andyf117

eBay are actually encouraging sales this month by offering free collection by couriers (such as Hermes) through their Packlink service - same price to have parcels collected as to take them to a parcelshop. I've sold a few items in recent weeks, and had a couple collected that way, and took a couple to the post office when out anyway for the weekly shopping trip... ....as for people's abilities and reasons to buy and sell, I've noticed average sale prices (last 10 sold) seem to have increased considerably - by over 20% for a kit I sold - and plenty of others are going for what I call 'silly money', such as Revell and Italeri Merlins going for double mid-March prices... ....clearly some have the willingness to spend money that others might be in need of - so whilst the original 'closure' policy here was well-intentioned and rightly applauded when introduced, I'd say it's probably less relevant now, and so time to consider lifting it for individuals to decide whether they choose to use the facility.

There's the combination of the two, of course - weren't the first SAR Wessex HU.5s green and red?

ZM417's been back again this morning - after flying mid-altitude patterns off the north coast, finally came south and within view for a couple of approaches into Newquay...

There's been a V-22 operating daytimes in and around the Hereford and Gloucester areas most of the week - flying lots of patterns anywhere between 1,000 and 10,000ft... ....was doing so west of Hereford at the beginning of the week, and west and southwest of Gloucester midweek... ....this morning, the same A400 that's been playing over and around this area all week (see 'A400 having fun' thread) has been within sight flying approaches into Newquay...

Underwing serials were most definitely still carried - they were, of course, under the pylons, but still worn, and supplied on Modeldecal sheets: It might be that Xtradecal have left them off to save space and encourage you to buy a generic letters and numbers sheet?

Not exactly flying over, but hovering within earshot this afternoon - on looking out of the window, eventually spotted a few hundred yards off Crinnis Beach in Carlyon Bay: What looked like a DHFS Griffin - he held that position for a good 10-15 minutes:

And talking of things at mere feet above the waves, while I was watching the A400 on screen, I could hear the clatter of blades in the distance, but nothing was showing up... ....looking out of the window, I realised what the noise was - what appeared to be a DHFS Griffin hovering low enough to be kicking up spray: He held that position for a good 10-15 mins - so while the A400 was playing off some miles off the north coast, the helo was a few hundred yards off the south coast (in the bay beween St Austell and Fowey on the above map)...

Out playing again this afternoon 10-12 miles off Newquay - don't know how accurate the details are, but according to the display, he's been down as low as 25ft: Different aircraft (ZM416, I think) was flying similar patterns yesterday, but he was generally showing between 150-225ft...

Thanks... Cheers! As in my reply to SAT69's comment, Lt Col Brattland's photos might be the only ones in existence, and from what he said in his email after he'd viewed this thread, the photo in the Texas Towers article is the only one to ever appear anywhere - so it's not surprising that it's a previously 'unseen' scheme for most... ....and in an earlier email, he said that when 571 went back to Sikorsky, the 2857th received three CH-3Cs to replace it and the two other Bs that were assigned but never actually transferred - although it was intended that 572 and 573 would receive the same scheme as 571, the closure of Olmsted's paint shop meant the CH-3Cs never got a similar finish, making it totally unique...

Nicely done - have at least one of these to do myself, and actually was examining the plastic only a couple of days ago!

Jamie, if I might suggest that the external tanks appear positioned too far outboard? They should be fully under their carriers, and close to the sponson sides, as seen here:

Same aircraft (ZM417) playing as Ascot467 around the CIs and off the southwest coast again this afternoon - just passing a few miles south of The Lizard as I type this...

Or there's a blue option, as in my latest RFI - US rather than UK, though...

Similar with the Airfix re-box of the Italeri HC.1/D kit - the initial Airfix issue had the metal blades, the later one saw them replaced with the correct composite type... ....I've got both, so if I do a civvie Chinook from one of my Revell Es, I can simply swap the blades with a set of the earlier Airfix ones - the windows I can do myself...

I do, but it's way too expensive for my taste - eventually I'll get hold of what I need at an affordable price....

Thanks... Thanks. I suspect that Lt Col Brattland's photos may be the only ones ever taken of 571 in that scheme - or of any 2857th aircraft, come to that... Cheers, Gary. I'd never heard of the 2857th either, until seeing it mentioned in the article; the CH-3B as a version I did know about, though - I recall pictures of 'The Otis Falcon' and reading about the Air Force's use of the type for Texas Towers support a long. long time ago... ....as for my contact with the Colonel, his generous response to my out-of-the-blue email and provision of good-quality scans of his pics sealed the deal - I couldn't have produced the model from just the small one in the article. He's viewed this thread and sent very positive feedback about it - I'm just pleased he likes what he sees!

