The Wooksta! - The Plan, a Spitfire Blog

[The Wooksta!]

Now have the early XIVc together and it's looking good.  Still to attach the tailplanes and there's some filling and sanding to do.  The intake underneath is on and I should have it ready to prime in a day or so. 

Also closed up another PR19.  Can't quite remember what I was doing with this one, possibly a post war RAuxAF one in NMF (my RAuxAF sees each unit getting a couple of PR and FR aircraft to ensure there's a reserve of trained PR pilots).  Not PRU blue, you ask?  Some post war PR aircraft were in silver finishes, two PR Spits spring to mind and there are Lancasters and Mosquitos too.  I already have a RAuxAF PR19 in overall PRU blue but I do quite like the option of a PRU Blue overall aircraft with Type D markings and a 607 Sqn shield from the F22 decal sheet.  Then again, there's a pair of PR21s that I've yet to decal, so may just use one of them.

I did paint the cockpit black, so I can do another of the three pathfinder aircraft I had planned instead.  There's another half dozen of the Airfix 19s in the stash which are earmarked for The Plan, so either option is good.  May just dig out another couple and make a start anyway.  It's such a nice kit to build, although the only niggle I have with it is the trailing edge of the wing lower - unless you give it a sanding, there's a step.

Also started one of the dozen F22s I had on order - they've finally arrived.  I've some subtle whiffs planned for one and I'm looking forward to spraying this one.  Not revealling anything yet.  Quite like the idea of an F24 in the Intruder scheme but whether it'll be RAF or RAuxAF yet, I don't know. 

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[The Wooksta!]

All of the aircraft I was assembling over the last few days now have their tailplanes on and the filler done, so hopefully I can have them on their u/c tonight and they'll be off to prime in a few days.  Well, if the weather stays dry for more than an hour or so.  Can't prime them indoors as the overspray from Halfords cans goes everywhere - found that out when I started using them back in '96 and sprayed a Spiteful in Nissan Silver.

Looking at the early 14, I was thinking of another one.  Given that cross kitting the Airfix IX and XIX is so easy and produces a pretty good result, I'd like to do it again and again, it'll be a trials aircraft.  I'd like to do a XIVe but with four 20mm cannon - I'd read mention of the possibility in a Spitfire thread on Britmodeller and it also said that any such aircraft (it was theoretical that the e wing could take 4 20mms but never done) would have had similar blisters to the later 20 series wing.  So, out with the E wing conversion sets and off we go.  Fairly easy to change the Airfix wing - just fill in the ejection chutes underneath and add the blisters on top

The other thing I'd do would be to move the oxygen bottles to the wing and put a fuel tank in the fuselage behind the pilot.  With a slipper tank underneath, it's likely that you could escort bombers to Germany and back in daylight.  So, this means the possibilities of Lancasters in daylight camo - Ocean Grey and Dark Green over MSG?  Dark Sea Grey and Dark Green over PRU Blue? Med Sea Grey over PRU Blue? 2TAF markings on the wings? 

Hmmn, I'm liking this more and more!  Although I'd probably stick with the Airfix Lancaster for quickness but may re-engine them with Merlin 85s, Lincoln tailfins and rudders, add Village Inn to the tail and use either FN82 tail turrets or standard Lancaster tail turrets but modded locally to carry two .50 cals.  Would also use a Martin mid upper rather than the usual, so you'd have a really up to date Lancaster.

So, this means two now - a testbed and an operational one.  Good job I have a good stash...


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[The Wooksta!]

It isn't fair!

My brain is causing problems.  Thinking about the 4 cannon mk XIVe made me think that it may be better to use the Fujimi kit rather than cross kit the Airfix one.  Partly because I've a load of Fujimi ones in the stash and partly because the Fujimi 19 comes with upperwing blisters but no guns.

