Jump to content

Wez

Gold Member
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    8,931

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Wez

    Did the Grumman F8F Bearcat ever flew with british colours..?

    in Aircraft Cold War

    Posted

    Just a thought....

    Didn't the Americans send one of most things to Farnborough for test and evaluation? I know that the Helldiver, Aircomet and Invader were present and painted in RAF/FAA standard schemes. So did the F8F make it too???

    Christian the Married

    Certainly a F7F Tigercat was tested either by Farnborough or Boscombe Down - not sure about the Bearcat though. I believe the Tigercat remained in Gloss Sea Blue but with British roundels/fin flashes.

    Wez

    Canberra PR9

    in Ready for Inspection - Aircraft

    Posted

    Good effort mate - well done! :speak_cool:

    Seems weird seeing it in anything but RAF markings though!

    Got a Matchbox kit to beat into submission (having made one donky's years ago), I wonder if I'm better off with the Xtrakit baby? Are Airfix gonna do one in 72nd?

    Thanks again for showing us.

    Wez

    Another Chinook question

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Fantastic shots of an HC2A or possibly one of the very late HC2's (ZH775-777). :speak_cool:

    A couple of gotcha's if making a ZA or ZD serialed HC2 -

    In the first photo the Radalt antenna mount (look at the left hand [aircraft's starboard] landing lamp and then look left of that). The first aerial you come to is the Radalt - it's a small patch antenna mounted on a plinth. On the ZH serialled cabs the plinth is circular, on the ZA and ZD serialled cabs it's box sectioned e.g. square(ish). You can see this again in the fifth photo - it's the one under the cockpit jettisonable door/aft of the chin window - not the one under the RESCUE arrow.

    On the forward pylon the optical sensors are mounted on plinths, on ZH's these have there corners nicely rounded off on ZA/ZD's they don't.

    On the fourth photo you get a nice view along the fuselage side and you can see where the top of the fuel tanks meet the fuselage sides abruptly - those small fairings along the top of the tank are typical of a ZH serialled cab. On ZA and ZD's (and possibly ZH775-777), there is a panel that blends the top of the tank into the fuselage more subtly - those smaller fairings are incorporated into that and are themselves less promenant. As you come back towards the rear of the tank/fuselage join just aft of and below the bubble window you can see a small dark panel with a fore and aft ridge outboard. This is a footplate painted in black non-slip paint. On ZA, ZD and possibly ZH775-777 this is built up into a box section.

    These excellent shots bueatifully illustrate the perils of applying what you see in the photo of one Wokka to another - there are so many variations! I've said it before and I'll say it again, these photo's only show the fit of that particular aircraft at that particular time and can't be applied fleet wide (although if the particular cab you're modelling has these mods on them the details in these photo's are an superb resource)! Get photos of the cab you're modelling, make sure they're contemperaneous (not sure it's a real word :hmmm: ), and then model it.

    Finally on the fourth picture, as you look at the fuselage side where the ramp opens you'll see four drain pipes in a line - these were the ones I mentioned in an earlier post about Granby cabs and paint being stripped off - the ARTF never lasted long here!

    Thanks to SniperUK for posting the pictures - fantastic!

    Wez

    Very disappointed

    in Magazines & Books

    Posted

    Got all excited this morning (must get out more), three modelling mags dropped through my letter box, grabbed a brew and had a quick scan through them, SAMI, SAM and Model Aircraft Monthly, but was very disappointed in the contents, apart from the Soviet Bostons, Boston III Airfile and Hurricane articles in MAM, there was nothing else to interest me. Have to wait for Military In Scale as that seldom disappoints.

    Cheers

    Den

    Unlike yourself Den I found plenty in all of the magazines to keep me interested - you failed to mention the articles on Norwegian F5's and German F104's in MAM which I find interesting however, you mention the Soviet Bostons which frankly I'm idifferent to - I don't think I'll be rushing to read that particular article :sleeping:

    It just goes to show that these magazines are trying to cater to a very diverse readership with wildly differing interests. I'd have been dissapointed if there was absolutely nothing in all three magazines but luckiliy for me this is not the case.

