airjiml2

Great story, great model. Jim

Bob, Those are the documents I based my conclusions upon - thanks for posting them. (Note the concern was with AP and incendiary ammunition is the reason the .30 was found lacking and .303s were fitted.) Also, note that they mention they Mk. IIs are fitted with .300 guns. (However, this is directly contrary to BS_W's post about the Curtiss drawings. Odd.) Photos do verify that the .30s were more common on the Army Co-op Mk IIs, and certainly verify the mixed guns on Army Co-op aircraft. I've not studied the Desert AF birds, as the initial question asks, but looking at a few photos online, it seems some had two .30s per wing, some had two .303s per wing, and some had a mix. The Mk. Is were fitted with the .303s as they were originally French are were fitted with French guns. I have no ideas if the Mk. Is were delivered with those guns or not, but there are photos of Tomahawks delivered to Squadrons sans guns and clearly the Mk. Is were retrofitted with .303s. So I guess the moral of the story is find a photo of the particular aircraft and match the photo. Jim

Nick, Thanks for posting that; I always wondered what the AVG used. Did the 2nd and 3rd Squadrons use a different wing gun? Jim

Jari, That is a .30. Cameron - I have not seen any photos of the .303s on Tomahawks with the flash hider, but it is possible a few had them fitted. They weren't common however. I think Vector may make a set without the flash hider, but yea, they are no Master. Jim

There are reasons for it that have to do with differences between U.S. and British approaches to ammunition. It doesn't make the most logical or logistical sense, but it indeed happened. There is at least on well circulated photo on the internet that clearly illustrates the point. Jim

General wisdom is that the Tomahawk Mk. Is were delivered with French guns, that the IIAs were delivered with .30 guns, and that the IIBs were fitted with .303 guns. However, in this case general wisdom is wrong and all Mk. IIs were delivered with .30 guns. However, this is not to say that some/many Tomahawk IIs were not refitted with .303 guns. The best suggestion is to look closely at period photos. You might be quite surprised at what you see on some Tomahawks! The .50 cals were retained in the nose. Jim

This is a true statement, but outside of a short period of training by 430 Squadron, there were no RCAF Squadrons operating Tomahawks by November 1942. Both 400 and 414 had converted to Mustangs and 403 had long since converted to Spitfires. Oddly, the "Overseas" marking was adopted by E.O. for Home War Establishment aircraft in April 1943. Jim

Great job Tony, you really nailed the pencil chipping. Jim

I found two things online last night: "Eric Eady was an old friend. We had been on a Met Office training course together, we had worked on the same forecast bench. He came and visited me occasionally and he would stay at my home. He came to my office and we would talk. He would tell me about long waves in the westerlies and baroclinic waves and I would tell him how the stratospheric air had come from the equatorial tropopause. He was not convinced. He had very great difficulties with the momentum problem and in fact there is a caveat in my 1949 paper (Brewer, 1949) to the effect that there is a problem with momentum. Dobson was not very impressed with my suggestions as an explanation of the ozone observations. I came to Oxford and at about that time Dobson began to work with R.H. Kay developing a sampler to measure ozone concentration that could be flown on an aircraft, it was based around being flown on a Met Flight Mosquito. It followed the method in which iodine is produced by the ozone and is measured electrochemically. We got no useful results in Southern England. Then one day Dobby came into the lab and said he had had a letter from Tönsberg in Tromsö. Tönsberg was the very active director of the observatory in Tromsö and had worked with Dobson for many years on ozone measurements. The early high latitude measurements that are so often quoted are due to him. I suspect that Tönsberg had been measuring the low level of the ozone and no-one was believing him. Tönsberg said that if we sent someone with the sampler he could get flights from Tromsö to measure ozone through the tropopause. Dobby asked me what we should do and I said we should take up the offer. Dobby asked who we should send and I said a student, and if we can't find a student then I would go. Well, we didn't have a student and I went. I was able to get 4 good flights there in July 1955 on a Vampire jet that flew to 43,000 ft. The results showed a very sharp transition in ozone concentration at the tropopause (Brewer, 1957). Dobby had been totally committed to a stagnant stratosphere, but after these results he was convinced and he published his well known paper. The results convinced me that we needed an ozonesonde. Soon afterwards James Milford joined the department as a graduate student and took on the job of making one.." The second is a paper that talks about the Vampire from the RNAF and gets all technical on the equipment. It is all over my head, but you might find it useful. http://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/36753/6/06_chapter%202.pdf Jim

Looking online it appears that they borrowed a Royal Norwegian Air Force Vampire. Sadly, I can't find anything about an identity. Jim

Tony, Looking good, any choice of markings yet? Still eagerly awaiting my wings out here in the Colonies. Jim

Probably the next most accurate would be the PJ resin kits, but it looks like they are also out of production. Sadly, they were never cheap. Jim

Great photos, very evocative. Just FYI, EQ codes would be "Goose" Squadron (408). Moose was 419 Squadron and they carried VR codes.

Dave, Not sure this helps much, but it is about the best Lizzie Mk. II cowl photo I have. (Photo is courtesy of the Canada. Dept. of National Defence/Library and Archives Canada.) Jim

Eric, I can't believe that the wings actually fold. Is the model not as fragile as it looks? Jim

Neat line up, but add the Super Crusader to it. Well done on all five models. Jim

While that guy is a Canadian, I think he has been assimilated into the U.S... Great job, Tony. I'm glad to see it finally finished. I've always thought the Dark Earth/Dark Green/Yellow scheme looked great on the Bamboo Bomber. Jim

Eric, Looks great. Can't wait to see the article. Jim

Great job on the Marlets Tony and thanks to you and Grey Beema for the reference photos! Jim

Very nice! Jim

Nicely done. The RAF natural metal and blue scheme really fits the Thunderbolt. Jim

The Chinooks are painted Dark Green FS 34084 and Green FS 34095. Jim

The North American contract A-4s tend to break down into two groups these days: Draken has some ex-RNZAF aircraft still wearing their former green camo, some ex-IAF A-4s which Draken appear to have painted green to match their ex-RNZAF birds (I think some are ex-ASTI and some ex-BAE), and had a couple of birds leased from A-4L, LLC. The black and white cow scheme A-4s are the A-4L, LLC aircraft. Discovery Air/Top Aces bought some of the ex-ATSI aircraft. They have some grey schemes and a really natty blue/grey scheme. (Google C-FGZS.) It is neat to see that they all carry Canadian flags on their tails. Most of these airplanes are doing a contract in Germany that was formerly serviced by BAE. ATSI is long defunct. ATAC was operating some A-4s, but I think they use Hunters and Kfirs now. There are a couple of warbirds and one or two private TA-4s, including one based locally at Boeing Field that I see out and about sometimes. No idea on the ID of your local plane Paul, but being some of the airplanes A-4s were at Mesa, and there is an A-4 restoration shop at Marana, it is possible it is someone out burning some gas. Before they got the sow scheme the A-4L, LLC birds were light grey/white and a few were restored at Marana, so it could be one of those. Jim

Really nice job on both Hurricanes, but the ADLS bird looks great with its ratty stripes. Jim

Yes, and it is such a confusing picture fragment. Sutton harness on a Hellcat with what look like US numbers in a much more traditional US position. I wish there were more photos from that shoot or of the full airplane. Such a mystery! Jim