rossm

I have a photo showing the Hendy Hobo and Miles Whitney Straight G-AEUX in what appears to be a race venue. It must be after March 1937 when the latter was registered - does anyone have any idea of which races they appeared in together please? G-AEUX carries the race number 4 if that helps, can't see the one on the Hobo. The only races I know it appeared in are the 1937 Devon Air Race and Thanet Air Trophy, neither of which featured the Hobo. This is a different slant on my previous question now I've identified the Hobo as the second a/c in the photo. It's all much too difficult for me without the Flight Archive, that was such a useful source.

Please does anyone have a copies of Flight magazine August/September 1937. I'm interested in knowing the race number of Miles Whitney Straight G-AEUX which competed in the Thanet Air Trophy on 21st August 1937. @John Aero may have copies but I haven't seen him on here lately - John, if you do see this are you able to help please?

It's going slow, I've started an Arctic Decals Comper Swift but not touched a model since April, it's really a winter activity. I've also bought a Dekno BA Eagle and Mew Gull so just need to get cracking - the (re)starting gun is when the clocks change this w/e.

Giving this a bump as I've just got the Whitney Straight - https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/SBSK7033 Still looking for help with colours and marking details for most of the aircraft.

https://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/search?query=magister&pageSize=&media-records=records-with-media

To get details of aircrew and aircraft used on missions the Operations Record Book is the place to go. They have been digitised and are available online from the National Archives. To get them for no charge you need to create an account, which is also free. It's a bit clunky to go through month by month and both the Summary of Events and the Records of Events are worth reading, the latter holds the aircraft/aircrew details while the former sometimes gives extra background information. The 58 Squadron ones start from here https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C2503181

You're welcome - PM me if there's anything I can help with on your other project.

That's my page, created with the references I had at the time. You could also take a look at the general CC camouflage page https://hrmtech.com/SIG/coastal_cam.asp Sorry but I can't pin down the code letter colours, the references I have suggest Light Slate Grey from July 1942 (just "Grey" before that) but I have photos of Witleys in the White scheme with code letters that appear to be something different, presumably red. Whether there was an official order to do this I don't know but it's the sort of thing @Paul Lucas might know.

It's still a nice kit, I'm not sure about the wheels, they seemed ok to me when I built the kit years ago, but the wingtip shape looks to need adjusting and that's about all I'd do.

Looks like there is some sort of ORB at the National Archives https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/C7161269 Sorry I'm too far away to visit and don't know anyone to ask since the late, great Edgar Brooks did some copying for me years ago.

Not sure if you'll find anything, Bruce Robertson and MJF Bowyer both quote changes in 1919 permitting clear dope or silver as well as Khaki and a universal change in 1922 to silver. Neither quote document reference numbers. I'd be glad to see anything that turns up.

I had the same problem here and some of the answers may help.

The Ducimus booklet P-51 MUSTANG, RAF CAMOUFLAGE & MARKINGS, Northern Europe 1936-45 gives the official regulations including details of wheel well/spar colours. I'm pretty sure you can find it as a pdf somewhere on tinternet. I haven't checked whether MT-K appears in the 2TAF books, @Chris Thomas would know. The variations may be down to misinterpretation of the instructions or of photos/documents by the modeller or the manufacturer. The worrying thing is that once someone has made an error it will propagate across the web and may be taken as correct by a modeller searching for information. To borrow from @Troy Smith - never trust anything without a photo, preferably two or more. Also beware restored examples - I nearly made a judging error in a competition as the model was intended to be of the restored (incorrect) colour scheme!

If you look at the photos in the Warpaint booklet you can see a small structure made of rod or tubing, presumably just to hold the cable away from the underside of the fuselage where it exits.

On page 53 of that book it gives a value of 1/2 chord as well as the location for underwing serials.

According to the Putnam book on Westland Aircraft the winch was electrically powered. None of the photos I can find show a wind driven winch so we can assume this is correct. There seems to be a small structure under the fuselage for reeling the cable in and out and the 4+ book shows doors and a slot under the fuselage but details are hard to come by.

