Stokey Pete

Those guns are pretty darned impressive Pete. I’m rather glad you mentioned the fit for the Academy kit. As I also have a pair of Live resin guns to put on my kit. I’d have probably just torn my hair out wondering why they didn’t match up, and chucked them against a wall.

Lovely choice of scheme. I’ve spent many a day at Coningsby, indulging in photography at both ends of the runway. Sea this particular jet many times while it was deployed there. I’m counting the days till I can do it all again. It’s been too long, and I enjoy the peace and quiet of screaming typhoon engines too much. My ideal day out, a morning at Coningsby, followed by the afternoon at Lakenheath.

I was fortunate enough to have seen one of these up close at an air show. What an absolute brute of an aeroplane. To experience the raw energy produced by those two motors, was awesome.

Just had word from the lucky recipient. Arrived and safe. 7 day trip from the UK to BC, Canada. I’ve discovered a new, and added bonus to being married to a FedEx troubleshooter.

Not sure how jealous this may make anyone, but I’ve just managed to ship a 4kg parcel of LSP raffle goodies, across to Canada for the measly sum of £26/$35, instead of a potential £91/$123. That’s what I call a RESULT!

Oooo, interesting load out there. And as it happens, I’ve got a Tamiya kit on standby to build.

It’s so far out, it’s in another county. A whole heap of sanding eventually made the cockpit fit. it’s paper thin in areas. I was so eager to get it off the bench, that I just threw it together. I’ve currently got a harrier in a similar state, again, after the wife decided it was beyond her mojo. She prefers the shake and bake.

I built the ‘A’ variant of the kit. I shoehorned an aires cockpit in, and left the gear up. The intakes are a horror show, but I managed to get a half reasonable look by using skinny sanders in the first few inches of the trunking. A pair of aires exhaust were also bodged onto the airframe. This kit was meant as a gift for my wife to build but she lost interest early doors, so I only stepped in to “just get it done” irrespective of its inaccuracies. A quick, yet attractive paint scheme was applied, and bosh! It was done. Here it is. Would I recommend one? Not especially

Without having my Yefim Gordon book to hand, I’d hazard a guess that you’d be doing massive alterations to shape of the fuselage spine down the length of the aircraft. The wings look like they’re shaped differently too, so another bout of major surgery to achieve. There’d be a bunch of cockpit backdating to do, to represent the technology of the era from which the ‘A’ came.

I know nothing about them, reviews I’ve read would suggest they’re nice kits to build, but have a few shape/dimension inaccuracies. I would like to build one myself in the future. I like it’s brutish looks, and I’d overlook the kits shortcomings to put one on my shelf.

I’d say that unless you’re planning to enter a competition, or to show it where expert eyes will pick up on the finer details, then put one in. They look lovely, will enhance your model with more intricate detailing, and will give you many hours of joy/hair pulling while you build and install it. That’s just me though, I’m most definitely on the side of “if it looks good, I’m happy to ignore technical inaccuracy” of the fence. I wouldn’t know the difference between one version of a Merlin, and the next.

Last year, I finally finished an Aggressor painted Hornet that I’d started initially, some 15 years ago. I started with the purchase of a 2 Seater, which had a BB cockpit. I made a hash of that and threw the ‘pit away in a huff. It sat on the shelf of doom for 4-5 years until I sourced some replacement sprues, which ended up being from the single seat variant. A change of plan soon followed, with buying a bunch of resin AM for it, and a set of Fightertown decals. Over the next few years, I made attempts to dry fit, paint the resin parts, and mate them with some beautiful G-factor gear le

Get the requests into Jetmads

Great new site Chris, and you know I love the stuff you offer. My Flanker will be getting these hanging from them now they’re built and painted. Just need to build the monster kit now.

For me, no. I build models for the pure enjoyment and relaxation I get from the activity, building, painting, and finishing. Occasionally, I may build a rendition of an aircraft I have a personal connection with but it never goes beyond using a couple of photo’s of said aircraft, and sourcing parts to make it look like the subject in the image.