Jure Miljevic

Hello Mick I think you will be fine with a H-16 set. The most noticeable difference on H-20 was an installation of DL 133 turret instead of B-Stand dorsal defence position, but the new turret was intended as a part of H-16 production line upgrades, before someone decided this modification warranted a new designation. Later, some H-16 had been also modified with a DL 133. There were other minor and not so minor modifications (like those necessary for V-1 carrier conversion), but most of them applied to both H-16 and H-20 sub versions. Cheers Jure

Nice photo, elger, thanks. We learn something new every day. Cheers Jure

Hello According to 99 Sqn. ORB nine Wellingtons flew on a Berlin mission. Six of them could not find or identify their targets and they brought bombs back or jettisoned them in a sea with only three aircraft bombing their targets. I understand two of them were Wellingtons Mk.Ic R3289 and P9243. The third aircraft is given as P4242, but this must be a typo as this serial belongs to a batch assigned to Swordfishes. Cheers Jure

Hello Dave Probably old news to you, but still ... In his book Before the storm (Cassell) Robert Jackson mentions that Squadrons from 3rd, 4th and 5th Group took part in the raid. However, he does not lists all participating squadrons, just those with bombers actually bombing (or their crews claiming to bomb) Berlin: ˝Aircraft claiming successful attacks are from 44, 49, 50, 58, 61, 83 and 99 Squadron.˝. Cheers Jure

Hello leyreynolds There is an account by (then) Lieutenant Dick Law, 886 Sqn, about spotting for HMS Warspite on 6th of June and for USS Nevada a day later, published in Alfred Price's book Spitfire - a complete fighting history (PRC). After completing their work on the 7th, Law and his wing man decided to straf a German artillery emplacement, which turned out to be a 3,7-cm flak battery, and for Law mission ended with a belly landing on no man's land. I will try to dig out more as I think I remember seeing photos or at least colour profiles of aircraft from these units somewhere. Cheers

And she comes complete with a blue rotating light behind the rotor. Pity aircraft registrations do not consist of six letter; think about enhanced psychological effect of adding letter N behind the letter S. Cheers Jure

Hello Ian is correct. Also, fabric sagging on wings and tail is overdone and ICM's rendition of Pfalz E.IV wings has S-shaped airfoil, which cannot be seen on any of aircraft's photographs. Cheers Jure

Hello Colin, no need to bother about the photo, your reference to the relevant book was more than enough. I already drew vector graphic codes, although I have yet to figure out how to make ink jet printed light gray letters visible on a black background. Here are dimensions of R5556 markings if anyone else wants to indulge in making DIY decals: it seems that A1 fuselage roundels are of 49'' diameter (standard Manchester size), and fin flashes are 24'' wide. Their standard height should be 27'', although it seems that on R5556 they are actually closer to 29''. A height of the squadron lett

Hello Colin Thank you for the information about the R5556 photo. Now I, too, am searching for a suitable SGM code letters decals ... I think there is no possibility for a direct photo upload. One have to post a photo on one of a many host websites and then link it to BM. Cheers Jure

Hello Three to five victories (including one Ouragan forced to land) in 1965 Kashmir war against one aircraft lost and between one and four victories during 1971 war with (probably) four aircraft lost in air-to-air combat. Due to arms embargo Pakistan was already in process of replacing Starfighters with Mirage III Es during the 1971 war, but covert US supplies of spare parts and Jordanian aircraft ˝on loan˝ nevertheless kept them going throughout the conflict. Republic of China Starfighters claimed two Peoples republic of China J-6 fighters against one aircraft lost and her pilot killed,

Hello As Ian said, aircraft taking part in Augsburg raid would fit your criteria nicely. Here is a link to a one of the webpages describing the raid, which also includes a photo of L7578, KM-B, of S/Ldr Nettleton on a practice flight. Here is the same photo from the collection of IWM: © IWM HU 91969 L7578 did not take part in the raid, though. However, R5508, KM-B (Nettleton), R5510, KM-A (Garwell), L7536 KM-H (Rhodes), R5506 KM-P (Sandford), L7548 KM-T (Crum) and L7565, KM-V (Beckett) from 44 Sqn and L7573, OF-K (Sherwood), R5537, OF-B (Hallows), R5488, OF-F (Rodle

Hello Quite a task, Colin. Not only there had been substantial differences between factory fresh aircraft, but Lancasters had also been modified during their service. Here is one example (and my apologies for a low-quality photo): Although I am not quite certain about it, I also believe S for Sugar had been delivered without an H2S, but had been retrofitted with one later. Perhaps narrowing your search down a bit? Cheers Jure

