course a new interior and some changes on the exterior, and on the 0/700 variants that need much more noticeably changes. I have the impression that this is going to be fun! Meanwhile, I am going back to my references to chose a specific plane. Hopefully will be seeing you soon! Cheers

Saw these two in my local model shop and couldn't resist the sheer nostalgia (don't worry about the Yak) a d seeing as I'm away from home an oob build with a basic toolkit was just about feasible and give me something to amuse myself after hours. Chassis assembled. Wheels done Some assembly That's the tractor done, I'll weather it when I get home. Now on to the 88mm.

New tool 1/48th DH.82a Tiger Moth kit - ref. A04104 Release expected in May December 2019 February 2020. Source: https://www.airfix.com/uk-en/shop/new-for-2019/tiger-moth-1-48.html V.P.

Here we go - I have the green light to inflict the original tool Airfix P-51D 'Fool's Paradise IV' on this GB - sorry, chaps. Dependent on time, I may bring in newer tool kits as I go along. I've got the Red Stripe Bag 'boxing'... The kit comes in silver-grey plastic, only 30 parts. Raised detail outside but absolutely zero detail inside the cockpit area, other than two pins for the pilot to perch on. That said, the pilot has gone AWOL so I'll need to set up an 'office' that will tempt him back. All the gen on the 'North American P-51D Mustang' - I fancy doing a check on how this lines up with the wealth of reference material made available here. Ditto for the colour scheme given for this particular aircraft...

Wellington Mk.IC R1410 saw service with 311 Squadron as KX-M. She was damaged during a raid to Hannover on 15/05/41. The port engine caught fire at 14,000 feet, this was extinguished, and she was flown back to England on one engine. At 0600 hours a belly landing was made 11 miles south of Manningtree. The starboard engine cut out on touch down as the fuel supply was exhausted. The captain was Flt/Lt Josef Snajdr. The aircraft was later recovered and eventually transferred to No. 12 Operational Training Unit. It is likely that the squadron codes were overpainted shortly after arrival at Chipping Norton, though no record exists of the codes displayed while with 12 OTU, whose codes were FQ, JP and ML. On 25-06-42 R1410 crashed in Holland having flown from Chipping Warden. Entirely brush painted using Humbrol and Vallejo acrylics. Straight from the box except the addition of crew members.

A couple of months ago i thought about what to choose as my 1st WW2 plane when a friend gave me this Airfix' Spitfire & Eduard Cockpit as a gift, so descision was made. Since it was the first time i was using a resin cockpit and being only my 4th model at all you confidently can say i'm still a novice in scalemodelling and not everything worked out as smooth as planed. Although i spent quite a bit of time to dryfit & thinning the cockpit several times it was unruly to snuggle in the fuselage when it was time and only with some force and cut offs it worked out, well, lesson learned next time i will do it even more thoroughly. BTW the Eduard Resin Cockpit is a beautiful little mode by itself. Another issue were the numerous paint lift offs by Tamiya tape which really were a pain especially when happens on the edges to the multicoulerd insignias..... One thing i found a bit odd was the landing gear construction by Mr. Airfix, honestly the person who developed this must have been in a joker mood and should be sentenced to glue it A Thousend Times! My first glueing attempt was rewarded with a decent flop down and Mj. Levines Spit laid on its belly...... I add a bomb which was part of the kit and scratched the bomb holder from Evergreen and add the plumbing though i have no idea if Mj. Levines Spit ever carried one so it's a little '' What If '' factor but i find it looks sharp on a Spitfire. In the end i'm pretty happy that i struggled through this build an have this elegant WW2 fighter in my collection. All the best for you current builds! Hans Since not many of the cockpit is visible one enclosed in the fuselage here some snapshots from the building process.... Mj. Levines worn out seat...-.. The kit part were not very convincing so i made ones myself... Not many will be seen later but i know it's there.... I originally painted this in Sky since i first was going for another Vb. Spitfire with a different camouflage...

