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rossm

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Posts posted by rossm

  1. I think the impression of white is just a combination of lighting and exposure.

     

    I put the lower pic into Photoshop and the white of the star and bar measured as a brighter tone than the adjacent underside so if that was white the star would be whiter than white.

     

    The upper shot looks as if there is strong sidelighting with glare so I think it's just local overexposure - unless you think the side of the fuselage behind the intake section is also white.

     

    I've often thought the 36622 model paints look dark compared to photos, must dig out my F-4E and compare to the FS595 colour chip.

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  2. Apologies if well known as not quite the exact aircraft but there is a picture of JZ594 W.1A "about to attack a Japanese oil refinery on 20 Dec 1944" on p346 of Scale Aircraft Modelling May 1984. It's credited to the FAA Museum so may well have appeared elsewhere. The interesting thing for me was the use of small (SEAC ?) roundels.

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  3. I use the "old faithful" MicroSol and MicroSet. These often cause decals to wrinkle but most then suck down into panel lines and even show the camouflage paint demarcation after drying. If I feel nervous I will us a lint free cloth to gently burnish them when they are not quite dry. This is most noticeable with my old Modeldecals but Xtradecal and Superscale also seem to work this way.

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  4. For us GB virgins please could someone, maybe @JOCKNEY or @Rabbit Leader, enlighten us on what we do and post when? Maybe "Group Builds in Easy Steps"?

     

    I know there is a thread supposedly drawing all the other threads on GBs together but it's about as clear as a Contrail kit canopy to me.

     

    I'm ready to start whenever the gun is fired but I doubt I'll be first to the tape😁

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  5. The source image for the "orange patches" scheme may be the 3rd one on this page - open to interpretation but it does show an aircraft 'A' of 208 squadron in a scheme with some sort of high level demarcation.

     

    https://www.key.aero/article/low-leve-recce

     

    Now does a better quality print exist? Not in any of my Meteor books and British Combat Aircraft In Action since 1945 shows a Meteor FR.9 in silver in the section on Suez but I wonder if that is a generic photo.

     

    As for WX962 I don't have that exact aircraft but Air Enthusiast No.59 has clear B+W photos of some 208 Sqdn FR.9s on a visit to South Africa in June 1954 where you can see an aircraft with dark nose and rear canopy section and one with light nose and rear canopy section. The underwing tanks also carry trim in matching tones. It's not much of a stretch to take the light tone as yellow and it is distinctly different from the silver fuselage in both places.

     

    Edit: Doh! - scrolling down that low level recce link there's a colour pic of a 208 Meteor with yellow nose and rear canopy!

  6. 1 hour ago, Rob S said:

    Seeing as I don’t know what the New Year holds (as we are being forced to move House and maybe also relocate to the big smoke because HR people are complete Morons and the Organisation is only good at killing people) and God knows what variant of CoVid will be virulent by then (“Omega” - “The End!”) and also how many cobwebs my modelling skills - or lack thereof - have to have blown away I felt sorry for a bloke and paid way too much for a part (badly) built Twin Otter that has an - as yet -  unassessed amount of broken and missing parts to start me off  building something in the GB. 25 percent rule hopefully doesn’t apply as whatever is done will have to be pulled apart and started again and fixed up / repaired. 

     

    If by some miracle - which probably also means a Sainthood for me - it gets anywhere near finished it’ll be a BPA one in honour of  @Graeme H who worked for BPA before Australian and Qantas. 

     

    Might have to yell out for people to search their “Spares Box” if there are too many parts broken or missing. 

     

    Photos when I get the chance. 

     

    This page may help, I've got most of the Twotter bits and they look good in the box, waiting impatiently to start mine on 8th.

     

    https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/category/1-72nd?page=2

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  7. 3 hours ago, Seahawk said:

     

     

    The more eagle-eyed of our readers will have noticed that 105 is not actually a valid serial for a SAAF Hart.  No, but Dave Becker says that a batch of SAAF Hind trainers were numbered in a batch running from 101 to 200 and illustrates that with a photo of 115 (coded, he says, 52 but I can't actually see it!) without offering a unit attribution.   So I'm assuming that "Hart 105" is a minor misident for a Hind trainer.

     

    It "could" be one of the original 5 Harts supplied to Rhodesia if they all got renumbered as per the example in the Mushroom book - SR-2 to 102 - and survived that long. It's an alternative explanation but I've no idea if it's a better one. The Mushroom book also quotes SAAF Hinds numbered 101-199.

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  8. 2 hours ago, MACALAIN said:

    There is a picture here of a P40.

     

    Alain

     

    https://www.349squadron.be/history/second-world-war

     

    7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

    Much the same questions I've been asking myself too Ross. 349 was stood up in Ikeja in Nov 1942, according to the Key Aero Forum. It was only there for a matter of months before being transferred back to the UK. At a guess, I would call that time span too late for Tomahawk imports to be transiting from Takoradi so my instinct is aircraft brought in from the Uk, possibly destined for South Africa originally. maybe? Of course if there is not answer, I can make it as I fancy I guess. :unsure: Found the link to the washed out photo I mentioned above, looks a bit deserty to me. 

