You're not going to BELIEVE this.....

[PR19_Kit]

Mrs_PR19 has a friend who lives locally, Annie MacKie, a sometime BBC Points West TV presenter and Radio 4 announcer who's also a writer of a considerable number of novels. While chatting to Mary one day Annie suggested that she might like to attend one of her 'Creative Writing' seminars, to which Mary replied 'Oh no, my husband's the writer in our house!', this on the strength of my PR19 backstory and other modelling muses of course!

The result of all this was that I DID attend one of Annie's seminars today and very interesting it was too. However, as my main claim to infamy was the PR19 story it seemed a good idea to take one of the models with me to explain the backstory genre that we have here. While discussing this with Mike McEvoy at MK last weekend he suggested that most people wouldn't grasp the fact that the PR19 model WAS a Whiff in the first place, and would just assume it was '.....an Airfix kit....'. Mike suggested that a model of a Meteor NF14 and a one of a U-2 displayed alongisde the PR19 would make the point nicely, and that made sense to me too.

Unfortunately I have neither model in my collection, or at least I haven't a whole one anyway, I do have a wingless U-2 but that wouldn't do at all, so in the six remaining days I built them both............ 

As I was away in Southampton much of last week, starting off my last job for my old firm, I had little facility to build models and little time either so I took some basic tools, a Matchbox NF14 kit and an MPC U-2 kit as it was the top one of my pile of U-2s. In three evenings I'd assembled both kits to a basic, 'no paint' level and bought them home with me. Yesterday I did a LOT of PSR work on the Meteor (what a terrible kit that is really....) and primered them both in grey but without the canopies of course, no time for masking. The NF14 looked OK but the U-2 looked silly so I gave it a blast of gloss black which improved things no end and then I glued on the canopies with a dab of acrylic glue.

Today I took them, as well as the PR19a, to the seminar and brought the whole crowd there down into a state of total hysteria! 

They'd never heard of the idea of Whiff models before and quite a few were intrigued by the whole concept, others just laughed like crazy.

But now I have two RW models lying around, or at least the makings of them anyway. I always intended to yank the canopies back off, paint the cockpits and then apply some RW scheme to them both, but on the way back I thought of doing the NF14 into a PR19 testbed, perhaps with 'slightly' longer wings and a few other mods, probably in NMF with some orange/red panels.

I'm not sure about the U-2 yet, but an RAF one might look good, perhaps with a different colour scheme and a couple of Sidewinders 'just in case'? In passing, is it just me or does the MPC boxing of the U-2 have a canopy that's too low? It just doesn't look right to me.

[The Rat]

Sounds like fun! 

In passing, is it just me or does the MPC boxing of the U-2 have a canopy that's too low? It just doesn't look right to me.

It's the high-speed variant. (Now THERE'S a whiff nobody would believe!)

[Rheged]

Perhaps a Fleet Air Arm U-2?   I believe that  Gloster  built ten of them under licence  in 1964. Either the Gloster Raven (armed) or Gloster Dove (unarmed) as   flown from Ark  Royal  in the early 1970's .  What WAS the Ark doing in Far East Waters at the time?

[kerick]

And the wings unfolded just before lift off!
Sounds like you had some fun at the seminar. Did you learn any new writing skills?

[PR19_Kit]

Some good ideas there guys, thanks. I hadn't considered an FAA version but I am now........ 

I did learn some stuff at the seminar, yes, and amazingly it seems I was doing most of the 'right things' already without being properly taught! 

Back to the U-2, it's not the MPC kit I used,  it seems it was the Academy one, and the canopy really IS too low, by about 1.5 mm.

I compared a pristine Academy kit with a UK Airfix one and came up with a mystery. The parts are laid out on the sprues differently, and the Academy kit has engraved panel lines, whereas the Airfix one has raised lines, but.......... the parts are pretty much identical and will match exactly side to side! The fin on the Academy kit is split, whereas the Airfix fin is single sided over most of its surface. The Airfix canopy has a nicely etched sunshade over its interior surface but the Academy one hasn't, plus it's too low as I suspected all along.

So did did Academy licence the Airfix kit and make new moulds or did they 'borrow' it?

[Rheged]

I did learn some stuff at the seminar, yes, and amazingly it seems I was doing most of the 'right things' already without being properly taught! 

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

[Alvis 3.14159]

I'd be inclined to think Academy poached the U2 from Airfix, as it dates back to when they were known for that sort of thing. They've come a long way since, and don't seem to "borrow" things anymore.

Alvis Pi

[NARSES2]

I did learn some stuff at the seminar, yes, and amazingly it seems I was doing most of the 'right things' already without being properly taught! 

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

Yup showing his age 

[PR19_Kit]

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

Yup showing his age 

Too right, I wear it on my sleeve these days. 

[kitbasher]

RAF U-2, Kit.  Overall Oxford Blue with reduced size red, white and blue roundels for the fuselage and upper wings, red/blue underwings similar to early RAF Hercules.  R/W/B fin flash.  No white around the roundels or the fin flash.  4-inch serials plus 8-inch aircraft code letter on the fins in white.  No underwing serials, deffo no Sidewinders or weaponry of any sort.

Meteor?  RCAF CF-100 colours and markings.  Or maybe in Belgian CF-100 colours to confuse JMNs as Belgium really did have Meteor NF11s, and 349 and 350 Sqns (both Belgian CF-100 units) had previaously flown Meteor F8s.  I may have some appropriate  Belgian markings in my decal bank if that option takes your fancy.

[rickshaw]

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

Yup showing his age 

Too right, I wear it on my sleeve these days. 

Funny place to wear it.  I wear mine on my face. 

[Rheged]

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

Yup showing his age 

Too right, I wear it on my sleeve these days. 

Funny place to wear it.  I wear mine on my face. 

Age is irrelevant, unless you are either a cheese or a single malt!

[rickshaw]

That's probably because you were "properly taught"  as a child, and have read widely since.

Yup showing his age 

Too right, I wear it on my sleeve these days. 

Funny place to wear it.  I wear mine on my face. 

Age is irrelevant, unless you are either a cheese or a single malt!

Or Red Wine...