Hello everybody, It's been nearly a year and a half since I posted a build, either in progress or finished. Well, several kits landed on the bench but none has reached completion. I had unsuccessful attempts at trying to do something more than just follow instructions, glue and paint. I tried using photoetch, these parts shouldn't be called PE but UFO's. Then back to a relaxing Tamiya but there was no fun there. I still needed something just a tiny little bit outside of my comfort zone. So what about an Airfix 1/48 Bf-109E-7 in a trop scheme. No decal for the control panel so some detail to paint, and a mottled camo (to me mottling and smoke rings sound a bit like : "Darth Vader: Luke, I want a mottled tie fighter ........Luke: Noooooooo......". Oh, and weathering and maybe pre-shading too. Aaah, it begins to sound pleasing. As usual, airbrushed with Harder and Steenbeck Evolution Silverline, Stynylrez primer, Gunze and Tamiya acrylics. I used Revell aqua "brass" for the tubing of the oxygen bottle (regulator?) and I think I'll get more of that, found it real easy to use to handbrush detail. Box opened 10 days ago and here we are: Hope you enjoy it. Now busy with the spinner, radiators and gear legs. Edit: it's globally a very good kit but be sure to dry fit each and every part. Stick, oxygen bottle, throttle and gunsight need to have their attachment points trimmed down to fit into place. Also the lower part of the wing needs a bit of sanding to sit flush with the wingtip (moulded as a part of the upper wings).

Kit - Airfix A04061 Paint - All enamels Decals - Xtradecal 72-203 Extras - None Bristol Blenheim IV 53 Squadron Northern France Autumn 1939 The build took just three weeks from cracking the box. That has to be some sort of record achievement for me as normally I prevaricate like it's something to be proud of !! No matter, it's a superb kit with some self-induced niggles and occasional over-engineering but honestly I sort-of enjoyed that because everything really does fit as it should. If you haven't built one, be aware that you probably need some high-end tweezers to drop the prop-boss into place and a kit-specific mask set is a must (I used Montex vinyl masks), other than that, it's an absolute joy. Not much else to say, next from me will be a Eurofighter that I'm doing for a Group-Build elsewhere. As ever please feel free to make any comment, cast any criticism or ask a question. Best from NZ. Ian.

Place holder for now. I was doing some surfing looking for a suitable subject for this GB when I came across some artwork of the post-WW2 Norwegian Storch trainers. Who doesn't love the Storch, and a blue and yellow one was too good to pass up. Coincidentally the Airfix kit has just been re-released as a "Vintage Classic", which it certainly is: I know there are better kits out there, but none have the nostalgic pull of that wonderful Airfix artwork. I have a couple of the original pale blue plastic examples in deep storage in the garage but I think I'll go with this one and see how it builds after all these years. Markings. A quick trip to the Big H website and this sheet was winging its way to my door: https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/VTH72102 I might even get adventurous and add the skis from an Airfix Auster to ring the changes just a bit more. John

I'm going to build L.E. Curdes' Bad Angel. Let's start with a contemporaneous photo. Notice the kill markings? German, Italian, Japanese, and, um, American! Wikipedia has this to say: And here's a photo of Curdes and his bride, Svetlana Valeria Shostakovich Brownell. How many husbands can claim they shot their future bride out of the sky? I'll be using the Airfix A05106 North American F-51D Mustang boxing and CAM 48-115 Mustang Thoroughbreds

This is a Group Build subject I couldn't ignore, so last weekend I bought the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire PR.XIX kit, and ordered some Moose Republic decals for it. These haven't arrived yet, but I started working on the kit anyway. So far I've put all the cockpit and camera bits together and painted them. Not bad for out of the box. Next up is the prop shaft holder thingy inside the nose. The instructions want you to put the whole prop in place before closing the fuselage, but that's just asking for trouble. So I'm glueing the ring inside the nose in place instead.

Here goes,.....here is my first offering, an Airfix 1/72 Severn Class lifeboat. I chose to do the Humber lifeboat as I didn’t want to show favouritism to any one of my local Cornish boats, plus I grew up in a town on the banks of the Humber. I didn’t have most of the problems usually reported of this kit. Airfix have updated their instructions to not mention the infamous missing part 30 though the pictures do show it in place so I contacted them and they did send me the required second one. I have got the anti fouling and boot stripe in the wrong place, I should have checked my reference pictures more closely.