    Just go to show its horses for courses. Next month it could be the other way round and there's not much for me but plenty for you! Could be worse - what if there were no magazines?

    Wez

    F18 - yet more questions

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    I was planning some future builds, including some submissions for the forthcoming Naval Group build. Amongst these 38(!) were some Hornets, 2 Es, 2 Fs, 2 Ds and these Cs:- VFA-146, the All American Bug, VFA-192s CAG Bird from 1998, and the CAG bird from VFA-151, which adds the skulls on the inside tails and a black and yellow sunburst on the outside like the Phantoms used to have. Not sure whether to do the 1999 version or the new one though

    Some none CAG and CO birds look quite striking, VFA-151, VFA-94 and VF-2 come to mind, but I mainly prefer the colour birds

    Two of these will go into the group build, along with 2 Super Hornets, A Crusader, a Corsair II, a Vigilante, 3 Tomcats, 4 Phantoms and 2 Skyhawks. Ambititious? Yes. Bonkers? Absolutely!

    Joel

    I couldn't agree more! Definitely bonkers! :D

    Good luck with the project, thanks for all of your help.

    Wez

    F18 - yet more questions

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Hi Wez,

    Glad I could provide a bit of help. 163777, when she was with the Blue Diamonds, is an option in the 1/32 Academy kit, as the "All American Bug". She has the the blue and yellow flames replaced by the Stars and Stripes, which came being at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom. The instructions tell you to leave off the bird slicers and use the old style gun vents. I'm not sure whether #777 has them now though, but in 2002, she had a clean nose. Hasegawa released an edition of their 1/48 Hornet with both of VFA-146's marking styles in 2003.

    The 1/72 Academy Hornet looks very nice though, and gives a nice looking representation of current F/A-18s.

    Joel

    Thanks again Joel,

    Could be #777 then although the skull of the VFA-151 tail marking is striking even if it's not colourful.

    Wez

    F18 - yet more questions

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Surely the easiest way is to do a search of the proposed a/c on airliners. net or jet photos. Does the decal sheet not come with a decal placement drawing?

    Thanks for the tip re airliners.net - I hadn't thought of that! Don't know about jet photos - never heard of that one, I shall google it.

    As for looking at the decal placement sheet :doh: - why didn't I think of that? Oh, I know, because I learnt long ago that some decal manufacturers are more diligent in their research than others (Modeldecal for instance), others merely provide the sheet as a way of showing you where to put the transfers - Superscale always used to have a disclaimer on their instruction sheets that their instructions were only for this purpose!

    Having been an aircraft engineer for over twenty years I know that certain modifications appear on the aircraft but might be missed by the decal manufacturer. I therefore learnt that lack of information on the decal sheet does not necessarily give a hard and fast indication of the modification state of the aircraft. :hmmm:

    The decal sheet I have covers four options from the 1995 - 2004 timeframe, therefore, from Joel's information above I know that two of the options can't possibly have had the "bird-slicer" IFF aerials as they are too early for this mod. The decal sheet makes no mention of these aerials however, there's a fair chance that the options from 2002 and 2004 MAY have had this modification but then again they may not have. Hence the question.

    Also, not being an authority on F/A-18's I was unaware of which BuAer number the stiffeners at the base of the fin are applicable to - I now know that thanks to Joel's useful answer. I now know that these stiffeners apply to one of the options on the sheet but again, there's no mention of this detail on the decal sheet instructions.

    Perhaps you've always been lucky and only used decal sheets that provide such detailed information :thumbsup:

    I'm glad I asked the question, I now know more about the F/A-18 and it helps inform which option to choose from the four on the sheet.

    Thanks for the reminder of airliners.net and the tip about jet photos - I shall have to check them out :thumbsup2:

    Regards

    Wez

    F18 - yet more questions

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Hi Wez,

    The "Bird slicers" came into use around 1999/2000, but not all Hornets have them, even now. The best bet would be to check the year of your chosen decal scheme. Anything before 1999 is a safe bet without them.

