Magpie22

What would have looked similar to A29-90? The desert A/C or the A/C Thomas was asking about? Peter M

MEN IN GREEN Oh, there were fifteen men in green, Each with a tommy-gun, Who leapt into my plane at dawn; We rose to meet the sun. We set our course towards the east And climbed into the day Till the ribbed jungle underneath Like a giant fossil lay. We climbed towards the distant range, Where two white paws of cloud Clutched at the shoulders of the pass; The green men laughed aloud. They did not fear the ape-like cloud That climbed the mountain crest And hung from ropes invisible With lightning in its breast. They did not fear the summer’s sun In whose hot center lie A hundred hissing cannon shells For the unwatchful eye. And when on Dobadura’s field We landed, each man raised His thumb towards the open sky; But, to their right I gazed. For fifteen men in jungle green Rose from the kunai grass And came towards the plane. My men In silence watched them pass; It seemed they looked upon themselves In Time’s prophetic glass. Oh, there were some leaned on a stick And some on stretchers lay, But few walked on their own two feet In the early green of day. (They did not heed the ape-like cloud That climbed the mountain’s crest; They did not fear the summer’s sun With bullets for their breast.) Their eyes were bright, their looks were dull; Their skin had turned to clay. Nature had met them in the night And stalked them in the day. And I still think of men in green On the Soputa track, With fifteen spitting tommy-guns To keep the jungle back. Written by David Campbell, then a F/L Hudson pilot from No.1 OTU, which had sent twelve Hudsons with their crews to form a transport flight to support Australian and USA soldiers in their attempt to take Buna on the Northeast coast of New Guinea in December 1942. They flew into Dobadura, an airstrip cut from the kunai grass, situated just some 15 miles from Buna. LEST WE FORGET!

Alan, No problem. I never interpreted your comments as personal. My personal belief is that many modellers place too much emphasis on "the correct colour", in spite of never having seen the original. I, as you, have seen many different renditions of nominally the same colour. Best not to get pedantic about it and just do a reasonable facsimile of the original. I take your comments about the Conly painting. I too have used paintings, (the AWM has a good collection), to serve as a guide in determining colours. I, too, always read your posts. Keep up the good work. Cheers, Peter

Thomas, A brief message following the above comments. Do not let we 'colour police' spoil your modelling enjoyment. We modelers don't build models to satisfy everyone. We build them because we enjoy the hobby and do it as we see fit. I sometimes look at models and think the he/she has chosen the wrong colour or done too much, or too little, weathering, etc. I am sure that others have looked at my models and had similar thoughts. What matters is that we do it the way we want and stuff what anyone else thinks. My comments in the first post were intended to help you with a little background you may not have known: I was not in any way criticizing your project. All strength to your modelling arm!! Cheers, Peter M

Gents, I think this is the wrong place to start a discussion on the actual shade of Dupont 71-021. I agree that I could have worded my comments more carefully. However, what I was trying to convey to Thomas was that the underside colour of A29-101 was not 'Sky Type S' or 'Sky Blue' as called out on the Legato instructions. Getting into a counter productive argument on how we each perceive a colour is a waste of time. I don't have original samples of duPont colours so cannot comment on what shade DuPont Sky Type Gray actually was. My samples are taken from P-40E-1 remains and are, of course, subject to colour shift after so many years. Allan's samples are interesting but appear to be bluer than mine - this could be due to the photoing copying etc. I dismiss the magazine as being of no more value than showing the general colours, not accurate shades. However, I think we can all agree that RAAF P-40E-1 aircraft were not finished in RAF Sky or Sky Blue as indicated on the Legato instructions. Peter M

Thomas, Welcome to the build and your interesting choice. However, at the risk of being a party pooper, I have to advise you that the information provided by Legato is quite incorrect. The aircraft they have illustrated appears to be this one. It is in fact A29-101 of No 2 OTU. Photo was taken much later than The Port Moresby defence. It was not flown by Les Jackson at Port Moresby. A29-101 is a P-40E-1 and would have been finished in the duPont equivalents of RAF colours. However, in my samples the undersurface colour was a light grey, (gray?), rather than similar to Sky or Sky Blue. The Kittyhawks flown at Port Moresby carried Red/White/Blue roundels on the fuselage, Red/Blue roundels on the wing upper surfaces, and R/W/B fin flash. A29-29 was coded 'I' but would have looked quite different to the illustration by Legato. Les Jackson did fly A29-29 once. At Port Moresby, Les Jackson principally flew: A29-10, X. 9 times. 23/3/42 strafed, burnt out. A29-9, N, 8 times. 6/4/42 force landed on reef. A29-79, N. 7 times. Survived, 11/5/42 flown back to Australia by Les Jackson. I do not have a photo of any of those aircraft. Photos of No.75 Sqn at Port Moresby are quite rare. If you decide to go down that path, I may be able to provide a little help. Peter M

Dave, I don't do 1/72. I can let you have a copy of my drawings so that you can do your own comparison, if you wish. Peter

First up, I cut out a centerline elevation, based on my drawing, to serve as a pattern for the fuselage shape, and several bulkheads, modified to allow for the thickness of plastic of the fuselage bits, from plasticard. That's the bit in the middle. The bulkheads were glued to the elevation pattern at the appropriate stations. The plan is to use these to hold the fuselage parts in place while I add the extension parts and the windows. Before doing this, I cut off the wing root stubs and filled the resultant hole to make it easier to reposition the wings. A quick coat of paint shows that it worked out OK. Then I cut the fuselage longitudinally into upper and lower halves. That's the top and bottom bits in the photo. I also cut a section of clear plastic that will become the side windows. With the elevation pattern held firmly in place to the ground board, I offered up the two fuselage sections. Looks like I will be able to get quite close to a reasonably accurate shape.