Dear Colleagues Here is the founding father or is it the patron saint of Britmodeller, the EE Lightning! This is the Airfix kit boosted with Aires exhausts, Eduard PE, Quickboost air scoops, Pavla cockpit and Master pitot tube (which speared my finger on one occasion). Can't say it was an easy build regarding fit. The F2A was only to be found in 19 and 92 squadrons based in Germany and only 31 aircraft existed. They were operated by 19 squadron at RAF Gutersloh until 1976. I didn't want to do exactly the same aircraft as the Airfix markings so found a photo on the internet of this bird and used the Extradecal decal extras set for Lightnings The figure gives you an idea of the size of the beast Hope you like it? Andrew

I better come up with a build as well. As the title states, I am building the Ju 87R-2 flown by Major Walter Sigel Commanding Officer (Grupenkomandeur) from I./St.G 3 in the colours of the Stabsstaffel (green) during his time in Greece 1941. I haven't seen many (actually any) builds of his Berta which is odd as it has some attractive markings. Sigel’s various Stukas are relatively well documented, but there is some confusing information about the looks of his Bertas. Xtradecals has his B-1 covered on sheet X48164 (and also on the 1/72 sheet) when part of I./St.G 76, but these markings are unfortunately not correct for a I./St.G 3 aircraft, so I have to come up with my own marking one way or another. I found this picture below on the Internet and have never seen it published anywhere. It shows most likely Sigel’s aircraft in Balkan theater markings photographed in May 41 at Argos in Greece. Of interest are the white outlined green individual letters A on top of the wings and the yellow elevators. Together with the yellow nose and yellow wheel pants tips it is indeed a very colourful example. The picture below is published in many publications and does also show Sigel's aircraft. Captions place this image from France in early 41 to Bulgaria in April 41, to Zemun (near Belgrade) in Yugoslavia in Autumn 41 and to Greece in 41 depending where the picture is published And most profiles show it like this. But white theater markings just don't add up for the places this picture was apparently taken, so I asked the question on Hyperscale if someone could shed some light on this. In addition, the green Winkel (chevron) is missing on many profiles and the squadron batch is white and not yellow. The chevron is clearly visible on another picture taken at the same day. And Georg Morrison had an explanation which is rather interesting: "This is part of a series of lined-up I/St.G 3 machines (S1+AB, S1+CB, S1+NH, among others) taken after the Balkans / Crete campaign in southern Greece (possibly Crete) in early November 41. The yellow theater markings had been overpainted and white theater markings applied for the unit's move to Derna in North Africa in mid-November 1941. Depending on the quality / vintage of the print, you can see a tonal difference (the paint is 'flatter' or 'more matte') on the cowlings. The area beneath the radiator was still yellow -- there's some film footage in which the bright color beneath the radiator 'pops out' at the eye of the viewer as the formation passes above. The fuselage bands were white, albeit not as bright as the factory-applied fuselage cross." The flat paint is indeed visible on both pictures above and of interest is also that this aircraft also had yellow wheel pants tips, which wasn't common, making it more likely that both aircraft are potentially be the same aicraft. My intention is to build Sigel's aircraft first in the full Balkan theater markings as seen on Argos in May 41 And after taking a series of pictures, I intend to do what happened to the real aircraft and change it by overpainting the relevant parts as described above to the way it looked like before the transfer to North Africa in November 41. Not often do you see Luftwaffe aircraft with yellow AND white theater markings! I will use the 1/48 new tool Airfix B-2/R-2 kit for this build. And I did find some additional goodies in my stash I may use. So I am all set, but with my track record I may not get past the cockpit stage Cheers, Peter

Pretty much OOB but my first all airbrushed build, lovely kit (decals a bit odd) enjoyed the build.

Next up a Battle of Britain Spitfire Mk.I from the new tool Airfix kit, again using Xtradecals for an aircraft from 41 Sqn.

