Nils

Thank you, yes that photo was my inspiration. A long time I thought that photo was from Africa. Turned out to be in Samakh, todays’s Palestine.

Another (and probably the last) of my Handley Page images (promise ) This time I've chosen a refueling and pit stop scene in Samakh, enroute to the far East. The passengers are waiting in the sun to embark, when the refueling is done. On the 'nose tip' of Hanno you can just spot the airport buildings, reflecting in the aluminium skin. The image is a true mixture of techniques, but all digital. The planemodel, the fuel wagons, the cargo trolley under the starbord wing root and grass plain is all 3D models the persons are painted or cutout photos, and the cars as well..

‘Hanno’, one of the large Handley Page HP.42 from a bygone era is overflying Croydon airdrome sometime in the thirties. I'm not too familiar with how Croydon looked thru the different stages, so I hope it's not too far off to be slightly realistic. Don't be afraid to comment any obvious errors.. cheers

Thanks for your kind words Keith! Regarding your concern about the ‘self launching trolley’ I’ve thought of that… there’s wooden beams blocking the wheels. Maybe a bit hard to spot as it’s a bit dark under there. It looks fragile with the plane under throttle, more or less balancing on those fragile wooden things, but I’ve seen photos of the situation, and it looked much like this…

Many years ago I did this model of the Schneider trophy racer Supermarine S6b, but never did anything with it, so I decided to give it a go and came up with this.. It shows racer S1595 parked in front of the Calshot castle in the Solent, where the UK races took place in in late 1920's and early '30's S1595 won the race for the fourth time setting an average speed record of 340.08 mph. My scene here shows the two planes (S1595 and S1596) parked in fron of the Calshot castle, doing engine running test and preparations for the race (the wing of S1596 can be spotted behind that guy on the ground)

That's quite a task you have done. As for Flickr it certainly has got some issues during the years, but to me it's still the best solution. I guess posting images on a public site is risky business regardless of what site it is, Just remember to keep a copy. A small portable disk with a decent backup program costs 'nothing' and saves your work from net thieves. I only post downscaled copies online, low quality and size. The trick is to find a size that doesn't un-favorize your work. An watermarks are often wise to use. I mean it's your work and you own the rightsc to it, not any greedy ba*tard out there.. If they want to steal it, at least give them any more that you can loose.. Netfriends asking kindly is a different business, I've given away lots of images to nice friends, just because they've asked and I trust them to not distribute any further..

Thanks a lot for for all helpful replies. As I said the planes that had reversed codes, was on the plane's starboard side of the fuselage. As 90% of all profiles and also most photos only show the aircraft's port side... But at least i've learned here that very often it's a good qualified guesswork, as none documentation shows starboard sides with squadron codes and nose art.. In the Norwegian airforce I believe, reversing the squadron codes seems to have been more or less the rule, during WW2 and after..

Ok thanks, that made sense ( in a way ), atleast that explains the veriations. I’ve never thought about it until recently, and does the rule still apply? Thanks again..

I'm not sure it this is correct place to ask, but I posted a topic (which got lost.. ) the other day asking why some RAF planes (especially) during WW2 had the tactical codes reversed on starboard side of the fuselage, for example GS-M on port side, would be M-GS on the starboard side. Some machines have it, some not.. I just wondered how the rules for markings applied for tactical codes? I have also seen the reversed codes on US planes.. PS If admin find this post misplaced, please PM me where it belongs..

Thank you for sharing your bit to this story, an very emotional too. I was a bit reluctant whether to post that picture or not, as I knew it would most likely stir up someone. Killing civillians in war can never be justified, regardless which side they're on.

Thanks Michael, the reason I choosed this hard light on this grey atlantic day is that I meant to have the Catalina in the sun up above the clouds. That said, I’ve never been 100% pleased with this one, I might try your suggestions. Thanks

Thank you. I like your site.. looks tidy and ‘down to earth’ Good luck with it

Go ahead BTW I couldn’t reach your site throught your link..

