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TonyOD

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Everything posted by TonyOD

  1. Can you elaborate on the story you put in your gallery post, that this a/c shot down an unmanned runaway Auster? How could a prop plane be unmanned? Did the pilot die of natural causes in mid-air or something?
  2. I feel it could be the basis of a caption competition. "Have you f@rted?"
  3. They are indeed the "big three" in my stash, all quite different in character but essentially giving the same end result! I have a couple of Tamiya Mk I's and a few ICM Mk VIII/IX's but haven't got to them yet. Funnily enough, I read a chapter of his book last night - I've just picked up Special Hobby's "D-Day Fleet Eyes" Seafire Mk III and the airframe I plan to build belonged to the NAS that he commanded on D-Day.
  4. There you go. I only fret about the codes a little simply because I'd like it to appear as it left the deck from Eagle. Once landed in Malta the slipper tank would've been taken off (or even more likely jettisoned en route), and I think I read somewhere that one pair of cannon was removed. I notice the codes are a little bit smaller on BR126 but given all the lines are straight only light surgery would be needed to put them right. I've come across the following two captioned photos (one referred to above) purporting to be P/O Smith in the cockpit of BR126. Well, at least one of the captions is wrong - they can't both have been taken on 9th May, as the aircraft is painted differently in each picture. I suspect the "BOB'S THE BOSS" picture was taken on Eagle with the new paint scheme applied - note absence of exhaust and cannon staining (though the one in the second picture looks decidedly worn for an aircraft only two months old - pictures I've seen of Spitfires being lifted aboard Wasp show them all but factory fresh). "Bob" was possibly New Zealander F/O Robert J. Sim, also of 185 Squadron, the same R J Sim who force-landed in BR126 and was killed exactly a year later.
  5. When I went back to doing Spits some six months ago, I sore to myself that this what I'd do. Since then I've accumulated some two dozen 1/48 Spitfire/Seafire kits, including doubles and even triples of some (four Eduard XVIe's). There have been several times where I've said to myself "Right, I have everything I need now...", then I see something at an unmissable price or whatever and... well, you know how it goes. I've said it before and I've said it again, there's a doctoral thesis called The Psychology of the Stash just waiting to be written. Yeah I can relate to that. There's a small matter of a couple of 1/35 vehicles that I've picked up though, they may be the start of another branch of modelling for me.
  6. I have those books too, recommended by @Troy Smith and I picked them up for a song. Great references. I also visited both Malta and Gib - not in uniform, the former on a business trip, the latter on holiday - fascinating places both. I guess what is now the airport that you have to cross to get into Gibraltar was the airfield during the war.
  7. I will be quite happy to abuse my hosting privileges and and shut down any canowormery! 😉
  8. It's been quiet on deck this evening, no finishers and the only new WIP thread is my own, I certainly won't be making a special trip to the Build List just for that! Hope you're all having fun.
  9. Well thus far I've found The @Troy Smith Method very reliable - used lighter fuel for my oil wash, super! And I had planned to stick exhaust/cannon/oil staining over the top of everything. We'll see how it goes.
