December 2007.Tonight we welcome the families of club members, guests from “Just Add Imagination” and fellow enthusiasts from IPMS Salisbury and IPMS Portsmouth. We wish you all an enjoyable evening!

· There is a selection of food and drink at the buffet, so please tuck in! Remember, “there is no such thing as a free meal”: see later for the onerous and challenging task awaiting you!

· Please feel free to contribute a prize and purchase a ticket for the raffle. Vic will be the MC for this.

· Undoubtedly modellers will bring in models to sell in the “bring & buy” sale. Be the first to grab that bargain!

· We shall also be awarding prizes for the club’s annual competitions. Club members have voted already on the entries for each class. We also award an “Overall Winner” and each and every person here this evening will be asked to vote for their favourite. Choosing “the best” from the entries in the competition is the onerous and challenging bit!

John Hazell.

John has contacted me to say he can’t be along this evening, as he will be recovering from an operation. We wish him a speedy recovery and look forward to seeing his smiling face back at the club very soon!

Reference CD-ROM.

Please be sure to pick up your CD-ROM of reference material. It contains information on aircraft, military vehicles, ships and photos of some great looking models seen at the Nationals. Please join me in thanking the contributors: Paul Adams, Keith Farmer, Keith Hawkins, John Hazell, Mark Metters and Mike Scotcher (from IPMS Abingdon), as they went to a lot of trouble to provide the material. Finally, please respect copyright and do contact me if you intend to use any of the material in a published piece so that I can obtain the originator’s agreement. If you have material of your own that you would like to contribute to the next CD-ROM, please let me know.

Forthcoming Events.

IPMS Portsmouth 2007 Annual Finals + Christmas Trophy.The club are having their annual competition at the next meeting at Lovedean Village Hall on 4th Januaryfrom 8:00 pm.

London Model Engineering Show.This event is being held at Alexander Palace from 18 – 20 January. Efforts are being made by a number of model clubs to promote plastic kit modelling and demonstrations of airbrushing and decal making will take place.

Southampton Model Railway Exhibition 2008.This model railway exhibition being held over the weekend of 26 & 27 of January at Eastpoint Centre, Burgoyne Road, Thornhill, SO19 6PB. Entry is £4.50. Free parking.

FEBEX 2008.This is a model railway exhibition being held over the weekend of 2nd & 3rd of February at Eggars School, Alton from 10:30 until 17:00. Entry is £3.50. There is a free preserved bus service to the exhibition from Alton station and the town centre.

Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton.Being as this is one of our most popular events, I have booked 24ft of table space for Model Show 2008 at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, Yeovilton, on Saturday 9 February. Please let me know whether you will be coming along to help man the club stand.

Trucks 'n' Tracks 2008This international vehicle modelling show is being held at Lees Cliff Hall, Folkestone, Kent, on 23 February.

Model Show: Weston-Super-Mare.This show, organised by North Somerset Modellers Society, is being held at The Campus, Highlands Lane, Weston-Super-Mare, BS24 7DX on 15 March from 10:00 am until 5:00 pm. Entry is £2.00.

Modelsport.“Les Garagistes” are having their third 'Modelsport' show at The Holiday Inn, St Quentin Gate, Telford, Shropshire, at the back end of March. 'Modelsport' is aimed at the motorsport enthusiast, be that cars or bikes.

Shropshire Model Show.For those of you who like their model shows to be amongst museum exhibits, Shropshire Scale Modellers are having a model show at the Royal Air Force Museum, Cosford, on Sunday 6 April from 10:00 until 4:00. Admission and parking is free!

Poole Vikings Model Show.This is another of our regular shows that has proved popular with the club. This one is being held at the usual venue of Parkstone Grammar School, Sopers Lane, Poole, BH17 7EP, on Saturday 19th April. Please can you let me know if you want me to book a table for the club.

Romsey Model World.

No, I’m not getting ahead of myself! It seems that, owing to falling gate receipts and net profit over the last five years, the Rotary Clubs have decided to suspend the event for 2008 and plan for a change of format, hopefully for 2009. They have requested some feedback from us: should the format be changed, what should be dispensed with and what should they include, is September the wrong month to hold the event, etc, etc? My first thoughts are to avoid having the show the same weekend as the Romsey Show. Is the admission price too high, particularly for families?

