Troy Smith

see below. Depends on the how you want to describe bands, and how they were described at the time and in subsequent literature, but not really, By 'US punk' I mean, post UK 77. Blondie are updated 60's beat group, The NY Dolls are trashy rock n roll, who did have a big influence on the original UK punk wave, Television are an art rock project, "punk" they are not. I know they are referred to in this sense, but as stylistic description, they aren't. The Stooges formed in 68, and they ARE one of the big punk blueprints. But they don't have a much in common with the VU except being from the same era, and Danny Fields getting them signed to Elektra. Funhouse, especially side one, is very important sonically, especially as it was recorded 'studio live' Post 77 US punk are bands formed in space formed by the initial UK punk wave, one very important influence were The Damned, who toured the US in early 77, and stayed with the Screamers in LA, I once asked Sensible about this, he just remembered a guy called 'Tomato' ( Tomata Du Plenty) talent is overrated, ideas are important. But, there was a lot of dross. No Sid could play, just not very well. He'd been in the Flowers Of Romance prior to the Pistols, his style was based on the 'bump and grind' riff of the Ramones - 'I don't wanna go down to the basement', yes, mostly the live shows with Sid are a mess, but if he wasn't a mess, he was adequate (eg live in Scandinavia summer 77 tapes) In the US tour, it had become a 'show' but the Pistols were about Jones and Cook, though the power of the full original band can be heard in 1996 reunion shows. 76 era shows exist that are great as well. The Buzzcock ARE important, given they did Spiral Scratch independently, and were not from London, The Clash are, well, I did a lot of digging, there is the myth of the Clash, well worth hearing live tapes from 76, there is a decent one from August 76 as 5 piece with Keith Levene, with a few unreleased songs, the big alternated mentioned in Englands Dreaming was from Mark Perry, talking about doing what the Buzzcocks did, and releasing an EP of White Riot/1977/London's Burning, but the signed to CBS. IF they had done their own record, sold at gigs, it would have blown it wide open, as they might have sold less, but made more and kept control. The Clash moved into the space opened up by the Pistols who effectively couldn't play, there is a bootleg 2CD of the Anarchy Tour in Leeds and Manchester, which is very interesting, the Pistols sound tired, the Clash sound powerful. Seriously, if you really want to know, you need to hear live tapes, vast amounts are available now online, they were much harder to find years ago, I used to collect bootlegs, and played in bands, taped our gigs, so was very used to live tapes, and what the reveal. It's not for everyone, but once you tune in and deal with obvious limitation of the source material there is much to find and adds much to the story if you can be bothered. Generation X were never very good IMO, but Billy Idol was a great front man, I think this gives Mc Claren too much credit, the Pistols were victims of media hysteria, that's what crushed them. A different perspective, Never Mind the B*llocks, is a very very studio record, look up the documentary on the making of it it's basically the Steve Jones orchestra, there are 15 or more layers of guitar, which is how it has that wall of sound, and oddly, a deep love and joy has gone into it from Jones, which gives it air of triumph, he put his soul into it. Bill Price, the studio engineer said he was one of the tightest guitar players he'd worked with. Jones later produced The Avengers American In Me 12", they opened for the Pistols in SF, note also The Professionals 1-2-3, is actually The Avengers - Second to None. The Ramones are the building block of everything that came after, and were a work of genius, taking rock n roll, 60's beat and pop and condensing it down to it's most basic form. Much much smarter than they may first appear... and very very important. That sound comes to define punk sonically. Also, check the parallel evolution of The Saints from Brisbane, they had been cutting a very similar groove in near total isolation in Queensland, check the LP of 1974 demos, The Most Primitive Band in the World, recorded in Ed Kueppers parents garage in 1974, https://www.discogs.com/master/383994-The-Saints-The-Most-Primitive-Band-In-The-World-Live-From-The-Twilight-Zone-Brisbane-1974 Most later re-recorded, the 74 stuff is basic and slow, but all the main parts are there. One of the great losers of the era for such pioneers. Their 2nd LP, Eternally Your is greatly underrated, Also of note, their TOTP appearance in summer 77, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2MxaaOhVTmc same episode that aired the Pistols Pretty Vacant video His big influence was the look, rather than sonically. You know he was in the early version of Television, The Neon Boys? Robert Quine, the Voidoids gtr player used to tape the VU in the late 60's, there is a box set of his tapes, The Quine Tapes. The VU get banded around a lot, again, I was a serious VU buff, again, hear the live tapes. really there are 2 VU eras, the Cale era, which is much odder than is often realised, John Cale took the VU from being a rock and roll band into something else entirely, I still maintain that most people will still not like side 2 of the White Light White Heat LP, especially if you don't tell them what it is, and play VERY loud, and the ego clash with Lou Reed forced him out, and then you get the far more palatable rock and roll VU. I only got to hear the Cale parts of the puzzle much later, are you aware of Cale's background? poor boy from Wales, classical trained with a scholarship, ends up in New York doing very minimal avantgarde drone music with La Monte Young Dream Syndicate? Not rock and roll at all. Anyway.... hope of interest, I spent a lot of time and effort tracking all this down over the years cheers