I nearly bought one of these when they were released but eventually got one from the Wonderland stall at Telford last year. First impressions were a bit mixed, with very thick sprue gates and obstructive ejector pin towers which meant it wasn't easy to get a clean cut at them. There was a moulding flaw on the port fuselage half which needed filling and the edges of the front fuselage halves curved inwards slightly so the joint needed filling as well. The port upper wing half fitted almost perfectly but the starboard one........it was a choice between a good joint at the wing root and the whole panel swept back, or the panel lining up at the leading and trailing edges and a wedge shaped gap at the wing root. Obviously I went for the latter and more filler. I guess it was a 'Friday afternoon' moulding. Although I've heard of them before from Airfix, this was the first one I've experienced. The plastic was rather nasty - both soft and brittle, and I managed to break a couple of parts getting them clear of those sprue gates. I didn't like the transparent wing tips - the fit was poor and it wasn't just clumsiness on my part removing the elliptical tips! As with the Hunter, adhesion of the decals was very poor. I lost one of the stencils before the matt varnish went on and a couple of others started to fall off as I was varnishing. It must be very disappointing for a youngster to spend ages decaling and then find some of them fall off! In the days of transfers, they stuck on so well you had to scrape them off with a fingernail. It was all faintly disappointing after the Defiant, Walrus and Hunter, with some QC issues and some design problems. Whinge over - other than that it went together well and looks every inch a Spitfire. It's from the box apart from the harness, is brushed with Humbrol enamels and makes a nice pair with my now-rather-ancient F22, built from an Eduard boxing of the Airfix plastic which I bought second hand from a stall at a Duxford air display. That put up a fight as well - several of the major parts were badly warped, which is perhaps why it was on sale second hand! Thick sprue gates and ejector pin towers [/IMG][/URL] Moulding flaw and filler The model......

I've not been overly active on modelling for a few months, but last week I got some mojo back and joined in the Nordic Group build (C-47 WIP there). That has spurred me on to get more modelling done in general and so I finally got round to producing this RFI which is one of two 1/72 Mustangs I built for Telford 2019 as part of our "animal theme" club display. The second build is a Swedish J-26, shown here: The model represents an Italian Airforce F-51D of the Aeronautica Militare, based in Italy in 1952. The excellent Xtradecal sheet 72270 was used for the main marking, but all stencil data is from the kit. The model builds up very well apart for some minor sink marks around the wing LE area. It was interesting to build this in parallel with an Italeri F-51D. IMHO both are reasonable kits, with Airfix being a little more state of the art. More on the Italeri build in that RFI when I post it later today. Internals were finished in Tamiya Interior green and black as appropriate. External was Alclad over most of the airframe, with Tamiya acrylics for tyres, anti-glare, propeller and prop hub. Fuselage and some parts of the wings had a Flory wash of mid grey. No WIP was produced as at the time I was building three 1/72 aircraft and a 1/35 "figure" all in the five weeks leading up to the show - an absolute record for me! So @Courageous after much nagging encouragement, and @RidgeRunner, you have both seen them in the flesh, here they are in the RFI................ and I hope you notice Martin, I have fixed the canopy sit! A few fairly close up shots of the interior, some taken during the build: And finally a few shots of this one, with it's Swedish companion. RFI for that will follow in due course. And for those who like me can't resist merlin engined fighter aircraft here are some stable mates. Fear not Griffon fans, I have a number of those beauties to be built over time! Thanks for looking Terry

Not content with having the B58 and TSR2 on the go together I've got some spare drawers in my modelling desk and I have been waiting to build Airfix's GR7/9 kit for a while and while I was ordering the weapons set for the B58 I found the Hasegawa AV8B Plus II kit so that was ordered as well. This should be an OOB for both so I can compare the 2, Hasegawa's is from 2001 and the Airfix kit from 2011. So onto the kits, Airfix first. And the Hasegawa kit Initial impressions are good, the Airfix kit is the usual light grey plastic with slightly heavy panel lines and the Hasegawa has it usual shiny harder plastic with finer panel lines, the newer Airfix kit has multiple LERX parts, better decals and weapons, the Hasegawa kit has only one LERX option and one pair of AIM9's with fuel tanks. I hope to start cutting plastic this week.

So I'm going to be building this -> Seems it's a pretty popular kit in the GB so it will be interesting to compare results and build notes! Here's some obligatory sprue and instruction shots... This is the first Airfix kit I've built in over 25 years and as a newer tooling it will be interesting to compare to all the older kits I've been building. The part count seems quite high (probably as the average age of kit builders has gone up over the years), but it seems nicely engineered - the wheels for example have a weighted/sagged side or an unloaded side and can be set in the pods either way depending on if the plane is being modeled in flight or not. I'll be building straight out of the box, with the only additions being some aftermarket paint masks for the clear parts (which actually seem very nice and clear) and the camo - I've never tried pre-cut camo masks before so it should be interesting. I'm planning on doing the Spanish markings as I think it makes an interesting change.

