boston1832

Thanks - there seems to be scant information on this. IMDB only records an aerial cameraman (the remarkable Johnny Jordan) and three pilots with no mention of an aerial coordinator. However one of the pilots is John Crewdson who is mentioned as doing much of the everyday helicopter ferry work in the "Making of" book, but no reference to stunt flying. I'd not heard of him (unfortunately, since he seems to have been a legend in proper flying circles) but a bit of investigation shows he ran Film Aviation Services in the 1960s which among other things supplied the Mosquitos for 633 Squadron, one of which he piloted for the film (according to this article). He was killed in a helicopter accident in The Wash in 1983. He had credits for aerial work in a number of other Bond films, so it seems likely he was aerial coordinator. Interestingly he's credited with the role of "Draco's helicopter pilot" on IMDB, so presumably that's him next to Gabrielle Ferzetti in the cockpit, even though it's in a studio... Of course, none of this gives any more detail on how they did the stunt flying, but it's an interesting rabbit hole!

OK, so this is a bit esoteric but hopefully someone out there can shine a little more light... I've had my periodic re-viewing of the best and only Bond Christmas movie (OK, I may have watched it more than once) and it set me toying with the idea of one of Draco's Agusta-Bell 204Bs as featured in the dawn assault on Piz Gloria. After all, there seem to be plenty of kits out there. So I had a dig about to find out a bit more about them - I came across their registrations and few other details on the Internet Movie Plane Database (which seems to be usually either chronically slow or down altogether, so don't hold your breath if you click on that link) and this led me to their individual details on a Swiss helicopters register. This gets more interesting in that although it doesn't provide any additional information on the three 204Bs they hired for filming, it shows a photo captioned as "HB-XCQ equipped with rockets for a James Bond film" which is a front-on shot with dummy rocket racks (and also dummy machine guns in a rather unlikely-looking mount on the ends of the skids). However the film - and all the stills I've come across - don't show these at all, and most of them have the helicopters silhouetted from below so they'd be pretty conspicuous. My assumption is that they tried out these props and they caused some sort of problems (which they well might since it looks as though the stuntmen would have to have climbed over them in their exit jumps) or they looked wrong (which they do). Does anyone know any more about this presumably abortive dressing-up, or indeed anything about their hiring and the shooting of this sequence? I should say I have the excellent Making of On Her Majesty's Secret Service which sheds virtually no light on the matter.

There are a few Duchess kits around - none are likely to be exactly cheap, especially in 7mm scale.

Well, not quite: https://www.scalelink.co.uk/acatalog/Narrow_Gauge__60cm__Railway.html It's not exactly plastic modelling, though.

Just caught up with this and the build thread. What a fabulous build, especially considering your 3D printing was such a learning experience. I've not really come across the commercial kits before, but yours seems to be nigh on perfect anyway - well done. Silent Running and Dark Star were two of most memorable movies of my childhood so it's great to see such a reminder of one of them. I'd quite like to try the talking bomb from Dark Star one day...

What a superb build - I've been interested in the Manchester for many years but have rarely seen convincing models of them, certainly none as good as this. My interest stems from the fact that my uncle was killed in L7314(Y) from 207 Squadron flying from Waddington on 22nd June 1941 after it was shot down in error by a 25 Squadron Beaufighter. His pilot was a Jackie Withers - I've often wondered whether he was related to the Martin Withers of Operation "Black Buck" and Vulcan XH558.

Can anyone provide any comment on this book? I'm looking for accurate Me163 drawings and I presume from the description this is a book of drawings only, and which is presumably pretty comprehensive. I've seen good ratings of it but so far have been unable to find an actual review. I'd be particularly interested to know if it's got details of the launch dolly.

Thanks guys. I initially wondered if they were from a generator set or similar, but I guess those weren't well suited to bouncing over grass fields at 100mph. From the footage of Me163s, it looks like the dolly wheelsets must have had a very high rate of attrition as it seems unlikely that they survived the process very well. Looking at some of the rough takeoffs on grass makes you wonder what was going through the pilot's head, given the nature of the tanks of "stoff" behind him...

