paul71

the old lightning F3 1963 mould on the left and the new lightning F.2A 2013 mould on the right

I've not done any 1:48 scale yet ratch they are on my list to buy at some point as for the 1:72 i like them both and still got some to build, at them moment im just starting the jaguar GR1

great looking plane the rigging once again making it look amazing and i love the wood effect you are able to do, they are all looking really good at the side of each other you have made an excellent collection there

Im no expert in building kits but i thought some one might find it useful to see the difference as the older kits are still around to buy and some are re issued as the vintage range of kits A big difference is that the older kits are easier to build as they have less parts and not so many of the parts are small and hard to put on, the new kits have a lot of parts some been small and not so easy to put on but giving the new kits far greater detail. The decals on the older kits were sort of basic but ok with the newer kit decals going to far greater detail giving you the option of how far you wish to go the kit on the left is the 1974 tool and on the right the new 2012 tool. I hand paint so there not the best you will see but you will see a difference between them as i slowly get better and more experienced at doing them, the aerial on the aircraft on the right is smaller that it should be do to it not been formed properly but it was good enough for me to use instead of making a new one

just got the revell B17f Memphis bell pity airfix dont do one, waiting for my club kit to come, just re-joined the club as i didnt bother last year all ready had a few hawks and didnt want any more

they look good ratch, every time i see what you have done i think i might try doing some never done any before, i might get around to it one day

come out well simon glad you managed to recover it

thanks for the references ratch i will look into them, the more i look into this the more questions i seem to have, i have loads of books and magazines most of them put away though just not enough room for them to be all out, but nothing really covers how they were painted

after doing some looking at pictures and films its clear there is some differences within the same patterns so i started to look at it differently, and not assume what we think it should be and how things should have been done and since there isn't a good paper trail of how they did things available right now, so i look at it in there time frame and not ours. The hurricanes of 111sq early MKI clearly show there is a difference in the same pattern on different aircraft some having clear straight lines and some more of a curved line. the aircraft were a new type not being a biplane and had a new type of camo pattern been used ( simply they were no longer a silver colour) are we seeing the experiments of which would work on an actual squadron in this photo, just like the experiments they did with ships. As for early in the war mass production of this type aircraft was still new and with the BoB raging over head aircraft were needed fast to fill the gaps, as a new aircraft life could be just days, whether a paint line was just in the right place wouldn't have been a big concern and would give you the slight variations of that time. As for later in the war things do seem to be of a better standard and all looking the same from the factory with variations to be more likely to have come from damage repaired within the squadron or if a bit worse sent away to a repair centre. I did find film with a Lancaster wing been painted in it on youtube its by british pathe and is called Lancaster bombers - first pictures (1942) and its 6min 24sec in, as ratch says they used a rubber mask but was this just to put a line on so they would know where to paint to therefore again giving a small variation on the actual painted wing as i cant see a mask or how it would fit as the way they are painting the wing in the film. As i say these are just my thoughts on how they did things at the time after looking at different pictures and films

that is looking good ratch, it will be an excellent backdrop to your models, the yellow building looks great with the trees around it but the workshop is still my favourite looking one. maybe you should think about putting it on how you put it all together and what you used i for one would like to know more about it paul

valiant WZ393 waddington 1963 148squadron

valiant B(PR)K.1 WZ393 of 90 Squadron in original all-metal finish displaying at Blackpool Squires Gate airport in 1957

they look good ratch you must have spent some hours doing them, like the brick work on the first building

assembly lines hurricane wings looks like mismatch on the flap except the last one but it could be the angel the picture was taken second to last could be a different pattern or colour spitfire assembly showing different stages before and after painting lancaster you can see slight variations in the pattern between the turrets and you can see how the rear of the rear turret was painted as it is turned to the side on one mosquito wing section showing two different patterns mosquitos at hatfield looks like ther is pattern and pru aircraft together, first two wings same pattern next three could be pru wings

spitfire DWK has a different pattern than DWA and DWT 19 squadron different patterns and the second plane appears to have a different colour 19 on the tail

hurricanes the first hurricane has a different pattern to the next few but further up they look as though they have the same pattern again looking at the tails different schemes again within the same squadron, if you look at aircraft 2,3 and 5 you can see slight variations in the same pattern around the cockpit

2_TAF_Spitfires_332_411_and_56_Sqn_9jun44 as you can see with these there seems to be some slight variation in the pattern going down underneath the exhausts and towards the rear of the cockpit

to me there does seam to be some slight variations in the same pattern and i did read that but i cant remember where now iv read that many books that the pattern didn't always match up when the aircraft were assembled so im not too sure about the masks and what they used as I've not come across any pictures of them. there were different patterns within a squadron on the same type of aircraft. i will sort some pictures out and post them

Hi simon you could try Tamiya extra thin cement quick set you can get it from hobbycraft. make sure the joint that will be glued is clear of paint to make a good contact between parts, clamp the parts together first so that you are happy with it, then put the glue on, with it been thin it uses a capillary action and flows into the joint and sets the two parts together where there is contact, so if you don't have contact all the way down you can do like a spot weld in the places that do have contact hopefully this should hold it ( I've even used it to reopen joints to make them better if they have moved whilst setting previously but you do have to be careful when doing this) From what i remember when i made one mine didn't make contact all the way around as well and this held it hope this helps paul

wow ratch looks even better in the pictures you have taken outside, really like it set in the diorama with the crew working on it and the panels on the ground that must be taking pride of place in the house paul