rossm

In "Air War for Yugoslavia, Greece and Crete" it gives the Greek Order of Battle for 28th October 1940 with one bomber squadron (32 Mira) having 12 Blenheim IVs of which 11 were serviceable. Later (p107) it states "32 Mira had been brought up to strength with six ex-RAF Blenheim Is (L6658 and 6670 from 211 Squadron; L8384 and 8385, both ex-39 Squadron, amongst them)". I think these were bombers and I don't think it would make sense for fighters to have been transferred to a Greek bomber squadron.

A case of "Don't believe what's written on the back."!

I just spotted this photo on fleabay and noticed the aircraft number repeated on the nose - not something I've seen before. I'm much more used to the squadron badge on the nose or insignia each side of the roundel. The photo is dated Septemer 1969 - does anyone know how long this marking style was used please? https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/373663647203?hash=item570016c5e3:g:1-8AAOSwQ4Zg993U

Hi Jerry, Thank you, I don't think I had, I have a memory of someone building the Koster kit but not on a BM thread, Cheers, Ross

If I may be allowed a bit of thread drift - does anyone have plans for an M-11 which carried a single FritzX under the fuselage as I'd like to use an Airwaves conversion on my Italeri M. I think Koster did a 1/48 kit but I'm strictly 1/72 so will need a little bit of fuselage surgery.

AIMS do a seat for the Ju=88/188 which I think is applicable to the Do217 ? http://www.aimsmodels.co.uk/Resin/1-72/1-72-resin/1-72-resin_13.html They also do engine fronts for the Italeri Do217E, don't know if they would help the K ? Print Scale do a set of decals https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/PSL72329 and there is a vacform canopy in one of the Falcon Luftwaffe sets, the Squadron version also seems to be still available from Hannants. Sadly the Eduard canopy mask is OOP Aside from the Profile and Warpaint already mentioned there is a book by Manfred Griehl https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dornier-Do-217-317-417-operational-Record/dp/1853100722 but I found it a bit lacking in detail for K and M variants. and for background reading on Hs293 and FritzX there's this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Warriors-Wizards-Development-Defeat-Radio-Controlled/dp/1591140676/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=wizards+and+warriors&qid=1627922440&s=books&sr=1-14

Just looked at my (nearly) finished Mk.I and the 100" roundels are definitely too small compared with the photo above so 112" seems possible. The only way I know to get that is to use a 75" one from a 1/48 sheet like https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/X48028 Bother! I've already satin varnished mine so I'm not sure I can correct it.

According to Ian Huntley in SAM the roundel size was specified as at least one inch away from leading edge or slats and one inch from the aileron positioned at 1/3rd total span from the aircraft centreline. This gave different sizes for every type of aircraft. The only attempt at listing the sizes that I have seen was by Modeldecal (later Xtradecal) who were the gold standard for RAF roundels, serials and codes for many years. How they generated the list I don't know. Paul Lucas in Britain Alone has a Sunderland I profile with a caption stating 84" upperwing roundels just to muddy the waters. I can only suggest making a dummy 112" paper disc and seeing where it fits on a plan or model. I'll go and get my Sunderland from the loft later and see how that looks.

Paul Lucas in an article on Sunderland III colours in Model Aircraft Monthly January 2009 gives 112" but Modeldecal set 103 gives 100". The Kits-World set I used for my Sunderland I had 100" roundels as did the Italeri kit. so 100" looks like the majority verdict.

I've got an F.8 I want to make as an F(TT).8

I'vce a couple of racers to build - Connie Leathart's Comper Swift and Capt. Percival Phillip's Avro 504N

I thought AI Mk.X and FB.VI wings gave you an NF.XIII ?

DZ302 was an NF.II converted to a XII (fitted with AI Mk.VIII in a slightly bulged nose) according to the Sharp/Bowyer Mosquito book but is given as a XVII in the Ducimus camouflage and Markings booklet which also shows it with a bull-nose radome like a XIX with a note the radome was unpainted. Since the XVII was also a conversion of the NF.II (fitted with AI Mk.X) confusion is doubtless possible although theoretically the two had different radomes. Rawnsley's book refers to DZ302/G as equipped with the new low-looking AI and having a bulbous nose which could refer to either mark although he does refer to training on AI Mk.VIII just beforehand. I'm confused as I haven't been able to track down a photo but I suspect the Ducimus booklet may be wrong - which would be the first time I've thought that the series is not infallible.

