hopkinspeter

The 'Ultimate Portfolio' book was part of an excellent series published by Jan Jorgensen. There were initially four books, one on each of the Scandinavian air forces, then he went on to do several volumes on individual Saab jets. It looks like they're all gone now though, he used to sell them through his own website (from where I got most of mine) but I can no longer find it. It's a pity - mine would definitely be on the list of 'things to grab on the way out if the house went on fire'! I agree that a Daco book on the Viggen would be great, though the HMH book (which I'd forgotten about) is actually along the same lines and is pretty good.

This is the best Viggen book that I have in my collection: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saab-37-Viggen-ultimate-portfolio/dp/8799368846 However, I suspect it's now out of print. There's also a Squadron 'Walkaround' on it that's OK too.

The underside of the Tornado ECR is identical in appearance to that of the IDS (and RAF's 'GR' versions) - i.e., flat and capable of being fitted with pylons. The Tornado version with the recesses for carrying missiles is the F.3 'air defence variant'.

This one's good: https://www.discounthobbyzone.com/en-gb/books/hellenic-air-force-haf-copy-1/mirage-2000-under-the-skin-eagle-aviation

In my experience, postage/shipping costs from the US to Europe are also pretty daft, usually comfortably exceeding the value of the goods being purchased; in the last couple of years shipping from Hong Kong and Japan to Europe has taken a huge upward hike as well. When combined with the likelihood of also being hit with a VAT bill and a handling charge on delivery, if you live within the EU it really no longer makes much sense to buy from a non-EU retailer. Sadly, Brexit looks like making UK retailers 'non-viable' for me too.....

The Kinetic kit when issued came with a small PE fret (seatbelts, formation lights and a few other details), I'd assume that's also what will be included in the Revell box?

Has to be the SR-71 Blackbird, surely!

It certainly looks pretty basic alright. Thanks for that, it will certainly be helpful when my kit arrives.....I did try looking online, but could find very little about the D.500 in general and almost nothing about its interior.

That looks nice, do you have any pictures of the interior before you closed up the fuselage? Does your reference to it being 'spartan' refer to what's provided in the kit or the fact that there wasn't much in the real thing anyway? I have one of the Dora Wings kits on the way to me but haven't received it yet; for some reason the D.500/501/510 series has always been a favourite of mine ever since I built the Heller 1/72 ones ages ago...actually, on reflection, it was more than 30 years ago.....help!

Just curious, if you've time to answer a quick question (well, I hope it's a quick question anyway!): how difficult would it be to build the kit with the cowling open? Seems a shame to hide the engine.....

Pretty sure that they didn't, I think it was a Pilatus P-2?

Lovely job on the interior, look forward to seeing this one progress. However, be aware that the Irish Air Corps scheme proposed by WNW is completely inaccurate according to any references I have. The best of these is the book by Joe Maxwell and Patrick Cummins entitled 'The Irish Air Corps - An Illustrated Guide' (published in 2009 by Max Decals Publications). This source confirms that the Air Corps received its Bristol Fighters in two batches; the initial eight aircraft were in an overall matt khaki green with clear doped linen wing undersurfaces and the second six were finished in overall silver dope with gray engine cowlings. Any photographs I've seen bear this out. I don't know what the source was for the scheme shown by WNW in their instructions but would be intrigued if anyone has photographs that confirm it - as someone has said earlier in this thread, it does look attractive!