Nutty, trust you to have both. I must confess, that big Typhoon looks very attractive, but if I got it, I'd probably come home to Chez Montreuil only to find that the 1/48th scale kits and the Cat had conspired to lock me out! :sad:

I would wait a bit if you consider it, there is a sink mark in the canopy that catches the light as a dimple, Airfix have been very good, indeed they have actually been superb and have sent out replacements, two so far that have been the same, but are working on a fix that will come out and be sent at a later date

Wonderful posts on here which allows me recall the great times enjoyed by my son and I when he was between 7 and 10 years of age. I grew up in England during WWII so our aircraft were all selected from this era, followed by many from WWI. All Airfix, all 1/72!


He became very involved and still is today, he was 47 yesterday, and spent 20 years in the Air Force, most of the time flying F-15's, then as an instructor in T-38's and his last year in Afghanistan as an MC-12W commander. Retired as a Lt. Col. and is now flying for Alaska.


Thanks Airfix!

Exactly, Gemini Twin! Airfix has a lot to answer for!

In a related (sort of) question, I remember reading a British modelling magazine in about 1974, and there was a picture of a lad who had bought a Matchbox MiG 21 at some show and got the boxtop autographed by a Flying Officer Roy Baron.
Does anyone know how he ended up?

As a boy, I'd built flying models and tended to look down on the non-flying Airfix stuff.
Whilst training at Leeming, I built, modified and painted an Airfix JP to look exactly like one I'd flown (I can now barely make out some of the detail which was, at the time, clearly visible - guess the paint must have worn off :rolleyes: )

Anyway, some years later, now married with sprog, I had to explain to new wife the difference between a MODEL and a TOY. The same JP, now in two parts with others missing, still resides on a study bookshelf.
I never mention the destruction to the (now) 40yo senior manager who wrecked it ;)

Such a lucky guy! (Okay, not lucky... he more than likely worked his arse off to get there, but you know what I mean!)

I love the F-15.

I also like the Airfix kits. Been tempted by them myself but I'm a bit nervous about painting them.

Basil, have a look in your search engine at 'skymax model jet provost'

Not the same as building it yourself, but as I paint 'like a chimp' (I quote the family!) it was the next best thing.

Like many other 'baby boomers', my formative years were filled with the delights of Hornby Dublo (3 rail), Airfix, Frog and occasionally Aurora and Revell models. Later came KeilKraft, Veron, finger-slicing diesel and glowplug engines and eventually 27MHz radio control.

Living for 10 years just off the final approach to Merryfield's westerly runway meant that RAF Vampires and Meteors, then Canberras and eventually FAA Sea Venoms, Seahawks and the odd Gannet flew past farmer Goodland's barn over the road. Westlands' work on the Wyvern and Sabre also kept the skies busy - and real steam trains still chugged along the Taunton to Chard line at the western end of the aerodrome. So becoming mechanically minded was a given - we only had 1 TV channel, so rather than couch potato-ing in front of a screen, we had to rely on imagination and creative effort to keep us happy.

The excitement of saving up for the latest 2/- Airfix product, given 6d a week pocket money, is certainly something to be remembered! As were the weeks of anticipation before I was given a 1/72nd scale Airfix Lancaster for Christmas!

I haven't made a model for years though - but there's a 1/72nd Airfix TSR2 sitting in its box on top of a wardrobe awaiting my attentions one of these days.

I pity the current generation of youngsters who rarely see any military aircraft, probably never see a steam train, cannot visit an airliner flight deck.....:mad:

But there's still good old Airfix - and long may there be so :ok: !!

The original Airfix Jet Provost (with moveable ailerons!) needed a bit of surgery to replicate the JP3 I flew in training as the Airfix model had those leading edge root fillets which ours didn't.

BEagle,

I never had the pleasure of seeing a steam train either but I guess every generation has its own missed memories.
For me it's Crop sprayers, Massey Ferguson tractors (the old post war ones they used down the hop fields) Hop fields themselves and working Oast houses.
Of course there's the aircraft. The skies seem so empty now. When I grew up in Kent (funnily enough) we never got much in the way of military stuff but the skies still always seemed alive with stuff. Not to mention the annual air race out of Rochester.
Ah. Nostalgia isn't what it used to be.
Back to the subject, Conn Igguldens 'Dangerous' books have lots of good military and general Boys own type stuff for young lads.

