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There are online builds that I can recall where it's tackled. AFAIR they involve mounting the intake throat further forward to match up with the intake ring. I can't recall what any consequent problems were.

A couple of stills from my favourite Thunderball First the dodgy Italian Colonel boarding Vulcan B1A XA913 on the Waddington flightline. The Vulcans were in stage 1 lo-level camo in 1964 when these scenes were filmed. The in-flight scenes used Vulcan XH506, but at least it was still a B1A. The ditching scenes were a model of a B2. And as my nav dad never tired of pointing out, there is no crew door into the bomb bay on a Vulcan.

I've seen Swiss F-5Es with some sort of box mounted there. Not sure what it is but it has distinctive red warning stencil panels toward the front. Maybe a chaff/flare container, with the plates being the airframe mounting hardware location?

It's still weird to see Photo Phantoms with slatted wings.

That would be an ideal one, thanks Iain and Anthony

Looking great Ben. Have you thought about just printing a step pattern decal to suggest the upper wingfold hinges? Easier than scribing on an uneven surface and visually hard to tell the difference.

'Where I Was Not - And Back. A Homing Odyssey and Memoir of the Sparrow-Cogent Wars' is published by DARPA-Collings and distributed by Yule Seas next month and will be available from all good (and some frankly questionable) bookshops.

I haven't forgotten the rest of the intake stuff Anthony. I'm just surprised that with the online cockpit shots so few clearly show the upper vents and their bracing struts. So if anyone gets up top on a Spey intake, some nice clear shots of the vents would be well received.

I was following all that until I wasn't and when I wasn't I didn't, although I probably could if I had another glass.

I was providing Kim at HobbyDecal with material and blurbs for his sheets at one time, bu haven't heard from him since 2008.

That's not a slat. That's an awning.

Looks like you have the space to epoxy another couple of invisible brass rods aft of the 'authentic' one to beef up the strength of the attachment there, Max.

Your lighting, especially the formation lights look brilliant. Just right. I've found with some brands of old toothbrushes the colours can fade to very faint shades with age. I used to scavenge broken brake light lenses from minor car accidents for red clear material, and even managed to find part of a broken green dome from a doctor's emergency light, which were far more colourfast. But now while I still use my stash, I give them a thin brush of Tamiya clear colour which makes them a bit more bold,

I'm sometimes puzzled by the 'No Push' stencils on the leading edges of Phantoms. And the you see photos of herds of sailors manhanding the beasts into place all lined up along the front of the wings. I don't think they're pulling.

You're over complicating it Fozzy. Go to your postimg account and call up your photo. Right click on the photo (or do whatever your platform of choice requires) and 'copy image address' Click the 'insert image from URL' panel at the bottom of the post frame. Paste in the image address URL. No extra codes, just as you copied it from your image. Click' insert into image' and you're done and the image will present. Look forward to seeing your progress.

I used the GT resin ones as they are correctly sized. But I also stuck foil impressions rubbed down over the Aires ones to the petals to replicate the weld seam patterns that GT omitted.

I endured some ridicule when I posted in the course of some discussion or other a while back that my Monogram B-58 had gone AWOL. (How can anyone possibly ... something that large etc. etc). I knew I hadn't only imagined having one because the two rudimentary decal sheets that came with it were in my decal shoe - well, boot box - really, but no sign of the kit. It was only when moving out of my old flat last year that I discovered that under the kitboxes sitting quite obviously on top of the wardrobe was a recessed space which very successfully held and hid the B-58. I had no recollection or knowledge of it even existing. My sanity was relieved at being vindicated, although the mystery of its apparent disappearance for a dozen years or more had subjected it to a good shredding in the meantime.

Great looking build Anthony. I like the way you've pre-fitted the keel area, so it just slots into place with no clean up required. I'll have to try that on my next one, instead of cutting out just the area under the stab hinge and adding it back with some clean up needed.

Ah, Spey intakes eh? Well as someone once said, we choose to do these things and do the other things not because they are easy but because they are hard. Or in the case of adapting Spey intakes really *%$+g hard. This will take more than one post because I don't have the time to find all the best comparison photos, but in this post the underside of the Spey (on the left) and J79 (on the right) intakes are shown with their salient differences indicated. Suffice to say the intake ramps differ, with the outlet vents being wider on the Spey version both at the rear of the ramp and the louvred outlets behind them. I'll add the top sides and ramp profiles later, but that's all for now.

Hope you're feeling better Thierry, or at least improving daily. Regarding mirrors, before going off and buying sheets of mylar or bags of sequins, the foil packs used to package potato crisps (or chips depending on what they're called in your country) have a silvered finish on the interior which works well.

That's very decent of you Max. My only experience of the Matchbox biggies is the Griffon Spitfire which I acquired to donate the engine to a Hasegawa Spitfire before discovering the cowling was the worst and most unusable part of it. Nothing that a young Radu's superb reworking of the Warbird's part couldn't fix. Which rather made the Spitfire redundant. I'll let you know regarding spares. I think the prop and cowling front are present, but the sample photos weren't the clearest so I'm fingers crossed until it gets here.

Well, for reasons I don't as yet fully understand I decided I needed a DH82 to complement the Bu 131 I acquired for nostalgic reasons. I couldn't believe the boutique prices on evilBay expected for the 1980s issue Matchbox kit, but eventually snagged one at roughly it's release price. I must admit I was expecting like a fiver, but then Outoftouch is my middle name. Anyway, it all looks quite basic in the photos so I'll be brazenly stealing all the good mods and additions you're adding to yours Max. Hope you don't mind.

That is some great painting on the hot end. I just want to remind you that the vertical panels leading to the stab pivot surround were a type of stainless alloy (Inconel X nickel/chrome as I recall) and remained a bright looking silver metallic colour. As can be seen inc Chuck's QF-4E jet nozzle photo

For anyone interested, the F-4B coded VE-16 in VMFA-115 at the time was BuNo. 152245

I saw a very nice one some years ago done in a silver topsides with white undersides USAF SAC scheme with blue sash which suited it very well.