David M

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Can anyone suggest a match for the grey used on the FF, F3, F2, and F1 frames made by Arch Motors? Apparently used on Lotus (among others) tube frames and some interior panels. A "gloss battleship grey" is mentioned in some references, others suggest Ocean Grey or Medium Sea Grey (both RAF colours and therefore matt). Any advice on a gloss version would be much appreciated.. TIA David M in Oz

Which one...surely 'loud-mouthed and obnoxious politician' is a tautology applicable to all?

Yes, an Airfix 1: 20 Grey Fergie in a box of spares, broken and missing a couple of minor parts but rebuildable. Well pleased!

Thank you one and all...it worked a treat. The AMT/Ertl panel lines were well defined and a No11 blade did most of the work. Just a little in the corners with a stainless entomological pin in a pin vice just to establish the curves. The slight ridge the blade formed on the sides of the cut rolled down with a bit of pressure and closed the gaps a little. The gaps look OK but I can adjust them slightly with strips of 5 thou if need be. Thanks again and Merry Christmas! David M in Oz

I need to open the boot (trunk?) of a AMT/Ertl 58 Edsel. The straight bits look OK but the plastic is surprisingly thick (1 to 2mm) and the front corners are radiused; both scare me! Any advice as to the best way to open such panels on injected styrene kits would be much appreciated. Cheers, David M in Oz

Thanks Kristjan for your prompt response. I contacted Special Hobby and received the following: thank you for contacting us. The gun on the deck is retractable and the artist decided to pain the u-boot with the gun out. But it would have been too difficult to actually make it that way, so we made the kit with the gun in. Unfortunately we don't sell the gun separately. So...the question is now: does anyone make (or have drawings for) a 20mm Madsen AA gun?

Special Hobby's Vesikko box art shows her in splinter camouflage and with a deck gun. The instructions make no mention of the latter so: 1. Did she have one? 2. If so...what was it and 3. Does anyone make one in 1/72? TIA, David in Oz

DC, Having made two props for a pair of 1/16 scale wind wagons and enjoyed the process I would be happy to make you a two blader. Scoot me a copy of the PSL pages and I will take a crack...ready for the December APMA meet if you are quick! Cheers, DM

Peter Lewis's book also frequently notes the overall and trim colours for the entrants he mentions that helpfully supplement the Flight list. There are even a few that have been kitted with their 1949 NAR colours. The ones I have found so far include: Miles Gemini (1/72 Croco Models) Benes Mraz BE550 Bibi (1/72 Kora Wings) Sea Fury (1/48 AMG with bands but with incorrect serial?) Balliol (1/72 Special Hobby) There may be more and there is also the Oxford Diecast DH Hornet mentioned above A surprising number of the entrant types have been produced as kits. According to Scalemates (not always the most reliable) he only ones that haven't been done in recent memory seem to be: Miles Mercury Parnall Heck Blackburn B2 GAL Cygnet Globe Swift Goodyear GA2 Duck All the rest have been available in one form or another.

Flight also published a short article (July 21st 1949, p75) on the background and colours to be carried. It said in part: "It is typical of the extremely thorough organisation of the Races that the eleven colours are explicitly specified by their numbers in the British Standards Institution scale No. 381C, 1948. Competitors are advised to use paint specially made for such purposes by the well-known aircraft-finishes manufacturers; it can be easily removed after the race without damaging the finish beneath." Sadly Flight then fail to note the numbers and their list uses generic names for the colours as listed in Zephyr's post. Their list of colours is: Red Black Violet Yellow Green Light Green Orange White Blue Dark Brown Brown My earliest copy of BS 381C is dated 1964 and has lots of Blues, Greens, Yellows, Reds and Browns and even has a couple of Oranges and Violets. For example there are nineteen greens identified by number and by name ("No 217 Sea Green, No 280 Verdigris Green, etc, etc). I am guessing that the colours are identified similarly in the 1948 edition, but hoping that it may have used the more generic names given in the list. If anyone has a copy of BS 381 1948 and could take a look to see if there are any obvious colours to match the list it would be much appreciated. Failing that I guess I will just take a punt and use something that looks 'right' from the 1964 edition's range. TIA, David in Oz

Fabulous, many thanks Zephyr, exactly what I was after. Was looking for some Proctor schemes and now fancy G-AIHD on the basis that overall pale blue with orange and violet bands will offend many sensibilities...including my own.

