TonyOD

Blimey. The plot thickens. Same unit, same type, the month before X7394 crashed. yet another roundel configuration. Guess anything is possible...

Could be! I can't seem to turn up anything others, one showing upper wings would be helpful as I have a discussion going elsewhere re. ehich type of roundels; Xtradecal sheet says type B (low vis) which doesn't seem right for 1946 (C under wings, C1 fuselage).

@Graham Boak @Work In Progress I fear I may have wasted your time... I've ordered the Xtradecal sheet but it hasn't arrived yet. I was looking at the rather undersized images on their website where it looks like low-vis on the top. Just pulled up some larger images on eBay and there it is... C/C1 all along. Apologies, my eyesight isn't what it was. Definitely not D though! Edit... hang on... further examination... Second edit... nope, I was looking at the underside. Definitely low vis for the top, they're saying

To quote the bard, ay, there's the rub; and I'd be surprised if more than one photograph of X7394 exists. And if that's the case I'll be glad because it cost me a tenner to download a high resolution copy of the one I've got . 1946, white paint job, type C sort of sings to me.

It's true though isn't it? Real world: "this purported scale model kit of an aircraft of which there is plenty photographic documentation is laughably inaccurate and a wholly inadequate representation of the real thing". Modelling world: "this is a canvas for your scratch building skills and an opportunity to show that you are a proper modeller." It's a joke, really...

Thanks - according that bastion of accuracy Wikipedia Type C roundels were "not used on upper surfaces 1942-1945" (source: SAM article on heavy bombers) but were used on "light surfaces [and it doesn't get any lighter than white] July 1942-1947". Just been looking at some late war Coastal Command planes in lightish grey and they carry type C on the upper surfaces and C1 on the fuselage. This a/c was built in 1941 and was an air ambulance with 782 NAS on and off until its untimely demise in August 1946. I say on and off because even before it crashed once and for all it was the subject of various mishaps, last recorded repair May 1944 The type D roundels on the model certainly don't look right, but the low-vis type B ones don't look right either, even though that combination was commonly used. I think maybe because I've just built a FAA Mosquito, also 1946, whose upper and fuselage roundels were matching type C/C1. It will end up being one of these "best guess" situations I suppose. I wonder where Hannants/Xtradecal got their information? (Just realised the other build also omits the extended door configuration that X7394 had to allow easier loading of stretchers... and the red cross on the fuselage is much too small... so I won't use it as a benchmark for accuracy.)

Left school at 17 with some early and mediocre A Levels, no desire to go to uni, spent six months as a penpusher with the local fire service before getting a job as a trainee export salesman which was the start of 25 years climbing the slippery corporate ladder to eventually be a sales director. (Nowadays I work with special needs kids in a school, which is a far more rewarding way to spend my time).

The prospect of five weeks off work, finally being able to get away for a few days with the mrs and some quality time on mountains that have been strangers for too long. Plus a bit of mucking about with little plastic planes.

Doesn't it though...

Well, it's a minority you'll find me in too. I remember Thatcher draping her hankie across a tailfin to express her disapproval. Anything that riled that nasty old witch gets my vote. With best wishes from the Notts coalfields...

Hi - I'm researching a particular aircraft for an upcoming project: De Havilland DH.89 Dominie (Dragon Rapide) X7394, which served as an air ambulance with the Royal Navy but sadly crashed on Scafell Pike in the Lake District in 1946. I have an excellent side-on photograph of the aircraft, but there's nothing available from above or below. My question relates to the roundels on the upper surfaces: the Xtradecal sheet I'm going to use has blue/red low visibility roundels of the type I'm familiar with from WW2 planes and would seem consistent with the fuselage roundels that have a narrow white circle. I've turned up another nicely built example that has blue/white/red upper roundels that don't seem consistent with the fuselage roundels to my eye, but I don't have any expertise on this (plus the red crosses inside as opposed to outside the roundels, but that's another question). I'm not here to cast aspersions on other people's builds, but can anyone give me a pointer on which might be the right way to go? Many thanks

I was about to say that'll be a hell of a paint job, then I saw the decals! That cockpit looks superb.

Just showed the Wessex-in-making to my thoroughly underwhelmed wife. Told her about the various issues with the kit. She said, well if it's faulty, why don't you just send it back for a refund?

please we're British (arf)

@Dave Fleming Thanks, Dave, that's really interesting. I'm looking at building X7394, which was indeed painted white (though I've seen examples of RAF D.H. Dominie and Express air ambulances of the era painted in camo schemes), and did indeed carry the red cross on the fuselage and upper and lower surfaces. I hadn't realised this, I have a really good photo of the aircraft side-on but nothing from other angles. I've ordered the relevant Xtradecal sheet but it hasn't arrived yet, closer inspection of the images on Hannants' website shows the upper/lower red crosses parked at the very bottom of the decal sheet. Interesting about the VC10 - I guess the letter of the law with the Geneva Convention says that no weapons of any kind can be carried on board. Fair to say no combatants or weaponry on board X7394 when she met her untimely demise.

...and if you don't, Italeri might

In 1/72 scale? Do you have superhuman vision?

which is in Essex

Hi, I realise I'm looking at a very old thread here and I hope you're still around! I'm researching X7394, the RN Dominie you mentioned (crashed on Scafell Pike in the Lake District in 1946 with five fatalities sadly). I'm interested in the Geneva Convention's take on use of red crosses on military aircraft, any chance you could point me towards your source on this? Many thanks Tony

Blimey this is all a bit advanced. It's going to look amazing.

Thanks for taking the time. I feel like I'm at war with this one now. And it will not beat me.

Beautiful job. there's no such thing as "just" a hurricane though!

I like that a lot, interesting subject.

Got the decals on, apart from replacement Buzby who will go on this evening. I’ve used a mixture from the OOB Italeri sheet (very nicely printed) and Modeldecal sheet no. 96, which offers a more comprehensive range of stencils. I found it helpful to cut the ones around the windows in half at opposite corners and apply the halves separately, trying to wrestle those flimsy little things around a raised and masked window was only going to end in tears. Those serial numbers are rather too large. It was all looking a bit patchy and uneven what with the various bits of touching up, but a coat of Klear has helped even it all out. Final pair of errant antenna pylons done away with, you’d never know they were there. I haven’t made a very good job of the canopy fit, the way I glued the instrument panel in meant it pressed against the centre console between the seats so the nose was tilted very slightly forward. Be reyt, I thought, but it’s a bit off. I don’t (i.e. can’t) do weathering but anyway every pic I’ve seen of this a/c has shown it as clean as a whistle, I’m going to have a go at the panel lines with a dark grey wash though. This close-up photography is brutal, isn't it?

“Cad” is a term we don’t use enough nowadays, particularly as the world seems to be full of ‘em.