bobsyouruncle

Thanks, yes I've got the dimensions for a MC 250lb Mk2 with some photos and illustrations to have a go at scratch building, but with so many things appearing in the aftermarket accessories, especially with the 3D printing now, I just wondered if I'd missed something or not. Yes, I've got the Typhoon and am about three quarters of the way on that build, but unless the car door version has different bombs in it, then they're 1000 and 500 pounders in my bubble canopy kit (mine's having the 1000 pounders fitted). Just looking through sprues for the car door version online, they look like the 'long tail' 500 pounders in that kit rather than 250's? I was looking, because of the Spitfire IX in its fighter-bomber role, where a lot of them carried the 250lb bombs on the wing stations. I've just recently given in and picked up the Airfix Spitfire IXC at last. I'm thinking most people prefer the clean lines of the Spit without anything slung underneath, but I was surprised that there also seems to be no centreline 500 pounders in aftermarket products in this scale, or, more surprisingly perhaps, no 'cigar shaped' 45 gallon centreline long range tanks? I've read that there were a lot of problems with these not jettisoning properly and with engines cutting when switching fuel supply, but that they were used quite extensively for ops going over to the continent and especially around D-Day, (such as 126 Squadron who carried them every day through June). Thanks very much anyway.

Hi, just wanted to ask if I’m right in thinking I’d probably have to scratch build these in 24th scale as I can’t find a mention of anyone making them at all? Thanks.

That’s a beauty. I love the faded blotches on the upper surfaces. Looks spot on.

Yes that’s the one Dave, thanks. Wondered if anyone had come across that one in a book or if it had been seen in museum collections (e.g. IWM or Hendon), or from a private collection?

Hi, Whilst searching, I came across an Aeroscale article on modelling Tony Iveson’s Tallboy Lancaster ME554 KC-F and it had a photo of the nose of the aircraft with a YMCA tea car in front of it? I don’t know how I can message the person who posted on that forum, but wondered if anyone here knows of that photo at all and where it might have been originally published (in order to get the clearest look at the nose artwork)? The artwork is of Captain A.R.P. Reilly-Ffoull and his butler/servant Eric from the ‘Just Jake’ cartoon strip. The photo also shows some of the modification details mentioned by Tony Iveson in his books for the Tirpitz raids, such as the paddle blades and front turret minus guns. Thanks Bob.

Just been looking at 143 Sqn's ORBs for November and December and 60lb RP were in use then also, e.g. 25/11/44 '143 aircraft with 60lb HE R/P' is mentioned. F/O Smith in X/143 (PZ445) undershot by about 50 yards. They also mention them in December. I've no idea why 235, 248 and 143 decided to use the 60lb heads again for a couple of ops 25/3/45 when they'd been using the 25lb AP ones before and after? The R/P type is not always specified. 235 were attacking a tanker of 6000 - 8000 tons and an M/V 3000 - 4000 tons lying alongside tanker with theirs. 248 and 143 encountered 8 x FW190 (believed long nosed) and jettisoned theirs whilst being pursued.

As already said by others, the 25lb Armour piercing head rocket was the 'normal' fit of Rocket Projectile, for the Banff Strike Wing, however, there is also documented use of the 60lb HE head rockets with 235, 248 and 143 Squadrons in March 1945 in the Squadron Operational Record Books (I've not looked at 404 yet). If you're going for historical accuracy, for example, on 25/03/1945, 235 Squadron ORB lists 13 aircraft accompanied by two 'Outriders' of 333 Sqn plus Mustangs on an anti-shipping strike in Norangs Fjord. It says 10 aircraft were armed with 8 x 60lb RP ('R', 'C', 'G', 'J', 'L', 'F', 'S', 'T', 'U' and 'A'. Three aircraft were armed with 2 x 500lb MC Bombs, tail fused instananeous ('X', 'D' and 'V'). All of these are listed as attacking shipping that day. Hope this might still be of use/interest? Bob.

https://www.britishpathe.com/asset/67511/ Hi Gents, Came across this one whilst looking for other Mosquito snippets and just wondered if anyone had seen this that was interested. I know there's been a fair bit of interest in these in the past on the forum. Good for showing the reinforced panels around the nose area and the fuselage markings, etc. You can either click on film or stills and the 'E1' is well seen in still #36. Bob.

I love watching the bit where you put the outer skin on. Beautiful to watch it come together.

Wasn’t sure if this should be in the modern or Cold War section as I’m asking about the later post Gulf war overall ‘camouflage grey’ machines, but the Bucc was mainly Cold War, so:- Am I right in thinking that the yellow and hatched red walkway markings from the Grey/Green camo schemes were not put on the later overall grey scheme and that it was just the pink lines on the engine covers please? I can’t see these in photos and I’m still not quite decided what airframe I’ll be going for yet so just trying to sort out in my head the options I’ve got with my decals. Probably going to end up doing two types.

