dad's lad

Hello Rob and welcome, Clive in Arnold.

Sorry to butt in chaps, but for the sake of the uninitiated (ME) could somebody please explain the purpose/operation of the "Z lights"? I've tried looking it up but most threads seem to assume that everyone knows what they are. Thanks, Clive.

I'm by no means an expert but I believe that the "hump" was common where a Packard Merlin was fitted, the Airfix Spitfire IX in 1/48 scale has a humped and non-humped cowling. Clive

Thank you again Paul, my original query came because both ESCI and Revell would have the undersurface on Berthold's D.VII as lozenge whereas Eduard show grey green and Roden steel grey which I think is their go-to for Fokker turquoise. Clive.

Thsnks Paul, Am I to take any profiles which show a lozenge underside as in error? Clive

Does that aerofoil shaped thing between the wheels of Fokker aircraft have an official name? Anyway, I've always wondered what colour the upper surface of this "thing" would be. Most profiles show an underside view, mainly blue or lozenge coloured, but what about the top side? Specifically I was wondering about DR.1's with Fokker "streak" colours and D.VII's with lozenge flying surfaces. I appreciate that with the jazzy colours sported by many there may have been repainting but as a general rule of thumb what is the factory fresh colour for both schemes and secondly, would this area have been repainted when individual pilots had their favoured colours applied elsewhere. Hope this makes sense and many thanks, Clive.

I have the MPM kit in my stash and from what I recall, the Mk.V/Bisley also has revised undercarriage in the form of full doors rather than the semi-retracted earlier models of Blenheim. This may help: https://www.scalemates.com/products/img/1/8/9/112189-78-instructions.pdf Clive

I remember building one of these when I was a wee nipper back in the 60's. It was liberally used flying low-level parallel to a Hornby train track strafing the rolling stock with its turret guns whilst the Airfix 8th Army sabotaged the track! Talk about historical accuracy - NOT! Clive

Sorry my mistake, I thought you meant a Fujimi model with HAS.1 decals.

That I don't know, I was only offering a suggestion to the poster who said he might have difficulty finding a long oop Fujimi kit.

Italeri more recently (2019) released the Fujimi kit including markings for an HAS.1 which might be easier to find.

Welcome from a fellow Notts modeller. The only thing that I remember flying over us was the Argosy's out of EMA and the Chipmunks out of RAF Newton, although in later years we've had a few interesting subjects in transit to somewhere. Clive

Now that's an interesting detail that I hadn't heard about.

That's fantastic thanks.

That's great, I'll take a look later.

I've been buying kits for donkey's years and have acquired a number of Tornados from the following: Airfix, Italeri, ESCI, Monogram, Hasegawa, Revell (all IDS/ECM/GR.1) plus Airfix and Revell F.3's. My intention is to build them all for comparison purposes, not commentating on accuracy, but I have noticed that the earlier kits from Airfix, Italeri and ESCI all have dual control cockpits. As I intend to build all OOTB, us there any way to identify by serial number, which RAF aircraft were twin stickers? I understand that a total of 17 were built for all 3 participating nations.

Weird it works for me even if I click on my own link. It's strange to hear Bing singing about B-24's!

This is on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pxXSZ4EHvE

Interesting that all links refer to the name as Duke Spook yet I think I see a small "the" just above the top hat which means it should be Duke the Spook.

Thanks, that makes a lot of sense. In the picture it actually looks like the part of the belt within the buckle is rounded out if that makes sense.

Apologies if you've done this before Adrian but could you describe how you make the buckles please? Thanks, Clive.

I have a spare (either Heller or Italeri) but I'm away from home right now so unable to check.

Thanks that helps. I've painted mine black for now but may change my mind before mounting it on the aircraft. Clive

Thanks Dave, I was furtling around in my loft and came across a rather large box labelled Lancasters, knowing that I had "some" of the old Airfix Lancs, I was surprised to find that the box contained no less than FOURTEEN! (4 x Dambuster, 2 x Grand Slam, and the rest generic B.I/B.III in either grey or black plastic). Anyhow, back to one of my original questions, I dug out one of my collection of books on the Lancaster and found a nice picture of AJ-C in a bank to port where the towel rail was clearly visible. Clive.

I'm wanting to build a 617 Sqn Lancaster from the dams raid but my starting point will be the 1980's Airfix Dambusters kit. Clearly this is less detailed than the newer release so I'm using the instructions from the newer kit to help fill in some of the missing details. Apologies if these questions have been answered before but Googling doesn't give me any answers. 1) The ventral gun I have found a thread on this site so have some information. 2) Towel Rail aerial, is this correct for a DB Lancaster? 3) Part G.12, is this one of the spotlights? If so, it seems to be pointing backwards. 4) What is part G.7? I've seen it on other Lancasters and it's the wrong (pilot's) side to be the forward spotlight. Outlet for a trailing aerial perhaps? 5) If G.7 and G.12 aren't spotlights, where should they be other than in the "nose" and "tail" as most references dictate? 6) The mine itself. Airfix would have one apply red and yellow stripes around the mine. I would suppose from normal RAF practice that the mine would be marked to indicate the filling (torpex?) so how accurate are the Airfix instructions? Photos of Gibson's a/c don't show any form of light band on the mine that I can see. Any other pointers that I need to follow (I already know that I'll have to drill out the windows in the fuselage)? Thanks in advance. Clive Sorry I can't seem to link to the instructions on Scalemates for assistance. Clive.