Beags,

Don't fret for the youth of today. The heavens have attracted our attentions since time began, and as always certain types will always be drawn to the joy of flight.

I envy them actually. Today you can youtube cockpit footage of just about every aircraft there is. Hell, theres even a 20 minute video cataloguing the start-up procedure of the F-16! If the wonderful resource that is the internet was around when I was 10 I don't think I would have got off it!

Tashengurt, we had a 'little grey Fergie' as well as a couple of Fordson Majors and the fearsome single cylinder 'Field Marshal' which used to scare the hell out of me when it started!

In the early 1970s, one of the friendly 'travellers' who worked for us put together a hybrid Fordson Major with a 6-cyl engine from a scrapped lorry. As this was rather heavier than the original engine, he strengthened the chassis by welding some bits of railway line to it.... Although never taken on the road, this monster could tow the aerodrome grass cutting machinery with very little effort, saving hours at a time.

Although watching YouTube videos of F-16 start up might be interesting, I think I'd still prefer to build and fly model aeroplanes rather than sit staring at a screen.

Thanks, staircase, I'd a look. Different paint job from ours and the JP5 wasn't around when I was at BFTS. I understand that it was a 4 with the performance of a 3 :E

Hempy has it.

Cooda's first model was an Airfix 1/72 RE8.

15 years and 150 models later, the last was a 1/48 Mosquito, yet I didn't take the chance to join the RAAF when it was offered. :ugh:

Roll forward 35 years and CoodaKid3 is half way through his RAAF pilot training without having read an aviation history or made a model aircraft in his life.

We didn't know of his chosen career until shortly before he joined up. It wasn't until the RAAF used him in its recruiting campaign that we learned he'd formed the idea at age 6 while watching F5s, F15s, F16s, F18s, Jaguars, F111s and Mirage 2000s take off and land at Darwin during a Pitch Black exercise.

So, none of what we'd consider a traditional grounding - but he spent a hell of a lot of time on the internet.

You should add that to your bucket list and go see one, there are lots of them still running around the country and there is nothing like a living breathing steam engine, as a point of interest, the Captain of the Canadian Lanc saw one from the air, being a steam buff he phoned up the station when he landed and got a trip on the footplate.

Thanks Nutty but I meant I've never seen one in service. I've been in one in a museum and seen a restored example but I missed them roaring up and down the tracks.
Not much of a train person anyway.


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That Typhoon kit/build is truly astounding. Well done, Sir.

Beag - that brought a rush of nostalgia of a sort - SWMBO had a brother who lived with wife and family in a cottage in Ilton, the village just down the road from Merryfield. Very nice part of the world.

I blame whoever it was that produced the balsa & tissue paper kit from which my daughter built a model Auster for her going into engineering - that and the doubts of the boys at school, that a girl could build such a thing. Of course, they'd never tried to do it themselves. When the (female) teacher let her test fly it from the upstairs balcony of the school, and it flew in trim and landed safely, both the head and heart swelled.
Nearly 30 years later, she still has the model.

All this talk of Airfix, KeilKraft and Jetex. I cut my teeth on an old Mamod steam engine and a big box of Meccano, both passed on from an Uncle. I made all sorts of steam powered trucks, cranes and other infernals, "elf & safety" would probably prevent a 9-10 year old from doing the same today. It's strange that I went on to do radar at Locking, still stood me in good stead though.

Wander00, some of the cottages in Ilton were very pleasant - but some of the houses in the village were pretty dire....

When some surplus land came up for disposal, my late father and his business partner bought the old domestic area, which included the disused Officers' Mess. We kept up to 3000 pigs in somewhat palatial surroundings in there, they were so blissfully content that their time to market was rather less than normal.

