Jure Miljevic

Hello, LooseSeal I am glad I can help. Again, will take a look at my photos as soon as I return home. Cheers Jure

Hello again Somehow I kept looking at the pipes on the left side of the photo. On the right side there is a scavenge oil outlet, pages 112, 192 and 193 in the Merlin 66 manual, linked to in my previous post. Cheers Jure

Hello LooseSeal I am away from my books and photos at the moment, but will try to find out what it is when I return home. If it helps, here is the link to Merlin 66 manual on Flightml5 webpage. Take a look at pages 92 and 93; the part in question might be a fuel pump. Cheers Jure

Hello LooseSeal Those two pipes are leading from oil tank to oil cooler. Cheers Jure

Hello UberDaveToo I am not an expert on Tu-95, but the plane on the photo looks like Tu-95 RT Bear-D to me. Given the transparent nose and various radomes and other bumps on the fuselage you are probably better off converting a Tu-142 kit. However, my suggestion is to reconsider your choice of basis kit. I have 1/72 Trumpeter Tu-95 MS kit. Its leading part of the wing (I can hardly call it a leading edge, it reaches half an inch into a kit's wing) is terrible, just a 90° arc with hardly any resemblance to the actual wing. Until I figure out how to mend it, or some good soul produces AM replacement, I am not touching the Trumpeter kit. Cheers Jure

Hello, I checked my Trident and Mi-6 kits. As Smallscaller said Trident is in about 1/87 scale but only for short span 1C version. Scale of the Mi-6 kit's fuselage is slightly less than 1/74, but the kit's rotor has way too small diameter and is in 1/87,5 scale. Pity that passenger version of Mi-6 with large panoramic windows never existed. Cheers Jure

Hello, I have both Trident and Mi-6 Plasticard kits, and while the former is in 1/87(ish) scale, the latter is so large it could easily pass as 1/72 kit. I think it is actually in 1/75 scale, My Mi-6 also came with fuselage half in different colours, but for Plasticard kits this is hardly out of ordinary. Will measure both kits in the evening when I return home. Cheers Jure

Hello As far as I am aware Admiral Yamamoto's G4M1 was shot down by P-38 G Lightning(s). Cheers Jure https://pacificwrecks.com/aircraft/g4m/2656.html

Hello MilneBay I agree. I am away from my sources, but I think on 21st July 1940 an inbound recconnaisance Bf 110 C-5 5F-CM dispatched a RAF training aircraft, unfortunate enough to cross her path, before in turn she was shot down and forced to land later. Back on topic: very interesting discovery. Finn, you got the point, at such speeds exact colour hardly matters. During head-on passes yellow, orange or Sky bands would look more or less the same, a light colour patch near the empennage. Of course, for us modellers, this information is cruical ... Cheers Jure

Hello, Richie Here is my L'Oiseau Blanc colour profile: I drew it with CorelDraw 8 (still without mesh tool) more than 20 years ago and I have not touched it since. My sources were photos, some basic drawings and colour profiles, all from various books and articles. Cheers Jure

Hello, Richie Have already seen your scratchbuild thread, beautiful work. Will post my L'Oiseau Blanc profile as soon as I get to my home computer in the evening. Given your sources, your drawings are probably more accurate than mine. Cheers Jure

Hello, Space Ranger Not sure if they were accurate enough, but three-view colour drawings of C-2 appeared in various aviation magazines and books. Back in 2002 I used the one from The classic civil aircraft guide from 1920 to 1964 (Blitz editions) as a basis to draw a C-2 America colour profile (I also drew profiles of L'Oiesau Blanc, Bellanca and Spirit of St. Louis) to illustrate an article in local magazine about 75 anniversary of New York - Paris flight. Obviously it was one of my first CorelDraw drawings. If your friend can use scans of original three-view drawings, drop me a PM. Cheers Jure

Hello Do not have Academy P-47 D, but Revell's kit fuselage is considerably too deep. Its engine and crankcase, on the other hand, are beautiful, and crankcase shape in various boxings even corresponds to variants of R2800 engine. As phat trev said, Revell kit makes a good spare part source. Cheers Jure

