mozart

A sound start Paul, agreed the ICM cockpit is a major step up from the Matchbox one, but isn’t the IP disappointingly poor!? Incidentally, the “thermometer” is an early type of rate of climb or descent indicator: I never used it, it was possibly only used when “under the hood” doing blind flying training so omitted on post-war restorations/builds.

Thank you for that HUGE and fascinating update Tony, and I’m delighted that all your meticulous design work has been realised successfully in both the larger scales, it’s going to be a stupendous model that’s for sure.

I have contacted the site admin on your behalf letting them know of your difficulties. Hope you hear from them soon.

The leather strip on the seat is indeed intended as a bit of a “cushion” where the parachute rip cord mechanism goes Paul. This is on a Gloster Gauntlet:

Yes you're right Alain, but arguably I could paint the lower angled parts a lighter grey to force the "colour scale effect" with light and shade. Whether that will be apparent in the "coal scuttle" of a back cockpit.....? Anyway, let's talk wings! They're ON! Dry fitted as already mentioned they are a very good fit so I wanted to maximise this. I'm using Devcon 5 minute epoxy (as recommended by MDC Bob!) and wanted to get as much pressure as I could evenly along the length of the wing joint which I thought was best achieved with a half fuselage. It's a pretty chunky (typically Hawker) wing root so plenty of joint potential and a "guaranteed" squareness. All's good so far. There is, inevitably, a thin line to fill and I've done this using Apoxy-Sculpt which should mean a minimum clean up tomorrow when it's cured.

Hope you have a fabulous day, and thank you for supplying us with such high quality conversions and decals for our models, they are very valued.

And ordered, thanks Dutik!

Not available in Britain yet it seems, and a Belgian supplier won’t ship to the UK. Bloody Brexit no doubt!

Happy birthday Dutik. Are the Hawkins books available? I thought they were bringing one out on the Hurricane but heard nothing for quite a long time.

Another one rolls by…..have a wonderful day….and thanks for the model show report.

What a sad character he must be! Paul, interesting about the "status" of the AB drawings, I guess it demonstrates how determined he was to get them as accurate as possible. I have his Hurricane ones and whilst I thought initially they were expensive, they have actually proved their worth time and time again.

Love it Derek, your detailed experience of the Lightning is paying dividends! This surely will be the definitive Trumpeter Lightning.

Thanks for the link Michael, what a fascinating interview on so many levels. More power to ICM, they deserve every success and support.

Thanks Andy, my gunsight, and indeed the rest of the model, is a real gem! And I’ve ordered a pilot figure, allegedly sitting in a Spitfire seat…..who’ll know! Hope he fits in the rest of the cockpit.

Thanks Paul, the cockpit certainly is busy but I'm taking the "less is more" approach on the Typhoon, I really can't see the point in agonising over detail that isn't going to be seen, especially since the canopy may well be closed. I'd like to find a seated pilot figure but they aren't often modelled. Yep, see above Dennis....and below for that matter re- the gunsight! You've got the tee-shirt! Bound to be a) easier and b) more detailed but as a "Silver Wings kits" builder, and all that those kits entail, I'm loving this Tiffie. I'm currently doing the IP, the decals supplied with the kit are perfectly good as far as they go but there's no dial showing the status of the landing gear, and the compass face is far too small so I'll be dipping into my Airscale supplies shortly. I had researched and labelled the function of each dial: And as is right now: Looking ahead to the next stages, the placement of the gunsight needed a bit of research but this picture tells it all: Fitted onto the front of a curved bar. There was also a later type evolved by Roland Beamont that fits behind the bar: Don't know at the moment when this was introduced but the earlier type will do for me. This with a very necessary "crash pad", home made?: And looking even further ahead, the wing to fuselage join looks promising, in fact I've seen IM models with worse fits: