Scott Hemsley

As your initial post mentioned you wanted to do a 418 Sqn. Boston III, you should loose the long-range tank. 418 operated in the night intruder role from the UK over the continent, using the two nose .303's & bombs, or when fitted - the belly gun-pack as well as the nose cheek .303's. There was no requirement for a long-rang tank to be fitted. Scott

I believe you'll find that "long-range belly tank" is actually a gun pack that was fitted to 418 Sqn. Boston's in the later part of their career with the squadron. but I see how such an assumption can be made just by its length and the overall shape. The gun-pack housed 4x 20mm Hispano cannons and by some squadron accounts, started appearing on squadron aircraft, mid-late '42. As for it's colour, same as the underside colour. Scott

There's a larger version of the OP's small photo that he included in his initial post and those roundels are definitely RAF as opposed to the reverse colours of the French roundel. Scott

Just drawing at straws here, but could the spinner colour be Dk. Earth? That's not without precedent as there are colour(ized?) shots of some Spit VIII's in Sicily./Italy with Dk. Earth spinners while still retaining the desert cam carried in N. Africa. Certainly in at least one of the 112 Sqn. photos in the link posted above by Mark Harmsworth, the spinner looks remarkably close to the adjoining camouflage colour on the cowling - which would happen to be Dk. Earth. Scott

FWIW, 405 Sqn. was attached to 4 Grp during 1941-42, based in Driffield, Pocklington & Topcliffe, Yorks. Scott

Granted photo coverage of the Mk.II are few and far between compared to the other versions, but they do exist. One thing to remember though, not all Mk.II's had the waist positions (usually assoc. with the Mk.III) and while the kit provided insert is generally a good fit, it does require some filling along with some careful sanding to maintain that fabric-covered surface. Also in addition to the Polish squadron mentioned by Ossington 2 and the two RAF squadrons mentioned by Paul Lucas, the RCAF used them as well with 405 Sqn. (LQ codes), May 41 - Apr. 42. Scott

I just checked the site to make sure he still offers them, but Belcher Bits does a set of 4 Merlin's for the Tamyia Lancaster with both covered and exposed exhausts. Scott

Squadron still list vac transparencies for the Academy/Minicraft kits under the 'Squadron name' on the Falcon Models site.. Scroll down the list until.... [9162 1/72 Consolidated PBY-5 Catalina (nose turret; cockpit canopy; side blisters) Academy/Minicraft kit] Scott

Words fail me, except to say that this has got to be the best Swordfish build I've encountered 'in the flesh' or online, regardless of scale ... an' the presentation was top notch, too. Scott

Maybe slightly off topic, but for those that don't know ... the 'Brengun' C-130J engine nacelles are the former 'Attack Squadron' set. When 'Attack Squadron' ceased their resin operations. 'Brengun' took up the slack obtaining rights to all the 'Attack Squadron' resin. I've got 2 sets of the Brengun (Attack Squadron) C-130E/H nacelles and can attest that the detail and fit - both in terms of assembly and to the Italeri kit, is excellent. Scott

One thing I forgot to mention I discovered when I did my build ... the transparency for the tail light is molded to fit according to the fuselage contour (the alleged 'ill-fitting' light also frequently mentioned in past BN threads). Scott

According to ScaleMates, if you're referring to kit SH72423, A-20A/B/DB-7C Havoc/Boston & the photo of the box contents, you should have nose transparencies covering both the DB-7 Havoc & the Boston III. Scott

Part A18 will provide the correct shape & adding the 'location tabs' on the fuselage side of the join will avoid a straight 'butt' join & provide strength to that join. The most troublesome section of those 'location tabs' was directly in front of the wheel well. Unfortunately, that small section (as I recall) played a critical role in making the transparency hold it's correct shape. I don' think you'd gain anything with a dummy bulkhead except losing any detail that's on A18. Looking at the instructions of a more recent release than mine (identical, BTW), I was reminded of another problem area. I don't know if they corrected it on subsequent releases, but on mine part A7 proved much too long to fit in the transparency. I wondered if it was meant for the longer transparency of the Boston IV. In my case, the solution was very straight fwd..... 418 Squadron according to their Sqn. history, didn't use a bombsight for their intruder missions. The Mk.I eyeball proved more effective given the low roof-top altitudes usually flown, thus the molded in bomb sight was removed & the front of part A7 both shortened & reshaped. However, there's another mod required to part A7. If you examine the part, you'll notice that the floor covers the small downward-looking glazed panel in the nose transparency. Part A7 needs to have that bit of the floor removed (duplicating the size & shape of the downward panel) thus exposing that downward panel. The two 'crescents' on either side of that cut-out need to remain since that's where the bomb-aimer placed his feet while seated. The RAF Boston's were fitted with bombsights as they conducted their bombing missions at a much higher altitude. In that case, the bomb sight was mounted on a swing arm attached to the top of the bomb-aimer's port side console. I'm only guessing that it was on a swing-arm else it would imped any effort of the bomb-aimer to enter or exit the aircraft. One other thing I found odd. The rear canopy (K3) is a single piece. I always thought that they should've provided a 2-piece option if the twin Browning's (G17) are to be deployed. IMO, it made no sense to provide the guns with only a closed rear canopy. If the guns were deployed, the rear portion of the rear canopy slid back inside of the fixed front portion. When the guns are stowed, the guns are lowered into the fuselage & the barrels are hidden in a 'closed' bay directly behind the rear canopy. When I cut mine to open it up, I had to resort to using the rear portion of a Falcon Clear-vax vac-form to enable the fwd portion of the rear canopy to fit inside the fixed front portion of the kit's rear canopy. With it being intended for the old Airfix Boston (which has a fuselage narrower than the MPM fuselage), it was easy getting the 'moveable' portion of the rear canopy slid into place inside the fixed portion of the kit canopy. Scott

Ever since MPM first issued their 72nd Boston, BM has seen posts re the fit of the nose transparency to the fwd fuselage. Upon opening the kit, my first response (like most modellers) was to remove the fuselage halves & the nose transparency, then proceed to dry-fit those parts, if nothing else than to confirm all the BM posts, but there was one thread (sorry, I forgot the chap's name) that provided a vital clue to solving the problem. Like the OP did, glue the 'floor' of the cockpit assembly to 1/2 of the fuselage (parts A16, A18 & D21). This provides some structure to the fwd fuselage when dry-fitting. Notice the fwd fuselage is a bit 'flared. Now, once the halves are again taped together, you'll likely see a very different gap in the UPPER fuselage. When I did my Boston (2010 Boston Mk.III "Intruder" release), I seem to recall that I used a 1mm shim on the upper fwd fuselage to close that gap. Having delt with the fuselage, I focused on the fit of the transparency. The problem I found was that due to the thickness of the transparency, it was able to flex quite easily resulting in a x-section that was different from the fwd fuselage. I found that dry-fitting the transparency after gently squeezing the sides resulted in the transparency conforming to the fuselage x-section. Applying thin/narrow tabs to essentially built a 360 deg. lip around the whole of the fwd fuselage caused the transparency to hold it's correct shape. Carefully applied Tamyia Extra Thin worked just fine. Scott

Julian: Thanks for pointing that out, but I'm aware of the changes required to the Airfix kit, for both the Mk.4 and the Mk.2. Tony: That's exactly what I was looking for ... thanks! Scott