The kit's fuselage is grossly incorrect in shape, both in planform and in elevation. It lacks that lovely convex shape in planform and is somewhat undernourished in elevation. To try and correct both is beyond my skill level. I could scrathbuild, by making a pattern and then forming new fuselage halves. I could mould them in clear plastic which would solve a few problems with the nose transparencies and the side windows. This entails far more work than I am willing to undertake. On the other hand, if I ignore the plan view and concentrate on modifying the kit to get that portly look of the Hudson in elevation, I can do that. Let's lay the kit fuselage half over the elevation drawing. Lack of fuselage depth is obvious. However, what is interesting is that the depth, where the nose transparencies attach to the fuselage, is very close to the correct depth. I will be able to use the kit nose transparencies and save quite a bit of work there. The transparency over the flight deck also looks as though it will fit OK. The side windows will need to be replaced but that will be a simple task. Another problem, although not apparent in the above shot, is that the wing will also need to be moved aft roughly 5 or 6 mm. I figure that if I cut down the length of the fuselage, roughly where I've marked, I can lift the top up to get the correct fuselage depth. I'll also chop out the section with the side windows and replace them with a section of clear plastic, that I can mark up later with the correct window positions. I'll also have to remove the stub of the wing root and fill the hole that will be left. This will allow me to fit a wing spar and correctly position the wings on the fuselage. Time to get out the saw!

Having thought about this project for some time, I became well aware of the kits many failings and put together a rough list of corrections I should consider. Some kit faults Fuselage · Too shallow in depth. · In plan, max width not enough. Too wide at nose. Max breadth line not enough curvature. · No slope up in front of windscreen. · Windows will need to be corrected in spacing and position. · Door appears to be too far forward. · Bomb bay slightly too far aft. · Turret is too small and wrong shape. Replace with early open position. · If fit open gun position, will need to add internal floors and bulkheads. Wings · Planform OK. · Too thin at root – should be 18% thickness. · Exits for LE slots in wrong position. · No wheel wells! · Correct panel lines – spar in wrong position. (Wing in wrong position on fuselage??). U/C · Mains OK but need some work. · Tail wheel – replace Interior · No WOP position. · R11 bulkhead does not exist on actual A/C. Cockpit · What is R21? · Pilot’s seat should be taller. · Jump seat? · Should be open area under floor of cockpit. · Add walkway steps down to obs pos’n. · Ins panel is fair. Could do with more quadrant levers on console. Lower inst panel is wrong. No compass. Observer’s Position · No bulkhead at rear. · Seat brace wrong. · Bomb sight wrong. Should be British course correcting sight. · No compass or drift sight. · No couch. · No chart rack. · Chute for smoke floats? · No bomb sight stowage. · What is R18? Empennage · Basic planforms OK. · Elevator should be one piece. · Rudders need to be cut out to clear tailplane. Of these, the wildly misshapen fuselage, caricature of a gun turret, and lack of wheel wells seem to be the ones requiring the most work. A visit to the 'spares box' revealed a set of resin wheel wells from an old Koster Ventura kit, and a Boulton Paul turret left from a Revell B-34 Ventura to Lodestar conversion I did. "Waste not, want not". Mods, cutting and filing required but, doable. The fuselage, however, will require major surgery. First step was find drawings. These are rather scarce and comparison showed them to be inaccurate. Fall back position - prepare own sketches. (Note pics below are not reproduced at noted scales). Apart from the LE slots, the wings are passable but, as stated above, major surgery required for the fuselage. Watch this space!!

Changes coming for those using free Flickr account to post photos. "We’re rolling out a service update to Flickr’s download options for free accounts, and we want you to know what to expect. Starting May 15, Flickr will restrict downloads of original and large-size images (larger than 1024px) owned by free accounts. If you use a free account, this update applies to both your own content and to content shared by other free members. Why the change? We’re addressing the misuse of free accounts as cloud storage for original files—a practice that violates our Terms of Service and negatively impacts the performance and experience for Pro members. By limiting access to original and large-size downloads from free accounts, we can help preserve the integrity of the platform and continue delivering high-quality service to our Pro community. What’s not changing? You can still upload photos of all accepted file sizes to a free account. Free account holders can continue downloading medium and smaller-size photos." So, we may have to post smaller sized pics in future. Peter M

Oh sorry! I must have been looking in the mirror!

Be careful. Drop tanks were not usually needed - the Mustang had sufficient internal capacity for required endurance. What are often identified as drop tanks are in fact napalm. Look for the fuses that can be seen protruding from the tank filler cap. I like that AWM shot you posted - I missed that one. Peter M

Thanks for the correction. I should have known better. Easy to make mistakes when you do things in a hurry. 😳 Peter

Wash your mouth out!! How dare you utter such profanities!! Magpies showed the Swans how much better they are in recent match. 😁