On reflection, I decided to go with the original plan, because the Fujimi kit is a real pain to build - fill here, cut this, sand the wingtips down.  But then I remembered that the Fujimi kit is a decent representation of the wing used on the Mk 8 onwards with the inboard leading edge fuel tank and I'd need that for the 4 cannon bomber escorts.  Out with a Fujimi 19 and started clipping bits off.  I then noticed that the locator holes are opened up for the oil booster pumps so it had been started as a 19.  I've decided to put these on anyway - longer missions to Germany and back would need more oil for the engine so I can explain that away, with the additional oil being stored in one of the redundant outer gun bays.  Well, the one that doesn't have the oxygen bottles.

Finally, I went looking for my fuselage fuel tanks and a dig through the conversion bits box (an A3 paper box full of interesting goodies).  I found I had two - Airkit and Pavla  - and both are different.  I'm going to scratch a copy of the Pavla one as it looks bigger. Doesn't look too difficult - some laminated plastic card for a box and a cut up biro for the round top, little bit of wire for the fuel feed.

Wing and fuselage are now assembled - I can do the cockpit as a full tub and insert from underneath.  I decided to go with clipped wings, partly for easy of construction but also because the trials one will be full span. 

The trials one - with AFDU* codes - wll be an Airfix cross kit, mainly because I've enjoyed doing the few that I've done so far and I'll likely keep the PR19 canopy to represent the ones with the rounded Seafire 17 style windscreen which were tested on some Spitfires, including one of the development aircraft for the F21.

The possibilities of the Fujimi kit had got me thinking.  How about using four .50 cal machine guns instead of the cannons and use them as training aircraft?  Means that I can use the Fujimi PR19 kit from the box, albeit with a spare fighter canopy or vacform bubble canopy and a resin spine to do a lowback.

Users?  RAF gunnery schools?  Central Gunnery school?  Royal Navy even?  NMW with nice yellow trainer stripes?  Nice!  Low back or high back options?  Do it with a Heller 16 too.  Haven't got many mk 16s in The Plan yet and I have quite a stash of the Heller kit.

And then thinking about the Fujimi wing made me think about a clipped wing PR19.  The early ones didn't have pressurisation so a low level one may just work.  Give it the bulletproof windscreen but without guns at low level, it'd be quite slippery. 

Again, out with an Airfix 19 and off with the wingtips.  Replaced with a clipped option spare in a Fujimi kit that'll be one of the four .50 cal aircraft.  Does change the appearance a fair bit, which I noticed when I did similar modifications to the Airfix mk Ia

Camo?  Ocean Grey or Dark Sea Grey and Dark green over PRU Blue.  Either looks fab and leave it with Type C markings.  Or just stay with the Type B and go for a wartime version of the later Intruder scheme?  I don't have to use the Sky band (hate painting it on as I can never, ever get it straight and the decals are always bobbins and never fit) and PR units had more leeway with camo so I may dispense with the yellow.  Hmmmn, post war version too?


I said this was limited to my imagination and unfortunately for my wallet, it appears I'm back on a roll!  It appears I've got another half dozen at least to add into the hard copy of The Plan!


*Air Fighting Development Unit

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[The Wooksta!]

One thing that's got me curious recently about this blog - how many people out there, ie site members rather than guests, are actually following it?



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[The Wooksta!]

Didn't do much over the weekend due to the distraction of Fringe, season 1.

However, I *did* get the clipped wing low level PR191 assembled and it's ready to prime.  Stripped the low level camera bulged hatch from another AZ early Spitfire (I really should get round to moulding that as I seem to be using quite a few).  I'm also thinking of adding the forward looking camera that was fitted in the belly slipper tank on some FR14s.  Just need to make the little fairing - I've a spares box full of the slipper tanks and I rarely use them.

Radiators and doors on the Seafire 46, I just need to make the sting hook fairing from platic card - the CMR one I had in the spares box is a bit too wide.  On reflection, I may just rework the piece of fuselage I cut off.  

I've plans for a few more Seafire 46s, with one possibly on Malta.  NMF or EDSG/Sky, I'm as yet undecided.  No guns though.