I'm looking at renovating an old Heller Me163. The kit has no dolly or wheels - can anyone tell me if the wheels are a common Luftwaffe part that's found in any other kit, or am I better off just getting hold of another kit for the parts? I've had a look around at aftermarket parts but can't find any - but concede that I might not have been looking in the right place. Regards, Chris

A 500 is an Internal Server Error - the web server can't process the request you're making as something has gone wrong in the code that serves up the data you requested. A 503 is Service Unavailable - the server can't process the request at all for some reason, often that it's temporarily down or it's overloaded. Neither of these would be caused by the user having a slower connection. It's seems most likely to be a problem with the hosting service not providing the right resources, e.g. the server is running short of memory or processor capacity, or they're not balancing requests properly between the customers and some are being serviced at the expense of others. Incidentally the most common error message I get seems to suggest there's a 500 followed by the server sending a 503 when it's unable to process the first error gracefully. Both should have a fairly obvious cause to any provider worth their salt as they will be logged at the server level as a severe error. If they're saying they don't know what it is, the likelihood is they've not looked for it properly.

What a superb build. It's not a subject I'd have even thought of but it's a great rendition - I love the attention to detail and research on the primitive but specialised equipment. I'm doing some research at the moment on railway gunpowder traffic and it's notable how much care had to be exercised with even that, such as door hinges and handles for buildings being specified in brass or gunmetal. It's difficult to imagine at this distance in time how brave these unassuming men were. During my schooldays I was told that our kindly neighbour pruning his willow trees (at some height with no safety, I might add) was in bomb disposal during WWII. He was Lieutentant-Commander John Bridge, GC, GM & Bar, whose exploits seem extraordinary when associated with the old gentleman I knew.

I have to warn in advance that this probably isn’t going to be anything special. It’s the first military plastic I’ve built in a very long time and I’m very much feeling my way. As a modeller in other areas who’s quite well equipped with metalworking gear and the like, going over to plastic modelling has a subtlety to it that I’m not really used to - so I’m very much All The Gear And No Idea. I’ve had the Masterbox MkII on the shelf for a couple of years. I bought it for a bit of a change and relaxation during what I’d previously thought was a stressful time in my life - but that was before a global pandemic killed millions of people. I don’t have a great deal of background in all things WWI, although I have spent a bit of time working on railway equipment from the trenches (full size, not model) but that obviously doesn't help in any way. I shook the bits out the box with high hopes of putting together a fairly accurate MkII, but then started to do some web research (mostly via the Landships II site) and quickly found that it’s not really that brilliant a representation. I’d worked out myself that the vinyl tracks might be a bit tricky to paint and the guns were not very gun-shaped, so resin and brass replacements for these have now arrived. So rather than carving into the kit and making extensive modifications based on not really knowing what I'm doing, I resolved to do a minimal amount of work on correcting errors - which I’m not at all qualified to comment on anyway - and try to concentrate on a decent finish. I do have the Osprey David Fletcher book but the photos are fairly small to take any meaningful detail from (especially in ebook format) and I suspect I need to invest in "Tanks 1915-1919". You might say I’m a bit squeamish to be a military modeller as I don’t have a great enthusiasm for barbed wire, mud-filled craters and shattered trees, so I ever do finish it I have a leaning towards doing it in “factory-fresh” finish and maybe displaying it in what might have been the works yard at Metropolitan or Fosters (I don’t think Metropolitan actually built any MkIIs, but as a railway modeller it does appeal to me as their main business was railway rolling stock). It also means I’ll hopefully not ruin it with over-enthusiastic weathering. Anyway, down to some - but not much - modelling. As is the way with many things (with me at least) it’s not taken long to go horribly wrong. For some reason I wanted the commander’s side main visor raised (maybe because that’s how it’s shown in the instructions?) and managed to make a total dog’s dinner of it and damage the visor and the front of the cab with solvent. So the top row of rivets had to go (to be replaced with Archer’s), and I decided that since I’d lost the visor detail I’d be clever about it, cut out the small visor and make a new one to have that raised instead. As you can see, that’s not gone well either, the aperture is drilled oversize and now I’ve got a damaged main visor which I can’t get out. Suggestions on a postcard please. Buying another kit for the bits seems like an option - but then I might as well just start again! The observant among you may have also noticed that I'd damaged the towing bracket and had to fabricate a new bottom half, but at least that let me successfully drill out the moulded pin. Isn't this 1/72 stuff tiny?

