Andy341 Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 Here Goes. I know out there will be someone with the appropriate knowledge in respect of the Valiant B(PR)K1. I am aiming to do WZ397 as depicted in the following picture (taken in September 1964) which clearly shows a side oblique camera. My question is have Airfix missed this out of their additional kit? In the kit there are 9 appertures that are offset from the centre line and a further on on the centre line at the rear of the bomb bay - but nothing on the side. This leads on to the next question does anyone know the dimensions of the port and would the cameras and optically flat windows no have a sliding cover, so no debris interfered with the photography? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted January 7, 2017 Share Posted January 7, 2017 (edited) I don't know much about the Valiant camera fit, but '397 wasn't the only one to have the oblique cameras, there was also one fitted in the same position on the stb'd side. diagrams of the camera fit here, http://www.airrecce.co.uk/postww2/ac/Valiant/Valiant.html Edited January 8, 2017 by 71chally Added link Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberra kid Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 Andy you may find this useful, we covered this topic some time ago, this is the link Valiant camera windows some very useful AP drawings. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 (edited) Excellent thread there John Interesting that the take-of shot above shows the camera window apertures, or were the aperture doors painted black? Edited January 8, 2017 by 71chally 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberra kid Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 11 minutes ago, 71chally said: Excellent thread there John Interesting that the take-of shot above shows the camera window apertures, or were the aperture doors painted black? Perhaps it was before the window shutter Mod. James? John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
71chally Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 No it was late on, Sep '64. The pic was taken at Biggin, so thinking of it was possibly a fly through at the Battle of Britain show. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberra kid Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 38 minutes ago, 71chally said: No it was late on, Sep '64. The pic was taken at Biggin, so thinking of it was possibly a fly through at the Battle of Britain show. Ah I see, yes that would be it. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy341 Posted January 8, 2017 Author Share Posted January 8, 2017 John, thanks for your highly informative link, which is extremely useful. With this in mind, is my assumption correct that Airfix have mistakenly omitted the oblique camera windows. The only two photos I have seen are WZ392 and WZ397 with the oblique windows either in the open position. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
canberra kid Posted January 8, 2017 Share Posted January 8, 2017 2 minutes ago, Andy341 said: John, thanks for your highly informative link, which is extremely useful. With this in mind, is my assumption correct that Airfix have mistakenly omitted the oblique camera windows. The only two photos I have seen are WZ392 and WZ397 with the oblique windows either in the open position. No problems Andy, I would assume that Airfix did miss the window, one of those compromises that have to be done I guess, or perhaps they just plain missed it! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antti_K Posted January 11, 2017 Share Posted January 11, 2017 Hello Andy, I built WZ397 when Airfix released their Valiant. I didn't buy those extra parts as the kit provided the camera windows also. I noticed (from photos) that the bomb bay doors are wrong in this "supplement"; they are too long as Valiant had a vertical camera (F28 if my memory serves me) behind the Camera Crate. So the doors were shorter. Those small oblique camera windows were for F95s as they were used to orientate the photos taken with those fanned cameras in the crate. Best Regards, Antti 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy341 Posted January 11, 2017 Author Share Posted January 11, 2017 Antti_K, you know what, every day is a school day! It's information like this that makes this site so useful. Canberra Kid, thanks for you extremely valuable input. I now feel that I can approach the building of WZ397 with a greater degree of certainty. Many thanks Andy 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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