Regarding the new Sea Vixen kit, I’m pleased that Airfix have started to reintroduce its RAF roundel decals complete and not produce them with a separate red dot, which were a nightmare to accurately position them on a model, and was one reason why I gave up model making.

Ironically that started in the early 90s, I think initially by Revell and then Airfix, simple because so many modellers preferred the spots separate, and because it was easier over such a large print run to get more sheets that were usable. Even today many of the specialist decal companies prefer to split things like roundels down as an extra insurance measure against slight shifts in registration.

Centering them is not that difficult, a bit of setting solution to float it in place, then pad it down with a cotton bud.

As one well-known spokesman for Hornby often says these days, nobody is seriously attempting to replicate the quality of those kits.

That’s odd, because the Sea Vixen certainly aspires to that kind of quality as do the new Spitfire XII and Seafire XVII – they are certainly a step up from kits like the 1/48 Hawk, Spitfire Vc, Spitfire IX, Canberras and 1/72 Nimrod in terms of quality, detail and fit.

Whom exactly is this “well-known spokesman”?

I’ve got both kits on front of me, the quality of the Sea Vixen mouldings is easily on a par with the Lightnings, in fact the panels lines are actually finer, the wheel wells have more detail, the cockpit is moulded rather than decals, large Cartograf-printed decal sheet… the model in AMW looks the equal of the Lightnings.

The photos were taken on the same day and the Nimrods were parked next to each other. The colours look totally different but I am assuming both are Hemp??????

Yes the are the same – Hemp started out as BS4800.10B.21 but has since been reclassified as BS381C 389 Camouflage Beige. Its a colour with plenty of “moods”, appearing to be grey depending on the lighting conditions.

Dave mentioned the saga of the “Flying “Sh**house”, according to those who serviced her, she was supposed to be in “Hemp” but due to an error in the paint specification the upper surface colour came out in dark brown shade. The base C/O was not impressed and ordered that she be repainted PDQ. As Dave says she acquired some nicknames (in both guises) which can be found on the Model Alliance sheet MA-72 176.

The devil is in the details as they say. Having been a member of the UK Wildlife Trusts for over a decade, they have reported all manner of changes happening on a micro level around the world that are of concern – its the domino effect of small things happening that affect the larger things which a lot of critics don’t seem to be able to grasp – the kind of evidence they are looking for seems more rooted in a Roland Emmerich film than reality.