The Words from the Vaults!

This year's Crystal Balls

At this stage of a New Year - well, at least I'm writing this as the Year of the Dragon is trying a few experimental flaps of its wings - announcements are being made in one form or another of some at least of what we can look forward to between now and, say, the next ScaleModelWorld. Thanks to my name presumably not having been deleted from the corporate address list when I gave up writing for SAM the new Revell catalogue thumped on to my doormat this week (in English and Spanish - I wonder what the other language combinations are). Even though it's been a while since I was responsible for compiling a New Kits List for the benefit of others, something I always enjoyed even if I never got to Nuremburg - since 1949, anyway - I still seek through such publications for what might engage my fancy at some level in the next few months as wll as the various magazines as they gather information. Mind you, given that the focus of much of my modelling has changed over the last few years what I'm looking for, as you'll know if you've followed my deathless prose for any length of time, has altered somewhat; I still hope for the odd Real Aircraft to have engaged the attention of one or other of the major manufacturers, last year's Airfix Valiant being a case in point, and I'm waiting (fairly) patiently for Hasegawa's EA-18G Growler to materialise in 1:72nd (which reminds me, what happened to all thos USN aviation Centennial special schemes we hoped for last year?). I always tried when I was making up The List for SAM to contact the "Cottage Industry"/"third level" kit makers " - I don't think we ever came up with a universally accepted term, the US "aftermarket" for me only being satisfactory for "bits", though I've always like the French artisanale - to add their Master Plans, and it's on these that my attention lights more readily these days because of my current devotion to the counterfactual. As well as the expectations raised by the Anigrand Craftswork "Future Releases" page and the occasionally changing plans of Colin Strachan's Freightdog Models - this title now seems to have returned to overall popular use and perhaps someone could draught a cartoon freightdog? - Mel Bromley's S&M Models have recently, and will in this coming year, provide an interesting source. While some of the less likely subjects fly straight out of the (well-thumbed!) pages of Colin Gibson's splend "Vulcan's Hammer", we are also invited to expect in time for Telford in 1:144th a Vickers Windsor and an Avro Tudor; which version of each I hope to talk with Mel about this coming weekend at MK, but I have plans to make the Windsor in the colours of 57 Squadron, Tiger Force.

And just to make sure I make a real aeroplane once in a while I've just picked up a Cyber-Hobby Sea Vixen 1 to remind me of, when we lived just off the western end of the Christchurch runway the cups in the cupboard would rattle alarmingly whenever a freshly-minted one would be launched. And with a Gnat likely to be in a goodies bag when I come home tomorrow, I see a Yellowjack in my future! And if I can get hold of the new profile on '50s/'60s RN AEW projects, maybe a little discussion with the Casters Of Resin.

The real X-Wing

Also at Milton Keynes will be at least one "Flying Squirrel"; not the real name, but the shape always makes me think of the liitle creature airborne with its forelegs stretching desperately for its landing branch. It's really, if somewhat prosaically, the BAe P.1214-3, one of a series of studies for a replacement for the first-generation Harrier that was met by the rather less striking GR.5/AV-8B. Thanks to one of my What If? SIG colleagues providing me with the appropriate specially-prepared parts, one has already appeared on the SIG's tables, wearing a 71 Squadron anniversary scheme and the name Peregrine GR.1; this time the source is a kit cast by Anigrand (who have already made it in 1:144th as one of their "extras") and marketed by Allen Ury's Fantastic Plastic. As soon as I was announced in FP's newsletter earlier in 2011 I planned for at least one in my future, and on finding just before Telford that it was available I decided that I would need at least two roundel-wearing examples, and then added a third as a probable AV-8G (or something similat, though I rather doubt that the Congressional Appropriations Committee would be persuaded that it was just further development in the all-American McDonnell AV-8 series). The breakdown of parts is virtually the same as that in the smaller scale, accompanied by an equally unconvincing pair of bombs; although I've added a pair of wingtip-mounted AIM-9Ls from a Hasegawa weapons set I've left the "racks" at the front of the booms unoccupied, though I hope to have something suitable attached by the time it appears in public. Not wanting to get in to the grey scheme yet I've used the NATO Green/Lichen Green that I applied to my earlier example and raided the Modeldecal Sabre sheet fot the 67 Squadron bars and fin striping; with the A flight colour red on the port fin and the B flight blue on the starboard it is of course the boss's aircraft, though I have yet to add the identifying letter J. The access panel warning lines and the rescue marking are from the kit decals, as is the jigsawed serial XZ 490. It is said - indeed, there's an excellent recently-published monograph devoted to it - that the project that followed immediately on, the P.1216 of a similar layout but with the wings swept back rather than forward, was a much likelier proposition, and I hope someone will take advantage of the research shown in the book to turn that in to resin, but I like the really dramatic shape of this variant. Should you be equally tempted there are a few marking options even if you confine yourself to GR.5/Shar/AV-8; my next will almost certainly need a "marinizing" treatment and carry a later generation of weapons. Production and fit of the kit is to Anigrand's customary excellent standard; I don't know if it's been sold by anyone other than Fantastic Plastic, but as so often these days I'm grateful to PayPal for making this sort of buying simple enough for a Grumpy Old Modeller.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a couple of grandchildren's chimneys to wriggle down in the next hour or two......(OK, so I had to breath in a bit, but it worked and Fun Was Had!)

Double the pleasure, double the fun!

No, I can't remember either, but I think it's an echo of some dubious TV commercial of my youth, and it's apposite now because as occasionally happened I've enjoyed making one model so much that I've gone straight on to its sibling. While I sometimes build a pair at the same time, events - Telford, Christmas etc, - dictated that I followed the two above with their next in line. As correctly forecast the tanker mark of the Victoria (S&M Vickers 1000 if you insist) was ready to follow the C.1 straight on to the workbench, facilitated by my having bought an Airfix VC.10 tanker a while back with the intention of fitting a pair of RB.211s as a sort of modified "Poffler" (which may yet happen); from this I took the underwing FR pods and the probe, and with an split end of a drop tank added the centreline HDU outlet to make the K.(C).2. My intention had always been to use the Gulf War nose art of the "BP/The Empire Strikes Back" on a hemp/grey scheme, and after asking the usual suspects I found cast carelessly at the back of one of my decal files the Liveries Unlimited VC.10 sheet with this, and more besides. It wasn't until I'd solved this Quest that I noticed that the markings were also included in the Airfix kit! Having enjoyed this kit so much in both its military guises I am being sorely tempted to go really over to the dark side with an airliner version; I quite fancy a British Caledonian VC.7. though of course it may just be the memory of the tune, and the girls, in the B.Cal.commercial.

The second half of this particular double was another "BAe Peregrine" from Fantastic Plastic/Anigrand; having labelled the first as a GR.1, I thought that with the passage of time this would have progressed to a GR.4, though it's true that in recent years the sequence and allocation of mark numbers has, to the simple spotter, verged on the random; mind you, the Pentagon are no better - F.35, pah! To follow the early example in the colours of 67 Squadron I fancied the scheme worn by the Naval Strike Wing aircraft on the occasion of the Harrier Force disbandment, and to indicae the mark's development by substituting Amraams for Sidewinders, adding a Sniper pod (Skunk Works) under one wing and a consequent pair of Paveways in place of the "dumb" 1,000 poinders on the GR.1 (none of the offensive weaponry has yet been attached, but they should be in place in time for their public appearance at Milton Keynes). The decals are from the amazingly comprehensive set by The Aviation Workshop marking the disbandment of Joint Force Harrier; marketed now under the unifying brand name Airframe, and with serious input from the dedicated enthusiasts of the Harrier SIG the instructions alone are a small booklet, though I have two comments which don't reflect on the undoubted quality of the decals. There is so much information that with an A5 page size much of it has necessarily to be in very small print, something of a challenge to the ageing modeller; and the presentation is, as is almost universal these days, in the colours of the original aircraft, with oval colour patches to identify that applicable to individual aircraft. I found though, that distinguishing between the lighter greys at least on the profiles was not easy; I try on my "What Ifs" to stick as closely to the original as possible, but when I got to the decal stage I had an uneasy feeing that I have used Camouflage Grey when it should have been Medium Sea Grey. It's another of my hobby horses, by I feel that for clarity the colour often needs to be identified by name as well as being matched as closely as possble in the reproduction. With unusual prescience I got three of these, just in case they suddenly become unavailable, so I have time to consider what the third might be; I shall probably keep an eye open for some interesting AV-8 markings. I wouldn't want the USMC to miss the fun, would I?

To Milton Keynes.....and beyond!

The first show of the new year, for us Southern Softies at least, is ModelKraft put on by the IPMS Milton Keynes Branch (subtle, eh?) and for us residents of North Buck our local show. It's been expanding year on year, and is now probably the biigest one-day event, at least in this part of the world, and although this has meant it becoming a multi-floor - with the lift for the aged modeller only reaching the first - and multi-hall show it's become a must-go-to day, with the first chance of the year to catch up with the modelling chums and the gossip about What's New! The two Victorias and the two Peregrines are scheduled to be taken there - the "X-Wings" have now acquired their more lethal warload, and the GR.4 now has a cannon barrel protruding slightly from its starboard pod - and they'll be joined by a couple of other new-builds, and possbly a pair of older models before they go in to longer-term storage. The Peregrine would have been a rather bigger aircraft than the Harrier which it was designed to replace which is why, apart from the family connection, I've added a Hunter to this group n the sound basis that everyone knows how big a Hunter is; and this isn't any Hunter, this is a Freightdog Hunter. At least, it's a Colin Strachan/Paul Lucas resin conversion for the Xtrakit Hunter T.7, with a new nose and a pair of Firestreaks for the P.1130 project from the Kingston drawing office. For the backstory for this one, the Royal Auxiliary Air Force wasn't disbanded in 1957, and 604 Squadron - who had previously flown NF Mosquitos - were one of the units selected, in this case covering the defence of London from North Weald, with the markings coming from an Xtradecal Meteor sheet. One of the single-seat Hunters of Hawker's test fleet appeared at Farnborough in, I think, 1957 or '58 with a pair of rather elegany teardrop-shaped tip tanks, and I've seen some reference - which I now of course can't find, just like the necessary photos - stating that these were being tested for a potential night fighter version, but they apparently produced too much turbulence. If I can find a possible pair, though, I could well add them later for cosmetic purposes. The Freightdog instruction sheet points out the problems with the Xtrakit T.7, which are also highlighted in a review in the latest SAMI; you just have to work out which angle to look at it from. The conversion itself, which as well as the new nose and the Firestreaks has their pylons,and an extra pair of pylons if you want to mount the kit drop tanks in the outer position, is to Freightdog's customary excellent standard.

More pictures - now with words!

Some time back a paragraph in Combat Aircraft mentioned that BAES and Their Airships were discussing adding a few 146QCs to the strength to cover the wearing-out of the older C-130s in Afghanistan; by chance I had a Revell 146 STA very hear the front of my garage and this suggested itself, in a rather matt dark green - Xtracolor NATO green, as you ask - with a couple of extra lumps, though I forbore from adding a Secret Squirrel under the drivers' window. Decoration, both national and unit, is by courtesy of Modeldecal; with 32 Squadron already having qualified chaps, and indeed operating in theatre in the shiny white limousine version, having their bars on a Vampire sheet was an obvious advantage. I think it looks good in warpaint, though I'm told by One Who Knows that they are likely to look just the same as the VIP commuters. The second of this pair that I wanted to have ready for ModelKraft doesn't fall in with my current master plan of only building models with roundels, but I liked the look of it when the Sharkit box top showed up on the Hannants New Releases page, and ordered it on the over-used theory that I'd know what to do with it when I saw it. Named the Piranha I think it was designed as a "low-cost" interceptor, and the kit comes with a pair of Matra Magic AAMs for the wingtip, and what could be a couple of cannon-housing bulges just behind the nosewheel door. It was while I was applying the Freightdog conversion to the Xtrakit Hunter T.7 to make it a night fighter that I spotted the arrestor hook on the sprue resting next to the Sharkit decals, and I had my obvious answer - it was obviously destined to be a Swiss navy interceptor, using of course the hook. This gave me the chance to devise a colour scheme which would be relevant in clear blue Swiss skies, and as well as the (German) stylised anchors on the intakes you may just be able to see the Aeronavale anchors superimposed on the national markings and the Marine legend above the airbrakes. A word of appreciation for Sharkit; their resin kits have improved enormously over the last year or so, and while they still demand a certain level of work they can result in good models of interesting prototypes. I liked this so much that there could be another Piranha on my bench soon, perhaps with equally applicable markings.

PS. Apologies for the small smudge at around 11 o'clock of the two photos above; I think its hiding inside my camera, and I may have to send a team in to investigate it, at least before the air display season starts (Old Warden, 4 May if you haven't put the note in your diary yet).

The Nat.Champs! Oh, all right, ScaleModelWorld 2011

I had this really good idea that about a week before I was due to leave for this year's Telford extravaganza I'd write a short para or two here about what I was looking forward to, what models I planned to put on the SIG144 and What If? tables and what I hoped to bring back thinly disgised as the weekend shopping; this would mean that I'd be able after returning glowing on the Monday afternoon to write a proper report, possibly on the Travels page, with many illustrations, particularly of models that had caught my eye in the competition. Well, that didn't work. Rather more than two weeks after it's over I'm composing what will inevitably only be part one of the story so far, with I hope a couple of pictures and a verbal peek in to my somewhat overstuffed goodies bags.

It's become evident over the years that time permitting the best way to approach this two day event is to arrive betimes on the day before, preferably with a marked-up copy of the floor plan; this year there was a colour one in SAM, even though it was in a font size to tax the ageing modellers' eyesight, and a rather larger-print one in the IPMS magazine which readily accepted my highlighter daubing. And this year my models were ready at least forty-eight hours before ETD, the accomodation confirmed and arrangements made to share a Saturday night dinner with some old - no, long-standing - friends; and there were packages to be collected not only in the traditional Big Yellow East Anglian Bag but also from Mel Bromley of S & M Models (no, me neither, but they weren't in a plain brown wrapper). Even the bag was packed, and I'd brought a few useful items in case I got the opportunity for a little light public whittling, and blowing the light out on the Thursday, I felt just a little smug; then I got up on the Friday morning with a virtually vanished voice.

Never mind, with a lozenge or two it would surely be back once I was approaching the Severn, and of course one of the anticipated great joys of SMW is the chance to meet and chat to people, especially the above-mentioned friends, that I get to see there once a year, and some of them do turn up at the occasional IPMS Branch show as well. But the lozenges didn't work, and by the time Andy Scott relented and let us in through the side loading doors five minutes early - those who are keen get fell in previous - there was a whole colony of frogs in my throat. Fortunately it wasn't actually painful, merely frustrating, probably as much for those who were trying to work out what I was croaking as for me. Still, the reconnaissance - time spent in which is, as you know, seldom wasted - duly took place and several contacts established, the models delivered to their respective SIG tables and the pre-requested Vickers 1000/VC.7 and Avro 730, which should appear here in that order in the next couple of months, grasped in my hot little hands to be waved at my fellow SIG colleagues with enthusiastic if hoarse details. One or two other items also came with me when I went off to the hotel - ah, the joy of Ring Roads - accompanied by Martin Denny of Dalrymple and Verdun and a copy of his their Tempest from the prolific Tony Buttler (and it's got a Joe Cherrie model of the Eagle-Tempest, to my mind the best-looking variant).

The frogs were still in residence on Saturday morning, but the perambulation, acquisition and conversation - this perhaps less successful than the other two, but I spent a most entertaining half-hour on the Aviation Bookshop stand chatting to Charles Keil, the authot of the excellent Sabre from the Cockpit and reminiscing about our parallel days and experiences in 2 TAF - continued as though nothing was amiss and I could still be heard. One of my regular stops is at the Revell stand to see if there's anything to be gleaned this early about next year's releases, and while there will be no doubt a ready market for the 1:48th Ventura, and it's a characteristic somewhat adventurous choice from this company, my attention was grabbed by the completed 1:72nd Airbus A-400. I was told that it's due to be available in time to give Santa Claus a bulk-out problem, at least in the UK, and inevitably triggered two questions of where I might be able to put it when completed and what markings I might choose for it (I think it's 70, or CXX, Squadron that are due for it at Brzn). This stand also tends to be where old friends run in to one another; here I am in the distinguished company of Dick Ward, David Howley and Dave White, all of whom I met around the time I joined IPMS in 1968 (that on the home page was taken by Dave, and has the geniel Volker Vahle of Revell Germany centre stage - names dropped while you wait!). Dick was later instrumental in persuading me on to the committee, which also included Dave W, and from this much else followed, including my writing the IPMS column for SAM and therefore Tailpiece, to say nothing of my wearing Freda Myles' bra-strap (I'll come back to that). Before the end of the afternoon I decided that I really needed a lie down in a darkened room ahead of the night's Dinner, and that I was probably spent and talked out for the time being anyway.

Sunday becomes a catch-up day; this year I finally found Kevin Byrne, of the Irish Air Corps, another friend that I met through IPMS when he came regularly to Southern Expo, and discussed aspects of our respective recessions; I'd seen Joe Maxwell of Max Decals the day before - we first met in the company of Dick Ward (him again) in a basement model shop in Dublin on our way to a Baldonnel air day many years ago - when he passed me a set of his very colourful new sheet of Antarctic helicopters, which I'll put up here somewhere when I can get my website illustration process working again. And I decided I couldn't go home without a copy of the book on the elegant Republc XR-12 Rainbow - which actually covers much more - by Mike Machat, from Specialty Press, and which raises the very tempting possibility of a tanker version! I toured the competition area and took some snaps, some of which I also plan to put up here if and when; one of those that sticks in my mind is the Israeli Meteor FB.2 - with turboprops, though I'm not wholly convinced that it would have had six-bladed propellers - of the Valley Squadron and wearing black/yellow "Suez stripes", and there was a really good Valiant B.2 "Black Bomber" based on the Mach 2 kit and with a very well produced little booklet describing the conversion process. I hope this turns up as an article somewhere, though what I'd really like is a set of resin/metal bits to fit the Airfix Valiant, but I have hopes for another alternative for 2012 which could be coincident with Airfix's own PR./K. set; combining the two could save me at least some notional space. So that was it, really, apart from a few more strangled conversations and the packing-up. By the end I'd assembled four goodies bags, two Waitrose, one Sainsbury and one M&S, holding amongst other treasures two Azur Vautours - and I realise I'm give a succession of hostages to fortune by listing any of these - the S&Ms previously mentioned, an Omega Hawk 200 fuselage to go with the new Airfix kit, the AlleyCat Vampire FB.5 to remind me of my days at Middleton and Chivenor, the Freightdog conversion for the Hunter night fighter and the Hasegawa F/A-18E/F "Bicentennial Combo". Sadly this didn't come with decals for the "retro" schemes for which I'd hoped, but I live in hope that someone will do them in 1:72nd, though the output so far in this scale has been rather disappointing. And there were a few decals, as well as the Max choppers, including "retro" Goshawks from DrawDecal, so there's a bit to be going on with; and to add to the weight of expectation, when I got home there was a package from Fantastic Plastic with three BAE. P.1214-3 "X-wing" (well, how many would you have ordered?).

On Monday many of the Usual Suspects were to be seen at the Conservation Centre at Cosford, marvelling at the Hampden, the Wellington and the Dolphin, providing a very satisfactory conclusion to the weekend; but I need to return to the Saturday night Dinner for which, being a ceremonial occasion, I was wearing the IPMS bow tie which the then Secretary, Freda Myles, fashioned with the help of the previously-mentioned strap. It's treasured to this day, and the only item of mine for which Alan Hall ever professed envy. I confess that I was feeing at least a couple of degrees under par when I resurfaced from my pre-prandial doze (it's the age) but I'd arranged to sit in the distinguished company of Trevor Snowden and Neil Robinson, and we were joined by Martin Denny, Richard Farrar of the IPMS committee and John Adams and Claire; and with our table backing on to that of the Farnborough IPMS Branch, my shoulder backed on to that of Dick Ward. The evening's speaker was Tony James, a long time attendee at this event, and after that the President, Paul Regan, rose for what he described as a few housekeeping announcements. This started with the award of a Life Membership to an unsuspecting recipient, whose identity became evident when Paul mentioned Modeldecal; it was of course Dick Ward, whom I met as soon as I joined the Society in 1968, who has become a good friend and whose decals, produced in conjunction with Mike Silk, set a standard by which even in these days of colour instruction sheets others are still judged, especially by those of us who remember and have used them from the beginning. The applause was considerable prolonged, and deserved, and the recipient taken aback, but he recovered to thank those there. When we sat down from the ovation, Paul announced that there was a second, and said a few kind and flattering words about the equally unsuspecting recipient; I know just how unsuspecting, because it was me that he presented with the little silver tray marking the occasion. Even if I'd had a voice I would have been speechless, and those of you who know me will know how rare a state that is! When I did manage to dislodge enough frogs to give my thanks - and to say that my delight was doubled by receiving it in tandem with Dick Ward - in a very sotto voce, I managed to say that I would try to make it last as long as possible. After all, especially at this time of the year, a Life Membership is not just for Christmas.

Apologies for the lack of photos; now I'll try and figure out while my processing routine isn't working, and hope that normal service can be resumed....

..............well, as normal as it gets, anyway. Having worked out in a bout of insomnia what I wasn't doing right I'm returning to plan A and putting something in the "Travels" page, and probably in "Workbench" as well. Organisation and logic?

SMW plus Fallout

Mel Bromley has several more kits in the 2012 pipeline with What If? potential, and the first to roll off my line is this BAC Victoria C.1 (Falklands 1982). To be fair to Mel the name is mine, his box top describing it quite correctly as a Vickers 1000; I'd always thought that this designation referred to the miltary version, with VC.7 for the airliner following on from the VC.1 Viking, reference to the Putnam Book of Vickers revealed each to be correct for either. The kit includes decals for a BOAC aircraft in the style of the early 707s, with the 707 registration G-APFD on the sound basis that had Our National Airline bought the British contender the bureaucratic allocation would have happened at the same time. You will probably not be surprised to see the RAF roundels in this photo, and like the rest of all the decals except for the cockpit windows the came from the AirDecal RAF VC.10 sheet, including the slightly adapted and lengthened cheat line.

For those of us who like to rattle through a series of models, in which I readily include myself - go on, pretend you're surprised! - one of the virtues of many resin lits is that they have a limited number of parts. In this case the fuselage comes in three parts, the wing in four and three single piece tail surfaces; the fuselage is divided fore and aft, with an underbelly that helps to join the two with the aid of a couple of pins and sockets. The inner wings slot in to semi-recesses, helped by thinning down their trailing edges a little, and pins and sockets are also used to locate the vertical and horizontal tail surfaces. In each case the sockets need a little extra dirilling out, and about a year ago I bought a set of the five colour-coded Mr.Hobby drills from the invaluable Bob Brown of MDC, and shortly afterwards bought a second set in case any of the first set went off on their own; so far only one of the pink ones has wandered away. With each the allocated place in the box has it's drill size listed so I can sound, however unlikely, technically knowledgeable.

OK, back to the model; the casting is very neat and clean and the fit very good, but you will need sone fine filler at the join contact points. Apart from the undercarriage and its doors, the only other parts are the four jet pipes and the two extra fuel tanks; I seem to remember that when this style first appeared on the Comet 4 they were called "pinion tanks", but this term seems to have fallen from use. All the options on the AirDecal sheet were of the white/grey scheme; one of them included a Red Cross-marked aircraft on the post-Falklands run, which precluded the optional Transpont Command or ASC titling, but helped to fix the time and place. The small 10 Squadron marking is on the fin, and the serial XR101 was cobbled together from those on the sheet,and even though all my copies of Bruce Robertson's "Every Boy's Book of Blackout Blocks" are currently in hiding I think I've avoided a "real" aeroplane. I've really enjoyed this, and my C(K).2 (Gulf War) is already underway with the hope of having both of them ready for the SIG table at the Milton Keynes ModelKraft at the beginning of February

The Art of Coarse Modelling

Long, long ago in the days when I still took two Sunday newspapers a sports writer in one of them wrote a book titled "The Art of Coarse Rugby"; it wasn't that long then since I'd left school where I'd taken part, inexpertly and rather reluctantly in the "sport of hooligans played by gentlemen", althought it's fair to say that at the time I thought it was possibly the one sport that could be enjoyed without actually being good at it. I still remembered enough from my days on the pitch to enjoy Michael Green's descriptions of the inexpert desperation with which the game could be played, and in particular about the "Extra B" fifteens fielded, sometimes with as many as fifteen players, by the many determinatedly amateur rugby union clubs so that ageing aficionados could work off their aggression on Saturday afternoons.

Like The Bad Modeller's Handbook, it's occurred to me at sporadic intervals over the years that Coarse Modelling is a supportable concept; the two could even be related. The thought spiked again a couple of days ago when I was brushing a Dark Green camouflage pattern on my current 1121 (known to Mel Bromley and me as Red 3) and looking at my handiwork - or perhaps not-so-handiwork - with a not quite focused eye (Iblame the new "modelling" glasses. Although I had stirred the Xtracolor with a suitable length of sprue, and dipped the soft square-tipped brush that I'd selected carefully down to the bottom of the tinlet, there were still very evident streaks in the application. Given the layout of my workroom, if at all possible I try to fit in any broad-brush work reasonably early in the day - fill in your own idea of reasonable - when there's some natural light to help the artificial; it's at times like this that I appreciate artists' preference for north light, but mine comes mostly from the west and from mid-afternoon onwards can be a source of glare or gloom, usually influenced by the occurrence of Wimbledon or a Serious Test Match (see Grant Baynham's "England Green"), and it did show up the problems with the finish. Although it's an excuse I've used in the past, I didn't think I could pass this off as natural wear on a busy airframe.

It was this that got the "coarse modelling" stream of consciousness sloshing round my thoughts. One of its indications is probably the "life is too short to stuff a mushroom" syndrome with which I failed totally to convince a French modeller at a Dudford display a couple of summers ago, that when I make a model it usually has an instinctive "finish by..." date beyond which my interest, unless spurred by one of my selection of Absolutely Essential Deadlines, tends to fall away, even if mould doesn't actually appear on the model. Similarly the amount of detail that I apply to a model, especially if it's to be somewhat unseen, is comparatively minimal, even if it's supplied with the kit; as I'm making it for my own amusement - I think that's the right word - rather that reviewing the kit I don't feel impelled to include every last piece. Similarly I don't often raid the lists of the plethora of "extras" now available, unless it's for something that makes the build easier. Reading most of the modelling magazines these days, not only do the prices of the added bits add up to more than that of the kit, but it seems sometimes that the kit - and especially the subject - counts for less than the added bells and whistles (that's for the SIG members who claim that I'm not sufficiently Grumpy!).

I'm not totally immune to the Joy of Extra Bits; the coming of the Airfix TSR.2 in particular, and the parts produced for the then-excellent Model Aircraft Monthly, with the guidance of Neil Robinson, but the equally excellent Paul Lucas, were a real boon, in that they enabled visible variations as well as the occasional correction, to the model. This is I suspect the key to how I look at Bits; I still recall from time to time the look on Tim Perry's face all those years ago when he started producing his PP etched brass enhancements in 1:72nd scale that the model was after all only a canvas for a colur scheme and that his very neat ladders, however carefully constructed, didn't really contribute. I suppose I could have said the same about those other novelties of the same period, John Adams' Aeroclub metal ejector seats, but I found those very useful; they were relatively easy to paint and install, and frequently performed a useful function in helping to keep the model sitting properly on its nosewheel.

On the Tom Lehrer theory that I only steal from the best, I still find occasion to recall and quote that deadly question posed - back in the 'sixties, I think - by World War I expert and builder of superb and highly detailed models of that era Harry Woodman "Are you a modeller or an assembler of plastic kits?". I realised long ago that I fall squarely in to the latter category, describing myself if the need arises as an aircraft enthusiast that builds plastic models (yes I know that there are enthusiasts that also build real models, and some of them still speak to me). The ultimate finish is something else I gave up striving for a while back, with the excuse - which, like the best, has a fair element of truth in it - that a "showroom" finish generally looks unrealistic (and of course takes much longer). It's not impossible to find traces at least of a seam or even - gasp! - a small gap if you look closely, though I don't advise it. Once in a while I make vague lunges in the direction of being a modeller; I've used that thin Tamiya masking tape recently to get at least thebasis of a straight painted line, though I still prefer to hand paint freehand. The essential principle of Coarse Modelling - like I suppose that of Coarse Rugby - is to do it to your satisfaction and enjoyment, and coarse isn't just for wet-and-dry. A Real Modeller world surely have a tidy workbench, ot at least try to sort it from tike to time; but even if there's modelling that needs to be done now, there's always an alternative; yesterday's was to be up in a Real Aeroplane three years older than me - but better maintained. I have to say, it was a tight fit; I don't think de H did XXL in 1933.

Destination Telford

The loom of ScaleModelWorld usually brings on a spasm of activity, and this is the first of four models, two for the What If? table and two for SIG144, that I took up this year. When Peter Lockhart was producing his series of resin Tornado fuselages in the 'nineties I tried very hard, but unsuccessfully, prompted by a 1:72nd plan in James Goulding's book "Interceptors" which made me think that this would have been the best-looking of Sydney Camm's Rolls-Royce engined fighters. to get him to produce an Eagle-Tempest conversion. Prompted by a recollection to this effect on seeing a model on a What If? SIG display table recently resulted in a pair of forward fuselage/radiator sets coming my way, and this is the first, suitably finished as the boss's aircraft of 3 Squadron when part of 2TAF/BAFO, with the markings as worn by its "real world" equivalent coming from a set of Freightdog decals, attracted doubtless by the traditional green decoration of the squadron; while completed some time before SMW it only found itself serialled just in time. with the serial adapted to fit in a "blackout block". My plans for the second include a pair of 40 mm cannon under the wings, the modified camouflage for the RAF Middle East around 1948, and the markings for Denis Crowley-Milling when he was the boss of 6 Squadron, with both "Gunners' stripe" and can-opener.

The SIG occasionally picks a theme for SMW and after some debate "1941" was selected for this year (the usual British attachment to anniversaries). Not unsurprisingly this brought thoughts of the opening of hostilities in the Pacific, and what emerged from the mists of my consciousnes was a Fokker D.XXIII, had one been based in the Dutch East Indies, and as it happened I had a Pegasus kit to hand over a year ago and I thought of re-engining it; both the Merlin and the DB601 had been considered by Fokker, but the idea of finding, attaching and blending in four new cowlings sent me back to the drawing board. Then one of the staple ideas of several of the SIG members, that of a twin-fuselage variant, occurred to me and I added a second kit thanks to the acquisition of Pegasus by Freightdog Models. Unsurprisingly it took me awaile to get around to it, so it wasn't till August that I started to work our what I was going to do about the joining centre-section and the wider-span tailplane. In the event it turned out to be fairly simple, aided by the relatively soft plastic that was Pegasus' standard and facilitated the cut/fit/trim-and-try-again process that is usually inevitable. This resulted in keeping the forward end of one of the booms as the middle of the wing centre section -this was used as a camera housing as I saw the aircraft in the long-range recononaisance role to take advantage of the two crew - and using a separated third fin in between the two tailplanes. The colour scheme was that from the Pegasus box - I found that a couple of the less-likely Humbrol colours were still around - with the Dutch orange/black markings overlaid with Hinomarus. The result was the hope-for double-takes at Telford, and for once the model turned out just as I'd envisioned it; but for its designation I'm still torn between D.XLVI and D.XXXIV.V. Ah, the joys of a classical education!

The other two were destined for the SIG144 stand, but within its largely sane membership there's a noticeable What If? strain. The idea for the first one (the bigger of this double act) has been rattling round my "one day..." thought for a while, probably ever since I saw one of Chinooks with the "scribble" camouflage at the post-Gulf war Mildenhall display, and Anigrand's production of the Boeing XC-62 HLH enabled me to paint a small "secret squirrel" silhouette each side of the nose. The kit comes with a couple ofheavy load lifting hooks underneath the fuselage, and I had hoped to hang acouple of fighting vehicles from them; with the rapid approach of Telford I couldn't make it work, but I was able to fit a couple of desert camo Land Rovers - Oxford cars N scale, but sadly unarmed - against the body. (By the way, does anyone know the name of a really serious strong Canadian wind? At the moment I'm stuck with Super Chinook). Its little friend is Dragon's kit of the "stealth H-60"; this arrived in the post with a set of Royal Flight decals, and the need for a hasty VIP exip became immediately apparent, and irresistable.

Lastly the S & M Sperrin, a type which has always held an interest for me; having already made the Magna kit as a K.2 and the Anigrand as a B.1, I had planned to complete this as the prototype with the red/white cheatline on the grey/black scheme, but changed my mind when I found I'd have to hand-paint the white edging to the red. It didn't take long to decide on an MR.3, which could have replaced the Shackleton 1 and 2. With the Czechmaster MR.2 on my shelving, with an excellent selection of markings, I added a MAD boom from an anonymous drop tank and a searchlight whittled from clear sprue. Having selected a 37 Squadron identity I'd already started to add the "Suez stripes" before I found that this was the only squadron that wore them on its Shacklebombers in 1956. Serendipity! After enjoying making this one, I may well find another role for an S & M Sperrin.Remember these.....?

I think that the last Aifix TSR.2 that I made was their excellent 1:48th version, which when I built it suggested that some improvements in the kit breakdown had been made following comments on the earlier !;72nd kit; I certainly remember the intake/fuselage/wing join being easier both to assemble and to fair. That must have been the best part of two years or more ago, and the shelf in the garage which holds the rest of my original shipping order offers a silent reproach from time to time as I try to pass it without looking or even blushing. Still, I had worked out a Master Plan all those years ago, and as it happens these two fit neatly in to it.

The final nudge to start on this pair came through an e-mail in response to my posting here of the swelling ranks of my S&M P.1121s, from Tony Grand who when writing of his plans for a two-seat version of the big Hawker referred me to his article in SAMI (17/5. May 2011) on his camouflaged swing-wing RCAF TSR.2. I had already drawn a couple of kits from stores with a plan to make them in series, starting with the Canadian in the "Voodoo" scheme of light grey with the red/white flash on the fuselage which had been included on one of the Xtradecal "What If?" sets; while I was fascinated by the conversion work that Tony had done in grafting a Tomcat nose to enable a better interceptor radar I had already planned to use the Freightdog fighter set with the underfuselage sideways radar producing, when equipped with suitable missiles, an "armed AWACS". Odds and Ordnance were about to hatch pairs of Genie missiles, the nuclear-tipped AAM from Douglas that was carried by NORAD Voodoos, designed to detonate in the vicinity of large Soviet bomber formations, and the pairing of this missile with an "Arctic Eagle" struck me as offering a credible deterrent. The IFR probe housing came with the radar "bath", as did a pair of radar Red Tops that were set aside for furture use though I did adapt their pylons, and the underwing fuel tanks are part of a separate "External Fuel Tank" set. I had hoped to install the Genies in that otherwise unexplained space just ahead if the nosewheel bay and divide its cover (part 70) to act as its doors, but the missiles were slightly too large, hence the pylons; what effect this would have had on its higher speeds I don't know, but the Genies do have a "Coke-bottleish" shape. Halfway through the build I found a Leading Edge decal sheet for a 416 "Lynx" Squadron decal sheet that had participted in the "William Tell" gunnery meet in 1982; it didn't appear to carry the large patch, but I thought this would look suitably celebratory on the fin - even though it only just fitted! - and in addition to the squadron badge in front of the fin flash there's another one representative of the CAF Air Defence Command, just behind the navigator's cockpit. Incidentally I decided that by the time these versions entered a fully-transparent cover would be practicable, and the Canadians in particular have always been keen on positive visual identification of possble targets, though you'd want to be rather farther away when launching the Genie.

The plan for the other kit was to realise in three dimensions at last an idea that's been bugging me since Airfix released the TSR.2 back in ........ no, on second thoughts don't calculate. I've always intended to make one in Fleet Air Arm colours, and at one stage planned to fit it with Vigilante wings for that extra lift, but at some stage I was looking at a pair of unused airbrake jacks and thought "Crusader!". At about the same time as Tony Grand's SAMI article, another magazine had a review of the re-released "satellite killer" kit in which the modeller recommended fitting the upper fuselage parts 23 and 42 to the wings before attaching them to the body, and after using this idea on the Canadian aircraft thought it would be a real advantage in sorting out the dividing-up of the wing; and so it did! I had hoped to find the Modeldecal sheet with the red flash markings for an 800 NAS Buccaneer on the fin, but I must have used them; it's Modeldecal's 809 phoenix on the fin though, with more phoenices by Aviation Workshop/Airframe on the Odds and Ordnance slipper tanks. What you can't see is the Freightdog Green Cheese anti-shipping missile fitted neatly in to the kit bomb bay; Freightdog do include a purpose-designed resin bomb bay, to replace that in an Airfix Buccaneer, but its reworking to fit the TSR.2 after assembling the fuselage (yes, I know I should have tried it before putting the fuselage together) would have taken more time/effort than I wanted to take. The good thing about the completion of these two is that I know that the ideas that have been lurking in the dustier part of my planning department worked as I hoped they wood; and the second good thing is that now maybe there'll be enough space to start on the Valiant. Now, what shall I use to carry those four radar Red Tops?

When a kit of something like this Optica appears, my first thought is how it might be used, quite possibly in a form that the designer/manufacturer might not have thought of. I remember it being promoted as a substitute for a helicopter for police and other low level duties, and the appearance of the resin Sharkit coincided with the arrival of a batch of Brimstones and the Sniper pod from the Aviation Workshop under their unifying Airframe label. Putting them together seemed reasonably obvious, but I'm not sure about my using Xtracolor British Helicopter Green - something rather darker and murkier is probably called for - and I don't know whether contemporary army attack helicopters carry any identifying unit markings. If you know of one that can be simply hand-painted very small I'd be obliged. the third of this batch, which were all built to meet a What If? SIG table date at a show, was because there had been general, and fairly acrimonious, discussion of the RAF's current very sad lack of a No.1 Squadron, this being thought even worse than the service's inability to produce a fighter squadron for Tiger Meets. At the show where this took place I picked up an Italeri Predator for a fiver and the result, with its 1 Squadron markings from Harrier and Hunter, is a three-dimensional comment on our current Light Blue state. The Brimstones came from the same Airframe batch and give it at least some warfighting capabiliry (yes, I'm aware that these are more properly carried by Reapers, but this isn't yet available in 1:72nd). Perhaps I should have added some form of direct lift to make it "thrice vertical".

To appease my guilt about the delay,, however insufficiently, and to encourage me to revisit some more recent shows, here's a mini-retrospective from San Diego.

These two from the same unit and in virtually the same retro scheme - the EA-18G didn't carry the white undersides of the Prowler - were certainly my favourite pair of the show; these 1942-ish colours have always been an attractive finish on a model, and (six months later!) I'm still hoping for the decals for these two in 1:72nd; my order is in with Two Bobs.

Added to the two Goshawks in the '30s "yellow wing" colours, the colours make even this T-34 - not my favourite trainer - look attractive, especially with the black fuselage band and the green tail of, I think, the Enterprise ai wing (my crib sheet has gone in to hiding and when it resurfaces I'll correct this if needed). And whether it's the props I don't know, but the P-3 looks really good in this P-2 scheme. Best of all though for me were the T-45C Goshawks in their 'thirties colours; this one was taken on Friday the 12th from the Coronado beach right next to the North Island NAS, the sand seeming to be populated entirely by dog walkers and chaps with long lenses. Six months on the feel of the sunshine is still with me.

and back in jolly ol' England.......

At some stage of my sorting out - in theory, anyway - what goes where on this site shows, whwrwver they are, have wound up in travels, and while the mileage involved may not be as extensive as Goin' to California June and July did find my thirstymobile on the road to four - five, includuing Old Warden, but that's not far from the back garden - Days Out With Aeroplanes. I'm now trying to catch up with these, but while the photos may show the right aeroplanes they may not necessarily be in the right order (I only steal from the best).

With all due respect to my erstwhile Leader Tim Prince - and I'll hope to get back to my soggy day at Fairford - the principal event of my UK summer is, as always, Flying Legends at Duxford. The Fighter Collection always seem to be able to pull something new out of their flying hat, and this year's was a very shiny P-38 Lightning thanks to Red Bull. They also brought an F4U, but for me it was the "fork-tailed devil" - it probably sounds even better in German - that was one of the main attractions. Legends also seems to produce formations of note as part of the display, as ell a the traditional Balbo - that closes the show and this year the Hawker biplane four were superb, with both Nimrods joining the Hart and the gorgeous Demon (fighter squadrons always did have better markings) to perform together and as two pairs. The presence in a hangar of an immaculate Fury wearing the markings of 43 Squadron's CO gives hope that next year we could see the Sydney Camm Five - there was something of that kind, if slightly further down the timeline, at Waddington - and I liked the comment of the French commentator that the Fury would probably be allowed to fly when the weight of the paperwork matched that of the airframe. Similarly non-flying, but on the flight-line to have its picture taken, was P-47G Thunderbilt "razorback" Snafu; with luck - and paperwork - that'll appear in its natural element later this year.

In contrast with the stately formation of two Dragons and a Rapide, that of three Skyraiders had an air of muscular urgency; the two French examples were in familiar schemes - and I've always liked the marking of VA-176 "Stingers" - but this year the AD-4N of Kennet Aviation looked very smart in the early gloss sea blue scheme with the green fin markings of VA-155. And added to two familiar P-40s there was a "new" one, a Merlin-engined F wearing desert camouflage, the codes of the 85th FS/79th FG in Italy in 1944 and substantial nose art with the name Lee's Hope. Registered VH-PIV, it had made its first post-restoration flight in April. And as a change from trios, there was an immaculate flight demonstration by a pair of P-51s over from the USA; named Fragile but Agile and February they flew a one against a backdrop more dull than they deserved.

At a time when air displays seem, at least in the eyes of the enthusiast to be dwindling in content and perhaps even in attendance the Fighter Collecton, hosted by IWM Duxford, continue to to put on a display that is worth more than just M.Michelin's detour, continuing to deserve an expedition to see the best of the European warbird scene and the show that, on this side of the water at least, I really don't want to pass up. At this point I would normally urge you to block off the second weekend in July as soon as you get your 2012 diary, but I gather that next year's projected air display programme is something else that's being seriously affected by the timing of the 2012 Olympics, and discussions are still being held with the CAA on allocation and use of airspace. Still we might be able to see Snafu and the Fury later this year; a Kestrel among the Merlins perhaps.

Wouldn't that be loverly?

Circularity

Apart from Mr.T's barber's creation, what's lasted longest from "The A Team" is probably "I love it when a plan comes together"! It doesn't, perhaps too often, always happen (the Sabres have progressed hardly at all, and I've not yet written the review the "Sabre from the Cockpit" deserves) but occasionally..... After going to San Diego for the February sunshine and the first of the U S Navy's aviation centennial celebrations, I should by the time this hits cyberspace be on my way to Oceana and Miramar for the East and West Coast finales; there were a few of the retro colour schemes that weren't available for the early show, and even given that some of them don't seem to travel transcontinentally I hope to finish with a full set. As an added bonus we're stopping at Fallon on the way across - a base, like Oceana, to which I've never been over the years - and there's a chance of a Hunter or two (my son tells me that when he saw one in NCIS he thought they were joking him, but I've reassured him). To help feed my addiction to these retro schemes, the first three of the 1:72nd scale decal sets from Two Bobs recently dropped through my letter box, and apart from some stylish, if rather small, zaps they include the Prowler and Growler from VAQ-129 which are about to distract me from my roundel habit; to be on the safe side I picked up a couple of EA-6Bs from Collectakit at the IPMS Farnborough show - another habit I find hard to break is thinking of it as the Plastikfest - last weekend and I gather that there's a Hasegawa EA-18G on the way, for which I am fattening the piggybank. As before I hope to be able to produce at least a few photos here after I've warmed down on my return. This should complete a circle of its own; I've been visiting American aviation events almost annually since I left gainful employment, with this being my fourth "final" trip to the US, and if it does prove to be really the last it should be a good one to finish on.