Another thing I've done is more long term.  I've designed and made some 607 Sqn squadron bars to fit late Spitfires or Spitefuls, using the ones in the F22 kit as a guide for sizes.  I've got some 48th Vampire decals which I know will fit but not enough for what I'd like to do.  Have to say it, they look pretty nifty and  mate has agreed to print them. He's into 607 Sqn himself so he can also use them.

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[The Wooksta!]

I haven't done much over the past few days, due to my addiction to US SF series Fringe (now 5 episodes into Seaon 4 after having gone through 60 odd episodes in little over a week).

I have finally got the rest of the decals onto my 41 Sqn Spiteful and thanks to a tip* from a mate, I won't suffer from silvering decals.  Needs a coat of varnish and some little touches here and there but it looks pretty good. Need to paint the prop though, but I'll need to clean it up first.  It's one of Colin's new resin ones and I'm itching to try it.

Having gone with one of the schemes from the Frog Hornet - well, the colour combinations anyway - I'm tempted with a Spiteful in the High Altitude Day Fighter scheme.  Being faster than the Mustang, it'd be more than a match for the Ta 152 if used for escort duties over the Reich but I'm not sure if I'd use the Blackbeard or Magna kits in the stash.  It'd have to have drop tanks, so the wing slipper tanks plus the centreline torpedo tank look increatingly likely.  Time to raid the spares box.

My clipped e wing FR14 is together but needs some sanding - the Heller 16 wing fits the Airfix 19 with little or no fuss and this is the second one I've assembled.

Really need to get some priming done as the number of completed airframes is stacking up but the weather is currently against me.  I'm sure I saw some bloke building a big wooden boat like thing in his garden.






*Dip the decal into hot water as normal and leave steeping on wet cloth (I use a hanky on a saucer).  When it slides off, damp it down on the cloth and then dip into a bath of Klear.  Place onto the model as normal, move it into position then press down with a damp cotton bud and wipe off the excess Kleer.  Seems to work so far!

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[The Wooksta!]

The FRXIVe highback is getting closer to completion - the tailplanes and supercharger intake is on and I'm building up the area around the cockpit to allow the fitting of a proper canopy.  I think that this will end up as a SEAC machine, possibly a local conversion rather than an aircraft sent out.  I'm not looking forward to adding the white recognition stripes.  The other alternative is PR Pink, although as I've got an FRXIVc in pink already, it's not a priority.

Yesterday I made the camera/slipper tank combination (carried by some FR14s) by drilling a hole and using the plastic stick from a cotton bud as the lens.  It's not ideal, being a bit small, but it looks the part and it goes underneath anyway.  I have a resin one somewhere but it never fitted anything so it never got used.

The plan was to put it under the clipped low level PR19 but these combinations were added to the FR versions as they didn't have the wet wing, so I may use it on something else, of which more later.  The other reason was that I knew some PRXIs had cameras in the wings in addition to the fuselage and wanted to do something similar with the low level 19.  Off I went looking through the references and found a photo of a forward looking camera, so I sliced up a Mk Ia engine intake to make something similar and it'll eventually go under the port wing.

The slipper tank with camera.  I've a few PR19 wings left over from the highback 14 conversions I've been assembling and I know that with some minor surgery, they'll fit the old tool Airfix mk Ia fuselage.  I'm toying with the idea of a PR training squadron equipped with various timed out aircraft and this could well be ideal.  I was thinking about a clipped PRIV, with Merlin 32 and a four blade prop, plus stub exhausts.  Anything further risks re-running ideas I've already done, albeit with armed aircraft (mkIa and Vb) although that's never stopped me in the past. 

A look through Lake's "Flying Units of the RAF" revealed that there's a gap in the squadron numbers around the cluster of PR units, with the number plates for 545 and 546 being available.  I'm minded to have one for PR trials and training, with the other for operational duties, possibly FR so I can have a home for the FR.XIIIs I did some time back, although I still have to finish two of them.

PR and FR is a good seam to mine for whiffing, especially with Spitfires, given the number of one off and limited conversions, although I've been thinking that it's cheating, a lazy way out.  Then again, I'm enjoying the process so who really cares?