Hello Bjorn Engine nozzles differ substantially. Here is the one on MiG-23 MF (actually on MLD, but the nozzle looks the same as on MF) found here on Prime Portal: Here is a photo of MiG-23 BN nozzle, found on Aircraft Walkaround Center here: I was not aware of other differences, but while browsing for suitable engine nozzle photos I came across this page on ARC forum. Apparently, replacement of MF's nose wheel with a larger one and modifications of nose undercarriage doors are also necessary. I vaguely remember that AM MiG-23 nozzles had

Hello Giorgio Interesting debate, yes, although we have drifted somewhat from original topic. Tiger, shooting down herself, makes for an amusing anecdote, especially as her pilot got of with only slight back injury and flew again withing half a year. Interestingly, the aircraft nearly made it back to the airport when one of four grenades, which she had ran into earlier, dislodged herself from an air intake lip and finished off already severely damaged engine. The aircraft's final approach ended in trees some 500 m from the runway threshold. Apparently, one of the USAF F-100 also managed t

I am aware of only Gerhard Lang's work, which has been published by both Flugzeug magazine and Schiffer, the only difference between the editions being the latter is in English. It is a rather thin booklet but this is hardly surprising, given the low number of Ar 240 produced. Plenty of photos of both recconaissance aircraft, given as decal options in Revell kit, thou. Cheers Jure

Hello Try this link for both Manchester and Lancaster rivet diagrams. Drawings are high resolution, so one have to enlarge them to see rivets at all. Cheers Jure

Hello Trevor Perhaps this thread may help: Cheers Jure P.S.: Correct me if I am wrong, but I have never seen a photo of Finish Bf 109 G-6 in such a scheme, only G-2s. There were G-6s in similar solid colour scheme, but they were all post-war IIRC.

Hello Giorgio Yes, by the late 50' USAF was bent on building a sophisticated long range missile carrying interceptor force but even if that would not have been the case, I doubt early F-104s were capable of much more than a point defense. During India - Pakistan wars Pakistan air force F-104 A scored between four and nine AA victories against four to seven aircraft lost in air-to-air combat with India air force aircraft. Pakistani Starfighters made no claims against, but nevertheless suffered three aircraft shot down to Indian MiG-21 fighters. In his book F-104 Starfighter units in combat

Hello Grizzly I found this webpage very useful. Cheers Jure

Hello Giorgio True, Tiger was not suitable for low level strike or ground attack role. Neither was Starfighter. F-104 G had had her entire structure beefed up, got increased vertical tail and had navigational and attack systems, fuel cells and hard points added. Increased weight and strain of low level high speed flying took their tool on both planes and pilots; no wonder literally hundreds of F-104 Gs had been lost on these training missions with many of their pilots killed. Agreed, in 1953 Starfighter would have made short work of MiG-15, but by 1957 the only role she had been suit

Hello Giorgio F-104 A was a light interceptor with significantly shorter range and half the AA missile armament of F11F-1. Unlike the Tiger, she also lacked provision to carry bombs and rockets. Much later F-104 S turned out to be a very cost-effective air defence aircraft, but F-104 G had never been more than adequate in a strike role and even less so as a conventional ground attacker. I have no idea how Tiger would have turned out if further development would have been forced upon her but she would, in comparison with Starfighter at least, certainly have had a head start. Cheers Ju

Hello Thank you for your observation, Buz. I was aware of E-1s also being modified with fillets, but I have no idea that the type was also sent to Soviet Union. So, what were the external differences between enlarged fin Es and Ks? For a while I thought that one was lack of external rear view mirror on the Es, but than I found photos of the former with a mirror on the top of the windscreen and photos of the latter without it. I am asking because I have the old Revell (repacked Vista) P-40 K kit on the bench. Troy, I am not ruling out aluminium as a colour of the Red 26. Probably old

No, actually it was Mk.IIa, Spitfire Special (Apple tree print) booklet referrs to ˝Johnnie˝ Johnson's book Wing Leader in which he states that in early summer 1941 Mk.V's significantly improved rate of roll ˝prompted Bader and the other pilots of the Tangmere wing to find out where the new metal ailerons were being manufactured. It was discovered that Air Service Training at Hamble near Southampton were making them, after which a delegation flew down to the factory to meet the management. Somehow an order was placed to fit out the Tangmere Wing's Spitfire Mk.IIs with these new metal ailerons

Yes, it does look a bit grey to me, too. Still, I am leaning towards a MT-7 distemper, which came into use during 1942-43 winter and was of off-white/very light gray colour anyway. Also, original paint showing through distemper and weathering should probably be taken into account. Cheers Jure

Hello Corsairfourfoxuncle Would you settle for what appears to be winter distemper paint over the existing camouflage? Here are two photos of 196 IAP P-40 K on Leningrad front during 1943 winter, found here: The pilot on the photos is Aleksey Stefanovich Parfenov with five aerial victories to his credit. There is another photo of 196 IAP pilots on front of P-40 here which, given the same position of rudder, trimmer and propeller blades as on the two photos above, had been probably taken during the same photo season: As expected, there