richard shea Posted April 24, 2017 Share Posted April 24, 2017 This old Airfix kit has been embellished with white metal intake filters and the Whirlybirds detailing and decal set to create 230 Sqn's Puma HC1 as shown at RIAT Fairford in 1997. I was on this detachment and after helping to stick all those tigerstripes on and then applying a coat of PX to make it shiny I retired to the beer tent for the weekend.We were fortunate to take a cab to Fairford that year as the Sqn was heavily tasked with supporting the RUC and Army; the IRA announced their second ceasefire during the detachment. No special paint scheme could be applied to the aircraft and all the decals were made from black self adhesive fablon type material pre-cut before departure and applied at Fairford. It all had to be removed again before the return flight to RAF Aldergrove where it was discovered that the adhesive from the decals had remained on the paint and attracted lots of exhaust particles!There is some silvering to the decals and this is due to lousy paint and varnish...made in China. The Whirleybirds kit is excellent and includes plenty of lumps and bumps to recreate a Puma in the NI P1 or P2 role as a Nitesun light and mounting frame is in the kit, a small deficiency is the lack of the intake filters and Jimpy and pintle for the RH cabin door. Composite rotor blades with the correct droop are also in the aftermarket kit.It's about time Airfix re-tooled this kit and upgraded it to the current HC2 model perhaps./media/tinymce_upload/238bdd4be05fd8a27b72ce40ba3d6333.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/4e31ac258e5281594669f433b773f8f0.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/0d05ea5d17ff88992af2d29447f3cefb.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/9911102fc53ac3b2d6986c2269370d73.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/84bfd11bce89bf945305dd32ee835dde.JPG/media/tinymce_upload/9663bec31e7d07666708f661ae5b1771.JPG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tudders137 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 I remember it well, I made it! Took me bloody hours to put that Tiger on. IIRC we came second for best Tiger after the KC135 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dark Earth Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Nicely done Richard !On the original - and on the scale version !Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kenneth ONeill Posted July 19, 2019 Share Posted July 19, 2019 Agreed, about both 1:1 and 1:72 versions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
richard shea Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 I remember it well, I made it! Took me bloody hours to put that Tiger on. IIRC we came second for best Tiger after the KC135I don’t remember much about that weekend to be honest, only that a copious volume of beer was consumed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dad Paul B Posted July 23, 2019 Share Posted July 23, 2019 Nice work. I built the kit back in the 70s. It is showing the age of the tooling with the exagertated rivet detail but looks great.A colleague of mine was in the Army and Ulster was the one place he got really scared. We need more of this sort of project to remind and inform people of what it was like. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dabhand Posted August 4, 2019 Share Posted August 4, 2019 The Puma is a good looking helicopter isn't it! Getting quite long in the tooth now though? Nice kit - I do like the Airfix one, rivets and all! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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