  10. Doesn't apply before 1st May, shipmate. Welcome aboard with your icon of naval aviation.
  11. @pigsty @Dr. Quack - many thanks. The oil wash has matted it down a bit but it would probably benefit from a matt coat. I'm a little terrified of wrecking the build at this late stage so may practise on a scrapper first! Cheers Tony
  12. So… I’ve been toying with the idea of committing to a third build for the Salty Sea Dog for a few weeks. I thought I would do an Air-Sea Rescue Spitfire Mk Vb, but I discounted that fairly early on as, funky yellow codes apart, it’s another Day Fighter Scheme plane, I’ve done one of those recently. I also considered a French Aéronavale Seafire Mk 15 in EDSG over grey, but I’m not sure I’m ready for another Special Hobby bruiser just yet. At the back of my mind, though, lurked the idea of one of the carrier-launched Spitfires that was delivered to the besieged and beleaguered island of Malta during the 1942 “club run” operations. I’ve been reading a bit about these and it was a truly exceptional episode in the history of military aviation. However I was a bit wary given the sizeable can of worms that seems to get cracked open every time the subject of the colour of these birds is brought up. The airframe I’ve decided to go with is Spitfire Mk Vc (Trop) s/n BR126, whose story was remarkable even for a club run Spit. BR126 was one of the Vc’s transported to the Med by the American carrier USS Wasp for Operation Bowery, the second such operation to involve this ship, following a personal appeal by Churchill to Roosevelt. BR126 was embarked upon Wasp at Clydebank on 3rd May 1942, at the time painted in Temperate Sea Scheme and bearing the codes 3*X. All the Bowery Spitfires were fitted with 90 gallon “slipper” fuel tanks to give them the necessary range to reach Malta. The fuel feeds for these tanks had proven very unreliable during previous ops, to the extent that a the engineer who had designed them was despatched to the Med to sort the problem out. Sure enough, on taking off from Wasp on 9th May 1942, Canadian P/O Jerry Smith found that his auxiliary tank fuel feed was malfunctioning; there was no way he would reach Malta without it. The Spitfires were not equipped for carrier deck landing, having no arrester hook. The logical, and sensible(?) thing to do would be to ditch the aircraft in the sea and wait to be picked up; this, indeed, was what the pilots had been advised to do if encountering problems once airborne. However Smith, not wanting to consign a brand-new aircraft to the depths, somehow managed to land the plane back on deck (on the second attempt) with only a few feet to spare, an extraordinary feat of airmanship for which the American pilots on board Wasp unofficially awarded him his US Navy pilot’s wings. Smith asked for a replacement tank to be fitted and permission to continue alone, but this was denied. Accounts differ on whether Smith returned to Gibraltar with Wasp or flew there from Wasp the day after his famous carrier landing. The caption on the following photograph suggests he flew there, but I'm not sure of its provenance. There is an account of the landing here, although the bit about Smith flying on directly to Malta is incorrect. https://www.flightjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/No_Tailhook_Spitfire.pdf Jerry Smith being feted by American colleagues on board Wasp after his landing, his hand on his new US Navy wings: During its short stay in Gibraltar BR126 was repainted in Dark Mediterranean Blue over Sky Blue. With this new paint scheme and now bearing the codes GL*E for 185 Squadron (though see below), Smith and his aircraft were embarked on HMS Eagle, from which he flew to Malta on 18th May with 16 other Spitfires as part of Operation LB. The reason I’ve chosen this airframe, apart from the fact that blue is my favourite colour, is that it neatly sidesteps pretty much all those “what kind of blue, when, where and how applied” questions. My main references are The Spitfire Story and Spitfire: The Documentary History by Dr Alfred Price and the relevant Colour Conundrums articles by Paul Lucas (I am hugely indebted to @2996 Victor for kitting me out with a copy of the latter), which I hope we can all agree are pretty solid. The kit I’m using is one from Eduard’s Spitfire Vc “Per Aspera Ad Astra” Dual Combo. Now, here it gets a little bit murky. One of the OOB options is identical in every respect to the BR136 as illustrated in Colour Conundrums – same-ish colours (although "Sky" rather than Sky Blue undersides?), same yellow GL*E codes in the same style – except for the serial number, which is shown as a different aircraft, BR294. The Spitfire production data on airhistory.com presents the following for the two airframes: BR126 FF 25-3-42 8MU 28-3-42 RAF Abbotsinch 12-4-42 USS Wasp 3-5-42 flown off Wasp but landed back 9-5-42 '3-X' returned to Gib. flown off Eagle to Malta 18-5-42 185Sq 'GL-O' 18-5-42 f/l due glycol leak CB 15-6-42 FSgt RJ Sim safe SOC 31-7-42 FH39:30 BR126 First flew 24/3/42, to 8 Maintenance Unit 28/3/42, to RAF Abbotsinch [Glasgow] 12/4/42, loaded onto USS Wasp 