East Kent Scale Modellers February club night (1) - Keith's Invicta Airways airliners

There were a host of superlative scale models on display at our second club night of 2026 - none more so than Keith's Invicta Airways airliners. The Valom Vickers Viking was accompanied on the table by a fantastic build of the Revell C-54/DC-4 Skymaster. Invicta Airways (later Invicta International Airlines) was based at Manston in the 1960s. Founded by Hugh Kennard, the company was a noted user of the Vickers VC.1 Viking (including registrations G-AOVF, G-ANCF, G-AHOY, G-AHPL, and G-AHOW) alongside Douglas DC-4s..

The Manston-based Invicta Airways fleet flew passenger and cargo charters between 1965 and 1968 both within the UK and to Europe and was the last British operator of the Vickers Viking, a type derived from the Wellington bomber. This particular aircraft, G-AHOY - registered to Invicta Airways during 1966 as G-AIVF - operated her final service on January 30 1968 when she flew from Liverpool to Manston. During 1968 Invicta Airways became an all-Skymaster operator.

Models built by Keith Jones

new-tool Airfix for 2026 at The Model Works show

 

January saw the second ever Airfix model show held at Airfix HQ in Margate, Kent. The show featured a table of Airfix new-tools for 2026 and participation from the local clubs, including East Kent, Gravesham and Shepway.  Here are the first views of the new Ju 52, Canberra and Jaguar T.2 on the Airfix stand including the 'new' Club Viggen kit, far left. The new Ju 52 with open doors, hatches and roof looks especially impressive - but then with a slated retail price of around £50 it certainly should be.

 

a tour around the RAF Museum Hendon, James Holland and Al Murray

 

James Holland and Al Murray take a tour around the RAF Museum Hendon in north London. Certainly one of the world's great aviation collections, but somewhat diminished in the view of this blogger since the move of key airframes both to Cosford and abroad. The twin-seat Fw 190 is in Germany, the Me 262 and 'black 6' are in Cosford. However since I was last there the Me 163 Komet has come down to London from Cosford at least. This video is well worth watching as the guys climb inside, inspect, and analyze with contemporary footage some of WW II's most legendary fighters and bombers. Subtitled 'beyond the ropes', the nice thing about Hendon is that there are so few ropes - as you can see from my photos below - and certainly no staff around to keep visitors the 'right' side of them! So many types  in the museum at Hendon that were not mentioned - eg, Bf 110 G, Ju 87 Stuka, He 111- lets hope there's another video soon.

A single click inside the red box to view here


00:00 - Intro: Behind the ropes at RAF Hendon
00:19 - The Avro Lancaster: Inside the heavy bomber
08:48 - Bristol Beaufighter: The Twin engined bruiser
14:30 - The Wooden Wonder: De Havilland Mosquito
20:10 - The Rocket: Me 163 Komet
31:06 - Spitfire Vs Hurricane
33:40 - Hawker Hurricane: The unsung hero
43:33 - Supermarine Spitfire
53:45 - The Bf 109

Some photos taken by this blog on our last visit of the types looked at in the video . Click on the image to get a bigger view.

  

new tool 1:72nd Airfix Wessex HC. 2 build review (2) - first completion of 2026

Still minus a few stencils and small parts but here are a few views of the new-tool Airfix Wessex HC 2. It is a lovely kit, very finely detailed over 86 build stages. Unfortunately not a very pleasurable build experience, possibly to do with the fact that you have to paint/decal the model before attaching most of the parts. One or two of these crucially don't fit too well, which is a pain and one or two disappeared who knows where. And I wish Airfix would identify some of the smaller parts too - what for example are the small 'jaw' like parts that go onto the bottom of the gear legs?  I left these off until the end and they were so much easier to deal with this way. The 'folding' tail rotor and main rotor blades are great options - just rather fiddly to get in position, while the main rotor head probably needs some brass rod or similar to 'stiffen' up the construction. Needless to say masking the canopy was several hours work too and I'm still not sure whether those upper panels should be 'tinted'. Geoff Coughlan's build has them, others don't. The exhausts are just a little clunky - comprising two halves the join is difficult to eradicate at the lip so I've hidden it with some foil covers. Camo was free-handed with AK Real Colors - that's how easy these paints are to work with..

Not only are the rotor blades rather tricky to position folded, the instructions don't exactly clarify the painting and finishing of them. Note on this image (below) how the dark green upper surfaces of the blades are only facing 'outwards' on the starboard fold. The black lower sufaces are 'outwards' on the port fold.

I'll give this kit  a good 8/10 and if we get a yellow one in a forthcoming release I'll definitely add it to the collection..