vince14

That's really sad news, and I hope all is OK with her. She was always such a positive person and I don't think she had a cynical bone in her.

Even then, the other pilot was almost killed when his harness failed in two places. He was lucky to survive.

As ever with WWI, there are a lot of misconceptions around the use of then-new technology and how it was deployed. The whole 'the Allies didn't issue parachutes because of the high-ups' is one of those things that's blown out of all proportion and drags on to this day. There was a single British document which stated that the use was not recommended because pilots might abandon otherwise airworthy machines (amongst other, very valid, reasons for not issuing parachutes), and that stance was first brought to public attention by the book 'No Parachute' by former RFC/RAF pilot Arthur Gould Lee (who, it must be said, had a bone to pick with his former superiors). It was then popularised by the 'Lions led by Donkeys' revisionist history of the war, which was in itself a manifestation of the class war/peace culture of the 1960's. The truth is that aircraft performance, especially fighter aircraft, was marginal at the time and the extra weight of the parachute would put the pilot at a distinct disadvantage in combat - many pilots thought it better to have no parachute, and thus avoid a situation where you might need one, than to have one and consequently face an increased risk of being shot down. It was only with the introduction of scouts such as the Fokker D.VII and Sopwith Snipe in the last 3-6 months of the war, where performance was not as affected by the additional weight, that it became a really viable option. Even then, the technology was still in development and several German pilots who bailed out were subsequently killed when the parachute failed (the harnesses used were not up to the required strength). Indeed, some of those pilots might have survived if they had stayed with the aircraft rather than bailing out.

A quick test shows I got the calculations right for the nose weight. It's finally starting to look like an aircraft.

The use of parachutes was fairly limited and their adoption wasn't that widespread - a German airman, even in September 1918, was more likely to be without parachute than with one.

This kit is a real dog, and as I have limted time due to work commitments I've decided to just try and get it finished in time. Some of the internal components are ready to go. I'm putting about 20g of weight into the nose - there's plenty of space for it to go. Getting ready to close the fuselage up.

Yep, paid for a pre-order via PayPal - I sent John an email confirming that I'd paid, but I never got a response back from him. I'm sure it'll all work out when it's closer to release.

Yep, you're right. The paint colours tend to stay the same, but the names change as fashions and trends change. No-one wants to put 'Avocado' paint on their walls nowadays, but they will put 'Calming Meadow' even though it's essentially the same colour!

It's all to do with trademarks and colour names. You can't trademark the words 'Dark Grey' as a paint name, but you can trademark the words 'Chic Shadow'.

I placed an order when it was initially announced, and I haven't had any acknowledgement either.

Lukgraph posted the following earlier on: 'Thank you for all your suggestions, 2 of them will be implemented this year (it will not be Avro 504, which our friends from Roden make). In February you will know what these models will be - we will announce 2 models at the same time'. For those not on Facebook, they also put the following comments against specific suggestions. Read into them what you will, gentlemen: Vickers Vildebeest: 'you will see Vildebeest' Shorts 184: 'it seems a bit too big, there may be a problem with the wings. I need to study it properly' Grumman Duck and F11C Goshawk: 'Duck and F11C are just beautiful' Curtis Jenny: 'This one will definitely be considered'

Damn, that's a real shame if true - the Breguet 14 is one of the key WWI aircraft currently missing in 1/32.

Lukgraph seem to have confirmed a Vickers Vildebeest in the comments, so hopefully that will materialise in 1/32.

OK, for the avoidance of doubt: WNW didn't go bankrupt. Peter Jackson shut the business down - a BIG difference There is no liquidator selling off the remaining kits, moulds, or other assets. The company is still listed as active on the NZ Companies Register with the last paperwork filed on 18th October 2022 They are now selling off a load of kits that were sitting in various Chinese warehouses. As there is only one person working on the closure of WNW, it has taken some time to organise everything to get these kits sold None of the kits which were OOP when WNW was alive have returned. All the kits which are currently being sold were listed on their website as being available when PJ closed the doors As far as any of us are aware, there are no plans to re-open WNW or start a new production run of any of the kits. Sadly, the HP 0/100 and O/400 will most likely never see the light of day

I'd love an NF.14, there's just something about the long nose and blown canopy that appeals.

I've not had much time to work on this, but here's an update. The cockpit is done, as mentioned previously this is going to be a a quick (for me!) build so I haven't bothered with adding additional detail. The CMK resin MB seat is painted up behind. After dry fitting, it became clear that the resin seat wouldn't fit - you can see here how much I had to remove (seat base and sides) to get it to fit. It'll now fit under the canopy. The engine is odd, as it's split into quarters rather than halves and doesn't have locating pins. This means the fit is awful - good job it'll all be hidden in the fuselage. A quick dry-fit of the main fuselage components.

Why wouldn't ya?

Jeez, even when they're dead WNW still manage to court conspiracy theories....there's no super-duper marketing strategy, no jacking up the price due to rarity, no 'Haha you thought we were dead but we're actually still secretly producing kits'. All that's happening is the accountants left in charge are selling off the remaining assets as and when they can. That's it.

I don’t think they’re playing some sort of commercial 3D chess, it’s simply taking them time to go through selling off the assets. The previous ‘last ones’ might just have been selling of the stock held in foreign warehouses that were accumulating excessive storage charges, whereas this lot might just be selling off what’s left in New Zealand. There may well be legal or other issues we’re unaware of that has delayed the selling off of this load of stock. There’s no benefit to WNW to keep releasing these lots ad hoc - they don’t benefit from having stock sitting in warehouses, they can only sell the remaking kits at stock prices and it only costs them money for storage. I think this is just the result of a gradual wind-down of the company by the accountant left in charge. Also, it’s worth noting that it isn’t WNW who declare that these are the ‘last kits’ - that’s just the retailers telling their customers that they believe any given lot are the last ones. WNW and PJ have said diddly-squat about their situation since 2020.

I would be up for a couple as well.

Or, y'know, they're just taking their time selling off the remaining assets...

I think it was Pup7309 who was after a Taube - I already have two in the stash!

Yes, this kind of thing is incredibly popular in Japan.

Fear not, for Hannants also has a container on the way: https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=362422&code=&product_type_id=&scale_id=953&keyword_search=&setPerPage=100&currency_id=

Picked this up at Telford for a reasonable price, so I'm going to try and get this made in time before the GB ends - so as I'm incredibly busy with work, it's going to be buttoned up and I'm not going to go overboard with detail. Will probably just replace the kit seat with an aftermarket MB one, and replace the wheels with aftermarket ones as well. I should be able to make and produce the decals as there's no available ones for Namibia...