3/5/42, flown off Wasp but landed back 9/5/42 coded ‘3-X’, returned to Gibraltar. Flown off HMS Eagle to Malta 18/5/42, to 185 Squadron coded ‘GL-O’ 18/5/2, forced landing due to glycol leak, beyond repair 15/6/42, Flight Sergeant R J Sim safe [later KIA over the Channel with 616 Squadron, 15/6/43 - a year to the day after his forced landing on Malta], struck off charge 31/7/42, 39:30 flying hours. BR294 FF 17-4-42 8MU 17-4-42 USS Wasp 3-5-42 flown off Wasp to Malta 9-5-42, to 185Sq 'GL-E' 30-4-42 Crashed on landing Hal Far 2-7-42 FSgt DG Reid inj SOC 3-7-42 FH55:10 BR294 First flew 17/4/42, to 8 Maintenance Unit 17/4/42, flown off USS Wasp to Malta 9/5/42, to 185 Squadron code ‘GL-E’ 30/4/42, crashed on landing Hal Far 2/7/42, Flight Sergeant D G Reid injured, struck off charge 3/7/42, 55:10 flying hours. …all of which would suggest that BR126 wasn’t coded GL*E, but GL*O… and that GL*E were the codes on BR294, which met its end nearly a month before BR126 after flying from USS Wasp on the same morning in early May, the difference being of course that BR294 made it to Malta, which BR126 didn’t, not just yet anyway. Ordinarily that would be the end of the matter for me: BR126 was GL*O… but for the existence of these photographs of the two Spitfires after their respective demises – BR126 quite clearly carrying the codes GL*E, and to my eye at least BR294 looking more like GL*F. The only quibble in all this is exactly when BR126 received its codes; when BR294 flew from Wasp it would have carried a “number*X” code, the same as BR126, and must have received its 185 Squadron “GL” code on arrival in Malta. Lucas suggests that BR126 already had its “GL” codes when it flew from Eagle. There are a few possibilities here: Gibraltar ground crew were aware of what codes were now needed on BR126 and they painted them on before it was embarked on Eagle. Lucas is wrong and in fact BR126 flew from Eagle to Malta without codes, receiving them on arrival. BR126 was originally coded GL*O but was given a new GL*E code sometime before its demise in June. The data on airhistory is just wrong. This is the bit I'm going to have to chew over. Anyway, this is how I plan to model BR126: how it looked as it left Eagle’s deck. probably GL codes, all four cannon, 90 gallon slipper tank, nice new paint job as described by Mr Lucas (who helpfully supplied Vallejo paint references – I may be veering away from my faithful Humbrol enamels for this one), very minimal weathering. I can make the serial number decals work – I have the “2”, the “9” upside down will give me a “6”, and with a sharp blade and a steady hand I hope to extract a “1” from the “4” – twice! However, BR126's s/n's are rather ""blockier" in appearance, I may have to do something with that. If you’ve made the time to sit and read this stream of consciousness, I’m grateful. Hopefully I’ll get onto this soon, once SSDGB builds nos. 1 (WIP) and 2 (yet to start, but should be a relatively quick build), and another couple of projects are out of they way. There should be time, and hopefully not at the cost of either of my two planned Reconnaissance GB builds. Thanks for looking in! Tony
  13. I'm a brush painter starting to make tentative steps into weathering. On my current build I put a coat of Klear over the enamel paints, then the decals, then another coat of Klear, then an enamel panel line wash, more Klear and then a "dot" oil wash, which has added a bit of something. If I wanted to do a bit of pastel weathering on this should I put another coat of Klear between the two, or will the pastel happily sit on the oils once fully dried? cheers Tony
  14. Evening all, here is your Day 24 roundup Two new WIP's today, both of which bring something fresh and new to the GB - yes, even with the huge number of builds of all shapes and sizes going on, it's possible! So, thank you to @flashlight with his deep-sea Shinkai sub (something like four different ones in the GB now), and welcome to @Mick Drover with his USMC Skyhawk. Meanwhile, two over the line and turning blue: @airfixpeter's folded up 1/48 Lynx, and @TEMPESTMK5's smart'n'shiny T6 - again, both fantastic subjects in their very different ways. I'm fighting the Build List on three fronts now - new WIPS, started WIPS and finished builds - none sunk yet, happily. If I've got my counting right (usually I don't go above two hands) today's numbers are: 156 builds 108 underway 15 finished Cheers Tony
  15. Good to see this one up and running, whatever SBD might stand for!
  16. Well that's an interesting subject alright. Reminds me of something I'd see on The Man From Atlantis back in the 70s!
  17. Thanks, very informative. I can get said US made bombs in resin, and will probably try to scratch build the brackety things that are not brackets. What makes you say that? Wouldn't this have been RAF desert camo scheme? cheers
  18. Don't know if it's helpful but I've done a 1/48 Eduard early Mk I recently, it had the early "pole" type antenna without the plate at the bottom, I will have the plat left over in the spares box, you'd be welcome to it.
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