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Biggles81

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Everything posted by Biggles81

  1. So strictly speaking then not a 3 Squadron aircraft at Butterworth per the Revell blurb. My copy of Mottram and Mason is in storage in Australia so I could not check there but if it had existed then it would have been in the bible. That said I thought the Revell interpretation of the 3 Squadron markings seemed somewhat odd but in this case I think the 77 Surfins were not at the top of their game either with the stars on the rudder. It also reminds me that I should have checked Motty's website. Sure enough there it is at Williamtown (not Butterworth): and what it normally looked like:
  2. Its an odd scheme A3-49 in the lo-viz grey scheme but with full colour 3 Sqn markings. I have not been able to find a single photo of it in that scheme. Plenty with 77 Sqn and 2 OCU though, mind you the 77 Sqn photos are post 3 Sqn converting to Hornets so it could have happened. Can be seen here: https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/revellations/revell-1-32-mirage-iiie-rd-o-kit-number-03919-t4437.html
  3. Or at least Sqnldr Holdsworth’s A77-880 which fired 16 rounds according to the 78 Wing A50 (or 15 as reported in another document but not ten per the Airfix narrative). Unfortunately neither the 78 Wing or 75 Squadron diaries record the serial for Fleming’s jet which arrived 1 minute too late to engage the Auster. If someone has access to Jim Fleming’s logbook the second Meteor could be easily identified assuming someone like @Magpie22 hasn’t noted it already.......
  4. They could start a theme and release another boxing of the Meteor with the approriate 75 Squadron markings from the Auster debacle. Then all we need is a new tool Auster and Wirraway in 1/48 scale of course.
  5. yes they have included the other external mirror type too.
  6. The 14 Sqn option was in one of the Classic Airframes Venom FB1 boxings and sometimes the decal sheets come up on eBay separately for sale.
  7. Max further to my comments I think some of these timings are wrong - The Dutch did not capture Malang until 26 Aug 1947 during the first police action. Pemuda and BKR units seized the airfield on 18 Sep 45 and made an inventory of the base which mentions the 4 Sansikisin (possible Ki-61s) but aside from that not other mention is made. Certainly in September 1945 the TNI made a number of Ki-43s and Willows serviceable and eventually transferred them to Maguwo but most of the aircraft seized at Malang (Bugis) were reported as U/S and unrepairable. I have never seen reports of Oscars being transferred to Kemayoran (Jakarta) and this seems well outside of the stated roll of the RAPWI Commission.
  8. Just a late add as I am surfing wikipedia during class time - I just noticed that according to the Wikipedia entry (not a primary source I know), that the official IJAAF designation for the Ki-61 is San-shiki-Sentohki ichi gata apparently. It is a stretch but I now wonder if that indeed provides a tentative identification that the four Sansikisin mentioned in Indonesian records as being at Malang when that airfield was seized are in fact Ki-61s. If so they would have received crudely overpainted Merah Putih roundels when seized but they are not recorded as being flown by the BKR/TKR/AURI in any of their histories and these are quite meticulous if indeed dry and repetitive for anyone who has read them. PS. I have never been able to find a photo of a Ki-61 in AURI markings, except a few models so continue to be doubtful.