    Steve.

    6 hours ago, stevehnz said:

    I'm sure you're right there Claudio, the spinner looks as though it could be dull red too. I wish though I could be sure though it was a 349 sqn machine. I reckon I can see a G in front of the fuselage roundel, but the gap could contain an A for 112 sqn as easily as an E for 349. The underwing roundels being A type may or may not indicate a desert repaint, I believe it was not uncommon with the desert squadrons to retain the underwing A type, the A type being more visible to pongo gunners, whereas a machine imported into West Africa in DFS, would it have had its underwing roundels repainted in such a way? I did fiddle with the photo but was unable to bring up that second unit code. :(

    Steve.

     

    I share the doubts about that photo, it doesn't look like Ikeja........

     

    mid_000000.jpg?action=e&cat=Photographs ROYAL AIR FORCE: WEST AFRICA COMMAND, 1941-1945.. © IWM (CM 3015) IWM Non Commercial License

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  9. Having consulted The Mushroom book on the Hart family I think the code and serial indicate a machine originally delivered to the South African Air Force and used for training. To quote from the section on South Africa, "The Harts started to arrive from April 1940 onwards. They were allocated the serials 301-500 and 2041-2069. Again they mostly served with 2FTS until late 1944"

     

    There is a photo of an SAAF Audax in a similar scheme, code 55, "possibly with 2FTS at Kimberly".

     

    There were 5 Harts delivered to the Rhodesian AF at Cranborne in 1937 but the book is vague as to their fate and the serials given e.g SR-2 later 102, don't seem to tie up with your photo.

     

    That's my "best guess".

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  10. The profile I've seen shows full Day Fighter Scheme with Dark Green / Ocean Grey topsides. According to the Ducimus Camouflage & Markings booklet UK based Tomahawks were included in the Day Fighter Scheme markings with Sky spinner and fuselage band and Yellow leading edges.

     

    Next questions - did that scheme apply in Nigeria? Where did 349 get their Tomahawks from - surplus from the UK or from supplies intended for the Western Desert? The former could be in DFS, the latter in desert scheme?

     

    Sorry, not much of an answer.

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  11. 14 minutes ago, rafalbert said:

    As this will be one of my few GBs this year I will dig out an F-5A to be finished as a Norwegian machine, and if I can source some decals I will do a Saudi Lightning T55 as well (discovered long after I bought it that the decals were missing 🤦🏼‍♂️).

     

    Dave

     

     

    As I'm whiffing one of my T55's I have a spare set - PM me your address and I'll get them off "dreckly"

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  12. 1 hour ago, JOCKNEY said:

     

    I think anyone with a build thread that has the link

     

    "7 Years Later" in it deserves a special place in any GB.

     

    Looks like you have still got plenty to do Ross, great addition to this GB.

     

    Cheers Pat 

    Thanks, Pat. I've just done the archaeology necessary to find the kit and the only work done is the cockpit put together as in the old photo and the wing halves have been joined so plenty still to do.

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  13. 19 minutes ago, Rabbit Leader said:

     

    Hey guys and gals… just looking back on the proposed build list and we just need to add Matchbox’s Avro Lancaster to complete the full list of Brown Series Aircraft kits, that a fantastic result…. So the next question beckons, does anyone want to nominate the Lanc for this upcoming GB? I have one example, however am already committed with a couple of builds and there’s a very real change I might add a few smaller ones in time. 

     

    We are also doing extremely well in the Orange Aircraft series and are well and truly above the 55% mark with 19 kits nominated out of the 34 in that category. I’m sure we can bump this even higher again before we make a start. 

     

    Cheers and thanks for the contributions.. Dave 

    If you want another Orange Aircraft series I hope my long stalled build of the Lightning T55 as a WHIF will fit under the 25% rule, I'll have to check but I don't think I've done any more to it-

     

    It's a bit optimistic to think I can do this and the Twotter but I'll give it a go.

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  14. I have X31 BS538 Post Office Red which I think is correct for the red and there is X030 RAF Post War Roundel Blue BS110 enamel

     

    IIRC there was no such thing as 1930's 'Bright' shades - they were the same as the postwar shades. I think there's been at least one thread about this.

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  15. 5 hours ago, Ray S said:

    @JOCKNEY  Would you please pass judgement on whether this would qualify for the 'under 25% started' rule?

     

    I have a Twin Otter started, but it stalled quite a while ago. I am fairly confident that it is under 25 percent, as there is very little of the kit glued yet, but I have built a fairly major scratch interior:

     

     

     

     

     

    This means there is quite a bit done, but only three parts of the kit have been glued at the moment (the interior is still loose). It stalled because I had altered the windscreen glazing to give it the characteristic downward slope, but then came a cropper as I could not work out how to glaze it! I find a Group Build is an ideal way of stretching my skills, and this would certainly help me out no end!

     

    Many thanks,

     

    Ray

     

    Some things which may help........ https://aerocraftmodels.bigcartel.com/category/1-72nd?page=2

     

    My u/c and cockpit are on the way and I've already got the engine/prop set and the tail surfaces.

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