Hello Sorry chaps, apparently another can of worms ... I checked my references again and the photo of white 73 appears in John Stanaway book P-38 Lightning aces of the CBI & Pacific (Osprey). The caption says: "This P-38 G-5 is reckoned to be a Lightning used by the newly-promoted Capt. Dick Bong to gain his 16th victory (an Oscar) 28 July 1943 north-west of Rein Bay ..." According to the same source this was the Lightning which had been written-off in early September after a fire exchange with Betty gunners, again flown by Bong. However, according to William Hess book 49th Fighter Group - aces of the Pacific (Osprey) on that occasion Bong flew P-38 H-1. The same photo also appears in other publications (I am still browsing through my Schiffer books, looking for it), but as Charlie Hugo said, captions vary considerably: for example in the old In action booklet it is said to show 475 FG planes. Will stop now before I veer off topic even further. Cheers Jure

Hello If it helps, there is a photo of Bong's P-38 H white 73 with circle and star insignia in one of Schiffer's book about Pacific Lightnings. There is no serial on vertical tails, only white 73 individual number. The caption says this was the plane in which Bong achieved his 16th victory. Unofortunately I could not find it on the web. Cheers Jure

Hello I understand W/Cdr Selby was in charge of airstrip construction in BAF, according to one of the books dealing with WW II airstrips on Slovenian territory. S/L Selby is mentioned in this capacity in connection with Nadlesk airstrip construction in early 1944, presumably also later with Otok and Krasinec. I understand his Hurricane was captured on Zaluzani airfield near Banja Luka (at the time part of Croat puppet state NDH). The airfield had been liberated by Croat partisans earlier with several NDH aircraft captured there and put into use with partisans. When NDH forces were about to retake the airfield in counter-offensive, W/Cdr Selby could not start the engine of his aircraft so she was abandoned on the airfield. The story is described in the book about 352(Y) Squadron. I would very much like to learn the serial of this Hurricane. Cheers Jure

Hello Thank you for the correction. This claim has been repeated in several books and I did not doubt it. Cheers Jure

Hello Tom Not Mk.XII, but these links may help: http://airwar.ru/other/draw/spitfireaik.html http://airwar.ru/other/draw/spitfire_sam.html Half of the Spitfires Mk.XII were rebuilt Mk.V, the other half Mk.VIII. I understand fuselages of the early Spitfires Mk.IX (some of them converted Mk.V) were still not fully flush-riveted. As Mk.IX predated Mk.VIII I imagine on latter there would have been even fewer dome-rivets. Also take into account that on parts with thicker skin (like wing leading edge) flush riveting would practically disappear anyway. Cheers Jure

Hello I thought there is no firm rule about the use of blue or green Aotake. Photos of fuselage interior and undercarriage wells on unrestored Hayabusa I in Aero Details book look more Aotake green than blue to me, although wing fuel tank straps are definitely blue. Not about painting but perhaps these links might help: http://soyuyo.main.jp/ki43d/ki43e-3.html http://soyuyo.main.jp/ki43d/ki43e-1.html Cheers! Jure

Great attention to details! I particularly like A.S.I. correction and compass deviation tables. Cheers Jure

Hello Correct Duncan B, the well know KG+EM (photo found on Asisbiz webpage): Quite some time ago there was a pre-war photo of NF+AW somewhere on the web (perhaps on now defunct AWF or LEMB webpages) still in civilian paint scheme. I did not bother to download it as it was already published in one of the books I had. I couple of years ago I toyed with the idea of building this particular Bf 108, but by then already forgot in which book I have seen it. FWIW I vaguely remember the plane looked painted in light colour overall. Cheers Jure

Hello dov Are you talking about red undercarriage legs and wheel hubs? I believe these indicated 100-octane fuel engine. Cheers Jure

Hello, dragonlanceHR I do not think fuel quality was much if any lower in RAF than in USAAF. Take a look at this webpage: http://www.wwiiaircraftperformance.org/150grade/150-grade-fuel.html I understand there had been lack of high octane fuel early in the war. USA supplies of 100 octane fuel to RAF started several months before battle of Britain began, but later production in Great Britain caught up. Cheers Jure

"And now for something completly different" also rings a bell. Speaking about latte, does anybody remember, what Basil Fawlty brought (and said) to the French lady, who ordered caffe au lait? Cheers Jure

Hello Peter Roberts Typo, I am sorry. I meant RLM 71/02. The photo in the book is brighter and one can tell RLM 71 and RLM 02 apart, but only just. I would like to see the original. Looks like propaganda photo to me so it was probably published in Adler or some similar publication. Cheers Jure