The BAE Nimrod is
one of the cornerstones of the Royal Air Force. Since it's arrival into service
in the early 1970's as a maritime reconnaisance aircraft it has been used in
every conflict that British forces have been deployed as well as search
and rescue operations around the UK and even now Nimrods are patrolling Iraq and
Afghanistan in support of British forces. To say that this kit was long awaited
and much sought after would be an understatement, from the moment Airfix
announced the release at Telford in 2005 modellers of British subjects keenly
anticipated the kit's arrival. Due to various circumstances the kit was not
released until February2008 and immediately became one of Airfix's biggest
sellers ever. Tooled by Trumpeter, the kit provides the options to build the
MR.1/2/2P and R.1 with decals for all and a range of weapons for the sizable
weapons bay. Despite being such a large aircraft, the kit goes together
surprisingly easy into a nice replica of this important aircraft.
Click on
images below to see larger images
I chose to build XV258
"Guernsey Girl" which was deployed to the Persian Gulf during
Operation Granby in 1990-91 after reading about Nimrod missions in the RAF
Yearbook 1991. The dec als came from one of three Model Alliance sheets released
for the kit. Painting the kit took a whole pot each of Xtracrylix Hemp and Light
Aircraft Grey and after a coat of Johnson's Klear the main decals went down
beautifully. The kit decals suffered from some problems but were not
insurmountable. Scratchbuilt FOD covers were added for the intakes.
The model is dedicated to the
crew of XV230 lost over Afghanistan 02 September 2006 while on combat operations
Reference
Stephen
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