My first day was memorable for a different reason. Whilst I was being shown round the school that morning, I took nothing in that the teacher was telling us bright eyed newbies because circling above my school just under the low grey cloudbase for over an hour that September morning was a distinctive looking plane that this 11 year old airplane geek instantly recognised.
It was in a holding pattern waiting for the right time to make a farewell flypast down the runway at RAF Waddington.
It was the day the Nimrod AEW.3 was cancelled.
When Airfix announced they were doing a 1/72 Nimrod I instantly knew that I wanted one to build as the ill-fated AEW.3, I just needed someone to release a conversion . Thankfully Cammet stepped up to the plate with their excellent resin set. Then I needed the funds to secure kit & conversion. I was able to procure the Airfix kit at a good price from a friend (thanks Trev!) and ScaleModelWorld 2009 provided the opportunity to stock up on the bits I needed.
The only real downer on the Airfix kit are its near unusable decals. Grainy, plasticy and just ugghhh I purchased the Xtradecal set to provide lo-vis roundels and white serials, the Model Alliance decals are a complete stencil set for the modern grey camoflage scheme worn by Nimrods today (thats a clue
). Due to the weight of the resin, Geoff Baker (Thorvic) who has previously built this conversion recommended the Heritage white metal nose gear and resin wheel well.
And finally the gorgeous Cammet conversion featuring a whole new tail including rudder and tailplanes as well as the radomes
Really, really looking forward to starting this one, been waiting for a gap in the build schedule since I bought it!