As mentioned in the intros to a few of my previous Sea King RFIs, along with aircraft that I've seen personally, I also like to build models of ones with a 'claim to fame'; rare or unusual variants; and Search and Rescue machines. This model ticks all the last three boxes - not just rare in being one of only six Sea Kings operated by the US Air Force, but unusual to the point of being unique, and in being a SAR machine both overtly and covertly. Intrigued? Read on... In early 1962, the Air Force bailed three HSS-2 Sea Kings from the Navy to use on support duties for the 'Texas Tower' radar-warning stations located off the eastern seaboard. Flying from Otis AFB, Massachusetts, the three aircraft were soon purchased outright by the Air Force, along with three brand-new airframes, and all six were designated CH-3B under the then new DoD system. Within a year, however, the Texas Towers were shut down, and the CH-3Bs were assigned to other duties - two went to ballistic missile site support; after a record-breaking distance flight from the US to the Paris Air Show, 'The Otis Falcon' was one of three assigned to target drone recovery duties; and along with a handful of crews, the first USAF airframe (originally BuNo 149009, then 62-12571) went to the 2857th Test Squadron at Olmsted AFB... When gathering photos of CH-3Bs, I'd found some of 12571 and a couple of other airframes taken whilst flying with the 6593rd TS out of Hawaii, where the USAF fleet had finally ended up on satellite recovery work. They looked quite smart in the overall aluminium lacquer finish they had received by then, particularly with individually-coloured rotor head caps and matching external fuel tank tips, and I'd more or less decided that when I got around to it, my model would depict one of them, perhaps 12572 with a Systems Command badge on the side - but then... I found myself again reading a USAFHPA 2011 article on Texas Towers helicopter support operations, which has at its end a small photo of a CH-3B in a very striking blue finish: http://usafhpa.org/texastowers/TTheliopsupdateJun2011.pdf In the concluding paragraph alongside, the author stated that his final flight piloting a CH-3B was ferrying 571 from Olmsted to Sikorsky for conversion to the satellite mission. After tracking down his contact details, I emailed to enquire if the photo was of 12571 at the time. Within a matter of hours, I received a response confirming that it was, plus a couple of photos - and over the course of a few more messages, I'd been furnished with more details and larger scans of his pictures, which enabled me to revise the plans for my CH-3B model... In the meantime, I'd uncovered more information about the 2857th - which wasn't actually a test squadron, but instead a highly-secretive unit with a specific task. Under the public auspices of being a Search and Rescue unit, the 2857th's actual 'Outpost Mission' was a Continuity of Government role, whereby in the event of an imminent nuclear attack, the specially-trained crews would fly from Olmsted to The White House, pick up the President, his family and other officials, and transport them to a secure facility inland, or to a US Navy ship stationed offshore. In the aftermath of an attack, their role remained the same - except that the crews (wearing 20lb lead-impregnated rubberised anti-radiation suits) were expected to rescue the President and others from the bunker beneath The White House, by cutting and digging their way in using equipment carried in the helicopter... In his initial reply, my correspondent stated that 571 had previously worn a 'white top and light blue bottom' scheme applied by Sikorsky, but disliked by the maintenance crews, it was eventually superceded by that shown in his photos, devised and applied by Olmsted's paint shop. I was confused by one thing, however - with the 2857th being a 'clandestine' unit, why would the aircraft wear such a distinctive finish, which would make it stand out? The answer to my unasked question was in his next email, when he mentioned they transported high-ranking officers to the nearby US Army War College - the VIP-style livery then made perfect sense! Although both 12572 and 12573 were due to join the 2857th TS from the missile site support role, they instead went straight for conversion to the satellite mission, meaning 62-12571 - until it joined them shortly afterwards - was the sole 'Outpost Mission' CH-3B, and thereby unique in being the only Air Force Sea King assigned to be a transport for the President - a duty otherwise the responsibility of the VH-3s of the Army and Marine Corps... Although I already had various Sea King builds at differing stages, this particular aircraft had garnered enough interest and enthusiasm for me to put all of them to one side, break out one of my Fujimi Mk.41 kits, crack on and get it completed in under a month - one of my fastest Sea Kings builds yet! As with my previous RFIs, the below photos are captioned where appropriate: On the underside, the large diamond-shape fairing under the chin was not present, so the corresponding kit part was left off; meanwhile the anti-collison beacon made from a shaped piece of clear sprue was offset to starboard. My correspondent had advised that the sonar well aperture was plated over, so that kit item was utilised accordingly. Around the nose area, a noticeable feature of the early HSS-2/H-3s was that the two air data probes above the cockpit were located together on the starboard side, easily reproduced by filling the port location point, drilling a second to starboard, and cutting down the forward of the two pitots. From the photo I was sent giving a close-up of the forward port area, one thing that I immediately noticed was a 'curtain' behind the co-pilot's seat, and running across the rear of the cockpit. My correspondent didn't recall it - the best guess is that it was sound-proofing material as used in the main cabin, the purpose simply being to screen it off from the cockpit area. Though I've represented it, it doesn't show up in the pictures! Unlike the other Fujimi Sea Kings I've built or am/will be building, something I didn't need to add were the lifting rings on the upper fuselage sides, one of which would have been just aft of the strut top fairing. In contrast, something that I had to remove were the flotation bags on the sponsons - this was achieved by filling their inside recesses with Milliput, and then cutting and sanding to shape - exterior moulded rivet detail was restored/added using tiny drops of Mr Surfacer 500. Milliput also came to the rescue when it came to another feature immediately obvious in the close-up photo - the sponson stubs were faired into the fuselage sides, rather than having the normal 'gap'. As can be seen from this view of the starboard side, the position lights on the sponsons were originally located centrally on the sides - they were carefully removed from their forward locations, and moved aft accordingly. Also on this side, being unhappy with the appearance of the kit-supplied winch used as was on my previous SH-3A, UH-3A and H builds, I fashioned a replacement from one of the un-used torpedoes - I'm pleased enough with the result to intend to make and retro-fit more to the fore-mentioned models... Having photos of both sides allowed me to establish the aerial layouts; to starboard, the aircraft carried both a blade antenna on the upper fuselage and a post and wire system along the lower area as originally fitted to the US Navy HSS-2. Also seen to good effect here is the upper anti-collision beacon, made like the underside one from a piece of clear sprue. To port, there was a further post and wire array, a longer affair running from the main cabin side back to the rear part of the tail boom. Plastic rod provided the posts for stretched sprue wires on both sides. I initially thought I might struggle to identify the colours of the VIP-type scheme, especially with it being a unit-level application, and thereby 'unofficial' and undocumented - in the end, however, it was fairly simple. The photos had been taken in bright sunlight, and the main blue looked quite vivid, especially when viewed on screen - once printed, though, it was noticeably darker in tone, and from my FS595a fan deck, Blue FS15102 appeared to be a fair match. Likewise, the grey stripe was somewhat darker once printed, but I didn't see an exact match for it from the colour chips. Then, T.O.1-1-4 from 1964 provided the information I needed, in Section VII: 'Painting and Marking Materials'. Despite the 1950's and 60's being a colourful age in terms of aircraft markings, the actual range of colours authorised for use was really quite limited - and in the list of specified paints, there were quite clearly just two that could have been used on 571 - FS15102 Blue and FS16473 Gray. One of the few tins of Xtracolor enamels I've ever managed to brush-paint successfully happened to be ANA 501 True Blue (which became FS15102); unfortunately, it wasn't what it purported to be, being a perfect match for the lighter FS15182 instead. I'm not the world's best at mixing paint, but after a number of hours of trial and error I ended up with a shade virtually identical to the fan deck chip - fortunately, for the stripe and rotor head cap I had to hand some Testors FS16473 ADC Gray. The same Gloy FS16440 as used on my UH-3A and UH-3H models took care of the upper main rotor blades; Precision FS16081 was used for the main and tail rotor hubs and tailwheel strut; an equally-old Precision FS31136 was used for the tail rotor tip stripes and the fuel filler points, whilst a tin of Revell 15 matched nicely the FS33358 for the main blade tips and sling bands. The metallic strip under the port engine exhaust was simply some brass paint. The US Air Force titles were from an old Scalemaster sheet, the national insignia came from Xtradecal 72112, and the serials from a generic sheet. As the intake warning triangles on the aircraft did not have the usual 'Jet' and 'Intake', I made them from some simple red striping, with the 'Danger' sections and tail rotor warning panels coming from a Microscale H-53 sheet. The Outstanding Unit Award ribbon and fuselage stripe trim lines were home-printed. With thanks to Lt. Col. Harold A. Brattland, USAF (Ret), without whom the model would never have been possible! I hope you like it, Colonel!