Just found this and have only skipped over the pages so far, but looks like a really clever construction method and love how it’s coming together.

Thanks for those tips David, yes I know what you mean about looking right to eyeballs rather than measuring (I don’t think I’d try measuring a 144th of 2 inches). Good tips, thanks.

Just small updates on this for now as I've ran out of thinners and some paints and so I'm stuck and can't really do much until they get delivered. So since last time, one thing that's changed is the wheels were added, so she's 'stood on her own feet' at last. I'd assembled the undercarriage units first and put them away in a box for later, with the engines, but now that they're on, I can see some slight sloppiness in my paintwork on these and they'll get some extra attention shortly. Here's a side view just to prove it and I moved it all away from the workbench to photo as it was easier than de-cluttering. The undercarriage doors stand out more as well at the moment as they've not had any staining applied yet. I'm also going to be revisiting the APU exhaust area, trying out some metallic paints and there'll be the exhaust staining, but the whole airframe will have a lot more work added regarding fading and panels, staining, antennas, walkways, moving surfaces, etc. I do quite like the overall shape of Roden's kit here though, so far. One slightly odd thing for me regarding the undercarriage, was that the instructions show parts 8M and 9M under the main gear doors, being installed ready folded although there's no mention of having to fold them. They come straight on the sprue, but yes, according to photo references, they do fold up and when I tried folding the actual plastic it did fold where it's supposed to (just something missed out on the sheets I guess?). I've also started doing some work around the cockpit windows (been wondering about windscreen wipers too?) with the markings there that look to vary quite a bit in photos, depending on the actual machine. I've also been working on the leading edge 'anti rub strips' that seem quite noticeable when the slats are deployed (quite a bit of variation in these too, in photos) and just picked out the slat rollers. Had a bit of a small panic with the visor stripes, when a piece of Tamiya masking paper decided to pull away some of the Dark Green paint, but I sprayed on some more and think I got away with it. I was thinking that it might be best to paint the walkway lines on before the paint staining and weathering on the wings, but let me know if you think this is the wrong way please. I was wondering how best to do these walkway lines (they're quite thin in reality) as I've not got the decals for the Euro 1 paint scheme, so I'm thinking some very careful masking and doing it in small sections after taking a deep breath and putting on some chilled out music? I'll also 'map it out' first. The top of the tail could be a bit of a problem area, I'm thinking? Ah well. The photos seem to serve as being good aids for showing up errors and bits I've missed so far, so at least they've served a purpose there. Talking of walkways and panels and wings, it took me a while to work out what I was aiming for on the upper surfaces of these. Here's a crop of the plan of the starboard wing on the sprue from the instructions. This is pretty much as per the plastic in the kit, except it's not sowing the cutout for the aileron counterbalance at the tip end. From what I could make out from looking at lots of photos of the actual machines, I decided to make some alterations, to allow for proper placement of walkway lines and to try to get everything where I thought it should be. Main things were the spoiler sizes inboard and the positioning of inboard panels and lines (such as the access hatches) which don't appear to run with where the walkway lines go. Here's my rough alterations. I'd searched quite a bit for some accurate plans, but haven't found them yet, so aerial views of the top surfaces seem to be my best source at the moment. I don't know why they've put the panel lines like this in the kit and instructions (I have read about some old plans in a magazine which could possibly have been a source?). Finding the actual plans feels like the search for 'hen's teeth' to me. I found it a bit odd as the box artwork seems to have this area pretty much nailed down to my eyes when comparing with photos (used a photo reference as a source, possibly?) Note all the panels just forward of the spoilers, between them and the wing box (where the walkway line would be) which are made up of these angled panel lines here. These do match photos. I've not engraved these on mine as they sit pretty flush in photos and I was thinking I'd probably do better using some contrasting panel shades for representing some of these? I've also moved the 4 oval inspection hatches inboard and orientated the rear ones to match the line of the rear edge of the wing box. I think that's it for now. Much still to do as already mentioned above, but it'll just have to wait for the thinners and paint to arrive. Cheers.

You know when you find yourself just sitting, staring and smiling, because you're just enjoying what you're looking at? That's what I'm doing when I come and have a see at what's going on here. Can't really find the words to do it justice, but I'm really enjoying it.

I’m another that had to check the scale was 72nd on seeing your spinner detail.

Wow! Just superb.

I can assure you that it was in a state this afternoon and I cleared a bit of a space beforehand to take some shots. I still find that considering this is a 144th scale kit, I’m struggling for space to position it to work on.

Fries my brain thinking about all the masking involved in that paint job, let alone the rest of it. Amazingly realistic looking model.