What the papers say……

The Aeroplane.DATABASE: Consolidated Catalina...the genesis and development of the famous flying-boat. The First SAM Showdown...how the USAF devised a method of foxing North Vietnamese surface-to-air missiles. Saint-Exupéry: The Long Goodbye… the last turbulent months of the famous French pilot and poet. Bermuda by Starlight...The short-lived British South American Airways was blighted by mishaps and accidents. Ian Ottaway relates the demise of Avro Lancastrian Star LightNew Brews from Belgium... the challenges facing the Belgian Royal Army Museum's aviation collection Handley Page's Aerial Omnibus... In 1918 a Handley Page V/1500 carried 40 passengers into the record books.The Last of a Line...The history and flying qualities of Britain's last biplane fighter, the Gloster Gladiator.

DOGFIGHT...This month's one-page debate asks, Are inaccurate colour schemes on restored aircraft excusable? AIRCREW...the challenges facing the pilot of a Junkers Ju 87 Stuka dive bomber.

AFV ModellerTopless T-34 - Patrick Winnepenninckx’s turret-less Afghan T-34Past Panther - Sam Dwyer describes the techniques used on his knocked out Panther Ausf.AStalin’s Target - Adam Wilder guides us through some experimental finishing techniques on his KV1Bergepanther Flak - Part One of Staf Snyers’ remarkable Bergepanther conversionTiran 5 - A guide to building the IDF upgunned T55 by Adam O’BrienXtreme Detail - Panzer II Ausf. A-C Hetzer - Luciano Rodriguez builds Tamiya’s 1:48th scale kit

Fine Scale ModelerCover Story: Stalingrad KV-1 A picture from the battlefield inspired this photo-realistic detailing project on Trumpeter's 1/35 scale tank kitAircraft How-To: Build your first airliner FSM's Associate Editor adds detail and after-market decals to build an eye-catching jetArmor How-To: Destruction construction Turn a perfectly good armor kit into a blown-apart, burned-out casualty of warSUBSCRIBER-ONLY EXTRA: Build a ghostly scene for a destroyed tankSUBSCRIBER-ONLY EXTRA: Photos from a ghostly Panzer IV dioramaAircraft How-To: Build a better Betty Careful painting and detailing gives Tamiya's 1/48 scale Japanese bomber a proper late-war heavily weathered appearanceAircraft How-To: Natural-metal magic Albert's 1/72 scale B-58 Hustler gets an ultra- realistic second skin of real metalWorkbench reviews: Trumpeter 1/350 scale USS Massachusetts; Tamiya 1/35 scale Jagdpanzer 38(t) Hetzer; Special Hobby 1/32 scale P-39D Airacobra; Kinetic 1/32 scale F-86F-30 Sabre; Academy Messerschmitt 1/72 scale Me 262A-1a; Eduard Messerschmitt 1/48 scale Bf 110E; Bronco 1/35 scale Humber Scout Car Mk. I; Trumpeter 1/72 scale F-105D Thunderchief; Zvezda 1/48 scale Lavochkin La-5FN.

Military In ScaleAIRCRAFTWORN HAWK: Mitch Thompson unveils his version of the Vintage Fighter Series 1/24 P-40, painting it in a very weathered desert colour scheme!RAMMJÄGER: Revell's 1/72nd Fw-190 A8 is a very cheap kit for its high quality. Ricardo Rodriguez builds and paints this splendid kitFEATUREREFLECTIONS ON EUROMILITAIRE: As part of the organisational team, Charles Davis is uniquely placed to give his impressions of the show, impressions that he shares with us in this special featureALL THE SMALL THINGS… ideas on the purchasing of suitable accessories for your latest military dioramaSCALE MODELWORLD 2007 this year's showcase event in this specially extended featureARMOURWASTE NOT, WANT NOT…1/48 model, the unusual Russian Su-76i. Based on a redundant Pz.III chassis this unusual vehicle is replicated perfectly thanks to Hauler's excellent conversionHALF TRACK FLAK New to the MIS team, Dai Williams takes time building Dragon's complex, flak-toting, '251 half track. Let the construction begin!WHY WAIT FOR THE RESIN…? A very unusual French Citroën Kégresse half-trackST RAPHAEL RAIDER Delayed, put off. Delayed, put off. The Editor finally unveils his Dragon StuG.III Ausf. G in this special photo report.

