GPaulC

Bought mine in my LMS today (Glasgow UK) and it has been advertised as in stock on Hannants for a few days now. By the way where did this spring from? I'm usually well informed but this slipped right under my radar and checking back a couple of months in the modelling press I can find no mention of it as a near-future release. Have Airfix been keeping it quiet or have I been more than usually distracted?

Sorry, I can't help directly with the markings question but from the Crowood book on de Havilland Twin Boom Fighters it would appear that the RNZAF took delivery of 18 new build Vampire FB52s between Oct 50 and Aug 51 and of 6 Vampire T55s between Jul and Dec 52. Another 8 FB 52s were ordered at this time but the delivery dates are not mentioned. As these were all new build they would have been delivered in whatever markings had been ordered, presumably the standard markings for NZ fighter a/c at that time. To fill the gap while the second batch of FB52s were built 8 ex-RAF FB 5s were deliver

I can find nothing about this victory in the RFC Communiques around that date and Above the Trenches only lists the a/c as a scout. The problem is that millitary men are actually notoriously bad at identifying enemy equipment and often label it by its most obvious feature such as triplane or "basket tail" (which is what the Germans called pusher types) or by some generic name such as de Havilland for all British pushers, Sopwith for all British rotary engined a/c (even when they were Nieuports) etc. Consider American ground combat reports from Normandy where almost every tank is a Tiger and gu

Both are available in that scale from Blue Max and both build into nice models with a bit of work (Brit understatement). Also neither is a particularly famous aircraft type nor are they German so sales numbers are likely to be small. Having said all that if you can produce a more buildable kit of either for under £30 I would definitely be interested.

Try getting in touch with Stephen Prior about this. He is a member here and is doing a build article on the Airfix Sea Vixen over on Brit Modeller and intends finishing it as a drone. He was talking to me about this at our last club meeting in Glasgow so he should be able to help. We Brits do have a scheme applied to experimental and test airframes commonly referred to as "Raspberry Ripple" which is a Hi-Vis pinkish-red and cream (definitely NOT yellow) scheme. This MAY be what Model Alliance are referring to. Humbrol 103 Matt Cream is the best match to my eye, 74 Matt Linen would also be a co

This is a problem for all aircraft, not just Spitfires, and to be honest I do not know the answer. However this is my reasoning when deciding which stencils would and would not have been present on a given aircraft. The Squadron ground crew would have been very familiar with their aircraft and after a week or two working on a new aircraft type (eg after a transition from Hurricanes to Spitfires or P-47s to P-51s etc) would know without reading the stencils which panels gave access to which bits of equipment, where to place the trestles and jacks etc etc. So under the time pressures of repair

Check out the many resin conversion sets from AlleyCat at A2Zeemodels.com. You can build practically any single stage merlin variant of the Mossie now.

According to SAM Publications Modellers Datafile 6 on the Beaufighter comparing the Mk VIc and the Mk X:- Mk X first production batch had an extra whip aeriel aft of the observers cupola. Very early TF Xs had a gunner's cupola rather than an observers and lost the filters on the carburettor intakes and the DF loops. Some were fitted with a thimble radome. Early TF Xs retained the gunners position (as did all TF Xs) but regained the filters and the DF loop. Mid production aircraft came in 3 variants. All had the thimble radome and the extended dorsal fin. Variant 1 had NO filters and repla

I've used both lycra thread a la aeroclub and invisible thread (monofilament). They both have their place but the methods of use are quite different so if you decide to change to monofilament you will need to do a bit of reading and practicing.

The Humbrol Nos are Ocean grey 106, Medium Sea Grey 165, Cockpit Green 78 and Dark Green 30. HOWEVER their Dark Green is not a good match for the RAF colour, it is too blue and closer to US Med Green 42. The best Humbrol match for the true Dark Green that the RAF used would be 117 matt US light green.

You might want to check the engine type before going any further. As far as I recall Bishop flew a Wolsey Viper engined SE5a and I thought the Wingnuts SE5a was a Hispano Suiza engined kite. I could be wrong on either or both counts though.

Another suggestion, which you may find helpful, would be to join a local, FRIENDLY and RELAXED modelling club where ordinary joes are happy to put their latest build on the table for all to see regardless of how good they really are because they feel they belong. Where being one of the guys is more important than being top dog. Nothing but nothing will kill the fun of what is supposed to be just a hobby like striving for absolute perfection every time. At our last club meeting on the Twelth of July we had a themed competition "Finished in Orange" (you probably need to be Irish or Scottish to

Can't help with your questions except to say that I have seen boxes on sale by Hannants at Duxford (Flying Legends) so they are out there in the marketplace. Far better modellers than I use 'Fonderie Miniatures' as an expletive so I did not bother opening the box.