Last minute replacements for Queen, also on EMI, Grundy was dropped in it. Note that nearly everyone missed the first swearing by Jones, when he about their advance, "we ********* spent it" link to time https://youtu.be/LtHPhVhJ7Rs?t=36 IMO still THE book on the subject is Jon Savage "Englands Dreaming", done soon enough (researched late 80's) that nearly everyone was still around and before anyone was that bothered, and Savage was there, and writing for music press, trained as a solicitor, see https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/jon-savage Unfortunately unless a subscriber you can't read the whole articles, but give you an idea. IIRC Matlock described him as "The A.J.P Taylor of punk", he does a very good job of picking out various threads and lets the participants tell their stories, and he got to interview pretty much everyone concerned. Great discography as well, very good at pointing out interesting and important obscure records, was great for leads when searching for records in the 90's, when information was really hard to find. I first ran across this as brief article about early West Coast punk in a magazine in 1988, when info on that was incredibly scarce, including list of 10 great West Coast punk records. There is a CD compiled by Jon Savage "Black Hole" of these bands. Great liner notes. The general narrative in the UK at the time was on US imitators jumping on the bandwagon. More fool them, some of the best punk 45 of the genre are from California in this time. https://www.theguardian.com/music/2010/nov/14/california-punk I actually tracked down some of the Screamers in 1999 and corresponded with them, as I was that curious, having got some tapes off one of my US trader friends, which is another story..... Detailed in the book, the tour was a disaster, again, down to McClaren and odd ideas but a fascinating one, playing Memphis, Dallas, San Antonio, Baton Rouge, Tulsa, then San Francisco... a flawed but fascinating document in Len Kowalski's DOA movie of the tour here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-lDQGLlVivA the untold story is what this did to US punk, the US music industry was not very taken by it, and the very public dissolution of the Pistols solved the problem, "the Sex Pistols are punk rock, they have broken up, punk is dead" ... lets flog New Wave.. The only early LA band who got signed were The Dickies, apparently one them had an uncle at A&M, and they were very cartoonish as well. The only band to make more of mainstream impact were X, and they had a much more traditional rock and roll sound, and their first two LP's , Los Angeles and Wild Gift were produced by, and had Ray Manzarek play on them. As a result the whole US scene basically stayed underground, developing city by city, state by state, and evolving into hardcore by the early 80's, and then a fascinating range of 'post hardcore' eventually leading going mainstream when Nirvana broke in 1991... having spent about 5 years chasing down this kind of thing it was rather a surprise.... and led to some very strange major label signing as well! No, this was settled in 1988. The band got control of their back catalogue. Again, in the book in detail. It may have taken Matlock longer though. And, yes, the Pistols were wrecked for writing new material, after Matlock left they did 3 new songs, Bodies, Holidays in the Sun and Belsen Was A Gas. It should be noted the cover the early Pistols played, Small Faces, Who, Dave Clark Five, they were far less 'year zero' that McClaren liked to portray. They were at point early called The Strand after the Roxy Music song, pre Lydon. @Enzo the Magnificent If the era is of interest, the book is well worth the time for all the strands and detail it uncovers. one final one, look for Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains film..... not great, but note the famous English punk in the film The Looters, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Paul Simonon with Ray Winstone on vocals... https://youtu.be/lgwFGfKENk8 The movie got buried at the time and is even now not well known...