Hi Steve, Much appreciated! I look forward to any results...it is an obscure topic and request...especially from Down Under so any help will be gratefully received. David in Oz

Does anyone out there in BM land know what colours were used for the bands applied to almost all the entrants in the British 1949 National races organized by the RAC? Some appear to have single colours (eg the Spitfires), others had two colours (eg the light a/c). Google seems to think that the American Nationals were the only event that year. However, I assume it was a condition of entry and that here is probably a record somewhere.... TIA David in Oz

Thanks Lazy8, I broadly agree that the narrow floats were the first fitment. I have the Speed Seekers book and the image of the part built prototype on page 406 seems to be the only image I can find that shows the floats both out of the water AND directly from in front or behind. All the rest show them in 3/4 or side view, making accurate assessment of the width essentially impossible. However, the port float in the p406 image (which has been reproduced widely) is close enough to 'square on' to determine the ratio between the height of the float and its width, by my measure this is at (or very close to) 1:1. The various published drawings seem to agree and show them with their height and widths either equal or close enough for our purposes. The Atelier Noix floats vary slightly in width (two slim ones at 7.0 and 7,25mm wide and two fat ones at 8.7 and 8.85mm wide) giving h/w ratios of 1.06 - 1.09 and 1.32 - 1.34 respectively. I suspect that, just as the wing spans was different, they too were different side for side, to offset torque and aero effects. At least one drawing by Robert Hirsch in La Fanatique shows the floats with slightly different widths, i.e. with slim to port and fat to starboard. SBS's scale somewhere in the middle at an h/w around 1.2. I am still mystified as to when and why the "fat" floats were added. However, the "slim" AN floats seem to be on the money and thus my inclination is to build mine as the prototype with them and the original rudder.

The long OOP Atelier Noix 1/48 kit of the M.33 provides two sets of floats. They have the same basic shape except that one pair are slimmer than the other. I surmise that the "fat" set are an early version, the "slim" set being a refined version and thus likely to be those used in the Schneider event. Alternately I surmise that the "slim" set were early and not buoyant enough and were replaced by the "fat" set. My kit has no instructions and I understand that they were in Japanese, so (at least to me) unreadable. None of my Schneider or Macchi references mention a change in the floats. The SBS 1/72 seems to have just the "slim" set... Can anyone clarify if and when the different floats were carried?

Does anyone know what the trim and registration colour was on this Proctor in the late 40s/early 50s? Overall colour was reportedly red and it may or may not have been in that scheme between being demobbed in 1946 and being crated for shipping to Oz. It passe through a number of hands in that time including: Air Taxis Ltd at Kenley Air Taxis (Croydon) Ltd Skytravel Ltd Aikman Airways E. W. Cox R. J. Jones East Anglia Flying Services Ltd...which subsequently became Chanel Airways

What is small, yellow, hairy and lives on dead beatles? Yoko Ono

Thanks Gentlemen, Wingsy it is!

Any recommendations (or rubishing) about the Fine Molds, Special Hobby, Wingsy, Classic Airframes or TC Berg 1/48 scale A6M4 'Claudes'? And any suggestions where i might find one of the latter?

Can anyone recommend book or online references covering the colour schemes worn by french Navy contre torpilleurs between say 1905 anf 1925?

G'day Peter, Several sources: RB Motion (all metal (aluminium), wide range, excellent products and service and Rob Bentley is a good guy. Postage from US to Oz can be expensive) Top Studio (all metal (some steel, some brass, some aluminium), massive range, fairly widely available both here in Oz and from the usual outlets in Asia i.e. HobbyEasy, HobbySearch, etc)) Hobby Design (as for Top studio) Tuner Model Manufactory (aka TMM or T2M, long out of production but occasionally remnants pop up on Evilbay or Yahoo Japan) All four have nuts, bolts, screws, etc and AN fittings for hoses, etc. PM me if you have any difficulties. David M

See Here...and they also do the Spyder... https://uscp-ua.com/index.php?route=product/product&path=63_72&product_id=797

I have been trying to contact Luis Vargas regarding an order that seems to be very delayed. So far there has been no response to emails, PM via FaceBook or Ebay. I am hoping he is OK...has anyone else had any issues or know how else to contact him? DM in Oz