Also have a read of this thread I've checked the 224 ORB and it usually gives the weapons fit for each sortie, RPs aren't mentioned after early 1944 - I'd have to look again to see exactly when. I've also been in touch with @Terry @ Aviaeologyabout K.O.Moore's aircraft and the sheet was put together with help from the pilot. Unfortunately memories appear to have got mixed up over time and while Moore may have flown an aircraft with RPs (I haven't checked the ORB) it doesn't seem to have been on the 6/7th June. It's also unlikely from the delivery date that BZ792 had 2 tone upper surfaces and I'd need to check Flintham's book "Combat Codes" but I don't think it had code letters XB but was still on the unit/base numbering system. The generic grey used by Aviaeology should have been Light Slate Grey which has a greener tone to it. There is also the possibility the code could have been in Red but although there are some photos of CC aircraft where Red is the obvious interpretation for the codes I've only ever seen it documented for long range Beaufighters so there must be some documentation I'm not aware of somewhere - maybe @Paul Lucas has seen it? Unless something turns up I'd stick with LSG for the codes. I too wanted to build BZ792 as it seemed to be a St.Eval based U-boat killer with RPs but sadly it just doesn't fit. So now, having missed out on the Eduard Riders in the Sky GR.V kit, I have to make my own decals for the other possibility -Terry Bulloch's aircraft - as a wanted post has failed to find the fish nose art from one of the kit options. At least it goes on a white background so using my laser printer will be fine. There is at least one photo of Moore and crew in the IWM book on Coastal Command, and presumably on the IWM website, from which you can glean some details like silver paint on the de-icing boots, logos on prop blades etc. My research notes are scattered around the hard drive and I haven't pulled together everything from there, various BM threads and the ORB into one place. Even so @EwenS has much more detail than I do. His comment on LL vs RP makes a lot of sense - K.O.Moore said of his double U-boat kill he didn't use the rockets as they would have ruined his night vision, the voice of experience even if the exact sortie may not have had the rockets available. Just flipping through my drive quickly the only photo I have with rockets and LL is of the trials aircraft which also has both ASVII and ASVIII fitted. Another thing I would have liked on a model - LL and RP - shot down!

Reading the Air britain book on the Liberator in RAF & Commonwealth service by James Oughton I think (and it's not entirely clear) that this was the only batch with the US turret.

It was a Halifax rear turret. I'm not sure about the reason, I've a vague memory it was to do with a trim change when the US one was rotated. Commonality is possible but they kept the Martin mid-upper. I'll do some digging tonight.

I've just acquired the Special Hobby kit and would like to finish it as K8308 as used by 19 Group Comms Flight at Roborough in 1941 after it left the RAE. It was a "Jubilee" so single fin and almost certainly in DG/DE/Yellow but does anyone know of photos of camouflaged ST-25s to help with the pattern please?

Wikipedia?

That's the volume from 1914 to 1937 - the 1937-1968 one I'm pretty sure is by Bowyer. I'm sure there would but I'm not sure there's any such thing because of all the minor variations in how the rules were interpreted. I thought I could do that for Coastal Command - see https://hrmtech.com/SIG/coastal_cam.asp but I ended up with far more complications than I expected and there are still some things glossed over.

The books Fighting Colours and Bombing Colours both by MJF Bowyer are also useful pieces of the jigsaw, mostly based on detailed personal observation. Originally published in sections in Airfix Magazine in the 1960's/70s.

Sorry, I'm away from my references so can't say on the size but you can get both sizes here https://www.hannants.co.uk/search/index.php?adv=1&product_category_id=&product_division_id=&manufacturer_id=8274&product_type_id=&code=&scale_id=956&keyword_search=raf+red+letters&setPerPage=25&sort=0&search_direction=0&save_search_name=&save_search=

British Secret Projects - Fighters & Bombers 1935 to 1950 by Tony Buttler has a drawing and notes with dimensions - PM me an email address for a scan