Yup can do ..

I have changed the textures for my Lancaster with marked fins.. In addition I add a few detail shots form my model, a simple cockpit: Bombardier position: SABS bomb sight: and last, the three Fraser Nash gun turrets: Goodbye....

Thanks, I appreciate your comment. There’s not many references to ND332 / JO-S, but I don’t there were any with the S on the fins. I will double check. Thanks again..

Lancaster ND332 of 463sqn, Australian, was lost in Bergen, Norway in October 1944 as they were bombing the Uboat pen there (Bruno) The plane was hit by flak and ended up in a little lake close to the city centre with and hands lost. The plane was never raised and after the war new land fillings and construction work buried the wreck there. An operation to try locating the wreck some years ago came to nothing and it was concluded with the it had been buried un tons of gravel and stone. As they had jettisoned their bomb load over the city, the wreck caused no longer a danger of blowing up and it was decided to let them rest there. A memorieal has been erected on the shore where the plane ended it's days.

I've done a little rework on my image lightened op the horizon and added some distant hills ..

Thanks Keith, yes I noticed that sharp horizon myself and I will rework it an lighten it up some

HP42 'Hanno' taking off from an aerodrome ahead of a brewing thunderstorm

A little progress for tonight, the whole plane is now textured and almost finished. Some small corrections needed here and there, pluss some makeshift interior to ber built, and pilots and perhaps a passenger or two peering out the windows.. but I'm sure there some more details I have wrong that need fixing. I ended up choosing "Hanno" (G-AAUD). First I started out doing "Hannibal", then "Heracles" (but I discovered that was a HP45 type) so I ended up with this (if you are hawk eyed, you'll see two of my images tonight are infact wrong, showing Hanno as a HP45 type, with three struts on the outer ends on both sides, instead of two struts and crossing wires) img 1 and 2 here are wrong type, but it's been corrected. The HP45 had a shorter range than the HP42's, and was intended for the european lines, but they it could accomodate more passengers with less cargo. Not sure why but I like the HP42 types better..

Thanks guys, hopefully it’ll improve once I’ve textured the rest and getting better control of the reflections in the various materials surfaces. As you can see the cockpit still doesn’t look much like metal etc .. also I see I need to build new exhaust tings for my engines, wrong profile of the rings..

I got so inspired seeing Moa's thread here where he spent the most of a year building his beautiful vacuform HP42 kit, so after some researching I decided it to be doable and wanted to build it myself as a 3D digital model.. I did the mistake to deem it to be an easy build, but that has long ago been changed This old girl certainly has her challenges, and I haven't solved them all to my wished standard yet, but oposed to Moa's vacuform, I can go back and rework it if there are parts I'm not satisfied with.. to be honest what I admire most form Moa's thread is that he never gave it up, no matter how hopeless it looked from seeing the first images of the vacuum pressed parts.. and the how beautiful it came out as finished. So the here's my first shots then, but as you can see only fuselage has been painted or textured as it's called. Wings struts engines and landing gear are to be done later. Critics are always welcome.. Pics are hosted from Flickr.com

Thankfully, today we have started getting 3D printers around and perhaps someone could come up with the idea to start making stuff like this on request. Shouldn't be to pricey.. only little problem could be the material types but it shouldn't really matter does it? I didn't mention it, but I'm a 3d modeller and I am building the HP, and was so thrilled to find your thread here. I really love to read everything in your thread. I amazes me to see your skills here, most of us would have given up a long way down the building line. I hope you don't mind me using your detail shots for reference here and there? They're better than any online photos from the era. A shame really that there's no existing examples preserved in museums today. As I've read, RAF took well care of that. The HP's had no accidents the years they flew comercially, and suddenly in RAF hands when war broke out, they were all damaged in a short period of time due to poor handling and/or bad preparation for storms and heavy weather..

The guy on the left here, is me saying no thanks! to fly with it..