Another circle of a sort was completed recently. My youngest uncle, born in 1918, joined the RAF in 1938, trained as a Sergeant Observer and joined the Blenheim-equipped 57 Squadron at Upper Heyford in time to go to war in France in September 1939. The task of the four Blenheim squadrons of the Air Component was reconnaissance, which required them to fly their sorties singly; they continued this practice when the drole de guerre came to an end on 10 May, and on 17 May Roy's was alone when it was found by fifteen Bf 109s; he received a head wound, and his pilot landed the aircraft, the medical teams getting him on to the last hospital boat out of Boulogne. Recovery took a while but he retrained as a pilot, and by the end of the war was with the Empire Central Flying School at Hullavington; one of my clear memories is hearing him at home saying that he'd come down to Holmesley South in a Buckmaster, an apparent bit of trivia that has stayed with me and has now become significant. It's now particularly poignant because, with me in the process of making the Valom kit as an EFCS aircraft, he died at the end of August. I've inherited his loogbooks, and they've revealed that among his other aircraft were Oxfords, a Mitchell, Harvards, a Piper L-4 - and a Warwick V; these'll give me something to work at for a while. Like the best funerals, Roy's was a celebration of his life, and I was particularly taken that a phrase of the vicar's, that his was "a life completed") - the circle closed.

Coming soon - well, soonish - a rattling of Sabres

The arrival of the second Airfix F-86 ignited a plan and theme that's grown by the week, and may well wind up needing me to find space for up to seven Sabres, all with roundels. The original intent was to make the Airfix F.4 to represent a very personal What If? but it's quickly becoming a celebration of my second favourite jet fighter - as long as it carries red, white and blue roundels. More soon.....

"Soon" is of course relative; consider for example "cat years" and those of the planet Jupiter, never mind its moons. The Sabres got somewhat sidelined; I got involved with models that I wanted to get ready for a What If? table or two, and I didn't really have a similar deadline for the 86s. However every so often I get an external nudge towards a jump re-start; in this case it's the arrival through the letter box of the latest in Roger Chesneau's splendid "From the Cockpit...." series covering the Sabre in RAF service. It should feature shortly in the Reading List, and I have a strong suspicion that I shall like it a great deal, not least because it has a few familiar names and faces. One old friend who appears only on the fringe of a Sabre Conversion Course participants' photo is John Culver, who when with 93 Squadron had an aircraft accident and was invalided out of the air force, subsequently becoming an air traffic controller which was how we met. Sadly the results of his back injury resulted in a regrettably early demise, but he was definitely on of the White Hats, and left me with an imperishable quote with which I have annoyed many since, including at least one of my family. We worked in the old Southern Air Traffic Centre, which was a somewhat dingy collection of WW II buildings in the north-west corner of Heathrow and very much the unfashionable end of ATC, especially by comparison with the tweed-jacketed chaps in RAF ties in the Tower of London Airport. When asked, usually sceptically, why he worked at SATCC, John's answer was that it was because of "a passionate desire to eat occasionally". Nothing to do with the book or its review, of course; but then this section is labelled Mike's World, and John still seems part of it.

Meanwhile, back in the deck chair...

It may be a bit early or perhaps just optimistic, but we have had a few of those blue days which could sometimes be best enjoyed by finding a not-quite-shady patch and settling in a semi-recumbent posture with a Good Book, until some schlemiel trotted up brightly to shatter the mood. Still, in case you can find yourself in such a fortunate position, bith physically and mentally, let me follow the practise of some more respectable outlets and recommend at least the opening chapter of a Summer Reading list.

While it was of course well-known at the time - the 'fifties, in particular - that Britain had The Best Aircraft Industry In The World, there was the occasional glitch that suggested even at the time that we didn't always get it right, and the most generally accepted and perhaps most publicised evidence at the time was the apparent failure of the Supermarine Swift, at least in its inability to perform the interceptor task for which it had been intended. One of its stout defenders in recent years has been Nigel Walpole, who flew the FR.5 in a role, and at an altitude, which it suited very well, and he is the author of this new volume, the fourteenth in the excellent "From the Cockpit" series from Roger Chesneau's Ad Hoc Publications.

First to catch my eye was the cover. I had expected to see an FR.5 disporting over the German plain in what had proved a pretty effective low-level camouflage; instead there's a colour air-to-air of a silver-finished F.1 of 56 Squadron, complete with red and white checks on wingtips as well as fuselage. I've commented before - probably every time I write about one of this series - on the excellent choice of illustrations and the care that's been taken in their preparation and reproduction, and that standard continues with the "Swift" . The tales told by those involved at first hand with this aircraft are accompanied by photos many of which have come from personal collections, and as always illustrate the personnel as well as the hardware. I'm particularly pleased because one of those in the early 56 Squadron photos is Al Martin, who after a brief joust with the Swift went to CFS, and was one of my instructors at 4 FTS at Middleton St. George (the "how to fly in England" course, with particular reference to Teesside fog). I remember very clearly him telling me - and I have never had reason to doubt it - that before he left 56 he flew six sorties in the Swift, five of which involved full emergencies!

Nigel Walpole gives a very comprehensive account of the development, service and tribulations of the first four marks befire coming, with several of his colleagues of the time, to personal accounts of the FR.5 in service; with it's rock-steady behaviour at low level, it is obvious that flying the aircraft in this role, with the prospect of being in any action that migt come, was much enjoyed by its drivers. As well as ten of the customary profiles by Roger Chesneau, and the four-view of the author's WK281/S in the colours of 79 Squadron, there are a couple of pages of colour photos, but given that the colours are well-known the large number of black-and-whites will be of considerable value to the modeller. Two things from this point of view that caught my attention; there were rather more FR.5s with silver undersides that I expected, and rather fewer wearing the underfuselage "teardrop" fuel tank that I always associate with the type. Indeed I was somewhat miffed when the Xtrakit Swift appeared without one being included, but perhaps I shall now have to stop hassling A2Z to produce one.

I have a, possibly macabre, interest in aircraft that didn't quite make it (though I know that Nigel Walpole will insist that the Swift shouldn't be included in this category). It's been said that this aircraft rather than its contemporary the Hunter, was the interceptor that Their Airships of the day would have preferred to buy, but that avenue was closed by the American Air Force evaluation report; even the F.4 would not have met the requirements of the specification, especially with its performance at altitude, and to read the reasons, both technical and political, behind its troubled development, is fascinating and answers a few questions that have been in limbo for a long time. And as always the backbone of this series, the stories of those who were involved with the Swift are entertaining, well-told and give the human dimension to the memories of the hardware. It is of course very highly recommended as, I'm sure, will be the next expected in ths series, the F-86 Sabre in RAF service. What do you mean, prejudiced?

"Vulcan's Hammer" is by any standards an arresting title, and with a photo of the Great White Avro on the cover, accompanied by a painting of a pair of white TSR.2s carrying underwing Blue Waters, it took approximately no persuasion to add it to my carrier bag at the Cambrai air show, even though this meant carrying it back to the UK on the coach. Author Chris Gibson was also responsible, with Tony Buttler, for the "Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles" volume in Midland Publishing's British Secret Projects series, as well as the monograph on Pofflers that is invaluable to anyone with an Airfix VC.10 languishing on a dusty shelf. The book's subtitle is "V-Force Projects and Weapons since 1945", describing its contents and purpose admirably, recording the twists and turns of the Air Ministry, the politicians and events that impacted on the RAF's strategic planning and effort from the end of the second World until responsibility for the British deterrrent passed to the Royal Navy.

The considerable number of missiles described, most of which never came to fruition, are illustrated by the author's excellent line drawings, usually with a scale bar to enable size comparison, and photos of hardware or the occasional mock-up, and thereis a table for each chapter with the details of missiles covered therein. The majority originated from Vickers or Avro, and the author's research in to company, and in some cases museum, records is the base for a very full account of their development and use; this is shown particularly in the account of the one missile that saw at least limited service, Avro's Blue Steel and its several, if unfulfilled developments which could send you looking for the box of that half-finished Vulcan. From a personal modelling viewpoint, there are some missiles covered which I would like to see in resin form, especially if they can be hung on a pylon of a relevant model; if the weapon has to be suspended within a bomb bay it loses, for me, its modelling impact (illustrated perhaps by my next P.1121).

Aside from the modelling aspect, as a history of what the RAF tried to do in the 'fifties and 'sixties, especially in respect of our "independent" deterrent. I have found the story fascinating, supported as it is by an obvious bedrock of painstaking research by an author with a profound interest in his subject (always the best kind). You will see from the cover that its publisher is Hikoki, and it seems that this name is being revived in a major way as part of Crecy Publishing; their new catalogue has several titles with this label aimed at the aviation historian and enthusiast, with at least one covering "secret projects" territory and one by Tim Mason on a particular area of pre-WWII testing. Their production and reproduction, judged by these two volumes, is excellent, and "Vulcan's Hammer" is very highly recommend to all those who have a serious interest in - and probably memories of - the Cold War.

You are, I hope, familiar with the books that Tim Mason produced for Hikoki in its first incarnation; The Secret Years and The Cold War Years covered the work of flight testing at A&AEE Boscombe Down during and after the Second World War, with the types divided in to categories, profusely illustrated and with the many colour profiles by Dave Howley supplemented in the second book with colour photos. This new book takes a similar approach to the work done by the the Marine & Armament Experimental Station establed on the Isle of Grain in 1920, and its metamorphasis in to the Marine Aircraft Experimental Establishment at Felixstowe and Helensburgh that finally closed in 1956. The work done by these Establishments, and their organisation, is comprehensively described and illustrated before then describing the aircraft, organised once again by category; again the photographic selection and reproduction is very good indeed, and David Howley again supplies the colour profiles, though this time their inserted at appropriate places in the text rather than being a stand-alone colour section. Like the Boscombe Down pair this is a book for reading, browsing, and when needed reference (just in time for the expected Valom Saro Clouds, then). I suspect there will be much in these pages that will be less than familiar to many readers, and it's a real pleasure to fill the gaps in my knowledge in this way, but I have one personal whinge. on the back cover there's a side-view of the Blackburn B.20, a substantial twin-Vulture powered flying boat with a retactable planing bottom to its hull (and retractable wing tip floats). It's an aircraft that's fascinated me for years - and for a model of which I've always hankered, even if in resin - and I looked forward to a full account of the aircraft and its untimely end in this obviously comprehensive and well-researched book; failing to find any mention in the index, I sicovered its photo on page 42, with a caption saying that in was still in the manufacturer's hands when it crashed and never reached MAEE, and by implication was therefore outside the scope of this book. Pshaw! - but I'd still like a kit. The book is still very highly recommended, and I'm delighted to see the earlier standard of Hikoki's publications, bot in content and prsentation, maintained.

Thw watery theme continues with the fourth in this batch of books which fell in to my grasp within a few days. I've got to know Pat Martin well over the last few years, if largely thanks to e-mail and his photography, and he's produced that excellent trilogy of Canadian military aircraft colours and markings (without which no home should be). This time, and for the totally appropriate "Double Ugly Books" he and Andreas Klein Have covered in glorious colour the schemes and markings of Phantoms of the U S Navy's Atlantic and Pacific Fleets between 1960 and 2004. A brief introduction covers the history of the Phantom, the successive variants used by the navy, their colour schemes and markings and the organisation and the wings assigned to the carriers of the Atlantic and Pacific Fleets; then the photos start. From VF-11 to VF-302 there are thirty-two fighter squadrons wearing light gull gray over white, and coloured strpes, badges and devices to proclain thir "ownership", each with a brief history of the unit including the time both before and after the Phantom; and there are fifteen other units, from the Blue Angels to the Naval Air Test Facility, also described and illustrated whose F-4s carry a varied array of colours and markings. While nearly all the illusrations are colour photos, most units also have a colour profile drawing, but though I've looked through the book carefully I've not been able to find an attribution to the highly competent artist. Looking through the pages it's not difficult to understand the appeal of the F-4 for modellers, not only because of its purposeful shape but also the heraldry which it wore through its many years, and particularly with the US Navy, and I can easily understand the legend of the Scots modeller who, twenty-five years or more ago, was reputed to have built 175 "double ugly" models. If you get this book - and I strongly recommend it - you may find yourself inspired to look through boxes on and under tables at model shows for pre--owned Phantom kits and decals to take you back fifteen or twenty years in your modelling life. And if for some reason the USN colours don't appeal it's widely rumoured that there's an F-4K/M volume in preparation. The standard of photo selection, preparation and production is excellent, and I would look forward to a red, white and blue volume.

For some reason my scanner split the front cover in to two segments - so to be absolutely sure that you've picked up the right one, here's the back cover!

Lightning - not striking twice!

Towards the end of the Friday afternoon at the last ScaleModelWorld (aka Telford), when of course by tradition no money changes hands, I heard a strong rumour that someone had a 1:72nd Fujimi F-35B kit, probably from the HobbyLinkJapan stand; when I traced and then found the stand, the cupboard was of course bare. At that time, of course, it was still the apparent intention of Their Airships, and their Friends in Dark Blue, to have a number of these in hand just in case the projected carriers survived what many of us believed would be successive rounds of financial stringency guided by that nice young man in Number 11 (or 10, or both), but I always had 4 Squadron's markings in mind for my model, with their dramatic lightning flash, and let's face it 1's had not been desperately dramatic over the years, or at least not until their disbandment (is that irony?).

Having consulted mon ami mate Mike Verier, who has I know long been a satisfied customer, on the subject of dealing with HobbyLinkJapan across the miles (across the kilometres doesn't sound right, does it?) I went on to their website and duly looked up the Fujimi kit, still as far as I know the only one of this variant in 1:72nd, and found that the only examples in stock were of the "deluxe" boxing which had a bit of etched metal, notably for that big lift fan just behind the cockpit; the slightly more basic boxing was out of stock and was expected to be available again in six to eight weeks (six to eight weeks later it's still listed as backordered). So with a flash of impatience I ordered the slightly more expensive version and was impressed by the speed with which it reached this end of Bucks County and, when I had feverishly torn off its wrappings, with the contents of the box.

As well as etched metal this edition came with a pair of transparencies, one slightly smoked for that added air of mystery. Assembly was straightforward, and I found that the locating pin/socket joins quite substantial, and very positive: it wasn't until I revisited the HLJ website around the time I finished the model that I found that the kit had been designed as a push-fit, perhaps because the latest iteration appears to be of an F-35B in a Japanese cartoon strip or series. It comes with opening weapons bay doors, and a pair of AMRAAMs and a couple of dumb bombs; the doors above and below the lift fan can also be fixed open, though the latter is difficult when the weapons bay doors are also open (charitably perhaps the kit designer didn't see the likelihood of this happening) but the pair of auxiliary intake doors behind the lift fan are not provided and it didn't take long to decide not to scratch-build them.

I suspect that if the order had gone ahead the finish would have been in standard American grays rather that British camouflage greys; nevertheless basing it on the final Harrier scheme I used the latter. The decals, including the 4 Squadron bars, came from an Xtradecal Hunter set, and the fins were hand-painted; please, no magnifying glass. As far as I know this is at the moment the only 1:72nd kit of a production F-35 - of any variant - on the market. I presume others will appear; I have a feeling that Trumpeter have, or have at least projected, a 35C in 1:48th, and if true this would I hope lead to something similar in 1:72nd. Should this happen, I shall I'm sure be able to turn out an 800 NAS/Naval Strike Wing-marked example, probably carrying the titles of the Royal Naval Air Service and the Q talcode of Queen Elizabeth.

I still think a cross-operating 35B would be better -

something like this!

But then I'm starting to think that the" What If?" SIG is becoming the "What Should Have Been!" SIG

Magazines

You may recall that when I started composing GOM.com I had a "press" section in which I tried to cover the "new" issues of several of the modelling magazines, and occasionally aviation/historical ones, as they appeared on UK newsagents' shelves; but as this started to give me increasing oppressive deadlines, albeit self-inflicted, and comments that seemed to be repetetive month-on-month, I abandoned the idea. This hasn't stopped me taking them of course, helped by the apparently automatic extention of the arm combined with the clutching fingers when I pass the dedicated shelves in whichever newsagents my legs lead me into - never past! - on the appropriate day. The habit is still there, but I've realised slowly over the last month or so that I'm no longer sure what I'm looking forward to finding when I peeled back the cover. Perhaps I should try to revive the habit that I tried so hard to eradicate in the children many years ago of treating W H Smith as a library or at least taking a little time, however precious that commodity, to read a liitle more of the contents before investing.

Not that I don't use W H Smith still as a resource - management jargon comes back so easily! - and any visit there naturally starts with a scan of the appropriate shelves. Mind you its not always easy to find the shelf wanted, even in a familiar branch, and there are at least four around me so that I can spread my custom a little; but much in the same way that it was reputed that the first act of a new CAS was to rearrange the buttons of the Best Blue, it seems that an incoming manager likes to reshuffle the magazine display to present regular customers with a challenge. The covers of the magazines for which I'm looking, if not necessarily buying, have "house styles" that have become familiar over the years, but these change too, frequently with a new editor, taking a few uncertain lurches before settling. Looking at the piles arranged round my comfy chair recently, part of another vain hope to get them at least partly sorted, it occurred to me to wonder what others, infrequent buyers perhaps or even new to the magazines, see when they look at them.

The cover was one of the regular discussion points around the table of "revived SAM" in the mid-nineties, revolving usually about how much information/text to put on it and the overall look. Of those that I generally look at on the shelves the one that has at the moment the most visual appeal to me is almost always the current Scale Aircraft Modelling (my reservations about some aspects of its contents remain, but that's aother page entirely) and this carries over for me in to the "look" of the inside; I have my reservations about an over-large proportion of white space, and pictures at the expense of explanatory and informative text, but to me the whole looks good, helped no doubt by the use of good paper. Of the others around at the moment, I like the use of box-art, or a derivation, by the Airfix Magazine, making good use of the parent group's resources. It may come as little surprise to you to read that I think that Glenn Sands and his team are aiming at the segment of the readership that I feel is neglected - no, not necessarily Sherman and GT 40 buffs - and while it may not compare with those in the Playboy of my mis-spent and far-off youth, I do like the centrefold, notably the current one of the Valiant, but then when/if I get around to making and writing up the kit you'll realise that I'm prejudiced - again! While I understand the wish to put as much information on the front to interest as wide a readership as possible, some covers are becoming more and more untidy. And in this aspect I'm increasingly reminded in of my favourite book review, from an eight-year-old girl who was given a book on penguins; "this book tells me more than I need to know about penguins"

Retro Sunshine

OK, we moan about the weather but it really does seem that the last two years in the UK - at least at my end, I wouldn't presume to speak for anyone north of a Telford - Waddington axis - have been substantially grey; it's bad enough that we have to put up with aeroplanes that colour without skies to match, but we don't seem to have had much of a choice in either! However, the opportunity presented itself for me to re-enter a Technicolor world in February when I joined an Ian Allan tour to San Diego for the first of the events commemorating the Centennial of US Naval aviation, and in celebration of which more than twenty current aircraft have been specially repainted in historic, and frequently colorful, color schemes. Combine the pre-event publicity for this which showed a pair of T-45 Goshawks in 1930's "yellow wing" markings with the possibility of Southern Californian sunshine in February, and the resulting strain on the piggy-bank became inevitable! While there were another couple of events, or at least visits, in the same box it was the happenings at or around the North Island Naval Air station on Coronado that that were a real lift to the spirits, and resulted in the expenditure of many pixels, which I hope will come in handy as the decal sheets emerge over the next few months. The first, for the S-3B shown, is already on the market, but is in 1:48th (I hope that the US decalmeisters, who have doubtless been working on these for some time, don't ignore the smaller scale).

I'll add some more here in the next month or so, but it'll have to be something of a drip feed; please have patience! Transferred 10.08.11

Sir Sydney's heavyweight

There are some aeroplanes, or at least designs, that impress themselves on the sub-, or perhaps semi-, consciousness for whatever reason and won't go away. For me one such, not surprisingly, is a Hawker design of the late 'fifties that never really got off the ground in the metaphorical sense, never mind the literal; I was taken slightly aback reading recently that it was never really supported by the RAF, and although Hawkers had faith in it when central funding from the Ministry of the time was cut off the decided that they couldn't afford to pursue it as a private venture. Pictures of the mock-up are fairly well known, but there were not many parts fabricated; these are reputed to have gone to Cranfield but unlike Supermarine's not-quite-equivalent the 545, which hung around for a while, the Hawker's parts seem to have passed swiftly in to oblivion. I must have been aware of it first through an article in the old RAF Flying Review, and probably a cancellation feature in the Air Pictorial, and these would have been reinforced with the appearance of Derek Wood's Project Cancelled and the companion account of what could have been in the 1976 RAF Yearbook, in which the illustrations by the excellent Wilf Hardy included a camouflaged P.1121 wearing the markings of 74 Squadron escorting (of course) a TSR.2. It may have been here that it was first described as a potential "British Phantom", not only in RAF service but in terms of possible overseas sales, and it was this thought that's always been behind any models that I've made (or planned), including the Maintrack/Whirlykit vacforms.

With the relatively recent publication of the "Fighters" volume in the Midland Publishing "British Secret Projects" series by the invaluable Tony Buttler, there has been a rise in the availability of models, particularly in resin, of aircraft in this category, championed by Freightdog and Anigrand, and spurred I'm sure, by the resin bits produced for the Airfix TSR.2 by Neil Robinson's Model Aircraft Monthly. Having dropped many, many hints that I would really like an 1121 - in 1:72nd, obviously - I was slightly encouraged when a 1:144th one came from Anigrand as a "extra" with the Nimrod AEW.3, but when the type arrived in the Really True And Traditional Scale it came from from an unexpected source, Mel Bromley's S & M Models (no, I've never dared ask). Mel's been issuing decals, mostly for civil subjects - though he did put out a couple of TSR.2 sets - for some time, and has produced a 1:144th Viscount, a Tay conversion for it and an Ashton in the same scale, but as far as I know this is his first 1:72nd kit. In theory it was to be released at last month's Southern Expo, but the first run was virtually pre-sold before the show opened; when I went to pick up my (ordered) two well before the doors opened on the Saturday morning they were the last two 1121 boxes on the table, and I left them there as long as I could To Encourage The Others, but fortunately Mel had laid out the pieces of the kit for inspection. Judging by the comments around me while I was there, I wasn't the only one to admire the evident standard of casting, and in particular the panel detail; it didn't take me long to get the first out of its substantial box once I got home, though I did observe the family proprieties by attending my granddaughter's third birthday party first. I had hoped all along to get at least one ready to place on the What If? SIG table at Cosford this coming weekend, and had had plenty of time to decide to consider possible camouflage and marking schemes. Each kit has an Xtrakit decal set X72047 for the Hunter FGA.9/FR.10 included, but I was convinced that a Phantom unit would be at least as, if not more, appropriate as one that had flown its Kingston predecessor; I may well look closely at the SAM (later Xtradecal) sets for the early Hunters, but my Plan A was to cover the F-4Ms colour schemes with one camo and one grey aircraft, and possibly a second camo. While I have two more F-4M squadrons in mind, I like the 228 OCU's boss's aircraft with the go-faster stripes, and it's in keeping with my other Master Plan of using wherever possible post-WWII markings of disbanded, and unlikely to be reformed, fighter squadrons; and of course the markings are from a source which likewise I like to use wherever possible, Modeldecal (in this case set 95, which also gave me all ther shades-of-grey colouring details, with a small side order of 65).

The breakdown of the kit is similar to most of its current equivalents. The fuselage is in two hollow halves, with cockpit bathtub, seat and stick, and tailpipe and intake. The flying surfaces are single-thickness, with locating pins and sockets that I find a great help when making what is otherwise a simple butt joint. The four underwing tanks have thier pylons as part of each casting, and they are handed to take account of the anhedral. There are two one-sided sheets of instructions, one in colour with the presumed grey/green/silver camouflage pattern and the other a nicely-drawn schematic exploded line drawing with a bare but useful minimum of text notes. I found that fixing the fuselage halves needed to be done in four stages to get the best fit, the curvature of the cross-section of the halves being very slightly different; it's possible that this could have beeb sorted with immersion in hot water, but the stick, clamp, set and stick again worked very well, and I only needed a little filler under the forward fuselage and around the back edge of the intake.

While I'm familiar with the scale plan in the Barry Hygate Britsh Experimental Jet Prototypes, which I looked at while I was making this, I'd forgotten how big this aircraft would have been. I took it in its semi-finished state to an old friend of mine who isn't a What If? addict, and he remarked on its resemblance to the Hunter; looked at in this light it has, in spite of its broader chord and under-nose intake, marked family similarities, especially when thinking of the P.1109 with its radar nose, and next to a standard Hundar - XF317, what else? - it's about 50% bigger just about everywhere. While the prototype would have had a de Havilland Gyron, the production version would probably have been powered by either an Olympus or a Conway; and I was very pleased to find that Mel had used the plan of the production version, with the "dog-tooth" leading edge extensions carried over from its predecessor. I thought about adding armament, including finding space for a gun or two, but decided to leave this for a later model. As so often with a resin kit, my preferred option of making a multiplicity of an interesting aircraft in a variety of markings is constrained by the cost; the S&M 1121 is priced at £45.00, which is well in line with equivalent kits. I shall almost certainly convince myself that I can't do without a fourth, to ensure that I can include an early production one with silver undersides and an 2TAF unit marking; and I want to see if I can hang a Freightdog Green Cheese under one of the others. But a fifth would be a bit much - wouldn't it?

This account seems likely to appear almost as a serial. My second 1121, as almost previewed above, wears what is virtually a Hunter scheme, with silver undersides; my original idea was to have it look like a freshly-delivered Phantom, but realised that by then light aircraft grey was the standard under colour, but I want to apply that, albeit with red/blue "tactical" roundels (and the forecast Green Cheese). While shuffling through a box of fairly loose decals, I discovered at an early stage the sheet from a Fujimi F-4M which had 41 Squadron markings with a crown on the fin, and a sharkmouth that probably came from an unexpected stay in the Akrotiri Engineering Wing. A pair of Red Tops, probably ex-Lightning, were fitted to Hasegawa launch rails attached to pylons that had been surgically removed from the larger underwing tanks that came with the kit, but I though that this wasn't really much of a warload for what would have been a very large and comparatively long range fighter; I've therefore implanted a couple of 30 mm Adens just below the wing root leading edges, and they will also appear in "Red 3" (Mel Bromley's identification of my next 1121). My original plan was to attach a reconnaisance pod just like 41's Phantoms. bur couldn't make one fit to my satisfaction. Two other P.S.s; the vacform canopy in this kit was noticeably thinner than that in my first, and the serial properly belongs, I know, to an F-4M. This was originally because I couldn't find even one of my three copies of the Bruce Robertson Book of Blackout Blocks, to ensure that that no one could point at it and say "but that was an XYZ!".The 1121 has been referred to, especially when talking of the chance of missed export orders, as a "British Phantom"; XV422 was on an early Modeldecal set, and therefore saved me having to build a serial one alpha-numeric at a time, and that particular aircraft was responsible for me getting to make the occasion contribution to Dick Ward's researches, and getting to know him much better in the process. And "Red 4" will come!

Meanwhile, "Red 3" becomes a brief addendum to this "Pick" before it's hived off to the Vaults to make way for a new one. I had already planned to finish my third 1121 in wraparound camouflage with red/blue "tactical" roundels when the Freightdog"Green Cheese" stand-off missile became available and I decided to see if I could hang one under a wing; this just fitted, though you wouldn't want it to get too close to the runway lights on an overweight take-off. Background reading, first in "British Secret Projects: Missiles etc." and then in the new "Vulcan's Hammer" revealed that although studies were done to carry it on an underwing mounting on the Valiant, as an anti-ship weapon it's principal carriers were to be the Gannet (though I don't think this plan lasted very long) and more probably the Buccaneer. Given that I wanted to use a 2TAF squadron and base, I did ponder a bit on my backstory, until I decided that the aircraft so fitted could have been based at Jever for strikes against hostile naval forces, possibly fast patrol ships, in the Baltic, even if it meant a high-speed dash across the bottom end of Denmark to reach the target. And because whenever possible I want to use the markings of a defunct RAF squadron (sadly, there's an increasing choice) I found those of 98 Squadron, which was of course a Jever Wing Hunter squadron, on the SAM/Xtradecal 2TAF Hunter sheet, and after much head-scratching and serious delving in to my bitsadecals box a slightly tattered remnant of Modeldecal set 28, with the markings for 98 Canberra when it was part of the Signals Command flight checking fleet. Importantly, this had the Cerberus marking from the squadron badge that you see on the 1121's fin. This brings my initial run of 1121s to a stop - though "Red 4" still lurks close to the workbench, and the nose seems ideal for the 34 Squadron wolf and arrowhead - and I'm very grateful to Mel Bromley for producing in resin a model I've wanted to make for some time. (If you check on Mr.Hannants' Future Releases you'll see that S&M are proposing the Sperrin, the Avro 730 and a VC.7/V.1000 in 1:144th, though I can raise absolutely no enthusiasm for the Avro Ashton). Transferred 31.07.11

Post ModelKraft

For the last several months much of my modelling, and in particular its timing, has been heavily influenced by The Next Show, and driven to a considerable extent by the wish to get something ready for the displays of SIG144 and/or the What If? SIG. The light gull grays and the X-wing above were timed for the Milton Keynes show; the X-wing made another appearance on the 144 table at Hinckley, which was a late decision when I worked out that I could call in from a previous night's hilarity at Wilmslow (an IAT air traffic reunion, but that's another story) and for which I also managed to ready an F-RSIN Comet 1X in RCAF colours. I had also finished a couple of Freightdog P.1154s, following the arrival of the corrected 80 Squadron Hornet markings from Freightdog (maroon rather than purple) which I'd fancied doing since I was told by that indefatigable researcher Paul Lucas that 80 had been one of the possible squadrons selected for the Harrier, probably before it became the 1127 rather than the 1154). Having squirreled away the armament set for the 1154 with its rather unusual gun pack - sadly I'm told that this package, which also included radar Red Tops, is no longer available - a recent evening at the Milton Keynes Aviation Society with a one-time Aden-based Hunter FGA.9 driver suggested that, with the gunpack, a pair of PJ Hunter 100 gallon tanks and two SNEB rocket pods 8/43 markings from the recent Xtradecal T.7 sheet would look appropriate. By chance I still had the two models in the car, and though there was no What If? stand at Hinckley one of our number had an area on the Coventry and Warwickshire IPMS stand, so they made an unexpected guest appearance!

With the imminence of Cosford this pair of Anigrands, the Boeing RB-55D with the presumably spurious markings and the Vought Templar F.1 - 892 NAS, Ark Royal 1978 - have come nicely to the surface (there will be more about these after the weekend). Oh, yes, and there's a Hawker in the Mike's Pick section. It's probably time to go and curl up with a warm cat.

Anigrand are very good with their trailers, and there's usually time to think about their announced forthcoming events (it's also fun, with the 1:144th kits, trying to recognise the "extras" from their plan view silhouettes). For me, it gives me the opportunity to decide on a probable finish before I order, and by and large if I can't decide on this I pass. I liked the idea of a big turboprop Stratojet, and like several of my What If? I've been intrigued by those photos of the RB-45s at Sculthorpe wearing RAF markings, and particularly in one version a fin flash the size of a small tennis court! B-47s were based in the UK, and one of my instructors had tales of those based at Brize roaring through the circuit at Little Rissington. From there it needed a very small leap to draw those two strands together and ensure that my RB-55D had a few unexplained extra lumps and - although you can't see them in this photo - a selection of different-sized camera ports in the forward bomb bay, and let me use a "mystery" scheme thar had fascinated me for a long time on an aircraft that seems entirely possible.

You know how I like getting kits when they're *NEW*, and that was how the XB-55 came to me; however I'd passed on Anigrand's 1:72nd Super Crusader when it first appeared, and the impetus for this one came from a book, one of Steve Ginter's excellent Naval Fighters series. I have a substantial shelf-full of these, going back to Number 1 on the F11F Tiger, - and of the series on its USAF counterparts, I wouldn't like you to think I'm prejudiced - and I picked up Number 87 on the LTV F8U-3 "Super Crusader" at Southern Expo, considering finishing one in Aeronavale colours (Modeldecal). Checking the Hannants website for the Anigrand kit's availabilty I found that there were just two left, and by this time I'd read enough of the text to find that a Conway-powered version had been proposed to the Fleet Air Arm at the time they were considering the Spey-Phantom. The Last Two was an obvious Sign, so I bought the pair and decided that I'd try to get one finished for Cosford, with the help of the Model Alliance F-4K set of decals which included the "Colonial Navy"-marked aircraft of 892 NAS on Ark Royal in 1978, another finish that I'd had in mind for a long time.The 892 markings for the Phantom reflected that it would be the last FAA fixed-wing fighter unit, but I was predicating an alternative history with a continuing RN aviation, and therefore the omega would have been inappropriate; fortunately the squadron's previous marking was on the Xtradecal Sea Vixen sheet, and is attractive in its own right.

Watch out - there's politics about!

At about the same time as the RB-55D I started the Anigrand Sentinel, another primary subject in the 1:144th series. I'd had my thoughts on this for a while - in spite of the lumps and bumps I think it's quite a good looking aircraft - but It wasn't until the results of the Defence Review were published (as distinct from leaked) that I discovered that the type's service with 5 Squadron, and therefore the life of that squadron, was seriously limited. I had considered applying 54 Squadron markings, to one side at least, before the announcement but realised that the only real option would be a scheme to mark 5's disbandment - which I have scheduled for 2017 at Akrotiri on the grounds that the wily Colonel will last at least that long. Given 5's fin marking, from the Javelin onwards, and bearing in mind what I could lift from various decal sets, the result was heavily influenced by the final 1 Squadron Harrier ( the choice of the next canvas for that unit's marks is a horse of a different kettle altogether).

The non-tin triangle

As you may know, I have a habit of taking to shows - except of course ScaleModelWorld, where it is strictly forbidden - a bag, or sometimes two, of kits to put under the table for disposal; given that whatever plastic I rid myself of somehow gets transmuted in to resin, I like to think of it as recycling. This happened at the recent Shropshire Show at Cosford, when thanks to Freightdog Models I found myself unexpectedly with an Anigrand A-12 Avenger; I know I've already made one, but not only can I not find it, but I can't remember its origin, though I suspect it might have been a Planet Model. This one was a bargain - somewhat less than the current standard retail price - and for once I bought it without knowing how I was going to finish it, and I strongly suspected that what ever the provenance of the earlier model it would have been gray, whic I really wouldn't want to repeat. It wasn't until I was contemplating some of the San Diego centennial photos that I was struck by the blindingly obvious; if McDonnell, GD and the Navy's auditors had sorted out their finances Avengers could have been in sevice with one at least eligible and available for this year's fashionable "retro" colour scheme. It would of course have to wear the markings of a TBF/TBM unit. and searching the Hannants website revealed two Superscale decals sets that were quickly in the post (along with an F-86E-10, but that's Another Story); my original intention had been to have a three-color camouflage, like that superb Growler, but I found a little difficulty in deciding where the dividing lines on the A-12's smooth and subtle surface should be. So sea blue gloss it is then, with the white arrow markings of the TBMs of VT-82 om USS Bennington in 1945 being particularly suitable for the McDD/GD triangle (it won't show in the pictures, but the arrows, as well as being above and below the wings, are repeated at the sharp end of the main undercarriage doors). Perhaps it'll show up if/when I go to Lemoore in October for a second burst of the centennial.

Travelling hopefully - or, am I nearly there yet?

"To travel hopefully is better than to arrive" is one of those sayings - said by whom I can't recall - that lie dozing in some fissure of the subconscious, emerging only at random and probably inappropriate intervals of their own choosing; it's probably no more true, either in content or accuracy, than that well-known misquotation "a little learning is a dangerous thing".

Settling down at the workbench with a freshly-opened box, and surrounded as often as not by plans or photos, I look forward to finishing whatever I'm just starting and these days, in theory at least, the choice of what come next is mine. There's a picture of the finished model(s) and of course colour schemes - sometimes an unresolved choice - in my head, and if at all possible a timescale at the end of which I'll pass on to whatever's next, or at least a target date within the usual contraints and accuracy of British Planning. These days such dates are usually set around the next time I expect to to be able to put something on the table of either the What If?s or SIG144 - or occasionally both - and perhaps the possibility of having something to write up on the Workbench or even the Mike's Pick pages. At the time of writing I've been able in 2011 to take Something New to the shows at Milton Keynes, Shuttleworth, Hinckley and Cosford, though there's now something of a hiatus in prospect; because of the unaccountable coincidence of the Barnet show at the Hendon Museum and the first of the year's air displays at Duxford, and my next modelling excursion may not be until Yate in August. The shows just gone have each resulted in a flurry of activity - much of which has been reflected in these e-pages - with, usually, the briefest of interludes before any space on the workbench is quickly filled. Sometimes there's a period of palpable relief, and it'll take me a week or so to clear my head and return to the whittling, though part of the recovery technique may involve a little additional recearch, or even a slight (total) change of plan; I've always appreciated Harold Macmillan's comment, "Events, dear boy, events"!

I keep more or less to my Rule of Three, but there has recently been the odd temporal glitch which has meant that I've had to put one or two models aside while I've sorted out my (usually self-inflicted) problems, and returning them to the cutting mat for the resolution of whatever's kept them off it has resulted in a sudden congestion of space and time, and another necessary decision or three on the order in which I attend to them (a Tardis would sometimes be handy). Hurrying of course, especially if I'm trying to catch up which often seems to involve my working standing up (rather than taking the time to clear the chair) is an absolute boon to the Carpet Monster; it was because of one of the beast's earlier forays that I had to get a replacement windscreen for my Anigrand Sentinel which you should find - any day now - on the workbench in the colours worn for 5 Squadron's disbandment parade (Akrotiri, October 2017, as you ask). This has spent the last month-and-a-half resting just off the assembly line and missing, sadly, the SIG144 tables at Hinckley and Cosford which had been my primary and secondary targets when I started the model. Similarly half-sidelined at the moment is the second of my S&M Hawker P.1121s, known for the purposes of this entertainment as the Hawker Siddeley Tempest F.1 (because had it come in to service the RAF would still have had a Hurricane, or two, still on its charge). Having finished my first in a late greys scheme, my second is a very early production aircraft in grey/green/silver straight off the Dunsfold line and delivered to 41 Squadron; having decided to put a pair of Red Tops on the inboard pylons, it struck me that wasn't really much of a load for a fighter of its range and weight, and it should have at least two 30 mm Adens (all missile armament, pah!), and this of course meant finding somewhere to put them. For me the obvious position would be in the rear of the "crease" half way up the fuselage and immediately behind the intake, but the model is virtually fully painted, and I'm reluctant to perform even a minor excavation in that area unless I'm really convinced it's going to work. So I thought of a Cunning Plan; with the third kit not long arrived from S&M, and with the way in which I'd put the second together still relatively fresh in my memory, I'm assembling the fuselage of the third (2TAF, mid-'70s) and I'm going to try installing a pair of cannon troughs on the understanding that if I take it gently I can remedy it with a little judiciously applied filler.

This means that the 41 Squadron aircraft is currently taking up space without getting any further, and that the component parts of my next Master Plan - three, at least, camouflaged F-86s from Airfix, Hobbycraft and Academy, and a hitherto unsuspected addition to the US Navy's "retro"-finished fleet for this year's Centennial - are, if not in the hold, at least virtually hovering. Still, I continue to travel hopefully; and perhaps arriving exhausted, however briefly, is a natural artistic conclusion.

North Weald

As a variation on their excellent "From the Cockpit" series Ad Hoc have already published a "pictorial history" of Wattisham, and Treble One's "Black Arrows" make another appearance in this companion volume. Dave Eade, also the author of the earlier book, is a journalsit and aviation enthusiast, and his research - and presentation - is very impressive. the story starts in 1916 with the establishment of No.39 (Home Defence) Squadron as a counter to the Zeppelin raids on the capital and home counties, and has a hiatus after the Armistice with a drastic reduction in the newly fledged RAF. A slow expansion began in 1926, the new inhabitants being the Siskins of 56 and 29 Squadrons, and North Weald remained a fighter station until the RAF withdrew once more in 1964. The photographic coverage of the place, the people and the planes is excellent and, as we have come to expect from Ad Hoc, very well prepared and presented, and is accompanied by a considerable number of colour profiles by publisher Roger Chesneau that show, perhaps incidentally, the changes in fighter colours and markings over forty-two years of the story until 111 took its Hunters to Wattisham in 1958, a year after the disbandment of Royal Auxiliary Air Force squadrons that had been major contributors to the airfield's history; and it's a one-time 601 Squadron pilot that has contributed the foreword. The RAF finally left in 1964, but the airfield's continuing use is also covered in the book, and it's good that warplanes from North Weald's most active period still fly from there. For me, perhaps not unexpectedly, the really fascinating part of the book is the account but the then CO Roger Topp of the setting up of a 111 Squadron aerobatic team and its becoming the Black Arrows, the team which established a DNA which has been the template for its successors to this this day (and I was there for that display at Farnborough). This is another Ad Hoc publication which can be unhesitatingly recommended for both content and style; where next, I wonder?

The Backstory So Far.....

It must have been in the days of Toad Resins that I first got involved in tales of action reputedly involving some of the types of aircraft that came from that early supplier of Luftwaffe project models; having read one or two I even think I contributed a couple to The Toad myself. Lee Bagnall's A5 magazine continued with this theme, but I think that the first book that I came across was John Baxter's "The Alternate Luftwaffe", which gave a coherent continuous counterfactual account based as I recall on General Walter Wever not being killed in a crash, but being a substantial counter-Goering force in their service's development. Followed by two books on the Tragerflotten, German Naval Aviation in World War II and an excursion in to RAAF/RAN participation in the smaller Asian conflicts of the 'sixties and 'seventies, John has now extended his first theme with an account of his alternate Luftwaffe's service in North Africa and the Middle East, illustrated - like his second edition of the Alternate Luftwaffe - with the use of models, often in dramatic settings (I particularly like this cover!).

Following the scene-setting introduction there are sixteen tales/scenarios, with place names familiar to those of us who lived through the period of the North African campaign or have followed its course since. Some of the aircraft that John Baxter uses in these stories are those that were there in real life, and others include some which flew in prototype form like the Heinkel He 119, which looks really good in desert colours, and some which were just projects such as the Gotha Go 267Kamel and the Henschel Hs 167 canard Schnellbomber. The Arado Ar 239 featured on the cover is in effect a pusher piston-engined predecessor of the Arado E.555 - for which many of us are indebted to Revell - and while it didn't exist even as a project it looks convincing, and plays a good part in these tales. The illustrations, including an eight page colour section, have involved a dedicated group of modellers, largely I gather in the Melbourne area, and their widely varied and very high quality models illustrated in appropriate settings, the whole enterprise a model of ingenuity! We are promised two further books in this sequence, covering the Eastern Front and the introduction of jets, and another volume of Tragerflotten; and for variety one on the Alternate RAAF and RAN in the South-West Pacific 1942-46. This one will include the Mitsubishi Brumby, which has I seem to remember made a brief appearance earlier, and which is fully explained in Alternate Luftwaffe 3 (so that's what a Brumby is).

Like John Baxter's earlier books this is well-thought out and entertaining, and is very convincing once you accept the premise of slight variations on what we believe really happened. I took the copy which John had kindly sent me to the IPMS Milton Keynes show at the beginning of February, and it certainly aroused interest; UK stockist is Wendy Myers of the Aviation Book Centre, and her price is expected to be around £24.00. Enjoy!