Model Aircraft Monthly.Grumman’s Martlet Mk I. Tony O’Toole Describes the first of Grumman’s tubby fighters to enter Fleet Air Arm service and then modifies the Tamiya 1/48 scale kit in to a Martlet Mk I

NATO Tiger Meet Exercise ARCTIC TIGER 07 by Mark Attrill Reports on the recent NATO Tiger Meet with a modeller’s eye to the colour schemes and markings appliedFixed-wing F4F Neil Robinson Builds an F4F-3 using the Just Plane Stuff resin setWinter Wurger Michael Ullmann Models Tamiya’s 1/48 scale Fw 190F-8 ground attack variant in a challenging winter schemeThe Flug Werk History Looks at the German-based Fw 190 restoration company Hawkeye and Rafale Naval Air Defence, Marine Nationale styleAéronavale Rafale by Andy Evans and Neil Robinson Build France’s latest nautical ‘superfighter’A Tale of Two Cities Len Thomson Models the Lancaster’s predecessor, the Manchester, and the aircraft which followed the Lancaster in RAF service, the LincolnDutch Mustang Trevor Pask Following last month’s survey of 1/72 scale P-51D Mustang kits, Trevor builds ‘the winner’, the Tamiya offering – in Netherlands East Indies Air Force markings...Cactus Air Force ’Cobra Randy Lutz Builds Eduard’s 1/48 Bell P-400 Airacobra as a 347th Fighter Group machine...

Scale Aviation Modeller International.Modellers Profile: Henschel 123Scaling Down. by Gary Hatcher: 1/144 at Telford 2008Peshka: by David Batt MPMís Petylyakov Pe-2 in 1/48Iraqi Eric by David Francis Eduard’s Bf 110E as a shark-mouthed machine in Iraqi markingsSide by Side by Robin Powell A lot of extra work adds an extra seat to this Lightning conversion in 1/48Stratosphera by Ken Duffy An unusual subject in resin from Anigrand, Myasischevís M-17 prototype in 1/72Seaside Flyer by Dave Hooper Post war Avro 504K joyrider. A three-seater in 1/48 converted from the Blue Max kitPlus: World of Flight Aircraft Guide Part Twelve – EE Lightning

Model Airplane International.Kwik Build: The Hasegawa 1:72 Ju 88G-1 by Rev. John C. McIllmurray; LF Models 1:48 YP-37 by Steve A. Evans; Italeri (Ocidental) 1:48 T-6 by Mike Grant; CMR 1:72 Spitfire Mk VII by Libor JeklThe Navy’s Last Straight-wing 1:48 Hawker Sea Hawk FGA.6 from Trumpeter built by Alan BottomsJapan’s Last Biplane Fighter Fine Molds’ superb 1:48 Ki-10 built by Mike GrantMalta’s Air Force a special feature to celebrate the 35th Anniversary of the Air Squadron on Malta G.C.Hog Heaven Nick J. Wigman tackles Special Hobby’s 1:72 F-86H Sabre Hog

