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TallBlondJohn

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Posts posted by TallBlondJohn

    Warbirds 1/72 Sopwith Snipe - my first vacform

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Jonners said:

    Unfortunately the upper wing control horns snapped of while I was rigging them - I'll use fine wire or stretched sprue for that bit next time - taking part of the roundel decals with them. The subsequent touch-up still looks rough, so I'll probably go back and try to improve it sometime.

     

    I've had exactly that happen more than once. Never found a good way to fix it either - best of luck!

    1/72 Boeing 314 Clipper (Combat Model) vacu

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by TallBlondJohn

    17 minutes ago, JWM said:

    Thank you!

    I want to share with very interesting photo of Dixi Clipper (NC 18605) which I have just found in Net (https://www.history.navy.mil/our-collections/photography/numerical-list-of-images/nhhc-series/nh-series/SC-268000/SC-268449.html) 

    This is the same machine which president F.D.Rósvelt used for flight to Casablanca - the "Dixi Clipper" Here the photo taken few nonths earlier, in September 1942 on Bermudas

    First - The registration on right  wing is light! - not black as depicted everywhere. But it deas not look bright white. So - some grey perhaps? Second the flag on left wing is clearly seen.  Third: the gradation or shadow paint on a side fin and on central fin! Soft circle lines....

     

    Cheers

    J-W

     

     

    That's the US Navy scheme in various blue/greys - which is what you can see on the central fin. Thus the pale registration. Very useful photo, I've never seen the Navy scheme from this angle. I think the darkest shading on the left fin is shadow, just to complicate things.

    • Like 2

    1/72 Boeing 314 Clipper (Combat Model) vacu

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by TallBlondJohn

    7 hours ago, 72modeler said:

    In looking at photos of the Clippers, it appears to me that the oil cooler intakes are located just outboard of each engine just under the centerline of the wing leading edge. I think the oil cooler outlets might be the square ports that are located on the outboard side of each engine nacelle on the wing upper surface, just forward of the wing walkway stripes. I have attached a photo that I think shows the oil cooler outlets. See what you think.

    Mike

     

    https://www.flyingboatmuseum.com/boeing-314-clipper-flying-boat/

     

    Makes sense - yes there is an outlet there that I missed 😬. This is California Clipper, Pearl Harbor

     

    NASM-SI-85-14239.jpg

     

    Another unnamed Clipper, Seattle. Same wing unfortunately but the positions seem to be identical for once (sorry picture is in Pinterest so it wont embed):

     

    https://i.pinimg.com/474x/89/f4/75/89f475ac6e004f83e8799b9aa3fc3651.jpg

     

    FYI the outlets weren't on the prototype Honolulu Clipper before rebuild, but there's no reason to think they weren't on the final production models (this picture isn't embedding either - not my day!):

     

    https://static.thisdayinaviation.com/wp-content/uploads/tdia//2017/11/Screen-Shot-2017-11-04-at-07.26.48.jpg

     

     

     

    • Like 3

    1/72 Boeing 314 Clipper (Combat Model) vacu

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by TallBlondJohn

    The weird white lines are the curves of the open nacelle access doors. I think that makes it look something inboard of the port inner, but its not visible on any British Clippers. Maybe Roosevelt's had a modification, but I doubt it. What the BOAC clippers did have is some sort of probably brass cap, which is usually not visible in Pan Am clippers, probably painted black. Of course the position varies!

     

    world-war-two-june-1943-female-seamen-of

     

    The small inlet further back between the engines is on all Clippers, but only ever the port wing. Clearly the two wings had different plumbing.

    • Like 3

    1/72 Boeing 314 Clipper (Combat Model) vacu

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted

    Vaguely related - the BBC have done an article on the importance of Fiji in the development of GPS for air travel. Good read, but bear with me...

    http://www.bbc.com/travel/story/20190303-how-fiji-changed-the-way-we-travel
     

    The navigator's desk halfway down is from a Clipper. Most 30s airliners had slightly less room!

    p072cp9n.jpg

     

    I have no idea about oil cooler outlets - could the hot air have been retained for heating?

    • Like 3

    Masterbox 1/72 Mk.1 Female 'Gaza Modification'

    in Ready for Inspection - Armour

    Posted

    On 2/20/2019 at 9:28 AM, Black Knight said:

    Done that a couple of times with the old Airfix kit, but I caught it on in time to change them over

    Sometimes, sometimes, if you flow some Plastic Weld onto an already glued joint the P/W will dissolve the joint so you can pull it apart, but you need to work fairly quickly, before it sets again.

     

    Another technique is to dab oven cleaner along the join, it will attack the 'welded' plastic. But it will also make the regular plastic brittle, so you can end up with a jigsaw. Too late now. Nice model though.

    • Thanks 1

    1/72 Boeing 314 Clipper (Combat Model) vacu

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted · Edited by TallBlondJohn

    For general information of future readers - In some photos I've seen, there is a US flag on the top port wing, never on the starboard (that's got the registration of course). The reg is repeated on the port wing underside. The top flag is usually the width of the International Orange visibility stripe and can be 'rigid or 'wavy'. (The tricky thing with Clippers is the great variation of simple elements - wing boots for instance as they got introduced across the fleet, and markings changing in service.)

     

    The Lisbon crash (what a sad sight) seems to have a much larger flag, I guess for wartime wear (as you say there aren't many wartime pics).

     

    I've never seen a flag on the bottom of the starboard wing, but then again I've never seen the bottom of an obviously  wartime Clipper! In the photo above I'm sure both flags are the same orientation, with the stars starboard front (if you rotate the photo you can see the quarters line up). The wing-thing has a darker corner in the same place so yes I think its another flag.

     

    And I have a theory about this flag. This clipper may have had peacetime wing flags (they weren't on the earlier planes as built, they appeared later and Capetown was a later B314A). Then the big wartime flags have been added to the floats, with the underwing flag left in the right place but now looking rather lost. Meanwhile the upper surface flag has been repainted in the larger wartime size, and moved inboard at the same time to match the stripe width (there may be a war on, but one has to have standards). Of course its possible the smaller top wing flag was simply left in place as well, in which case it must have looked rather pathetic next to its bigger brother.

     

    JW, I'm assuming your internet searches are finding the same pics I did, but I did get some photos off the Foynes Museum site before they put them behind a pay wall. If there's anything you want me to check just ask, or maybe I could bundle up what I have and send the lot?

    • Like 1
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