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[The Wooksta!]

Spent the past few nights looking through the airframes spares boxes and looking at various wings (PRXIX mainly) and fuselages to see what's there and what I can cobble together from the spares box.  This is something I've always enjoyed, taking junk and turning it into something decent and I suspect that it's a guilty pleasure of most other whiffers.

Anyway, I found a resin F.18 fuselage and the remains of a Ventura 18 fuselage, along with a Ventura PR19 wing.  I'd always considered crossing the two and I think now's the time to finally get down to it.  The fit's pretty good, I just need to tart up the cockpit and then find a set of upper engine cowl bits.  The Ventura bits are cleaned up wrecks of a pair of Spitfires I did circa 1990/91 and the 19 fuselage became an FR21 a while back.  Where the 18 wing went, I haven't a clue but it'll be in a Spitfire box somewhere.

The resin fuselage got cleaned up and the gaping air bubbles filled - the mould was never the best and with the availability of spare fuselages in the AZ kits, not to mention the growing stash of Aeroclub fuselages, there's not a lot of point in redoing it.  I test fitted an Airfix 19 wing and it's a reasonable fit, although the fillet underneath will need superglue, filler and some pummeling to get right.

So, I now have the bits for a pair of low back 19s or PR18s.  Haven't decided on the designation yet.  There may yet be a third, but with a Spiteful tail - I heard mention some years back that one F.18 was fitted with a Spiteful tail unit, which finally sorted out the stability problems begun with the rear fuselage being cut down.  I've several spare fuselages and tailplanes in with the AZ Spitfire 21/Seafire 45, so I only need to find the wings.  

Obviously, I'll need to find important items such as props, u/c units and canopies, the latter being a particular bugbear with the lowback PR19 I did a while back.  The two based on the Ventura kit will accept the Ventura Seafire 47 canopy but I foresee similar problems encountered with the AZ fuselage recurring.  U/C will hopefully be sourced from Aeroclub but the prop for whichever one turns out the bestest in terms of finish will be one of Freightdog's new Spitfire Griffon props.

I still want to do a proper navalised 19 at some stage - I did a prototype version some years back - but want folded wings.  Laziness means I may just resort to a scribed line on the wing but fitting a larger rudder and a contraprop is a definite must.  A PR 19 in a post war scheme is quite appealing, although several of the other potential schemes in mind are equally nice.

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[The Wooksta!]

Not a lot to report, mainly finished the assembly of an VIIIe and an HFIX.  The latter used the wingtips from the Freightdog HFVIII conversion, but the tail section was used on the VIIIe.  Not sure what I did with the drop tank.

My four cannon IX finally has the big gun blisters - I raided the Sword Seafire III for these as they're hold overs from the older tool and not needed for the Seafire III. That's going to be a desert one, possibly Polish Fighting team.  Certainly want to put some Polish insignia on it somewhere.

Also got the tailplanes on the last of my FRXIIIs.  It's been sitting about for ages and I wanted to get a bit further with it.  At the very least, get it to the stage where it can be primed.

Did start yet another pair of Airfix PRXIXs - the stock pile is now down to one remaining.  These will be far east aircraft operating from Iwo Jima alongside  the half of Tiger Force based there and used for post strike photos.  One will be PRU blue, t'other overall polished metal and both will get British Pacific Fleet markings, for reasons I've explained in other threads. Either is likely to cause comment and I'm looking forward to finishing them, although as yet I've just cut the bits off the sprues.  Must remember to add the slipper tanks.

Just need to get some primer now.  There's a large backlog building up.


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[The Wooksta!]

Both of the PRXIXs are together, one of which is now sitting on it's u/c and is close to being primed, although I still need to find a slipper tank for it - I found that the one in the Freightdog PRXI set won't fit the 19 - actually it fits perfectly but the Griffon radiators won't if it is.  Back to the spares box.