Model Military International.PREVIEW: Andy Willis previews Dragon’s lPanzer II Ausf.F; Jim Carswell takes a look at the fearsome looking Nagmachon conversion from Cromwell; Darren Thompson tells us what he thinks of Tamiya’s Hetzer; Graeme Carruthers gives his verdict on Academy’s long awaited M7 ‘Priest’ HMC; Ian McGonagle takes a peek in the box of Italeri’s Bofors gun. In the first of our Stryker previews, Ian McGonagle takes a look at the Trumpeter version Ian’s second Stryker preview features the AFV Club variantA M.A.N’s TANK: Phil Hyslop makes a welcome return to modelling with Dragon’s Panther Ausf.AM8KE-OVER: Kev Smith revisits an old favourite from Tamiya, the M8 HMC and with a bit of work turns it into a stunnerLONG GUN LEOPARD Mick Cappel builds Tamiya’s Leopard 2A6LEOPARD IN THE LENS Ralph Zwilling stalks the big cat in action to get us the latest referenceGREAT DAYS AT E-DAY The Editor reports on this years show in the beautiful city of PragueAIRBRUSH SET The Editor test drives Harder and Steenbeck’s Ultra airbrush setFLAME GRILLED Andy King details Dragon’s sinister Flammpanzerwagen, the Sd.Kfz 251/16

Scale Aircraft Modelling.Aircraft in Profile: Hawker Hart, Demon and Osprey: In the first instalment of a detailed look at Hawker’s classic interwar biplanes, Chris Chant describes the early members of the series – Hart, Demon and Osprey – while David Howley provides colour artwork A little Xtra help for the Halifax: Part 2 Len Thompson completes his radical upgrade of the classic 1:72 scale Airfix kit to depict an ABC-equipped No. 100 Group Halifax B.Mk III

Dragon’s tricky ’229 A new contributor to Scale Aircraft Modelling, Waikong Chung takes on Dragon’s Ho 229 flying wing in 1:48 scaleLast time, Baby! – Tomcat’s last cruise Scale Aircraft Modelling revels in the Tomcat’s last deck operationsSAM Plans: SPAD XI Peter Green illustrates the two-seat version of the SPAD VII in 1:48 scaleNATO Tiger Meet/Exercise Arctic Tiger 2007 Mark Attrill visited Orland, Norway, to record this year’s Tiger Meet for Scale Aircraft ModellingThe CF-104 in Europe Part 2: Recce Tiger Vic Scheuerman modifies the 1:72 scale Hasegawa F-104J/CF-104 kit to represent a tiger-striped CAF reconnaissance aircraft in the second of a new series on Europe-based CF-104 Starfighters

Scale Auto.1957 Chevy Bel Air kit history An American icon in styreneShort-track 1957 Chevy 150 How to build an "as-raced" 1957 Chevy1957 Scrapbook Great 1957s we've seen at contests around the countryHow to detail Stromberg carburetors Add realism to your Big Deuce or Big TMid-Atlantic NNL Held on May 12, 2007 in Townson, MarylandKitbash a Mini with a trunk How to build a Wolseley Hornet without getting stungNNL Milwaukee Held on April 21, 2007 in Waukesha, Wisconsin

Test Trout Themes.Many thanks to Mark (& Di!) and Brian for proposing the following themes for future Test Trout trophy competitions….Best of British, Out of Africa, 'Tanks' A Lot, The Jet Age, Animal Magic (i.e. Tiger tank, Hawk, etc), “What if"( Luft '46 or Japan '46 ).Other ideas are to:Build a model of a plane, boat or other vehicle which has featured in a book you have read and enter it into the competition along with the book itself."Nightmare on kit street" This emanates from a bad night (what ever yours may be)where two or more kits become muddled on your bench the end result is...............?Ask around the modelling taders to see if they have an excess of a certain kit to sell off at a very reasonable price for each of us either from the box or given the “nightmare on kit street” treatment.

Gary Jarman.I was very pleased to get this message the other day from Gary, as we haven’t seen him at the club for a while. Things have been hectic of late, but he has been able to get some modelling in..…“I am building my second Wasp (in SAAF colours this time), practically scratch-building it as I'm adding so much detail, which if you think about it, in 1/72 scale is a bit of a waste, but hey, it keeps me happy! Also doing a 1/48 Gripen (yup, 1/48 scale!) in SAAF colours. And finally doing a 1/144 Wasa (the old ship). It'll be the 4th Wasa I have built in my life but it'll be the best (and the last).