Delta Demon

When a new volume in Tony Buttler's "Secret Projects" series falls in to my hot little hands, one of my first reactions is to pick out, probably only semi-consciously, a design that I'd really like to model, and I'm sure that there are other modellers, certainly those of the Counterfactual Tendency, who have similar thoughts; while an almost simultaneous reaction is to hope that Mr. Anigrand or Captain Freightdog have had the same response, there is sometimes the possibilty of kitbashing a subject and when the American Fighters book appeared I started to cannibalise an Emhar Demon and a Hasegawa F-102 to produce a McDonnell Model 60. Sadly I wasn't able to marry the necessary parts to my satisfaction, and laid the semi-completed sections to one side, without even separating the pair of Fujimi Cutlass fins from their frame, though I still thought that a model of this design would look good in USN squadron markings, and I was sure that I had a sheet of F3H decals squirrelled away somewhere. I was delighted therefore when I saw a reference to a Sharkit of the type; though I've not always been a fan of their productions they have chosen some interesting subjects and I was very pleased to find from their website that, unlike their Avro 730, this did have an undercarriage. You will see from the photos that the sharp end is virtually the same as that of the Demon; what did surprise me was how much smaller the rest of the airframe is. The kit offers the possibility of folding wing tips, but I decided to fix mine extended, but I am increasingly minded to make a second and if I do I'll almost certainly build it folded. The design as described in Buttler seemed to carry neither guns nor external missiles, and it's suggested that bays below the cockpit or behind the intakes would have housed unguided folding-fin rockets; I thought about adding at least two 20 mm cannon troughs, and i intended to add a pair of early Sparrows on wing pylons as carried by some F3Hs - the Ginter "Naval Fighters" book was very useful when considering such alternatives - but the remnants of the Emhar kit from which I took the Demon nose have unaccountably gone in to hiding. If it turns up I'll use them on my second; I'll probably need to use the tanks as well, this version because of its small size looking distinctly short on range!

The kit is quite good, and could be made better with more patience and less haste on the part of the modeller. The biggest problem I had with the fit was with the rather large vacformed canopy; fortunately there's a spare which I pressed in to service when I'd trimmed too much of the edge of the first one, but it's still slightly too wide for the fuselage and even though I sat holding it carefully in place while attaching it it's still not quite right on its starboard sill. The very early Demons, and the box art for the Model 60, wore gloss sea blue, but I wanted to revive my long-lived attachment to Light Gull Gray/White; I found decals for Banshee - which would at least have kept it in the family - and Skyray and there is a sheet of Demon markings by Almark still available from Hannants and, having little faith in being able to find those that I knew I had somewhere when I needed them, I duly added these to my shopping basket. Then of course I found the Xtradecal set. They both had the markings for the VF-41/100 aircraft, and in most cases they fitted, more or less; the stripe across the upper fuselage needed trimming at both ends, and the "CAG" colours on the rudders were slightly too short and not quite the right sweep, but having had this scheme in mind all along I wasn't going to let little details like that put me off. I used the BuAer number of the Demon, and the decal could well read F3H-3, unless of course it was being inspected by a contest judge. I'm still trying to select an alternative name, but I lile the look of the model, and I see that they've still got the odd one on the shelves at Lowestoft; VF-213, perhaps?

Little Big Cat

The second model in this Light Gull Gray Selection Box is in some ways a reverse of the first, in that the kit came before I consulted the reference. As a devoted follower of the Anigrand Craftswork "Future Releases" section, my attention was caught a while back with their announcement of the Boeing XB-55, which appeared to be a four-turboprop B-47, and when the "breakdown of parts" was posted it showed, accompanying the Bell XV-3 and the F5D Skylancer as an "extra" a rather large twin-engined fighter of uncertain origin. It wasn't until the details of the kit emerged on the Hannants website that I saw it referred to as an F12F-1 Lion, following the Tiger in Grumman's sequence of big cats. Going directly to Buttler's American Fighters, I failed to find it in the index and it took a nudge in the right direction following a baffled e-mail for me to realise that it was the Grumman Type 118 (apparently the F12F designation was used by the Navy for more than one Grumman project, but presumably not concurrently) and covered, complete with three-view, on pages 127/128. Consultation with mon ami mate Mike Verier, who gets much of his 144th stuff from Foreign Parts, resulted in another trawl of Hannants' website to see what Revell Tomcats might be available, with a view to using their markings or weapons, or perhaps both. The weapons have been saved for possible future use, but The "Jolly Rogers" skull and crossbones has always been a favourite USN marking of mine, equal only to VF-111 Sundowners' rising sun and sharkmouth and the VX-4 Playboy bunny. The markings fitted well on the F-12F (F-12?) and I'm pleased with the overall result. I wonder how that high-set tailplane would have fared in combat; I have a fancy for an F12F-2 with a low-set tail, rather like an F-100, and after all I've got not only the Revell kit markings but also sets from FCM and Fightertown. More possibilities, more decisions!

Am I sure that's what they thought I meant?

You will I'm sure know by now how much I appreciate the advantages of getting together in groups from time to time; after all I started my writing life as IPMS Branch Liason Officer with a column in the back of SAM extolling the virtues of meetings, and while these days when I'm involved personally it's with a Special Interest Group or two there's the same opportunities for cross-fertilisation of ideas. I wouldn't like them to take any of the blame for this, but the model here originated with a conversation at I think the Brampton show which subsequently drew in Mike Verier and the Venerable Kit Spackman.

The spark was the Royal Naval Air Service E-2C of 849 NAS D Flight, HMS Prince of Wales; the Rafale, you will recall, was from the Queen Elisabeth. There was a discussion on what alternatives there might be in yet another parallel universe, and I mentioned that I'd always wanted to have a try at an AEW Osprey, but without buying a Hawkeye for the radome - though since then I could have used much of it in a Greyhound conversion - I was stymied. It was at this point that Kit thought that he might have a spare radome and pylon at home that he could well do without, and it wasn't long before it was sitting expectantly on one side of the workbench. The basic kit came from a dusty shelf, and I started it some time ago, but promptly mislaid one of the rotor hubs (and it still hasn't surfaced). This would have happened around the time I put it on one side to ensure that some of my other models were finished by Telford. Post-Telford the next insistent deadline was the ModelKraft show at Milton Keynes at the beginning of February, highlighted by the strong probablity of Kit being there with the SIG, and my thought of showing him what I'd done with his generous contribution. Positioning the radome was a matter of my old managerial friend, the least bad solution; by the time i'd concluded that mounting it above the wing centre section really wouldn't work, the remaining option was to copy the rearward placing not unlike the An-74, and while I have severe doubts as to its aerodynamic characteristics "unstable" appears to be the norm these days and I'm sure that Bell, Boeing and Grumman between them could find a control solution. I did invert the fins to avoid either their beheading by the radome or a really stalky pylon mounting.

About the time I'd built the Royal Naval Hawkeye I'd bought a really colourful decal sheet for USN E-2s which included a very fetching stars-and-stripes design reaching back from the cockpit, and this was my first choice when I'd decided that this would wear stars and bars; however the undercarriage "sponsons" got in the way so I settled happilly on the red and white markings of VAW-124 "Bear Aces", whose emblem fitted neatly on the fins. I also, with some juggling, managed to find appropriate places on the fuselage for the carrier name and rather small national markings. All this done, it appeared on the SIG table at MK eliciting interesting comments, which of course why it was there. I do have a second Italeri Osprey whose future I've been considering, and I may have to trawl under the tables at the Luton Air Enthusiasts' Fair, or even Southern Expo, for a third; seeing the C-2 Greyhounds at NAS North Island has given me ideas for a COD Osprey development, but I'm beginning to think in terms of a stretched fuselage and a quad-rotor layout. It's probably the insomnia.

The X-wing file

One of the joys of Anigrand continues to be the little 1:144th "extras" that accompany the larger aircraft in this scale, and as with the F12F above this BAE P.1214-3, to give it its full project designation, was a big bonus for me, included in their recent Sentinel kit. Again it comes with few parts and therefore didn't tax my impatience. It's a shape and a role, that of a "Harrier replacement", that I've always liked - it did have a conventionally swept equivalent, the 1214-6, but it didn't look nearly as dramatic - and while I made one in 1:72nd a year or two back thanks to resin parts made by one of our What If? SIG (and took the opportunity to name it Peregrine GR.1) the chance to make it again was irresistable; and the Sentinel will be with you shortly, as soon as I can find where I've put the transparency. This Peregrine is finished in the late Harrier scheme of Dark Sea Grey/Dark Camouflage Grey and 25 Squadron markings from the Xtradecal Tornado set, and the Sidewinders are from the small Revell Tornado GR.1; while 1:144th scale weapons sets as such are hard to find, these little kits are are very useful source of both weapons and markings, and I've recently added Tomcats and an AV-8B to a pile near my workbench for just these purposes. Now what I'd like is for Mr.Anigrand to produce a box of Hawkers with this, the P.1121 and the P.1185 Super Harrier already issued (sse right) combined preferably with the P. 1091 "Hunter delta". And by the way, Allen Ury's "Fantastic Plastic" website is promising a 1:72nd P.1214-3, cast by Anigrand for the end of the year; now would be a good time to start convincing Santa that you've been very, very good.

The end - for now

Stealth costs.

Subjects for this section, whether book or kit, often select themselves even before I see them. There was a resin Sukhoi T-50 on the Russian SIG table at the IPMS Brampton Branch show last September, beautifully made (by, I think, Ken Duffy) and finished in its "first flight" scheme, largely unpainted and with several panels in primer. Knowing then that I Had To Have One, enquires revealed it was a Russian kit and that it would probably be on the NeOmega Resin stand at ScaleModelWorld; and lo, it came to pass, and on the Friday afternoon I made sure that I could collect one from Gordon Upton on the Saturday morning.

When I first opened its box I thought that the major fuselage components at least were vacformed, an impression given by the quite large areas to be cut away from around the basic shape; it wasn't until I took a closer look that I found that these were all part of the darkish green resin casting, and the way in which it had been - very well - done meant that the breakdown of the body was in much the same manner as an injection-moulded kit. The instructions were almost totally pictorial, with what written notes there were were in Cyrillic script; they needed fairly careful study with one eye on the parts, and I found at some late that I'd omitted a couple of small parts which I think were partial cockpit sidewalls. A well-illustrated article in Air International (March 2010) was very helpful in confirming such details as the way the undercarriage doors hung, and in revealing that the wheel hubs were apparently bare metal rather that the green that I had expected. The standard of detail in the castings was very good indeed, and I only had a couple of minor problems with the fit, one of these being getting the main undercarriage bays/intake ducting to seat absolutely snug so that the upper and lower fuselage halves would be totally gap-free. This wasn't helped by my usual pressing imperative of making sure everything was done by the Thursday before last (or was it the Tuesday?).

On buying the kit at Telford I had decided that it would look good in Indian Air Force colours, especially as I was almost sure that I could find some appropriate unit marking, probably from a Xtradecal Hunter sheet. On looking more closely at these the only marking I could find was of the Target Towing Flight, which didn't seem right; but Paul Davis came up with Hi-Decal Line MiG-29 set which carried the badge for 28 Squadron, the "First Supersonics"; this duly came home with the rest of my takeaways and shortly afterwards went in to hiding. Should it emerge blinking in to the light I shall apply the badge, but in the meantime I used the national markings from the 1:144th Hunter sheet because I thought the larger size looked a bit bold for what will be after all a stealth fighter. By the time my airframe was complete there were pictures of the aircraft in an almost cubist camouflage in three shades of grey; trying to match the colours with those in the photo in Air International (November 2010 this time) I settled on Xtracolors Mig-29 Fulcrum Grey (X612), Dark Camouflage Grey (X036) and Dark Gray Euro 1 FS.16081 (X129). The colour photo in AI showed virtually all the upper surfaces, though not the port sides of the vertical tails; and just as I was trying to copy the upper surface pattern on to the underside a fairly small shot of the underneath in almost perfect plan view appeared in Flight and with the help of an illuminated magnifying glass this was straightforward to reproduce on the model.

I am happy with the result, even if it comes nowhere near the one I saw at the Brampton show. I do have a confession; the starboard horizontal tail is not that which came with the kit, but a Plasticard shape cut to the correct outline and lightly chamfered around its periphery. The original is of course around somewhere, but at the moment it's refusing to resurface from its carefully-chosen place of refuge; when - surely not if - it does I shall attach it, but I didn't want to delay finishing the model, not least because I want not only to get this in to cyberspace but also to create a little space on the production line. There's a queue waiting to be readied for possible appearance at ModelKraft (the Milton Keynes IPMS Branch show, but you knew that) in early February, and they're starting to jostle each other. It's an interesting aircraft, and it was only ten minutes after I'd bought this kit that some kind soul told me that there would be a Zvezda one along shortly; with the first tranche being in and out of Hannants before you could say Yuri Gagarin, mine arrived on the day I put the final touch of paint (give or take the tailplane!) to the one shown here, but I've decided that somewhere I'm sure I've got some of those very attractive Linden Hill Flanker decals; then some apparatchik fron the Russian SIG will point out that the marking I've chosen is from quite the wrong sort of regiment for a PAK-FA.

Back again

Yes, I know I promised photos with real Southern Californian sunshine - the TV announcer on the Saturday of the Great Technicolor Trip said "Hey, it's eighty two degrees, it's another sunny San Diego day.......only it's February!", which just about summed up the five-day experience - but since I stumbled back in to the soggy embrace of the Milton Keynes coach station I seem to have been in semi-perpetual motion. It took me a week to download all those pixels, and find a method of coping with them in Picasa; I am of course indebted to my younger son for downloading the program, and it can do many magic things for which I haven't found a much-needed residential instructional course, but it seems to take me twice as long to prepare the selected snaps for this website as it did with Jessops Photo Manager. I shall put more some of my choice of the USN Aviation Centenary participants somewhere on here when (a) I've transmogrified them enough to get them on to the relevant page and (b) when I've decided which page, or pages, are most relevant. Here's a taster, taken from the beach next to the North Island Naval Air Station on the day before the Open Day, of the F/A-18F in the extraordinary "digital" scheme, which I have since learned is apparently the pattern of the new USN combat/working uniform. And yes, the sky really was that blue for the five days of our trip!

There have been a few events locally since my return, as well as another glitch with gom.com which was apparently was down to the server; I think I preferred it when a server problem was when the under-housemaid had spilt the afternoon tea on the tray, and it could be fixed without a convoluted phone call or messaging by long-distance bells. The Luton Air Enthusiasts Fair enabled me to fatten up my piggy-bank in time for me to cut off a few slices to spend at Southern Expo; I couldn't stay too long at Hornchurch, as I was on deck for my granddaughter's third birthday party the same afternoon, but I did come away with a few choice items, notably the Hawker P.1121 in resin from S & M - on the workbench already, of course - the TSR.2 fighter conversion by Freightdog, which has every chance of wearing a maple leaf, and the Hobby Boss Seahawk (could the RAF have used it as a Venom replacement in the Middle East?). And They day before posting this I was at the model show at Hinckley not, for once, of the What If? table but on the SIG144 stand on which I placed among others the little "X-wing" BAE P.1214 - see the Workbench - and an RCAF Comet 1 which will appear here in due course. By invitation, I was able to slide gently on to the Coventry and Warwickshire IPMS stand this pair of recently-completed P.1154s, which will also receive a mention shortly. And I had a nudge from a relayed comment that it was a while since I'd updated the site; here's a cuople of things to be going on with while I try to get my current spasm of modelling finished in time for the What If? Stand and with luck the SIG144 stand as well at the Cosford show in less than two weeks!

Stash

One of the joys of Telford is of course that those looking to inhabit similar niches of our hobby - and sometimes it can be a real squeeze - can get together and discuss matters of common interest; this is particularly applicable to those of us in Special Interest Groups; after all, if you're working with a Branch display, it's amost without saying that through the year you meet many of your fellow participants that will join you at ScaleModelWorld. SIG members though are usually geographically scattered and while, based on my experience with the What If? persons and now with SIG144 (the group for flat-dwellers) there is fairly regular contact of sorts, albeit on a one-to-one or perhaps one-to-two basis, it's at shows that we coalesce in varying numbers and discuss Matters of Moment, such as how to persuade Captain Freightdog to fill an urgent need, "surely that's the wrong unit marking for that type", and what was Terry Campion (or the name of your choice) thinking of? We do have a newsletter, which emerges from the Editorial sanctum at regular intervals, with odd bits of news, suggestions for more or less likely subjects, and we also have an AGM, which is a good excuse for an extra get-together, not least because it takes place at the Coventry Museum; and I think it was here this last summer that the word "stash" started to burrow in to my subconscious.

It's presumably because I spend many of my insomniac hours in a semi-recumbent posture (homage to Albert/Stanley Holloway) reading fairly current American crime fiction that my immediate "stash" vision was a carefully accumulated and fairly well concealed heap of illegal substances, but it didn't take long - well, not long for one of my advancing years - to realise that the subject round the table was really what used to be referred to as "loft insulation", a phrase which I'm still convinced that for this context I launched in SAN all those years ago when I still had a loft in which my not-for-immediate-building kits accumulated almost of their own accord. There must have been the usual muttered, and almost convincing, "of course I always mean to build them when I buy them" - perish the thought that any of of us were kit collectors intentionally! - but the unspoken rhubarb noise was "what are we supposed to do with them now?"

I am reminded domestically from time to time that Life is really about Ordering Priorities, and I could make a case that this was the spinal thread of my air traffic control days; the phrase "safe, orderly and expeditious flow" was hardwired in to us from the first day of our training. This is fine when the priorities are self-evident and unchanging, but like Harold Macmillan's "events, dear boy, events" or the David Mellor/John Lennon "Life is what happens when you're making other plans", something like a Panzer regiment in battle order comes along to suggest a slight change of plan; even without the natural instincts of Captain Indecisive this can result in rapid confusion. Still, whatever my feelings that any New Resolutions carry their own inescapable seeds of doom, it's time for me in this fog-bound fag-end of the old year to think about what might be needed - I hesitate to use the word action - to help me rationalise some of the Stash somewhere between now and, say the early spring (this at least gets me past Southern Expo, and the joint birthday events with my granddaughter). In a way, the kits are easy, and I've already squirred away a large cardboard box ot three for their transport. There are two likely outlets, under the SIG table at ModelKraft in early February, and a table of my very own at the Aviation Enthusiasts' Fair at Luton at the beginning of March (for which I must book next week). The market is slightly different for each; the relatively niche subjects, usually in resin, are more likely to find an appropriate home at Milton Keynes (Stantonbury really, but MK is more recogniseable) and probably with my fellow SIG members; those earmarked for Luton will as likely as not go to traders, and there is also the chance of clearing half a shelf or two of books there, though magazines are a horse of an entirely different kettle.

That'll make January (another) sheep/goats month then, and the need to decide whether or not to wear my Captain Indecisive T-shirt to help with the deliberations. At least I know I shall only have to make room in the garage for two Valiants when the time comes, though if - no, when I build them - I'll need to move two other largeish models in a suitable box to a different part of the shelving. And who knows, when I'm shuffling all those unmade kits I may even have a sudden impulse to build one or two of them. It's really nice to have Tailpiece back again, and the chance to reprise and update an old familiar theme; enjoy your 2011 modelling!

Le swinger

Anigrand continues to offer me intriguing possibilities, though most of them these days turn up in 1:144th scale. While I was tempted by the 1:72nd Mirage G when it appeared, briefly considering equipping an RAF Tornado Wing, in line with Current Policy, but decided against it ; however at Telford I was offered the possibility of the kit at a good price, and while having one of several mulls in which I indulged that weekend found the Syh@rt Decal stand. I was initially attracted by, and succumbed to, the Super Etendard "special" scheme, but while buying that I found the decal for the Mirage F.1's retirement colours, with a positive proliferation of unit badges, covering I presume all the units with which that very elegant aircraft served. Given that the configuration of the later variable-sweep aircraft was very similar I had this sudden urge to combine the two (and the money in my pocket and the probability that I wouldn't see this selection of decals for another twelve months).

Among the several virtues of Anigrand kits, even in 1:72, is for me the relatively small number of parts, which for someone like me who likes to make several models either in parallel or in rapid series can be a real boon. This does mean that in most cases there is a lack of detail in, for example, the cockpit but that's never been something that worries me unduly and my "corroborative detail" was found in a couple of instrument panels of approximately the right period on old Modeldecal sheets. The quality of Anigrand's resin casting is consistently good, and though there is usually a need for a little filler it's never overwhelming; there was a small bite from the corner of one wing "glove" but this was easily remedied with a piece of plastic card and a little light wet & dry work. While sorting out the coclpit area I painted both surfaces of the swinging wing halves; a failry extensive rummage through my myriad part-used tinlets revealed an X377, the Xtracolor Bleu de Mirage, which I'm pleased to say is still in the catalogue although some of the French colours have I think been deleted; "High Speed Silver" seemed appropriate for the undersurfaces.

The decals are beautifully designed and printed, and the selection I saw at Telford was considerable and colourful; largely French military and with a goodly proportion of commemorative schemes, you really should look at www.syh@rtdecal.fr to see what's on offer (the one that I caught my eye first and which I came away with was for the "Marine" Super Etendard special). They are delicate, and in accordance with their advice I added a coat of Microscale decal film. For the long parts of ther banner I used Microsol to try - with some degree of success - to conform to the curves around the intakes, but possibly because of the larger size of this Mirage over the F.1 for which the decals were designed there are still a few wrinkles (of course this could simply be due to my impatience!). The gap between the front and rear sections of the banner is designed to be hand-painted, and though the colour isn't an exact match - I should have carried out my original intent of using white decal strip in two layers, like the banner sections on the Syh@rt decal - it's shadowed by the wing anyway. I added a pair of the longer-range AAMs that I'd used on Le Shar , which Mike Gething told me were MD. 550s, on staggered pylons below the fuselage, and planned to complement them with a pair of Magics; sadly none of these have emerged from my shadows, but there may well be some from Aviation Workshop in the fullness of time, in which case I shall add them below the intakes. I'm very happy with the result - I've come to expect wrinkles thse days! - and it does look just as I saw it in my mind's eye before the money had even changed hands back in November. Good.

Transferred 05.04.11

TSR.2 x 2

I shouldn't be allowed too close to bookshops; there must be a gene that compels me to put my nose round the door and see if there's something new, whether from Harry Turtledove or Tony Buttler, that I really can't do without. And on aviation books, whether for modelling purposes or just reading, there are some cover subjects that draw me like a siren, and usually result in money changing hands; recently they include the V-22 Osprey, an aircraft - or perhaps a flying machine - by which I am increasingly fascinated, and for a long time, which will be no surprise, I'll consider almost anything on the Hunter, but without a doubt and equally unsurprisingly the strongest pull is from the TSR.2. There's probably no answer to the query, but it seems to me that the recent apparent revival of interest in to this project seems to have been sparked at least in part by the release by Airfix of the 1:72nd scale kit, which spawned not only a rash of resin extras but a number of publications which covered not only what was - and in the case of XR220 and 222 what is - but also what might have been, both in the project stages and had it entered service.

Now we have two substantial accounts of the aircraft's gestation, birth - even more of a struggle than I'd thought - and demise, appearing within two weeks of each other; I'll cover them in the order in which I bought them. The first, by Tim McLelland, is from Classic, now part of Ian Allan Publishing; if my memory's right - because I can't at the moment find it to check - my oldest book on the TSR.2 is a pictorial collection published by Ian Allan, probably as an offshoot of Aircraft Illustrated. While some of the pictures in the new book look familiar, there are many that will be new to most readers ( I like that of the Vulcan engine test bed). The text is chronological, touching on some of the possible alternatives thrown up by GOR.339 before examining both the politics and the technical considerations which led to the combining of English Electric and Vickers, and their projects, in to the British Aircraft Corporation. The woes, both political and technical - the two are inseparable in this story - which led to a succession of delays in completion and first flight. The technical description of the aircraft and its equipment, including some of the ground units, has a goodly selection of drawings of which several seem to be from brochures of the period; this section concludes with the probable intial deployment of the aircraft on entering service. For modellers there are four pages of 1:72nd line drawings by Richard J Caruana, and four more with a pair of his four-views, one all white and one in the proposed initial camouflage. There are two pages of bibliography with notes on those publications mentions, and a third page on the two Airfix kits and listing accessories and decals.

The second book is from Crowood, the author Damien Burke, who is also responsible for the very large number of excellent illustrative drawings. This is a much thicker volume (at twice the price) with extensive support, both pictorial and documentary, from the records held by the Brooklands Museum and from the North West Heritage Group. The various submissions to OR.339 are extensively covered, with the author's drawings showing what most of the British aircraft industry thought it could do, and which will fascinate those of us of the What If? tendency (I particularly like, and commend to a resin kit manufacturer or two, the Bristol 204). The strain and difficulty of the combination of companies and designs is covered in considerable and at times painful detail and, in contrast with other books that have been published in the last fifteen years or so, this appears comparatively non-partisan, though I do detect from time to time a sneaking sympathy with the original English Electric team. The account of the eventual first flight, and the problems that ensued while XR219 was still at Boscombe Down, reveals much that is new to me and, I suspect, to many others that have been supporters of the aircraft even before its cancellation and more markedly afterwards. There are separate chapters for the airframe, the engine, the electronic systems and weapons, including diagrams of attack profiles; like the rest of the author's drawings, these are well presented and give a real feel for how the RAF would have used the aircraft. Its planned introduction in to RAF service and immediate subsequent service has a chapter to itself, and is followed by one on the cancellation and its immediate and longer term effects; and the last chapter covers possible further developments and variants. I've had several discussions since the kit first appeared on the possibility of a fighter version and this is, for the first time that I'm aware of, covered here, with one of Mr.Burke's excellent line drawings showing the necessary changes to the nose profile and the probable weapons load; the same treatment is given to the proposed Type 595 trainer version, with the reasons for not going ahead with either of them. For modellers, the trainer would be the simpler conversion (even though it could involve the application of dayglo orange) but a replacement nose section for the fighter would be very welcome; as well as filling the GIUK gap, I think it would look good in a maple leaf, and it was apparently suggested to the Canadians. There are colour profiles - if white is indeed a colour - of the first four aircraft, and three appendices; the first two cover GOR.339 and OR.343 (and the politics that made that change necessary are fascinating) and the third reproduces the flight reference cards for the aircraft on fifteen pages, so that if you find yourself at Duxford or Cosford with a ladder and nobody looking you'll know just what to do next.

I was impressed by the level of detail in the first book; the second is even more comprehensive (and for the ageing reader has the larger typeface!). It's also twice the price, but I think there will be few TSR.2 enthusiasts who will grudge paying for this level of information and presentation, and no doubt there will be quite a few who, like me, will be drawn to both. There are some subjects on which you can't have too many books, even if the shelves are increasingly crowded.

ScaleModelWorld reflections

I haven't really said much about this year's Telford, and in the fun that is the galloping approach of Christmas I suspect opportuniy will be limited. There's so much that goes on, quite apart from the essential function of topping up the Stash (see the imminent Tailpiece) that it's really only possible to pick out a few highlights. As one of my modelling principles is to Have Fun, I was delighted that the winner of the Branch display trophy was that from North Somerset; having had problems in agreeing on a theme, they decided that they should emphasise that they indulged in all sorts of modelling, and therefore took their cue from Bertie Bassett; here's the result. And as another indication, or perhaps mascot - though there was also a very military looking meerkat on display - they had one of those Airfix kits from the days when they were happy to kit really quite unlikely subjects even if they would be unknown outside the UK.

The other display award, for that of a Special Interest Group was - also to my delight - given to the newly-christened SIG144, for those who whether through choice or necessity model in 1:144th scale. The avuncular pair presiding in the picture are David Hart (the taller one) and Mike Verier (the other), both of whom I have known these many years. I still treasure the Ecth Deutsch range of paints proposed by David a long time ago, the list of which surfaced recently while I was "tidying"; it contained those three essential colours, Dunkelschwartz, Mittleschwartz and Hellschwartz, the requirement for which has never been adequately realised bu those who produced paints in the specialist shades which our hobby demands. It's difficult to hold Mike's reputed "rotorhead" propensity against him; he really has a much wider range of interests, and these days enjoys being the token Soft Southerner in a clutch of Yorkshire IPMS Branches. I confess to a personal interest in this SIG; if you look closely - not too closely - you'll see the Anigrand Nimrod AEW.3 and Cierva Air Horse that have previously appeared in these e-pages. Like so many SIGs, this one comes together at meetings, and the layout that David and Mike put together for this year was a prime example of a simple and well-organised display that showed the SIG's purpose, and should - and did - encourage wider membership. I gather that it was possible, by devious and therefore un-Yorkshire means, to acquire a little extra area in which to show off. In passing, although 144th saves space it doesn't seem to save expenditure, or is that just because all mine takes place in resin? And of course there was the competition

There are those of us who still refer to the event as the Nat Champs, long-time shorthand for the National Championships; that happened of course long before SIGs, and even before the proliferation of trade stands (neither of which of course we'd willingly do without now), when any entries for the IPMS class competitions had to progress through branch eliminators and before overseas entrants. There are now over forty trophies in addition to the classes, and the classes themselves have evolved to take account of changes in modelling custom and practice. Some time ago I gave up the judging in which I'd been involved for many years, but in the last two or three I've had the fun of judging the odd trophy, which has also given me the opportunity to photograph some of the models that caught my eye. These two are Strega in 1:32nd, one of the fairly exotic Reno Mustangs that I love - not quite as colourful as Voodoo, but that's already appeared on the table - and in 1:72nd a Bristol Bloodhound ER Mk.I; you will of course realise that this is a cunning combination of a Bristol 138 with contributions from Hawker and Martin-Baker, under the skilled hands of Rod Ulrich. This type of model used only to appear when entered for the Mushroom Monthly Trophy, but they've graduated to the dubious respectability of a recognised IPMS class under the label "Hypothetical"; that's almost as mainstream as "counterfactual". You'll note that IPMS persist in using that over-vivid purple table-covering; I suppose it makes any picture instantly recogniseable as being taken at SMW, but I don't think it's very pixel-friendly. The overall winner of the "Best Aircraft" was this very gorgeous scratch-built Handley Page O/400, which went on to be the very worthy Senior Champion. Modelling like this is why I gave up entering competitions in the mid-'70s, bot both the ability and result are beyond envy. As so often in recent years, the winner of this overall award is from outside the UK; the deserving modeller is Aristidis Polyzos, from Greece.

And lastly, the chat; probably even more fun than spending money - even if that runs it a close second - this is the real reason for the annual trip to Shropshire and seems to have been more or less continuous from arrival early of the Friday afternoon until close of play on the Sunday evening. In fact it had a postscript of its own on the Monday morning, when many of us turned up at the Michael Beetham Conservation Facility at Cosford, where for me the highlight was the rebuilt Sopwith Dolphin (19 Squadron marks, please, when it's being finished). Rob Sullivan was duty paparazzo, and it's his photo that symbolises this activity; I won't tell you who's out of this picture, but the distinguished chap next to whom I found myself is Trevor Snowdon, recently retired as eminence grise of Humbrol/Airfix. Same time next year, chaps?

Deep, soggy and uneven

We don't do snow very well, at least not at this end of the (still) United Kingdom. Looking back to my formative year in Alberta I have been known to curl my lip at the British reaction to the white stuff, though I confess that I found myself turning back a couple of days ago when heading in to a blizzard, or at least a very convincing passing imitation near the blasted heath of Milton Keynes. I didn't think that my Chrysler Caponemobile would cope, though admittedly I didn't have the two sinister chaps with Thompson guns installed on the running boards. Part of my master plan for this end of December was for the two Telford-fallout kits on my workbench to be finished, one before Christmas so that I could include it here, and possibly on individual messages to one or two of those of a similar counterfactual persuasion, though probably without a sprig of holly - I haven't covered that section of the PaintShop 6 manual yet - and the other by the end of the year. You will gather that the first at least hasn't happened, and Stage 2 is looking increasingly unlikely though it's always possible that another fall of white will lead to a little more available modelling time. (It is said that you know you're getting older when you know you're starting to sound like your father; what worries me more is that I can hear distinct echoes of Uncle Alan!). One encouraging note is that Santa - or at least his Lowestoft Branch - must have read at least one of my letters; propped up against my door when I got in this Christmas Eve morning was a package in brown and yellow gift wrap containing the Sharkit McDonnell Model 60. When Tony Buttler, blessed be his name, published his American fighter projects I was immediately drawn to this, which looks like a delta F3H; in fact I started to cobble one together from an Emhar Demon and a Hasegawa F-106 and failed, partly perhaps because I couldn't bring myself to take the vertical tails from a Fujimi Cutlass. Still this kit looks promising, at least in the box; unlike some earlier Sharkits it has an undercarriage and I like the folding wing tips. Somewhere I have at least one sheet of Demon decals and another for the FJ-4 Fury; I feel a sharp attack of light gull gray coming on!

Ther have been a few suggestions about what may come our way in 2011; I shall be very happy with the Airfix Valiant, to which I shall apply the unit marking that my squadron boss refused to let me do in 1957; and I shall be even happier if someone does a B.2 conversion so that I can reverse another misguided procurement decision from the early 'fifties. Next outing, ModelKraft at Milton Keynes in early February, probably the best of the one day shows- yes I know there's competition from Avon and Salisbury, but it's local!

See you next year

Hooked again

Naval matters feature largely in this section. One of the pleasures of the last summer has been seeing Seafire 17 SX336 performing at Old Warden and lending the growl of its Griffon to the mass Spitfire flypast and subsequent tailchase at Duxford in September; the combination of this engine and the "teardrop" canopy with FAA colours is distinctive and whether solo or in combination with its varied siblings can be guaranteed to lift my spirits. It's featured on the cover of the latest - No.13 - in Roger Chesneau's splendid "From the Cockpit" series, the Seafire story being told by the very well-known author, raconteur and test pilot Eric Brown, whose aviation exploits and credentials are legion. This book follows the now familiar pattern of the series, starting with the account of the type's birth, in this case the adaptation of the Spitfire V for shipboard use, and development to the ultimate variant of Mitchell's original design, the Seafire 47. Its operational career started with Operation Torch and it was in at the beginning of the Korean conflict, and the book includes tales and reminiscences of those involved in both events. As we now expect, the photo coverage is first class, well chosen and reproduced and including as seems to be only too likely with naval aviation a fair number of mishaps, but then there's always someone there to record them!

The Seafire served with many, many squadrons, both first and second line, and these are meticulately tabulated with dates of commissions, Commanding Officers, carrier assignments where relevant and Senior Pilots where known, and illustrated where possible (I wonder whether the Seafire served with more squadrons than any other FAA aircraft). The colour four view is of the F.XV second prototype flown by the author at Farnborough in 1944, and publisher/artist Roger Chesneau has added no less than thirty-five colour profiles from a Spitfire VB serving with 761 NAS in 1943 to a Mk.47 of 1833 NAS ten years later, which comes with those fetching red/yellow exercise markings. The extensive personal accounts of the Seafire's part in wartime operations both in Europe and the Far East, and on its return to the firing line in Korea in 1950 have the immediacy which lights up history. Like the others in this series, of which you will surely know I am a great fan, this is a book for browsing, for reference - not least for modelling - and for reading for the enjoyment and the enlargement of knowledge.

After the Wars were over..

It's already longer than I care to remember that I stoon on the balcony at Hendon and saw that all the aircraft I'd flown - with the exception of the T-33 - were already consigned to the Museum and wondered if that made me also a museum piece. It was though, I now see, my luck to be interested in and then at least a small part of aviation - and in particular British military aviation - at a time when there was much to hold the interest. While there has been continual and consistent interest in World War II, the period immediately following has not received much coverage, with the exception of the two volumes of RAF fighter colours from Guideline Publications. These had to be illustrated with colour profiles, colour film at least in Europe being largely unavailable to the average enthusiast until the mid-'fifties and taking picturers of military hardware being seriously discouraged; at a time when there were fifty RAF stations open for "Battle of Britain" days the public were stopped from taking cameras through the gates! Martin Derry has remedied at least a bit of this gap in his latest book for Dalrymple and Verdon, whose purpose is clearly stated in tits title (the clipping of which is my fault and not D&V's). Many of the illustrations cpme from personal collections, and also from those now held by the Newark Air Museum. Colour profiles of all three types are by Richard J Caruana, and for potential modelling of Lancaster and York this is very useful; it may even impel me to take that "Post-War Lancaster" off the garage shelf. We seem to have been waiting for a promised 1:144 Lincoln for ages; might this one prompt one in 1:72nd, possibly as a (rather extensive) conversion? Even without modelling relevence, this is still a useful gap filler, especially for those of us for whom it is not quite history yet.

Canberra interceptors (cont.)

You have by now, I hope, have read in the newly-retitled Mike's Pick section - the change removes one self-inflicted deadline - how much I enjoyed modifying the Airfix Canberra B(I).8 with the P.12 inteceptor project resin conversion from Silver Cloud (not as I wrote in that section Silver Cross, which must be a spot of grandparental fog). I carried out my threat to work a similar change on their PR.9, and as well as the resin nose added an extra pair of Red Deans, fixed underwing fuel tanks, an FR probe and to help the Double Scorpion with the extra weight and the bigger wing to a little extra altitude an afterburner on each Avon. I had a back end from a Trumpeter Lightning which had been replaced by a resin one, and separated its jetpipes which fitted on to the Canberra nacelles more easily than I had anticipated. The rest was colour scheme, which was to be one step later than that on my first with Light Aircraft Grey undersides and red/blue roundels. After consulting my stash of Modeldecal NF Meteor sets I found 89 Squadron's Javelin fin marking - one panel either side of the tail - on one of those SAM decal strips, but was even happier to find it on an Xtradecal Meteor sheet, applied to an F.8 which was a "hack" when 89 flew the Venom NF.3; another attractive but defunct marking fitting nicely in to my current Master Plan of re-expanding the RAF if only in dubious retrospect.

The same Plan led me to build a Global Hawk; I'd been looking for an excuse, but having already made a Planet Models resin kit in 51 Squadron markings and hemp, the recent set of Valiant decals included the rather elegant bird's head of 543 Squadron. Its role of long range reconnaisance gave me the rationale, and Italeri the kit; it's in two shades of camouflage grey, but having looked at recent photos of the type in USAF service they all appear to have white, or nearly white, upper wing surfaces. Looking through a rack of Mr.Color acrylics on the MDC stand at a recent model show I discovered one labelled "Off White", which not only filled the bill precisely for the Global Hawk but is ideal for the nose cone of radar-guided missiles like the Red Deans on the two Canberras. It's big, and I would advise checking that you have a suitaby large space before you commit to one, but it's a good, well thought out and well fitting kit. The photo on the left is its studio portrait; the other is an almost successful attempt to produce a moody shot!

Buttler's Done it again

While Tony Buttler is a prolific author on real aeroplanes as well, for those of us with an eye to what might have - or perhaps even what should have - been, his very well-researched and informative articles and books on largely unrealised projects have become invaluable, indeed part of our staple diet. Following on from the Midland Publishing series on "Luftwaffe '46" designs, he first drew together the British aircraft industry's more imaginative projects, including those before and during the Second World War, covered Sovered Soviet designs in conjunction with Yefim Gordon and then moved on to the archives of American manufacturers; he has now followed his volume on US fighters with one covering, as you can see, Bombers, Attack and Anti-Submarine designs. With impeccable timing this appeared as though by magic on the Friday afternoon at Telford - and immediately found a berth in my library bag - and Tony was there on the Saturday to sign freshly-hatched copies. Like his earlier books this is organised in to chapters that combine role and chronology, and include designs that were successful, such as the B-47, as well as those that were built but not successful and didn't progress beyong the mock-up, model or sketch stage. The aircraft in the very atmospheric cover painting by Timothy O'Brien is an example of the last; the only available information on the Republic AP-42 was in the form of a model with a figure of a man next to it from which the dimensions have been deduced. Those of you familiar with the series will know that they can both be read as a semi-continuous narrative or just browsed, either for a particular type or category or just to see what catches the eye, and there are plenty in this volume that fall in to this last category. Modellers may like to consider what can be done with available kits and modification (usually with much Milliput); have you considered the waterbased version of the Martin XB-51, for example? As an alternative you can consider sending concentrated thought waves to one of the kit manufacturers; having tried, and failed, to make a McDonnell Model 60 from the American Fighters book, using F3H, F-106 and Cutlass kits I'm delighted to have just ordered the Sharkit version (well, it looks good on their website and has an undercarriage, and I have all those Demon decals). I'm still hoping to persuade Fantastic Plastic to revive their Convair XA-44 (page 46), and to include an undercarriage, though they seem to be wedded to vintage Aurora-style "stands". Sometimes there's a serendipitous anticipation; Anigrand have just released their Boeing XB-55, a supersized turboprop Stratojet, and here it is on page 23. While some details of an aircraft can be included with a kit, I always like to know more, especially when I'm trying to decide a possible service use and finish. While some of the aircraft featured in these pages may be more fanciful than others, it's instructive for an aviation enthusiast to compare them with those that did come to fruition, and wonder why one design was successful and the other not. Writing this as the snow is starting to encircle parts of the Soft South, this book- in conjuction with a warm cat - is likely to figure heavily in my next week or three, and provide a odd but reassuring comfort in enabling me to disregard much of the outside world for a while!

By the way, in the USAF Heavyweights chapter you'll find a couple of Douglas projects which feature an increasing selection of parasites. By coincidence, I think, as I picked up the Buttler book from the Aviation Bookshop stand I spotted "Mother Ships, Parasites and More: Selective USAF Strategic Bomber, XC Heavy Transport and FICON Studies 1945-1954" by Jared A Zilchek which as you will guess from the title covers some of the same ground; the fifth in the American Aviation Archive series it has as well as text and photos of models a considerable number of reproduced manufacturers' drawings, often internal schematics, which are probably best seen with a strong light and using an occasional magnifying glass. The designs in "American Secret Projects" include many that look entirely practical, but most in this work are distinctly bizarre, though we shouldn't forget that Convair's B-58 was a logical development of the parasite layout. This strikes me as being one for the insomniacs (and yes, that includes me!)

The Back Story (so far)

One of the noble, but occasionally unrealised, aims of the What If? SIG is to set a theme for our display at the IPMS National Championships - thinly disguised as ScaleModelWorld - at Telford every November. That for 2011 will be unveiled with dry ice and fanfares at this year's event, but for 2010 we didn't quite arrive at a generally accepted conclusion (coalition, anyone?). However Colin Strachan of Freightdog Models, an old friend of the SIG not least in his begetting of such subjects as the SR.177, made available to us following his acquisition of Pegasus Models from Chris Gannon several of the kitsthat had come his way. One of the two on which I pounced was an FJ-1 Fury, North American's early attempt at a carrier-borne jet fighter; eighteen months or so ago I'd made one in USAAF Occupation of Germany colours, but my first impulse was a Fleet Air Arm example in which Lt.Cdr. Brown could make a few early deck landings on Illustrious before deciding that it might suit the Wavy Navy, or perhaps equip a squadron in time for the Korean conflict. This would give me the choice of at least two basic colour schemes, always assuming of course that I could steel myself to choose, or at least discard, one (it's not for nothing that one of my Frequently Used Phrases in my middle management days was "least bad solution" ).

Having put the fuselage and wings together and applied a smidgen or two of filler I was looking at it from the front when it occurred to me that the fuselage was tubby enough to accomodate a Nene engine, which could perhaps have enhanced its performance; and that train of thought took me directly to my T-33 days, where a similar operation by Canadair resulted in the Silver Star (can you see where we're going yet?). I know the timeline doesn't quite fit, but I like the idea that, ahead of taking on the F-86 and building them for the RAF as well as the RCAF they could carry out a parallel operation with the FJ-1. Another prod in this direction was the RCN colour scheme; while their Seafires and Fireflies, and later Sea Furies, added their maple leaf roundels in the first instance to a basically British camouflage the Canadians later adopted one in which in effect the RN "sky" was replaced by a light grey. Nestling about halfway between the writing and modelling ends of my workroom are the three invaluable volumes by Patrick Martin - on which I've written previously - on Canadian Air Force, Navy and Armed Forces aircraft and their markings from 1946 to the present day, and it was the white spiral binding of the naval volume that I hoicked off the shelf for consultation on the "CFJ-1" scheme.