The normally infallible Ducimus Camouflage and Markings does not give a size for the codes. Paul Lucas, in Combat Colours no.6, gives them as "approximately 30". What serial do you have for VY-R ?

I thought the A had the American engines? For my D I did not use a spar, it's been ok so far. My problem was the main undercarriage legs seem too tall to get the right sit - or maybe they should have more rake than I gave them? RFI - Sorry for give the thread drift another nudge Bill.

Lucas quotes 56in on the Spitfire profile drawings in the book. This is supported by the Ducimus Camouflage and Markings booklet as standard for Spitfires.

MJF Bowyer's book Fighting Colours notes "On July 23rd 1946, for example, Spitfires of 165 Squadron at Duxford still had the post war grey-green glossy finish, etc. and included SK-E : MK673 and SK-T : MJ482, both with 'pointed' tails and clipped wings, and SK-R : PT958, a MkIXe with 'pointed' tail and standard wings.".

Paul Lucas monograph on post war fighters in the UK suggests Type C (no outline) upperwing roundels from January 1945 with underwing serials from August 1945.

The Ducimus "Camouflage and Markings" booklet on the Defiant states that on most Defiants the metal frame of the turret was black. I take this to mean just the frame around the transparent part which is how it looks to me in the photos.

If Frog B(I)8 wings are any good I'll try and find mine for you, the kit is no good now I've cut the nose off for the aborted attempt to fit the Aeroclub conversion.

Isn't the easy way out to do an earlier overall silver example?

Sorry, @canberra kid but I'm going to contradict you. I'm not sure the Aeroclub conversion would be a good fit for the Airfix B-57, it seems to have been designed for the oversize italeri kit, here is my RB-57A conversion from the Italeri kit. I admit I haven't dug out my Airfix B-57 to measure it but I think it's based on their B6 which has a (correct) smaller diameter. Sorry if all this is confusing you Bill, I don't want you to spend a load of money on incompatible parts and I know the Aeroclub conversion you have only fits the Italeri kit of the ones in my stash. Come to that, I think if you had an HP B(I)8 all you would need would be a fuselage extension, some careful cutting and filling to fit the goldfish bowl canopy from your conversion and a modified cockpit.

Whilst @canberra kidis the fount of all anberra knowledge I'll add my recent experience with the same conversion set......... I first tried to fit it to a Frog B(I)8 and found the difference in fuselage diameter was too much to get a decent fit. So now I've put it on an Italeri B-57 and it fitted almost perfectly. I still have one problem to overcome in that the canopy does not fit well - this is probably down to me as Aeroclub stuff is usually well engineered but I can't see what I did wrong and there is only one canopy so only one attempt possible. Give me a day or two and I'll check the cut off Italeri bits - which must be the same diameter - against a High Planes B20 and the old Airfix B6. The problem with using an Italeri kit, apart from it's inaccuracy, is that it only has the American style engines which wasn't a problem for me as I wanted an RB-57A. I also have the Airwaves resin set - and that is too small in diameter for the Italeri kit but includes British engine intakes. Again it's a vacform canopy and only one of them. The High Planes B20 appears to contain intake fairings for both B2 and B6 style engines as well as two vacform canopies. I don't think you would need the conversion set if you went this route as you would only need to insert a short cylindrical section behind the cockpit and then cut out camera windows - John can doubtless confirm. With the old Airfix B6 you need to replace or reprofile the nose as well as lengthen the fuselage, once I've dug in the loft I can tell you how good a fit that Aeroclub set is likely to be. As you can tell I've a few Canberra bits and bobs lying around and I only want to make a TT18 so I can part with some of them. If any would work for you I'll let you know.

A very curious feature is that the underside is painted as a target tug yet it has zero length rocket launchers??????

Great, thank you - even that was hard to be sure of from the drawings in "Spitfire the History" even though they look official or factory drawings.