Oh, and I recently got two tiger meet decal sheets for a Mirage F1C and a Mirage 2000C. They are brilliant! I am really excited at building the kits so that I can see them with the decal sheets on. The Mirage 2000C has tigers eyes on each side of the fuselage and they are fantastic!! If you're on the web do a search on Syhart decals, he's a French guy, and see some of the stuff. Hopefully I'll have them both at the January meeting (I have to wait 'til christmas to get the Mirage 2000C kit as my wife has let the kids buy me one as my christmas gift, but as soon as I get it that's me off to the garage, aka my workshop, to start building)”.

A Visit to Yeovilton – With a DifferenceMany thanks to Vic for this account of a visit that was, for all of us there, a wonderful experience that has left powerful memories of getting “up close and personal” with the FAA historic warbirds and getting an insight into the historical and archaeological aspects of restoring these fine machines ….

Whilst organising our table space for the junior model show at the Fleet Air Arm museum. Pat mentioned in one of his e-mails that Ben had built the Hobby Boss Corsair based on the museum’s own aircraft, KD431.

David Morris (the museum’s curator) headed this restoration project, one of the end results of which was the book “The Time Capsule Fighter”. I bought the book at the museum almost two years ago now when I attended a book fair with Les. David was signing copies on its day of release and I had intended giving the book to Ben for Christmas. Like all selfish parents, I decided to keep it for myself. However, Ben was so inspired by the book that he read it three times and decided the HB competition was the ideal opportunity to reproduce KD431. So now you have the background.

Anyway, thanks to Pat’s tenacity and consideration, Pat Ben and I (tagging along as the creator of the creator, if you follow me) were invited to meet David at the museum on Monday 15th

October, the week before the show. Needless to say, the 1:72 version of KD431 joined us.

David met us at reception and took us down to his office/workshop where we had a bit of a chat and collected a stepladder so Ben could take a look inside the Corsair. We stood beside the aircraft for a while when David noticed Ben clutching a box. Advised of its content, David was keen to have a look and to say he was blown away by what he saw would be an understatement.

With this, the stepladder disappeared and Ben was invited to climb in as the real pilot(s) would have done. Not easy in your disco shoes, Ben tells me, but a lot easier than it would have been with full kit and a parachute!

Once safely seated inside, time was spent explaining “the office” whilst Pat and I watched on, cameras at the ready. David then showed Ben how to close the cockpit behind him, which he duly did. Ben will tell you that opening it from the inside was not quite so easy, a dual “push forward to unlock, then pull backwards to open” motion required – even less easy if your aircraft is about to crash as you might imagine.

Having spent some 40 minutes with KD431, David then took us to the inner sanctum, where work is ongoing on a Wildcat. The project is already a couple of years in and there are likely to be two or three years’ more work.

Can’t say too much as otherwise that would spoil the book on the subject. However, discoveries so far seem to indicate that this aircraft was originally destined for France, but was diverted at the last minute due to the occupation. The aircraft appears to have been involved in a minor “prang” too – work in this area is ongoing. Fascinating to see such work in progress.

David told us proudly that the work being undertaken at Yeovilton is changing country/worldwide thinking on how aircraft should be preserved (after all, you wouldn’t see someone cover in Monet painting in new gloss paint, would you?) with other museums visiting to learn how the work is undertaken.

Those of you at the show on the following Saturday may have seen a photographer descend on our display to take photographs of Ben and his model. Not sure how these are to be used, but maybe one day we shall find out more.

A truly fascinating day out and Pat, Ben and I cannot thank David enough for the time he took out of a very busy schedule to show us the work of his team. If you’ve not visited the museum, you must. Whilst there, buy the book too!

Hobbyboss Build.

Kits of the F-84 Thunderjet are now available. The “E” version contains markings for Korean war and German based aircraft. The “G” version has Thunderbirds markings. I have had requests for 9 kits so far, mostly for the “E” version. Phil emailed me to say “both versions can be made from the bits supplied in either kit, the only difference is the decals. Differences between E &

G are shorter tail pipe on G (variants in kit), blow in doors and refuelling receptacle in wing (need panel lines filling on the E). Only one type of canopy is supplied: the G version. Nearly all E’s were retrofitted with the reinforced canopy from a G at some point in their lives”.