I was hoping that I could find an opportunity to use the "B-type" Canadian post-war roundel which simply carried a red maple leaf on its blue disc, but while there were aircraft so finished there was no way I could bend a reasoned timeline to apply this marking to an RCN jet fighter, however early. Almost by chance - I was tidying up and you know how often that happens - I found the markings I needed, including codes and serials, on a set from IPMS Canada which has been hiding in my drawers since goodness knows when. When applied it did show a tinge of yellow with its carrier film, but I can forgive that - easily! - because it also included the "Royal Canadian Navy" titling and a serial without my having to assemble them one letter and digit at a time (I really don't like applying FAA 4" alpha-numerics). The one thing I've not been able to find is any colour reference, in whatever format, for the RCN Light Grey and Dark Grey, though Pat's book does say the the darker was very close to EDSG; for the lighter I took the book's colour section to my paint stock and decided on Xtracolor ADC Gray (Xxxx) and the result looks right. I also decided that to persuade their British Lordships to accept a small batch from Canadair it would be wise to replace the FJ-1's six 0.50 machine guns for the standard British armament ot the time of four 20mm cannon. The markings are those of 883 Squadron, RCN, as carried both on the unit's Seafires and their Sea Furies; it carries the underwing code VG*AAC, the lettering for which and the four digit serial, for which I couldn't find an attribution in Pat's excellent book, also came from the IPMS Canada decal sheet. The whole project has been fun, and I shall shortly start the two FAA examples to have them ready in good time for Telford (tick, tock, tick, tock....). I am left with one dilemma, and perhaps you can help; while I can tink of it as the CFJ-1 it obviously couldn't have been called "Fury" in RCN or RN service, and scratch my head as I may I can't find a suitable, preferably Canada-oriented, alternative. Any thoughts (perhaps at the IPMS Avon show at Yate)?

Much later, in another part of the Forest...

As no one has yet taken me up on my invitation to help with the christening, I've picked up on the name of a grey and white seabird that I chanced to see on a recent edition of Coast - that's the one with the Scots presenter who's understandable - and almost gives me an alliteration; let me introduce the Canadair Kittiwake F.10. I seem to remember that the name was used before WW II for a rather portly low-wing cabin monoplane with a gull wing - hence the name perhaps - and a trousered undercarriage, but I don't think its re-use will confuse any miliary stores system. And while I'm with additional information Mike Gething, who I've known since the early seventies and though a Real Aviation Journalist has also beek known to dabble in modelling, tells me that those missiles under my Aeronavale Sea Harrier are Matra MICA, the acronym for Missile d'Interception et de Combat Aerienne. It's not what you know, it's who you know that counts.

Little and simple is good!

Much of my modelling in recent weeks, apart from Canberra Interceptors by courtesy of Airfix and Freightdog/Silver Cross, has been thanks to Anigrand, but there has been one other resin kit that while frustrating me for a time has been ultimately satisfying. One of my Idle Time Scan activities is keeping an eye on the Unicraft website, and marvelling at what our man in the Ukraine thinks is worth producing in resin. Occasionally though, in spite of the work that just about all those of his kits that I've made have given me - simple in this case means with comparatively few parts - I spot something that fires my imagination and that that surely no one else will bring to market. This one is the Goodyear 39, designed to the same COIN specification that gave us the Bronco and its unsuccessful competitor the Convair Charger. I have a vague memory of seeing an illustration at the time of the competition, probably in the old RAF Flying Review, and when I saw it on the Unicraft website I knew it was for me. It came via Adrian Hampson of Lone Wulf, who has become my usual supplier of the somewhat bizarre flying machines, and for once I started on it without a precise idea of an intended colour scheme though knowing that it would probably be "borrowed" from a Bronco. The Unicraft resin castings are pretty basic but generally clean up easily; one disadvantage is that the fuselage walls are comparatively thick and I'm reluctant to embark on any serious excavation to help in furnishing the cockpit. There was also vwey little space in which to hide nose weight and this model is a convinced tail-sitter and has to have its picture taken on a downhill slope. It looks as though the aircraft was meant to have at least some amphibious capability, but the wing tip fitments are basically circular, rather resembling fuel tanks; there is no prow or step under the fuselage either, snd the u/c doors provided would not totally cover the main wheel wells. Perhaps it would have been able to put down on water in an emergency, but I think it would have had problems getting airborne again unless it was able to taxi ashore. One design factor which suggested amphibious capability was the positioning of the pusher propellors above the wing in such a way that hey would have been clear of any spray; having carefully assembled the propellors - and I really wiish that some of these resin kits would come with the hub and blades as a single casting! - I found when attaching them to the engines that they couldn't possibly have turned without chewing chunks out of the wingHaving tried and failed to un-superglue the pylon from the wing or the nacelle from the pylon in the hope that I could vary the angle at which they were fitted to enable the props to rotate, I clipped the tips of the blades, and I think they now look too short to offer the necessary thrust. I bought a set of Microscale Bronco decals from Paul Davis, which included the double horseshoe marking (VMO-2?) and promptly put it somewhere too safe to find; the second set - same brand, same source - had decals for a test aircraft at Patuxent River, which I had just recently visited, and I thought the Insignia Red panel would give a little added colour. In the end it came together, and I'm rather tempted to make another (I found that set of decals) but perhaps there's just too much to get on with.

The privision of three or four "extra" models has now become standard in Anigrand Craftsworks' 1:144th scale kits, and these are occasionally - perhaps even frequently - as desirable as the main subject. One such recent production is the Nimrod AEW.3; I did the 1:72nd Airfix/Cammett coversion a couple of years ago with which I was very pleased, but I think, purly for space reasons, that it's unlikely that I'll repeat it, so the arrival of the Anigrand example was very welcome. I'd finished the bigger model in hemp/grey and 8 Squadron markings - and of course Zebedee - so I decided to use the two-grey scheme currently worn on 51 Squadron's R.1s (at least for another year or so). Unit markings, or at least decals, are often a problem in 1:144th but in this case it was solved by using the "other half" of 8 Squadron and a Phantom fin red eagle from Modeldecal. The Waddington shield behind the cockpit came from another set from Anigrand - there are frequently subjects on their decals which are not necessarily relevant to the kit with which they are boxed - and the light aircraft grey/camouflage grey scheme was based on photos of the R.1 by the excellent Richard O Andrews, whose files and pictures are a frequent help in time of need. I'm not convinced by those light grey radomes, though; I may have to revist them before Telford.

One of the "extras" with the AEW.3 is an aircraft for which I'm firmly, and sometimes loudly, convinced there would be a market in 1:72, the Hawker P.1121. Another lamented victim of the reduction in British military aircraft procurement by the Wilson government, this was although single-engined, almost Phantom-sized and there are those of us - probably all TSR.2 supporters as well! - who are convinced that it would have sold well in Europe at least, and prbably further afield. Again, I was up agaist a 1:144th marking problem, and those on this 56 Squadron "Hurricane II" came from Xtradecal Tornado and Hunter sheets and a Dragon Tornado F.3 kit. The Red Tops were donated last year by a modeller I met at the IPMS Brampton show while lamenting - something I do a lot - the lack of British missiles and stores in the smaller scale. The kit, like all of the jets at least in this scale, is simple and reasonably accurate, though I don't know about thase rather bulged airbrakes (?) on the rear fuselage. Still, just think what you could do with a handful and a sheaf of Modeldecal F-4M sets in 1:72nd!

And there's a third from this box to glower at you - here's more

Searching through some old family photos a very small - about 2cm by 4cm - fell out. Given its size it must surely have been one I took when I was eleven or twelve, with a small and basic camera, but it wasn't until I came to scan it, which was just after I'd finished the model, and looked at the first result that it was the second Air Horse WA-555 (for some reason Cierva inserted a hyphen in its serial) which as far as I've been able to check wasn't flown. I wonder if I took it at Cierva's factory at Eastleigh, but I don't remember gowing there until I was learning to fly the Tiger Moth in 1953, by which time Ciervas were producing Skeeters. Even before finding this I'd decided to build the little Anigrand model with a view to having it ready for the 144 SIG table at the IPMS Brampton show at the end of September, and I foresaw the first prototpe VZ-475 being surreptitiously taken over for a night exercise with troops while with the Airborne Forces Establishment at Beaulieu, and camouflaged accordingly. I rather like the result and putting it together was a real pleasure; even attaching the rotor blades to their hubs seemed easy! I thought it would be appropriate to take its pictures perched on the "grassmat" surface

Return of Tailpiece

Nearly four years after I stopped writing the column in Scale Aircraft Modelling - alright, SAM, but I wouldn't want any misunderstandings at this stage - I still get told by faces with varying degrees of familiarity that they miss Tailpiece. The column had a slightly stuttering continued existence while Paul Eden was still editor but under his successor the title is used merely to denote the section of the magazine, and has lost the connotation it had. So when I was planning the few recent changes I rang Reg Auclkand who runs Guideline and asked him if he minded if I revived the name, and broadly speaking its purpose, at this end of the website and use the Hunter tail that had become its identifying logo; he is happy that I do, and the tail will - should? - folllow shortly. I had incidentally considered using "Random Thoughts", but for many years that was the name of the excellent magazine of IPMS Canada, and though that's now simply RT I thought that while it describes the Tailpiece purpose and function perfectly it would be much better to leave it with its originators.

In the beginning....and much later

When I started writing Tailpiece thirty years or so ago - SAM Vol.2 No.10, I think, with the F-105 as the cover subject - I didn't have any master theme in mind, but over a year or two, and partly in response to comments, I found that my two main threads were that it was possible to continue modelling in the midst of a family, which in my csae included cats as well as children, and that the most important thing to to enjoy the hobby on your own terms. For many this included being successfully competetive, but having found that my modelling standards were not up to those displayed annually at Hendon or Stoneleigh - or Peterborough, a venue to which I shall return - I was able to relax a little and suggest that others might do the same. Indeed, an example had its gestation at the IPMS National Championships over its sole appearance at Peterborough when a conversation with Ian Hartup, fired almost certainly by our interest in what became known as Luftwaffe '46, produced the idea that one of the then fairly new Special Interest Groups could be formed for others who wanted to join us in this slightly bizarre niche; while this gave rise to a few stiffly raised eyebrows and even the occasional audible sniff it's still functioning under the What If? banner and while those of us who gater round the table at an IPMS show may have slightly differing thoughts on what may or may not have been likely, it's very evident that we get a good deal of fun from it!

As for the family, well, cats are still around, if in different shapes and colours from those that shared our house in Marlow thirty years ago, and neither of our current pair show an inclination to climb on to my workbench or even have their photo taken in a nest of models (it occurs to me that the shot of Amber Moon that was printed in Guidelines, the SAM how-to compendium, shows her sitting surrounded by Luftwaffe '46 subjects). And the children, having put up for many years with the mild eccentricities of their father, have some time ago moved on to have lives of their own, though my older son in particular did comment to me once that he could trace his growing up through the columns in SAM. I have, particularly since I retired from the Day Job, had considerable freedom and time to pursue the full-size and model aspects of my aeronautical obsessions, but one day a week thse days is allocated to our thirty-month-old granddaughter, and while it may be only a matter of time before I have to keep a sharp eye on her paws around my workbench we have an important ceremony to perform first; we're determined next year to take her to her first air display, one of the Shuttleworth evening events so that she can watch the "Edwardians" fluttering around the Old Warden arena. She already distinguishes between "plane" and "copter" as they skirt round our bit of controlled airspace, and I'm going to try to teach her "spamcan". And perhaps one day I'll press a couple of pieces of polystyrene in to her hands. These core themes of the column, and others, seem likely to continue then.

Nature, nurture or .....

Our eight month old grandson shows little signs of it yet but then his father, unlike his older siblings, came it it later than I expected; our granddauhter, on the other hand, at thirty months, has a serious relationship with books. I must have become hooked at about the same age, and like my obsession (there, I've said it) with aviation in several aspects which was equally evident when I was thirty months or so I doubt now if I'll ever recover. Even my alternative occupation these days centres on books; although (the) National Trust decided to close the book/coffee shop in the King's Head in Aylesbury that took most of my Thursdays, most Friday mornings now find me similarly occupied in the Chantry Chapel in Buckingham, another NT enterprise. It's vaguely reassuring that the building is even older than me; it goes back to the fifteenth century, and is the oldest surviving building in the town.

In spite of my defence of cats as an essential part of a modeller's domestic environment, it can be difficult to wield a knife or a glue gun with something furry on the knee, however theraputic this can be under most circumstances; at least some of the reading can be done in a semi-recumbent posture - assuming, like Albert's parents, you can find one - with the comforter of your choice. Some of the larger volumes can be difficult to hold. of course, though strangely I have had no problem manipulating Damien Burke's fairly weighty "TSR.2", really wanting to read it not only for its own sake but also to make sure I can cover as much as possible in my account of it (it is, or shortly will be, in the "Mike's Pick" section). Amazon send me from time to time, as well as a timely note on the impending arrival of Tony Buttler's latest on American bomber and attack projects, suggestions that I might like to invest in their digital reader but I remain resolutely unconvinced. I can see the point if using something like this for the comparative ephemera of newspaper or even magazine articles which can then be discarded without guilt and without either relying on a local refuse collection and having to remember on which day they collect paper or on a trip in my thirstymobile down to our local tip, but I like having and handling books. One of our constraints when we've moved has been an 8'6" dark oak book case which was my parents', and one of the first things we did if we found a house that we fancied - and will have to do if we're in the same position again - was to find a suitable wall against which to position it. Mind you, it could do with being bigger; there's enough piled in front of it at the moment that I can't get at those bound volumes of the Aeroplane (1946-58) carefully stashed away in the central bottom section.

The trouble is as you may well know to your own cost, or perhaps chagrin, acquiring books is much simpler than getting rid of them. I wonder if I've been unduly influenced by the clear memories of book burnings in 'thirties newsreels, a sight which can still make my flesh crawl, not only for what it its but for what it represents in the wanton destruction of knowledge (perhaps in a (much) earlier existence I was there at the destruction of the Library of Alexandria). I do sometimes cull parts of the odd shelf contents, but I'm haunted by the almost certain knowledge that within three weeks of getting rid of a book I shall need it desperately to refer to, whether for modelling or writing purposes; and with the best will, while I know I'm not that interested in a particular aeronautical aspect at the moment I'm quite likely to take a liking to it in a week or a month's time. You will of course recognise that this reasoning - reasoning? - applies equally to those kits on the shelves in my garage, one of which altough disregarded for ages I may need suddenly and urgently in a similar time frame.

In in this sort of scenario that the plastic and paper parts of my hobby interests can feed off each other. Though the number of Airfix TSR.2s that I bought on the kit's appearance my have seemed slightly over the top, the recent appearance of two new books on the Great White Hope/Elephant, in particular the Crowood offering by Damien Burke, means that I shall go back to one or two post-Telford, and if someone is kind enough to produce a resin nose for the projected fighter version that could account for another three or four. Equally a kit that pops up and engages my attention could well send me off on another quest for a suitable, and probably fairly expensive reference. It's just possible that the amount of modelling I can do could diminish with time; in that case - in the same way that I kept a strategic reserve of kits in case I was housebound or hospitalised - I have something to hand that will keep me occupied and continue to feed my interest; after SMW I may be so exhausted that "American Secret Projects - Bombers, Attack and Anti-Submarine Aircraft 1945-74" will, together with Junior Cat, will be an integral part of my immediate recovery programme. Perhaps I'll even read a few selected extracts to my granddaughter; if her current progress is anything to go by, in a couple of weeks she'll be reading them to me, based on the pictures even if her words won't be quite what the author had in mind.

Autumn Reading List

In our part of the world at least it's suddenly getting dark much earlier; it's also getting cold, but then I've never really been warm this "summer", at least not for more than two days at a time. So, not that I ever need an excuse to curl up with a good book - or a warm cat - I'm pleased with a sudden influx of reading matter. You may know that I'm a sucker for series - I blame Dick Barton, Special Agent, which not only kick-started to the addiction but had one of the best theme tunes of all time - and as well as radio and TV, and indeed kits, this manifests itself regularly in my book acquisitions. First of this batch is in Roger Chesneau's excellent "From the Cockpit" series, this time covering Sir Sydney's final piston-engined fighter the Sea Fury. This is principally a collection of personal reminiscenes and photographs of the aircraft, written and compiled by Captain Alan J Leahy, who was also responsible for the Sea Hornet volume. A brief history of the type's development and entry in to service is followed by Captain Leahy's own accounts of his time on the aircraft, and then others' tales, all accompanied by an excellent collection of photos of the Sea Fury, occasionally at rest but mostly in action. There are many of bent and battered aircraft, usually on carrier decks, but then as the author points out these were a necessary part of any subsequent investigation and have remained on file; from the modellers' point of view these are an excellent source of underside markings! An encouraging conclusion from many of these pictures is how many of those involved survived. The balance of the "action" pictures come from the Sea Fury's involvement in the United Nations "Police Action" in Korea, in which the Fleet Air Arm was in action from its outbreak, and Capt.Leahy is one of those contributing first-hand accounts. After these the squadrons are covered in numerical order with photos both of aircraft and people, and details of bases, carriers and Commanding Officers; they include Australian, Canadian and Dutch squadrons, second-line RN and those of the RNVR (the dissolution of which in 1957 was another very sad political decision). Finishing the book, in another consistent feature of the series, there are twenty-nine colour profiles and a four-view of one flown by the author, by series editor Roger Chesneau. A modeller himself, he makes an intriguing suggestion about the colours used on the early production Sea Furies, based on close examination of some of the photographs; he takes, quite rightly, great pride in the care with he takes in the selection, preparation, and if needed, restoration of the photos he chooses to include in this series. I shall be trying his suggestion shortly, though not necessarily on a Sea Fury. As with all in this series, this is a boon not just for the modeller but also for the enthusiast and historian, and for those who want to understand what it was like to fly these aircraft of a couple of generations ago. I've managed to overcome any potential guilt about recommending books with which those I know have been involved; Roger Chesneau is performing a real service in recording and preserving these memories, underlined by the passing of several of his contributors in the last couple of years. I can'r recommend this series, and this example, too highly.

the sound of Fourteen Merlins

One of my imperishable memories was - no, is - that of seven Sea Hornets in echelon starboard making a run and break before landing at Hurn. Even making allowance for my impressionable age - between leaving school and joining the air force I was doing a clerical job at the Airwork-run Fleet Requirements Unit at Bournemouth - the sight and sound has never left me, and it gets the occasion nudge if Duxford assembles a really big Spitfire/Hurricane balbo. The Hornet, at least until the Navy decided to add an observer, was always one of the most attractive piston-engined fighters, an almost pure aerodynamic shape, and it's one of the great pities for aviation enthusiasts that there hasn't been one around just to see on the ground, let alone in the air, for a long time. While the naval side of the story has been told fairly recently in the Ad Hoc series, this book from Dalrymple and Vernon authored by the excellent Tony Buttler, with David Collins and Martin Derry, covers its time in light blue as well. The origins and development of the Hornet are related before accounts of its use by both services, and a chapter of "Reminiscences" preceeds a technical description and three appendices giving technical details, unit allocation for both RAF and FAA and colours and markings. The only quibble I have with this otherwise very good book is with this last section, which gives the colour of the rectangle of the 80 Squadron marking as "purple", when it should be "maroon"; admittedly it does look a touch purplish in the colour photos, but they or the aircraft look as though they've been somewhat affected by the heat (those in the forthcoming Freightdog decal sheet are maroon). Artist Mark Gauntlett has contributed seven large colour four-views and ten additional profiles, and the whole book is suffused with photos, some in colour. The book ends with an account of the Hornet Project formed by David Collins, whose contributions to the book are significant, to try and rebuild one of these beautiful aircraft for display using as much original material as possible; I look forward to seeing it, though the sound of fourteen Merlins will have to come from memory.

Colours and Shapes

These two themes play a large part in my selection of modellings subjects (the third leg of the tripod is probably nostalgia) and these two books cover an aspect each. The first comes with the twin recommendations of being compiled and written by Dick Ward and produced and published by Roger Chesneau's Ad Hoc Publications, and addresses the colour question; the shape of the Jaguar is very familiar, though it's good to see the radome-nosed IM variant in what was called, well before the Jaguar's time, "glorious Technicolor". The coverage is what you see on the cover, with aircraft of each unit of each operator being illustrated in colour showing the unit markings - always, as you will know, a principal interest of mine - and the progressive variations in colour schemes. The squadrons are in numerical order for each service, and the non-operational units are also covered ("raspberry ripple" addicts are well catered for). There are also a considerable number of "special" schemes, frequently marking the disbandment of a unit, or in some cases a notable flying hours achievement. The Armée de l'Air has often gone to town on these, and Dick Ward's collaborator Yves Fauconnier has been assiduous in his compilation; Simon Watson has also been very thorough in his assistance with the Indian Air Force Jaguars. The RAF has had a few colourful Jaguars over the years, culminating in the "spotty" scheme on XX119 that marked the disbandment of 6 Squadron, and I think all of the British and French service and "special" finishes have been covered in decal form over the years; and modellers have been fortunate in having some good kits to which to apply them, at least in 1:72nd scale. The 160 pages are full of carefully chosen colour with very few shots reproduced over two pages, and little coloured background for the text (two of my current bete noirs (and yes, that 16 Squadron Jaguar is here). An excellent companion to the author's Lighting and Phantom squadron books, my only regret is that it's probably impossible to revise his Hunter book with the same treatment because of the lack of colour photos available for the type's early years of squadron service. "Jaguar Squadrons" is a fitting tribute to a type which had its detractors during its early years, but which at the end many of us thought was withdrawn, at least from RAF service, prematurely. Surely someone could have taken the hint from the "Flashman" colour scheme that was trialled in 2002 (page 70) and sent at least the finally upgraded and uprated Jaguars for a last hurrah in Afghanistan.

The series of Secret Projects books from Midland Publishing is now at the point where it demands a bookshelf of its own. Where those issued up to now have been organised by country of origin, starting of course with these from Germany which have become known as "Luftwaffe '46", this latest is as you can see devoted to a particular configuration. Of the six sections Britain, Germany and Russian have one each while the USA'a efforts are divided in to three. The British designs go from those of John William Dunne to Barnes Wallis' variable sweep projects and beyond, and many of the German WW II designs are now comparatively well-known, including those of the Horton brothers and Alexander Lippisch, usually in tandem with Messerschmitt. The US contributions are divided in to flying wings from 1935 to 1950 and from 1950 to 1990, and manned tailless aircraft from 1980 to 2030, and unsurprisingly the name of Northrop crops up regularly. The final chapter is that devoted to Soviet tailless aircraft fron the nineteen twenties to the 'eighties, including some seriously large designs, a category beloved of Russian designers. This volume is illustrated with photos, both of genuine aircraft and of models, with small plans and with artists' renderings; and the dust jacket by Timothy O'Brian is an excellent "taster" for the contents; we already have a kit of the B-49; perhaps someone - Unicraft? - would complete the model picture with a Cheranovsky BICh-26 or two. Please!

Chris Thomas is an erstwhile colleague and friend of long standing who has steeped himself in the Sea Fury's immediate ancestors the Typhoon and Tempest; his father flew both in the second part of the war. With Christopher Shores he authored the recent series of Classic Publications on the Second Tactical Air Force, and his latest book is number 86 in Tony Holmes' Osprey Combat Aircraft series, "Typhoon Wings of 2nd TAF, 1943-45". Again, it adheres to a well-established layout, beginning with the aircraft's development and entry in to service, with its attendant problems. The organization of the wings is set out, and there is a chapter on the Wing leaders before starting on the operations for which the Typhoon became celebrated; these are divided in to the build-up to D-day, the Normandy campaign, and the winter and spring that led to victory.

The book is replete with photographs - again, like the Ad Hoc series, of men as well as machines - and its appendices cover the airfields and wings individually from their inception to the end of hostilities, with their squadrons, COs and Wing Commanders Flying and their movements from base to base. There's also a list identifying the numbered airfields that the Typhoon wings used in their progress across across Europe, and which were not wholly vacated until September 1945. And there are the colour profiles, forty of them produced by the author, who must be delighted finally to be able to include one of the near-mythical sharkmouthed Typhoon and to give its correct code and serial! The remote captions are as always very informative, and Chris notes that he still isn't sure about the colour of the inside of the mouth, but makes an informed guess. Quite a number of those illustrated have individual markings or motifs, and I hope someone will follow the book with decals; the Academy kit, and a considerable selection of "bits", appear still to be current (and not just in my garage). This lives up to the very high standards of both author and published, and you know you need it.

One of the great early experiences of my post-retirement travels was my first visit to the US Naval Aviation museum at Pensacola; to be able to wander among those "yellow-wing" biplanes of the 'thities was pure pleasure. I've always enjoyed that category, and I must have made the Aurora Boeing F4B in the 'fifties, perhaps even in Canada. Following their earlier book on USAAC/USAAF aircraft of the same period, Peter Freeman and Mike Starmer have compiled for the Aviation Workshop its Navair equivalent, exemplified admirably by the two Grumman F3Fs on the cover, with their varying carrier and squadron colours - and of course the yellow wings, even if you can only see one of them - flying over Florida (sadly, Pensacola isn't marked). The colour illustrations open with a four-view of a Sopwith Camel, and conclude with an F4F of VF-41 on Ranger in December 1941. In between, as well as expected profiles, there are unexpected goodies; I didn't know that the Navy as well as the AAF carried out camouflage trials, in their case in 1940. They include some patterns with strongly resemble "dazzle-painting" and are in some ways reminiscent of the Keith Ferris schemes on F-4s and F-14s four decades later; if you have a couple of dusty Airfix Devastators in hiding this could be a good excuse to blow off the dust. The subjects are confined to single-engined aircraft, which is understandable even if it means missing out an early Coronado in full Technicolor. Even if you don't intend to use it for modelling inspiration this book is a great pleasure just to look through, and indeed to read. The captions are very informative, and for me have the great merit of not appearing to have any computer-derived and unneccessary repetition, one of my current bete noirs. The inside rear cover is a page of colour patches, with FS.595a numbers where possible, and a necessary caveat about thier possible inaccuracy, and facing it is a small selection of the carriers serving with the US Navy in December 1941. And just before that is page with eighteen F3Fs of VF-3, all wearing Felix the Cat and demonstrating the allocation of squadron and section colours, and those on aircraft tails indicating carrier assignment. I think I knew all this once, but to see it set out in order and full colour is sheer delight. And coming from the Aviation Workshop it's not unreasonable that given time - don't badger them, please - there will be decals. It's almost enough to make a chap take up rigging. If you feel the need to add a little colour to the grey days of autumn - not that they'll be all that different from the grey days of summer - get this and keep it close to hand; come to think of it, even if the sky returns to blue, get it anyway. It's a great pleasure.

I am continually astonished that new information, both written and photographic, about the event of the Second World War comes to the surface. With the current understandable enthusiasm for celebrating the 70th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain - even the young chaps at the BBC have noticed! - there's considerable emphasis on memoirs of that period from both the British and German viewpoints, but this new book covers the whole period of the conflict with contribution from representatives of all the major aerial combatants, with the sole exception of the Japanese. Author Steve Bond has spent more than twenty-five years collecting his material, much of it in face-to-face interviews and working often through veterans and survivors organizations; he could find no Japanese equivalent. The transcriptions of these interviews have been very accurately reproduced, with pauses and hesitations, though the asterisks were not part of the verbal accounts; I know this because at a recent evening at the Milton Keynes Aviation Society, which Steve had a big part in founding and was for a long time its chairman, some of the recordings were integrated in to his Powerpoint presentation, and were absolutely fascinating.

The book is organised rather in the way of a service career, starting with the induction of the new recruit, and progressing through both ground and flying training to operations. While the largest part is taken by the RAF, and its volunteers from other countries, the Luftwaffe and the Soviet and Italian air forces and the USAAF are all properly represented. One of the entertaining aspects of the book is realising that the similarities between the nationalities frequently outnumber the differences. The ground crews, in particular those who serviced particular the aeroplanes which they regarded as "their kites", are given proper attention and recognition. There are chapter devoted to differing types of aircraft - fighters, bombers, coastal and so on - and to theatres of war such as the Eastern front and Mediterranean; the final chapter is "D-Day to VJ Day". There is a section of photos in the middle of the book, and others printed in with the text, particularly of those whose story is being told. The variety of aircraft involved is almost as great as that of the personnel; and there are even good words said about the Barracuda. This is a book to read, to consult, and to return to from time to time; one of the strongest threads running through it is the respect felt, on all sides, for the opponent; causes were for politicians, the consequent actions for the professionals. I found the book interesting, entertaining and at times moving; it's a pity that it's not accompanied by a CD of the interviews, but if Steve ever takes his presentation on the road I would urge you not to miss the added dimension listening to these recordings gives to this excellent book.

The publishers of SAMI and MAM are expanding the ranges of books that they produce and their most recent, described as a "Model Data File Extra", is on the USAF's Special Operations command, by author Andy Evans and the well-known American aviation journalist Rick Llinares. It has a brief introduction with the history of the role and the organization, starting with clandestine operations with B-17s and B-24s in the Second World War, and sets out the present AFSOC structure. Each type of aircraft currently on its strength, including no less than five C-130 variants as well as MH-53, HH-60G and CV-22, has its own very well-illustrated section with all but one having colour profiles and five having Walkarounds. The photographs are so prolific that I got the feeling that the author was at times straining for appropriate captions, and more than one seems a little misplaced. But overall it's a well-produced and modeller-friendly guide to a comparatively little covered subject, and the more welcome for that; I hope that others to follow will include equally slightly offbeat subjects. Transferred 18.10.10

Action Stations rebuilt!

Although this section started with the title "Pick of the Month" it's only too evident by now why I felt I had to rename it; this pick, or rather picks, have been in my hand for over a month now, and though it's been only too easy to get sidetracked - always a weakness of mine - while doing some reading before actually writing these books up I had really intended to get to them sooner. Publishers Crecy had a stand at Duxford for Flying Legends, and had an offer on these which was virtually four for three; and an added bonus was that author of Volumes 1 & 2 Michael Bowyer was signing them; I had met him a few years back at another Duxford event, and while he was sat at the table we got in to a long, fascinating and very entertaining conversation. With his interest and imagination fired by the passage of the R.101 over Cambridge he has been recording aviation matters since 1935, and among the many works of his to which I am regularly indebted his "Fighting Colours" - originally I think a series of articles in Airfix Magazine - is in a constantly handy place of the shelves nearest my workbench. The original Action Stations series has been around for a long while and has already, I think, been the subject of some updating; thse four volumes have been not so much overhauled as completely re-written, and after looking at them at Legends I kicked myself for not having added to my shelves sooner (though it's true that in this case - unlike its use by the Treasury - procrastination does seem to have saved me money!).

The geographic spread of each is indicated by their subtitles, and there is a representation of the area on the lower right hand corner of each cover. All four are profusely illustrated to accompany their accounts of the vast number of airfilds covered, and in the unlikely event that you're being stuck for what to model next there is so much potential inspiration. There is much pleasure in browsing through each book and, I'm pleased to say, serious chance of being sidetracked while looking for something else entirely. The introductions are fascinating to read, and the individual entries are a source of continual and sometimes surprising interest if somewhat depressing as you start to realise how much history has been lost. Nevertheless there is much enjoyment in these pages, whether looking for a particular entry (or even, if travelling, destination), for coverage of a particular historical period - and the Battle of Britain features considerably across all four of the volumes - or just in a quiet moment browsing for the enjoyable and unexpected. Crecy have done us a real service in refurbishing and extenting these books, and judging by the sectioned little map on the back cover there should be three more to come to complete the coverage of the British Isles. And I cherish my chat with Mike Bowyer, someone to whom modellers and historians alike owe a very great deal for his recording of events and subsequently making them available for our use, and - I hope! - that of succeeding generations.

More than just the sum of the parts

To be included in this section, a prime requirement is that I've enjoyed building the model - or reading the book - and somehow I want to get that over to any reader. There is usually more than one factor that contributes to this enjoyment, and this is a good example; in this case the ability to add one, and perhaps later another, of these to my contribution to a "What If?" display - and this, especially if there's a "double-take" factor", is always a plus for me - originated with a note from Colin Strachan of Freightdog/Pegasus telling me that this would be his next conversion subject, and my immediate recourse to the appropriate Tony Buttler Secret Projects book, in this case on British Jet Bombers, to look up the history and thereby decide in what guise I could finish the model. Research is always one of my great pleasures when approaching a model subject, and as you may be well aware colours and markings are as big a factor as any in determining what I do next.

It was apparently Roland Beamont's suggestion very early in the testing of the first Canberra prototype that with a suitable radar it would make an excellent night fighter; by 1956 the English Electric design team had devised the P.12, based on the Mark 8 airframe and engines to which they added a radar, a Napier Double Scorpion rocket engine pack and provision for two of the large Vickers Red Dean missiles either on or under the wing tips. These three elements and a pair of wing tip extensions comprise the resin conversion, designed to fit the recent Airfix kit; the 8 has always been my preferred mark of Canberra, and I had recently enjoyed making the kit; but with its use by the RAF limited to five squadrons, most of which I've modelled over the years. The opportunity to build a slightly different one and continue my aim of perpetuating the markings of units long defunct was very welcome, and I started looking at possible night fighter squadrons, and such markings as I might have, probably in an old Modeldecal Meteor NF set. What settled my Master Plan though was finding a strip of SAM decals which were for a selection of lesser-known Javelin units, topped by a pair of large 141 Squadron markings including a leopard's head between two black and white bars. Remote consultation with Paul Lucas, who was also responsible for the resin castings, convinced me to stick with the grey/green/silver scheme worn by all Javelins, and all that remained was to put the Canberra together; the new nose fitted cleanly and snugly in place of the kit's nose transparency and the curved wing tips can be taken off easily at a panel line to add the extension on to which the missiles fit directly. The small paired rocket nozzles in their pack fix on to the closed bomb bay doors, and the pack is delicately curved to fit. I fitted the bomb bay's internal structure in to the fuselage thinking it would give it a little additional rigidity, but this did take a little of the space in to which I would otherwise have fitted weight; as it was, a considerable amount of little metal balls held in place by plasticene and positioned carefully ahead of the main wheel axis was only just sufficient to sit the model on its nose wheel; I have yet to put it out on display, but I suspect I shall be taking a little blutack with me on Sunday. I wonder if they do one in tarmac colour?

Having found that Modeldecal had in fact included 141's bars on one of their sheets, I figured it would be possible to apply these either side of the fuselage roundel as well as applying the fin marking, though I would have to offer a justification for all this display of "ownership"; and I was additionaly pleased that I'd found these when the SAM decals surreptitiously disappeared, something that as you may know happens with regrettable regularity in my work area. And around this time I was painting the two enormous Red Deans - they were sixteen feet long - guided by a colour photo in the Secret Projects missile volume; for much of the last year I've been using the different shades of metallic "silver" in the acrylic "Mr. Metal Color" range that I get through the genial Brian of MDC at sundry model shows, and as well as using two different shades on the missile bodies I used others on the fuselage underside around and behind the Double Scorpion installation (and I even dry-brushed a liitle more to apply "soot" behind the rockets, the first time I've done that for years!). At this stage it occurred to me that I could apply a version of the unit's black and white bars to the rockets' forward fins; this would, in addition to the double application of markings to fin and fuselage, mark the squadron's 45th anniversary in 1963 and apply only to the boss's aircraft, as shown by the pennant on the nose. Hand-painting the fins was probably the most time-consuming part of the whole exercise!.

This has been on my workbench with several other works in progress - which are due to appear themselves in their proper place - and which I've also enjoyed researching, devising their back stories where necessary, making and writing up. I really can't explain why this one in particular has given me particular pleasure. Maybe it's because it's based on a good, straightforward kit with easy to apply modifications, or at least that helps; and of course it's in 1:72nd, which means I'm dealing with pieces that are big enough to hold on to, or at least find when I drop them. This weekend I'll be putting on a "What If?" table, interested as always in the comments; and I liked this one so much, I have a fancy to do a longer range, higher altitude version based on the PR.9. After all, I still have one or two of those SAM decals left, as well as Dick Ward's Meteors and a Eurodecal Venom collection: 253, perhaps.

Son et Lumiere

Looking to post a first report on my recent visit to the US East Coast, I found that I've put nothing in this section since my comments on last year's Oshkosh; time being of the essence, and following a brief saga over the photos from the trip, here's a very quick entry with three photos, and the promise - all right, the firm intention - to expand it very soon. The opening event was an air show at Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point in North Carolina, home of the AV-8B, divided in to two parts; an evening display on the Friday with flying starting at dusk followed by two more usual daytime displays over the weekend; on Sunday we went to a "Warbird" occasion at Virginia Beach.

The Blue Angels' "Fat Albert" opened the night event with an impressive take-off and climb away in to the darkening sky but, alas, without the sheets of flame formerly provided by the "Jato" bottles; the story we heard was that the bottles, or some necessary part of them, can no longer be made. There were fireworks from a microlight and a helcopter - this was named "Otto", but when I suggested its full name was probably "Otto Rotate" no one believed me - but for me the real event of the evening was a really tight formation display by the four Texans of the Aeroshell team, illuminated as you see in the photo. My attempts to take a shot of them in the air were unsuccessful, but to me they seemed as close as in their daytime show, and they really are very good; and for me the sound of four T-6s, carrying whichever name, is second only to that of multiple Merlins. One of the goodies on show was an F/A-18G Growler - this seems to be the official, rather than the nick-, name - in operational unit markings, those of VAQ-129 Vikings, and with assorted lumps which will I trust appear in resin shortly. The Saturday display included a "role demonstration" which required an attack on the airfield using as much Marine Air hardware as possible and a considerable number of flashes and bangs; I'll get back to it and the particular delight it gave me in these pages, and it should also find its way in to a forthcoming "Sector Scan" in Military Aircraft Monthly (I refuse to be" International"). And here's another Forthcoming Attraction, and I promise she's aviation related...

It seems - no, it is - quite a while since I returned from my US trip, but before I get to the UK shows, let me re-introduce you to Spitfire, the Hangar Cat at the Fighter Factory near Virginia Beach and a couple of her charges.

The Storch was virtually ready for flight, waiting I think for paperwork, when we saw it; but I would really like to see the MiG-3 in th air someday - waht a coup that would be for Flying Legends. And of course there would always be room for another Spitfire .

The Sukhoi, the Carpet Monster and the Bad Modeller's Handbook

Unicraft often put illustrations of their projected kits on their website long before they get anywhere near production; to be fair, their captions often give a clue as to the status of each kit, though the interpretation as a timescale is the reader's. I think that was where I first saw the drawing of the Sukhoi Su-10, looking like an Il-28 that had been seriously compromised by a Short Sperrin, even before it appeared in the Tony Buttler/Yefim Gordon "Bombers" book in the Soviet secret project series. While I have regular, and usually well-founded, reservations about Unicraft's kits and my ability to bring them to a successful conclusion they do make it possible to tackle usually unlikely projects that would be otherwise unavailable in three dimensions, and I was very taken with the Su-10; as soon as it neared the top of the releases column on the website I contacted Adrian Hampson of Lonewulf and put in my heartfelt request. He was able to hand the kit over at Telford last November, and having had a good look at it I determined that it would be something round to which I would have to get in the New Year; it was February by the time I was started it, but this did give me time to go firm on my intended colour scheme, thanks to an Il-28 set from HiDecal Line. I avoid "silver" finishes if at all possible - unless it's a Lightning, of course - and as I'd had in mind a DDR aircraft all along anyway it was lucky that the one camouflaged example in the set was theirs.

Unicraft's resin is generally a pale biscuit colour, and can look a little coarse; my good intention for the Su-10 was to cover it in a Mr.Surfacer as a trial, but either I couldn't find the bottle at the time or, more likely, I got carried by the Need to Get On with the model. either through a sudden time pressure or sheer enthusiasm for wanting to see the aircraft take shape. Unicraft's interiors are basic at best; the Su-10 comes with three seats, an instrument panet for the driver and another for the navigator/radio operator, though its intended position wasn't clear to me. There was no cockpit floor, which would also have to carry the nosewheel, so I cut a plastic card rectangle and trimmed it to an approximate fit (when did I aim for any other kind?). The interior of the cockpit area is somewhat uneven, and even with a certain amount of trimming, fitting and trimming again I don't think the floor was absolutely level, but it seved the function of carrying the three seats and accomodating a mounting hole for the nosewheel leg. As a parallel operation I had trimmed and fitted the two over-and-under nacelles to the wing halves, and filled and sanded the joins before attaching them to the fuselage. It wasn't till I looked at the model with the wings firmly attached that I realised that neither nacelle was quite vertical, but it's all right if you don't look at it from head-on.

With the two halves of the body joined I set about fitting the transparencies, and through my own fault - or in this case, even faults - gave myself a run of grief. The transparencies are thin and vacformed, which in itself is not normally a problem; but having decided to fit the tail gunner's first, I had the bright idea of preparing it at the end of the day, and getting back to it when I could; at this stage I dropped it on the carpet, and as it was late decided to find it the next morning. It has not reappeared since. Never mind, I was sure I could replace it from my drawer full of "glass" bits; well, no, but finding another apparently suitable clear vacform as part of the kit I started to adapt it to fit between the rudder and the tailcone. Only when I had cut awat a sizeable part of this to make it fit - well, almost - did I realise that what I had just cut up was the crew canopy! That was solved, after a fashion, by a visit to my old friends at the Aviation Hobby Shop and their small wall of Aeroclub canopies; I picked one which seemed reasonable and had the benefit of being intended for a Sukhoi Su-7, which not only kept it in the family but had the additional benefit of having a fairing for a rear-view mirror; you'll see the benefit shortly. And then another quick session of late night modelling saw the nosewheel disappear; I was standing up, probably because my chair was occupied by something I didn't want either to move or to sit on, when the wheel snapped off its leg while I was doing a little remedial sanding and vanished in to the undergrowth; it hasn't been seen since, either. I was rescued one more by Aeroclub, in this case with a Buccaneer nosewheel which looks about right; next time I see the Soviet SIG I must ask them for the Russian for "close enough for Government work".

As far as I know no one does "official" DDR colours for models, but the HiDecal instructions did give the Humbrol numbers (117 and 185) for the green and brown topsides, which I duly followed, and which to me look sufficiently "non-NATO" to be convincing. The underside light blue-grey is given as a mix, to which I am ususlly averse, and I was passing a gaming workshop emporium in the City of Milton Keynes when I went in on a whim and emerged with a Citadel acrylic foundation in "Astronomican Grey" (me neither) that looks the part exactly. The port nacelle's lower intake had a fairly substantial chip in the rim, so I decided to use it as a FOD scar, and emphasise it by putting coloured rims on each intake; red and yellow seemed appropriate, and they emphasise the nacelle layout. The Il-28 whose scheme I stole belonged to Target Towing Wing 33, which not only gave a reason for the rear-view mirror to monitor any over-enthusiastic students breaking off rather late from their high quarter attacks, but also meant that I didn't need to find the cannon for the tail and mid-upper positions that weren't supplied with the kit, and sadly don't appear in an Aeroclub listing. The unit's badge is on the nose, and I changed the aircraft number from 208 to 820 - subtle, eh? - hoping that the altered identity didn't belong to another.

