ian maw

There are downward ID lamps for sale (with photos) at spitfirespares.co.uk The site also has good pics of lots of fiddly bits, making it a perfect reference destination for large scale models.

These should help for now, I'm trying to resize most of my CF-18 pictures to post to an online album somewhere, but it's taking me forever to sort them out Edit - Not sure why the linked images got resized, but they may still be big enough to see the distinct differences. Almost all of the Canadian Hornets have thier own quirks when it comes to looks. 916 has a false canopy quite different from the other jets, in that the paint only comes up to the bottom of the doors. If you look at the horizontal stabilizers, you will see both are painted for the right side. It is not unusual to see rudders, stabilizers, and sometimes ailerons replaced with items from the opposite side. The other thing to note, is the "Canada" wordmark is placed higher than normal up the fuselage side.

It would be very unusual to see a 410 squadron two seater without the spotlight. As for really soiled, they are all about the same, so I will look through my pictures, and find an aircraft that I have lots of nice views of in the final approach. (easy to get, as I live in Cold Lake, and my living room faces the approach corridor to runway 22) I'm sure that the modelling community has all kinds of names for the unmodified and updated Hornets. The CF-18 didn't really go through a "Mid Life Upgrade, or MLU" They did go through various capability upgrades. The first big one was pretty much the same as the US Navy A+ mod. I think it was Engineering Change Proposal 583 (I'm going off the top of my head, as I'm sitting in front of the TV here). During the upgrade, the squadrons would have a mix of modified, and unmodified jets on the line, and refered to the modified aircraft as ECP jets. The remaining aircraft have since been further upgraded in increments. The aircraft that were either not going to be, or haven't yet been modified were refered to as legacy jets, and the modernized aircraft referred to by thier level of upgrade. So you would have had legacy, R1, and R2 aircraft to pick from for awhile. (Note, outside of the RCAF the term legacy is used on these forums to pretty much mean any F-18A, B, C, or D) Aircraft not chosen to be upgraded have since been withdrawn from service, and are known as "Black" jets. Now that the big modifications are done for a while, we just call them singles and duals, or A's and B's again. Aside from the big capability upgrades mentioned, there has been a more or less constant effort to extend the fatigue life of the airframes. Some more drastic than others, but since I have been lurking on every CF-18 build here on LSP, I see that most of them are well known, and you can learn as much from the previous builds as I can ever tell you. Sorry I can't comment too much on the actual builds, as the three Academy kits in my closet are still unstarted.

Looking good! You captured the concentration of the student and the boredom of the back seat instructor well. I have tons of 410 Hornet pics, so if you have a particular aircraft in mind I can help with pictures.

Must have may your day when it was dropped so hard that even the manequin was reaching for something to hang on to [/url]">http://http://smg.photobucket.com/user/imawpages/media/CF-18%20Project/2005-12-08_zpse80c1362.jpg.html'>

Check out spitfirespares.com They have the original parts for sale, and photos which may help.

Please remember to let us know how it turns out.

Yup, built both the IX and the XVI without the engines. Though, I wasn't planning on using the engines in a separate display, I just think the Spitfire looks better with the cowling in place. (as a bonus, I now have a couple of spare engines, one of which may end up on a lancaster)

I see some good ideas here. I will second the call for the century series, F-101, F102, F-106 And I would like to see a Fw 189, (yes, that would be cool) And if there were a SeaKing, or Firefly available, I would buy both A Gazelle would also be a nice addition to the large scale market As for everything else, no matter how fantastic the kit is, I would likely have to check the price tag first. There are so many good kits coming our way these days, that finances are becoming a limiting factor.

Speed brake insides are same colour as the landing gear bays Wing tip launchers are the same type and FS 36375 colour as the ones used on the CF-18. LAU-7 Missile launchers fitted on most non USAF fighters, so someone may have spares from a project or two they could let you have. All Hawks based in Cold Lake are fitted with the rails, and almost always carry an instrumentaion pod on one side, and a DATM-9 on the other to balance it out. I have never seen a Canadian Hawk without the centerline tank installed. I chose to post this one, as it is one of the decal options that came with your kit

Careful! Airliners can be quite addictive. I started by ordering some clear decal sheet from ATP back when they were in business. Clint thoughtfully included a copy of his latest catalog with the order, and once I saw the endless marking possibilities I was hooked. (May be why I eagerly await the next update to a certain Constellation thread?) As for the engine nacelle seams, best way around it I found with many kits it to glue the engine halves together without the fan/compressor. Then cut off the front of the whole intake section, fix the seams on the inside, then add the fan/compressor and reinstall the engine front. This has the added benifit of being able to paint the now seamless intake, and the engine face separately, making everything a little bit easier in the end.............assuming we did a nice clean cut to begin with.