So please let me have your orders for aircraft before or during January’s meeting and we’ll get an order under way. I suggest we have the competition during July so the entries can also be entered for the American trophy competition on the same night.

On the Workbench.

Revell’s 1/48 Single Seat Eurofighter Typhoon.

Part 2. Colouring in!

This article continues from Part 1 in the August issue of Update, where I had gone as far as assembling the airframe, including pylons for the weaponry [12,13].

Roger kindly sent me details of the colour scheme for the RAF variants and I went through my paint collection to try and find some good matches. I compared colours against those in books (thanks again for the loan of them, Vic!) and model magazines and found it really difficult: each photo seemed to have a different tone (even after taking into account the Luftwaffe and prototype aircraft being finished differently from the others). Most modellers would opt for Xtracolor X-17 RAF Barley Grey, but I thought it looked too blue. I decided to go for Humbrol Camouflage colour HI-5 for my main coat. Before doing that, however, I needed to get some primer on and do some under-toning.

The model was given two airbrushed coats of Alclad primer with micromesh 600 used after each coat [14,15]. Take particular care around the wing fillets where the paint can easily become too rough: remember what Robin told us to do; apply paint into the various nooks and crannies first and then apply paint over the wider areas.

I next applied a pre-highlight to the upward facing surfaces of the airframe. As you all by no doubt know, I like to experiment with ways of capturing how the light and shade brings out the shape of the model to make it look more like the real thing. My latest thinking is to cover the model with the pre-shade first (Alclad primer in this instance) and then to apply a lighter tone by directing the paint spray from above, for which I used Humbrol Grey 196 for this [16].

Pre-shade was applied by hand brushing a mix of Ivory black, Paynes Grey and Flake white oil paint with Linseed oil as a medium [17]. I normally either use Liquin or Linseed oil as a medium with oil paint to make it flow. Liquin tends to make the paint mix a bit stiff after 45 minutes or so in the warm outside conditions that I was working in at the time, so I used Linseed oil instead. As I was applying the paint thinly, it would dry after a couple of days. However, in cooler conditions it can take an age so is best avoided at such times.

The Humbrol HI-5 paint used for the main coat was mixed with around the same amount again of Liquin and then thinned to airbrush consistency with Humbrol thiiners. If, like me, you do your mixing in the airbrush, apply a splash of thinners first of all. Then add the paint and liquin, stirring with a clean paint brush. Add thinners until you get the right consistency. Before spraying, put your finger over the airbrush nozzle to let some air bubble back: this pushes back the thinners you first put in and mixes it with the paint. If you don’t put thinners in first, chances are thick paint will get into the nozzle when you start to spray and cause blockages or spluttering.

I applied the paint uniformly over the model until I obtained the contrast I wanted. Actually what happened was that it looked okay outside, but when I brought the model indoors I found I had overdone the paint coat and obliterated all of my efforts at pre-toning. Consequently, once dried, I had to redo the effect once again (although there was no need to redo the primer). Revell charcoal grey paint mixed with liquin and thinners was used to add some weathering. Streaks of dark paint were lightly applied in the direction of air flow and these emanated from corners of leading edge slats, etc, and loose masks (pieces of card) were positioned to stop the paint going where it wasn’t wanted. At last the basic colour job was done [18,19]. I took another long look at the job and decided the tone was still not right, so gave it a light coat over with Humbrol 146 gloss aircraft grey mixed with liquin. I’m a bit happier with it now.

The nose, fin, rudder, tail pipes, etc were masked up using Tamiya tape around the detail and then larger pieces of ordinary masking tape to keep overspray away from the rest of the airframe. All of this was sealed under a layer of Winsor & Newton liquid mask (not ideal stuff for modelling, but it has its uses) to stop overspray getting under the edges of the tape [20-23].