The finished model will never win a prize, particularly for the "exercise of modelling skills", but I'm reasonably happy with the result; in spite of the various mishaps along its way, it does look much as I thought it would when I first had the mental picture. It may or may not ever find its way to a What If? SIG table at some future show, though it could possibly be used as a prompt for "how could this have been done better?" questions. There is a wavering memory that comes back from time to time of a slim volume called "The Bad Cook's Cookbook", which as I recall was largely a way to rescue culinary disasters, and when I was writing Tailpiece in SAM I floated the idea of a Bad Modeller's Handbook, which would have a similar purpose. While it might not work as a stand-alone publication, I still think that a series of articles on this theme would be useful, if enough "experts" could be persuaded to go in to the confessional. If there's Someone Out There that would like to offer a contribution from time to time, I'd be happy to launch their thoughts in to cyberspace.

Two last thoughts; as I understand it, Soviet aircraft tended to change designations when they changed from prototype to production status, but that's in the "too difficult " tray, so I've stuck with Su-10. And of course it would have needed a "Nato reporting name" of two syllables beginng with B, but those that occurred to me quickly were somewhat unsuitable, especially over the r/t; however, anyone for Blowtorch? Transferred 15.08.10

'allo, matelot

A few months back I made a rather depressing pair of models marking the centenary of the Royal Air Force; the F-22 carried the colours of 9/12 Squadrons, Royal Flying Corps and its companion was a Rafale with a fin code of HMS Prince of Wales and the markings of 801 NAS, Royal Naval Air Service. As part of the new owners' requirements the Rafale carried Amraams and Asraams, so the Hobby Boss kit bequeathed me a pair of Martra Magics and two longer-range miisles which at the time of writing I haven't yet identified but which are obviously French (oh, for the days when the instruction sheets would give this sort of information!). Then, of course, I needed to find a use for them.

Somewhen around the same time Model Art set 72/060 materialised, with decals for FAA Seahawks and Aéronavale Super Etendards; I'd already considering extending the rather small number of Naval Air Squadrons equipped with Sea Harriers using the new Airfix kits, and then I recalled the trials of "XY125" with the French Navy, and had that led to an order then they would have progressed in time to the Shar 2 fitted of course with French missiles. I bought the two Airfix kits when they first appeared, and the FA.2 was within easy reach; and anyone knows how to make a Harrier, surly; so maybe that was why I didn't look at the SAM Publications book on the Shar until after I'd fixed the airbrake up (I plead the long-term habit of ensuring that Hunter airbrakes don't droop on the ground). I'd heard fairly sniffy comments on this kit, and the panel engraving is more pronounced than is common these days. Consulting the Model Art instructions for the correct colours they said merely Gris Bleu Foncé and Gris Bleu Clair, and an e-mail to Jean-Pierre gave me no further enlighenment. I should of course have shuffled through all those back issues of Replic and Wingmasters, but instead I found a couple of Xtracolor tinlets carrying those names; there are - or rather were, as they seem no longer in production - WW II shades, with the Clair looking rather more Bleu than Gris, but I told myself that it could be an anniversary scheme. The roundels were taken from the Rafale sheet, but the rest are Model Art, and I picked the seahorse of 11F; I've thought for a long time that the Aéronavale unit badges are very attractive, and while it's a pity that they're only small at least they're in colour!

You may have noticed by now that part of my Master Plan is as yet unfulfilled; with the exception of the tanks, the pylons are bare. The small sprue of missiles, carefully set aside at the time the Rafale was built have mysteriously disappeared, and I doubt if even my voracious Carpet Monster could have swallowed them without at least a touch of indigestion. When they resurface I'll apply them in the approved manner; at least it's next possible public outing won't be before the show at Coventry at the end of June.

And so it came to pass, but only just in time. The Carpet Monster gave up the ex-Rafale missiles which were duly affixed to le Shar (though it's still hiding a TV remote and my small and middle-sized orange Sandviks) and while I know those on the wing pylons are Magics, I'm less sure about the longer range missiles for which I've used pylons like those which held the RN's Amraams; I think their M.550s, but the French SIG wasn't at Coventry for me to ask.

It was at the Salisbury meeting at the beginning of June the the thought of an FAA - or more probably RNAS - Hawkeye occurred.I saw another modeller with the Hasegawa kit of the Hawkeye 2000 under his arm, and though I thought it was somewhat expensive at around £33.00 I went back to a stand where I'd seen one earlier and as well as the Hasegawa kit found one by Fujimi for £20.00, which I thought made a reasonable Senior Citizen Discount. After confirming that this did have the eight-blade propellors that are a distinguishing feature of this variant money changed hands.By the end of the afternoon I'd decided that it would join the Rafale as part of the Prince of Wales' air wing, and because it obviously called for a red dragon as part of its markings it would wear the insignia of D Flight, 849 NAS thoughtfully provided on Model Art set 72-043. And of course it would have red spinners. As you'll see from the photo, I did get that bit right, but....

A couple of brief comments on the kit; apart from the new propellers this was presumably an update to E-2C from the original Fujimi Hawkeye, and it wasn't until I came to paint the "radar" on the nose usinf some recent "Combat Aircraft" photos as reference that I realised that the nose should have been lengthened, being rather more pointed than the model allows for. And I had problems - mine, I suspect, rather than the kit's - getting the canopy to seat properly; the transparent part protrudes somewhat in front of the windscreen, forming what seems to be the area of the anti-glare, and had I fitted it earlier in the build I might have been more vigourous in reducing its width for a better fit. I had planned to get a second example on which to use at least one of the very colourful decal choices on the recent set from Authentic Decals which I'be bought in anticipation; however, I may take advantage of Hannants' "Duxford discount" to get one of the Hasegawa E-2Cs for at least a little less; one of the AD options has a very patriotic scheme that looks almost "bicentennial". That CAG really wanted to wave the flag. And thanks to Kit Spackman's spares stash, I'm mulling over an EV-22.

Transferred 11.08.10

After the AZ Spiteful it was only to be expected that they'd follow it with a Seafang, the main difference being of course a split rudder with the lower section holding the hook. The kit has been issued in two boxings with the one I picked, marked as an F.32, carrying the notation "Special What If?". The kit decals are for a grey/sky FAA aircraft with "Suez stripes", a dark blue RAN one with a Nowra tail code and the third in Spanish air force colours, though the logic of the last eludes me! However about the same time I brought the kit home I ran across an old Tally Ho! set for Hellcats in the Far East, mostly in sea blue gloss but with one of these in extra dark sea grey/dark slate grey, and wearing - as you can see from the photo taken before the application of the markings - white ID bands and spinner. This scheme was worn by an 808 NAS aircraft on HMS Khedive off the Malay Coast at the end of hostilities, but I used the red codes of 898 NAS, who flew from HMS Pursuer. The upper wing roundels for the Hellcat were so big that they would not only have covered the aileron but flowed over the leading edge of the Seafang's wing, so I settled for something more modest from the same sheet. The kit itself is a straightforward "short-run" production without locating pins, and presumably as a hold-over from the Spiteful both a five-bladed propeller and a six-blade contra-prop are included. Interior detail consists of a floor, stick, seat and instrument panel; there is a gunsight which attaches to the latter if you can stop it falling and burrowing into the carpet. The injection-moulded canopy is very clear. I have a second kit put aside in the hope that there's a set of post-war RCN decals on the way; from memory, some of their Seafires wore particularly interesting roundels. This is a good basic kit which, even if a little pricey, is a pleasure to make; and it's only in this fashion that we're likely to get some of the lesser-known aircraft in kit form. Transferred 05.08.10

Am I nearly here yet?

If you are an assiduous visitor, my apologies - you may have noticed that it's been a while since I posted anything. I nearly had a couple of things ready almost three weeks ago, but didn't quite have them done before going on holiday; never mind, I was only planning to be away a week, but then the earth decided to get its revenge on air travel and yet another plan didn't survive contact with the enemy. Still, we are returned, and trying to play catch-up using among other things a Seafang and a Sukhoi 10, and this Saturday I'm planning to go to the Newark museum where they're holding a V-Foece gathering. Having spent a non-flying year after I came back from 2 TAF with a Valiant squadron at Marham - it was one of our signallers, Jack Kendrick, who christened it "El Adem with grass" - who knows if I'll meet anyone from 148?

(later, in another part of the forest....) Sadly, while there were others from 148 who signed in during the day on Saturday while I was there, they were all on the squadron after I had left (to fail the Meteor course, but that's another sad story). Still, I was heartened to see the memory of the Valiant being kept alive, and there's a website whose address I'll put up here just as soon as I can find the jacket I was wearing on Saturday. It is widely rumoured, by the way, that the Airfix kit may not now appear until next year; but I note that a decal sheet for the type has just popped up on the "New Arrivals" page of Hannants' shiny new website. Maybe there's the opportunity for another TSR.2 in the meanwhile, and time to get a campaign for a B.2 conversion well under way.

Achtung, Tucano!

At Duxford's opening display for 2010, there were small groups of apparently bereft modellers - it's always a good place to meet fellow addicts, and there's a long-standing jest about a peripatetic IPMS Branch that only comes to life at these displays - unable to find their familiar source of yellow bags, filled by pre-ordered goodies. Hannants were unable to mount their customary presence; Mr Models, a frequent supporter of model shows, was there but somehow didn't take on the "Gathering Room" role. We can only hope that normal service will be resumed in time for Flying Legends, though this year I shall only be there on the Sunday; there's a powerful counter-attraction up the road at Ely on the same weekend, though thankfully the artistes that I really want to see - in fact would cross many roads for - will be appearing on the Saturday. There are rumours of a DB-engined 109 and a pair of replica 190s for Duxford; please let them be there on the Sunday!

As for last weekend's show, it was a reasonable opening day, and I liked the two 1940-camouflaged Tucanos; I just failed, by two minutes, to get to the flightline walk, all my own fault.but I attach a picture kindly sent me by long-time modelling colleague Keith Sherwood, who was there on the Saturday. No doubt a decal sheet will appear in due course, and I'm glad to see that the sky undersides look right, but those code letters look very white. There will now by another short intermission while I go off to watch Harriers in the dusk, volcanic activity permitting; more, I hope, next month. Transferred 04.08.10

You will recall - oh, yes, you will - that when I went to Sun 'n' Fun in April I fell in a big way for the Cessna 190 series, seen here in a line up at Lakeland. One of my hopes for Oshkosh therefore was to see many more of them, which I thought at first wasn't going to happen; but first, by courtesy of Ian Allan, ae went to Dayton.....

The Wrights, B'Gosh

Before going to the USAF Museum we spent the Sunday at the Dayton air Show, and for its highlight was the performance by the Brazilian aerobatic team, the Esquadrilha da Fumaca, in their green and blue Tucanos. Like their Canadian equivalent the Snowbirds they put on a tight, compact and continuous display in relatively low-powered aircraft, maintaining excellent formation and with the occasional stunning manoeuver; their use of the multiple aircraft mirror formation was absolutely splendid. The term "world class" is sadly abused these days, but this team really deserve it. The polo shirt in my size was alas sold out, but I did get their great "jungle" hat, in which I may well be seen posing at UK air shows for the rest of this year. The static included Ospreys and AV-8Bs from the Marines, that had to their regret - and ours - not been able to get permission from their management to display. The Harrier IIs, from VMA-542, wore not only a tiger's head on their fins but an eastern ideograph on their noses, dating from the Pacific campaign of the Second World War, which translates as "Here there be Tigers!" (a decal sheet, please). The CO's aircraft with the coloured markings was a radar-equipped AV-8B Plus, and the other a Night Attack variant; apparently all USMC front-line Harrier squadrons have a similar mix.

Somehow I've missed out in the last two or three years in seeing an Osprey airborne, though I saw one in a static at Pensacola a year or two back. Dayton had two on show, one of which was usually in a folded configuration and which at one stage did its transformation in front of its public, but while I was elsewhere. Here it is in its oven-ready state, and with the little bit of colour allowed on the CO's aircraft doing a fraction to lighten the grey that hung around all the morning, though it did part briefly to give the Tucanos a decent backdrop. The services' participation was not as great as I'd expected, but the army's "Golden Knights" parachutists jumped out of their perfectly serviceable FH-227, whose DoD designation has temprarily deserted me. The Thunderbirds' F-16s took part, with the "stirring" theme music as they taxied out seemingly as long, and even more repetitive, than their show; I hesitate to call it a performance, but I keep/kept reminding myself that they are an Aerial Demonstration Squadron, rather than an aerobatic team.

One of the USAF assets that was in the static area was an RC-135W "Rivet Joint" intelligence gatherer from the 55th SRW at Offutt. I got chatting to one of its crew; the American services are always seemingly relaxed over talking about their jobs, especially on home soil, and I raised the possibility of the RAF getting them for 51 Squadron, and that they would be after all fairly aged airframes.I was told that three relatively low-houred tankers have already been identified, and that the necessary equipment could be assembled and fitted in fairly short order once the ink was dry on the contract; the USAF have apparently a well-practised "production line" for this task. This photo of the one on display probably doesn't show its best profile, but it gives some idea of the positive forest of aerials that it carries, looking rather like an eruption of fungi!

A while back I bought the Model Alliance US Coast Guard decal sheet which included markings for their H-65 Dolphins, and I was delighted to find one in the static area. This one, from the USCG facility at Mobile, is

an MH-65C, having been recently upgraded for reconnaisance and surveillance, tasks which have grown considerbly since "9/11", and has a number of additional bumps and aerials (I must check if the MA resin set for the Dolphin is applicable). I was intrigued to find that various parts of the back end are not symmetrical, with the endplate fins toed in and the rear boom "bent" slightly to one side; from my memory, this assists a run-on landing if the tail rotor fails. Removal of one of its blades was another part of the recent modifications, and the eleven remaining blades are not quite evenly spaced (I shall probably have forgotten by the time I have to judge a model in competition). To assist my memory, and perhaps yours, I also have a photo of the cabin for colour information.

And as was only right and proper the day included a Wright biplane, in this case a replica of the 1911 Type B which was flown as part of the display; secure in the knowledge that it would surely fly again in the afternoon I didn't rush to take its picture airborne. Another mistake, but here it is in front of the Tucanos.

Two engines, eight wings

One of the ideas I had in mind when I started this enterprise was that I would comment on what I was building as I went along rather than waiting until I'd finished a model or, as in this case, models. Last year - at the IPMS Barnet meeting at the RAF Museum, I think - I came across Pheon Models and their superb-looking decal sheets, but as what I registered at the time was that however attractive they were for 1:48th World War subjects I figured that they weren't for me; I did have a long and entertaining discussion with the very engaging Rowan Broadbent, though, and this was continued at Telford. On that occasion, I had a good look ts the proposed Sopwith Triplane decals, not least because I've always liked the type and it's three-wing layout made it a little different - still does of course, when you see it at Old Warden - and I found that one of the chosen subjects rejoiced in the name of "The Oozlum Bird", a mythical creature that, asI recalled from the days of my youth, flew in ever-decreasing circles until it performed an anatomical impossibility (perhaps this'll be explained more satisfactorily on the instruction sheet). While I thought I'd recently seen a Revell "Tripehound" on my storage shelves at home, I toured the Telford stands looking for another just in case - and after all there are something thirty or more options on the sheet - and placed an advance order with Pheon, which would I knew take a while, not least because of their upcoming move to Foreign Parts. In the meantime, and having checked with the illustration on view via the Britmodeller forum and discovering the basic colours were PC.10 and Natural Linen, I laid in the appropriate Xtracolors and decided to get the model underway ahead of the arrival of the markings.

While looking at the Triplane illustrations, I had a quick look at those for the Fokker Dr.1; the set for these triplanes, all of JG II, has thirty options from four Jastas!. And whenever I'd looked at the Anigrand Craftswork website I'd been somewhat intrigued by their 1:72nd Fokker V.8, not solely because they rarely venture in to WW I but also because of its five wings! Never one to neglect the obvious, I thought that combining the Pheon decals with the resin quinquiplane (?) would result in the sort of double-take that I really enjoy conjuring from those who pass by the "What If?" SIG table at shows. At the the time of writing the decals are still en route from Chateau Pheon, but I thought I'd try to create a little unnecessary tension by putting in a pic of the half-way stage; I may explain the Fokker's lack of wheels in the next instalment (and it will have a rudder as well).

A pair of small Shorts

Anigrand have an occasional habit of printing as part of their multi-subject decal sheets markings, and in particular serials, for as yet unreleased and sometimes unannounced subjects, and it was with some delight - and a little subsequent impatience - that I found VX158 in a corner of their Valiant decals. It's not that long since I made the Magna Short Sperrin - as the K.2 variant, naturally - and while I had had thoughts of a second in different colours the sheer size of the model was enough to make me think twice. What I had in mind was the grey/black Lincoln/early Canberra scheme, which struck me as apposite for what could have been the RAF's first strategic jet bomber. When the Sperrin appeared in thier future releases list therefore I wasn't exactly surprised but I was delighted, and started thinking of likely units, and of how I might finish the accompanying "mini-kits". The Javelin comes with 33 Squadron markings, and may well even get made "from the box", not least because it has a pair of Firestreaks, but the P.1127 prototype is still a subject of some indecision. The SB.5, however, in its final configuration with 69 degrees sweep and low-set tailplane was easy; what else but an ETPS raspberry ripple? The Sperrin has a 100 Squadron skull and crossbones on its tail, which came from the Aviation Workshop Canberra sheet; and their forthcoming V-Bomber book will also be accompanied by decals, in both 1:72nd and 1:144th which will add a range of possibilities, though my plan at the moment is for a Kipper Fleet MR.3. Both these two are really nice little kits, and went together quickly and well; and they were good fun in both planning and execution.

Three wings good - five wings better?

It is said that it was the appearance of the Sopwith Triplane that was responsible for Antony Fokker designing his own three-decker. which found its own niche in legend as well as in history. A logical (?) development of the Dr.1 was to apply another two wings, resulting in the V-8 and the coincidence of the appearance of the Anigrand kit and the Pheon Jasta II decals has enabled me to produce the accompanying somewhat bizarre and hopefully eye-catching device and, in accordance with my desperate need for a deadline, just in time for an appearance on the What If? SIG table as a model show at Old Warden. I never did find the missing wheel - I'd put it carefully to one side, attached to the axle for pre-painting - but a pair of Aeroclub wheels and four centimetres of plastic rod covered that self-inflicted wound, and the twin Spandaus are from the same source; positioning these involved a bit of guesswork, and the "hump" surrounding the engine which seemed an ideal place for them is some way ahead of the cockpit, so I had to assume that the pilot would have been given a remote control for the triggers which would not freeze at altitude. Doubtless Fokker had a Plan for the armament, but as the aircraft only flew twice - unsatisfactorily - he didn't get as far as an installation. I'm still looking for the written instructions, which I think I took somewhere in to a quiet corner for some private study, but fortunately I remembered enough from my early reading to attempt the streaky green colour for the upper surface; with the aid of the superb colour profiles which are an integral part of a Pheon decal set I used Humbrol 88 as a base colour, though I was only partly successful with my very thinned black "streak" overpainting. The yellow of the tail, which identified Jasta 19, again matched as far as possible with the colour top view, is Humbrol 81. What I can't remember was the name of the "owner" of the Dr.I that carried these rather fetching markings, and that annoys me; I shall have to find the instructions, to meet my own obsession with "corroborative detail" (I blame W S Gilbert) and to check the details for my second, which is likely to be basically all black. I may even progress to a Dr.I or two.

I've finished "The Ooslumburd" at the same time; as I still have the instructions for the Sopwith I do know that this belonged, for a fairly eventful five months in 1917, to the Manston War Flight; and given the vast selection of alternatives which are characteristic of Pheon's productions I shall have to make at least one or two others of the colourful examples on offer; somewhere I think I've got an oldish Czechmaster resin of the Armstrong-Whitworth FK.10 quadriplane, though as my Putnam "Every Boy's Book of the RFC" tells me that this was a two-seater reconnaisance aircraft I may have to find different decals (One and a Half Strutter, perhaps ?). Looking at the photo of the pair, it looks as though my flash had bleached out the red spot of the Sopwith's roundel - which I didn't notice until I put the picture on this page! - but in fact I seem to have left it off entirely; with luck I'll have covered my blushes and remedied the omission by the time this hits cyberspace. And I've got the Pheon SE.5a decals and the Roden kit beside me, having found that one of the markings is that for the 85 Squadron aircraft of Elliot White Springs, an American who was responsible for "Warbirds, the Diary of an Unknown Aviator", one of the great classics of early air warfare. My treasured copy carries my father's signature and the date "Jan.1930", which was the start of the year in which my parents were married; I must have read it first when I was about ten, and it seems always to have been part of my life and my aviation addiction. Mind you, I still won't rig the model.

Swift with a point

We all like to think that we've got a good idea of which kits are about to appear, but when the Xtrakit Swift FR.5 showed up on the Hannants London stand at the IPMS Milton Keynes show at the beginning of February it seemed to take everyone by surprise. Having unceremoniously grabbed one I liked the look of it in its wrap, and in particular the choice of WK293 which carried the markings of 79 Squadron on the rear fuselage and 4 Squadron on the nose, with the bonus of a zap by a Luftwaffe unit on the port intake. It wasn't until halfway through the day that some kind soul pointed out to me that there was no belly tank; and as from my memory the FR.5 didn't fly in squadron service without it, I decided that I couldn't make it in that form until some eagle-eyed maker of bits entered it in the aftermarket (I have good reason to believe that this won't take long, and couls well be accompanied by other modifications). However, not wishing to delay making the kit for too long it occurred to me that I had a spare Hawker P.1109 radar nose in a spares drawer, and that it could be applied with a minimum of carving and filling to the front end of the Swift. My original plan was to fir a pair of Firestreaks, but I found the Red Tops in my missiles drawer; bearing in mind that, with the problems that the Swift had at altitude I would use it in the low-levet "rat and terrier" role I though that the more advanced the missiles the better. It was the same role reasoning that led me to choose 65 Squadron as the unsuspecting recipient, bearing in mind that this had been one of their specialities with the Hornet. The fairing-in of the nose was done with Milliput, the first time I'd used it for quite a while; and to limit the amount of whittling I used the nosewheel bay that was part of the Freightdog conversion, and recarved the door accordingly. There may be the possibility of other marks; I would like to do a 56 Squadron F.1 because of one of my instructors on Vampires at 4 FTS; Al Martin did six sorties on the Swift before he left for CFS, and five of them were full emergencies. Incidentally, you'll see from the photo on the home page that the afterburner eyelids aren't as prominent as they should be, and this was my fault when I put it together (I'll make sure I get it right on my FR.5). The importance of the reheat was told me by one of the others on my Chivenor course when I saw him at Geilenkirchen with 2 Squadron; the runway there was 2,800 yards and if the reheat failed the unstick distance was 2,750!

Cold War Shield

You may already have seen in the Bookshelf section my instant response to Roger Lindsay's new masterwork "Cold War Shield, Volume 1" (you'll gather that I like it very much). There are expected to be three more volumes to fufil the description on the cover, "RAF Fighter Squadrons, 1950 - 1960". If I'd set out a specification for a book on a subject closest to my heart this would surely have been it, and Roger Lindsay has been close to its material since early in the period; already having a strong interest in aircraft recognition, which for those of us like-minded was an absolutely essential part of being an enthusiast, he joined the Royal Observer Corps in the early 'fifties. The function of the ROC, and his time with it, is covered in one of several appendices; another is on the RAF Open Days of the time, with the restrictions on the recording and photography of the aircraft on show probably being unbelievable to those ten years or so younger than Roger or I. These little background extras are as historical now as the book's coverage of the hardware, and will I hope be as interesting to future historians.

The aircraft covered in Volume One are, with the addition of the Hornet, those types that were in service at the end of the war and still on or close to the front line at the beginning of the decade. Early chapters are on the organisation of Fighter Command, with its structure and bases, the threat it faced and its training and tactics, and the generic camouflage, finish and markings of the period. Starting with the Spitfire each type is treated in turn - with the Meteor having a chapter for each mark - and covered squadron by squadron in numerical order. Each chapter has many photos accompanying the text, and includes pilots' accounts, a selection of serial/code tie-ups for each unit with arrival and departure dates and subsequent fates, and details of the unit markings. OCUs and support units are included - I didn't expect to see quite so many Ansons, and Valettas are also there accompanying Brigands, Balliols and Harvards - and there is a very good selection of colour photos at the end of the book, some of which must have eluded the restrictions mentioned earlier. Some inevitable gaps which these caused are filled by original paintings by Alfie Alderson showing the types covered in this volume in their natural habitat. There are colour profiles, and a very good selection of Meteor tails by David Howley, with a couple of pages of unit markings in colour and another of the official unit badges, including Groups and such units as the Central Fighter Establishment and the Armament Practice Stations at Acklington and Sylt.

This is a book that could have been tailored to my interests, but I am sure that it will find a readership beyond those for whom the 'fifties are not just an opportunity for nostalgia but represent the high-point of the post-war Royal Air Force. The foreword by Air Chief Marshal Sir Patrick Hine, who started his career on Meteors with 1 Squadron at Tangmere in 1952, remarks on the way the book captures the spirit of the time for those of us who were fortunate enough to be there, without glossing over some of the failings of the service in the period; many aircraft, and their crews, were lost. Volume 2, I understand, will include Vampires and Venoms in their various forms, and the F-86 Sabre (the Hunter must be for Volume 3, then). This volume was being marketed directly by the author - there's a web link in the book section - but at the IPMS Milton Keynes show recently it was on the Aviation Book Centre stand, so it may be worth contacting your Usual Supplier if you want to look at it first. This is an essential book for aviation historians, enthusiasts - who were there when "spotter" wasn't a derogatory term! - and for modellers, especially those with Meteor kits in waiting; I shall just about contain my impatience for the succeding volumes but it will be very, very hard.

Further reading

The bibliography for "Cold War Shield" could - indeed should - form the template for a shelf devoted to the aviation history of the period, and I'm happy to say that many of them are in various places around my workroom (some of them I can even find quite easily). They include a couple of volumes, "Last Take-Off" (1950-'53) and "To Fly No More"('54-'58) from Colin Cummings' series on post-1945 RAF accdents and losses, and he's just produced another,"Category Five", subtitled "A Catalogue of RAF Aircraft Losses 1954 to 2009". I picked this up from the Aviation Book Centre at ModelKraft, and like Roger Lindsay's book it's also available directly from the author. It reinforces only too clearly Paddy Hine's point about the accident rate of the era - there are at least two names in there of young pilots with whom I trained - and it's a sobering reminder of what could have happened, especially to those of us who look back on the period with nostalgia, though at the time it was easy to believe that it would only happen to someone else.

Broad arrows

I don't, as you know, make models with more than one wing; I tried rigging such devices when I was much younger, using stretched sprue, piano wire (Tony Woollett's preference) or rhe stretchy stuff from Aeroclub under the personal guidance of John Adams, but I failed successively and miserably to get my little fat fingers round the problem, helping thereby to place myself firmly in the "assembler of plastic kits" category rather than that of "modeller". However, as you may have seen from a recent "Workbench" entry, I have been drawn back in to the era, if not the practice of rigging, by some new decals from Pheon Models (Pheon is the Greek (?) for "broad arrow", in this case an allusion to the old War Department symbol) and in particular by the presence of The Ooslumbird, a Sopwith Triplane of the RNAS War Flight at Manston in July 1917. And the appearance from Anigrand of the five-winged Fokker V.8 led me also to order the decals for the Fokker Triplanes of JG.2. The models are still under way, but probably won't qualify for the "Pick" page, though I shall finish their tale on the "Workbench" section in due course. The decals, though, certainly deserve a place here. Those for the Sopwith have markings for twenty-eight aircraft, including the sole French and RFC examples, and come with wing roundels and rudder stripes for four models; the individual markings include where necessary coloured wheel hub covers. The very comprehensive booklet of instructions has, as well as details of each subject, the history of the "Tripehound", nots on available kits in both 1:48th and 1:72nd scales - the decals are available in both - and general colouring notes with comments on both PC10 and PC12. After ordering the decals from Rowan Broadbent at ScaleModelWorld I went on a hunt for the Revell 1:72nd kit, and added two to the one which I remembered seeing in the shades of the garage at home (and in this case the memory proved accurate), and I have plans to add "Maud" and at least one other from the amazing selection on the Pheon sheet. Fortunately the model's only little, but the temptation for the committed WW I modeller to build the whole set, or at least a very large proportion of the whole, will surely be considerable..

This could be even more marked for Fokker Triplane addicts; the variety of markings on offer for the Dr.1 is amazing!. This picture shows only one of the five A4 pages of colour profiles and plan views, with markings for thirty aircraft, and a bonus insert of a colour scheme for a thirty-first! Again, there is a very comprehensive booklet of instructions, with details of the individual aircraft and on the necessary colours, to which I'll come back when I've finished the V-8 to my satisfaction; but it's extremely helpful to those of us who may not be very familiar with the finishes of the period. Once again the choice is considerable, and I fear more than one reversion to Captain Indecisive mode on my part; but I will have to make two or three Fokker Triplanes to feature some more of the very colourful markings, and I'm even comsidering a second Fokker V-8 (which is more than the German authorities did!). Pheon's e-mail address is Pheon.models@hotmail.co.uk, and the best way I know of getting a full listing of availability and prices is via the britmodeller website. And having just looked at that to check that it's still up and running, I've found that on the SE.5a sheet there's one for Eliot White Spring's aircraft when he was with 85 Squadron, and carrying the unit's hexagon; if the name's unfamiliar, he was responsible for "War Birds; Diary of an Unknown Aviator", one of the aviation classics, of which I still have my father's copy and which I must have read first during the Second World War! That'll be another order, then, as I find that I have a Roden kit close to hand; isn't PayPal both useful and seductive? I haven't dared to take scissors to either of the decal sheets yet, but if I have any comments they'll appear when I finish the two models currently under way. Like all the best decals, even if you use only a small part of the sheet the instructions are so useful in their own right; just as well I'm no longer a student, or I might feel compelled to Blu-tack all those pretty A4 sheets to a handy wall. Transferred 30/04/10

Crystal Balls, 2010

For some reason the Master Plan for my Crystal Ball section seems to be sulking, so until I can get My Friend Tim to sort it, a task well beyond my cybercapabilities and which could well form part of a proposed mini-revamp, a few early notes and reflections will appear here. From my regular trawlings through the Hannants' website "Future Releases" page, there appear to be New Year listings from Airfix and Revell, and perhaps Italeri, although this last looks - I hope - partial. The one that leapt off the screen for me is the inclusion of one of my long-term hopes, a 1:72nd Vickers Valiant from Airfix (none of these have possible release dates attached yet, so please don't pester your local model ship just yet). There was a strong suggestion two or three years ago that if the Nimrod kit was a success then a Valiant would follow, but that possibility seemed to have faded, or at least gone very quiet, follwing the Hornby buy. I'm told, by the way, that after the manner of the placing of the mocked-up "Airfix TSR.2 box" on their stand at Telford three or four years ago a 1:72nd Valiant was surreptitiously placed there in the recent ScaleModelWorld - I think as no more than a Heavy Hint! - and was smartly removed! Now, about a B.2 conversion..... After all, it's just a couple of fuselage plugs, a new wing centre section and main undercarriage, and I thing most modellers would take the strengthened main spar as a given. Surely this would be an ideal successor to the Cammett AEW.3. While only one was built - the dramatic "Black Bomber", WJ954 - seventeen were originally ordered, but these were changed for B.1s, and the problems with the main spar of this mark, accentuated by the type's transfer to the low-level role (for which the B.2 had been intended) resulted in the Valiant's premature withdrawal from service. Ah, the joys of hindsight. Also in the Airfix line-up is a "new tool" Harrier GR.9. and similarly annotated Canadair Sabre F.4 - those Modeldecal sets 97 must be somewhere - and North American F-86F. Going by previous years the Revell kits listed are probably just those expected in the first four months or so, and while you can play "hunt the Matchbox and Monogram" with some of them the only one that caught my eye was a "new tool" labelled Red Arrows Hawk T.1.

Colin Strachan of Freightdog/Silver Cloud has sent a couple of photos of the masters of his forthcoming - at Southern Expo if all goes to plan - BAe EAP, a major updating in resin of the old Pegasus kit. It will appear, as did the original, in the markings of prototype ZF534 finished in two shades of blue. I looked back at my review of the kit in SAM, and was amazed to read that it appeared more than twenty two years ago (Vol.9 No.11, as you ask, thanks to Derek Reeve's SAM index) and when I built it then I decided against trying to reproduce by hand the very thin black/white cheat line along the fuselage and decided it would look good, and feasible, in "raspberry ripple"; I suspect mine will follow the same path this time, and I must look for a "Qinetiq" decal to accompany one for ETPS.

The proposed Anigrand Craftswork releases, at least in 1:144th, continue to attract my attention. I've already orderd a Sperrin, which I intend to finish in the msg/black of the early Canberra with an as yet unselected unit marking - hand-painted 148 Squadron crossed axes, perhaps, something I couldn't achieve on the Valiant - and I'm thinking about an MR version. There's also the amazing Bartini-Beriev WIG device, intended as a Polaris submarine hunter/killer which came to naught but looks extraordinary. This is accompanied, like the Sperrin, by three smaller "secret" designs; this "extra" has apparently proved so popular that Anigrand are planned similar sets to be issued in their own right, the first two to cover US VTOL prototypes and "penetration" fighters. All the above are no doubt only the tip of the 2010 iceberg; an assessment of our, or at least my, chances of colliding with the rest of it will I hope follow at intervals.

It's not only kits and bits that weigh down the back of the car returning from ScaleModelWorld; it's also a very good opportunity to fill up those gaps in the bookshelves that have of course already been filled twice over.

Probably the most substantial is the "Fairey IIIF" from Ad Hoc Publications; after establishing their "..from the Cockpit" series, Ad Hoc are broadening their approach and attracting well-known authors such as Philip Jarrett, who is responsible for this considerable work. While the subject aircraft may in theory be familiar, there's so much more to it than I had expected; did you know for instance that it was the only aircraft used by both the RAF and the RN between the Wars? There is as you would expect a full account of its development, from a rather unprepossessing aircraft in to the comparatively elegant IIIF, influenced to some extent by Fairey's Fox, and its service on both land and sea, wheels and floats. The selection of photographs is truly astonishing; I don't know if it's been a life's work for the author collecting these but it can surely only have been done by someone with a real feeling for his subject. As well as producing this book to his now-expected very high standard, Roger Chesneau has done the twenty-seven colour profiles which, although using the same basic "silver" scheme, show a good variety of finishes. Sadly the only current models of the type revealed on the Hannants search function are in 1:700 and 1:350 scales by Trumpeter, with the Sangaer 1:72 vacform listed as sold out; this may be just as well for me, as I could have found myself sidetracked from my prime interests yet again! The modelling possibilities aside, I cannot recommend this bood too highly, both fro its excellent coverage of a lesser-known subject and for conveying so well the atmosphere of its time.

From the same publisher comes Tony Buttler's book on the Short Sturgeon, another of those WWII designs that found itself drafted for duties that were not those for which it was oriiginally intended. Designed as a carrier-borne attack aircraft - the first twin designed specifically for the Fleet Air Arm - it was developed after the end of the war for fleet requirements use resulting in its principal employment being as a target tug, encapsulated in the excellent cover photo. Tony Buttler tells the story from the responses to specification S.6/43 which called for a twin-engined torpedo bomber and reconnaisance aircraft until the Sturgeon's ultimate descendent the ungainly SB.3, which was devised as an insurance backup for the Fairey Gannet. There were delays to the original aircraft caused by Shorts' move from Rochester to Belfast, and the type's adaptation for the FRU role took a while, the TT.2 with the extended nose entering service with 703 NAS, the Service Tials unit, in the summer of 1951. There are reproductions of the manufacturer's drawings accompanying the text, including some of a jet-engined night fighter variant which, powered by a pair of Rolls-Royce AJ.40s, was proposed as an insurance against the Sea Hornet NF.21 but never got off the paper. Accompanying the accounts of the type's service are the opinions of those who flew it, and there is the now expected considerable number of black and white photos, accompanied by nine colour profiles and a four-view contributed by Roger Chesneau. Illustrations are as always with this publisher well chosen and splendidly reproduced, and Ad Hoc have produced another excellent book, this time on a lesser-known naval type (a Hannants seach revealed three resin kits from Magna, with that of the SB.3 on limited availability). Ad Hoc do produce exceedingly good publications, always of interest; I look forward to what else they will pull out of their hat in the future (and I live in hope that they will include an upgraded Canberra B.2/6 in time for an Airfix 1:72nd kit!).

Normally the appearance of a Hinomaru can cause my eyes to lose focus fairly quickly, and I was quite prepared to overlook the latest in Midland Publishing' "Secret Projects" series; however I couldn't resist picking it up for a quick peek on the Aviation Book Centre's stand at Telford and then of course inevitably I succumbed. It's a little different from those to which we have become accustomed in that there are no small line-drawing plans, but there are many large colour three-views, accompanied by colour profiles, usually wearing the markings of an operational unit. The projects devised for the Army and the Navy are described in different sections, and I found it interesting - entertaining is perhaps the wrong word - to read about the rivalry between the two services, not least in the matter of their Me 163 equivalent developments. Author Edwin M Dyer III admits that some of the material on which his accounts are based can be very conjectural, seemingly in some cases to come from magazine entries which could well be flights of fancy. Modellers have little in the way of counterfactual models available, though if I remember Hasegawa (Fine Molds?) did have a Mitsubishi J8M Syusui (the "163") and both the piston-engined and jet-powered versions of the canard Shinden. Fine Molds also produced the rather large Keiun, and Pegasus the 262 equivalent the Nakajima Kikka, though how many of these are currently available I don't know. The Manshu Ki-98 that is the subject of the cover painting was for a long while on the Pegasus to-do list, but I don't think it ever appeared; Ronnie Olsthoorn's depiction convinces me that It would be an interesting and attractive model (the type was done in resin by, I think, AV but it didn't come up on a Hannants' search). While I may not refer to this book as often as the other "Secret Projects" volumes on my shelves, it is a useful companion to the rest of the series.

All the Mark ! books that I've seen in this "Dozen Set" series to date have been on WW II subjects, which I have largely passed by;knowing that they came from the Four Plus stable was a recommendation of their quality, but I didn't want to add to my collection of unused decals of that period, however good. When co-author Michal Ovcacik passed this one to me at Telford, though, I was delighted; the Typhoon/EF 200o is going to be around for a long hime, and this is an excellent summary of its appearances in its various services to date. Twelve aircraft are featured with the two pages on each including a colour four-view profile and a selection of captioned photographs, some of them close-ups. There are three additional photo pages with shots of the cockpit interiors of both single- and two-seaters, and of the undercarriage. The decals are solely of the national and unit markings of each aircraft, with all others having to come from the kit; my example is in 1:72nd scale, and there is also a 1:48th version available. The book, while a useful reference in itself, is in effect a very up-market set of instructions for the decals, and is I suppose a logical extension of Modeldecal's addition of the first black and white photos to their instruction sheets! While the Italian and German "specials" are probable the most impressive markings on the sheet, and will do much to liven up the basic grey finish, I do like the inclusion of the 800 NAS marking that was applied as a zap to the inside of the port undecarriage door of 29 Squadron's ZJ813/BL; this shows a nice eye for detail. This is an excellently thought-out and produced combination of book and decal; I wonder if the 1:32nd modellers will get one? Thank you, Michal.

I nearly missed "WIngs of Stars" on the Aviation Workshop stand at Telford, only noticeing it when I came back in on the Sunday morning, surprisingly given its very colourful cover featuring a "Peashooter" of 73rd PS, 17th PG on a map of the Territory of Hawaii. With colour, and colourful, profiles of single-engine types it does exactly what it says on the cover, starting with a patriotically coloured Nieuport 28 brought back to the US after the Great War, and ending with an XP-51 wearing the Wright Field arrowhead marking. The selection in between covers many aircraft which are available in model form - given the publisher it's reasonable I feel to hope for a decal sheet, though making any selection from the considerable number of possibilities could prove a serious headache! - and illustrates the progressive, and occasionally rapid, development of military flying in the USA over the period. It's not just "pursuit" aircraft; "attack" and observation types are included - I like the J-3 Cubs - and trainers, with precursors and early variants of the T-6. The colour schemes develop as well, with some from the various camouflage trials included, and the olive drab/neutral gray starting to intrude, often accompanied by exercise markings, toward the end of the book. I am impressed by the inclusion of an extensive list of references both for the whole work and for individual subjects; among these are several of the Squadron/Signal books by the peerless Dana Bell, which are a valued part of my library. The combination of Mike Starmer's text - I liked his historical introduction very much - and Peter Freeman's colour work, which has a good sprinkling of four-views among the profiles, is first class; and there is an annotated representation of the Standard Colors inside the back cover. This is a book that no aviation enthusiast or modeller with an interest in this between-the-wars period should be without, and I hope I'm right about the decals. I understand that an equivalent US Navy volume - presumably "Wings of Gold" - is in preparation, and will I am sure be equally warmly welcomed; with my known weakness for the "yellow-wing Navy" I look forward to adding it to this at some future date.

A Swallow is not just for Christmas Island....

While I was making the Fantastic Plastic Avro 730 I worked out A Plan for their 1:144th Barnes Wallis Swallow, which involved finding an undercarriage - not included in the kit - and the Air Decal markings for the RAF VC-10. The undercarriage came from a partly-made Revell Airbus Beluga - the original, abandoned, plan had been for it to be an RAF tanker - and needed the removal of the sections of the Swallow fuselage castings that represented the closed undercarriage doors. This bit of the Plan ws not helped by the apparent lack of any reliable information on the original landing gear; having done a little digging I wonder if the design work had even got that far. I'm happy that the result of my adaptation at least looks possible. The wings and engine pairs swivel separately, and the extending cockpit, which is in transparent resin, has to be fitted either raised, as here, or lowered. The wings had something of a curvature on arrival, and though this was considerably reduced by dunking in very hot water there is still a delicate upward curve at each tip; it's little reminiscent of the Boeing 787, but although somewhat anachronistic looks so aesthetically pleasing that I decided to leave it. I had originally considered Light Aircraft Grey undersides but thought that getting the separation to match the Z of the cheatline before its application would be too difficult, so I reasoned that if all white was suitable for the Concorde it would work for a Swallow C.1. The Air Decal set included Air Support Command titles which I wanted to use, recalling that the setting up of this command signalled the introduction of the "Ascot" callsign which became familiar during my London Airways time (and which I think still persists).The kit comes with Pan Am and BOAC decals - though the memories of neither "Clipper" nor "Speedbird" was enough for me to use them - and includes separate "windows" which happily fit neatly on to the RAF cheatline, and door outlines; the cockpit windows are also decals.You may just be able to see the 10 Squadron marking on the upper nacelles, and the badge just below the cockpit; the large Union Flag would I am sure have been worn, and just in case you can see the serial XR108 did not exist but was easily adapted from the VC-10 sheet.

So much of my "What If?" modelling these days is a form of three-dimensional doodling, and I would dearly love to be able to produce an idea like this as a painting rather that have to take advantage of what Someone Out There decides is marketable in the niche market in to which I fit. Still, this was fun, and while it's by no means immaculate in model terms I'm happy with the result; you may even see on on a 1:144th SIG table in the future, not least to encourage others, but the latest posting on the Fantastic Plastic website says that they are about to produce their last set of castings. It's not cheap, but at least PayPal can make it almost painless; go on, you know you want one!

Transferred 21/02/10

Moving Rapidely on....

