Jump to content

Smithy

Members
  • Posts

    1,282
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Smithy last won the day on November 20 2012

Smithy had the most liked content!

Profile Information

  • Gender
    Male
  • Location
    Norway

Recent Profile Visitors

3,790 profile views

Smithy's Achievements

Very Obsessed Member

Very Obsessed Member (5/9)

1.3k

Reputation

  1. That is the one I recommend for a first book on the air war over the Western Front in WWI and especially that edition which has a wonderful amount of photos and illustrations.
  2. Without doubt "Winged Victory". There's a damn good reason why copies of it were changing hands within the RAF at the start of WWII for astronomical sums. Regarded then as the most accurate recounting of what it was like to be a scout/fighter pilot at the time and it still is one of the most truthful and honest today.
  3. Very late to the party here. I have one and yes they are sought after. A fair price for one which is untouched (so not started) is around $US1,200 to $US1,500 depending on box condition. They are a magnificent kit, one of the best of its kind. I think as a modeller you'll really regret it if you sell it. These are real Holy Grail kits so it might be worth forgetting everything else you have in the stash and building it.
  4. Haven't been on here in years so apologies for the tardy response. Here we go with Al's Spits during 1940... The first Kiwi was just named "Kiwi" not "Kiwi I" and was N3180, coded KL-B The next was "Kiwi II" (P9390), coded KL-B. The third and last was "Kiwi III" (R6981), coded KL-B. For further information, the best reference for Al's Kiwis is Gerard Morris' "Spitfire: The New Zealand Story". HTH, Tim
  5. Ah I see. However it's usually better to go to the owner or holder of the original (in this case the IWM) to get the correct information regarding an image.
  6. Don't know where you got that information from. The image is in the IWM's collection and with the caption: "Spitfire Mk Is of 'A' Flight, No. 602 Squadron running up their engines at Drem in Scotland, March 1940. The foreground aircraft has the name 'Bogus' painted beneath the cockpit." It's been reproduced in quite a number of books too and comes from a series of images which were made during a press visit to 602 when they were stationed at Drem. Very possibly!
  7. Spot on Peter. One could also be "a Bogus" so a person/thing who had been caught out as a sham or a dodgy fellow or thing.
  8. Bogus was common RAF slang used at the time and the reason for naming the aircraft such is most likely typical RAF self-deprecation. Sorry can't help with the pilot, although it was an A Flight machine and the flight commander at this time at Drem was Marcus Robinson so there's a reasonable chance he flew this machine at some point.
  9. Me too, although I can't promise when that will be. I have several that have been on the go for an interminably long time that I really should finish first, although knowing me I can't promise that either!
  10. His memoir of his wartime experiences, "The Flying Greek" is excellent and if you haven't read it I'd recommend getting hold of a copy.
  11. The one I'll do is a very "standard" late Battle of Britain period one of his from 64 Sqn. No real oddities at all. Sounds like it will be making the codes and serial masks myself and in truth this is probably better as I can hopefully make them more accurate than using one of the generic decal squadron code fonts. The more I think about this, the more I really am looking forward to getting this kit, it'll make a nice diversion from the usual 1/72 and 1/48 I tend to play around with. Thanks for the suggestions and advice.
  12. Hi Troy, If you haven't got Paul Lucas' "Battle for Britain" booklet, one of the most fascinating things about it is how he demonstrated from surviving aircraft parts that there were various shades of Sky used. I don't entirely agree with all his ideas that these were other specific paints obtained by the RAF. The period we are talking about was very hectic, the AM even sent a missive out on the introduction of Sky that White and Night undersides could be used by squadrons without access to the the new Sky. However necessity breeds innovation, and there had already been attempts to use improvised "sky" coloured undersides in France, most famously Paul Richey's "G". I really do think you might be onto something with your idea about the mixes of existing to specification paints, and especially roundel blue and yellow. Your mixes really do mimic many of the colours that seem to have been used before Sky was universally available. I think it might be worth starting a topic on this in the WWII Aircraft section.
  13. I've decided to splash out on one as well. It's a kit I've thought about making for years (I've actually never made a 1/24 anything) and I'm looking forward to the change of scale. One of my family was one of the Few and I had planned to do one of his aircraft with the Tamiya 1/48 kit but I suppose it might be worth going to town with this big kit and doing it as his. Does anybody do decent squadron codes and serials in 1/24 or am I going to have to try and make masks of the bally things?
  14. Sorry Troy, I'd completely forgotten to scan those photos for you - thanks for reminding me! I'm been very busy with work and it totally slipped my mind. BTW I think you might very well be onto something with the mixing stock paint to make Sky "approximations". Paul Lucas in his Battle for Britain booklet (which is excellent) does show that there were differing shades of Sky but Paul seems to approach it from the angle that they'd try and obtain another existing colour which was close to Sky in the correct spec, when you make an excellent and compelling point that mixing stock colours with your experiments. Those differing ratios that you have used to experiment pretty much cover everything from Sky Blue to Eau-de-Nil and everything in between. You've pretty much hit every colour that gets touted around for Sky substitutes with those simple mixes. Probably needs more exploration but I think you might be onto something quite important there, and an angle I haven't seen practically experimented upon. Well done Troy!
  15. It could be very dark. For example the Hurricanes IIbs of 331 Sqn in service from August to November were a particularly dark version of Mixed Grey.
×
×
  • Create New...