The radome and leading edges were airbrushed with Revell matt 75 grey which seemed a good match to photos of the aircraft. Bare metal parts of the tail were painted in various Alclad paints. Aluminium was used for highlights, then mixes of dark aluminium, jet exhaust and Humbrol metalcoat polished steel used to obtain progressively darker shades. Areas between the ligaments of the tail pipes were painted with Ivory black oil paint mixed with liquin. I had a lot of problems when removing the masking. First of all the ordinary masking tape lifted some of the main colour coat and this had to be touched in again (not easy). So lesson learnt here is don’t use cheap masking tape. The second thing is that some of the Alclad metal finish on the tail peeled off with the tape. Second lesson learnt is to lightly run a sharp blade along the paint line before removing the tape.

The undercarriage was airbrushed White Ensign Models (WEM) RN03 White and shaded using an oil paint mix of Paynes Grey, Rowney yellow ochre + liquin. I sprayed the main wheels with Alclad dull aluminium before adding masking to do the tyres and hub centres. This was a big mistake, as none of the paint would adhere to the Alclad. Next time I’ll mask the other colours and apply the Alclad last of all.

I drilled holes into the underside of the transparent navigation lights and filled the hole with silver paint. The Tamiya transparent red and green were applied as appropriate to the underside and this was then topped with more silver. The lights were glued in place using Humbrol Clearfix.

The kit comes with an inordinate amount of ordinance. Optical bits on the nose of the missiles were picked out in dark grey and then a small highlight was added using titanium white oil paint before dipping the nose into Humbrol Clear I assembled most of it and decided to fit whatever looked best (I’m not a complete slave

to what the references say!). There are loads of decals for these as the there is for the aircraft as a whole, and it took days to apply them. They are of very good quality and go on well. I applied a couple of thin coats of Johnson’s Klear to get a gloss surface to apply the decals and then applied another over the decals to seal them in. Finally the model was given an airbrushed coat of Testors Dullcoat before the masking was removed from the cockpit canopy. The completed model is shown in [24-28].

In summary, this is a terrific kit that has an enormous number of parts and decals. It is by no means as easy to build as Revell’s Rafale (see earlier issues of Update for this) and there are fit problems with the air intake and wing halves. Constructing all the “bling” (weaponry) added greatly to the build time, but does look good on the kit. Your biggest decision is deciding what to leave off!

Club Calendar.

January 16 Discussion forum – don’t miss it!!!

Test Trout trophy: “Made In Japan”.

February 21 Note: Change of date for just this month!!!

March 19

April 16 St George’s Day & Test Trout “Out Of Africa” competitions.

May 21

June 18

July 16 American Trophy & Test Trout “Hobbyboss F-84”.

August 20

September 17

October 15 Test Trout “Best Of British!”

November 19 Annual Competition

December 17 Christmas Evening.

Next Meeting: January 16

In a move that is highly unlike Romsey Modellers ways of doing things, we shall be having a meeting next month (it is the first one that I can remember!) to discuss the club and to hear your views and ideas of how it should develop in the future. I am glad to be able to say that the club is going from strength to strength and I think that is due to the format of the evening (where members are encouraged to bring their work along), the friendly atmosphere and the buzz of lively conversation. There will need to be a change to the running of the club (I’ll tell you why at the end of December’s meeting!) and we need to discuss how to do this and to what extent additional activities, such as club competitions, newsletter, airbrush workshop, Hobbyboss builds, going to model shows, etc, are of importance to you.So please give this matter your thoughts over the Christmas and New Year holiday period and let’s have a lively and positive discussion next month.We shall also have our Test Trout competition, the theme being “Made In Japan”. Your entries can be of any scale or vintage (in other words a model you have had for some time or a newly completed one) that meets the theme, however imaginative your explanation! However, what is excluded is the reason that the kit comes from the likes of Hobby-Link Japan or from a Japanese manufacturer!

Happy modelling! Pat Camp Tel: 02380 266828, email patrick.camp@btinternet.com

Club Annual Competition 2007.

This was a bumper year for us: 59 entries from 17 club members. Not only were the numbers high, but also so was the standard and we had to think long and hard before deciding on our votes. Well done to all who entered: I have put some photos on the following pages. Many thanks to Paul Adams for taking the trouble to photograph the entries, but who ran into problems with lighting (whoops!, that was my fault!), new camera

and running out of time. Thanks also to Tony and John for sending me the photos they took during the evening.