There's an odd period that follows my ScaleModelWorld, a mix of frenzy and lassitude; there's the unpacking, with a little surreptitious gloating if you've managed to get the jump on Santa, and the resumption of modelling. In my case, two of the models that are reaching their natural artistic conclusion were underway at Telford (and the other two came home with me). Venturing back a little gingerly in to 1:200th, this Cloudbreak Dragon Rapide recalls a small part of our family legend, when while on holiday in Cornwall we had a once-round-the lighthouse in G-AGSH. When this kit was mentioned in its planning stage I made a plea for that particular marking, and it's one of half a dozen options on offer for this delightful little model, all of which are civil, though you could use DIY military colours. The struts are wire, with the principal ones inserted through pre-drilled holes in the lower wing matching up to marked sockets in the underside of the upper, and they can be trimmed to the correct length with snips once installed.; those between the nacelles and the fuselage have to be carefully measured and cut to length before being positioned, which was for me the most fiddly part of the work. The size can be judged by the five pence piece in the photo on the left. To see one properly mde, and indeed fully rigged (!) there's one on The One True Scale website - www'the-one-true-scale.co.uk- made by Tim Upson-Smith, whose skill, nerves and eyesight are patently several degrees better than mine. Still my older son, for whom the flight all those years ago has significance, is pleased that he's got this one.

Is it a bird....?

Among the many virtues of ScaleModelWorld is the opportunity to meet friends from the modelling fraternity - and these days sorority - with whom paths don't often cross, and quite often they bring unexpected goodies. This year the genial Mike Belcher - he of the Bits - was across from Canada, and among the surprise packages accompanying him was a 1:72nd resin kit for the Vickers Type 725 Red Rapier, also known as the SP.2, a proposed land-based cruise missile from the early 'fifties. The design was fairly basic, the wing recalling the description of that attributed to the DH.6 of being made by the mile and sawn-off by the yard. The aircraft was to be powered by three small Rolls-Royce engines; while it wasn't built full-size, there were one-third scale models dropped from an RAF Washington in Australia and one of these, although not in pristine condition is exhibited, fittingly because of its Vickers origins, at the Brooklands Museum. The kit has a two-piece fuselage, a one piece wing which fits neatly on to a "saddle", and three identical tail surfaces each carrying their engine nacelle. Mike Belcher's drawings show that the two tailplane halves are wholly horizontal, but that in the "British Secret Projects; Hypersonics, Ramjets and Missiles" by Chris Gibson and Tony Buttler, never far from my workbench, shows them with about 20 degrees anhedral. and I went with that. Pondering over the finish, I painted it with "Mr. Metal Color" stainless, and covered that with an (intentionally) badly applied coat of Humbrol matt dark green. Roundels and fin flash were accompanied by a 551 Wing badge from the Aviation Workshop Canberra decal set, and I put a yellow and a pair of red bands around the warhead area at an attempt at - probably spurious - corroborative detail. I'm still undecided about whether or not the weapon would have carried a serial; I've left a space for one but not yet consulted Robertson for an unused one. Mike has written to me following his return to BC to say the the price is now down to Can$ 25.99; he can be contacted at info@belcherbits.com. It's an interesting "something different" and would be a good introduction to resin for the slightly nervous. It's quite a large beast; this photo shows it with a Hunter (a Mark 14, as you ask, which will itself feature here shortly) to give an idea of its size. We had a discussion at Telford abour the Bristol submission for the same role; I live in hope.

One kit, three conversions

Last of the models I began at Telford to be finished, the Hunter you see above had a slightly stuttering start when I found on the Saturday that I'd left the conversion parts already started at home when I set course for the wilds of Shropshire. Fortunately I'd brought the Revell kit, and I was able to fill the gaps from the Odds & Ordnance stand for the T.7 nose and from Captain Freightdog for the Silver Cloud "Super Hunter" set. While perhaps not quite the "ultimate" Hunter - I haven't yet quite worked out what that might be - I had in mind an operational trainer for a TSR.2 squadron that would use not only Campbell Paterson's two-seater front end but also his AS.30 missiles. The more highly-swept wing of the P.1083 combined with the afterburning Avon would give it a bit more performance for low-level attack training, though to take account of the fuel consumption I thought an outer pair of wing tanks would need to be a standard fit. Colours would be second Phantom scheme, with red/blue national markings and light aircraft grey undersides, doubtless matching the colouring of the squadron's principal equipment. You've got to Have A Plan.

The front of the Hunter fuselage had to be cut to accomodate the new nose, but although I thought I'd followed the O&O instructions carefully it turned out that I hadn't quite, and that for some reason the nose sat slightly too high on the centre fuselage. I almost corrected it, but this had a knock-on effect of the fitting of the spinal fairing; for this I'd also removed the section of the spine too far back towards the tail, but this was simply corrected. The replacement wings fitted snugly over the area where the nose and centre fuselage met, and the Silver Cloud rear fuselage, with its afterburner, fitted precisely. I discussed with my long-time mate Jim Bricknell, who had joined us on the SIG stand from his North British fastness, the application of the "dog-tooth" leading edge to the more highly swept wing - something I'd done on an earlier conversion - and we decided it would be easier to make a Lightning-style "notch" in the leading edge about where the inboard edge of the extension would be; simples! For the weapons I had a choice between the O&O set for the TSR.2 and that for the Buccaneer; the missiles are the same, but although it seemed logical to use the TSR.2 pylons it may have been a mistake as it left the AS.30s rather close to the ground. Each missile is cast in two parts, with the organisation of their alignment made easy by matching up the two longitudinal cable ducts (if that's what they are), but removing any discontinuity or residue from between the two parts could be awkward. It'll go better second house. I painted them a simple Humbrol matt dark green.

Final choice was of the unit, and it's very important to me that I get it right, at least according to my logic and predjudices. This decision is often dependent on what decals are, or at least have at one time been, available and as so often the choice was made easy by the presence in one of my many storage boxes of (nearly all) of a Modeldecal sheet, in this case Set 25 with the Flying Camel and diamonds of a 45 Squadron Hunter; by chance it was one of my senior squadron colleagues from the olden time, the then Wing Commander T A "Sharky" Hastings who was the Boss who reformed 45 on Hunters. It's also a nod to "Jeff" Jefford, the Flying Camels' historian whose master work on the history of the unit is to my mind the best of its genre, and whose views on squadron hisory and tradition are not dissimilar to mine! Apart from the unit markings, all the decals came from the Revell FGA.9 sheet and I was able to cobble unused serial XG418 from the two RAF examples therin. I admit that not all the smaller decals, especially those for the underside, were used; by the time I get to this stage as often as not my impatience rears its head and I want to get the model off the bench so that I can get started on the next - providing I can decide wich three of the fourteen or so possibilities I really, really wnt to work on next. Besides, those "trestle here" markings would't be seen in the photos anyway. Just in case there was a Mark 13 from Sir Sydney which has passed me by, I've decided that this should be a T.14, in spite of its armament, which includes both the Adens included in the new nose just in case it could be useful in a secondary war role; you'd expect a TSR.2 unit to be pretty close to the fromt line, wouldn't you?

Transferred 16/02/10

Boom Boom......Boom

That, as you ask, is what might be the noise of a supesonic bomber (I've you heard a Hustler in the long ago, let me know). Those of you who, like me, pore over the collected works of Tony Buttler will I'm sure have recognised the Avro 730, a project that was planned to follow on the V-bombers in the nuclear deterrence role, and on the prototype of which which metal was reputedly cut before it was cancelled. The 730 was schemed in several forms, starting as a long-range reconnaisance aircraft before it was developed for the nuclear role; as seen here its two nacelles held four Armstrong Siddeley P.176 engines each to produce the necessary total thrust. While a 1:144th scale resin kit has been available for a while it had no undercarriage; it was the page in SAMI on Tony Gloster's model that alerted me to this version by Fantastic Plastic in the USA, and facilitated by PayPal it arrived just over a week after my order was placed.

This box is stout, and well able to withstand the rigours of international travel; it's top opening, and will be very useful for subsequent storage of otherwise stray pieces. Because of its size, which also doubtless helps its postability, the long slender fuselage comes in two sections, to be joined at the middle. The hacelles are also split, in their case upper and lower, and there are "key" bumps on the wing to help locate them, a well-thought aid to assembly (if the wing/nacelle combination seems familiar, look at the Bristol 188). Each wing half has two short lengths of stout wire embedded in it root, with corresponding dimples on the fuselage to help position it correctly; these are easily drilled out and they, and their plugs, are differently spaced to ensure that each wing goes in the right place. The cockpit has an instrument panel and seats for the two crew, and the hatch can be mounted open (the pilots were to rely on periscopes for a view of the outside world); the two canards have socket-and-tab fitting. These, I gather, were not to help in-flight performance so much as to get the nose up and the aircraft off the ground for take-off, with its very long tail and its elevons a long way back. The box art shows the aircraft in anti-flash white, with "bright" national markings, but I remembered from a conversation with my colour consultant some time back that the required finish for supersonic fighters at least was bare metal; I doubt if anyone was seriously considering similarly high performance bombers at taht stage, but I reasoned that there might well not have been a paint available that would have withstood the prolonged high temperature at that time. My original idea was to use as many different tones of acrylic "silver" as possible, but I wound up using Metalcote "Polished Aluminium" and about half of it; the rest is various shades of Mr.Metal Color (via MDC) with the most useful being a "superl titanium" which is I understand no longer in production. Murphy rules still.

The markings that came with the kit were more-or-less WW II vintage, so all mine - including the serial on the fin - came as they have for so many years from old Modeldecal sheet. The 101 Squadron CI symbol on the fin and the black and white lightning flash are from the invaluable Model Alliance decal Canberra markings sheet, and the warning triangles and "chop here" axe are from the Freightdog 1:144th Canberra sheet. Coincidentally, there are markings for a 101 Canberra on that sheet, and with an A Model kit to hand I feel a handover ceremony coming on! I've really enjoyed making the 730, a design I've always thought looked purposeful and impressive,, rushed though it's been largely to have it on the What If? SIG table at St Neots this coming weekend. I am sorely tempted by the thoughts of doing a second in "recconnaisance" mode, but I have a second British project from the same era in mind, this time for Air Support Command. To give you an Idea of the size of the 730, the little aircraft next to it in this picture is a 1:144th Hawker P.1185 "Advanced Harrier", one of the "extras" in the Anigrand Nimrod kit.

Lost Tomorrows, and Tomorrows and Tomorrows.....

Not long after the (then) Model Aircraft Monthly finished its series, with added resin bits, on the TSR.2 I suggested that the five sections could usefully be combined in to a book, probably not least because there was one of my five that persistently went in to hiding. This has finally come to pass so that I now have only one volume of which to keep track, and author Paul Lucas has added a great deal, not only on the procurement and the politics with which the type will always be associated, but with much emphasis on the roles, and the relevant weapons, for which it was considered.

I am a great admirer of the author's research, and he has been scrupulous in sticking to the two major plans exhumed from the archives about which units were to be equipped with the new aeroplane, and in which roles. These are comprehensively illustrated with a substantial number of colour profiles, and in each case the accompanying captions give the sequence and rationale behind the colour schemes used, and the application of unit markings (I only have one disagreement with these, in the use for some squadrons of the "fighter bars" which weren't devised until their application to Tornados). The profiles look good, and the colours are well done, the distinction beteen dark sea grey, medium sea grey and light aircraft grey indicative of the care that's been taken with them; but - and you knew there would be a but, didn't you? - the shape looks altogether too sleek, as though the fuselage has been stretched and thinned along its length. The distortion seems to be reflected in the serial alpha-numerics, the proportions of which do not look like the standard font. The difference in shape is reinforced by comparison with the two reproductions of BAC drawings, that on page 128 of a three-view with cross sections and some inboard profile, and the camouflage diagram on page 58, which looks remarkably like the one that sidled trough my front door many years ago in a Plain Brown Envelope, and for which I have been forever grateful.

I found the accounts of the proposed weapons and support systems absolutely fascinating; even the scheduled layout of the pan at Coningsby, and the reasoning behing it, is interesting and indicative of the depth of Paul's research. There were some weapons included in the series of resin bits that were marketed by MAM, but all the indications are that there will be no more, from that source at least; personally, there sre three or four of the stand-off bombs that I'd like, and if someone could produce in 1:72nd the proposed variable-geometry wing that would have fitted to a standard TSR.2 fuselage (see page 126) I would happily take another two kits from their dusty garage shelf. The way in which the drawings showing the installations of the many and varied loads is excellent, and with the exception of the anorexia all the illustrations are very well produced. I'm sure this, and the occasionally haphazard application of apostrophes, will not reduce the appeal of this book not just to modellers, with or without a What If? affliction; the accounts of the politics and the procurement which I mentioned at the beginning are well worth studying by aviation historians (see how many contemporary parallels you can identify!). As I said to my French correspondent about the kit, there was no way I wasn't going to like this book very much, and given the recent revival of interest in the TSR.2 that seems traceable to that mocked-up box placed surreptitiously on the Airfix stand at Telford a few years ago - is it really that long? - I'm sure that, as it deserves, it'll find a ready market. And, please, at the very least I'd like the Bristol Tychon - or better still, a pair - in resin. Transferred 03.02.10

You will recall - oh, yes, you will - that when I went to Sun 'n' Fun in April I fell in a big way for the Cessna 190 series, seen here in a line up at Lakeland. One of my hopes for Oshkosh therefore was to see many more of them, which I thought at first wasn't going to happen; but first, by courtesy of Ian Allan, ae went to Dayton.....

The Wrights, B'Gosh

Before going to the USAF Museum we spent the Sunday at the Dayton air Show, and for its highlight was the performance by the Brazilian aerobatic team, the Esquadrilha da Fumaca, in their green and blue Tucanos. Like their Canadian equivalent the Snowbirds they put on a tight, compact and continuous display in relatively low-powered aircraft, maintaining excellent formation and with the occasional stunning manoeuver; their use of the multiple aircraft mirror formation was absolutely splendid. The term "world class" is sadly abused these days, but this team really deserve it. The polo shirt in my size was alas sold out, but I did get their great "jungle" hat, in which I may well be seen posing at UK air shows for the rest of this year. The static included Ospreys and AV-8Bs from the Marines, that had to their regret - and ours - not been able to get permission from their management to display. The Harrier IIs, from VMA-542, wore not only a tiger's head on their fins but an eastern ideograph on their noses, dating from the Pacific campaign of the Second World War, which translates as "Here there be Tigers!" (a decal sheet, please). The CO's aircraft with the coloured markings was a radar-equipped AV-8B Plus, and the other a Night Attack variant; apparently all USMC front-line Harrier squadrons have a similar mix.

Somehow I've missed out in the last two or three years in seeing an Osprey airborne, though I saw one in a static at Pensacola a year or two back. Dayton had two on show, one of which was usually in a folded configuration and which at one stage did its transformation in front of its public, but while I was elsewhere. Here it is in its oven-ready state, and with the little bit of colour allowed on the CO's aircraft doing a fraction to lighten the grey that hung around all the morning, though it did part briefly to give the Tucanos a decent backdrop. The services' participation was not as great as I'd expected, but the army's "Golden Knights" parachutists jumped out of their perfectly serviceable FH-227, whose DoD designation has temprarily deserted me. The Thunderbirds' F-16s took part, with the "stirring" theme music as they taxied out seemingly as long, and even more repetitive, than their show; I hesitate to call it a performance, but I keep/kept reminding myself that they are an Aerial Demonstration Squadron, rather than an aerobatic team.

One of the USAF assets that was in the static area was an RC-135W "Rivet Joint" intelligence gatherer from the 55th SRW at Offutt. I got chatting to one of its crew; the American services are always seemingly relaxed over talking about their jobs, especially on home soil, and I raised the possibility of the RAF getting them for 51 Squadron, and that they would be after all fairly aged airframes.I was told that three relatively low-houred tankers have already been identified, and that the necessary equipment could be assembled and fitted in fairly short order once the ink was dry on the contract; the USAF have apparently a well-practised "production line" for this task. This photo of the one on display probably doesn't show its best profile, but it gives some idea of the positive forest of aerials that it carries, looking rather like an eruption of fungi!

A while back I bought the Model Alliance US Coast Guard decal sheet which included markings for their H-65 Dolphins, and I was delighted to find one in the static area. This one, from the USCG facility at Mobile, is

an MH-65C, having been recently upgraded for reconnaisance and surveillance, tasks which have grown considerbly since "9/11", and has a number of additional bumps and aerials (I must check if the MA resin set for the Dolphin is applicable). I was intrigued to find that various parts of the back end are not symmetrical, with the endplate fins toed in and the rear boom "bent" slightly to one side; from my memory, this assists a run-on landing if the tail rotor fails. Removal of one of its blades was another part of the recent modifications, and the eleven remaining blades are not quite evenly spaced (I shall probably have forgotten by the time I have to judge a model in competition). To assist my memory, and perhaps yours, I also have a photo of the cabin for colour information.

And as was only right and proper the day included a Wright biplane, in this case a replica of the 1911 Type B which was flown as part of the display; secure in the knowledge that it would surely fly again in the afternoon I didn't rush to take its picture airborne. Another mistake, but here it is in front of the Tucanos.

Transferred 07.01.10

That B I G "Airfix" Spitfire

Looking at those otherwise rather baffling statistics tables for the webite that My Friend Tim has set up for me, it's evident there are some hits that are coming from ouside the UK; so if those earnest seekers after my sort of truth will bear with me they should know that earlier in the week in which I'm writing this the BBC broadcast a TV programme in which a life-size "Spitfire" was built from a casting replicating, in I suppose 72:1 scale, the very early Airfix kit. It's one of a short series in which the presenter James May is attempting to show that the hobbies of his youth, thirty or more years ago, would benefit the young of today to whom they may seem a bit strange (he reminds me of Jacey Bedford's splendid maxim, "It's never too late to have a happy childhood"!).

It produced a small flurry of e-mails from acouple of members of the jpeg gruop of whose photos I take shameless advantage, commenting on what the original aircraft's identity might have been, and a suggestion from one that the serial - the markings on the original transfer sheet had been reproduced full-size in vinyl - rather tha RG904 should have been R6904, a reasonable transposition by someone who didn't know what they were looking at. This was after all the very early days of Airfix; I'm almost sure I bough the Spitfire kit when we were detached to Sylt in December 1956. And of course, I couldn't resist joining in, with the aid of Books rather that Googling.

Given that squadrons and their markings are My Thing, after watching the programme I looked up BT in my admittedly old Putnam/ Peter Lewis RAF Squadron Histories book - my Bowyer/Rawlings is being bashful - and it offered me 441, 113 and 30 OTU. 441 formed up in the UK at Digby as an RCAF squadron in February '44, and with the Spitfire Vb. Thinking that this was outside the timeframe, and that the model was of an early mark, I decided to disregard this (incidentally, as the excellent Canadian historian and author Pat Martin has pointed out, they revived BT on their F-86s when they were assigned to NATO in the '50s). 113 had Blenheims and 30 OTU had Wellingtons, starting in 1942. Then I read Richard's e-mail, with the very plausible suggestion that the serial was probably R6904. According to the Morgan/Shacklady "Spitfire", this was built as a Mk I and after making its first flight on 08.07.40 was delivered straight to 6 MU  to be fitted with cannon, then joining 19 Sqn on 13.07.It went back to Vickers for conversion to a Mk Vb, and then to the AFDU on 27.09 and back to 19 for service trials 30.10. It was transferred to 92 22.1.41, and was returned to Rolls for a Merlin 45, joining 615 on 24.09, 65 on 06.10 and 121 on 09.01.42, with whom it had a Cat.AC accident 02.06. Taken on by 306 on 18.06, it failed to return from operations on 22.08.42. In this very eventful life I can see no reason why it should have carried BT, and I doubt very much whether there's anyone around from the early days of Airfix who can shed light. I'll ask around at Telford next weekend, but it'll probably turn out to be the initials of the decal - sorry, transfer sheet - designer's Significant Other unless, as Esther Rantzen used to say, You Know Better!

Any further useful contributions gratefully received!

Editorial note - at Telford, in an interval from basking in the glow of the Great Mosquito, Trevor Snowdon confirmed that these markings had no factual basis. Pity. Transferred 03.01.10.

Showtime!

With November each year comes ScaleModelWorld, though to many of us on our deeper levels of consciousness it's still the IPMS/UK National Championships. Some of us have even been known to omit the UK from our trains of thought and given the number of overseas visitors, both traders and competitors, that's perhaps not altogether inappropriate .

My first NatChamps, as it became known in the family, must have been in 1968 or '69 and was held in what was I suppose a function suite in Maples, the furniture store, in Tottenham Court Road; the first IPMS President, Bill Matthews had I believe a connection with the firm, and he not only still attends every year but is a stalwart of the Airliner Tendency. Since then I've been, as the event has grown, to the RAF Museum, Peterborough, Donington and Telford, but the venue that still raises wry smiles is the National Agricultural Centre at Stoneleigh where the overnight accomodation - reputedly that intended for visiting jockeys - compared almost favourably with that depicted in black and white PoW films. It's fair to say that many long-lasting friendships, as well as the occasional feud, were nurtured there, several of them with some degree of sobriety.

One of the siting factors has been finding a location which is reasonably accessible - depending of course on your definition of "reasonable" - to modellers from various parts of the UK, and Telford has the advantage of being at least adjacent to the North-South motorway network (yes, I know it's still a substantial cross-country trip from Lowestoft) which this year enabled me to meet McModellers from beyond Hadrian's wall, as well as those from the Soft South of the Dorset Coast. This exemplifies for me one of, if not the, major reasons for the event. The competition has been there in one form or another, from the beginning, and the number of traders has grown massively especially since going to Telford, but it's the meeting and greeting which is for me an absolutely prime element of the occasion. Having spent many years doing that on the SAM stand, along with a little basic modelling, I've now been taken in by those all-round Good Eggs of the What If? SIG who left me a small space not far from my Canberra E.9B (see the Workbench) to do a little light whittling; but then I spent so much time walking the halls and, in the intervals of trying to reflate the economy blocking a fair number of the aisles chatting, that I don't think I sat down on the Saturday for more than twenty minutes. Still, I did manage a little preparatory work on the Barnes Wallis Swallow and the Hunter T.13.

While I'd arranged a pickup or four ahead of the show, I took my usual precaution of taking a small selection of possible work with me; the Brigand never got out of its box, though on the Sunday Lee Bagnall was working on his and I picked up a couple of useful hints. I'd fixed the two parts of the Swallow fuselage at home before leaving, and then dropped the workbox in which I'd carefully placed it on the pavement just before putting it in to the back of the Caponemobile, and it came apart again; however just putting it together again and leaving it on the table created interest, and I did at least get the engine nacelles together before leaving on Sunday afternoon. I'd also put aside a Revell Hunter 6, a Silver Cloud P.1083 conversion and an Odds and Ordnance T.7 nose to make a TSR.2 squadron weapons trainer, and I'd painted the seats and the inside of the cockpit; then when I went to take them from one of my considerable collection of yellow plastic bags, only the F.6 came out! Fortunately I managed to get both to Colin Strachan of Freightdog/Silver Cloud and Campbell Paterson of Odds and Ordnance early on the Saturday morning to replace them, and again I was able to leave the initial assembly on the table to intrigue passers-by. The T.7 noses were apparently in much demand, and the stock Campbell had brought down didn't last long.

Having corresponded for the last year or so it was good to meet him in person, reinforcing my thoughts about the siting of Telford within range of Scotland; and Jim Bricknell. who I met many years ago when his bounden duty was to zap any aircraft passing through Benbecula, had come down from Prestwick with a considerable number of entries for the Mushroom Monthly Trophy, including the Twin Vampire illustrated! As with other moments from the weekend I'll add something on the competitions later; in fact, there will have to be a series of entries on different pages of the site which may have to spread out over several weeks, especially as I gradually get around to building some of the kits which accompanied me home, cunningly hidden in a selection of Mr.Sainsbury's shopping bags - they carry the tempting inscription "Try something new today" which seems appropriate - and a holdall with the logo of the Aeronca Historical Association which was a souvenir of Oshkosh. There was also a bag full of books which will also take a little time to cover, especially if I take the unusual step of reading them them first; there will be one very shortly on the pick page, the subject of which will not surprise you at all, and I'm sure three or four of the models will find their way their as well. The "pending" page will have a brief first coverage of both paper and polystyrene - or perhaps more accurately resin - shortly.

There was of course a considerable number of Branch and Special Interest Group stands, but I'd like to make special mention of the Abingdon Branch, celebrating their thirtieth birthday. They were started by Tony Clements following a plea in the IPMS column that I used to write in SAM when I was the Branch Liason Officer, and for which I could perhaps claim the honorary title of godfather. Tony, who for me has always been one of the White Hats of the society as well being an Exceedinly Good Modeller, has been closely involved with the Branch ever since, and for the first time in thirty years he couldn't be there this year as he wasn't well. By now I hope he's recovering; the strength of the Branch is a tribute to him and his colleagues, and the Society, and indeed the hobby, owes a great deal to him and those like him across the country; I'm sorry I missed the birthday cake, though - short term memory problem, again.

Have you seen this man?

Since making the entry above I have been sent a photo of someone apparently sitting on the What If? SIG stand at SMW and appearing to be dressed in a way that suggests that he could be me; can you believe it? He's obviously taken some thought as to what would seem convincing; if you look carefully at the picture you will see that the work in progress is a Hunter, with a Revell fuselage half in hand, an Odds & Ordnance T.7 nose in front of him and a Silver Cloud P.1083 box close by. There's even one of Mike Belcher's Vickers flying bombs propped against the workbox; I wonder if he knew that I'd mislaid mine (if anyone's found it perhaps they'd let me know) The face bears a passing resemblance to that that looks out of the mirror on dark mornings, but surely no one wears a hat like that seriously even in the cavernous halls of Telford; I wonder if the kind soul who sent, and presumably took, the photo knew me well enough to recognise me, though I'm sure his thoughts and acts are well meaning (I should tell you that it came to me through a third party who is to the best of my knowledge just a communication channel). By putting this in front of UK readers at least I hope they will look carefully at anyone appearing like this at shows to come (Milton Keynes in February, for example). And while you are keeping an eye open for the flying bomb, you might even come across the Cross and Cockade calendar and the Plus One Eurofighter book that also seem to have gone AWOL on the Sunday. I wonder what he did with them. Transferred 24.12.09

A semi-matching pair

While I've enjoyed making these two - even the real one - they're here as much for what they tell me as what they are. The B(I).8 has always been my favourite Canberra, perhaps because of its mission as well as its "fighter" canopy; one of my air traffic colleagues was a navigator on 59 Squadron, and I used to tell him that he went to war lying down (jealousy, probably). I made the Airfix 1:48th kit when it came out, and as soon as the smaller scale version appeared it found its way very quickly to my workbench; given that it only served with five RAF squadrons, most of which I've covered at one time or another, I was looking for an excuse to build this one and found it in one of Paul Lucas "Airfile" articles on the Canberra in MAM in which he revealed an unused camouflage scheme for "marker" aircraft which combined two more familiar finishes. The Spitfire 19 was bought within ten minutes of my getting the Freightdog decal sheet of "Post-War Spitfires", and was an immediate reaction to seeing the illustration of the "bare-metal" PM574 of 81 Squadron; not only did it carry the squadron's star and sword emblem but was not the regular PRU Blue finish (I like the MGS/PRU Blue option in the kit, but that is still more "usual").

The overall impression from both kits for me is of Airfix returning to, perhaps eve rediscovering their core virtues. Both can be made by inexperienced modelers, though the Spitfire is probably more suitable for a relative beginner, and both look like their originals, though I haven't measured them, and I wait with bareley concealed impatience for the first "micrometer" reviewer for whom the odd millimeter is of consummate importance. The interiors are fairly basic, but doubtless they will attract aftermarket attention; there's not much visible in the Canberra, but I was a little surprised not to find an instrument panel decal in the PR.19. There was no dorsal radio mast included, but by the time this mark was in widespread post-war service it was equipped with a "whip" aerial, which gave me the excuse for a little light sprue-stretching. The choice of finish and markings for this Spitfire was settled by the Freightdog decals; but on selecting the "marker" scheme I gave a little thought for appropriate markings for the Canberra. considering not only what squadron could have been tasked with this role but, almost as important, checking that it was included on the invaluable Model Alliance decal sheet. The last two Mosquito squadrons in Bomber Command, equipped with B.35s - now there's a kit I'd like - were 109 and 139, based at Hemswell and, according to my imperfect memory, allocated to the "pathfinder" role. They wore yellow and red spinners repectively and carried these colours on to their Canberras, B.2s followed in both cases by B.6s. When they were disbanded, 139 was re-formed on the Victor but 109 was never brought back, so it's that unit's yellow flash on the fin, and the yellow starter "bullets" echoing the Mosquitos'' spinners. The AS.30s from the kit are there to help mark the target precisely, and there is a pair of small (100 lb?) bombs on the wingtip pylons copied shamelessly from Australian Canberras. I found the Standard Vanguard staff car while I was looking for something else entirely, and seeing that it was correctly marked with the 1 Group, Bomber Command identifier pounced and carried it off with glee; it's part of an enormous selection of 1:76th scale transport from Oxford Diecast Cars. I did think of changing it to a 3 Group Vanguard from the days of my youth, but decided that this would be really too small for my fingers.

I enjoyed making both these kits, with good fit - the Spitfire especially - and very little "fettling" necessary. The esearch for the Canberra scheme enabled me to deploy my personal logic, and the selection of the "bare-metal" scheme for the PR.19 was an excellent choice for the Freightdog decals (my spitfire guru tells me that the rudder and elevators of the 19 were still fabric-covered, so they are a little less shiny than the "polished aluminium" Humbrol Metalcote of the main airframe. I am very encouraged to think that Hornby may - indeed should - be applying the standard of production of these two kits to whatever may be lurking in their crystal ball. Transferred 24.12.09

Something for the little ones

It was probably the Avro 730 that got me looking at the Hawker P.1185 - aka AV.16 Advanced Harrier - that comes as one of those intriguing extras that Anigrand Craftswork include woth their 1:144th scale kits, in this case the Nimrod. Comparing it with the drawing in Tony Buttler's British jet fighter projects book, one which is rarely far from my side, it looked pretty good, though I do have some reservations about the rear jet nozzles (once a reviewer....). One of the problems, for me at least, of working in this scale is an absence of alternative markings, but Xtradecal have a very useful Hunter sheet, as well as one for Tornados, and it was the former that enabled me to "allocate" the result to 63 Squadron. A conversation with David Hunt, who masterminds the 144 SIG, got me looking at the same time at the Armstrong Whitworth AW.52 that comes with the Victor, and as I did a few years ago with the Dujin 1:72nd resin I drilled out a selection of camera ports and applied the medium sea grey/PRU blue scheme. I have yet to add its serial, but there were a pair of 541 Squadron badges on the Freightdog Spitfire sheet that fitted neatly on top of the fins. And a further conversation at the IPMS Brampton show has led me to the 144th Bristol 188, to be parked next to the Avro 730, though perhaps not quite in the shape that Filton intended. Watch this space....

The space filled

In the days when Maintrack were producing their X-plane vacforms, I built their Bristol 188 as a low-level reconaissance aircraft - Shiny Two, of course - but given that its wing shape was reported to be that of the Avro 730 decided that it would be better as a canard; so when I was pursuing the thought of making the Anigrand 144th "extra" I followed the same idea. The conversation at Brampton included the offer of Red Tops and Firestreaks in that scale by a generous donor, overcoming in this case at least at least one of the problems that What If? addicts face when working in this scale, the relative lack of additional external loads at a time when few warplanes fly eithout them, as well as the relative lack of potentially useful decals covering both national and unit markings. For me, at least this second point is crucial; I find it difficult to start a model without knowing how I plan to finish it. In this case the recent Xtradecal Hunter sheet was an absolute boon, offering me the 92 Squadron option that I could combine with the blue fin that 92 applied applied to their Lightnings as an echo of their "Blue Diamond" days. Other than swapping the flying surfaces over, all I needed to do was to hang the Red Tops on extentions of the underwing fairings for the aileron actuators.One of m thoughts was to use this model, like the Avro 730, to try various shades of acrylic "silver", but I'm not sure if they appear on the screen correctly, or at succiciently differentiated. The one of which I did like the effect, on the intakes and the leading edges, is "Super Titanium" from the Mr Color Super Metallic series but sadly MDC from whom I bought it tell me its no longer available. The fin colour I used is Xtracolor's X336, British Midland 1996 Blue, which accords very closely with the photos I have of the Hunter T.7 in the "Blue Diamonds" scheme at Kemble with Delta Jets, who I know researched it very carefully. While looking for something else entirely in Dick Ward's "Hunter Squadrons" book from Linewrights - could that possibly be redone in colour? - I found his reference to that shade as "Aircraft Blue", a term I don't remember seeing elsewhere, and without a BS. number. On my laptop, by the way, it looks lighter than it does on the model.

I hope to have this, with the 730, on the 144 SIG table at ScaleModelWorld, ten days awy as I write; and there are at least three other models - two plastic, one resin - coming to a climax on my workbench which I hope to bring as well. If there's time, I'll post one or two of them here before I go up; and I'm getting on with my first Brigand and another Fantastic Plastic resin which will appear in Air Support Command colours but probably not, in public at least, until the IPMS Milton Keynes event around the beginning of February. In the meantime you may see me lurking in the What If? shadows at Telford and hoping to fill my Goodies Bag; starting with the Unicraft Sukhoi Su-10; DDR camouflaged, I think.

Showtime!

It's the Great Deadline, then! Over the last couple of years my getting ready for Telford has changed somewhat; when I was writing for Scale Aircraft Modelling it was a matter of getting the socks sorted and packed, and assembling a work box with a view to doing a little light whittling while chatting (strangely, I've never needed a throat spray). Back in the long ago UK National Championships, when entry to the competition required a model to win its class at Branch level, I did one year have a 1:100th Tamiya Sea King on the table, not least because there were no other submissions in that class, but otherwise my only connection with all those excellent entries was as a judge. For the last couple of years those Good Eggs of the What If? SIG have made space not only for me but also for two or three of my "creations", and consequently I try to have something new for the table. This year there's a Soviet/Russian theme, which accounts for two of the models which I am now hurrying towards their destiny; the third is another of those that resulted from a conversation at one of the summer's IPMS shows. I'm also taking four up for possible showing on the 144 SIG table, and though they have all appeared here recently, I' really should apply a couple of very small serials by Thursday evening.

The non-Russian is as you will see largely the Airfix Canberra PR.9, which I bought from the Mr.Models stand at Yate after enjoying their B(I).8. Trying to maintain my aim, as prescribed in the best military manuals, I decided to work it over a little and use it as a base for a now-defunct RAF squadron, and I was strongly influenced by by the Maritime Reconnaissance Canberra of (the Venerable) Kit Spackman, which was on the SIG stand that day (Kit knows that I only steal from the best). Nearly all the lumps and bumps and assorted aerials are from the Airfix Nimrod, but the T.17 nose - which was the springboard for the original planning discussion - came from a shadowed corner of the garage in a C-Scale box, and it nearly fits. I may try a portable reflective surface on which to show it - I hesitate to use the word display - because of all the important little places underneath intended, by me at least, though I can't speak for Their Airships or BAC, to indicate its intelligence-gathering function. Apart from ensuring that part A fits reasonably well to part B, something not intended by the kit manufacturer, my preoccupations for this model were to find a suitable desination and colour scheme. The second wasn't really a problem, with the PR.9s and T.17s at one period wearing hemp/grey and red/blue national markings, and the unit picked itself, with 58's owl badge included in the kit decals, and the blue/green bars carried on its Hunters still lurking fairly handily on an old Modeldecal sheet or three. The first Aviation Workshop book on the Canberra had a Denis J Calvert air-to-air of a 360 T.17 with fuselage bars and a red fin which seemed a good idea to copy, leaving only the choice of a dark blue to echo that of the backing rectangle of the fuselage marking; the obvious Roundel Blue looked too light, but I was satisfied with its US counterpart, insignia blue. The serial is that of an unbuilt PR.9, which must have been completed while no one was looking too closely as an R.9B.

The first of the two new contributions to the Soviet/What If? line-up - the red-starred Beech Grizzly was one I'd made earlier - had its genesis eighteen months ago when at the SIG's AGM I picked up an Anigrand XFV-12 on the day the theme for this year's SMW was announced, and it seemed a Good Plan to put the two ideas together; It would of course need a change or two, given the dramatic lack of success of the Rockwell original (they should never have changed the name from North American, though were was little sign of any F-86 DNA in the rather ungainly canard). I started on it not long after getting the kit, but with the main wings and fins in place it languished on a corner of my workbench for the best part of twelve months before I decided I really had to get on with it; in the meantime I'd picked up a Begemot Helix decal sheet from Paul Davis (who I see appears on the SMW plan as "Decals Galore") for the needed Soviet Navy markings, and consulted Red Star 36 for their positioning and the overall colouring. This turned out to be something of an approximation using standard Humbrol colours, but I remembered with some relief the standard of paintwork, and indeed construction, of the Yak-141 when I saw it at Farnborough as being nearly as rough as mine. I have twenty-four hours to think of an appropriate reporting name; it's a pity that I can't really use Fishhead.

The last of this spasm occurred to me when at the end of a day on my recent trip to the States I was checking on the Hannants "New Arrivals" page in an attempt to keep me grounded in what passes with me for normality, when I spotted the Hobby Boss kit of the Sukhoi S-37, a type which you will be unsurprised to know still fascinates me and which I am delighted to have seen, however briefly, in formation with its Flanker cousins at MAKS a few years back. A quick firing-up of the search engine revealed a Begemot set of Su-27 decals which included those for the "Russian Knights" team; I had a Hasegawa kit with those markings tucked away, but decided not to denude the kit when this seemed a good alternative. The adaptation of a "swept-back" scheme for a forward swept aircraft was helped by that useful phrase "close enough for government work" which has come to my aid on more than one occasion; oddly, this also involved a little trial and error to find a correct blue, this time for the top surfaces, solved by using Xtracolor X336 British Midland 1996 blue. All I need now is tha CGI ability to produce its team mates.

.... A hand of five

It all started with the Osprey "Spitfire Aces of Burma and the Pacific" and finished with five Spitfires of five marks and five different kit manufacturers. I've put the basic outline of the saga on the "Ramblings" page, and I've now got to the point where I can consider putting the photos on this page, even if I'm still short of one set of exhausts - I may even have found a solution for this.

The Hasegawa Mark VIII was the cornerstone, the appearance of the Osprey book and the overlapping MAM series giving me the impetus with their colour profiles of two 67 Squadron Spitfires at the end of the war in burma (for those who don't know its personal significance, 67 was "my" Hunter squadron in the pre-Duncan Sandys era). Although one of their aircraft, JG183/RD-S has been in John Rawlings' "RAF Fighter Squadrons" since time immemorial, its black and white photo could well have led me down a wrong colour path, but I've postponed making RD-A of squadron boss Bob Day because of the rather curly lettering of the name "Mary Ann" on the cowling; perhaps the time is ripe for a "Far East Spitfires" decal sheet - please! The kit is by Hasegawa, and I was able not only to use the blue/blue roundels and fin flash but also modify the DG-R codes on the decal sheet and make the S from the G. Steve Nichols' MAM article and illustrations suggested that the letters could well have been in the lighter of the two blues of the roundel, rather than the sky of Osprey's profile or the white of the decal sheet, and I opted to go with the possibility. In hindsight I rather wish I'd lightened the dark green and dark earth to give the faded effect that is noticeable in the Steve Nicholls profiles, and which I like given the theatre of operations. It's also looking rather glossier than I'd like in spite of the applivation of two different matt varnishes.The coincidence of the arrival of the Airfix Spitfire XIX/19 and the new Freightdog "Post War Spitfires" decals led me first to the "bare metal" 19 of 81 Squadron, and by logical progression to tw other subjects on the same sheet, a silver-painted one, using Xtracolor "High Speed Silver", an F.16 of 612 Squadron Royal Auxiliary Air Force, and its fellow "weekend" mount, a camouflaged F.21 of 600. For the 16 I used the Italeri IX, its choice of rudders including a "pointed" one, and the 21 is the Eduard kit that eventually showed up on a garage shelf.

While hunting for the 21 I came across the Xtrakit XII, and decided that in the absence of a wide choice of markings I'd try a little What Iffery; the 21 kit came with two props, the standard five-blader and a six-bladed contra-rotating one. Its decal sheet also carried (nearly all) the markings for the post-war red-striped 41 Squadron "special", and it occured to me to apply both these to the XII; with luck it;ll occasion a double-take or two, and at some stage I plan to add a couple of "racing numbers". They make an interesting group with their various marks and finishes; perhaps I should look for a "lazy susan" on which to diplay them.

Transferred 02.11.09

Breaking the Rule of Three

I've mentioned from time to time that I tend to work on three models ar a time; more usually seems to delay my finishing any of them, but in the last month or so the space around my cutting mat and "Helping Hands" seems to have been particularly crowded. There's the five Spitfires, for example. In the days when I used to run a preliminary investiigation in to incidents they could usually be traced to an accumulation of causes rather than a single error, and this episode started with Osprey's publication of "Spitfire Aces of Burma and the Far East" by Andrew Thomas which carried details, and colour profiles, of the Spitfire VIIIs of 67 Squadron in the final stages of the War. A photo of one, RD-S/JG193, had been included in John Rawlings' invaluable tome "Fighter Squadrons of the RAF", but in true "Aces" style this had details of the fighting in which the squadron had taken part, and one of the profiles was of JG193; another, RD-A/JG567, not only belonged to the Boss Sqn Ldr Bob Day, who was the last RAF pilot to achieve "ace" status in the campaign, but also carried the name, "Mary Ann", in rather flowing script. I recoverd the Hasegawa kit from the garage shelves - I'm still convinced I had two, but there's no sign of the second - and moved it in to my workroom just before my Transatlantic jaunt at the end of July.

It must have been while I was looking for this that I was sure I'd seen the Eduard F.21, and after bringing the Freightdog "Post-War Spitfires" decal aheet, and the new Airfix PR.19 which I bought after seeing one in the hands of one of may colleagues on the What If? SIG stand, back from the IPMS Avon show found that there was an option for a camouflaged example of 600 Squadron, with Reserve Command squadron codes in red. There I am, I thought, a flight of three dissimilar aircraft all in different finishes, but with enought in common to make it a Good Idea to build them in parallel rather that series. Going back in to the garages shelves, there was no sign of the F.21, and I began to wonder if I had sold it - and perhaps the other VIII - knowing that I was highly unlikely to make a Spitfire again: I did, however, find an Italeri IX and the Xtrakit XII, and cosulting the Freightdog instructions found another red-coded aircraft. this time a silver XVI (close enough to the IX for government work) of 612 Squadron RAuxAF, after the Auxiliaries were reallocated to Fighter Command. And not only did it have a squadron marking in addition to its codes, it had a camouflaged rudder. The decision as to what to do with the XII - given that it only served with two RAF squadrons, and in standard camouflage, came to me when I did find the F.21, in a place of course where I'd already looked three times; that solution should appear fairly shortly on the "workbench" page.

And it's not just the Spitfires, though one part of the bench does look like South Marston with a slight attack of time-lapse. Having started on an Airfix Canberra B(I).8 and found myself reasonably impressed, I decided that while I was buying the Spit 19 from Mr.Models, and having sold a few older kits that day already, I should get a PR.9, and and after discussing the possibilities of using a few parts left over from my Nimrod AEW conversion with my colleague on the What If?, I did. See how crowded my little corner of the world is becoming? All these are currently in various stages of assembly and finishing and I shall put their portraits up as and when they come to fruition; my target is the end of September, and one or two may even show up at the IPMS Brampton event. And there are a couple of mini-Anigrands and a Hobby Boss Berkut (with decoration by Begemot) too, though I did have the presence of mind to sideline the new Airfix Hawk 128/T.2 which is probably just as well, as my thoughts on how I want to finish it which, as the regular reader will know, is a prime requirement of my starting a model change on an almost daily basis and may well depend on which Modeldecal set comes to the surface at the right time. Transferred 30.October 2009 .

Rolling out soon...

