Tornadofairy

Just a thought; is there any logic/reason to how Humbrol number their paints? I appreciate that 1 to 18 are gloss and 240 to 253 are Luftwaffe WWII colours, but the rest seem all over the place...

Ah, a lovely MR2. Brings back memories of training at RAF Cosford in 79/80.... A kip in the nose gunners hideaway on a summer's afternoon, the ashtrays on the pilots seats, the uphill climbing challenge to get there, the smell... Currently working on the Airfix one replicating WL798, which I did a practical on; a fault on the intercomm system. Did the usual fault finding techniques and traced it to a junction box. The instructor then invited me to open it up to see the fault, a twopence piece across a couple of terminals - 1940/50's technology, all bakerlite and brass - they were the good old days!

This is a fantastic piece of work, well done. To go slightly off topic, does anyone here know which Pumas were in Belize in December 1977? Just trying to fill gaps in my aging memory! 33Sqn were there on the det, but I think the a/c were from 230Sqn...

Going slightly off topic, I was told when I started working on Tornado that the navigation lights are the ones on the intake sides, the ones on the wing-tips were obstruction lights. The above regulations were mentioned; something to do with the wings being movable surfaces.

I recently up-graded the system to OS 11.3 (Big Sur), which removed the CS3 I was using! However, for a lump sum I downloaded Photoshop Elements 2021, which doesn't require a monthly payment and I can continue... It's very different to the old CS3 version, but then it is a decade or so newer. As for Illustrator. I have downloaded Inkscape, which I am getting up to speed on slowly, witha view to use that for the drawing and Photoshop for the rest. We will see.

I flew in an Islander of Aurigny, from Southampton to Cherbourg in 1973; then many years later I worked for four months on Alderney and flew in the Trilander. The island was fog bound for the first two days the flight was attempted, we got used to, "Oh well, please return to the airport at 7:30am tomorrow" after we landed. At least I got three trips in a Trilander before I stepped foot on Alderney! Nowadays I volunteer with the NCI as a Watchkeeper at the Needles, so the cliffs mentioned earlier would be the ones in Scratchells Bay. Our station is on top of those and we are at 425 feet when on watch, so he would have to pull up a lot more than he is doing....lol. Of course there is an allowance for artistic licence, but I could nit-pick about several things in the illustration.... Still, it is much better that the Valom 1/48 Islander's box-lid, where the Isle of Wight is a very peculiar shape indeed. The Islander is in my stack, ready to be finished as G-AXWR to remember that flight getting on for 50 years ago... Thanks for jogging my memory.

The Frog one was 1:96 as I recall....

I sort of fell in love with the Shack on my fitter's course at Cosford back in 79/80. It was big, solid and had an interesting smell, a mixture of leather, fuel, electrics and long gone aircrew...lol. In particular I remember the ashtrays on the armrests of the pilot's seats, clambering over the wing spars to get from the back to the front and the fact you could have a crafty 40 winks in the nose gunner's seat on the MR2, much harder to be seen from the ground than the MR3! My task on it was to locate a fault on the intercom system, which turned out to be a cunningly hidden two pence piece across some terminals in a junction box... Also did fault finding on a MR3 Phase3, a Canberra B15 and a Victor amongst others. Having done my time as a mechanic in an Electronic Engineering Flight, I was looking forward to getting on a squadron after the course; but the RAF decided that I really needed to be at 3rd Line, so off I went to 30 MU at RAF Sealand. for the next four years the only aircraft I saw on a regular basis was the Spitfire on the main gate...

I was doing some research for a bit of artwork about my time at TWCU back in the 80's. In the background will be A shed at Honington, but try as I might I am unable to find a photo of it showing clearly the airfield side in particular. The period would be 1984 - 88; can anyone help?

You could always put a jury strut in... and claim the wind was above a certain number of knots. My memory has faded, it may have been 40 knts. I was on TWCU back in the day at Honington and seeing your model brought back some memories - though it looks a bit clean....lol.

I worked on them from 84 to 88, before heading off to the land of the petrodollar to train their technicians for 12 years... Nice to see someone doing a green/grey GR1! I know what you mean about getting old, some I worked on are in museums...lol.

Ah, memories of childhood. Every year I was transported from the south coast to my grandparents in Grantham for a week of the summer holidays; it was quite a journey back in the early 60's especially in a motorbike and sidecar! There were a few things I always looked out for on route, the excavators at Corby, buses that were not green, an Air Force base in Northamptonshire surrounded by aerial farms and a glimpse in the distance as we neared Stamford, of large white aircraft on the horizon.... It was a few years later I found out they were Victors at Wittering. Great seeing that magnificent tail against a blue sky.... And of course the Bloodhounds at Woolfox lodge....