Not a big stretch, but at least it comes with a new prop to make doing most of the RCAF ones easier. P-51K is on pre-order at a couple of vendors sites

Another good reference for the Hampden is the Tornado Airwar book (number 147) http://www.wunderwaf...irWar/index.htm

http://www.finescalerr.com/smf/index.php?topic=1401.0 You are a lucky, the hard work is already done

I think James was just smart enough to go early in the day. I was turned away when i tried to get there. Apparently, they closed it down, and sent everyone home as the CC150 was suddenly tasked to fly to Germany to pick up that nut-job who mailed body parts around the country. They had the Airbus buried to the point where almost everything else had to be towed out of the way before it could leave. So, judging by all the cars I had to dodge before I was turned around, and all the others who were behind me trying to get in, it had the potential to be one of the better attended open houses. James, I hope you got a lot of picks of the threat emitter on top of that Humvee! (and as a side note, I just remembered I promised to send you some files when I got home)

For anything Spitfire, and WW2 British for that matter, I have bookmarked Spitfire Spares. Here is the page you are looking for: http://www.spitfirespares.com//Pages/oxygen.html

Done is done...... Always nice to see a CF-5, No matter what you think of how it turned out, i love it (my conversion is still in the box it came in) I love the story that goes with it, maybe I like your model as much as you do for similar reasons. I spent a lot of time hanging those bombs on the CF-5 while I was an armourer with 419, and then I got to spend a few years scoring the hits out at Shaver. As one of the guys who had to pick up all the tank parts after a few shacks, I thank you for being a little short, and for not being so short that I had to rebuild the final aim on marker yet again. You were lucky to have been in during those days of low level delivery. Was always nice to watch the jets in the pop pattern. This high altitude dropping makes for a boring day out on the range. Oh, and, MOOSE MOOSE MOOSE!

I've just been looking over the parts trees, and had a look over on Hyperscale to see the kit built up, and I'm impressed. I think I will have to buy a dozen or so, just for the engines and interior parts. Looks like a lot of Ar 196 parts can be used to ease scratchbuiding a nice He 114. Thank you Revell

Of the CT-133 pics posted so far, here is what I see............. Those with the nose painted were all used by the utility squadrons, VU-32 and VU-33 to tow targets for the boat people to shoot at, and those were day-glow. Those with the unpainted noses were the standard Canadian red, including the tail stripes used on the 414 squadron aircraft. The sample in the IPMS Canada guide that came out 20 years ago is close to Model Master Guard red, and a great many Canadian modellers will swear by it. I used to work on the Tutors during the good old days, and found that no two airframes had the same colour paint. I found out why later when I went to Summerside, and saw the guys mixing the paint. The smaller the amount to be sprayed, the less the refinisher would stir his gallon can before pouring a bit into his paint gun. So if you can spray the red areas of 3-4 jets out of one can of paint, then the colour can vary from the darker reds, to the almost orange. I sprayed out Tamiya, Humbrol, and Testors onto index cards hoping to find a suitable match, and darned if I didn't find at least one or two jets that matched each of the colours. But with a fleet of almost 100 tutors when I was in Moose Jaw, The closest match to the most samples was Testors Model Master 2719 Italian Red With Tamiya X-7 red, and Model Master Guard red tied for second place. That thimble radome on one of the earlier phots is for the threat emitter, allowing the jet to simulate anything from an Exocet to a Blackjack to the shipborne radars during naval exercises. One pilot from VU-32 said it's a neat feature, but that his golf clubs would no longer fit in the gun bay after they were installed. Attached is a photo of a 414 Sqn Falcon from the same hangar as the previous 414 T-bag, also matched to MM Italian red. as well as a few more photos taken over the years. note on the last pic, a recently retired example about to leave Cold Lake with it's markings removed, but clearlty showing two shades of the same red paint on the tip tank. Also, if you can, try to find "Shooting Stars- Lockheed's Legendary T-bird" by Michael O'leary, and published by Osprey/ Motorbooks International ISBN 0-85045-846-3. It's a marvelous colection of colour photos of T-33s

These were taken a year or two before the unit switched over to F-16s. I have no idea what colour the wheel wells were when delivered, but they were definitely white when retired.