Sailorman

The important thing is to ensure the bit connecting the part to the sprue is well supported on the underside so that you are cutting against something firm. Also be sure to place your finger on the part or it will fly off and be claimed by the carpet monster!

At the foot of the window when you are writing a post you'll find a paperclip near the text "Drag files here to attach or choose files..." Drag your photo there then submit.

Drag files to the bottom of the post window ..... where it says "Drag files here to attach or choose files

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I built the 1:600 Acadamy kit. I built that one because it matched the scale of the Airfix 1:600 kits. I don't remember whether the 1:600 one came with rigging thread. I wouldn't have used it even if it did. I prefer using stretched sprue to rig the model. Right click on the image and select "open in a new TAB"

I've always gone by the principle that if you want to improve look at someone better than you. Having said that I wish Airfix Modelworld had more marine related articles. There are so many planes and tanks. I also miss having drawings. The Airfix Magazines used to have loads of scale plans for one to refer The original Airfix Magazines changed a lot over the years too. The first magazines - early sixties - used to include a number of articles - monthly round ups and very little modelling. They were very heavily into trains and balsa as a modelling medium. They moved more towards kits and plastic in the late sixties. I also subscribed to Scale Models. They too were very diverse and interesting but in time moved very heavily to motor vehicles and motorcycles. That's when I gave up buying it. It seems all magazines develop over the years. I suppose different editors have different ideas about what to include.

What I'd really like to see is a 1:144 Orion + Artemis ....

If it's highly detailed why remove it? If people handle it you are asking for it to be damaged. I don't think it will be easy to pick up without damaging it either.

Beautiful!

Nice build. The base does set it off.

Copy and paste this to your browser: https://support.airfix.com/hc/en-gb/articles/360017083939-Airfix-Club-Flying-Hours Or else: Click on SUPPORT at the top of this page Then click on PRODUCT SUPPORT Then click on AIRFIX FLYING HOURS Then click again on the small text FLYING HOURS There is a full explanation.

Yes, I noticed that too ..... but since he mentioned Airfix specifically, I approved it and whipped off an email to the powers that be. We'll see what they say.

Surely it must be possible to find a Hellcat kit somewhere ....out there

I think it is unrealistic to expect any manufacturer to include all the colours a model maker might opt to use to build a kit. They provide enough for an average model maker to produce a reasonable likeness then if one wants to go into more detail one has to invest in more paints. I remember building a 1:72 first world war aircraft - can't remember which one as it was aeons ago - and I decided to paint the pilot's scarf in red. One can hardly expect the manufacturer to provide a pot of paint so that I could paint the tiny scarf in red! However, I had plenty of red paint from building ships. You'll find that you'll rapidly build up a stock of paints as you build more and more kits. I still have and use tinlets of paint I bought tens of years ago.

Maybe nothing new RN but there are a couple of RN vintage classics. With a bit of effort they can be made up to look quite good or converted into other ships of the class. Take a look at the Ships thread to see what is possible. In the meantime we continue to wait and hope!

Yes please!! more liners and ships to 1:600!

While it is true you can built a kit of almost anything these days, you'd be surprised how many of us find they are unable to find kits of the subject they want in the scale that they want. My own preference is 1:600 ships. I started with the Airfix range when I was young then proceeded to the liners. Having all these ships to 1:600 I would now like to add more liners. There are only two more 1:600 liners that I know of from Revell. The chances are I won't be seeing any new liners released in this scale ..... but I live in hope. As a result of this I am having to scratchbuild, more as a result of necessity rather than choice.

Lovely

Re your questions: When fixing parts together with superglue you need to be very careful. They tend to immediately stick together giving you no time to align the parts. What I do is stick the parts together with a tiny spot of PVA glue. This takes time to dry and allows you to move the parts around till they align perfectly. Let this glue dry and once the parts are stuck together run a bit of superglue around the edges using a sharpened toothpick. Capillary action will "suck" the glue between the parts giving you a permanent joint. I would not use superglue near film. In this case go with PVA again, applied with a sharpened toothpick. You could also use superglue as described in 1 above but be very careful.

The Airfix Bismark is one of their early ship models and not as accurate as it could have been. However, it can still make a pleasing model being somewhat larger than the more common 1:700 models. It will all depend on your skills. The end product will be whatever you make of it. Look for plans and study as many photos as you can to help improve the kit. Scroll down the Ships & Boats Forum and look for "Bismark Redemption." KiwiKev tackled it and addressed the main faults. However, as I said, a first timer can make a reasonable model of it with just a few additions. The model below is out of the box other than having cut off the hull below the waterline and made a waterline model of it. Ask us anything if you get stuck as you build it.

Well, I suppose very few people would want an electric motor. This would push the cost up for the majority of customers. There was a time Airfix sold them separately. There were also Spin-a-Prop motors but I don't have an example. That makes more sense as you wouldn't have raised the cost of the kit for nothng. I suppose it was not proving worthwhile. After all, small electric motors are a dime-a-dozen. I don't remember whether this came with my 1:24 Mustang (1st Release) or whether I bought it separately. I know I had planned to use it for the Mustang.

That's a great improvement.