Final product photos HA3519 F/A-18A+ VMFA-333 "The Fighting Shamrocks".

Hobby Master 1/72 Air Power Series, HA3519, F/A-18A+ VMFA-333 "The Fighting Shamrocks", late 1980s.

VMFA-333 “Fighting Shamrocks” or “Trip Trey” (333) originally formed on August 1, 1943 and fought in WWII until being de-activated on November 1, 1945. On August 1, 1952 the squadron was re-activated and went on to fight in Vietnam and “Operation Desert Storm”. 

In October 1987 VMFA-333 upgraded from their F-4 Phantom IIs to the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. The “Fighting Shamrock” F/A-18s wear three very distinctive shamrocks painted on their vertical stabilizers. On March 31, 1992 the Trip Trey was once again deactivated.

Final product photos HA7812 Spitfire Mk.IIA QV-Y S/Lt. Blake.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7812, Spitfire Mk.IIA P7423/QV-Y, S/Lt. Blake No.19 Sqn., October 1940.

Arthur Giles Blake attended the Royal Naval College and received his FAA wings in January 1940. On June 15, 1940 he was one of the FAA pilots assigned to the RAF at 7 OTU. 

On July 1, 1940 he was assigned to No. 19 Squadron and because of his naval background was nicknamed “Admiral”. During September 1940 Sub Lieutenant Blake downed an He-111, shared another, destroyed 3 Me-109s, damaged an Me-110 and a Do-17 before being shot down himself and killed on October 29, 1940.

Final product photos HA7811 Spitfire Mk.I QV-K Brain Lane.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7811, Spitfire Mk.I P9386/QV-K, Sqn. Ldr. Brain Lane OC No.19 Sqn., September 1940.

Brian “Sandy” Lane flew with the No. 19 Squadron during the Dunkirk evacuation and was awarded a DFC. On September 7, 1940 Lane shot down a Bf-110 while flying P9386/QV-K and on the 9th and 11th claimed a Bf-110 and a He-111 while being flown by Flt. Lt. Peter Lawson. 

Later that month Lane was promoted to Squadron Leader. The aircraft was transferred and eventually was destroyed in an accident in 1944. On December 13, 1942 Lane pursued 2 Fw-190s and was never seen again.

Final product photos HA7810, Spitfire Mk.IA QV-H Grumpy Unwin

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7810, Spitfire Mk.IA X4179/QV-H, Flt. Sgt. G. Unwin No.19 Sqn., September 1940.

In May 1940, for the first sortie of the Dunkirk evacuation Unwin wasn’t allocated an aircraft so he boisterously complained until he was assured he would fly on day two. George wasn’t one to back down from an argument nor was he afraid to speak his mind and this issue is what earned him his nickname “Grumpy”. 

In the sky over Dunkirk, George scored 5 victories and 2 probables. After only one month with No. 266 Squadron, Spitfire Mk1A X4179/QV-H arrived at No. 19 Squadron on September 13, 1940. It was assigned to George “Grumpy” Unwin and over the next fourteen days he proceeded to shoot down 4 Bf-109Es. 

On September 27, 1940 Spitfire Mk1A X4179/QV-H was re-assigned to No. 609 Squadron. The aircraft was written off October 24, 1943 when the engine failed on take-off and made a belly landing and flipped over.

Dornier Do 17 moves into next stage of conservation.

PRESS RELEASE - The world’s last surviving Dornier Do 17 has now moved into the second phase of its conservation at the Royal Air Force Museum Cosford. It’s been a little over 15 months since the aircraft was lifted from the bottom of the Dover Straits and transported to the Museum’s Cosford site for ground breaking conservation work.  

The process so far has seen the aircraft systematically sprayed with a low concentration citric acid based solution inside purpose built hydration tunnels. This process has helped to remove marine accretions and subsequently the neutralised corrosion impurities in the aluminium aircraft structure.

The project is progressing at a much faster rate than previously anticipated and the Museum is delighted to see second stage conservation work commence on the aircraft’s forward fuselage.  Confident that the citric acid solution has done its job, the fuselage was removed from the tunnels early September and has undergone an intense wash down, before being moved into the Conservation Centre. 

Aircraft Technician Andy Woods is now working on the Dornier full time, with his initial efforts focused on internal cleaning and removing any remaining marine deposits with the use of plastic scrapers.  Control rods and other smaller items are being carefully removed allowing Technicians greater access to the airframe structure beneath. A team of Volunteers will work on the components removed from the aircraft and which will be put back at a later date.

http://www.warbirdsnews.com/aviation-museum-news/dornier-17-moves-stage-conservation.html

Corgi pre-production photos Op Gothic Serpent Blackhawk

DAF's sniperUK posted these new photos of the Corgi Operation Gothic Blackhawk.

