Dave Lennox

I appreciate the assistance.

At my local IPMS club yearly gift exchange, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I received a Sword 1/72 Tarpon 1. While I had never considered purchasing one prior, I found that the escort carrier HMS Arbiter, the ship my father served on in WWII, sailed from Vancouver in April 1944 on her maiden voyage with Tarpon 1s of 853 Squadron RN aboard. I haven't been able to find any photos of 853 Squadron Tarpons. If anyone has any photos or even the squadron codes for 853 I'd really appreciate seeing them. Thanks in advance. By the way, dad was an RCN stoker while HMS Arbiter was a Royal Navy ship with British officers and a commonwealth crew. https://www.royalnavyresearcharchive.org.uk/ESCORT/ARBITER.htm

4 Struts: http://404squadron.com/images/gallery/PL42932.jpg 3 Struts: http://404squadron.com/images/gallery/PL41008.jpg

I recently purchased the Airfix Lancaster B.II. and, while it's a very nice kit in my opinion, I noticed that there were four support struts on the engine exhaust collectors. I pulled out the Airfix Beaufighter X to check the Hercules exhaust collector supports in that kit which had only three supports. Can anyone tell me if there was a mod that would have been incorporated at some point in time that changed from three to four supports or was it a case of a sub-variant of the Hercules exhaust collector installation? I ask because I came across a photo of a Beaufighter with four support struts (based on the angle between the two visible struts).

As I understand, Sir Sam Hughes the mercurial coordinator of the Canadian expeditionary force in 1914 sent Lieutenant Janney south of the border with a fistful of money with instructions to come back with an aircraft suitable for military operations. Due to mechanical difficulties, Janney just managed to meet the ship carrying the expeditionary force in the St. Lawrence river and the aircraft was hoisted aboard. Apparently that was the last time it flew as it spent the sea voyage as deck cargo which surely was not conducive to further serviceability. It was unceremonially dumped on Salisberry (spelling?) plain and left to rot. Canadian military aircraft aquisition procedures have not improved much since then!