major_clanger: Clangers (Royal Mail stamp) (Default)
Simon Bradshaw ([personal profile] major_clanger) wrote2009-07-24 12:35 pm

I know when I'm outclassed!

On the way to meet a friend at the Princess Louise yesterday evening I walked past ModelZone (the huge model shop on High Holborn opposite My Old Dutch) and glanced in the window.



OMG! Airfix (who have apparently been reincarnated yet again) have re-issued their rare TSR-2 kit - and not in the original 1/72 scale, but a whopping 1/48!

Had the place been open, I would have struggled hard not to buy one on the spot. (Even at the price of firmly outing myself as a hopeless geek to my beautiful and intelligent dining companion for the evening. Mind you, she's probably worked this out by now.)

Alas, I now find myself cooling on the prospect. Why? Because I am not worthy of this model. At 1/48 scale, it's nearly two feet long. That's the sort of size where it demands a level of attention and detail far beyond what I'm capable of. It's not a question of getting the paint job and decals right; at 1/48, you're adding detail like panel fasteners, maintenance warnings and the scuff marks from the groundcrews' boots.

And I wouldn't want to build the base model of the one I've seen sitting in Duxford. With my alt-history interest, I'd want to do a TSR-2 in Desert Storm (or rather Op GRANBY) camo. Or Boscombe Down 'Raspberry Ripple', like on the cover of this book. Or USAF colours, in a really bizarre parallel world where they cancelled the F-111 and bought TSR-2 instead. And I'm clearly not alone in this - you can even get third-party decal kits!

Alas, A Man's Gotta Know His Limitations. I should probably stick to this sort of thing instead.

[identity profile] swisstone.livejournal.com 2009-07-24 12:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Or perhaps, given your preference for planes that go whooooooosh, something like this.
zotz: (Default)

[personal profile] zotz 2009-07-24 12:54 pm (UTC)(link)
Or even . . .

A good summer for reissues, it seems.

Nobody tell CJ.

Seriously.

Nobody. Tell. CJ.

He's been vaguely after a Valkyrie kit for at least the last several years.

[identity profile] nmg.livejournal.com 2009-07-24 12:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn your eyes, I'm going to have to get my credit cards out now.

[identity profile] sbisson.livejournal.com 2009-07-24 01:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Damn damn damn.

Wooosh!
zotz: (Default)

[personal profile] zotz 2009-07-24 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
There's a page here with some entertaining postulated paint schemes . . . including one for an aerobatics team.

[identity profile] gummitch.livejournal.com 2009-07-24 01:09 pm (UTC)(link)
There goes my bank balance...