Pre-pro pics of the MH-60L, Super 64, couple of minor things to correct but a massive improvement over the first. New details include the extra fuel tank in the rear cabin.

Regtheveg on DHP reviews the Corgi AA27201 Vulcan XH558.

Regtheveg's regularly posts photos of new model releases on DHP and often they make their appearance on this blog. 

The Corgi 1:72 Vulcan

Thanks to SKF for the first review, models should be reviewed by buyers, and at this point I'll feel a little bit of a fraud for posting this, but it's based on feedback.

If you like this model, that's great, I'm not here to tell you what you should or shouldn't like, but I do feel strongly about the marketing of this model.

We have very few of these for sale, but I'm pushed into posting this by the number of emails we have got saying that we (As a Supplier) are "supporting" it (On Facebook apparently).

We don't support it, we just sell it!

Here are some quick snaps.

I've deliberately not changed anything except for scrubbing some of the white background, I'd usually lighten the picture up a bit after this, and equalise the white background, but that does change the colours somewhat.

Picture 5 (last but one) is with a spotlight, the others are under normal indoor light mixed with some natural daylight.

The only metal I can find on the model is the nose, the lower middle part of the fuselage, and the rearmost part of the fuselage.

The complete wing assembly, top and bottom, and tail wing are all plastic, it's not finished particularly well either (a bit of flash on the plastic mouldings).

It does "feel" toyish, it's got a very obviously high plastic content.

Is it a breakthrough in diecast model aircraft production?

No it's not, not by a long chalk - you couldn't honestly call it a diecast aircraft in my opinion, on reflection, even "diecast model with high plastic content" is pushing it.

It's nicely detailed, the little aerials are nice touches, the panel lines look about right, for industry standard.

So it's detailed, has a decent painted finish, and it's mainly made from plastic. Lets face the truth here, this type of model has been done before, many times, they are called toys. 

I know about toys, I've been selling them for 35 years and a bit more. It's not new, there is no new technology here, it's made to a price.

There is nothing to do with technological challenges involved in making it, that's PR rubbish, any toy company could have made this, only Corgi have the brass to bring this to the aviation model market, and call it a diecast model.

It could have been made in diecast, it was priced up and quoted 5 years or more ago by Hobby Master, and the general view was that the market wouldn't take it, and if made from diecast it would be a minimum price of 300 quid (500 USD).

Corgi touted this model as a diecast model, but somebody got their sums wrong and if Corgi had made the model in diecast, they would have lost a lot of money on their original plans and orders taken. This is a fob off, Corgi went to plastic when the new bean counters at Hornby got involved.

After all that, and at the point that Corgi have finally got this item to the market, that I'd be surprised if the landed cost was much more than 30 dollars, they have even managed to mug 2 or 3 thousand people to buy one of these "wonder models" - they get the colours so spectacuarly wrong, that even a 12 year old, making his first plastic kit, could have got it nearer.

I've never heard of their engineer, who tells us of the problems in production, that's rare, as most engineers ask the trade for their comments, no offence to the bloke in the video, but who the f**k are you?, I've never heard of you, and I know a few.

Again, there is no problem making a model of this size in plastic - it's a doddle - done before many times.

I can't believe people are buying into this model, and I can't believe we have bought them ourselves, but once these have gone, I won't pay more than 40 quid for them and they should retail around 80 quid delivered or 120 USD.

I'm not generally enamoured by Corgi at the moment, but will buy in to anything they do that will sell, and to be honest, this will sell. But I have to be fair - This is a rip off, daylight robbery, but luckily for Corgi, most of the purchasers are UK buyers who have never bought a diecast model in their life, they will only be shocked when they buy their next one, if ever!

Will it become a classic - Like this very similarly constructed model from a long time ago?

I don't think so, I think seasoned collectors who receive this will be deeply disappointed, unlike the children who received their Millenium Falcon for their Christmas gift all those years ago - Corgi have designated collectors as children, just another load of punters to be stiffed, and roll on the production of toys.

Sorry to be so negative - but Corgi never told the trade about this "plastic content" apart from a few hints, nothing official - that's bad form in the English language, you guys can call it whatever you like.

Adios

Reg

Shuttle comments on Corgi AA27201 Vulcan XH558.