(probably sooner than the 787)

Bearing in mind that there are two weeks to the IPMS Avon show at Yate (near Bristol, as you ask) there are a couple of models on the bench which I plan to have ready for the What If? table; this one is waiting for its weapon load, and squadron markings - the black fin is a clue. The second will also wear RAF roundels, though of an earlier period, and my making it is a result of a conversation I had at the SIG AGM at Coventry, which revolved around orders reputed to have been placed for the RAF outside Britain shortly before the Second World War, in an attempt to fill a few gaps with fighters that were both available and more modern than the Gladiator. I confess that I hadn't come across this rumour before, but I did know of a parallel for a light twin. That Martin Higgs can be so convincing!

And, Lo!

You will of course by now have worked out that the above is a "GR.7" development of the Silver Cloud P.1154. To the resin bits of the fuselage, intakes and jet pipes I've grafted parts from both Revell and Airfix GR.7s, including as well as the bigger wings and their pylons, nose and canopy - which needed more adjustment than I wanted, but because I was mixing parts from both the injection-moulded kits - and the undercarriage and rear fuselage cone. Weapons were also from a selection of sources, Airfix (Sidewinders), Hasegawa (Paveway III, one of which became semi-detached when I went to take its picture!),and Italeri (Mavericks), with the underwing tanks from the Revell kit. Given this lot a rolling take-off is probably obligatory, and if working out of Kandahar absolutely essential. The decoration of the tank fins is of course from some previous Tiger Meet somehow unrecorded by Mark Attrill; it's long been a source of regret for me that the RAF can no longer contribute a fighter unit to this event, and in spite of other possible squadrons for this version, and bearing in mind that if I picked 80 which was one of those originally nominated I'd have to hand-paint the maroon and yellow bars, reviving the Tigers - thanks to Modeldecal set 116 - was my preferred solution!

Martin Higgs, who put me on to the RAF order for Reggiane 2000s, tells me that it was mentioned in a one page article in Air International many years ago; I remember the possibility of the Caproni Ca 311, presumably in the reconnaisance/light bomber role. My logic decreed that if the order had been fulfilled the Reggianes, no doubt named Falcon, would have replaced the Gladiators in the Middle East and perhaps gone on to serve in Greece, though if Italy had by then sided with the Axis spares might have been a bit hard to come by. I bought a Special Hobby kit, but decided that with the resin interior I'd not start it until I'd come back from Foreign Parts; and by then one of the Magazines - SAM, I think - had let me know that there was also a recent offering from Italeri. This answered my requirement excellently; well-mould, well-fitting - which isn't always the same thing - and without a detailed resin interior, unless the modeller wanted to buy one, and so capable of reasonably quick assembly. It does come with some attractive colour schemes in its own right, and I was momentarily tempted to make a Hungarian Heja but sticking sternly to my Plan to have an RAF one ready for the What If? table at Yate and consulting Mike Bowyer's Fighting Colours, the recent Gladiator book by Alex Crawford from Mushroom and Warpaint number 37 I applied Dark Earth and Dark Green with White and Night undersides. After considering 33 and 80 Squadrons, I settled on 112; it's subsequently occurred to me that this could have meant that if they were flying Falcons they might never have got P-40s, and the "sharkmouth" wouldn't have happened. I don't think I'd want to change history that much. I rather doubt that the RAF would have been satisfied with the Re.2000's very basic armament of two machine guns; for the 2002 another two were added in the wings, and I may yet add them to mine. And I don't know when a ? became the accepted identification for the squadron commander's aircraft, so I've probably perpetrated another anachronism!

While away in the States I managed to find an unoccupied internet terminal, which not only enabled me to find out the result of the Hungarian Grand Prix but also do my weekly search of Hannants New Releases page; and there I found the RS Models' de Schelde S.21. This meant that by the time I got home I had decided, in accordance with the Hairdresser' dictum from HHGG, what colours I would give it and therefore its use; not, of course, a Dutch prototype or as German propaganda, but what might have happened to it if it had been completed and flown, and made it across the North Sea. Starting with the plan of giving it to a Dutch fighter squadron in the UK, I decided on green/brown/sky camouflage, with the possibility of gviing it black/white special identification markings for Exercise Starkey (Shores/Thomas 2nd TAF Vol.4); but did wonder where to put the fuselage roundels, any squadron letters and a serial. The original had a pair of machine guns either side of the pilot, in addition to the flexibly-mounted 23 mm cannon in the nose, and the kit required me to drill four more holes in the transparency; this made me a little nervous, so I decided to omit them. I then thought that given its unusual shape, I would treat it like the captured Luftwaffe aircraft flown by the RAF, and finish it with yellow undersides; on that basis I could still allocate it to 322 Squadron as a unit hack even though it was only a single-seater. The fuselage roundels are the smallest "A1" type I could find, and I had to fit them over the exhausts; at some stage I shall have to add some staining.

It is, of course, always a pleasure for me to return to Kingston. Hawker's P.1109 fitted a radar and a pair of Firestreaks to the Hunter F.6 airframe and was built and flown, but did not of course progress to service; the Silver Cloud resin conversion set therefore has given me an excellent opportunity to remedy yet another procurement error (you didn't think these only happened recently, did you?). The production versions of this set are imminent, by the way, but to get this model ready in time for the IPMS Avon show Firestreaks have been donated by a Trumpeter Lightning, but like their pylons and launch rails they will be part of the package. Given its elegantly long and pointed nose, it's always been my plan to finish this version in the very colourful - and big! - markings of 34 Squadron (which for some reason they never applied to their Beverlys). These have been carefully set aside since I built a pair of PJ Hunter 4/5s, and were designed by J-P Desprez of Model Airt (I still also have the spare set of 67 Squadron's XF317, and one day I'll have to decide what to apply them to). Other decals, including the serial on the basis that it could well have been a rebuild, came from the excellent Revell kit. Two of the four Adens were to be retained, and therefore I fitted "Sabrinas", though they weren't evident on the prototypes; neither were the "dogteeth", but they would surely have been fitted to an in-service version.The fit of the new nose, by the way, is very good, and it's carefully designed so that the modeller can remove the necessary small bit of the nose on a panel line. I'll certainly be using another one or two; one highly probable plan is to combine the 1109 nose with the more highly-swept wing and afterburner of the Silver Cloud 1083 conversion, with underwing tanks on the outboard pylons to look after the fuel consumption. That'll be the FGA.9 kit, then, and red/blue roundels

Transferred 04.010.09

Ghostly Poison

I still have a vivid memory of watching from the crewroom window a flight of four Venoms starting up on the Bruggen Station Flight pan, with great gouts of flame coming from their tailpipes; my instant response was to call the airfield fire service, but I very soon learned that this spectacle was not uncommon. Fuel apparently could form a small pool somewhere in the Ghost's system and ignite quickly, if briefly; for a while it was a common practice to lay an asbestos blanket over the leading edge of the tailplane, but this is one of the very few extras not included in these Czechmaster kits!

One of the very early "Frog" plastic kits of the 1950s was of a single-seat Venom with 5 Squadron markings, probably a Mark ; and Aeroclub did produce it in 1:72nd scale, and in Vacform in 1:48th, and the Frog Sea Venom FAW.21 has had several incarnations, . Having enjoyed my single-seat Vampire time I've always thought that flying the more powerful Venom in the ground-attack role would have been fun - the reported boast of one of the Middle East squadrons was that on take-off they retracted the undercarriage and then got down to their operational height - and there were quite a few with colourful, and now defunct, unit markings; I was very pleased therefore when I heard that Czechmaster were planning to include the Venom in several versions in their excellent range of resin kits. They have approached the subject with their usual diligence and care, and have kindly sent me their first two single-seaters for building and comment.

The FB.1 and FB.4 come in separate and very complete kits, each with a load of stores; my choice of the Mark 4 to start with was decided by the markings included, in line with my determined efforts somehow to cover RAF squadrons that have ceased to exist (this logic will be casually set aside for the Kiwi FB.1, but there are times when consistency is overrated). The detail supplied is considerable, and I confess to not using all the smallest parts in resin and etched metal (or indeed many of the minor decals on the very comprehensive sheet). As with all current Czechmaster productions the breakdown is not unlike that of a classic injection-moulded kit, except that the flying surfaces are one-piece rather than split horizontally. The cockpit interior starts with a floor attached to a rear bulkhead; the sidewall detail is cast as part of the fuselage halves, with additional etched detail, and they also enclose rudder pedals, a jet pipe, the nosewheel well and a three section instrument panel. I had to reduce the width of this slightly for a snug fit, and squeeze as much weight as possible ahead of the mainwheel axis, and it's now finely but adequately balanced. Unlike the single seat Vampire the FB.4 had an early Martin-Baker seat, for which a separate etched metal harness is provided.

The wing halves fit smoothly, but I had removed most of what appeared to be a casting "blip" at the rear of each wing root, until I realised that they were to fit in to a couple of small depressions either side of the rear fuselage, which I had taken to be small vents. This is evident from the instructions, once you know what you're looking for! The two booms plug in to recesses in their fairings on the trailing edges of the wings; I decided that the best way to tackle this was to assemble the two booms and the tailplane first, and then fit the assembly to the rest of the airframe, but I've wound up with a slight discontinuity at each wing/boom join; when I make the FB.1 I'll fit each individual boom to its wing and fill and sand any evident join before fitting wings to fuselage and tailplane to booms. The other bit of the assembly I'll attempt differently is inserting the two small guide vanes in to each intake. For this model I followed my usual habit of getting the main airframe together first, and leaving the very small pieces till the end; I then found it awkward to get the small metal pieces L17 and L18 into the intake while rotating the aircraft with the left hand, and next time I'll try putting them in to the two intakes parts 8 and 9 before fitting the intakes in to the wingroot/fuselage join. For this model I've inserted in their place some slivers of plastic card.

The weapons load on offer is considerable, and should help to re-stock your spares box; you could even devise a Farnborough display-style diorama. For the pair of pylons just outside the main undercarriage doors there are the options of 250, 500 or 1,000 lb bombs or a couple of drop tanks, and there are four rocket projectile launching rails to place under the wing roots, for which there is a choice of no less than four types of RPs. two practice and two lethal. And there is a special etched metal jig for aligning their fins! I decided early on to limit myself to the two 500 lb bombs, taking into account both the time and the necessary skills that I would otherwise have to call on.

For my money Czechmaster are currently producing the best resin kits on offer; UK price according to Hannants' website is at the time of writing £32.99, and whereas a year or three back this would probably have had me reaching for my bank manager's smelling salts it now seems very reasonable for what the modeller gets. I am, as always, influenced by the subject, one that has for me been comparatively neglected and is potentially colourful; one of the decal choices in this kit is an all-white Venom of the 60 Squadron aerobatic team, with red trim - and serials!. The other options are another 60 Squadron aircraft in camouflage, with silver flashes for the tip tanks, and one from 249 based at Akrotiri for the Suez campaign and wearing the yellow and black striping, but with no unit markings. My choice is from 266 Squadron, based at Wunstorf in 2TAF before the "Sandys' Axe"; I have followed the kit instructions in painting the nosewheel door and the tip tanks red, though David Howley's colour profile in Warpaint 44 shows them in green, the same colour as the individual aircraft letter provided by the decal sheet. These also have a considerable number of small stencilling items, but as with much of the weaponry, and several very small etched metal parts, I passed them by very quickly. The detail addict will I am sure, make very good use of them, but I am very happy with my little model, not least because it has the classic "2TAF" camouflage scheme with the PRU blue undersides; as far as I know, none were finished "silver" underneath. The colours and decal placement are very well illustrated - in black and white - as part of the very comprehensive, multi-paged instructions, which also come with many detail photos. You will find my name lurking near the bottom of one of them, and I'm very happy to have been able to contribute to such an excellent product.

The next Venoms to come in this range will be three varieties of Swiss single-seaters, including one with the "Pinocchio" nose. I am looking forward to the RAF NF.2 and NF.3, which served with a number of now gone squadrons with colourful markings, though I remember the introduction of the NF.2 did include several losses. There are no less than six marking choices in the FB.1 kit and I would expect a similarly comprehensive approach with the night-fighters, and I'm sure there will be naval variants to follow; I even have hopes of an Aquilon! A little while back there was a Venom sheet from Eurodecal which included land-based single and two seaters, and you might like to lay one down just in case. Now, the FB.1; red-and-white checked rudders, or the kiwi....? Transferred 15.09.09

"Hunter from the Cockpit"

While I'm working on the next model to fill this spot, let me bring to your notice the latest in the Ad Hoc Publications' "... from the Cockpit" series. For the first time, Roger Chesneau has gone for a lighter shade of blue, though it's true that there are some dark blue contributions, and even confining himself to those who flw the Hunter with British services he has come up with something only slightly short of a tome! Its two hundred pages have, as well as the principal narrative by Air Commodore Mac McEwen, contributions from twenty-two others who have reminicences to offer, including such well-remembered names as Roger Topp and Peter Latham, and covering the gamut of experiences on and around Sir Sydney's finest. Many of the writers had long careers on the type, and afterwards - five attained senior rank - while others' were briefer and sometimes sporadic, but there is no doubt from their words about the enthusiasm that the Hunter engendered and the affection in which it is still held.

As with all the types covered in the series, a particular aircraft associated with the author has a colour four view, in this case an F.2 of 257 Squadron that "belonged" to Mac McEwen; it's good to see the Sapphire-engined marks geting some attention, and perhaps they weren't as superior to the Avon as I've always thought. The artwork is by series editor and publisher Roger Chesneau, and he has contributed no less than sixty-five other colour profiles of RAF and FAA Hunters. And there is of course a positive profusion of photographs, those from the type's early days being in black and white but with the passing of years an increasing amount of colour creeps in. Considerable care has been taken over their reproduction - for once I wasn't irritated by those that have been spread over two pages - and Ad Hoc standards of production remain excellent.

I am of course prejudiced (look at the back cover on the "bookshelf" page), and I'm still reading through the various stories; it's probably not a book to be digested at a single sitting. While the air is not yet "soggy with nostalgia", to quote Tom Lehrer, there are sections that have brought some memories back in to sharp focus, and for me personally it's fascinating to read the experiences of those who got much further with the type than I ever did. You may well know that I am already a great fan of the whole series, and this latest edition does both the aircraft and the ".. from the Cockpit" concept proud. Of course I recommend it highly, and I'm absolutely delighted to have been able to make a small contribution. Transferred 15.09.09

Sharkmouthed 'Roo

Occasionally something other than just a *NEW* kit sets me off on a new model; while this is usually a decal sheet; in this case it was a remark on a What If? SIG stand that led me to a boxed set of Lifecolor acrylics devoted to WWII RAAF colours and including the legendary, and often elusive, Foliage Green. I remembered that while sorting my "resins drawer" recently I'd turned up a rather old Czechmaster kit of the Commonwealth CA-15, sometimes called "Kangaroo"; Czechmaster have since re-done the type to their current standard, but this one proved to be perfectly adequate for my immediate needs, and if lacking in today's level of detail the castings were clean and flash-free, with the minor parts clustered together in their membrane.

The one and only prototype was left in natural metal, but given that my initial intention was to use the camouflage colours I decided that if the war had been sufficiently prolonged the foliage green top surfaces would still be appropriate for island campaigns, and that therefore the underside colour would be that described by Lifecolor as RAAF Sky Blue. There is incidentally no guidance with these paints on the way in which they were used; I've used others in their range for my Sukhoi T-49, and while they brush on easily, they are very matt, a property that led me to add a coat of Xtracrylix satin clear before applying the decals. I thought rather late about armament; the original had six 0.50 machine guns in the wings, but they weren't evident in the casting so thinking that a production version should have four 20 mm. cannon anyway I added Aeroclub's set G041, originally intended for a Typhoon. I didn't manage a very neat installation, but with luck it won't show too much in the photo.

Somewhere I have had for many years a decal set for Boomerangs, with some individual markings, but while hunting for these - which still haven't surfaced - I found an old Ventura sheet for RAAF and RNZAF Mustangs, including one with a sharkmouth. This was too good to pass up (and saved further searching) so what you see is a "Kangaroo" of 77 Squadron RAAF engaged in the closing months of a protracted Asian WWII campaign. I cunningly altered the serial from a Mustang's A68-750 to A62-75 by unusually delicate work with a fine brush, and I liked the "stencil" style of the code letters; the decals themselves were on a very matt film, and I gave them an additional coat of satin, as wll as filling in a gap in the sharkmouth with the Revell's acrylic "Ferrari Red" that I had used for my Hunter F.3+. Just as I was finishing the model I remembered John Baxter's book on "The Alternate RAAF and RAN Fleet Air Arm", devoted to "Australia's Little Asian Wars 1951-1975"; the cover painting has a CA-15 despatching an Indonesian Mustang, with the RAAF aircraft in a "bare metal" finish with "kangaroo" roundels, but having started by looking for a canvas for Foliage Green I decided to stick with it Transferred 19,08.09

Let the pin see the socket

On the workbench as I write is the first of my AZ Spitefuls; when I saw its arrival marked on the Hannants website I was just in time to order a couple for delivery at Duxford, with my thoughts turning to possible colours (I have a leaning towards that particular one of the Forty Shades of Green). The consequences will doubtless appear on the "workbench" page, but until then it's provoked me in to thoughts on fit and fitting, subjects not unknown to be up for discussion when two ot three modellers are gathered together. This is an injection-moulded kit, with the tell-tale signs of being in the low-pressure moulding category, with small pieces not moulded as part of the larger - in this case, the cannon fairings - and substantial "pin" markings needing removal to get a good fit, notably between wing halves and inside the radiator fairings, these last needing a fairly gentle approach with a sharply-angled cutter and final trimming with a fresh knife blade. And there are no pins, and therefore no sockets, to assist or at least guide, assembly.

It has surely come as no surprise to you that I am an assembler of plastic kits - if not necessarily in accordance with the ideas of the kit, or even the aircraft, manufacturer - rather than a modeller, at least accorting to the legendary dictum of Harry Woodman. One of my principal approaches to modelling, even before I got infected by the What If? virus, has for a long time been to make several versions of the same aircraft to enable me to apply variations in colour schemes and particularly unit markings, which has usually involved the assembly of most of the parts as quickly as possible to get to the exciting bit. In retrospect this was I think faciltated by the reasonable assurance that when the pins went in to the socket the pieces would fit satisfactorily, with perhaps a little necessary after-work on seam lines and perhaps rivets (or in the case of some of the Matchbox kits, usually of aircraft I really wanted to make, filling the over-enthusiastic panel lines). I also have from time to time, not necessarily a low boredom threshold, but an urgent and deeply felt need to get on with the next model for which I have conceived a Bright Idea.

One of my very senior modelling friends made a point of cutting off all the pins before fitting the parts, in the firm belief that this way he actually got a better fit than if he had used the pieces straight from the box; I didn't see the point of this, but I may have been influenced by the thought that if I worked as Mr.Airbox or Mr.Fujigawa intended than I would at least have someone to blame if it looked wrong (this was long before I heard the Wise Words of the Witch in "Into the Woods", that from what she saw people thought that in problem-solving what was important was the blame, rather than any amelioration or solution). And while I'm muttering, I am almost certainly quite wrong in feeling than increased expenditure should mean less hassle (any breaking news echos there?). This type of kit used to be relatively inexpensive, but there is now quite literally a price to be paid for a kit of a less-than-mainstream aircraft, even if the kit is relatively simple. Should I/we get seriously grumpy about this, or just take it as a fact of our chosen life? Round about now I am programmed to recall the National Serviceman's mantra, "If you can't take a joke you shouldn't have joined". I shall cheer myself up by working out just how I need to mix That Shade of Green, in which a recent feature in SAMI should be a help, and find where I have put so carefully Joe Maxwell's finest Celtic Bosses. This will be one aircraft which almost certainly will not feature in his upcoming book! Transferred 19.08.09

Eleven Engines, Ten Roundels

There's nearly always one kit - all right, several - sitting somewhere near the worlbench or in a dusty corner of your stirage are that looks at you reproachfully as you passes by and make soft mewing noises, demandig to be made. One such has for sometime had half of its box end removed, making it even more pitiful, and I've known for some time what I had in mind for it; I was galvanised in to action by an upcoming "What If? SIG display, which gave me the necessary deadline. Having teased my colleagues with the trailer that I would be bringing a 'fifties RAF aircraft with eleven engines, I did finish just it time, and it was on the table in the RAF Museum at Hendon for the IPMS Barnet show. If you haven't yet peeked at the pictures, the yawning kit was a 1:144th Hobbycraft RB-36D in FICON form, and the eleventh engine that of a Hunter FR.10, thanks to Revell.

Once started. the B-36 went together with no problems, though even in the small scale it did take up quite a but of room. There were no major decisions to take; it became evident early on that if I wanted to diplay it standing on its undercarriage and with the Hunter nestling in its recess - that thoughtfully provided for the RF-84K acommodates the Hunter very neatly - there was no point in including the "trapeze" mechanism. The colour scheme is that of the second batch of Canberras; I thought that the PRU blue undersides would be suitable for high-flying reconnaisance - I really didn't want to do it in overall silver, though of course that was how the Washingtons were finished - and I also used the blue for the Hunter undersides so that it wouldn't stand out against its carrier, and in spite of what I've said for many years I now know that there were a few 2TAF aircraft at least in that finish. The reconnaisance part of the "Peacemaker's" designation is partly taken care of by a selection of radomes under the nose and rear fuselage, and it's occurred to me that I out to add a few random aerials for its elint tasks, but given that I plan to take it around to put on one or two What If? tables during the year, I would worry for their safety.The badge on the fin is that of 199 Squadron, which was was based at Watton with Lincolns in the "radio counter-measures" role in which it had been used in the second World War; the Lincolns were identified, according to Mike Bowyer's "Bombing Colours" by their blue and white spinners, which sited the "six turning" neatly. The 4 Squadron markings for the Hunter came from the Xtradecal sheet, and that for 199 from a Kits at War RAF bombers collection. Corroborative detail rules.

The rest of my recent output has been resolutely single-engined. My leaning towards red stars is patchy at best, but the appearance on the Hannants "New Releases" list of the box-top of the A-Model Sukhoi T-49 prototype intrigued me, and sent me to the bookcase for the "Soviet Secret Projects" book, and the Red Star 16 on Sukhoi interceptors. These revealed that the T-49 had been designed with the alternative intakes to seek performance improvements, but though it did result in an improvement in acceleration it wasn't put in to production. However, I thought that this could have been a useful factor in low level (rat-and-terrier) interception, and a Begemot decal set for the Flagon gave me two different camouflage schemes - the colours are by Lifecolor, based on a photo in the Red Star book - and suitable markings. As the T-49 was unarmed, I used the wing, missiles and under-fuselage cannon pods from a Trumpeter Flagon-F, for whose fuselage I have further plans aimed, like the T-49, at the SIG display at Telford in November.

The final two are virtually contemporaries, with both showing promise that became irrelevant at the end of the second World War, and I've always like the look of both of them. The first model - shock! horror! - is of a real aircraft, and increasing rarity in my modelling these days. I picked up its Freightdog Models decal sheet at the Cosford display, and with it an Aoshima Ta 152H-0; strictly speaking it should be an A-1 - and I understand that there's a possibility of a special run of A-1s combined with these decals to be marketed through Freightdog - but consulting the recent Mark 1 book on the 152 by Malcolm V Lowe, it would appear that the only visible difference was in some minor wing panels. I'm sure there's a Reichsluftministerium equivalent of "close enough for Government work". It was one of the aircraft brought to Farnborough after the war for flight testing, and carries the title "Air Min 11".the Roundels look slightly odd, but I suspect taht like those applied to some Spitfires in Japan soon after the War their proportions are those of the pre-war roundel rather than those of the "D-type" to which we have become accustomed. The Spiteful is the AZ kit which appeared on the New Releases page just in time for me two order two for collection at thr Duxford Spring air display, and which was hardly through the front door before I'd started to lay out the parts for a little initial painting. One of the kit options is for a SEAC Spiteful, to which I plan to return, though not using the 17 Squadron markings included. But I wanted to do one quickly - although as it happened it wasn't ready for the intended display occasion - and the recent SAMI feature on the Irish Air Corps Seafire, and the discovery of the decals that Joe Maxwell had prepared for the Brigade Models' two-seater, gave me an instant alternative (another possibility is the scheme of the Japan-based Spitfires of, I think, 11 Squadron). The colour I used is Xtracrylic Interior grey-green, again following the SAMI article; almost as soon as it was finished, of course, the new Joe Maxwell/ Patrick J Cummins book on the Air Corps arrived, with thoughts on this much-discussed shade, but a little late to take account of on this model (the book will shortly be featured in the "Pick of the Month" section). Other thoughts prompted by this kit are in the "Ramblings" bit, which may also be in line for an update soon. I do like the look of it though.

Celtic Bosses

Every so often, as well as a model or two, there's a book that is an automatic choice for this spot, and this is by someone I've known since we met in a model shop in Dublin (as you do). Joe Maxwell is very well known and respected for his decals, generally of Irish Air Corps subjects, and together with Patrick J Cummins has produced what they describe as "an illustrated guide" to the Irish Air Corps. This seems a rather modest summary of their subject; while it is set out aircraft by aircraft, and in a way that shows a considerable regard for modellers' interest, there is considerable historical content.

The book starts with "The Big Fella" and runs through to the recently-delivered AugustaWestland AW.139. It's divided in to six chronological sections, each starting with a historical scene-setting for the years in question, followed with a type by type coverage of each aircraft entering service in that period with the text illustrated with. photos, morphing gradually from black and white to colour and with colour line drawings, frequently with plan views, for those where colour photos are not available. The most recent type shown in this way is Seafire 153, in an interesting shade of pale green; this could give rise to more discussion on which of the forty shades it represents, but given the help and advice listed in the credits - and David Howley, who is of course a Sligo man himself, would appear to be responsible for these drawings - I wouldn't care to argue against the book.

Until the 1960s virtually all the Air Corps aircraft were of British origin, and with a little research you'll be able to find most of them around in kit form, often as a limited-run production whether resin, vacform or injection-moulded. The better-known include Gladiator, Hurricane, Lysander and Spitfire/Seafire, but here also be Hinds, Magisters, Martinets and DH.9s. I am particularly taken with the Walrus - it's illustrated here in its other natural element - and I suspect thet the reason I hang on to my Aeroclub Hector is because of its IAC service. From the '60s onwards most of the equipment has come from Europe, with the VIP transports from the USA, and some may be harder to find in kit form. On the occasion that I first met Joe, Dick Ward and I were over for the air display at Baldonnel, and it was there that I saw the Casa CN.235 MP it its very distinctive blue finish for the maritime patrol role, and I have a feeling that it's been vacformed by Broplan; it would make a very eye-catching addition to any line-up. Those with a What If? inclination should look at page 106, where there's a list of re-equipment possibilities on which the Air Corps sought information in 1948; they don't, alas, include a Spiteful but its wing is there.

For each type there is a brief description of the aircraft's history, and its place in the Air Corps, and also of use and fate of individual aircraft, all very well illustrated. Almost all the aircraft have a "Colours and Markings" paragraph adding to this photo/drawing evidence, all of which will be very useful to any modeller considering adding one, or several, to his shelves. There's no doubt that the book has been conceived and produced with a modeller's as well as a historian's eye, and the standard of production matches the care that has gone in to its preparation and compilation. I am of course prejudiced, not least by its subjects, but this really is an excellent book and one which I can recommend highly. Doubtless many of its subjects are already available on Max Decal sets, and it would not surprise me to see more become available as a result of the book. This will I'm sure be stocked by the specialist booksellers soon, but you can order it directly from www.maxdecals.com/ with an expected cost of about £35.00. And until the end of June they'll send it to European address post free!

Unflighted Arrows

This, although it has "politics" as part of the subtitle on its cover, is fully in line with my current modelling practice - obsession, if you prefer - in that it is to a considerable extent about what might have been. The cancellation of the TSR.2 is often seen as a watershed moment for the British aircraft industry, but that of the Avro Canada Arrow had an even more traumatic effect in Canada. The author makes no secret of his partisan stance on this subject and this is a highly political book, with those he sees as the guilty parties on either side of the 49th parallel clearly identified (UK readers in the TSR.2 conspiracy camp can amuse themselves by working out the British equivalents). For modellers of the What If? Tendency there are illustrations and accounts of various Arrow developments, including its possible use by the RAF, as well as the Avrocar "flying saucer" and potential derivatives; and I was particularly taken by a study for a USAF VTOL aircraft, with four doubtless thirsty engines and what seems to me not a lot of space for fuel, which could have people reaching for their spares box. It's not a book that can be read quickly; it's replete with footnotes and has a somewhat academic, if angry, air about it. At the time of writing I'm still in the middle of it, but I want to draw it to the attention of those of you who might not otherwise come across it; I only learned about it through one of these e-mails from Amazon which said "If you liked that, then you'll like this", and they were absolutely right. The author who had spent much of his life involved with Canadian aviation sadly died recently aged 44, but the Canadian firm of Apogee Books has put it out both as a tribute to him and a contribution to the debate over the involvement of politics and aviation in in mid-20th century; while its specifics are Canadian there is much that can be read as applicable to the wider world.

Project Books

For the last few years much of my information on projects has come in hardback from Midland Publishing; initially on German designs, notably those in the category now widely known as "Luftwaffe '46", and more recently from the series of books by Tony Buttler on British and American aircraft and, with Yefim Gordon, on Soviet projects. I found these two, both from new series though not, as I first thought the third in each, on the Aviation Bookshop stand at Duxford and made off with them in haste, not least to find out what a "Poffler" is (or was). The "B-52 Competition" covers exactly that, and even though we know that the "Buff" has been around since the dawn of time it still came as a jolt to be reminded that the original spec was drafted in 1946 (even more to realise that at the time I was 10!). As well as Boeing's first thoughts, which resulted in a six-turobprop aircraft with a 221 ft. wingspan, this book includes its competitiors from Convair - whose swept-forward project features on the cover - Martin and Douglas. The principal illustrations are line drawings, frequently with inboard profiles showing the placing of crew and weapons, both offensive and defensive, with one or two sketches and a couple of model photos. The Dougla selection includes a couple of parasite aircraft carriers, using Skyhawks and - somewhat less plausibly perhaps - X-3s modified for photo reconnaisance! This book is the third in the "American Aerospace Archive" series, the other two covering commercial developments of the Martin Mars, and the FJ-5, a navalised version of the F-107 (I knew there was a readson for keeping that Trumpeter kit).

Chris Gibson's assiduously-researched compilation of VC-10-based projects covers projects from fairly early in the aircraft's career, including missile-carriers with six Skybolts, designed to supplement the V-bombers and with the option of conbentional bombs in underwing panniers, maritime reconnaisance, freighter and early tanker versions and a "modular" aircraft which could be re-roled with alternative fuselage sections to cover all these tasks. AEW was also studied with the Marconi radar and "fore-and-aft" radomes as projected for the Nimrod AEW.3, particularly in view of a possible shortage of Nimrod airframes. These are all illustrated by excellent line drawings, profile, plan and perspective, and with splendid paintings by Adrian Mann. The Airfix kit doesn't seem to be current on the Hannants website, so I shall have to start haunting the "pre-owned" standsm particularly if I can find a source of 1:144th Skybolts. This also appears to be the third in a series, "Project Tech Profiles", but the "3" in a black box on the cover next to the series title has apparently fooled more than just me; it is in fact a runway marker, with the 617 Squadron VC-10 taxying out behind it!. I am assured that there are at least two more volumes to follow fairly closely on, I understand, other AEW proposals and a Kingston V/STOL. I'll put something hese as soon as I can.

And a "Poffler"? Go on - buy the book! (Transferred 07.08.09)

Went to Sun 'n' Fun and brought back the hat and the shirts (though one was of a battleship). Not only was I unusually restrained in wardrobe, but I only took about five hundred photos; it'll take a while to sort and select, but I hope to put some at least in the "Wanderings" section over the next month or so. In the meantime, here are a couple to encourage me, and I hope you, and which I've picked for my Aged Aviator's Boasting Book. Strictly speaking neither were at Sun 'n' Fun; the yellow one was at Lake Alfred and the olive drab/neutral grey at Galveston: I was airborne in both and the adrenalin will last quite a while. And the sun shone seriously, in Florida if not in Texas, the fun was equally serious in both states and the jet-lag is wearing off. Now I'll get back to the 2GB SD card - isn't digital photography so practical? - and pick out a few more for my, and I hope your, delectation and delight. Watch the "Wanderings" section below!

In to the Wild Mid-West!

The day after writing this I'm off across the broad Atlantic, for what may well prove to be my last US aviation tour. We start at Dayton and finish at Oshkosh, which is in itself fairly symbolic; at Dayton we're due to watch their Air Ahow, as well as visit the USAF Museum, and at AirVenture at the newly-reorganised Oshkosh I shall make a beeline for the Vintage field, where on my first visit in 1995 I fell hopelessly in love with every Waco ever built, though its fair to say that the Staggerwings and Stinson Reliants were not far behind them in my appreciation. Judging by the time it's taken me to get my Sun 'n' Fun jpegs in to any sort of order, the holiday snaps may take a while to emerge here, but I'll try and get some in the Wanderings page as quockly as I can (this will be delayed though because the day after I get back it's the meeting of Hunteristas at Old Warden, where the air will doubtless be soggy with nostalgia). Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, and I plan to be at the IPMS Avon show later in the month with a couple of novelties for the What If? SIG table.

The Boss's aircraft

I've flown up the Thames at low level twice in my life, the second time in a Junkers 52 in a year when Boris Becker was winning at Wimbledon (which was why the German pilot didn't want to go South of the River); the first time was in the bomb aimer's position in one of three Valiants that were rehearsing for the Queen's Birthday flypast.

Subjects for this section are sometimes chosen as much for their personal association as for their intrinsic virtues, and this is one of them. One of the "downstream consequences" of the 1957 Defence White Paper - a very long way downstream, admittedly - was that as a redundant ex-2TAF fighter pilot I was found a non-flying post while awaiting a course which would return me to the Wild Blue Yonder. For about a year I was the adjutant on 148 Squadron, a Valiant unit based out in the flatlands as part of the Marham Wing; the other two squadrons at the time were 207 and 214. I joined the squadron about six months after the Suez action, when 148 had been among the Bomber Command squadrons based on Malta and XD814, the CO's Valiant, had been the first V-bomber to drop bombs in earnest. The boss had been promoted but his crew had remained with his replacement, and they were a source of tales of the episode. According to the Eric Morgan "Aerofax" book on the Valiant, which has been invaluable in both text and illustration while making the model, 814 was one of the three aircraft that carried out the flypast, though whether it was used for the rehearsal - and if it was, whether it was the one in which I lay nonchalantly in the bomb-aining position as we flew up river - I sadly do not know. I failed record it even as passenger time.

I've always liked the Valiant, in spite of seeing prototype WB210 catch fire in mid-air and crash not far from where we lived in Hampshire (I promptly got on my bike, but was stopped from getting near to the bits by the local bobby - boys, eh?). There have been kits over the years, the best probably the early Frog offering in 1:96th scale; I reviewed the relatively recent Mach 2 1:72nd kit for SAM, but it was a lot of work, and it was I suspect because I really wanted a model Valiant that I persisted. When the Anigrand Craftswork 1:144th kit was released therefore I revived my PayPal facility and got one from Hong Kong (complete with attractive stamps). Any hesitation that I might have had was resolved when I expanded the "bits" picture on their website and found that it included decals for XD814; one of the problems for me at least working in this scale is the comparative lack of alternative decals.

My first impression on removing the bigger pieces from their sealed wrapping was that there appeared to be the odd quality control problem; in particular the upper noses of both fuselage halves had quite a substantial hole. I have been - still am - a big fan of this company and its products, and until recently its resin castings have been immaculate, but while I haven't quantified them I get the overall impression of an increasing number of minor flaws. The parts did fit together well, though the pegs on the wing roots needed a little adjustment so that the upper surfces of the wings would line up correctly against the top of the fuselage; and, as quite often these days with resin kits, I superglued and clamped the forward fuselage first and left it to harden overnight before setting the rear part, to take out a slight warp. The kit probably deserved a little more care and a little less haste than I gave it, but as so often I started in a hurry to get it together; my second - which incidentally doesn't seem to have the casting flaws of my first - should benefit from the learning curve on this one. The transparencies are castings rather than vacformed, and generally I prefer this even if the windscreen pillars are a little more prominent with this method; I painted over the "eyebrow" windows by mistake initially, and had to do a little scalpel work to regain them (more leaning curve!).

The kit instructions show XD814 as "silver" with bright roundels, but my memory of it is white ( it's alas not illustrated in the book). I remember the "silver" - generally, initially at least on WP/WZ aircraft, as being very dull, almost grey, but I'll have the chance to look at that again when I make my second. Most of the squadrons carried unit markings on the fin, but 148 - I did try to persuade my leader that we should carry crossed axes on the tail, but he regarded this as a nasty "fighter" habit, and not one that bomber chaps should copy - just had a small badge forward of the entrance hatch, with the crew names just aft of it. I may get my way later after all these years, if I can manage a little delicate hand-painting. Model Alliance are believed to be preparing a V-bomber decal sheet, and with all three now available from Anigrand I hope they'll produce it in 1:144th as well as 1:72nd. And there was a strong rumour about three years ago that Airfix were planning a 1:72nd Valiant to follow the Nimrod, and while I have no inside knowledge I still have hopes.

In the mean time I'll make the most of this kit, though I'll take my time in deciding whether to do my second "silver" or camouflaged ; I think that by the time the latter were common the Marham Wing had succumbed to the pernicious doctrine of Central Servicing, and unit markings were no longer carried. This is a reasonable kit, and given the variations between individual castings common to most resin kits I trust that the nose blemish on mine was a one-off. As with other kits in this series there are three "extras" from the same era, in this case the Bristol 188, the Fairey FD.2 and the Handley Page 115 (which will also be produced in 1:72nd). On the common decal sheet are the serials for the first P.1127 prototype and the Short Sperrin; I have hopes of the latter in the grey/black Bomber Command scheme, and perhaps I'll find a suitable marking on the small-scale Freightdog Canberra decal. To make me seriously happy I hope Anigrand will consider the necessary changes to fuselage, inner wing and undercarriage fto make the "Black Bomber", the Valiant B.2 which was ironically strengthened for low-level operations and then cancelled although seventeen of this mark were ordered before being changed for B.1s.

One final piece of never-to-be-forgotten trivia. You'll see marked on the canopy just behind the windscreen quite a large "lid" over the pilots' ejection seats; the back-seaters did not have such seats, and in an emergency had to dive out of the port side entrance door, initially protected by a shield deplyed with the door. This, according to the Pilots' Notes was not to be extended above 175 knots; the speed for the separation of the cockpit roof was not to be less that 210 knots. I sometimes still wonder what could have happened during that thirty-five knot acceleration.

Fourth part of the Trilogy

Many years ago Christopher Shores produced a book on the Second Tactical Airforce (in the Second World War) which rapidly became a standard work, with a place on the shelf of anyone with an interest in the air war in North-West Europe. When the time came to update it he was joined by Chris Thomas a historian with an abiding interest in and encyclopedic knowledge of the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest, aircraft that were an integral part of the Second TAF legend; between them they expanded the story in to three chronologically organised volumes with the last, published in 2006, finishing in May 1945. Now, as with all the best trilogies, it's acquired a fourth part.

Much of it covers new or revised information that has surfaced since the publication of the first three books, prompted no doubt in many cases by that publication. There are many "new" photos, some carefully repaired, and a profusion of Chris Thomas' excellent colour profiles, notably in the fifty pages devoted to camouflage and markings; these include the development and profress of the black and white stripes, and the colourful touches on some Typhoon units at the end of the war. There are some new angles on the command's existence, including "erks' eye" stories, the Luftwaffe order of battle between June 1944 and April 1945, and the operational training and tactics of 2 TAF units (did you know they abandoned the "finger four" formation?).. The chapter on squadrons includes details of AOP and Communication squadrons as well as those more usually associated with the command, and the book concludes with its rundown, taking its story in outline up to 1949. There are also a few pages of amendments, corrections and updating for the three earlier volumes.

While researched and produced as a historical reference, there is a definite leaning towards the modeller, especially in this volume, and from the camouflage and markings angle this one could, for a modeller, stand on its own. But as even a cursory glance will show it's much more than that, and I can't think that anyone having bought one will not go for the set. They repay both the occasional glance, for inspiration perhaps - I've found in Vol.4 a photo of a Master III to go with the old Frog kit which has just surfaced in my garage - and not just reading but study. For me this series is a model of how research ahould be presented, in words and pictures, assembled by people who have an abiding interest and enthusiasm for their subject; I'm just glad that it happens to be a major interest of mine and that I can take shameless advantage of the effort that all concerned have put in to the series. If you have the others, you'll surely by this; and if you haven't, go in search of them, There are even items to interest Luftwaffe addicts!

Transferred 02.06.09

Faster, faster....

The fighter projects of the early 'fifties were virtually defined by the need for speed; some started with a clean sheet of paper but many, notably those from Hawkers, progressed in recogniseable steps. The P.1067 Hunter was clearly related to the P.1040 Seahawk, and to push it towards supersonic level flight the P.1083 was given a thinner and more highly swept wing and an afterburner. Construction of a prototype was started and allocated serial WN470, but was abandoned in favour of fitting the standard Hunter airframe with the more powerful 200 Series Avon; this became the F.6, which has recently, with the FGA.9, been the subject of a very good Revell kit.

Colin Strachan, who as Captain Freightdog has already contributed to the general joy of those of us who are working for a better-equipped RAF for the 1950s and '60s, is now offering a resin conversion for the P.1083, described as a "Super Hunter", tailored to the Revell kit. The stout box, with its "Silver Cloud" label - it's in this range that his resin kits and coversions will now be marketed - holds a pair of wings, new tailplanes, an afterburner back end and an underfuselage insert with the "NACA" flush intake. Fired with the expected enthusiasm and the knowledge, thanks to an e-mail from Colin, on the size and placing necessary cutout in the lower fuselage I did the basic assembly of the bodies of two aircraft and took them up to the IPMS Huddersfield show, with the possibility of doing further work on them there. When I tried to fit the first insert though it quickly became evident that I had been a touch hasty; back at the workbench I had to split both fuselages along their lower seams before squiggling the parts through the tailpipe opening - fortunately I hadn't fitted the afterburner plug - and manoeuver them in to place. My original cut outs had been slightly irregular, and needed filler to make up for my inaccuracy; my third - and I still think three shows some self-restraint - had the cut out matched more closely! The photo shows the resin parts in place, below you can now see how they turned out. If you understandably want to add one, or several, to your shelves Colin is expected at Southern Expo and his website is www.freightdogmodels.co.uk; you can also ask about the Avro 720, mastered like this conversion by Paul Lucas. And the P.1154 should be with us before the end of March.

One 1083 was never going to be enough, and while I intended to produce at least one in-service mark my original plan was to develop the record-breaking theme started by WB188, using the Silver Cloud parts and the F.3 conversion by Pavla already to hand, shown left. Although the Silver Cloud box included two tailplane halves to be fitted when the fin/tailplane bullet was removed - the 1083 was designed without it, and it was only added to the 1067 after buffeting was discovered during flight trials - WB188 had had one for its record attempt, and therefore I used the original Revell parts. The same logic was used for my second squadron aircraft - you knew that would happen, didn't you? - for a rather later stage in the type's life; this was therefore fitted with the "dogtooth" leading edge extensions from the kit, and the underfuselage airbrake positioned a little further back to leave the "NACA" intake in place and therefore the "Sabrinas" to prevent ejected 30mm. cartridge links striking the airbrake fairing. I doubt that the extra sweep of the wing would have negated the need for these additions, and fortunately they're easily added from the kit parts. For this developed example I also used the 100 gallon underwing tanks and the rocket pods from the FGA.9 kit.

