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AModel DH Comet 4B


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PYD is in ex Olympic markings with the fin Rings blanked and Channel A/W script added. We're looking for the Continental Airlines copied Gold fin Channel Colours.

If its not in that book or any of my Comet stuff or anywhere on the web (as far as I can see) I'm begining to wonder.

Edited by bzn20
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Thanks, Ray! Looks all skew-whiff length-wise... Sad!

Considered making some FOF decals for a Capital Airlines Comet 4A? :)

As it is, the Airfix Comet 4B is a smidgeon short...

AIRFIX_fuselage_versus_reality_zps0be84b

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The gold livery was not copied. It was a common Continental/Channel livery that Channel had been using a version on their Viscount 700 years before they bought anything from Continental.

The common livery was adopted when Continental planned to go Transatlantic and Channel were to be the European end of things.

Take a look at early Golden Viscounts, they did keep the nose arrangement on the 812's from Continental for cost, but the tail and under strip was changed into Channels version.

Anyway :bye:

Again I can assure you all Channel used three Comets in ex OAL and one in ex BEA, there were no golden Comets.

If there had been the net would be full of pics and decals, That would not have been recorded. In fact they were being waited for and there was great disappointment when they were just temporary.

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Dare I join the Channel Airways Comet livery sideshow...

If memory serves me well (I've not bothered confirming this on spotter sites), Channel Airways _very_ briefly also used an ex-Mexicana Comet 4C alongside its ex-BEA and ex-Olympic Comet 4Bs. Mexicana Comets had lots and lots of gold trim on them. Could memory have played a trick by taking this particular example as being fully decked-up in the Channel Airways' gold livery? I mean, black-and-gold "Channel Airways" title stickers would have meshed quite well with the rest of the Mexican trim?

Just wondered...

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Dare I join the Channel Airways Comet livery sideshow...

If memory serves me well (I've not bothered confirming this on spotter sites), Channel Airways _very_ briefly also used an ex-Mexicana Comet 4C alongside its ex-BEA and ex-Olympic Comet 4Bs. Mexicana Comets had lots and lots of gold trim on them. Could memory have played a trick by taking this particular example as being fully decked-up in the Channel Airways' gold livery? I mean, black-and-gold "Channel Airways" title stickers would have meshed quite well with the rest of the Mexican trim?

Just wondered...

Did they actually operate the 4C? I thought it was bought for spares?

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Well, search me... All I know is it was on their books for a while, so it might, just, have been taken as fully painted up in full Channel drag. As far as I know, however, that particular 4C went on to fly elsewhere after its Channel days.

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Channel did buy a Mexicana but it was basic white and natural an immediately on delivery it was stripped for spares to get the others going again. Whether it was that machine or another, there was one that landed at Stansted and the engineers were taking panels off to get the engines removed ASAP as the crew were finishing the close down.

It was XA-NAP a Comet 4 , not a 4C and was once G-APDR with BOAC

http://www.abpic.co.uk/search.php?q=XA-NAP&u=reg

Edited by garryrussell
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  • 1 year later...

Whilst talking Comet's, it may interest some to know that Air Ferry at Manston were about to become Comet operator's just as they folded. I think if memory serves me right that they were ex Mexicana or Aeromexico. It almost happened as my father received the technical manuals into the stores at Manston in readiness. I will check it out with Malcom Finnis's excellent book on Air Ferry.

Edited by Britman
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  • 2 weeks later...

A word of caution if anyone is still thinking of buying the 4C.

The wings are the same as the 4B with pinion tanks grafted on, no span increase and I reckon the wings are the correct span for a 4B. The tanks are nicely moulded as are the wing to tank fillets. Going by the drawings in post 19 here the tanks are about 2mm too far inboard.

I was hoping the 4C wings combined with the under length fuselage(less 3mm) would produce a 4 but not to be.

Gone on the 'difficult, have a think about it shelf'!

Graham

Real Jet Airliners were LOUD!

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I did the sketches referred to by Graham. They're not really drawings, but they did have the benefit of de Havilland's airframe service manuals that I had back then.

Here's my take:

1. The pinion tanks are a bit off -- should have been ever so slightly thicker ahead of the leading edge and ever so slightly more slender aft of it. Also, the indentations inboard of them actually represent a fixed slot (a constantly deployed slat, if you like) but leave a (tiny) bit to be desired;

2. Other than that minor criticism, the kit is perfectly proportioned -- everything is as it should be in relation to everything else. This is a lot more than anyone can say of the almost 60-year old Airfix kit. The exceptionally complex surface (in terms of relief) of the wing/engines/fuselage area is beautifully accurate and beats the Airfix effort into a cocked hat. This is a major plus for the Amodel kit, as no amout of reasonable (or unreasonable, for that matter) work in this area is likely to do any good to the Airfix kit, which is entirely skew-whiff there;

3. The BIG BUT is, the scale is off -- it's about 1/147th rather than 1/144th. Not necessarily a damning fault in my book; might be in yours.