I think this refers to a 72nd build from the other options mentioned. HTH

Note instructions for 'dirty orange' exhausts this from @Paul Lucas " the 'special lead paint' used on the exhausts was actually 'High Temperature Paint 41'. This was supplied as a two part solution and powder finish made up from a Sodium Silicate solution and Red Iron Oxide pigment that had to be mixed together immediately prior to application. When freshly applied it is described as having a 'pink' colour that turned a dull 'brick red'' colour as it became baked on by the heat from the engine. It was introduced from circa November 1940. Vocabulary of Stores Section 33C/678 for the powder and 33C/679 for the solution. Yes, I mean Section 33C." from https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235128469-arma-hobby-148th-hurricane-iic-optional-parts-description-spinners-cannon-barrels-tailwheels-tropical-vents/ So, oddly enough the old kit instructions that said to use 'rust' for exhausts are about right for this.... and yes it looks like it's been painted... I don't know of a good Hurricane photo of it, but this Defiant shot shows it well. HTH

Very late 70's, the difficulties faced were discussed in Scale Models at the time, and only started buying that in May 1978. One of the first, if not the first limited run injection kit. If my Scale Models mags were actually accessible and in order I'd have a dig. IIRC the other person, went onto form another company or companies... Possibly Chris Gannon, who later did Pegasus and Blue Max? https://www.hyperscale.com/pegasuspressrelease_2.htm @Colin @ Freightdog Models ? I note in the letter the reference to the Yak-15, I picked one of these up as a curio.... now where is it and a puzzled youtuber review.... "IS THIS THE WORST 1/72 MODEL KIT EVER? 1970'S VEEDAY MODELS KIT 001 DE HAVILLAND DH89 RAPIDE/DOMINIE" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bl3W7rVKG8Q The other you got off me which I won at the club xmas raffle IIRC? I knew it was going to a good home cheers T

The point of the method linked here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234983173-building-vacformed-models/ " "cut out and sand down parts using an abrasive covered board either wet or dry". Some advise modellers to leave a rim of waste plastic around the part. The theory here being that when this rim wears down to a thin membrane and breaks off, the correct thickness has been achieved. In fact, if the average wall thickness is 1mm and a rim of 2mm has to be sanded away, that to me spells 3 times the effort." note "Hold the scalpel comfortably like a pen and angled away (about 45 deg) from the piece to be removed. Score all around the part using reasonable pressure. 1. The first myth to dispel, is that vacforms are not cut out by brute force, but merely scored around with a sharp blade. Once the surface of most sheet material has been broken by a cut or score and that sheet is then stressed by bending so as to open the cut, the sheet will invariably break along the cut, no matter how wiggly the score line. Always take some cuts out to the edge of the sheet and start the break-out there. Practice on a piece of waste plastic. 2. Before scoring out the parts we must have a marker to show how much plastic will require removing by scraping or sanding (abrading) so the parts will fit together. We can use a fine (0.1) pointed marker pen, preferably permanent ink. A soft sharp B pencil will suffice. I find the best results are with a Rotring .25 (or similar make) drawing pen ideally filled with the type of ink specified for use on plastic drafting film (I use both Red and Black ink for contrast). Simply draw around each part where the part meets the backing sheet. This ink line shows us where we score and where we need to remove plastic. Be accurate. The ink line is King. The part when broken out is then sanded down to the pen line (more anon)." the 45 deg cut means you greatly cut down on sanding. HTH

Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card by Harry Woodman pdf here https://rclibrary.co.uk/title_details.asp?ID=1216 has a round up 1/48 kits, on page 5 remarks on kit Larger than 1/48, undercarriage, tailskid and pylon very heavy, wing have inaccurate increased chord at tips. HTH

Made the cover too I thought this was in my Hawker box file, along with a mag with a Flight International Henley cutaway, but they are 'elsewhere' It's a lot of work, there were drawings in the Airfix mag article, and Aviation News did Henley drawings, which are in my Hawker file. cheers T

