rossm

Not sure if the 90 gallon tanks are the same as those for the Hurricane ? If so (and you're in the UK) I can let you have a pair, Ross

Hmmm, can't remember exactly ('twas about 1960) but the Airfix bagged Spit IX is quite likely and it would have come, like many of my early kits, from Fred Friday's toyshop next to Woolworth's in Newport Pagnell - long gone so they could 'improve' the road at the end of the High Street but I think the council waited for him to retire before they knocked down his shop! The first kit I can really remember is the Airfix Mosquito FBVI 'cos we were visiting friends and I was ill. My brother got the Airfix EE Lightning at the same time. For some reason I always wanted the Airfix Stug III but never got one, the feeling has gone now but it lasted for about 20 years !

There is also the Flight magazine global archive - nearly all issues since 1909 online in pdf format and searchable - LINK

Revisiting this post after getting a Rareplanes kit (to add to my half built Pegasus and unstarted CMR, thankfully bought when they were much cheaper) and unable to prevent myself adding my thoughts. Don't have Testors or Merlin kits so can't comment. Pegasus - a challenging build for sure - how in tarnation do you attach the wings with a complex curve meeting an angled flat being my best description of the problem ? The nose is short even to the plans in the kit. Aeroclub seat a must. Canopy diabolical - wafer thin one side and miles thick the other. Agree CMR nose is wrong when laid over plans but, at least on my sample, it gets much better if you hold both nose and tail firmly flat to the plans. There seems to be a warp (probably due to the large cutout for the wing) which tips the nose up unless it is pushed flat. Camera port seems a bit close to the intake. Another problem is - which plans ? It will almost match the Pegasus plans when pushed down but is short to the ones in the recent Warpaint and long to the ones in the Hasegawa Grumman Tiger article ('twas June 1984). Need to find some dimensions and a ruler methinks. Rareplanes - I haven't cut it out yet but seems to roughly match the CMR kit when pushed together. Raised panel line are a matter of taste and it really needs an Aeroclub seat and undercarriage set. The canopy does not have the flat windscreen of the FR.5 and mine has 'yellowed' - but then so have the CMR ones and they are still in their sealed bag ! I had hoped that Rareplanes would be the answer but I think I'm going to go with the CMR and hope the nose can be forced into alignment during the build - it looks possible at the moment. Just one question for anyone getting this far - do you know anywhere I can get the letter G in white with the appropriate slopes for both sides of the fin tip ?

Turning to the trusty Modeldecals.... Set 25 Has XN781 as Boss Kat (definitely a K for Kat) and shows red/white/blue roundels underwing. The drawing shows Green strakes but the photo provided suggests silver to my eyes. PM me an email address for a scan. The cover of the old Warpaint has a photo showing XN731 in the green/Silver scheme with red/white/blue roundels underwing, much the same photo also in the new Warpaint. I also have a photo of XN730 in that scheme with red/white/blue roundels underwing so imagine that was standard. Cheers, Ross Later..... The Trumpeter 1/72 F.2A/F.6 has XN781 with the Pink Panther zap as one of the kit options. The instructions show red/white/blue roundels underwing (somewhat undersize compared to the Modeldecal drawing) and green strakes.

Simon, Looking in the Midland Counties book on the Manchester there are several photos, all poor quality, but my best estimate is there is not a lot of black - even the pilot's seat looks green (or at least not black). Photos in the Profile are smaller but clearer and also show mostly not black. I'll try sending a scan from the Profile, Cheers, Ross

I want to build XB741 in 1/72. According to This Post and the reference photo I have it has a slatted wing. As far as I can tell from all the information above the Academy F-86E gets close but has a little too much chord - 2mm at the root, 1mm at the tip - and some incorrect panel lines. I already have this kit but don't really want to tackle the chord issue by hacking the kit wing. Would it be a sensible (if expensive) move to graft on a Hasegawa F-86D wing ? Is the PM F-86E wing (much cheaper) any use ? Any other easy routes (there are a lot of Fujimi F-86F of various flavours on ebay) ? Probably I'll end up ignoring it, building from the box and hoping most people who see the model don't notice but it would be nice to get it closer to accurate. Thanks in advance for advice, Ross

But it's definitely better than the Airfix one, Ross

The Airfix one is really not up to much - very poor engines, rivets, no interior, slightly 'skinny'. but it does have early 'short span' tailplanes, albeit incorrectly given dihedral in the kit ! Matchbox/Revell is the one to go for IMHO unless you can afford to waste money like our government, in which case go for Hasegawa. Possibly even more accurate but needing more work is the High Planes kit. The old Frog/Novo one can also be made up well with work and Aeroclub engines. So Matchbox/Revell has it for a decent and reasonably priced Beafighter. PS - memory suggests there were two Matchbox releases and the early one was not so good (tapered cowlings) ? Anyone got a definitive memory ? Ross

The Osprey book 'Halifax Squadrons of World War 2' has a profile of HR686 J2 of 502 Squadron and states many Coastal Command Halifaxes had four blade propellers on the outer engines. I haven't found any photos to support this mixing of propeller types - even the common photo of HR686 looks to me to have 4x 3-blade props, although as its in-flight it's hard to be certain. I have found plenty of all 3-blade or all 4-blade but no mixtures. Can anyone shed any light on the subject please ? Ross