    Any Hornet after BuNo.163699 didn't have the stiffeners at the base of the fin. The bird slicers and double chaff/flare dispensers were added after 1999.

    What scheme are you thinking of?

    HTH, Joel

    Hi Joel,

    Thanks for this information, I'm planning on doing one of the two options from CAM-pro Sheet P72-003, one is 164897 of VFA-151 from 1995 whilst the other is 163777 of VFA-146 from 2002. The CAM-pro sheet doesn't mention any of the information you've given me so it's very useful indeed.

    I don't have much in the way of references for the F/A-18 and I thought the "bird-slicers" were an obvious gotcha as I know they are relatively recent but I just didn't know how.

    Thanks again

    Wez

    F18

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted · Edited by Wez

    SJU-5/6 for F/A-18A/B. Early lot F/A-18C/Ds also had the SJU-5/6, but most were retrofitted with the SJU-17, which is the standard for the F/A-18C/D line.

    As always though, consult your references.

    Mike V

    Mike,

    When were the seats changed (as in approximately what year)?

    I guess the question is "if I'm modelling an F18C from XXXX year what seat would it have? If I was modelling one from 3 years later what would it have?" From what you're saying early F/A-18C/D's had the SJU-5/6 but later ones have SJU-17's but at what point did they change?

    Thanks

    Wez

    F18 - yet more questions

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Right, against my better judgement I've gone and bought an Academy F18C in the proper scale (that's 1/72nd for those that need glasses) :whistle:

    The question is, what time-frame does the kit represent? I have some transfers that I want to use instead of the kit options but I need to know whether option A is correct or is option D more appropriate.

    The question I'm asking really is when did mods like the IFF aerials in front of the canopy come into effect? Stuff like that really.

    TIA

    Wez

    F18

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Now I'm not a huge fan of 'Lectric Jets but I've got a transfer sheet with some relatively colourful options on and I want to know which ejection seat is apropriate to which mark of F18 and when was the change made?

    The reason I'm asking is 'cos I understand that the type of seat fitted changed at some time - does anybody know?

    TIA

    Wez

    Trumpy 1/32nd Lightning

    in Aircraft Cold War

    Posted

    At least it will be accurate. :whistle:

    Would it? Only for that particular jet!!!!!

    My old Warrant Officer used to say that no two were alike - working on Chinooks reminded him of his younger days - we had 40 chinooks in the RAF to 40 different build standards. He used to say it was the same on Lightnings (he'd served on both 19 and 92 Sqn's both in the F.2 and F.2A days). Working on Wokkas reminded him of his youth!

    Wez

    Another Chinook question

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted · Edited by Wez

    To get the correct blades you need the ones from the Revell boxing of the MH-47 (this also has some of the requierd DAS bits)which should be used on all the RAF variants apart from the first few HC.1s,even BN in the Falklands should have them, a lot of the differences are various lumps and bumps from the DAS fit . I believe the large sand filters and DAS bits are coming in resin soon but I am not sure who from.

    The only part of the DAS fit that applies to BN in the Falklands is the RWR fit - there was some discussion about ZA718/BN recently on BM follow this Linky

    If you're gonna do a Granby cab there's a whole host of different DAS and aerial fits you need to be wary of, each cab was different to one degree or another. Get several good and contemporary photos of the particular cab you're modelling from both sides as references. Also, a mistake to make with RAF Chinook's is to assume that because you've got a picture of a particular cab earlier or later in its service career a particular fit/mod was applicable to it at a point in between the photos - chances are it won't. Another mistake to make is to assume that if cab "A" had this fit, cab "B" will also have this fit, again chances are it won't!

    Regarding painting of the beasties, all of the cabs deployed including the SF ones were initially painted with ARTF desert pink overall, it was only in theatre that the SF cabs got their black undersides back and their "interesting" disruptive patterns.

    When these aircraft were prepped for painting they had to be washed to remove any grease or oil that would prevent the paint from sticking. At the time Odiham (where the mods and painting were done), didn't have a proper aircraft wash facility, aircraft washes were done with soft brooms, buckets/drip trays of detergent and lots of nice cold water from fire hoses - oh, BTW it was winter and time was tight. You don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out how thoroughly the job was done!