A blast from the past as they say... Brought back memories from an overland trip to India and Nepal; I did do a little plane-spotting and my log book reveals: 18/2/75 G-APFL Dehli - Damascus via Tehran G-APFB Damascus - LHR via Munich Both wore Syrian Arab Airlines markings; interiors were a little tired, but then I was too. Did an aborted landing at Munich as a Volkswagen minibus trundled onto the runway as we were about to cross the threshold. Entertaining is a word that comes to mind!

Did a tour of Belize back in '77. One of the squadron aircraft went down in Norway at that time, but that was due to one of the cabin doors coming off and hitting the rear rotor as I recall. Wonder if a fenestron would have saved it? As Belize was so warm, it was decided to remove the cabin doors and continue flying. The cockpit doors had been wire locked shut for a reason that escapes me, but again a hazy memory was something about they would detach themselves from the airframe if a certain speed was exceeded with the cabin doors open... I bet someone here knows the details!

Nice to see a workbench as tidy as mine...lol. Beautiful model, from the interesting period of aviation and a spy version too! looking forward to the finished model.

I read an account in Aeroplane magazine about the Mau-Mau uprising in Kenya. The chap who wrote it also prepared the account for their Lordships at the Air Ministry. As a light aircraft being used for observation was brought down by small arms fire from the ground, he summarised that the Mau-Mau had won the air war on the the grounds that they had shot down one of ours, but we had not shot down any of theirs.....lol. Their Lordships were not impressed!

Found a Williams Brothers one in a local collectors shop a week or so ago for £10. Whole bunch of stuff in there, but haven't been able to get back yet. Amassing references before I start; looking carefully at setting up the undercarriage for an 'on ground' option. The instructions are helpful in this regard, a case of having to trim a couple of struts, but.....lol

And our local one has been replaced by an AW 189 - now there's an impressive noisy beast... Love to do a diorama featuring one with an image of the Needles behind it and a lifeboat doing an exercise.... Guess it's 'Dream on, Pilgrim......' (though an Airfix lifeboat would match the Yarmouth one I believe.....)

Pity I left TWCU in 1988;as we were 45Sqn if anything happened... When on 'teas and keys' late at night, I would sometimes pop into the 'other' crewroom and look through the photo albums... Fascinating stuff, Fairy IIIF's, Venoms and Hornets etc. Tried photocopying some, but not very clear, so no use for modelling.... Could the finish be anything to do with being in Ceylon, or official paint schemes in 1947?

And the bonus of possibly the worst painting ever of the Isle of Wight on the box art of G-AVCN.... My house would be under water! But great to see 1:48th Islander, love to see a Trislander too -that will be in the markings of the one I was on, that took 3 days to get from Southampton to Alderney.... To be fair the first 2 days were: fly to Alderney.... I'ts fogbound.... fly back to Southampton... The beginning of some of the best few months I had teaching.

I've read that the bombs were still on the aircraft and it attempted a landing... Knowing that part of the Island he did very well! Are there any ideas where these two photos were taken? The outside shot could be Farnborough maybe? There was a replacement aircraft which saw service in Russia; I suspect that would have had a yellow theatre band round the fuselage, which this one hasn't got. I am always suspicious after researching a Bf 110 C-5 (5F+CM) that crashed about a mile from where I live, into the Solent; there are several photos online showing it after the RAF had rebuilt it to flying condition - only those photos are of the replacement! Bit of a minefield researching Luftwaffe aircraft....

I did an internet search for the intelligence report that the RAF would have done, but no luck. They usually described all the markings etc. Just have to find the production lists for the Ju 87 and find when it was built... thanks for your help.

Thank you so much for these - I was giving up hope that there were any other photos of it. Other ones I have found are of it's replacement in Russia. Now all I have to do is find some 1:48 faded code letters....lol

Hi Guys I am researching this aircraft for my 1:48 Airfix build. It was the first German aircraft to crash on the Isle of Wight and so far I have only found two photos of it. The first shows it on a low loader being taken away and provides no usable information; the second shows it after the crash being recovered. Of course the RAF guys posing with it are standing in front of the bits it would be good to see.... My question relates to the codes on the fuselage; the only part visible is 2+L. I know the L is white, but the 2 is definitely not black! I thought at first it might be the light reflecting off of it, but the balkenkruz next to it is very much darker... This leads to a some possibilities: (a) The letters are applied as transfers (decals) and not painted on, or (b) They are a colour other than black, or (c) They had been removed and that is the non-faded paint underneath... Out of the three, (b) seems to be the best option as I have seen an illustration of another Stuka where the first two letters were green; but I believe it was a commander's aircraft, which S2+LM wasn't. Any ideas? The photo can be found at https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4385842/Photos-reveal-clean-operation-Blitz-struck-Britain.html, 19th photo down... (lots of other interesting shots on there)

Did anyone resolve the painting 65 over the window underneath? I've just got hold of the 1:48 version and that lower window is normal sprue coloured plastic - it appears to be a shutter, closed in normal flight, opened when diving. The kit has 2 parts to cover both states. (Hope this isn't a rehash of something already here!)