paul fisher

Thanks guys! I will do my best to avoid acting my age!

Many thanks for your good wishes, Susy and I are doing well and I must say it's a pleasant surprise to see this model again.It was easily the most successful kit I ever produced and it's a lot of fun for me to remember the long hours we put in trying to make enough of them at first.I could never manage something like that now, too old and lazy! I'm looking forward to seeing how it goes!

What a marvelous subject for a it in 1/32 scale! Many years ago I had enlarged a simple general arrangement drawing of the Mirage IV to 1/32, it will make a very impressive model!

As stated above, Halberd is the best of the best, along with SBS I don't know of anyone doing better work.The Goblin kit is just a treasure.

Milling styrene is fine, if you can rig up a source of gentle air blowing over the cutting area. Alternatively to blowing compressed air over the cut you can get much the same effect from clamping a vaccuum cleaner hose close enough to move air and chips away from the cut, the effect is much the same. As long as you keep the area of cut fairly cool and clear the chips you should have no trouble.Try to avoid taking deep aggressive cuts since you can't cool the part of the cutter that's buried in the plastic. Don't run your rpm's too high and move too quickly.Practice on some scrap until you are comfortable.

I bought the 1/48 kit since I have been restricting myself to smaller stuff for space reasons, it is simply one of the finest pieces of work I have ever seen and I have no idea how Halberd manage to continue considering how close they are to the front lines but I can't say enough about what a great product they put out .Last I heard they were working up a very large and unloved piston engined Navy attack aircraft.....I can't wait!

Absolutely gorgeous!

What a great project! Can't wait to see this unfold....

Nice to see this....Back in the early 1980's when I still lived in San Pedro I got to see these under construction at Todd Shipyard, all long gone now but it was cool coming home from work at Northrop where I could watch F-5E's being built and drive past the yard where these frigates were being built...Ah, the good old bad old days.

Wow! What an outstanding build project, love the subject and all the surface detailing.Gonna take a lot of paint!

I have been hoping you might fall into this rabbit hole! I have a great love for these aircraft left over from my younger days in 1/72 scale when I could see and had steadier hands...Won a fair few contests with worked over Supermodel and Italaeri ( they spelled it that way for a while) kits.This is going to make a worthy companion to your Sea Fury....

Outstanding build!

I thought about doing this up in 1/32 so many times over the years....It would make a very compelling model in big scale.

Great to see 1/32 scale becoming more prevalent at the NATS, I was really tickled to see a couple Sea Fury kits built up as well as a Fat Face Spad....It's great to see them on display instead of in the stash.Looks to have been a great turnout across the board!

ANother good option here is to go to Thommy Thomasson's website, he has quite a lot of good info on this topic.

The main difference will be the way the top of the fairing mates to whatever fuselage you're using.I had the Douglas drawings for the AD-5W which I used to create the parts in my kit.I don't know if that information is on the hard drive that escaped the fire with me but I will take a look later today and if I've got it you're welcome to it. There are other major differences , the entire cockpit and cabin as well as the aft cabin cover and a hatch built into the belly where the dive brake used to be.If you plan on fitting out the after cabin be prepared for a lot of work. 3D printing a copy of the kit radome hollow like the resin parts would be best, it will get very heavy otherwise.

Not really sure where to put this as I've never reviewed a product before but the new book from Crecy on the Macchi 200, 202 and 205 fighters arrived yesterday and simply blew me out of my socks.I was deeply into building Italian aircraft in 1/72 scale back in the 70's and 80's when I could see that well and lately my interest in trying again in a larger scale has been growing so I went ahead and bought this book. We had nothing even remotely this good to go from and the Italian publications of the day suffered from poor photo reproduction and paper. I was pleasantly surprised at the depth of detailed information, drawings and best of all clear period photos that really show the design and construction of these beautiful 'planes .One thing I note in particular is that none of the paint applications are the same from 'plane to 'plane, even in the same scheme the motions of the human arm and hand are visible in the random application of the markings.A feast for the smoke ring aficionado.I am already searching for a better airbrush! Since losing a fifty year accumulation of books a few years ago I have been extremely picky about what I have replaced.This is certainly a book worth the modest price and I highly recommend it to anyone wanting to know more about these gorgeous aircraft. Best, Paul

This monster just gets better and better! Can't wait to see it finished!

Just outstanding work going into this.....Always liked the Stirling and to see it in 1/32 is just a treat!

White would be the normal color.

This will be lovely...I spent two days there back in 2005 getting every picture and measurement I could.Can't wait to see your progress!

For all the ink/pixels flying about this kit I have to say that looks superb.

Looks delicious! I had wanted to kit this up for many years but feared that it would not sell well.I think time have changed enough that it should do well, I certainly hope so. These guys are doing some great stuff!