Cold War Jets Open Day - RAF Bruntingthorpe (25th August 2013)

Here are few pictures I took at last year's Cold War Jets open day at the RAF Bruntingthorpe in Leicestershire. It was this event that renewed my interest in Cold War era jets and I can highly recommend that you take a visit to this year's event.

The event involves various jets, trainers, fighters, bombers, making full power taxi runs along the runways, but no take-offs. This means spectators are allowed closer to the aircraft as they are moving.

RAF Bruntingthorpe is also home to the Lightning Preservation group who have restored two of last English Electric lightning to fly, at least one of these should be taxiing on the day.

In this case I was allowed on the taxiway as this Canberra approached!

So if you get the chance check it out, just don't forget your ear plugs! For more information about the open day click here and for the Lightning Preservation Group click here.

So why am I writing about this event? Well this was moment that I first thought about trying to build model aircraft again, and yes, I do have a Lightning kit in my stash waiting to be built (2 actually...)!

Build Review – Airfix MiG 15 (A02037) – Part 1

I know this is a slight deviation from my to do list but I've had this kit a while now and I got a sudden urge to build a cold war jet. I had originally decide to do an in box review of this kit but got carried away and started building it...


The kit itself is one of the more recent toolings, from late 2009. This is few years after Hornby took over the Airfix brand and had started to drag it out of the model kit dark ages. While not as good as the very latest Airfix kits we've been seeing it was certainly a step in the right direction when it was released.

So in the box, how does it look?

First thoughts are, it looks good, the shape looks like a MiG-15. The details are a little heavy in places but in my opinion that doesn't take anything away from the model. I did notice that a few details were mirrored on both sides of the aircraft which isn't the case in real life, but again that won't spoil the model in any way. Also I feel the wheels do look a bit small for this scale and I think one of the bars across the canopy is missing.

The marking options certainly caught my eye. There's three options, an iconic silver VVS (Soviet Airforce) one, a thin striped green and yellow variant from the Korean war and finally a three tone camouflaged Hungarian aircraft from the 1970's. I think these 3 options give a good range to modellers of varying skill levels. In addition to this there's plenty of decals, the silver option has many, should you wish to detail warning signs and instructions that seem to adorn every panel of the aircraft.

I decided to opt for the silver version myself, wanting a straight forward paint job and the chance to apply plenty of decals for a change. But before I could get on with that I had to start with the cockpit which I was going to detail with some Eduard Zoom extras (set SS358).

The cockpit was painted grey using a mix of Citadel paints to produce the required shade. I have seen some modellers painting the interiors of MiG 15s that vivid Soviet turquoise that is so common in Soviet era aircraft. However I believe that was only adopted later (probably around the time MiG-21s came in service) and so isn't correct for this aircraft.

This cockpit is tiny when it comes to super-detailing and was a bit of a challenge. I think the basic cockpit is perfectly suitable for the beginner, especially if you want to add the pilot figure. I didn't and so that was the only reason I decided to use the Eduard extras.

Apart from that I used some liquid green stuff to add a bit more detail to the seat as it would be visible, some photo-etch seatbelts (which were incredibly fiddly) and that was the cockpit done.

Silver paint was then added to various interior parts and then I was ready to start assembling the fuselage and wings. More on that in part 2.

In Box Review – Eduard Spitfire Mk.IXc Late Version (8281)

The Spitfire may be a British icon but it's certainly one that has not been as well represented in 1:48 scale as it could have been.

While there's plenty of kits out there they are largely plagued by inconsistencies or lacking the production standards that more experienced modellers demand these days.

With the Mk.IX we've most recently we've seen releases from Airfix (in 2007) and Italeri's American Aces release (from 2010). In my opinion both these kits are simple and lack the finer details but should not be discounted, especially if you want a straight forward build or if you're a novice modeller.

Elsewhere there's ICM's release from the late 1990's which if I remember correctly featured an interesting VVS, (Soviet), version but was an absolute nightmare to build and the Hasegawa's release a few years later which was unfortunately too short in the body meaning you needed an after market conversion kit to get it right.

So over to Eduard, can they finally give this legendary aircraft the kit it deserved? Recently my business took a delivery of Eduard kits from our wholesaler and I couldn't resist taking a look.

Well, upon opening the box my initial response was, "is that it"? Eduard's profipacks are usually packed with sprues and yet this box was only half full, containing four grey sprues and a single clear one.

However my initial response was a misjudged one, there's everything packed into this kit. The surface detail is beautiful, fine panel lines, rivets and they all look great, even the exhausts have been hollowed out.

As with all Profipacks there are photo-etched parts, mostly for the interior and these look to be the usual Eduard high standard. In addition the clear parts aren't too thick and there's an option of either opening or closing the canopy. Either way you should be able to show off that nice photo-etched interior.

Shape wise it looks good, add that to that the detail and it makes this the obvious choice over the Hasegawa kit which was it's nearest competitor.

Now if that wasn't enough this is also going to be one of the kits that has the option of Eduard's own resin Brassin extras. Already there's tyres, drop tanks and an incredible cockpit which I'd consider painting on it's own as a side project.

For the marking options you have a choice of six. Naturally they're all RAF markings, and five of the six are standard camouflage schemes. However there's a good choice of pilot nationalities to choose from, for me the aircraft flown by Pierre Clostermann stands out as the one I'd probably want to build.

Manufacturer's finished product shot

So back to my earlier question, can Eduard finally give this legendary aircraft the kit it deserved? In my opinion, it looks like the answer is a resounding "Yes." However I would say while it appears this kit does go together rather well it's still probably one for more experienced modellers. For the beginner out there I'd personally recommend the Airfix release mentioned above, I have an unfinished one somewhere and it's not such a bad kit.


Overall In Box Score: Outstanding. The perfect Spitfire!