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RAF Trainer Trio


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All three 1/48 & built over the last year. The Gnat is the lovely Aeroclub kit, mainly injection & white metal with just a vacformed canopy & really easy to build. It's rare now but well worth tracking down. OOB with a needle for the nose probe. The Hawk is Airfix with Neomega pit, CMK undercarriage (I managed to get the nose wheel bay back to front so don't pick it up & look!) & MA decals. The Tucano is the Aconcagua full resin kit. This is a beautiful (if rather pricey model) & offers fantastic detail, especially in the cockpits. The u/c legs it has been pointed out to me are rather "stalky" & probably represent the oleos as being not under pressure - Aconcagua wouldn't be the first manufacturer to make this mistake. It also weighs a ton & is the daddy of all tail sitters despite my cramming as much lead in the nose as would fit so yes, that is BlueTac holding the nose down! I've got another in the pile & will hopefully make a better job if it. Decals for the Tucano are from MA again. Hope you like!

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All lovely models but I have to go with the Gnat as my favourite, the only supersonic trainer the RAF had.

John.

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Nice trio, planning on building a Hawk T2 to complete the set?

Bloody hell the gnat is tiny! And here's me thinking the Hawk was small...

I have the Tucano kit in my stash but it looks quite a lot of work - the propeller blades are smashed into about 8272 pieces as well despite the cardboard protective packaging, which presents another problem apart from the iffy fit which seems apparent on dry fitting of the fuselage halves.

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I don't think it was supersonic. Supposedly the Gnat's top speed was 695mph, 75mph shy of the speed of sound.

Off the top of my head, I seem to recall reading that Gnats were supersonic in a dive. Could be wrong though, cos I can't remember where I read it; others on here will know more, I'm sure.

As for the models, they're so pretty! I'm a real sucker for RAF trainers, and those ones look really well finished too.

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I have the Tucano kit in my stash but it looks quite a lot of work - the propeller blades are smashed into about 8272 pieces as well despite the cardboard protective packaging, which presents another problem apart from the iffy fit which seems apparent on dry fitting of the fuselage halves.

The really delicate parts appear to be the small triangular fillets infront of each tailplane. They were broken on my first example & yes, on the one I just received! Have a look at your example. Not too difficult to fix.

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All lovely models but I have to go with the Gnat as my favourite, the only supersonic trainer the RAF had.

John.

Apart from the Lightning T5, Jaguar T2, Tornado GR1T........etc :P

Three lovely models, like them all - but I'm another one who votes the Gnat as favorite!! :coolio:

C'mon Mr. Aeroclub, re-release it :please: . Pretty :please: (and you can do the JP's at the same time!!)

Keef

Edited by keefr22
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Those are just the dog's b****x mate, absolutely stunning trio, hard pushed to have a fave as they are all really high quality builds, but the Hawk, I have to admit does it for me.

Eng

Edited by eng
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Yep, the Gnat has my vote too! What a pretty aeroplane. But the whole lot do look very nice together. Aeroclub did do a Jet Provost in 1/48th as well, mine's partly finished in the loft somewhere.... :whistle:

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