Does anyone know if anyone actually looking at this problem?

Thanks, yes that is the sort of thing I was after. I did try Hannants but was probably not searching for the right thing. The JLC is what I'd seen - it looks like there is a decent UK source here as well. Thanks for your help guys, much appreciated.

I'm looking for one of those short double-sided razor saws - I think the design is Japanese originally. I've seen plenty of them in build photos and I'm sure I've seen them on sale over the years, but my current searches have drawn a blank. Can anyone suggest as UK supplier? Apologies in advance if it's blindingly obvious.

Many thanks. It's this bit (with one of the exhaust baffles laid alongside). There are few images of the area on "Excellent" and "Liberty" but it looks like on the later builds the exhausts were combined into a silencer (or something similar) and the tent-shaped guards disappeared.

Now that I've got your attention... ...can anyone tell me if there are any known photos showing close-up detail of the area around the three tent-shaped exhaust baffles? I've seen a photo of model (lost the link for now) which has had short stubs of exhaust added in brass tube to protrude above the square baseplate, but there's no representation in the kit. I'd rather like to know if they're worth doing (or actually there at all) before I add the baffles. I have David Fletcher's Osprey book (and little else) and while it does have the enlarged cutaway view it doesn't show these in any detail.

Hi, The Ffestiniog Railway is 60cm gauge and is in North Wales, on the Irish Sea coast - there's a map here. It's actually two joined railways together - The Ffestiniog of 13 miles and the Welsh Highland of 27 miles. The Eiger is awe-inspiring, but the nearest I ever got to tackling that was reading The White Spider! (which is also awesome, for anyone who has not read it) Regards, Chris

He always told me that he only ever saw two Luftwaffe planes in daylight operations - a Me262 and a 163. Hardly a typical selection!

Same here - numerous failures, usually with 503 errors on two different computers and a phone, so presumably it's not related to the mobile/responsive version of the site. A page refresh usually returns the page but typically takes 3-5 seconds. It would be interesting to know which vision of IPS the forum is using (I don't think the version is accessible to non-admins) as I make daily use of another Invision forum and I've never seen this issue.

Many thanks for that - I thought that someone out there must do barrels but failed to find any!

OK, I'll do the introduction thing but be warned, it's not exactly riveting. I've probably not attempted a plastic kit since I was at school, which is a number of decades ago now. At the time I recall being very much into WW2 Luftwaffe prototypes and novel projects (Komet, early jets etc.). Given that my late dad did 32 operations in Pathfinder Lancasters he probably had a pretty dim view of this, but he never mentioned it. I was also into railway modelling and that's where I've spent most - if not all - of my modelling time since, eventually setting myself up with a very, very small hobby business producing etched brass and resin kits. Hobby time in later life has veered away from modelling towards the prototype and I've spent a lot of time in the past 10-15 years as a volunteer on the Ffestiniog Railway, mostly on steam loco rebuilds. I've come back into non-railway modelling as a bit of a lockdown antidote - spare time is very limited now for various reasons and I'm after something in which my butterfly hobby brain can see some progress in a short space of time. I had a WW1 tank and a Fw189 stashed in the cupboard so that's what I'm starting off with. My avatar is the Hotel Kleine Scheidegg with the Eiger in the background from a recent ski holiday. It has no known modelling connection, other than that I've seen a "Little Nellie" build somewhere on here and if you turn to the right from where I took the photo, you can see the Schilthorn - which was the finale location for "On Her Majesty's Secret Service". Which Little Nellie wasn't in. Thanks for reading this far! Chris

Firstly, I'm new to the forum so please accept my apologies if this isn't the right area to post this sort of query. Secondly, I'm having a go at my first plastic kit for many, many years so I'd appreciate a bit of advice about the contemporary market. I'm having a go at a Masterbox Mark II Male Tank as a bit of lockdown light relief from other slightly more metal-based hobbies. I'd appreciate any tips on what aftermarket bits are available and what's worth using. I've come across the replacement tracks from JK Resin (although frustratingly I can't seem to find their website, only a Facebook page) - any suggestions for any other suitable bits and pieces before I start? Thanks in advance, Chris