The Sudan part of the decal is okay, but the Dan-Air compass emblem is missing the red stripes on the flag. That also happens to be the cruddiest lozenge (part of a graphic layout) of the already very cruddy old Airfix Dan-Air decal, so no immediate white knight comes to that particular rescue...

-------

edit: Oh, and the beautifully done engine exhaust silencers are, of course, wrong for the Avon. Amodel have given us Spey exhaust silencers. Still, "nobody saw that..."

And Amodel have, indedd, as noted above, got the span wrong. It is identical to the 4B and should have been extended. B****r!

Edited by skippiebg
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  • 4 weeks later...

Oh, Sudan Airways. Still undecided whether I'll get one. This could sway me though. Thanks HomeBee.

Sudan Airways cheatline decal appears to be 'orange'? Shouldn't it be yellow?

An RAF one for me, as I flew in all five of them.

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Hate to say it but I think it looks pretty rubbish. Cabin windows are just decals and don't know what the cockpit window is made of but it looks like there's no window frames at all. I'd rather the old Airfix kit.

The cabin windows in the Airfix Comet 4B are so small that punching out the holes in the decal sheet and inserting the 'bottle-glass' transparencies before gluing the two fuselage halves together was never a good idea! Much better to represent the small windows in the decal cheatline IMO. Same with the cockpit window.

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  • 1 year later...

"This is the dichotomy I am faced with ..."

 

Thomo, two points:

 

1. BEA and Olympic had an interchange agreement whereby some of the Olympic fleet wore BEA Black cheatlines and Olympic blue tails some of the time. Yet others had all-Olympic blue. (The opposite: BAE having Olympic blue cheatlines, is not known to have happened as far as I know. Truth be known, BEA owned all the aeroplanes and Olympic merely operated them on dry [mostly] lease.)

 

2. In the 1960s, the stranglehold designers had on corporate identity (in terms of precise colour, typographical, and layout specifications) was not as marked as it became later. I remember seeing Olympic and (even BOAC) aircraft painted up in what appeared sun bleached mid-blue, others in practically black blue, yet others in-between. Even today's best digital cameras can yield different blues as the colour of daylight changes, let alone any 50-60-year old reference.

 

Upshot is, go with your gut feeling. Don't worry, be happy :)

 

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1 hour ago, skippiebg said:

"This is the dichotomy I am faced with ..."

 

Thomo, two points:

 

1. BEA and Olympic had an interchange agreement whereby some of the Olympic fleet wore BEA Black cheatlines and Olympic blue tails some of the time. Yet others had all-Olympic blue. (The opposite: BAE having Olympic blue cheatlines, is not known to have happened as far as I know. Truth be known, BEA owned all the aeroplanes and Olympic merely operated them on dry [mostly] lease.)

Thanks Skippiebg,

 

I was aware of the relationship between BEA and Olympic re Comets, I believe it went as far as having interchangable crews. The colour variations as described by you I was not aware of. However, it makes me want to research it further.

 

You are bang on about archive photos, particulary with respect to blue.

 

Thanks.

 

Thomo.

Edited by The Tomohawk Kid
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On 06/01/2018 at 09:58, skippiebg said:

"This is the dichotomy I am faced with ..."

 

Thomo, two points:

 

1. BEA and Olympic had an interchange agreement whereby some of the Olympic fleet wore BEA Black cheatlines and Olympic blue tails some of the time. Yet others had all-Olympic blue. (The opposite: BAE having Olympic blue cheatlines, is not known to have happened as far as I know. Truth be known, BEA owned all the aeroplanes and Olympic merely operated them on dry [mostly] lease.)

 

2. In the 1960s, the stranglehold designers had on corporate identity (in terms of precise colour, typographical, and layout specifications) was not as marked as it became later. I remember seeing Olympic and (even BOAC) aircraft painted up in what appeared sun bleached mid-blue, others in practically black blue, yet others in-between. Even today's best digital cameras can yield different blues as the colour of daylight changes, let alone any 50-60-year old reference.

 

Upshot is, go with your gut feeling. Don't worry, be happy :)

 

 

 

I snagged myself the latest Airfix boxing of their Comet 4B at bargain bottom price as I'm only really interested in the decals. You sir are on the money (as are indeed Airfix too). The black cheatline is interchangeable with both liveries in this boxing: BEA Speedjack and Olympic. What is really encouraging is the decals look superb on the sheet showing great finesse and attention to detail.

 

Thomo.

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