  9. Hmm fascinating info but raises more questions than it answers. I am curious as to why the Repatriation of Allied Prisoners of War and Internees (RAPWI) Commissioner was collecting Japanese aircraft from around the archipelago, considering the danger the primary task involved during the early period of the independence struggle when many of these facilities were under the control of Pemuda and BKR units that had less than stellar discipline as witnessed by the death of Brigadier Mallaby in Surabaya in October 1945 on a RAPWI task. Only yesterday I was back in the library at the Sekolah Staf dan Komando TNI looking through the official histories of the TNI-AU and Maguwo Airbase for more clues. This reminded me of something I wrote a few years back which may and I stress may indicate the presence of Tonys at Bugis (Malang) with the reference to 4 Sansikisin but there is only one brief mention and then they disappear from the records and I have never been able to correlate the Indonesian name (Sansikisin) with a specific Japanese type (it could also be an A6M variant for example). Certainly the Pemuda and BKR painted Merah Putih roundels on anything they found even aircraft in piles of wreckage such as the Jakes and Petes in Surabaya so perhaps some wrecked K-61s were so finished. They even painted up a Mavis in Surabaya and a Helen they flew at Maguwo with Japanese volunteer aircrew but the former never flew and the latter crashed on its first test flight. The most commonly flown aircraft by the early TNI was the Ki-9 Spruce/Willow along with some use of a handful of Ki-36s and one or two Ki-51 along with some Ki-79s. A Ki-36 flew a TNI rep to Kemayoran Jakarta to meet with Allied RAPWI reps for example which can be seen in a film on Youtube. The presence of Ki-61s at Palembang is highly likely and not surprising given the 33rd Sentai in Sumatera at wars end (reportedly, I do not have the expertise in IJAAF units to confirm the reliability of the information) but the BKR never seized airfields in Sumatera to the same extent they took control of key airfields in Java at various times including Andir temporarily (Bandung), Bugis (Malang), Surabaya again temporarily until seized by Indian Army units in late 1945 and Maguwo (Yogyakarta). Anyway here was my conclusions from a few years ago: "Sejarah (History) TNI Angkatan Udura Jilid 1 1945-1949 and Awal Kedirgantaraan Di Indonesia - Perjuangan AURI 1945-1950 (Early Aviation in Indonesia - The Struggle of AURI) only list them as acquiring 11 Ki-43 Oscars (which they call Hayabusha, the Japanese name) and 4 types they name Sansikisin. These could and I stress could have been Tonys. A lot of their other aircraft names were derived from the Japanese engine name so that might provide a clue. A good example of this is the bomber they call a Sakai. It was actually a Bristol Blenheim Mark IV captured by the Japanese and reengined with Sakai radials for test flying at Andir (Bandung), then captured by the Indonesians after the surrender. They never report having flown any of these fighters and only one or two of their captured trainers and bombers (the Cureng which was the Willow IIRC and a Sonia plus the Ki-36s). All aircraft are reported to have been seized at Bugis airfield, (now Abdul Rachman Saleh Air Base) near Malang, East Java. The Cureng and other bomber type were then operated from Maguwo, now Adi Sucipto at Yogya before being destroyed by the Dutch in air attacks. I suspect the Dutch intelligence on the orbat was flawed (hardly surprising), not helped by the fact the Baden Keamanan Rakyat (Peoples Security Force, forerunner to the TNI) modified the Japanese roundels on any airplane their could lay their hands on in the period between August and September 1945 to become the Merah Putih (Red and White of the Independence flag) as a sign of ownership. Their pilot training was rudimentary at best, in fact there is a classic line about the high rate of failure (mereka mengalami kegagalan) in the official history as untrained personnel attempted to fly the captured aircraft. Their actual aircrew were largely natives trained by the Dutch or Allies pre-1942 and remained very limited in number (less than a handful) until their flying school got up and running at Yogya much later."
  10. One thing I looked for was where the Japanese had Ki-61s at the end of the war when the BKR and Pemuda units started seizing their equipmnet. Best I could find in Indonesia was that there were some with the 33rd Sentai in Medan. The antecedents of the TNI-AU largely seized their operational airframes from Bugis and Maguwo (Malang and Yogyakarta) in Central and East Java which is of course a long way from Medan (North Sumatra) with an awful lot of allied occupied territory between them. I would be more inclined to believe the Indonesians siezed and even operated Ki-61s if there was an IJAAF unit equipped with them in Central or East Java in August 1945. Any thoughts from your research on Ki-61 unit locations? That said don’t underestimate the ingenuity and make do attitude of the early TNI-AU for instance they fitted a Blenheim with Japanese radial engines and operated it though the same period.
  11. I am currently serving with the TNI-AU and have had access to their official histories and their History Department. I have not been able to find any evidence of Ki-61s operated by them. One of the posts above I think references the raid carried out in the Dutch garrison at Ambawara on 29 July 1947 when they used two Willows and a Sonia. I also had a long discussion with the curator at their central museum on the subject as they have an Oscar and Sonia salvaged from Biak representing that period and again the Tony did not come up. I have heard that Dutch sources believed there were Ki-61s in Republican hands but I suspect it was inaccurate intelligence reports based in the fact that the TKR painted the Merah Putih roundel on any aircraft their found on former Japanese bases in Java that were subsequently found by the Allies when they reoccupied the NEI. If I get a few moments in the Library at work in the next few days I will have another look in their official history again but think it unlikely.