Following my recent experience with Xtracrylix on my big TSR.2 I was determined to use them for my three "Super Hunters"; the two squadron aircraft would have the standard day fighter.camouflage, with silver undersides for the earlier aircraft and light aircraft grey for the later. Xtracrylix have a "Red Arrows" red, which I applied over my usual white base coat, but it didn't look right, and a reference on which I've been working gave the colour as "Roundel Red"; as this isn't in the acrylic range I used a fairly old Xtracolor enamel, but I wasn't happy with the result, which looked somewhat streaky. Wanting to stay with acrylic if possible I found a Revell "Aqua Color" called "Ferrari Red" which seems to be right, giving a rather deeper shade than that originally applied. (Incidentally is there something about red in either medium which makes it harder to clean the brushes? And does it also apply to airbrushes?). I decided that it woult have been logical to fit the more highly swept wing to WB188 for a further attempt on the speed record after Mike Lithgow on the Swift 4 had beaten Neville Duke's time; moreover, it would enable me to use the same serial and decals from the Pavla conversion set and to use the F.3 designation for the whole series (subtle, eh?).

I thought that logically (that word again) would have been be Leuchars-based 222 Squadron, following in the footsteps of 43 and the F.1. Their red/blue check marking was on the Fighter Command "Early Hunters" decal sheet that we did for SAM a few years back and of which I just happen to have at least one set aside. For my second aircraft, with in-service modifications, 145's nose marking came from RAFDec Hunter sheet 7213, keeping up my Master Plan of updating the equipment of those squadrons that disappeared in the '50s and '60s, providing I don't have to hand-paint their markings. Both these sheets, and the "2 TAF" SAM Decal sheet, are likely to stay around the top of my in-use decal pile for much of the rest of the year. To follow the P.1083 Colin is planning the P.1109 with a radar nose and a pair of Firestreaks, and I have already identified a pair of likely units; and there's always the possibility of a "Super Super" variant combining the two conversion kit, and having recently been reminded that there were a few Hunters in 2nd TAF with PRU blue undersides - something which for years I had resolutely refused to believe - there's at least one like that in my future. The P.1083 conversion is very straightforward and easy to apply to the Revell donor kit; my only thought is that because of the way the wing halves are cast the trailing edge is a little thick and you may want to thin it down a little. I confess that I didn't and I'm still very happy with the result. Because of the added sweepback of the solid resin wings there's a good deal of weight needed to sit the model on its nosewheel, and for the two fighter versions I used Aeroclub Martin-Bakers, a Mark 2 for the earlier (WN811) and a Mark 3 for the later (WP615). The serials, after consulting Bruce Roberson's book for "blackout blocks", were adapted from the SAM decal sheet. My final thought was to try and show the increased sweep that the 1083 would have introduced, so I added an F.4 to the modified trio - my natural modesty prevents me from identifying it, but it's a PJ kit - but the difference isn't as obvious in the photo as I'd have liked. Trust me, it's there....

Kingston and Warton (and Weybridge - later)

As noted in my "Wanderings" the production version of the resin kit of the P.1154 was ready for Southern Expo, and one duly came home with me and found itself on the workbench almost immediately (no surprise there, then). It wasn't alone; already started as soon as the decals were set on the batch of P.1083 Hunters were two more Trumpeter Lightnings and an Anigrand Valiant. Of the Lightnings, one at least attempts to replicate real life in the form of an F.1A of the "Firebirds" aerobatic team, its colour scheme perhaps only surpassed by the F.3 of 56 Squadron. The other was the result of the idea of a "hot rod" version to investigate any strangers approaching the Internal German Border from the east, with the ability to climb quickly and in particular be able to fire - literally - a warning shot across any potential intruder's bows. Accordingly I've based a third Lightning squadron at Gutersloh and equipped it with the F.2B; its main difference being the provision of six 30 mm cannon - fortunately Trumpeter include all the necessary bits in the kit - and to to make room for more internal ammunition for the lower pair of nose guns, I've moved the missile launchers to the wing tips and upgraded their load to Red Tops. I had of course decided on the marking before starting the build, and my thought that the 112 sharkmouth from the Modeldecal Sabre set would fit well over the front of the gun pack/belly tank has proved right. Having gone that far, and bearing in mind 92's F.2 with the blue spine and fin, it seemed only reasonable to return to 112's Vampire and, again thanks to Modeldecal, add the Egyptian cat and a green tail (the cats from set 14 were by courtesy of the IPMS decal bank - mine had mysteriously been used already). Because I've been concentrating on getting this and the 1154 done in time to take to Cosford, where they may well be found on the What If? SIG table the "Firebirds" F.1A has lagged a bit, but I'll post a photo hereabouts when it's done if only to convince you that I sometimes build "real" aircraft.

It's over a year since the test shots of the then-Freightdog P.1154 arrived from Anigrand, and mine, in 233 OCU markings, was one of the first models to appear on this website. Others were circulated for comment, and various suggestions were made - notably, I understand about the underside of the fuselage in the jet exhaust area - which necessitated changes to the original moulds. These now having been made the first production batch were available at Southern Expo in its new Silver Cloud boxing, and this is mine. You may recognise the colour scheme as being lifted shamelessly from a Buccaneer that took part in Red Flag some years back and like that aircraft has earth and stone applied over the original grey/green wraparound; in the picture on the left the stone at least is very patchy, and I had thought of leaving it that way given the wear and tear of low level desert operations, but later thought better of it and applied another coat of Xtracrylix (I'm still in my acrylic rediscovery phase). It's also acquired an IFR probe, a pair of underwing tanks and four small practice bombs and their carriers from Hasegawa Harriers. The decals, including the serial, came from the kit, but I decided I couldn't complete a model without a squadron marking and the 4 Squadron emblem on the tail came from the same Modeldecal Sabre sheet as the Lightning's teeth, as did the red/yellow tail letter (although the colours are appropriate, its origin was 26 Squadron). While getting ready to photograph it I found the "grassmat" roll, and thought that could be Harrier-compatible, though I reluctantly didn't add any exhaust scorch marks in case I want to use it again. It may not be totally accurate for Nevada, but I'm sure thethe drivers (airframe) had to practise somewhere remote, and it looks vaguely Scottish.

I'm really pleased we've got the 1154; I know I'm not the only one who's badgered Colin both before and after the original castings appeared, and he's taken it all in good part. An injection-moulded kit has never been likely, thought that would have made it much more possible for me to build something like the number of "Harriers" - the name was orginally allocated to the 1154, and merely retained for the 1127(RAF) - that I would have liked. Good as this kit is, economics and particularly the current value of the pound, mean that it has to retail for £40.00 and that seriously limits not only the overall number I'll build but also the possibility of a few variants and developments; I have a pair of slightly foxed GR.7 kits, and I fancy fitting the later wing and armament to a supersonic version. Without getting just yet in to the "cost of modelling/golf" discussion - oh, all right, argument - which is taking place elsewhere, I recognise that for me the finance element is something of a self-inflicted wound because the aircraft I choose to model these days are those only available in resin and generally from Foreign Parts. And I'd like to work on a supersonic Shar 2 - assuming Their Lordships would ever have compromised on the engines. The other Kingston project which I'd really like in three dimensions and some numbers, and I know I'm not alone in this either, is the P.1121; my review of the Whirlykits one (with added resin) recently appeared in SAM, albeit belatedly, and it may be the only game in town.. Given the present climate though, I suspect that I - we - will be lucky to see it in resin.

Transferred 01.06.09

To the South!

As planned, I took my table at Luton for the Air Enthusiasts' Fair and changed a few kits and books in to money to help fund the GOM modelling for a little longer, but no one approached me with the contact phrase I'd suggested in Mike's World (though oddly, someone did the following Saturday at Southern Expo). I did come away with one book, the Osprey "Elite Unit" on Jagdverband 44; my modelling colleague who's in to Me 262s the way Neil Robinson likes Spitfires didn't think as much of this book, on the grounds that the aircraft weren't as colourful, as of that on JG7 (which I picked up a week later). But for me the story of JV44's formation and short but hectic existence was absolutely fascinating; I knew of its reputation as a unit of Experten, but didn't know the politics behind its setting up, other that its Kommodore was Adolf Galland, after he had been dismissed from his Inspector of Fighters post by the Reichsmarschall. As always with Osprey this book was a major help in to a bit of research I was doing on 262s, and for once the human story was even more interesting, and convoluted, than that of the aircraft.

I added the JG7 volume (also useful) to it the following weekend at Hornchurch, and it's true, their aircraft were more colourful, but it was worth going for more than just the addition to my sagging shelf of Ospreys. It seems a while since I've been to a Southern Expo; either the date's been inconvenient, or it's had a sabbatical or two, but it's a good show even if the parking gets more crowdwd earlier year on year. One of the staff of the sports centre where it's held was having a quiet panic at not being able to get to work on time at 9 o'clock, no one apparently having told her that the car space would be overrun early by hordes of manic modellers! I was delighted to be offered a perch for the Saturday this year - I only planned one day - by Colin Strachan of Freightdog/Pegasus, taking along my three "Super Hunter" conversions which I'd brought back from t'North to help the uncertain see the result (it would have helped if I'd had an Ordinary Hunter to point up the difference). Also there and available for the first time was the production version of the P.1154 "Supersonic Harrier" in its Silver Cloud boxing, which I managed to spread out on a bit of the table and make a start on its pre-painting; it will appear in a reasonably complete state, with comments, on one of these pages shortly. As always I spent a while wandering around the many stands, both trade and club, and adding the odd item to my pre-planned buys (it's all right, I didn't forfeit my amateur status by taking a list - there was room left for the occasional glorious uncertainty). What I really enjoyed very much was a display by the Cleveland club put together as a tribute to Alan Hall, using many of his articles and techniques, with copies of some on the table, to recreate his conversions. The display was overseen by a trio of modellers of a similar vintage to Alan (and even, dare I say it, me) who had been regular followers of his aricles in Airfix Magazine in the 'sixties and had returned to the days of their (comparative) youth to organise this display.One of them, Alan Dent, was kind enough to send me some photos to make up for my having left the camera behind; I really wanted to be able to share these with you, and I'm sure the whole display will appear again later this year, at least at shows in the North. Please go to see it. A good proportion of the models were of the flying test-beds that proliferated in Britain around 1950, particularly for testing the new turbine power plants. The Ashton was perhaps the ultimate test-bed, with six being built covered by four different mark numbers; it started life as the Tudor 9, but by the time of its rollout the name had become seen as unlucky. I lnow the aircraft has been on Magna's list of possible subjects for some time, but like the others in this display this was built following Alan's article and methods. I was really pleased to see bith the idea, and the care and thought that had been put in to it, and there was at least one other visitor to the show even more delighted than me; Chris Hall, Alan's son, was there and was very appreciative of the way in which his father had been commemorated.

One last thought ; one of the helpful notices that accompanied the display assured the concerned modeller that "no new kits were harmed in the making of these models"!

And the (north)west!

There will be more, I'm sure, from the Shropshire Modellers' show at Cosford, spread this year among four hangars including that of the Cold War Exhibition, but I wanted to get a couple of items in quickly. The What If? SIG had its table just off the nose of the TSR.2, and when I arrived (with Hunters and 1154) I found an old friend and colleague who I hadn't seen for at least twenty years, one Jim Bricknell. When we first met he was an ATCO on one of the Western Isles and widely known as "Zapper Jim" from his habit of applying one of those little sticky patches (see "ramblings") to unsuspecting visiting aircraft, and also collecting them, a pastime that seem to afflict many of us at the time; at the early Air Tattoos their collection, as distinct from purchase, became almost a full-time occupation, not least for my older son and the two young ladies working for me in air traffic.

Also on the stand there was one legendary model - and its almost as legendary modeller - and another which I overlooked until I a closer look revealed its true identity. This Meteor PR.19 has been around a very long time indeed, and is reputed to have caused a stir in "Intelligence" circles when its picture was published - in Australia, I believe - without it being identified as a model, and is said to have caused serious ripples among people who thought the Limeys were trying to pull a fast one. Its onlie begetter wasn't Glosters but Kit Spackman, a modeller of a similar vintage to myself who I first met when I saw his "Blue Angels" Buccaneer. For quite a while now Kit has been involved with the airliner SIG - though some of his models for their shows were not precisely as their makers had intended - but it's good to be reunited with him as well.

My second "must show!" is of course, underneath that Suit of Lights, a Matador, suitably armed and brandishing the red cape of tradition and legend. I confess to passing this by without looking closely or picking up the references until hearing someone else's comment, but having had my consciousness properly raised I had to share this with you. Not only has it been made with imagination and wit, it's also a very good model indeed. It is apparently the creation of a hairy Scot - isn't that an oxymoron? - to whom I will give full credit as soon as I've got confirmation of his identity. Breaking News! The North British gentleman with the pronounced sense of humour (pronounced: "sense of humour") is John Murray, to whom I am indebted for the best laugh of the day! John is also a member of the Aerobatic SIG; I hope he tours the shows with this one as well.

Having taken a pair of small-scale Sukhois to the Huddersfield show I appear to have become a member of the 144 SIG, let by my long-term acquaintance David Hart and including the invaluable Mike Verier. I'm delighted to have learned that without any contribution from me - which probably helped - they won the "Best Club/SIG display" at Cosford. It's always reassuring to find that the White Hats still come out on top occasionally.

My apologies for the slightly odd background colour of these two - my small digital camera seems to suffer from the same affliction as my new Canon, as the shots of the big TSR.2 that I took on the latter will confirm. It seems to happen under artificial light; I shall have to find a weekend residential course either on using the buttons on my cameras which aren't "AUTO", or on the simple ways of using Paintshop. At least it shouldn't happen under the expected Florida sun ('n' fun)..

To the North!

After the Soft South, a period for Britain to recover from its Snow Paralysis and taking advice from those who live that way, I ventured to the IPMS Huddersfield show, impelled by finishing - just - my Big TSR.2 and the promise of a seat behind the What If? SIG table (that's it to the right, though the two heads belong to the next display of which more later). One of the good things about this venue for me is that I get to see several modellers of long acquaintance who don't often venture even as far south as Milton Keynes - imagine - and there's usually more time to chat than at Telford. Some of the Usual Suspects really get around, of course, some of those in Yorkshire on the Sunday, particularly some of the traders, having been at the Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset for their Saturday show. Having made my number at the SIG stand and made use of the opportunity to take a couple of photos of the TSR.2 in unusually uncluttered surroundings, I found as soon as I could the Pegasus (nee Freightdog) stand. Colin Strachan is using the Silver Cloud name for his resin productions, and had with him the first two of these to be issued under his banner, the Avro 720 jet/rocket interceptor prototype, with a pair of Firestreaks and a selection of British unit markings; and there was a conversion set for the Hawker P.1083 "Super Hunter" with more sweep and an afterburner. It will not surprise you to know this will be appearing shortly on the "workbench" page, probably in more than one guise. From Paul Davis' stand I added a couple of Revell Hunters to my gander bag in what passes for intelligent anticipation; just because I only brought three P.1083 sets back with me doesn't mean I won't need more, and that's even before the entry of the P.1109 to follow.

A few days before the show I found that not only was my old mate Mike Verier going to be there, but that he was manning the 144th SIG table, together with SIG leader David Hart (in the blue shirt), another modelling friend of many years and part of a North-Eastern triumvirate. I shamelessly offered to contribute my two Anigrand Sukhois, not least because I knew Mike was bringing his Trumpeter Backfire; this way I could delay completing mine, and I had wanted to see the two together. There wasn't as big a size difference as I'd expected, but it's not as evident in the picture as I'd have wished; white on white isn't a great contrast.

On the stand next to the What If? SIG was a selection of 1:48th Lancasters, and next to one of them a colour photo that I recognised of a big, cheerful American in RAF uniform sitting with his crew. The Lancaster was AJ-T/ED923, the pilot Joe McCarthy who led the third section on Operation "Chastise" to the Sorpe Dam in that aircraft. After the war he stayed in the RCAF, and was our Wing Commander Flying when we were learning to fly Harvards at Penhold. The farther of the two people in the picture is George Allen, in whose name the table was booked, and who was on the squadron at the time; he was accompanied by another colleague who also knew "Big Joe". It struck me as total serendipity that the three of us met quite by chance at a model show, sixty-five years after the raid with this very personal link.

One of the many good reasons to go up to Yorkshire - apart from the bottle of Henderson's Yorkshire Relish donated by Mike Verier, who tells me that he's the local model clubs' token immigrant - is catching up with my one-time editor and all-round good egg Neil Robinson. As the group Managing Editor, he very kindly allowed Gary Hatcher to open up the SAMI/MAM stand, though in the photo it looks a touch unsteady. Neil is of course discussing matters of moment with three other senior modellers; spot the common distinguishing feature.

Obsession? What obsession?

In the last two or three years there have probably as many words written about the TSR.2 in the model magazines as were in the "real aeroplane" magazines in the aircraft's (very short) prime; I own to contributing a few myself. It seems to have become the equivalent of a charismatic film star who died young, with apparently unfulfilled potential, and whose memory is speculatively revived at irregular intervals. "Failure is an orphan, but success has many fathers"; the impetus for the Airfix 1:72nd kit, which is behind this most recent flowering of interest, is claimed by several. but the name on the birth certificate is surely that of Trevor Snowdon, Airfix presumably being cast in the role of midwife.

While the arrival of the smaller kit made many of us very happy, I don't think we expected it to be followed by its equivalent in 1:48th. Given my preference for multiple production, in assorted colours - and I still have quite a few to realise in 1:72nd - I hadn't expected to attempt the larger version, not least because of the space it would need, during construction as much as when finished, a feeling reinforced by building the Airfix B(I).8 in the same scale; this is currently perched on a far corner of my shelving on top of a box for which I can't find an alternative place either. However, it was the provision of the AS.30 missiles for the Canberra which started my change of mind; having put those to one side, I scrounged another pair from one of my Marlow club colleagues and thought how best to use them and, given my devotion to squadron roles and history, on whose aircraft. The two Canberra squadrons that used these missiles were both part of the Akrotiri Strike Wing, with suitably fitted-out B.16s, 32 and 73; 32 is still existence in a somewhat less aggressive role - though you might consider the carriage of Our Elected Leaders to fall in a small part of this category - and I am saving 73 for another 1:72nd model. The Canberras were replaced in Cyprus by the Vulcans of 9 and 35, and the Bat markings of the former are still on display on Tornado GR.4s, but 35, having returned to Scampton in 1975, were disbanded in 198.; I've always liked their "winged horse's head" marking, and while I knew it was in 72nd on a Kits At War Bomber Command decal sheet for a Canberra and Modeldecal set 70 for the Vulcan, I discovered it by chance on an Xtradecal set for 1:48th Canberras..

Having made the decision to go with The Big One in principle on my usual "How do I know what I'm going to make until I know what colours it's going to carry?" basis, I was very encouraged by the early reaction to the kit both by word of mouth and then by Dave Francis' build of the test shots in SAMI, after seeing them at Telford. The smaller kit had some problems which, although they could be overcome with patience and the Exercise Of Modelling Skills - or at least those which still survive - we all hoped had been minimised, if not overcome, by Hornby's commitment to the quality of its Airfix kits. My hopes have been realised during its construction; admittedly I avoided tempting fate by building it with the weapons bay closed, but I only had to use a little filler around the intakes and at the wing/fuselage join. The canopy seating, especially of the navigator's hood, could benefit from a little adjustment, but I'll see what I can do when I build my second (!) later this year. I tried to take real care with the undercarriage, which had presented problems with the smaller model; Having fitted the mainwheels to the fore-and-aft parts of their legs, and ensuring that the flattened bases of the tyres were correctly aligned with the ground, I fitted these assemblied to the main legs so that the wheels were vertical and when satisfied that they were at the correct relative angles and setting nicely laid the beast on its back like a stranded turtle and left it to dry overnight. This was just about the last bit of my assembly sequence, and it looked good when I set it upright the next day when applying the decals, but at some stage it had an attack of camber, and the main wheels were leaning outwards at the base. As I'd been readying it up to the last minute for its trip to Huddersfield I took it with the wheels splayed anyway, and I shall consider whether or not to perform some sort of corrective surgery, probably involving superglue; one of the suggestions made at that meeting was to introduce a metal axle to each unit, which again I may consider for my second. The camouflage colours (light aircraft grey underneath) were originally brush-applied using, as I always do, Xtracolor, but for some reason this didn't take; so using these as an undercoat I turned to Xtracrylix, which which I've had mixes fortunes in the past, and this solved the problem at a stroke, or at least a series of strokes. The colours in the pictures don't look quite right, but I thing this may be partly because I took them in the artificial light of the hall at Huddersfied - I seem to have the same problem at Telford each year - and then tried to correct them using Photoshop, with insufficient expertise. However they'll give you an Idea, and perhaps I'll add another at a later date with a 1:72nd one to give an idea of the size; it's really big!

As with the B(I).8, I've rally enjoyed making this, even if it did seem to have taken over my life for a short while.With the exception of the decals it is straight out of the box, and is for me a reassurance that Hornby are trying hard to address the "quality" issues that have haunted Airfix from time to time. Later in the year there will be resin accessories from the Aviation Workshop, based on the stores that were made by Paul Lucas, and marketed through Model Aircraft Monthly for the smaller kit. Aviation Workshop are also preparing decals largely related to the ilustrations for the series of articles that appeared in that magazine. which articles - I have it on the very best authority - are as I write being updated and published as a book. The decals, which should be around shortly after this enters cyberspace (or at least by Southern Expo), will include as well as national and unit markings stencilling and variations on the style of "don't walk" lines. Now you know why I shall feel the need to make the second, though I'm fighting the temptation of a third very hard. My will is strong (but my won't is weak).

Transferred 12/04/09

Sir Sydney's finest

The two great commercial successes of the British aircraft industry post-1945 were the Viscount and the Hunter; by today's standards they were uncomplicated aircraft, even if they each went through teething problems during their development, but they combined their advances - turboprop power and swept-wings respectively - with sturdiness and reliability, and introduced many users to these features. Sadly I doubt if there's a Viscount still flying, but there are still Hunters, not only in the warbird/display arena but being used, as they had been in their services, for particular training and live simulation scenarios.

When I was researching the fate of "my" XF317/J-734 I found a Chilean website devoted to the "Hunteristas". This appeared to be an informal grouping of personnel who had been concerned with the aircraft while in service with the F.Ae.C., and thought sufficiently highly of it, and their time around the aircraft to want to continue celebrating that association, and as I found out on my first visit in 2003 - on our way to the Avalon show - there were several Hunters still out there though none were flying. What did surprise me was that the desk staff at the hotel in which we were staying in Santiago, in responding to queries about how to get to the (excellent) Museum, immediately recognised the name of the aircraft; I suspect this was long-term fallout from the attack that four Hunters made on the city as part of the coup that toppled President Salvador Allende. I refrained from trying to find out if J-734 had been one of them, but it was in the final four-plane flypast of the type (it's now on the strength of the Museum, but I don't think it's on show).

Later this year there'll be a meeting of an even less formal British equivalent of this group, or at least a get-together of the old and not so bold. There was a similar event at Kemble two or three years ago, but this year it's being held at a venue less associated with the type, and I'll give more details when they're confirmed nearer the time; perhaps I should start now looking for a Designated Driver. Following Tim McLelland's book last year, there are at least three more books that I know of in the pipeline, with varying modelling potential, so perhaps the aircraft - and by implication me - is now officially Historic. I remember looking down from the balcony at Hendon fifteen or more years ago now to see three or four of the types I'd flown while working for Her Majesty exhibited on the floor, and reflecting even then that perhaps I also qualified as a museum piece.

Apart from being a constant, and at times insistent thread, in my life even if our shared time was short, the Hunter looks like being a regular part of my modelling as well as my reading this year. Revell's two recent 1:72nd kits of the 6 and the 9 have already been responsible for a good selection of decal sets to add to those which you have of course prudently stockpiled from Modeldecal, and more recently Xtradecal, and there have been resin conversions from Pavla, details from Czechmaster, and of course PJ's superb two-seat fuselage. Jonh Adams has also just added resin bits for an F.1-5 - leading edge and tailpipe - to join the metal undercarriage and ejection seat in the Aeroclub catalogue. Brand new is the first of the conversions under the Silver Cloud label (aka Freightdog/Pegasus) for the planned-but-cancelled P.1083 development, now on my mat and shortly to feature on my "workbench" page. This should be followed by the P.1109 (radar nose, Firestreaks) and possibly at least one other variant during the course of the year, and there's likely to be several working their way along my production line between now and, say, Telford. After all, they tick all my boxes; not only are they, approximately at least, of my favourite aircraft, but I can continue to "work for a better yesterday" by re-equipping several long-gone RAF fighter squadrons and perpetuating their markings, if only in my parallel worlds!

Transferred 11/04/09

Colours, markings and what should have been.

Last summer I promised the editor of the SIG newsletter some words on my What If? modelling; it turned out to be longer than I thought, but I decided to take shameless advantage of what I'd already done, and try and explain how and why I got in to it, and how I go about it (or you may think it's a shameful waste of the world's polystyrene and resin resources), and I think it'll fit neatly in to the "Ramblings" category.

Unconstrained by the needs of SAM, my modelling now seems to be geared towards the requirements of grumpyoldmodeller.com; just about all of my current activities are seriously spiced by a counterfactual approach to history. I have thought of them for sometime as "concept modelling", influenced I'm by the term "concept musical" applied originally I think to Chorus Line and Company, but it's dawned on me recently that there is a significant difference. These musicals, and their ilk, are seen as having no - or at least minimal - plot, but for my sort of modelling a narrative plot is essential. It usually depends on a slight variation in historical fact, a failed Normandy landing perhaps, or a serious glitch in the Manhattan Project, and the possible consequences. With the recent rise in the availability of kits of British aircraft in this category I quite like as a significant event the re-election of Alec Douglas-Home in 1964, though I would prefer also not to have had Duncan Sandys as Minister of Defence in 1956/57.

It was while I was on the Hunter conversion course at Chivenor in the very hot summer of 1956 that the Aeroplane published a two-page colour spread of RAF squadron markings, probably all of regular or Auxiliary fighter squadrons (my copy's currently in hiding). I must have been vaguely aware of such markings up until then but that feature, and the imminent posting to my first squadron, focused my attention. At the same time or thereabouts I was building the first of the new generation of Frog plastic kits, of which the Meteor, Hunter and Venom carried unit markings, 600, 43 and 5 squadrons respectively; the Sabre, sadly, carried only a single letter code. A little while after arriving on 67 Squadron I became responsible for applying its markings - the story is in Tim McLelland's recent Hunter book. - and that probably fixed my fixation for life. The consequences of the 1957 Defence White Paper, colloquially known as the "Sandys' Axe", were also a considerable contribution to the scar on my psyche, with nine Germany-based Hunter squadrons being disbanded in very short order and many of them, with their markings, not being seen again. The final brick in that particular wall - or perhaps through that window - was the round of cancellations by the Wilson government of 1964/65, culminating with the carve-up, metaphorically and literally, of the TSR.2.

I had rediscovered plastic kits in Canada in 1955, and by the mid '60s, having flirted briefly with other polystyrene subjects, I was only building aircraft; a few of those would easily qualify now for my self-evolved What If? Requirements. An early Airfix P.1127 was fitted with a radar nose, and carried on its EDSG/white scheme the tern's head of 897 NAS and a fin badge of a red sword on a white shield purporting to identify the "owner" as HMS London. Similarly the Airfix Hunter received swing-wings - from their BAC.111 - and as well as its grey/green/silver camo the markings of 67 Squadron. Any such markings had of course to be hand-painted; it wasn't until the arrival some fifteen years later of Modeldecal that steadiness of hand became less necessary. Prior to that I had managed to "acquire" a few extra Frog decal sheets - often also designed by Dick Ward - through the kind offices of a Good Chap at Margate named Peter Oliver, and sometimes these found subjects for which they were not necessarily intended.

When rather later I succumbed to the "Luftwaffe '46" virus, infected initially by the Huma Triebflugel , I worked out a plan to cover all the possible camouflage scheme variations - preferably without repetition although hesitation was allowed and deviation positively encouraged - and later, if I could find suitable subjects, all the "Defence of the Reich" coloured rear fuselage bands. With the popularity of Luftwaffe aircraft as model subjects a wide variety of that service's unit markings had been available for some time, notably from Microscale, and matching the markings to the appropriate colours wasn't difficult. Given the proliferation of books on Luftwaffe camouflage I had plenty of opportunity to decide which RLM colours would be applicable to which role, and by now these were available in tinlets, avoiding any need to try to mix them by eye. It's always useful to have someone to blame if there's a query on the precise shade of sandgelb, or for that matter dark slate grey.

For me a central part of my What If? modelling - and by the 'nineties this label was now entering general use, encouraged by the setting up of the eponymous IPMS Special Interest Group by Ian Hartup - was and is still ensuring that the colours and markings of the model are appropriate for the role, the period and the owner. As with the Luftwaffe references, my bookshelves are stuffed with volumes - tomes, even - on US and British colours and markings, and while these had originally been bought to ensure that I had the necessary information for modelling actual aircraft, they have now became indispensable when finishing a model which I know would, or should, have looked like that even if it had been unaccountably overlooked by the relevant air ministry or, more likely, the treasury.

As with the colours, so with the markings. It must be about forty-five years since I bought my first sheet of Luftwaffe unit markings from BMW Models in Wimbledon; the German WWII unit markings were much more varied and colourful that those of the British services of the same period, and at that period at least I applied them to models of the aircraft that actually carried them. While there were post-war British markings in decal form, initially from Almark in the late 'sixties, the arrival of Modeldecal and a few broad-minded squadron bosses made it possible for us to celebrate the increasingly colourful British fighter squadrons. Established by Dick Ward and Mike Silk, their first set appeared in early 1969; forty years - yes, really - since that sheet of six Lightning squadrons appeared I remember quite clearly making all six of them at the same time, with the Airfix and Frog/Hasegawa kits; I think it was the first and the last time I've ever made that many of the same type in the same finish. A little later I started to apply them to aircraft that might not have carried them in "real life", depending of course on your version of reality.

Recently my modelling has become angled more and more towards a preferred parallel world or two. Following my lengthy involvement with Luftwaffe '46 I've been able increasingly to work on the almost-products of the British aircraft industry, probably kick-started by Maintrack's "Project X" vacforms of Hawker jet products and then by their resin variations on Typhoon and Tornado (Sir Sydney still rules, OK?). The arrival of the Airfix TSR.2, in spite of the deficiencies of the 1:72nd kit, gave a big boost to aircraft of that vintage and varying probability, to the point where otherwise perfectly respectable people were producing decals and even resin parts to improve, or perhaps just tart up, a kit of an aircraft that only flew 19 times. Another big boost in the last few years for this form of modelling, following on carefully researched and very well illustrated books on German projects, has been the publication of Tony Buttler's "Secret Project" series from Midland Publishing, though I have yet to follow three-dimensionally the more recent books of Russian and American designs.

For me it's become a form of warped but selective nostalgia, particularly for British aircraft and what I feel their use could or at least should have been, especially with the British services. I would like to believe that this could have happened, and if it had then this is what it would have looked like; while I know very well that many will consider "accuracy" as a term impossible to apply to events that never happened, I feel very strongly that for me it's absolutely essential to help bring such possibilities to life. Although Modeldecal sadly came to an end, decals currently available from the Aviation Workshop and Xtradecal are helping me to perpetuate wherever possible units which are no longer in the front line, or indeed totally defunct., particularly fighter squadrons, though thanks to the TSR.2 the occasional bomber squadron gets its turn, to the point where not only does this seem to be becoming my mission but my making a model of an aircraft in the colours that it actually carried is becoming increasingly rare.

One example, not unlike my recent 43 Squadron Lightning F.6; I hadn't originally intended to make a 1:48 th TSR.2, but it was the pair of AS.30 missiles left over from the Canberra B(I).8 that made me think I should. Two of the Canberra squadrons of the Akrotiri Wing carried these, and it seemed therefore that their replacements should carry over the capability; this was apparently a possibility, especially if the Martel was delayed. One of those squadrons - 32 - still exists, and I've already used 73 on a 1:72 nd kit; one of the two Vulcan squadrons that took the Canberras' place was 9, but 35 passed in to history some time back, and is therefore a good candidate. Besides I've always liked their winged horse's head marking and that's available, in two different treatments, from Modeldecal and Kits At War. Camouflage of that period would have been dark green/dark sea grey/light aircraft grey with red/blue tactical roundels and fin flash, which leaves only two decisions, on the underwing roundels and the serial. The forthcoming Model Alliance decals will be too late - I have a show in mind which is driving my completion date - so I'll use one of the Xtradecal sets, but I may leave off the walkways and some stencilling to be applied later.

That's the how and why I got here, and how and why I do it this way; I think it's a rational approach, but then I think rain makes me wet.

ModelKraft '09

Next trip, not much further north and the model show that's closest to home, ModelKraft is the annual event of the IPMS Milton Keynes Branch. It's grown steadily in size, and it's the biggest one-day show that I know, with this year many of the Big Names of the hobby having sales stands. I think this is their third year at the Stantonbury Leisure centre, each year an expansion on the last; my now-usual place, the What If? SIG table, was on on the second floor, at the end of a slightly mazish route, in spite of which many familiar faces - and quite a few unfamiliar ones, some a little bemused - managed to find us. My personal problem was that while there was a slow but wheelchair-friendly lift to the first floor, the second was only acessible by stairs, with which I have increasing problems when coming down. Having therefore delivered a few models to the stand - which have been seen, or will shortly appear, in these cyberpages - I set off to tour the floors, and perhaps even to pick up a package or two. Hannants Londan had followed their parent firm's example by offereing ten per cent off pre orders, for which I was suitably grateful when I learned the price of the second Trumpeter EE Lightning (EE because it's an F.1/2). One of the decal sets for the 1:48th TSR.2 was also waiting for me, and you may well see that somewhere here soon; I'm planning to take it to Huddersfield in two weeks if our current spell of weather allows. My Friend Wendy of the Aviation Book Centre, who always brings a little sunshine in to my drab, wretched life, graciously parted with a couple of new books from the Speciality Press, and I had a chat with Reg Auckland of Guideline about the New SAM and possible further Warpaints. Other stands that I made a point of visiting were those of Freightdog Models for the now traditional discussions on the Avro 720 and the Hawker P.1154, and a first sight of some new Hawker parts - it's a Hunter, Jim but not as we knew it - and Aviation Workshop about their TSR.2 decals and planned resin bits for the 1:48th "BAC Eagle". And I managed a few disposals which more or less matched the outgoings (but I still have several set aside for the Aviation Enthusiasts' Fair at Luton on 7 March). There seemed to be a good attendance - certainly many of the Usual Suspects were in evidence - but I had the same sort of feeling that I used to get at the Yeovilton show, though to a lesser extent, that I couldn't be sure that I'd seen everything. I'm sure I'll be there next year, though.

We were joined behind the "What If?" table by the Venerable Kit Spackman, who I've known for many years and who in recent times has been more usually associated with airliners; but I remember very clearly his immaculate "Blue Angels" Buccaneer which would have been something of a surprise to the US Navy. He brought a few models with him, including his Meteor PR.19 which brought several murmurs of recognition; almost as old as the Bucc, it's become something of an icon for the Imaginative Tendency. I really regret not having a picture or three to put up here; I'll try and remedy that inexcusable omission during the year.

Transferred 22/03/09

Alan W Hall

Alan Hall, I'm sad to report, died early on 6 November in a hospital in Malta. I was one of those who contributed to an 80 th Birthday tribute that appeared in the April 2008 Scale Aircraft Modelling, and I've supplied an update for the next (December) issue, this is a small personal piece.

If you're reading this, I'll make the rash assumption that you are, or at least have been, aware of the part that Alan played in the British modelling scene from the 'sixties onwards.. Alan came from a time when "air-mindedness" and a belief in the products of the British industry were virtues to be encouraged, and he never lost his fascination with aviation, aircraft and the RAF.

While working at RAE Farnborough he edited the original Airfix magazine when that name was synonymous for the general public with "plastic kit", contributing much himself. The magazine became an indispensable choice to us for news and in particular conversion articles, and the use of balsa wood, talcum powder and dope for these is etched imperishably on many modellers' minds. I met him through IPMS and he was one of thosewho appeared at the first evening of the Berkshire Branch. He started Aviation News as a fortnightly produced on newsprint, breaking new ground for its period although Alan would have readily acknowledged his debt to the long-defunct "Aeroplane Spotter". Modelling was always a part of it, with a set of scale plans with a selection of colour schemes aimed primarily at the modeller, and usually a modelling page with kit reviews.

It was joined after a while by Scale Aircraft Modelling. From the first issue IPMS were invited to contribute a column, and as Branch Liaison Officer I was given the task of spreading the word, remaining with the magazine for nearly thirty years. Once I started writing the Tailpiece Alan, although sometimes slightly bemused by my musings, published them unchanged except for the deleting my semi-colons; I never did find out why he disliked them so much, except that he did not think that their use was sound journalism.

While the original "Warpaints", which included the C-130 and the Lightning, were in black and white, the seriestitle was revived in glorious colour, and continues to this day; there was a rumour that it might stop at fifty, but the sixty-seventh has just been published, on the Brigand, and there are still more pending. A few years ago he moved to the relatively benign climate of Malta, where he played a part in the modelling and enthusiast scene on the island, and continued to produce his Warpaint series, himself authoring the recent Gnat. I'm sure that continuing with these books helped to keep him going; to have stopped it would have been like cutting off his oxygen.

Alan always held his opinions strongly; those of us who have worked with him have found ourselves encouraged, enlightened and frustrated in equal measure - and from time to time irritated ! - but it's always been interesting, and I've learned so much from him over the years. It just seems impossible that we first got together forty years ago! Those who are come to our hobby recently may well not realise the part that Alan played both in popularising plastic modelling and in raising its standards, but for British modellers in particular he has been one of the most influential individuals of his, and my, generation.

Mike

(transferred 25/12/08)

This is a bit of background for anyone wh may not have run across me in a previous existence.

If at some time in the last twenty-eight years or so you've read the Tailpiece column in Scale Aircraft Modelling what comes next will seem at the least familiar; if, on the other hand you've managed to escape me so far, there are a few facts - well, I think they're facts - which may help to set the scene. Legend says that I've been obsessed by aviation, both full size and model, since I was two, prompted perhaps by living very close to Hendon in the couple of years just before World War II. First models were black plastic "recognition" aids supplemented by wooden kits, and in the late 'forties I had the plastic Frog "Penguin" kits of, among others, the Spitfire XII and the Vampire F.1; most if not all of that series had retractable undercarriages! In my teens my modelling was largely in balsa, not least with Veron kits; and with these and the Penguins both being in 1:72nd scale the template for my modelling life was established.

Her Majesty kindly sent me to Canada to learn to fly on Harvards and T-33s , but it was only incidental to the RAF's plan that while there I took up plastic modelling again, principally Revell kits, but also some from Hawk and Lindbergh. The models had to be abandoned when I left Canada; but after learning to fly in English conditions with the Vampires at Middelton St George, my posting to Chivenor for the Hunter conversion course coincided with the first of the new generation of plastic kits from Frog with as well as a Hunter, a Canberra, a Sabre, an S.55 and a Meteor 8. It's been a long wait for the Xtrakit! My first Airfix kit was bought at Sylt, but my time on Hunters was cut short by Duncan Sandys, and after a year non-flying on a Valiant squadron I failed to fly the Meteor on instruments on one engine. The rest of my aviation career was as an ATCO, largely at London Airways, but my abiding interest in military aviation has continued to now, through forty-five years of marriage, three children and many cats. Modelling has been a major element - I'm a great believer in the IPMS Belgium phrase "Holding history in your hands" - as has attending air shows and since my retirement visiting museums around much of the world. From being fairly eclectic, my modelling interests these days centre on my long-term fascination with units and their markings, particularly of the RAF, and on what have become known as "What If?" models. These have brought an increasing use of resin, these days the material of choice for models of aircraft for niche interests and therefore limited run.

I was already fairly involved with Scale Aircrat Modelling when it ceased publication in 1994; this coincided with my retirement from air traffic control, and I was one of the group that bought it from the receiver and got it up and running again. Having contributed to the first issue on behalf of IPMS, I subsequently progressed to a Tailpiece of my own, but after over twenty-five years, I decided last year to make the break. Someone suggested - it wouldn't be fair to name him! - that I should consider a website for my ramblings, and Tim Callaway of Deltaweb has now enabled me to ramble in cyberspace. This could be fun!

Ramblings (added 02/09/08)

By and large, T-shirts are not me, but I keep near the front of the appropriate drawer the on one that says "It's Capatain Indecisive - or is it?"

When I walked away from the day - or to be more accurate, the day and night - job at the end of the last afternoon duty of 1994, I knew that I would now be largely free of decision-making. I had discovered, and made shameless use of, the many benefits of the widely-held British practice of management by procrastination, whereby most problems could reasonably be expected to sort themselves out in ten days or so, or by then have become sufficiently serious to require the input of someone above my pay grade, and I had every expectation that in retirement any choices to be made would be reasonably self-evident, and in many ways this proved at first to be true, given a habit of picking the obvious alternative or going in to nod-and-smile mode if the proposal came from elsewhere..

This held good through the period when I was involved in the collective management of the revived SAM, and for any contributions I was required to make to the magazine. Having agitated for a book review section I was in a position to monitor those publications we were sent and cherrypick those in which I had a particular interest; most of my modelling was done on much the same basis in that while I still made some models on my own account those that came for review were automatically given priority, at least until they edged in to the "too difficult" category. If any started to drag on a bit, I would turn to something else that had greater personal appeal until I could stiffen sufficient sinews to return to the original.

Breaking my link with SAM, I looked forward to a freedom of almost randm choice in selecting what to build next from all those boxes on the dustier shelves, and also being able to set some of the work in progress to one side without having to feel even a smidgen of guilt, but after a couple of months of GOM I've discovered a new and unexpected factor; should I by whether or not it's likely to be a subject for these cyberpages? I still have this rather sad compulsion toward the *NEW* referred to in the "Happenings" slot, and there are - almost always - a couple of subjects just over the horizon which could well edge almost anything else to one side of the workbench when they arrive, and on which I may well submit my entry for the Little Jack Horner Prize. I can now make, and even write about, subjects which I wouldn't have dreamt of doing for SAM; the AZ Gauntlet is a case in point, because anyone reviewing a biplane kit should be able, or at least willing, to rig it, and I have diminishing faith in my ability or even my patience - mushroom-stuffing comes to mind - to carry out that particular task. I like the Gauntlet, and my unit/markings addiction inclines me toward this kit, so I may well feel impelled to include it, during or at the end of its progress, on another page.

Several choices will always be self-evident, but there's always the unlikely; while I really hope for for more P.1154s from Freightdog, knowing me as you do this won't surprise you. What I can't explain is why I'm looking forward so much to the Fairchild T-46 from Anigrand. It has a passing resemblence to the Miles Student, it will look smart in the USAF blue/white trainer scheme, and quite possibly in th COIN coulours of an Unnamed Sout American Air Force, but none of those really approaches a rational explanation. It's not helped by an unruly part of my brain compressing "T-46 Eaglet" in to "Twiglet" at the least opportunity. Knowing that one will be with me before the end of this week is strangely energising - not a word I use lightly - and as well as ensuring there's space on the workbench without actuall having to tidy up I am ransacking the garage for the Hasegawa T-37 with Williams AFB decals, though I have a feeling that I sold it in a rash moment.

That's probably enough decisions for now, with two Gannets receiving attention following a serious nudge from the Ad Hoc book and the Sea Vixen because it's *NEW*. When it comes to a Nimrod, and especially whether it's to be an R.1 or a AEW.3, it's time for the T-shirt again. It's just a pity that in spite of Mrs. Ackroyd Enterprise's efforts, the Captain Indecisive Y-fronts are no longer available.

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