Sydhuey

Yes, that photo looks like the Hamilton to Breakfast creek part of the Brisbane River before the sharp left hand turn to the Bulimba reach, looking toward the city with Mt Cootha and hills in background. The Breaky Creek Pub is about 1 km ahead on the right. This is about as far up the Brisbane Rive large ships could go , Turn left into the Bulimba reach is about Light Cruiser/Destroyer size max

Thanks guys, I have all those books on Sunderlands (about 12) and Jerry I have been on the CC site before that has links to other aircraft in a TSS scheme before the supposed TLS scheme on the Sunderland, and as has been said - profiles don't trust them without photo or other proof. As I said some colour photo's exist on the silver scheme, several versions of the TSS over Silver and Sky and white but nothing has turned up of a TLS scheme on a Sunderland. Lots of paintings of Sunderland and looking at them the vast majority are full of mistakes, FN-5A nose turrets on early Mk 1's, fixed nose guns on early Sunderland's, FN-11 nose turrets with twin VGO's, schemes wrong, wrong depth charges for time period etc Two famous artworks by Micheal Turner of a 210 Sqn Sunderland I in TLS I think is wrong and a Graham Turner painting of a 10 sqn Sunderland III in TLS is completely wrong as the painting is set in 1944 and any chance of anything in CC being in a TLS scheme was well passed by that date. Both nice painting and good renditions of the aircraft just wrong schemes. I don't think the scheme was used on Sunderlands unless I can find proof and any artists I assist I will recommend not to do a TLS scheme on art or profiles. The search continues....

I have been studying Sunderlands for some time and have worked out timelines for various armament fits - evolution of MG fits and AS bomb/ depth charge fits, now I am looking into colours, Sunderland II and III I am happy with colour variations and evolution of schemes, but the Mk I is a bit of a Grey area. We have the original all over Silver scheme that is known and the TSS scheme DSG/EDSG over Silver and TSS scheme DSG/EDSG over Sky going into the Various TSS scheme DSG/EDSG and White. My grey area is the short lived Dark Green/Dark Earth over Silver and Sky, personally I don't think it existed being misidentified DG/DE rather than the TSS colours which has happened with Beaufighters and Blenheims I know of, though they did operate in DG/DE schemes for a short while with coastal, but they were land based aircraft. Rare Colour pics exist of Silver and TSS schemed Sunderlands but I have never found confirmation of a DG/DE Sunderland anywhere only hearsay and in texts (and paintings and decal sheets and model instructions but I have seen these wrong on many occasions). For years many have misidentified TSS schemes as Dark Green/Extra Dark Sea Grey which is finally being corrected in books magazines and models and decal sheets but the DG/DE Sunderlands of 1940 still exist, Photo's exist of Saro Lerwick and Short Singapore in late 39 early 40 in TSS schemes , why would you paint a Sunderland in a TLS scheme in the same timeframe? Question- is there proof of TLS scheme Sunderlands

The Boston IV (A-20J) and Boston V (A-20K) generally kept their nose guns (2 x .50's) though rarely armed them (gun openings doped fabric over - you can see the barrel bulging thru the doped fabric), the guns were kept as a C of G issue, 88 and 342 Sqn in NW Europe didn't use the guns as they operated in the medium altitude medium Bomber role, but the Italian based Units , 13, 18, 55 used the Boston in the Interdictor role and used the nose guns for ground strafing.

Hey Jay, Yes, that's my presentation I did a month or so ago. She's Apples is my favourite Boston she was a workhorse and the personal mount of Charles Learmonth who flew it about 50 of its 77 missions, it stayed in its Dark Green/Dark Earth scheme till it was repainted in allover Foliage Green in Jun 44 just before it was retired , at the end of August 43 it took ground fire over Gasmata and belly landed back at base, when it went for repair the lower surfaces were repainted from the original Sky colour to RAAF Sky Blue, so in its late configuration late 43 early 44 world be well worn DG/DE over freshly applied RAAF Sky Blue, the root area of the left wing is well worn walkway with scuffing and bare metal showing thru worn paint.

I have pics at home but don't post pics here as I can't post direct, also look at old posts by tonyot , he made some 14 Sqn Marauders in various schemes and did extensive research on the various schemes.

Early 44 most aircraft in Brit service of US origin returned to the Std US colours of Olive Drab over Neutral Grey, Boston's, Mitchells and Marauders in Brit schemes were returned to the std OD/NG scheme (Mitchells were already operating in the OD/NG scheme from delivery but Boston IIIA's and Marauders returned to the US scheme)

The Mk 1's operated in 3 schemes, Delivered in Std US colours OD/NG (Aug 42/Sep42) , initially repainted into Desert scheme DE/MS over Azure Blue as it was thought they would do the Medium bomber role over the desert (Sep 42 till about Feb/Mar43), went to the maritime strike role where the Desert scheme was inappropriate, and repainted into the TSS scheme(Feb/Mar 43 till early 44), in 1944 remaining Mk 1's went back to the original OD/NG scheme (till 14 Sqn converted to Wellington Sep44). The Scheme dates are ballpark no-one is 100 % sure when they changed but close with role changes etc.

No, purely cooling holes, it was thought in hot climates it would help cooling round the engines, didn't really make a difference so were dropped on the A-20B and C, the lower outer cowl has 6 holes the inner lower cowl only 2

Hatches were used on a daily basis, popped out by ground crew to walk down and inspect tail and clean guns and assist in their removal.

Grizly, I have lots of photo's of Boston's send me a pm with a contact email and I will send pics of the escape hatch from inside and outside.

Graham, on page 48 of the wingleader book it shows the covers on a cowl, once you know they are there you can just see them like the Boston III intruder on page 42, they stand out more once they get oil stained like the smaller picture on page 52 and the picture on page 54 but if a new aircraft or they haven't been removed to break the paint edge it looks like its a solid cowl. Boston II, Boston III, A-20A and very early Boeing Build A-20C's all ran the same cowls, A-20B/A-20C/Boston IIIA went to a solid cowl with multi exhaust pipes exiting rear of cowl. (page 59) I have lots of pics but too much of a pain in the behind to post here, If I can't post direct I don't bother.

There was only one type of engine cowl on the 700 odd Boston III's, the slots in the so called "tropical" cowl are just removable blanking plates, there are 8 holes in the cowls , 6 in the outer cowl and 2 in the inner cowl, the inner cowl only has 2 as the other 4 would be in line with the oil coolers and you don't want hot air from the engines going into the oil cooler intake. Its all covered in the Wingleader book.

DuPont colour codes Dark Earth 71-009 Dark Green 71-013 Sky Type S (Grey) 71-021(a bluish grey colour) Curtiss used Dupont, but I get mixed up with Lockheed, Boeing and Douglas who used DuPont and who used Fuller paints.