Been giving her a base coat of colours to hopefully start building on with the adding faded areas and patches and to get the tones like I'm seeing them in the photos of the time. Will then be able to start on some discolouration streaks and touched up paintwork, walkways, etc. Didn't help things today when my desk lamp bulb went and blew at a critical moment. Luckily I'd got a replacement in the drawer, so was able to carry on. Cheers.

Got to that point where it's time to start getting some paint on. The airframe I'm trying to replicate was in the European One scheme in 1991 and was a C-5B rather than a C-5A. That's significant as far as the painting goes because I read that 74 C-5As went to the paint shop and had the wrong shade of the Dark Green applied for some unknown reason (FS34272 instead of FS34092), which was a lighter shade than it should've been and looked different to the factory colours applied by Lockheed (which were already in place on the wing boxes and the radomes). The C-5Bs were painted in the correct factory colours and the dark Green in photos (FS34092) looked to stay pretty dark, whereas the lighter Green (FS34102) faded, as did the Grey (FS36118). They were also prone to getting discoloured by leaking hydraulic fluid which wouldn't clean up too well and had some patchy touch-ups, so looking forward to adding these later. In my shots of the real thing, the Grey's faded quite a bit and looks fairly pale in the desert sun, so I've started by painting a darker shade of Grey on the undersides and a lighter one on the top and fuselage sides. I'd ordered a few makes of the Lighter (FS34102) Green, but think I'm going to just go with what looks right to my eyes in that scale and go for a blend, which I hope will work? Taking up a bit of room on the bench, even in that scale.

I’m really hoping that the Fox head decal looks just like the one in your avatar, wadeocu and not a strange variation. Fingers crossed.

Amazing. I’m another who found this thread late. Awesome job on the interior details and lighting. I think I’m making it hard for myself if I scribe another line or two and love all the extras you’ve put into this. Great paintwork too.

So here's some progress so far on what I thought might be a fairly quick project, the C-5B from Roden. I'd already read about having to assemble all 28 wheels from 2 halves and the same applying to the flap track fairings, so I was mentally prepared for that and I figured I'd start on assembling the wheels and undercarriage legs whilst waiting for other parts to dry. One thing I really do like about this kit is the overall shape looks pretty good compared to photos I've collected and it looks to be a solid sort of base to work from if you want to get into detail. As has been mentioned in a previous thread, there are some puzzling features to the kit, such as raised 'bridges' around the engine cowling instead of the auxiliary air inlet doors and some windows being already included in the moulding whilst others have to be drilled out, but that wasn't a problem as much as a curiosity. Anyway, these noted to deal with, the two fuselage halves, the wings and tail unit all went together without any particular fuss and were a fairly snug fit. I opted to do some alterations to the kit at various intervals, such as making cuts to the rudder and elevator assemblies. This was because of photos I have of them on the ground where the moving surfaces settle in different angles. Another was to cut out the slots on the upper wing leading edges where the slats track out from. The kit has them on the undersides of the wing but not the top and these are visible when the slats are deployed, so it was a case of filing them out and I added some rod to represent the slat rollers too (14 per wing). Whilst talking of slats, I was a bit worried about removing them (they are almost scale thickness and transluscent) from the sprue, as they are attached by their whole length to this and have a couple of built in weak spots where they align with the engine pylons. I'd have worried less, had I read that the real thing is made up of 7 sections per wing, so they could be separated and assembled again on the wing if necessary. The white area above the cockpit glass is where I added plastic card to then file down to shape and blend better with the cockpit glass. The other white areas on the wings represent the raised covers for the inner and outer wing fasteners. Not that obvious among the confusion on the wing upper surfaces here, is that I filled in the panel lines on the inboard wing and rescribed the four inspection panels to positions which are nearer to where I can see them in photos and the inboard spoilers were also repositioned. The wing panel lines on the kit box lid illustration look to better match photos I've seen? I drilled holes in the wing and attached wire fixings to the engine pylons to allow them to be easily attached or taken off as needed to check things. This one's had an experimental coat of a 'faded' weathered Grey (it will be part of the European One camouflage eventually) and some of the distinctive colouring around the intake ring. A couple of mainwheel units, although yet to add some detail, matt the tyres down and add some 'wear' and dust colouring to the tread areas. It's been an absorbing project so far, as I'm finding out lots of interesting stuff about the real aircraft, but it may well end up as a WIP for a long while as (despite not seeing many C-5 builds online) it seems all the European One decals were sold out some time ago, so it may well sit in the cabinet in the paint scheme minus the markings until some more come out one day. Onwards anyway as the markings are very small and I really like the camouflage.

I asked the nice chap on the Hong Kong Models stand if we’d seen all the Lancaster family yet or not and he didn’t rule out a Tallboy Tirpitz operation variant for next year.

Keeping the New Zealand theme, I'll place a bet on a 489 Sqn Beaufighter.