Simon OGorman

Looks great! And yeah, that front windscreen is just the wrong size laughing Love your paint choice too.

And there was a loss to the carpet monster too. The side vent on the engine cowling, which was infuriatingly small but I did manage to get it on to the model. Then, while I was painting the inside of the front vent, it got knocked off and was lost forever. So I had to make a new one out of sprue. The first attempt was okay but way too big. The second version was much better and looks quite decent, I think. I also drilled it out a little bit but was wary of going too far and breaking it.

I've now added the tail section which included some very ungainly wrestling with the support struts. You can see where the glue (yes, I still use old-school blobby glue from olden times) caused a bit of mayhem on the right had one, though I learned a lot from that mini disaster and the left hand one went on perfectly.

Just one thing... Columbo's 1959 Peugeot 403

So I pivoted from yellow to silver to reflect the story of the real plane. It seems a bit too glossy for my liking but I did use a flat aluminium paint, and as it's my first airbrush attempt it was also the first time I had to mask a cockpit (2 actually). Lots of learnings going on here!

I think it looks great. Love the trolley and the paintwork on the rocket. I would never think to do something like this but it's really interesting (and very well presented!)

Here's the career stats of this aircraft. It's taken me a while to figure out the terminology but it all starts to make sense after a while. The odd bit is that it went from Lossiemouth to Roborough, which is just north of Plymouth, in 1966, but was then back in Lossiemouth in 1968 at their July airshow. That's some round trip! I also still don't know what 'coded "B"' meant.

The final pic of the plane of the plane itself shows it in storage at Yeovilton where it was repainted as Sir Alan Cobham's Tiger Moth for display in the museum there. I assume it's still there.

And here is the plane at the airshow in Abbotsinch in July of 1962. (pic taken by R.A. Scholefield).

Lovely model, and love the history too!

The photographer of the pic above is Lorence R Fizia and he goes by the flickr handle of eLaReF as you can see in the watermark of the picture

... I think I'm going to have to pivot back to the silver having become hooked on the story of this little aeroplane. Here it is at the Lossiemouth Airshow in July of 1968. The airfield is on the Moray coast and has now reverted back to "RAF Lossiemouth" but it was in Navy hands as HMS Fulmar from 1946 to 1972. I was given permission to share this by the photographer who I cannot persuade to give me his name, but his pictures can be seen on Flickr at and also on a site called fighter control.co.uk at this link https://www.fightercontrol.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?t=181245

I was initially aiming for a yellow lower half and camo top colour scheme...

Yeah, Dad's gone now, he passed away in 2017, but he always spoke so fondly of his time in the RN. I wish I could ask him about it. Even if he didn't remember the plane he would have dug up a few stories from that time.

While building this Airfix kit I started looking up the history of the Abbottsinch 1962 version (XL 717) and have found it circling the life path of my Dad who flew RN Sea Vixens in the 60s. The box info suggests that XL 717 was based at RNAS HMS Sanderling, Abbotsinch (now Glasgow International Airport) in 1962. But it was actually based in Lossiemouth and was just photographed at the airshow in Abbotsinch in 1962. Presumably that photo was what the box art was based on. In the early 70s it was brought to Yeovilton where it was repainted to represent Sir Alan Cobham's Moth "G-ABUL" and exhibited in their museum. What fascinates me now is the possibility that my Dad knew (and maybe flew?) this plane when he was in Lossiemouth. He was also at Yeovilton (where I was born) but we had left by the time the Moth got there. Anyway, I thought I'd share some of what I found for anyone else who may be building this kit - or just have an interest in aviation history. I'm a learner at this research lark so expect errors aplenty!