Phew, you had me worried there. I've had the Eduard kit in my stash for a couple of years and I had to run up and check it out to see if I'd bought a pig in a poke. The only sprue with appreciable flash and sink holes is the propeller sprue with holes at the base of the reverse side of every blade. Apart from that there are a few VERY minor dimples on the horizontal stabilisers and inner wing panels that some Mr Surfacer and a buff and polish with fine wet and dry will sort out. No biggee. As for the Buccaneer I've never tried it myself but at our last club night competition, an Airfix them

I've built quite a few Academy kits over the years and I cannot remember ever having problems with the decals, ever! (Unlike some East European/ Russian decals I could name.) Tepid water, Microsol (and Microset if required) onto a gloss surface, usually acrylic but sometimes standard varnish. Never had a problem. What are you guys using? Nuke-em-soft?

Hard to answer without knowing what the frustrations were caused by. Tamiya are by far the best kits for fit and ease of build thanks to excellent engineering and production values, however they are relatively expensive. Hasegawa come close for engineering and fit but are, if anything, even more expensive. Avoid Eduard and Accurate Miniatures kits for now, they are good kits but complex and fiddly builds. Revel and Airfix are a mixed bag. Their newer stuff is good and easy to build but their older moulds can be a challenge. However they are quite cheap and so make good practice fodder for honi

As far as I am aware the 'c' and 'e' refered to the armament mounted not the wing itself which was the 'universal' wing so the IXe stripes should fit. You may need to make a minor cut and touch up around the gun ports but that should be all (the 'e' mounted a 20mm in the outer cannon bay and a .50" in the inner bay as opposed to a 20mm in the inner and an empty outer with two .303"MGs in the MG bays in the outer wing for the 'c').

Wot? You can't be serious! Robin Hood at Hastings? Sure that is what is being portrayed? I heard Richard Lionheart was meant to be the baddy in this one and he was King in the 1190s not the 1060s. Also every Hood legend has Robin fighting Norman oppression well inland, Sherwood and Nottingham being about as far from the sea as it is possible to get in England (OK it is still not far I admit, but far enough for people in the neighbouring county, Derbyshire, to develop the famous Derby Neck due to Iodine deficiency). Shame on Englishman Ridley Scott if he has allowed the Hollywood srceenwriters

I'll pop them in the post later this morning. Hope you get them soon.

If it is only the NEI triangles you need then I have them and more importantly have found them (after a build I cut up the remaining sheet decals into National Insignia, personal markings etc and file them under different categories). I should have the other markings somewhere but finding them will take some time. You would be very welcome to these free gratis so if you send me your snail-mail address to paul_charlwood@hotmail.co.uk I'll post them to you. NB they will be cominig from the UK so I have no idea how long they will take to get there but I'll send them by air so hopefully within a w

Guys, this is what a capitalist free market economy is all about - they can charge whatever prices they like and will keep pushing the prices up until we stop buying, then they will drop them down a bit until we start buying again knowing that we will probably start buying again before prices have dropped to their old level. Interesting that we are all mad keen on capitalism and then ***** about it when we are on the receiving end. Let's at least be consistent. (Have any of you ever stopped to ask yourselves how much, in terms of a daily wage, a bottle of Coca-cola costs in the third world? I

Interesting Aaronw, I did not know that before. Was that a throwback to the very light grey that their first Hanriot HD2s were supplied in?

Navy biplanes spent most of their service lives in the classic silver and "golden wings" livery with the colourful section markings and carrier code empennages typical of that period. They only changed to light grey or "neutrality grey" in late 1939 or 1940. As far as I know this was the same light grey as was later used in the early war blue-grey over light grey scheme that we know and love from Coral Sea and Midway. The FS equivalent listed in my references is 36440 which Lifecolour produce as UA025 Light Gull Grey (although I have never seen the scheme listed anywhere as blue-grey over ligh

Hi, I've checked through Frank Mason's book "The Hawker Hurricane" and can only find references to the Mk IV using rockets operationally. Having said that it would be worth doing a bit of research into what obvious EXTERNAL differences there were between the IIC and the IV. It may only be a case of filling some panel lines on the wings and scribing new ones. Unfortunately while there are good line drawings of a IIC in the book there are none of a IV so I cannot help further on that one.

The RAF name was Dull (Dark?) Red (the dark rings a bell but I'm not completely sure). As I understand it the real insignia colours were for US insignia not UK although Humbrol 'Insignia Red' 153 and 'Insignia Yellow' 154 do seem to be based on the colours in the RAF roundel and I suspect are a case of misnaming.