For some reason, I got thinking about the early Rolls Royce conversion MkIXs, all of which were converted Vc airframes.  What if they decided to upgrade some HFVIs too?  I thought about using an Airfix Vb but decided to go with the C wing and thus start with an Airfix IX instead.  So I dug out an Airfix IXc - finding out I had a few more than I thought, which is nice - and several Freightdog conversions. 

It's actually bits from three sets - the full RR conversion, the wingtips from the HFVIII and the wheels and prop left over from the PRXI conversion.  Wings are together and need filler (the tips aren't as good a fit as they could be but I've found that the same applies to any HF tips for Spitfires), fuselage assembled and cut, so the engine is installed and the filler is on.  Wheels and prop are tidied up and ready to prime. I dug out a spare bulkhead left over from an Airfix 19 so the cockpit should be in pretty soon as well, although I need to cast a few instrument panels.

One of the things I don't currently have in the line-up is an Attacker.  I've got two elsewhere, but they don't match current standards and in any case, one has suffered u/c failure.  There's an assembled one that lacks u/c and canopy and I've upgraded the cockpit plus altered the nose for a camera fit, the plan being to finish it as an FR bird.  In addition, there's an assembled fuselage that I've been working on occasionally, with a resin insert for the canopy - it'll be solid with the wheels up as a flying model. 

TBH, the Frog/Novo kit need too much upgrade work and I'm really too lazy to repeat the work every time, especially with the 10+ aircraft in The Plan.  Hence the flying models with solid cockpit canopies.  Even then, I need to blank off the intakes (I may come up with a resin insert), fill several holes (natch) and rescribe some panel lines before sanding off the rivets.

Anyway, I went to find a set off assembled wings from the Attacker box and then pulled out two more airframes that have had work done on them.  One has had the cockpit opened, so I may use the copy of the AZ cockpit tub I moulded last year and do a "proper" model, although as I've taken off the fin fillet it'll have to be an RAF one. 

The other one stays as a solid one and I'm strongly tempted to do the torpedo fighter version I thought of a while back, although I'll need to cast some more wing slipper tanks to leave the centreline free. EDSG over Sky with the low demarcation line and definitely Atlantic markings and the tail code for HMS Eagle.  Alternately, I may keep the fillet but remove the arrestor hook and have it as an RAF one operating from North Coates in a similar scheme.  I'll probably do both...

Although, then again...  I'm now toying with a Highball installation.  Later developments came as a crate and were capable of being fitted to the Hornet - from memory, the whole thing is no bigger than the belly tank carried by the Attacker anyway.  So it might just work.  Watch this space.


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[The Wooksta!]

My HFVI hybrid is now together.  I did a small casting session last night and did the instrument panel, along with a few other bits and the fuselage/wings plus drop tanks for another Spiteful.  The blisters and guns are in place and all the sanding/filling is done.  May have to do a bit more to tidy it up and get the u/c legs on but it should be ready to prime by the weekend.

I've also got one of the Attackers ready to prime.  All the filling and some limited rescribing - u/c doors and the flaps - was done last night.  Again, another one ready to prime.  Scheme will be a standard RAF one for 1945/46 - Ocean Grey/Dark green over Med Sea Grey with yellow leading edges and the yellow outlined type C roundels on the upper wings for 2TAF operations from Jan 45 onwards.  I did consider DSG/DG/PRU Blue but I've enough on that scheme for the moment and those colours are going on the FR one.  That one will will also be 2TAF.

Just wish I knew where the Falcon canopy I've got for the Attacker went.  I used it to make a mould so I had solid resin plugs but it went walkies after that.  I've a few Aeroclub ones but they just don't fit.  Once I have the canopy, I can get the FR one underway and I really want it finished by Telford.

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[The Wooksta!]

A nice arrival on saturday (two PR19 rear fuselages, tailplanes, doors & tailwheels) meant that I could get on with a second mk 8 contraprop - I've got one and really enjoyed it, hence wanting to do a second.  Cue Airfix IXs getting dug out and assembled.  