I'm sure I once saw a reference to a single Hereford taking part but I haven't been able to track it down since so I may just be having a senior moment ! Model looks great and, at the risk of anticipating the review, did you agree with a review of the Hampden which said the transparent parts were too wide ? Ross

Looking good. I must say I like Magna kits, they need a bit of work but this shows how good the results can be, Ross

Would Tomahawks / Kittyhawks have been delivered in Amerivan 'equivalents' ? I only ask because I'm thoroughly confused by the variation in shade of Azure Blue in the various 'authentic' model paints I've got, Ross

There's a similar post on the WWII forum I just replied to - and following up this post I've found some more that I'll put there, Ross

Simoun AX676 gets a mention in the Air-Britain Squadrons of the RAF. There is a photo showing a couple of 267 Sqdn aircraft from the same period (when 267 was a communications squadron based in Cairo) in Vic Flintham/Andrew Thomas book Combat Codes. Neither of the two aircraft visible have individual letters, just the KW code so that and the serial (AX676) should nail the markings but don't ask me to tell you the camouflage scheme - I'd guess the options are:- 1) Kept the French scheme 2) Dark Green / Dark Earth / Sky or Silver 3) Dark Earth / Mid Stone and some sort of blue - Mediterranean or Azure or maybe all of them depending on period ! Good luck, Ross More information after seeing the original post on the Interwar forum.... AX676 was impressed in Egypt July 1940 ex Armee de l'Air, served with 267 and was struck off on 1/2/42 AX777 was impressed on arrival from France (presumably in the UK) in June 1940 and served with 1 (FF) ME before being transferred to the Free French AF in September 1941 in the Middle East. Serial not carried. Information from the Air Britain serials book whose abbreviations I think mean 1 (FF) ME was 1 Ferry Flight Middle East. Just off to see if I can find more, Ross Sorry for the 'stream of consciousness' nature of this post - updating book by book ! A lot of digging in Air Britains Flying Training and Support Units failed to reveal 1 (FF) ME until a bit of searching found it indexed references to squadrons and under 276 was a reference to FF Comm Flt which was just enough to get me to the Free French Communication Flight formed 2.6.41 under control of 276 Sqdn with a/c including 2 Simoun, the example given being No.158 AX676. The unit disbanded in June 1942. That's about as far as I can go, Ross

A very well finished model, hope mine looks that good, Ross

In the Mushroom book on 304 Squadron is a colour profile of QD-V HF201, captioned as 'Aircraft with the new squadron codes introduced in October 1944'. It is Extra Dark Sea Grey and white. There is also a photo of QD-V HF448 in March 1945, also in this scheme (HF201 must have moved on by then). Ross

I don't have the kit to comment on the exact aircraft featured but as a general rule Coastal Command anti-submarine aircraft had white undersides with Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey (a greenish colour) topsides from mid 1942 (? references differ) until early 1943 when the Dark Slate Grey was left off as it had little effect but consumed material and man hours. I'm not sure there would have been a great rush to overpaint the Dark Slate Grey but it would have ceased to appear on new aircraft as they were delivered. According to Paul Lucas in MAM January 2009 the same order eliminating Dark Slate Grey also raised the demarcation between upper and lower surfaces, however this does not always seem to have been applied simultaneously to actual aircraft. Strike/fighter aircraft like Beaufort, Beaufighter, Mosquito were different, mostly in the use of Sky undersides and lower demarcation. Anyone reading this thread is invited to comment on My Coastal Command Camouflage page where I attempted to make sense of the topic - however I have not yet updated it in the light of Paul Lucas article. It would be good to gather as many contributions as possible to try and get a definitive guide. Cheers, Ross

PM me an email address and I'll send you a scan of the page on Highball from the Modeller's datafile, lots of detail but not definitive on the number of aircraft modified, Ross

High Planes now have to be ordered direct from Their Website. They reckon even with postage from the other side of the world it's cheaper for us than selling via UK model shops.

There is a build of the Contrail kit in Scale Aircraft Modelling Vol22no1. There is a paragraph of description of the work done on the cockpit but there are no photos or drawings of the cockpit interior. It does quote Aeroplane Monthly March,May,June 1994 as references. I don't have these but the other references quoted (Putnam, Profile) don't have cockpit details so maybe, just maybe.....

The twin .5 turret in the kit is the FN82 whereas the Lincoln really needs the Boulton-Paul Type D. As both were designed to the same specification the differences are minimal and you could easily get away with the kit turret but since both conversion kits (Flightpath and Paragon) contain the Type D glazing it's not a problem.

The first WWII boxing didn't, the Lancaster 'Postwar' code 00850:4800 does, can't speak for the 'Dambuster' or 'Rescue' boxing. They can be bought from A2ZEE though. Somewhere on the forums is an answer to whether the Revell kit includes them but I can't find it just now.

This post has more detail. I also bought the Academy F-86E because I want to do a slatted wing version. If you go back in time the Heller F-86F used to be recommended as it also has a slatted wing. If you want the 'hard' 6-3 wing I am not an expert on which kits to find it in but I think the giveaway is a small wing fence. Ross

Don't know it it's the same photo but go to The IWM photo search page and put in EE205 as the keyword. If it doesn't have to be EE205 then I've a couple of HM509 in the RAF Chivenor book by David Watkins.