Fifth entry on this page: https://www.vc10.net/Data/Inthemedia.html

Actually, he's done a couple at Newquay, which he just flew directly over previously - swept across behind us on an extended circuit, but couldn't see him... ....currently heading south, so apparently skipping the Scillys this time...

Looks like he might be doing the same route as earlier, but in reverse... ....while he was doing the anti-clockwise circuit, two pairs of Dutch Apaches and Chinooks were playing over The Netherlands with a NATO E-3 circling overhead... ....and simultaneously, half-a-dozen USAF F-16, a couple of C-130s and a Mildenhall KC-135 were all occupying the bit of same airspace over southern Germany...

I have an old tin of Compucolor CIS7 FS35056 Insignia Blue...

It's OK Bill, thanks, the Lidl right next door to Tesco had some - but according to a 'Which?' report yesterday, 23% of people surveyed couldn't find flour... ....I believe it's not the commodity itself that's in short supply, but rather the packaging that it goes into for shop sales - the manufacturers can't keep up... Mmmm - currants in flour = teacakes!

Whilst I agree that the name referenced often depends on the end user's general term of reference, that's all it actually is - a term of reference, such as 'Safety Blue' for the OHSA. To the Air Force, or the Navy, that shade is Blue, FS15102 - certainly not 'ANA 501', which is its obsolete pre-FS595 reference number, and not even its old 'official' name 'True Blue'...

Going to disagree with you - although some names are listed in that document, I will maintain that they are not official. To use the same shades I referenced earlier, take 16473 - it is listed as 'Aircraft Gray', 'NASA' and 'ANA 512'. Which of those is the 'official' name? Similarly, 15102 is listed with the names 'OHSA Safety Blue' and 'ANA 501'. Take a look at 37875, which has four names listed - 'White, Int'l', 'Aircraft White', 'Insignia White' and 'ANA 601'...

Flour is in very short supply here at the moment!