I dug out a pair, because looking at the hard copy of The Plan (or at least, from memory), I knew there was an FR.IXc that I hadn't started.  Norway had wanted to convert several of their IXs to FR configuration but in the end simply bought several PRXIs.  Again, an ideal gap and converting the Airfix IX to an FR is simply a matter of drilling out a camera port on the portside hatch aft of the cockpit.

I've also got what will be an FR.IXe on the go too.  Well, it got started a while back and I've done a little more.  That's going to be an Isreali one, so I'll be using some of the 3D conversion bits, namely the wing blisters and the rudder.  I'm minded to clip the wings, but if I'd wanted to do that I would have married the Airfix 9 fuselage with a Heller 16 wing. 

The reverse is also possible, although the Airfix wing needs some trimming to fit the Heller fuselage and then you've got to change it to E wing configuration.  It's probably easier to add the standard tips to the Heller clipped wing.  If I'd pulled my finger out, I could have used a resin wing but I never did mould up the Ventura wings that I intended to do.

Not quite on top of The Plan but I'm getting somewhere.

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[The Wooksta!]

Crosskitting the Airfix IX and XIX to get a XIVc and a PR XI is all the rage at the moment - I've already done the former and there's one of the latter resting in a box somewhere.  However, you need to rebuild the lower cowling of the IX fuselage and as I'm lazy and can't be bothered with all that sanding, I came up with something else.

It came to me when I was in the bath last night - most of my best ideas tend to do that - rather a simple way round the whole conversion problem, or at least, how to avoid all teh hard work and come up with something a little more unique into the bargain.

Egypt wanted to buy several PRXIs but the plan fell through.  What if they had bought them and one got shot down, but was undamaged enough for the Isrealis to cobble back together using spares from their other Spitfires?  Thoughts about perhaps a bad belly landing with the whole engine cowling dunched in, losing the enlarged oil tank.  These were really for extended missions over Germany and I doubt that the Isrealis would be flying that kind of extended mission.  A shot up canopy too, losing the rounded windscreen.

So, the model would be thus:  Airfix 19 wings and u/c plus 4 spoke wheels.  Everything else is from the Airfix 9 but the tail would need replacing with the mk 8 tail available from Freightdog.  Not sure if I'd use the pointed rudder or not, but a rounded tail on such a hybrid aircraft is a nice thought.  Camo scheme/  Stick with PRU blue for most of it and a different scheme for the new parts - standard RAF for the cowling and Isreali stripes for the rudder?

Other thoughts?  Swedish Spitfire F22s (easy!), Norwegian PR19s (they had the PRXI but the 19 would be better).  The latter is closer to fruition, given that I've an assembled PR19 but no intended operator.

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[The Wooksta!]

My hybrid Isreali PR XI is now together and is awaiting more sanding around the tailplanes and radiators.  Looks odd, which is the intention of the build.  In the end I went with the rounded tail from the donor fuselage, partly for the salvage nature of the intended model, but also because IIRC I'd nicked the rudder from the conversion for another aircraft.

The nature of my goldfish like attention span means that I picked up the Attackers again and have made some real progress.  I threw another two together last night and the second is awaiting filler.  It would have been three but I got fed up with doing the same upgrade work - mainly blanking off the intakes to prevent a seethru look and scribing several panel lines.  The first had some really awful plastic for the fuselage which cracked and shattered when I was cutting down the fin fillet.  I'm going to do that in the high Altitude Day Fighter scheme of Med Sea Grey over PRU Blue.  

IIRC, I did an Attacker years ago in 2000/2001 - actually, it was a salvage of a model done in 1991 - that I intended for that scheme but in the end went with an overall High Speed Silver scheme and 20 Sqn markings from a Modeldecal sheet.

The Attackers that are works in progress got shown off to a few of the lads at the club the other night.  One of them had the Firefly wing slipper tanks I'd cast for the Spiteful and with the solid resin canopy in place, it looks very sleek - it's only with it's undercarriage down that the Attacker looks clunky.  With the belly tank, it looks like it's up the duff.  Really need to cast some more Attacker bits, mainly the canopy plugs but also the belly tanks.