Although some said that keeping pigs in the OM raised the tone of the place, with pigs comes....slurry. Rather a lot of it! We kept trying to flog the place off, but the local council refused as it was zoned for agricultural purposes. Until, that is, the day when an Inspector came to mediate. Much to the chagrin of the locals, earlier we'd connected a blower to the rather full slurry tank and stirred it up - the stink was horrendous. The Inspector began to turn green and made an on the spot decision; the piggies went to Somerwest and the plot is now a housing estate. But Ilton smells much nicer these days!

Sadly though, the only flying at Merryfield is by FAA helicopters these days....:uhoh:

Beags - they were there around the mid- late 80s in one of the old Ilton Farm cottages - now have a palatial B&B in E Devon. No doubt that like many rural villages it will have sprawled. The vision of "pigs in the officers mess", or was it wardroom. hmm..............................., or "hummm......."

Hydromet, thanks for that post.

Just two words - "Bloody Beautiful."
(I had a similar situation with my daughter.)

Cheers.

If I may add to the list of "formative" childhood experiences recalled by other Members ... for me the Philips Electronic Engineer Kit has to be in the Top 10 :ok:

http://www.hansotten.com/uploads/philips/philipsee8.jpg

If only because I probably thought you could build a radio transmitter that could talk to military aircraft (see box lid artwork).

Germanium Transistors Type AC126 ... High Tech stuff back then ... and expensive to replace with just pocket money if you got the polarity wrong :eek:

Did anyone else have one along with the "sister" Philips Mechanical Engineer Kit ... Learnt a lot :)

Hi BEags

Ye, I well remember the 'aroma' of the pigs, although I don't remember it being restricted to the alleged one day of the Planning Officer's visit. I could tell you a story of another such ocifer's visit to an airstrip 'very close' to the Huntshaw mast at Torrington. All I can say in public is these Planning Officers must have an exciting life!

Trains on the Ilminster line? That takes it back a bit. And interesting Westland types at Merryfield? Sadly I never saw those, but also learned to drive on the old grey Fergie and Fordson Major. Happy, simpler days back then!

Apart from Airfix etc, my young life was definitely Majoring in Hornby, Dinky , Meccano, Bayko, and Brickplayer which is also here. Links to the latter provided for the young ones here :cool:

Strange I ended up in the RAF - I should have been a builder or an architect, but I guess they looked like too much work ;)

MPN11 ...

Instead of Bayko I had Betta Bilda ... with all those green roof tiles ... some of which I found when clearing out my parents loft some years ago ;)

Hornby ... It was Tri-ang for me before the Lines Brothers bought the Hornby brand ... never did like that 3rd rail system ... it didn't look right :ok:

Bayco - now there was a construction kit - was trying to explain it to someone only the other day - bet H & S would not approve all those spiky rods these days. Probably need hard hat, safety specs and hi-vis jacket! Great construction system though

@ Wander00 ... The joy of Bayko was when you went to install the roof on the protruding rod ends, and discovered you had screwed up the ground plan ... and had to start all over again. Early introduction to "PPPPP" :*

Sheesh, looking at the Wiki pictures brings it all flooding back!

Come on, where's another Brickplayer? I'm surely not the only one here?

@ Coffman Starter ... yeah, I hated that Hornby 3rd rail too, and the horrible tin track-bed arrangement. I was very envious of the Tri-ang people, who got so much more realism. Especially as I started with the flat-sided tin Hornby rolling stock.

I was about 8 and my brother 6 when we were presented with a Christmas present in a large leatherette covered chest. We opened it to find a Triang clockwork train set - with a difference. Dad had made everything but the engine and carriages. Trackbed was green painted ply, cardboard sleepers, proper rails in chairs, fishplates to join the sections. He had made buildings, trucks, guards van. Uncoupling hooks were modified tiny water-colour type paint brushes. He had even made from scratch working station luggage scales. We played with it for a few years until other interests took over, but I know we never fully appreciated the hours and patience that had gone into its construction. So belatedly (about 62 years late) "Thanks, Dad. it was a work of love" (Lot of dust about this morning) Guess that is what happened when someone opens the Pandora's Box of memories - you never know what will pop out . and MPN - you are so right about the roofs of Bayco projects!

Excellent post :)