Like many kids in the fifties, I was into making Airfix plastic models - especially planes with working parts, like the moveable wheels on a Beaufighter.
I asked my dad if he could get me a model kit one day, and he said that was fine by him, and bought me the kit for one of these! I remember it cost much more than the 2/- we paid for smaller kits in Woolworths!
I remember being so disappointed, as it only had about a dozen pieces to glue together, and quite unlike the Lysanders and RE8s which took just ages!
When I first saw pictures of this aeroplane I wondered if the pilot had to sit with a leg each side of the air inlet like riding a horse. But that was long ago, I was young and pictures never showed the scale of the thing. Before that a fighter was a Spitfire.
Superb. There's one near us in the museum at Tangmere. That impressive climb is what they were all about. Their role was to climb at speed and intercept incoming Russian nuclear bombers. They had 2 missiles, but after that it was an attack with 30mm cannon.
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Like many kids in the fifties, I was into making Airfix plastic models - especially planes with working parts, like the moveable wheels on a Beaufighter.
I asked my dad if he could get me a model kit one day, and he said that was fine by him, and bought me the kit for one of these! I remember it cost much more than the 2/- we paid for smaller kits in Woolworths!
I remember being so disappointed, as it only had about a dozen pieces to glue together, and quite unlike the Lysanders and RE8s which took just ages!
When I first saw pictures of this aeroplane I wondered if the pilot had to sit with a leg each side of the air inlet like riding a horse.
But that was long ago, I was young and pictures never showed the scale of the thing. Before that a fighter was a Spitfire.
Luvverly indeed, AKH.
Scrobs - I had the airfix version, but I can't remember how complicated it was to put together. It was one of my favourites, I do remember that.
Doonhamer - that sounds like the kind of thing seen in comics of those days, the hero sitting astride a jet fighter firing at the baddies.
James - it is isn't it?
Superb. There's one near us in the museum at Tangmere. That impressive climb is what they were all about. Their role was to climb at speed and intercept incoming Russian nuclear bombers. They had 2 missiles, but after that it was an attack with 30mm cannon.
Sam - quite stirring isn't it? My Airfix model had the two missiles which always impressed me.
The first Airfix model I made!
djc - I can't remember my first, but it wouldn't have been put together well, I was too impatient to see the finished model.
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