Gary suggested Argentinian Navy for it and whilst I like the idea - so much so, there's one inserted in the relevant page of The Plan - the one on the blocks is definitely RN.  Some other tin pot south american were suggested, Guatemala being one and IIRC they did look at buying the Attacker at one stage, along with the Dominican Republic. I think I have some Cuban markings somewhere, so that's another possibility along with the Swiss.  The latter could be interesting - ex Swiss ones on the UK airshow circuit?

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[The Wooksta!]

Well, my stock of Novo Attackers has been decimated due to starting quite a few more (5).  This gear up flying model malarkey means I can get quite a few done and dusted, and bar boxing in the intakes, I can have them together relatively quickly.  I think there's two left unstarted, a Novo one plus what I think is an original Frog one in dark blue plastic.  I've kept these two as I've two of the Airwaves etch sets and may do them as real ones at some stage.

I did get on with some casting over the weekend, mainly slipper tanks, the solid Attacker canopies and belly tanks.  Plus some Meteor cockpit tubs as Gary wants some for the Frog ones I sold him (the cash going towards the Telford Plan spending spree) and some for at least two Meteors I have in mind, one being an FR version of the Sea Meteor F20.

Few more ideas for Attackers, mainly revolving around aircraft in NMF finishes.  Quite a few of the Meteor decal sheets have some very colourful markings for RAuxAF aircraft and some of these units using Attackers as hacks is quite appealing.  The spare 607 Sqn shields in the Airfix Spitfire F22 means that an Attacker with them is inevitable, although they'll get the colour bars that I designed for the Spiteful too.  Still need to get them printed.

I'd also considered at least one RN aircraft in NMF but now the ideas are flowing - Central Fighter Establishment, Air Fighting Development unit, an aircraft in camo and national markings but sans codes with an anonymous OTU, the list is endless and limited by my imagination. 

A Zirkus Rozarius has just dropped into my head, although that'll be better in NMF/RLM04 Gelb than the RLM71/RLM04 that most of the captured aircraft flown by the Luftwaffe wore, certainly more colourful.  It's a pity that the PR19 and F22 that were planned for that unit suffered u/c accidents and have been relegated to the long term box. 

A real pity as they were sprayed and ready to decal, along with at least one PR21 (the u/c on t'other one looks iffy) and a Seafire F17.  I was quite pleased with the latter, as it was cobbled together from an Aeroclub Seafire 17 vacform fuselage with a load of my own cast bits.

I even considered a PR Attacker with the Photographic Development Unit - easy enough, just remove the guns, have the cameras in the nose, add the wing slipper tanks (one with a forward facing camera?) and an overall PRU Blue scheme.  I've a small collection of whiffed PDU aircraft within The Plan and this one would fit in nicely (as would the two PR Meteors that have just popped into my head and I have the cockpit tubs for them cast).  Mind, I don't think that one in PRU Pink would be appropriate somehow and I'll leave the rest to your dirty minds.

So, given all of this, a restock on cheap Novo Attackers seems to be the order of the day.  Now I'm wishing that I'd picked up a few of those that Thorvic had pointed out on the Collectakit stand at Telford last year - can't remember any that were more than 4 quid apiece.  However, now I'm after them, there won't be any!

I'd like at least one or two decent ones, with the canopy open and gear down, so one of the AZ kits got dug out and I did some dry fitting.  Not happy with the fuselage fit, as one half looks to be a mm deeper than the other.  I had similar problems with the Magna one I built years ago and IIRC, I lined up the top and filled the bottom, using the belly tank to hide the worst of it.  May do the same again, but if I do it as one in the post war Intruder scheme (using the bombs from the CMR kit), I may hide a bit more.

Chris (Narses2) mentioned that the CMR Attacker came with a spare canopy so I dug that one out (it'll be a real one eventually, but likely the prototype) and had a look.  Sure enough, it's a spare but is the metal back canopy for the FB2.  It may go on an AZ kit instead.

Must get out and spray at least one of the ones assembled and filled.  If the weather holds...

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