Happy New Year all! Here is my entry to the GB, yet another Airfix Stuka, which is looking like a popular choice so far. I am not overly enamored with the choice of transfers ootb so i will source some AM versions for my build. Will get started shortly, thanks for looking, Cheers! Greg

Hi everyone, I am a super fan of the Ju 87, but I was not supposed to enter this GB. That was the responsible route. Unfortunately, I could not resist any more, so, ever so typically, I am doing the unreasonable thing... but I am in good company! This is a place holder as I have 2 kits to finish first. That is the responsible route.... Here are a couple of photos: This Stuka will be built OOB, with the exception of some PE seat belts. I will be using as well the Xtradecal transfers. This kit is plain beautiful. It will be great! JR

Hawker Hunter F.4/F.5/J34 (A09189) 1:48 Airfix Arising from a post war specification during a period where the prevailing government thought there wouldn’t be another conflict for a decade or more, the Hunter took some time to develop into the aircraft we know and love due to the rapid development of aviation at the time and a constant search for better performance. Eventually, the Hunter F.1 reached prototype during the scramble for capable jet aircraft at the time of the Korean war. The F.1 morphed into a single F.3 whilst still developing rapidly until the F.4 came along with additional fuel tanks in the wings and a more powerful variant of the Sapphire engine. Development continued apace with the F.5 following on with another variant of the engine, and so it went on into the F.6, but that's another model entirely. Also by Airfix of course The J34 was an export version of the F.4 in Swedish service where it flew as a replacement to the Tunnan and was in turn replaced by the Draken later on. There were 120 of them carrying a four 30mm cannons and a pair of early Sidewinders, with the task of defending Stockholm if hostilities were to break out. Thankfully the Red Menace never rolled over Europe. The Kit This is an additive re-tooling of the initial F.6 kit (A09185) and arrives in Airfix’s red themed box with five sprues in grey styrene, one in clear, a large decal sheet, instruction booklet in spot colour and two colour sheets of glossy A3 with painting and decaling guides. If you’ve seen or already own the F.6 kit you’ll know what to expect in terms of detail, which is good, and extends to all the usual places of interest within the airframe. The three main sprues are unchanged, but two additional small sprues have been added to this boxing with a pair of new exhaust fairings, inserts for the wingtips to transform the wing to the earlier dog-tooth free wings, as well as some nose, air-brake and other sundry parts. Should be fun! Construction begins with the seat, which has an alternative cushion with moulded-in belts and without for those wanting to use after market. Thoughtful! A new headbox top is fitted, and then the cockpit tub is made up from a rear bulkhead with seat-rail, lower tub, control column, instrument panel with decal and a gunsight. The coaming is moulded into the fuselage, but the beginnings of the nose gear bay is attached to the underside of the cockpit tub beforehand. To prepare the fuselage for closure you need to add a small insert in the rear, add a couple of exhausts under the wing root, and drill a 1mm hole nearby. The remainder of the nose gear bay is fitted after the cockpit is inserted, consisting of two parts within the ribbed nose. Aft of the wing root cut-out a bulkhead with a representation of the first compressor blade of the Sapphire engine is fitted after being painted a silvery colour, and then it’s a case of making up the two trunking halves that form a Y-shape inside and funnel the air from the wing roots to the engine for squashing and igniting. The little exhausts and opening of holes is repeated on the starboard fuselage half, and a pair of cylinders are attached to the nose gear sidewall after which you can close the fuselage. If you’re going for in-flight, there are two small holes on the underside that should be opened up before you apply the glue. You’re advised to place 20g/1oz of nose weight behind the cockpit before you close up, so don’t forget like I’ve done in the past. There’s a new jetpipe on the new sprues and a new rear engine face, all of which fits handily within the rear fuselage insert, which is to cater for the differing exhaust and cowling sizes between the marks. The insert is glued in place under the tail, and it’s time to get out your razor saw. The later hunters had an outer section of the wings with an increased chord that garnered the name dog-tooth for obvious reasons when you look at it. Earlier marks didn’t have this, and with some foresight Airfix have pre-moulded the wings with a cut line inside and a set of supports that prevent the wings from being compressed when that section is removed. Another thoughtful addition. You can cut them from the single-piece upper wing with a scalpel or