Confusionreigns178

That comes as a big surprise..... Considering the cost of these kits and the huge amount of research-material available on-line, you'd expect both makers to get the accuracy "spot on". If they can't get it right, what chance does anyone else have? Cheers. Chris.

VERY YES, PLEASE! I've being waiting for a '32nd RAF London Gift Shop for years..... Can it include a figure of me laughing my head off at most of the shop's over-inflated prices? Cheers. Chris.

Is there any concrete evidence to support this? From what, I've read, even the high-velocity 76mm on the Sherman would generally only take a large gouge out of a Tiger 1's front armour (not penetrating) and maybe give the crew severe headaches. Still, one thing the German quality advantage was no counter to the enormous numbers of Shermans produced (Tiger 1's - approximately 1,450 produced.... Shermans, approximately 45,000 made). Those numbers tell a story all by themselves. Cheers. Chris.

Just loving this build! For my money, the Crusader was the sleekest, meanest-looking pugilist the US Navy ever fielded (with the F-14 coming a VERY close second). Thanks for sharing with us. Chris.

Masters of The Air reportedly cost $250 Million to make. I don't know about the overall quality of British drama, but the Masters budget would easily make several similar UK shows. Make of that what you will. Cheers. Chris.

Who survived the crash? IIRC, there were only two people left on board and I haven't seen either man in subsequent episodes. I'm pretty sure they were both killed. Chris.

Beer, young men facing great danger regularly, desperation of war = some very unfortunate, ill-considered comments. Cheers. Chris.

I bet the 'Bolts never dropped a genuine toilet on the enemy (unlike the mighty Skyraider). This is a very interesting thread, by the way. Cheers. Chris.

One man's meat is another man's poison. All I'm saying. Chris.

I used to have two good model-shops within 15 minutes drive - now, both sadly closed. The Internet has caused a massive shift in how people buy their modelling products. Chris.

If you're looking for THE definitive guide to European F-104's, then I would thoroughly recommend DACO Publications "Uncovering the F-104 Starfighter". Full colour, close-up shots of literally EVERY part of multiple Euro Starfighters. Not cheap, but worth every cent. I think it's still available directly from DACO. Hope this helps. Chris.

I'm fairly sure that this idea of Royal Mail "destroying" certain items is an urban-myth. Surely they would only bother to X-ray a parcel that is going to be transported by air? If you're posting inside the UK, I would take a guess that a very small percentage of the mail ever sees the cargo-hold of an aircraft. If travelling by road, the carrier would have no way of knowing what's inside the box.... Has anyone had this happen to them? I would very much like to know. Also, from a legal stand-point, surely this situation creates a MASSIVE breach-of-contract situation for Royal Mail? Still, we're talking about a company that quite happily dobbed-in over 550 of its loyal, hard-working post-masters, even though it knew their situation was created by bad software. Makes you wonder, doesn't it? Also, what does the company expect the bladed-object to do? Fight it's way out of the packaging and stab a member of staff? Seems a little unlikely to me. Cheers. Chris.

It is VERY long-in-the-tooth, that's true - but it provides the foundation to build something absolutely show-stopping. I've always thought of it as the first of the true 1/32nd "Super Kits". (No, Hasegawa kits are very good, but they all have their various issues - what kit doesn't?). Hassy and Tammy were the two makers leading the pack by a big margin, back in the 1970's. It's a shame the company couldn't have used recessed panel-lines on the entire 'Cat, but I guess doing a 20/80% mix of recessed- and raised-lines made tooling a bit cheaper (not something you would associate with the Tamiya brand, normally). Cheers. Chris.

There's a possibility that Alistair (Aerocraft) feels he's done what he needs to on the big Tomcats (he can confirm or deny this here, on everyone's favourite website, of course). I guess anything is possible. I'm not obsessive when it comes to putting more detail in cockpits. To my way of thinking, the bang-seat is the central focus of most cockpits, as IP's and side panels are often fairly difficult to see, once the fuselage is all made-up. Other users' experience may differ, of course. I wish the OP all the best in his F-14 build. Cheers. Chris. PS: The Reskit Phoenix missiles are SUPERB and not too much Dollar, all things considered. Their resin seems to be just about the best you can buy...

Definitely been signed. I have another set in the series and their no signature on those. I'm guessing that the pilot flew one of the aircraft in Vietnam. Does the signature make them worth any more? I have no idea, to be honest..... maybe to a very dedicated aviation-collector (or, maybe not). Cheers. Chris.

Very possibly, they saw the bulge on their rivals' kits and simply copied it, without bothering to do the research on it. Chris.

Thanks for the clarification, Dave. Chris.

Ermmmm..... why would a NMF Fortress save money on CGI? Do you mean they used a modern-day survivor, that happened to be in NMF? I would have thought the cost of painting it in authentic colors would have been well within the budget of a big series like this one... I'm looking forward to the show. It's about time that this part of WW2 was portrayed in a TV series. Having said that, I think there was a UK produced drama-series decades ago, called "We'll Meet Again", set in an Eighth Air force squadron. It's just a shame that the efforts of the RAF will probably never be given the same treatment. Even Peter Jackson couldn't find the money for a new Dambusters movie, despite his best efforts. Chris.

It's very possible they dumped the series because it had a +$300 Million price-tag. Ok, that's not Amazon's "Lord of the Rings" series' level of spending (estimated at around $59 Million per 60 minute episode), but it's still a very big chunk of change. Despite their publicity-machines telling us otherwise, not all streaming-services are doing well financially. Even Netflix is now struggling to bring the bacon home. Too much competition, too many people cancelling their streaming to save money, just too much content (IMHO). In a world in which a new Mission Impossible movie can barely make a profit at the cinema (I believe it's still in the "red", in Hollywood's very odd accounting terms), anything's possible. Chris.

I THINK that a couple of the Float Spits had NMF on some parts of the floats and fuselage, but it a long time since I saw the photos. It strikes me that you could go "super-What-If" on this kit and let your imagination run riot. How many did they build? I have a feeling it was around 10 (but memory is also very hazy on this one). I do remember reading that the floats didn't stay air-tight for very long and believe that it was a major reason for the project to be abandoned. Good luck in your build. Chris.

Hi, Barry. Out of curiosity, how do you get the decals from water to the model? If you make the movement JUST before the decal is ready to float off the backing-sheet - in theory, at least - it should prevent the marking from curling over on itself. In other words, it's best to use backing-sheet as a "carrier" between water and kit. I appreciate that this is a bit of a tall-order and it will take a lot of time to be able to judge when to move the decal. Do you use decal softening or setting products? If yes, perhaps try a slightly weaker softening solution? I have seen Flory Models videos where Phil just adds 3-4 drops of his favourite decal-softener to the water in his bowl - could be worth a try? Hope this helps. Chris.

Surely, Border Models could step in to this void and make a very healthy profit. Just saying.... Chris.

As I'm sure other folks have noticed, the RAF Hendon Museum's He-111's prop blades are rounded and the Border CADS appear to be square-tipped. Isn't it a bit early to be hacking this model to bits? Chris.

A UK kit-dealer has told me that the chances of Revell doing another run of the He-111 are just about zero. How accurate is this? I have no idea, to be honest. Cheers. Chris.

It's good to see someone building this classic kit. I'm still mystified that only one manufacturer has ever made a big Beau. Surely the good (?) folks at Trumpeter could produce this one...? Cheers. Chris.