  12. Further to this great discussion if you are interested in A24-59 in Jan 1944 as you stated earlier and you want an authentic weapons load for it in Jan 44 you have the choice of the following per missions flown that month by that airframe: 14 Jan 1944 - 1 x Mk V and 1 x Mk XIII mine (sea mining missions in the East Indies) 16 Jan 1944 - same as above 20 Jan 1944 - same as above 26 Jan 1944 - 4 x 250lb Depth Charges (ASW patrol) 30 Jan 1944 - 4 x 250ln Depth Charges (ASW patrol) The aircraft then left for a 240 hourly service on 2 Feb 1944 at 1 FBMU Other aircraft in the squadron also regularly carried strike loads around this time of consisting of 6 x 250lb bombs, 2 x 500lb bombs, 20 x 20lb Frag and 10 x 30lb Incendaries. All this is available via the National Archives of Australia (www.naa.gov.au) in the 20 Sqn Unit History if you want to examine it further for more details.
  13. British presence in Java dated from about October 1945 into 1946 and included the destruction of Surabaya to suppress a particularly violent Indonesian nationalist uprising in November 1945. In the photo is at Kemajoran (the original airport in Batavia, now the Jakarta Expo Centre) then it is in the immediate post WWII period when Java was still under SEAC's responsibility.
  14. Of course it is worth pointing out that the plastic of the two kits is the same. In the HC2 boxing Italeri have added two sprues of antennas that go a long way towards updating the kit, but they did not change the cockpit interior and it is still analogue whereas for the Foxtrot and to my understanding the HC2A/4/6/6A have a glass cockpit. Unless Eduard or somebody does a correction its still a C on the inside with some D attributes (blades and intake filters) and a sprue full of updated antennas masquerading as an F.
  15. Yes Melbourne did too - though interestingly it seems the landing area retrained the non-slip gray whilst the remainder of the flight deck was Brunswick Green (I think the RN might have called it Deck Green?? but I cannot located my references related to this, I think they are so old they are hardcopies. Source of image: http://www.nepeannaval.org.au/Museum/Aircraft-Carriers/Images/HMAS MELBOURNE-2.jpg Late edit - Another forum had the references (although this does not answer the specific question re Korean War era decks but later 1960s and 70s deck colours): The deck green was BS4800 14C39 (no name) and the alternate BS381C 226 Medium Brunswick Green. Interestingly the same forum also quotes "Dark Admiralty Gray and Dark Sea Gray" as flight deck colours although these seem on further reading to be post the green deck period.
  16. Not wishing to stir things up but as they RAN followed RN practice I dug into the Australian archives. The same CB 3098(54) is listed for post war camouflage. I have seen references from the 60s which talk about Pewter Gray for decks generally and Brunswick Green for flight decks which can be seen in colour photos from at least the late 1950s into the late 60s or early 70s. But at the time of Korea, Dark Sea Grey would seem the best colour match for Non-slip dark grey. I have seen some references also cite US Neutral Grey (which is cited as a match for EDSG) as a good colour for RN flight decks.
  17. Very interesting and sadly with the somewhat ironic title “saving kitty hawaak p40” given subsequent events.
  18. No wonder I could not find it - things like SAAF Mustangs, SAAF P-51 and other possibly illogical combinations spat up nothing.
  19. Oh please please please do produce these (and the Wapiti) in 1/48 scale as promised. I’ll be up for a few.
  20. Aside from the Ceylon based Mark IIbs, the RAAF operated a single Mark 1 Trop (V7476, A60-1) for trials and in a Communications Unit throughout the war. Never saw action and was not a Singapore survivor as some references indicate as it arrived in Australia in mid-1941. I understand that all the British and Dutch Hurricanes in Singapore, Sumatra and Java were all Mark IIbs.
  21. Yes 1/48 Scout for me too..... Pretty please
  22. Ed, could you please explain the difference between the Aussie decals sold under the Novascale brand on eBay and the ones listed at Model Kits Online? My understanding is that they are one and same. Certainly the images of the products bears that out.
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