Haggis

Hi Harold I won't be starting the model yet, I have a few projects to get done first so no rush. Any idea what the postage to the UK might be? Live got all the Aires and Eduard stuff plus the Zacto nose and Begemot decals already so it's just the wheels I need. If the AMS stuff is too much due to US postage I'll certainly check out the wheels though.

Are there any replacement wheels for the Trumpeter F-100 out there that are readily available? I know AMS in Oz had them but they appear OOP and anyway, postage looks more expensive than the wheels!

Both after my time, I,left the squadron in 2009.

Which airframes are included on the decal sheet mate?

A bloke at my Air Cadets when I was young had a Dad who flew them too, I think maybe he was even CO of a squadron but it was 30 odd years ago and memory can be a wobbly thing at times.

Very nice mate, top work. It's especially cool as I rejoin 72 Squadron on Monday! 😎

Superb mate, on every level. I love hat gun cowl especially.

I really like that Iain. I love the subtle weathering and the muted colours. It looks very representative and I suspect very close to how the real thing looked. I'd love to see some photos taken outdoors with an appropriate background, it would look even more real....! Well done, nailed it.

Thanks everyone, truly humbling. I'm very proud of this, my first book. They gave me a few options of the front cover but there really was only one choice!

Had no LSPs at all, first time I've not done any in years! I've got a couple of big projects planned for this year though.....

Pre-shading; utterly pointless and wholly unrealistic. There are far easier, and much more effective methods to get a realistic finish. Aeroplanes do not end up with consistent, dark shadows (even subtle ones) over the entire airframe.

Er, looks different to me!

I remember one bloke going into meltdown over the Trumpeter HU-16 Albatross because the ship in the painting on the box art was sinking in an inaccurate way! Hilarious.......

I don't think HK get the same treatment as Hobby Boss or Trumpeter. Hobby Boss and Trumpeter have a very busy release schedule; produce kits with many minor inaccuracies regularly, some howlers every now and then and some very accurate kits which usually arrive with little or no comment. They have a reputation. HK on the other hand have a very small catalogue, they have a reputation of releasing generally accurate kits sometimes with innovative design features. However with the Mosquito they dropped a clanger with the front half, some very obvious mistakes which totally spoil the look of the model and are nigh on impossible to correct. However, thankfully for the consumer it seems to be a one off. Personally, I hate building the things, I find it a chore, a necessary process to get to the fun bit. Usually I'll ignore inaccuracies (normally I don't know the subject anyway and it looks good to me so I carry on in blissful ignorance), maybe I'll fix something which only takes a few swipes of a sanding stick if I've been made aware of it as most of the time I wouldn't know what was wrong. This Mosquito is a totally different problem, the shape of the nose for example is so far off, it's so obviously borked that it needs entirely scratch building and a new canopy if you want to correct it. I've not seen anyone attempt it yet! Mind you, many people will just build it as is, enjoy it and be pleased with the results.

The whole shape of the nose off, it's too bulbous, curves are all wrong, it's more like a Hasegawa egg plane than the real thing! Look at the curvature of the Windows (and this throws off the size of the Windows too). This means the bomb aimer's window is too small and blunt and the nose shape also throws off the canopy off as a result. The only way I could think to correct it is graft on the Revell nose? The angle of the top surface of the wing above the radiators is far too much, it should be a gentle curve but the kit is far too much. I wouldn't know how to correct that! Google some pictures of the real thing and you'll see it instantly.