LyleW wrote:Da man. da myth, Da machine!
Stikpusher wrote:Starting another one already!?
You’re a bold soul Stuart!
Well you know, you open a box, start cutting some pieces off the sprue to see how well they fit, you reach for some paint - the next thing you know you have a cockpit...
tempestjohnny wrote:Looking good Stuart. I'm about to start an FRS.1
Cool! Is that the Airfix 1/72 kit? If so it'll be very similar to this one. The fit should be good, although watch how the fuselage halves go together - I think one side of mine was moulded badly. it had a lot of sink marks and even though it fitted against the other side well - it didn't want to stay in place.
Looking forward to seeing it.
speedgraflex wrote:
This looks great! Two asks: (1) Tell the story about an aircraft almost taking off the roof of your car! And (2) What’s wrong with the box art other then it doesn’t have quite the same high octane kick of classic box art, I think it’s a result of the framing device used by Airfix, and they ought to just leave their badge in the corner with the name of the aircraft on top.
Thanks Bruce - nothing special, just OOB with the decals added - it helps when you have a lot of RAF specific paint sets
so...
1. I was driving home from work about 15 years ago when, passing Oxford Airport, a Harrier GR.9 flew over my head presumably to beat up the airfield. About 3 minutes later, it appeared again at about 100ft, coming towards me and at an angle that told me within miliseconds it was going down (It's back was facing the ground), the pilot punched out at about 50 ft going out at about a 45 degree angle downwards (the seat bending around and sending him off vertical) and the aircraft hit the road about 100 yards in front off me with the resultant fireball going out from the road towards me at about 45 degrees again - I was doing 70mph - a few seconds later or a few more degrees around and the I'd have been under it or the fireball would have been in my face. A car coming the other way was even closer than me and although the crash went away from him the shockwave blew his windscreen out and put his car into a tree - he was fine other than cuts from the glass. Myself and a paramedic went to find the pilot and we got to him at the same time as the medic from the air-ambulance did - stupidly we ran across the crash site to find him (I remember seeing the ejection seat). He was fine although I do think he had a fractured back. The only casualties were a few sheep.
I think I found out later that he'd gone around to beat up the airport a second time, and had a bird strike and lost the engine. He'd tried to keep it in the air for as long as possible to avoid a village in the valley I was driving along the top off - he did well. (this wasn't far from the old USAF Upper Heyford base).
Still it makes an interesting story. The funny thing that's always struck me is I remember the fireball - but there was no sound, nothing.
2). There's nothing wrong with the new style of boxart on the whole, I really like the new stuff generally. It's just this particular image is bit... pants. I don't think it's a very flattering image of what is arguably the best all British single seat fighter ever produced. The one from the re-release is a bit better.
But still not as good as the one for the FRS.1
Cheers!