Shuttle on DAF has posted his views on the new Corgi Vulcan release. He often posts pre-production photos on the forum and his Duxford Reports are replicated on this blog.

I have so far refrained from commenting on this model until I get a production sample. However, I think it is a good tooling and has a lot of potential for future releases as there are options for Blue Steel etc. What is the major disappointment is the colours of this first release. Whatever way you look at it Corgi used the wrong grey for the base colour. This was not specified to them (the correct medium sea grey was though) and as Craig and I posted several times over the last few months we were reassured that the colours were going to be correct on the production model. The first painted PP had the correct shade of grey but the green was wrong. However, it looks miles better than the production version IMHO. We managed to get the additional Photo Etch parts added and other details corrected but until I can review the PP against the production model I am holding back on any comments. 

I have seen one on display at Antics in Plymouth and again, the grey just dominated my impression of this first release. There was no excuse to getting it wrong and somewhere along the line, despite reassurances, someone took the decision to specify dark sea grey as opposed to medium sea grey. This decision has dominated this release and if it hadn't have happened I am sure that there would have been far less negative debate over this model. With any first release of a new tooling there will be issues and these normally are factory errors or quality control errors. For such a large and ambitious model I would have tolerated a small number of these (to a point) and hopefully eliminate them in furore releases. I cannot defend such a basic error as a wrong colour when there is so much evidence available - schoolboy stuff.

The basic tooling is good and here is optimism for future releases. I am sure many people will be delighted with this release and hopefully, for Corgi's sake, they will sell all 4000. However, for me it is a major disappointment that a simple issue, easily corrected before production, has blighted this release.

 Shuttle

Corgi AA27201 1/72 Vulcan XH558 is a huge disappointment for collectors.

Photos of the final production models of XH558 have been appearing on the web and are creating an outcry amongst keen collectors.

Apart from a very visible joint on the nose, out of scale splitter plates and wide gap between the nose gear wheels, the biggest issues are the models' light weight due the large percentage of plastic content and particularly the exceptionally poor colours that bear no resemblance to that of XH558. Colours that on their own resin prototype looked much like the real thing.

Corgi has done itself no favours by ignoring rumerous requests by their collectorate to correct the colours after seeing the pre-production model. Many have been using their own Facebook page to comment. Corgi's response however is regarded by many as being without substance attempting to shift the blame and excuse the poor colours when potentially priming the model before painting could have resolved the issue.

Corgi Die-Cast: Hi everyone and thanks for your comments. All development stages and the final detail of the Vulcan model was approved by the Vulcan Trust; the outcome was decided upon for a number of important factors. The choice of paint colour on the Vulcan has obviously been a talking point, the way the paint reacted to the combination of plastic and die cast parts was interesting; one paint was glossy on one and matt on the other; one didn’t give enough definition between the two colours, resulting in colour bleed. We’re very pleased with the final outcome which meets Corgi’s high standards.

There are many good things about the model, its size, fine detailing like etched wipers and crew access ladder, leaving those who have seen the model or have received it, with the impression of an impressive model let down by its colours. 

This model was heralded as Corgi's flagship model, highly anticipated by many. There is absolutely no excuse for getting the colours of one of the most photographed aircraft in the world wrong, particularly after a gestation period of nearly 18 months, and a hefty price tag.

Like many diecast military aviation collectors I was eager to secure myself one of the XH558 models but have cancelled my pre-orders.  Corgi has let itself and many XH558 enthusiasts down. We can only hope that upcoming Vulcan models receive the attention to detail they deserve.

Pre-production photos HA7812 Spitfire QV-Y S/Lt. Blake No.19 Sqn. RAF.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7812, Spitfire Mk.IIA P7423/QV-Y, S/Lt. Blake No. 19 Sqn. RAF, October 1940.

The same colour issues afflict this trio of No. 19 Sqn. Spitfire releases.

Pre-production photos HA7811 Spitfire QV-K Brian Lane No. 19 Sqn. RAF.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7811, Spitfire Mk.I P9386/QV-K, Sqn. Ldr. Brian Lane OC No. 19 Sqn. RAF, September 1940.

The same colour issues afflict this trio of No. 19 Sqn. Spitfire releases.

Pre-production photos, HA7810, Spitfire QV-H Grumpy Unwin N0.19 Sqn. RAF.

Hobby Master 1/48 Air Power Series, HA7810, Spitfire Mk.1A X4179/QV-H, Flt Sgt G. Unwin No. 19 Sqn. RAF, September 1940.

The colours on the model, particularly the brown, is too light so lets hope HM fixes it on the production model.