razor saw as per the diagram and repeat the process for the two lower wing halves. The upper wings are then glued to the fuselage from above, covering the recess that supports the wing panels and stops flexing causing problems with any making good. For in-flight posing, the lower wing panels are joined next along with the optional wheel bay cover inserts, covering up the intak trunks and leading to a nice smooth set of lower wings with closed doors. A single door piece covers up the nose bay too. For the wheels-down model, the three main bay walls are arranged round the moulded-in detail, and a small vane is inserted into a slot in the upper intake lip. For both options, there are a couple of pre-marked holes to drill out if you are fitting the drop-tanks before you close up the lower wings. The new wing inserts can be made up from their halves and inserted into the gaps made earlier, although some modellers may elect to fit them earlier, and at this point I don’t foresee a problem with the prescribed method, especially as there is a nice neat lip on the new parts. With the nose cone fitted earlier it’s on to the tail-feathers with the separate rudder able to be deflected 20o to port and 30o to starboard, while the elevators are each single parts that slot into the tail fin with no options for movement. You can however deflect the ailerons and drop the flaps by 13o either way and 80o down respectively, and add the triangular insert between them, repeated on each side. Providing you’ve not elected to close up the gear bays, it’s now time for the landing gear struts, beginning with the main legs fitting into a recess in the outboard wall of the bay, and adding retraction jack and a prominent rib at the same time in each bay. There is an additional scrap diagram showing where the retraction jack and rib sit within the bay to assist you in getting it right. The lower bay door is captive to the leg, and the two additional doors fit into the bay edge two deep, while the inner bay door is slotted into the centre-line side on two sturdy hinges. The tyres are separate from the hubs and flat-spots are moulded in that will automatically fall into the correct spot on the ground due to the keyed axle on the leg – another nice touch. At the front the yoke is formed from two parts trapping the single piece wheel in place, with bay doors and a retraction jack fitted to the front and rear of the bay. While we’re in the vicinity of the nose, the two “Sabrinas” that collect the spent cannon shells to avoid them being ingested by the engines are clicked into position on their two holes, one each side behind the gun troughs. Moving further back, the conformal air-brake has its hinge fairing added first, then you can either lay it flat for retracted, or add the jack and deploy it for extra visual interest. At this stage the airframe is looking very Hunter-like, and the task list is dwindling. If you are fitting the drop tanks, they are made up from two halves plus a separate pylon each and they fit into the holes you drilled in the lower wing earlier. The wings are finished off by adding the tip lights, with the port one having the pitot probe shimmed between it and the wing, so be sure to fit that first. A blade antenna is fitted behind the cockpit on the spine, but it is only there to be sliced off and sanded back flush once the glue is dried. You then have a choice of a single-piece closed canopy, or a two-piece open canopy, which slides back as far as the antenna location, and remember – there’s no frame at the rear of the canopy, so don't paint one or the purists will lynch you. Markings There are three decal options in the box, one from three of the type's operators and each one is allocated a full page of A3 in colour to assist you with painting and decaling. From the box you can build one of the following: Hunter F.5 No.1 Sq. Operation ‘Musketeer’, RAF Station Nicosia, Cyprus, Sept-Nov 1956 No.3 Sq. Södertörns Flygflottilj F18, Svenska Flygvapnet (Swedish Air Force), Tullinge, Stockholm, Sweden 1959 No.7 Escadrille, No.7 Wing, Chièvres, Belgium, June 1956 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. The stencils are dealt with briefly on a page in the instruction, but are covered more comprehensively on the remaining page of the glossy painting guide where the text and orientation is shown in detail. Conclusion A modern Hunter F.4. What could be sweeter? The regressions from the F.6 have been handled very sensibly and shouldn’t tax even the novice modeller, further consigning the old Academy kit to the back of the stash. Review sample courtesy of

Just a place holder for now, I have a couple of builds from last year to complete before starting, but I will photograph the box and its contents tomorrow. This is the 1990 boxing of the Airfix kit and as promised here are the photographs of the box and its contents. by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr by John L, on Flickr I think that one of the first jobs will be a sand and rescribe of the wings and fuselage.