    Chinook's and the Mk.1 in particular leak oil heavily. There were four particular areas that oil accumulated, one was on the underside aft of the doppler aerial, there were a couple of drains here and oil used to weep back from here leaving a nice oily smear going backwards. The second is underneath the engines at the quick disconnect shelf - oil leaks down and aft from here. The third is from the drains either side of the ramp opening and finally, the area between the engines and the aft pylon. ARTF didn't stick too well to these areas! It didn't last very well around the work platforms, access panels and steps/handholds either!

    The ARTF was painted over the dark sea grey/dark green/black camouflage so you could replicate that and strip back the ARTF from the areas I've mentioned.

    HTH

    Wez

    Toom Time!

    in Work in Progress - Aircraft

    Posted

    I'll be finishing this one in the more standard Luftwaffe three tone camo scheme of the 1980's, something very much like this

    Before I get stuck into this, I've a few questions for the Phantom Phanatics. As the Revell colour instructions are characteristically useless, I'd appreciate if someone could tell me what colours should be used for the main colour scheme, as well as the undercarriage and cockpit and wheel well interior colours.

    Many thanks, looking forward to this one :lol:

    Cheers

    Shaun :)

    Could be green, then again my colour perception could be out and its actually orange! :innocent:

    Don't know about the main scheme but the standard for Toom's was Dark Gull Grey for the cockpit with individual control units in black or grey - you need to find pictures.

    Wheel wells were white - usually gloss white, very good for showing up hydraulic leaks! The Toom was very much a "if it ain't leakin' - its empty" sort of aeroplane. Undercarriage legs were white too!

    The German coulours will be to a RAL standard, not sure which but I'm damn sure I've seen them posted on the web - maybe Cybermodeler?

    I Like the look of the Revell kit, got a couple of the F4F version in the stash so I'm keen to see how this turns out.

    Best of luck!

    Wez

    Lancaster MR.3

    in Aircraft WWII

    Posted

    As promised, somebody posted this on Hyperscale a while back when I looked into it - hopefully I can make this thing work

    Lancaster203.jpg

    As you can see, the turret has .50 cals in it but it isn't a Rose-Rice turret so I guess its an FN turret with .50 cals in it - dunno what model number.

    The picture of the camera fairing/flare chute isn't very clear but at least you'll get an idea of the shape.

    HTH

    Wez

    Another question on Chinook Bravo November.

    in Aircraft Modern

    Posted

    Is it not that the original kit had the chord of the composite blades, but the 'cut off' root ends of the thinner metal blades?

    I've just been up to the stash Dave and by thunder - you're right! Correct for chord - composite but profile of the metal blades! :doh: Old age don't cher know! I hadn't looked at one of these in donky's ages.

    The MH47E blades look correct in profile - hopefully they are correct in chord. I've got the Matchbox blades so I'll be using them, if Italeri have changed it top marks to them :thumbsup: !

    Aplogies to all for any confusion caused.

    Regards

    Wez

    Lancaster MR.3

    in Aircraft WWII

    Posted

    If anyone has Hasegawas post war Lancaster I would be very grateful if someone could take a close up of the chute/camera/ sticky out bit and post a piccy on here so I could have ago at scratching something out of card.

    I think I've got a photo of this area on a French Lanc somewhere at home - I'll have to find it although if somebody's got a left-over part from their post-war Lanc that might help you in the meantime.

    Wez

    515 Squadron Moonshine Defiants

    in Aircraft WWII

    Posted

    It was fairly large.....some piccies on this site.

    http://www.ekco-radar.co.uk/jostle/jostle.php

    Andy

    Thanks Andy, those were the pictures I'd seen. I'd guess you could've taken the turret out of the Defiant and dropped the Transmitter in that space but there'd be no space for an operator or his displays, the undercarriage would collapse and you'd need another Merlin just to power the Jostle equipment never mind getting the thing off of the ground! Now there's a Whif... :hmmm:

    Wez

×
×
  • Create New...