Make a copy, as you can do casting. You could do a blank to fit an Eduard hub, or just make a 5 spoke master, as there are metal wing Mk.I's with 5 spoke wheels. Note, use the spare Arma sliding canopy to replace the Airfix one, you need to cut down the airfix spine, the Airfix one is too high as the spine is to scale. I've described it as 'balloony'. It won't fit in the wheel well either. The retracted wheel is a bit smaller, as it does fit. The balloony wheel is also a feature of the new tool 48th kit.... I recently refound my casting rubber, and it's something I have been meaning to do myself. There is the Classic Airframes kit, but how easy to find in Canada I don't know, I suspect easier to find in the US than the UK. It has it's own issues. They didn't really understand what a fabric wing Hurricane involved, ironically what you get in the box is mostly what you need for a mid 1940 built fabric wing, as in 4 spoke wheels and 2nd starboard hatch, they based it on the Hasegawa kit BTW, so even if you got one you need to fix the Hase issues, and to do a early-mid fabric wing you need to find 5 spoke hubs and a curved lower screen (Falcon do a vac) How early is a factor, you have done scratch build work, the hardest bit is adding rib tapes to the wing, which is just fiddly. You cab buy 3-d rib tapes as well. It would probably be better than the CA wing to be honest. Fabric wing Hurricanes cover a lot of options, though what you want is an early Canadian build IIRC? That has the curved lower edge windscreen and no 2nd starboard hatch. HTH

Hi Graham AFAIK the hubs are same, Eduard Spitfire Merlin 60 kits all come with 3 separate hubs, 4 spoke, 5 spoke and covered. If you don't have an Eduard Spitfire, it's possible a fellow Canadian may have them spare. You can drill out the Arma hubs and replace them. As seen here 20230920_212456 by losethekibble, on Flickr L-R Airfix, Arma wheel with hub drilled out, Arma wheel with Eduard Spitfire 5 spoke hub, unmodified Arma wheel. The drill bit is 4mm. Maybe worth seeing if you can sand down the Airfix wheel? The Airfix wheel may work on your Henley, but I think that's bigger. You could try wrapping some plastic strip round a Spitfire tyre to increase the size, or someone will come up with oversize Spitfire tyres. HTH

@The wooksta V2.0 has been doing some digging on 618. Have you seen Des Curtis book, Most Secret Squadron about 618 Sq? Interesting research for very near pair of models.

Do a bit of research on older kits, some are much better than others. Most of the Matchbox range have been reissued by Revell, they come with little diorama bases, and some are really neat kits. I actually managed to build and finish some old Matchbox kits. Anyway, neat work indeed, and complexity. Great if you want the detail, but fiddly. @JackHasan Always worth having a a search up to see how they build and any issues. cheers T

Weight, and maneuverability. The Hispano is big and heavy. It was commonly done.

I don't know if @Lee Howard has anything too add, it perhaps maybe of interest anyway. FWIW, looking through Air Britain L serials again, L3244 - CFS/1 AACU/NCU SOC 31.8.42 L3257 - NCU/1 AACU, SOC 2.8.42 L3367 - 1 AACU/NCU L3368 - 1 AACU/NCU - to Admiralty 13.2.43 And, looking at K again, I'd agree, this also looks to have a wide yellow band on the rudder, so possibly a specfic unit marking? https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/54605042651_9de5564bd3_z.jpg You could always just start another thread, but the worst that could be said about it being in the build thread is takes up space. but it does keep the discussion here as well. One final point, having done some screen shots of the IWM film, and tried to read the serial, the last digit looks like an 8, well, more like that than anything else, so if L is one of the 4 listed, the 'fit' is L3368. HTH

Part of the TT scheme? It is very visible, which is the point. Note how the chin of Henley K from 771 sq has black and yellow sides to the radiator section. If so then before introduction of yellow fuselage ring. High yellow sides were common on trainers, and I'm not sure when the black stripes came in. I'll need to check. L3257 - NCU/1 AACU, SOC 2.8.42 I don't know what NCU stands for, and it's not listed in the abbreviations list, CU = Conversion Unit? No other listing for NCU either, or any other 3 letter CU unit in the listing. I don't know if @Geoffrey Sinclair has anything on Henley's ? Does not that damaged in the photo, so probably not August 42, though SOC dates can be "tidying up" exercises and be much later than the actual reasons date. The position and style of the upper wing roundels is another curio. @Paul Lucas may know more, and if not may find it an interesting discussion? I certainly am! HTH