sanguin

Martin, Nothing definitive, but look at this thread: http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?114979-Main-gear-firefly-tyre-size It would seem that the Fairey Firefly, Barracuda and early Firebrand shared the same main wheel and tyre. Or maybe not.... Google Firefly images and kits and look at their wheels, then compare with the Barracuda. Good luck, John

Try this website for bombs: http://www.wwi-models.org/Photos/Various/Bombs-brit/ For some expense (unless you can find it somewhere in a library) this will be much more comprehensive about bombs if not the racks used: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Details-Aerial-Bombs-Ministry-1918/dp/1845742788/ref=sr_1_fkmr0_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1293468390&sr=8-1-fkmr0 Here is a 1/32 detail set aimed at Wingnut builders, have a look and see if this is useful: http://eshop.owl-czech.eu/detail/1:32/1:32-wwi-r-f-c-bomb-tail-rack-pe-set/ Aeroclub also made a 1/48th white metal rack and bomb (?112lb or thereabouts) as set V207. I have never seen it, but John Aero himself frequents these pages and he may be able to give you more information. Sadly most racks were under wings and usually in some shadow so photos don't always show too much. John

Esoteric also did a resin kit many years ago, NAV-(?)7 in 1/72nd if I recall. Nicely moulded, how accurate it was I cannot say. John

My two books on the history of Manston and 'Kent Airfields In The Second World War' by Robin Brooks all mention two Lysanders from No 4 being at Manston. One book cites their arrival as being on 22nd September 1940. No other details are given at all. These links may help on details of the carriers and smoke bombs if you haven not seen them: http://www.flickr.com/photos/39411748@N06/7244176222/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/39411748@N06/7244299226/ http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_westland_lysander.html http://www.ww2aircraft.net/forum/your-completed-kits/westland-lysander-series-29733-2.html This may be worth a look: http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/dblist.php?AcType=LYSA John Rawlings 'Coastal Support and Special Squadrons book gives these Lysanders as being with No 4. Nov 1940-June 1942 Lysander III R9013; R9029; R9075; R9118; T1442; T1583; T1686 May 1941-June 1942 LysanderIIIA V9305; V9339; V9426; V9449; V9485; V9556; V9676 No codes are given for any of these. He also gives these for the Lysander II, as taken to France in 1939; how many came back is not known to me. December 1938-unknown 1940, Lysander II L4742, TV-H; L4746, TV-L, laterFY-L; L4753, FY-W; L4814; L6852; N1203; N1216; N1226; N1257; N1298; P1699; P1711; P1734; P9061; P9101; P9184; R1990; R2025; R2042 I hope that this is of some help, my limited ASR Lysander info is all from 277 Squadron. Al the best, John

My thanks for the information, Herb. It has been very helpful. Both of your kits look very nice, Canberras just seem to suit so many different colour schemes. For my sins I'm going for a trio of OzMod B2 kits from Freightdog at £9.99 each complete with the Freightdog Canberra decal sheet, how can I resist? I have a few razor saws of varying sizes, careful cutting once seems preferable to repeated filling and sanding (I have a little experience of 1/72 A Model kits....) and quirky fit. Hannants have the A Model 14428 Canberra B20/B62 on sale at £8-66 at the moment but your comments convinced me to try the OzMod route. Of course it may well all yet end in tears, and I may well try the A Model version for the second batch, we shall see. Canberras were used for so many trials and tests over the years, I now suspect that the rarer UK ones must be the ordinary vanilla squadron versions! Thanks again, John

I want to make a few (like 4-6) B2 and B6 (and one T4) Canberras in various RAF/A&AEE/trials markings. I want to try them in the smallest scale, but cannot decide whether to go for the Oz Mod or A model kits, both of which can be found quite cheaply at the moment. Can anybody who has built either give me any guidance as to how well they go together, please? As long as they look like Canberras, I am not going to be too pedantic about the finer details. I'd just like to be able to complete a few in a relatively short time without spending hours of sanding, filling etc. Thanks, John

Belated thanks, Graham. I have ordered everything that I need from BW models as you suggested, he is even making the K6 wheels for me. I have also got the Matador wheels and rear stowage to come as well. Thanks again, John

Not a photo, TME3, but the best I can find on the net: http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1951/1951%20-%200181.html?search=gloster%20meteor An illustration, but it may be of some help. Small intakes, note the proportions of the roundel bars but is the fuselage a bit stretched as well? You decide.... John

There is a small 7FTS Squadron badge here: http://www.esag.org.uk/trainingcoasters.html John

The ancient Airfix K2 ambulance, K6 fire truck, Matador and Scammell kits are the ones I am interested in, but there must be others too. The wheels are, how shall we say, somewhat lacking in substance. Skinny, shrunken and puny are words that come to mind. There used to be some really nice substitutes in white metal but are they still available anywhere? The ones I knew from years back were by CMSC who seem to have passed them on to Wee Friends, Kingfisher and ontheway models but nobody now lists them. Any suggestions where I can find decent replacements gratefully received. White metal, resin, plastic or even hand knitted will be better than the Airfix originals. Thanks, John

Graham, my thanks for that information. Over more than a year of reading library books and raiding bookshops, along with a great amount of google time have only produced the one early image of Armeria. As to the camouflage pattern and colours, that picture never really fitted any of the many images of the Flowers that I studied. I was at a loss for a colour scheme and the only clue I had was the link to Campion after a 'first' major refit for both in late '42. The more I learned about Flowers, the less certain I became about anything to do with their weapons fit, masts, radar and wireless aerials, colours and general shape as the war proceeded. Every vessel was different at differing times, sometimes small differences, others were considerably altered. I will now stick to the initial commission for Armeria and rely upon your colours, it makes things a lot simpler for me. I can live with 'imaginative random' for the port side camouflage scheme, prove otherwise or say nowt! Thanks again, John

I am very pleased to see this kit, I want to build its marginally younger sibling, HMS Armeria K187, commissioned just one day after Anchusa. It was adopted by the town of Faversham as its 'own' ship and survived the war to be converted to a small freighter. There is a reference in our local paper archives to a formal banquet held for some of the crew at the end of the war when the Mayor of Faversham commented that he wished the town had adopted a more successful vessel....Obviously he had not sailed in a corvette for four years in the North and South Atlantic and the Med. Armeria, like many of its companion corvettes, rarely hit the headlines but escorted convoys, harried possible submarine contacts, rescued survivors, towed broken down vessels, swept for mines and worked continually in often awful weather conditions. Most of their crew were hostilities-only ratings and RNVR officers who coped with everything that nature and the enemy could throw at them. For them success was just as much about survival as about sinking u boats. I will get the White Ensign brass to go with it but am still trying to get a reasonable hang of the correct colours for the ship. This link offers a colour scheme (see the last entry of the thread): http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuku.com/reply/975/t/Lots-of-New-Images-HMS-Campion.html#reply-975 However, for this scheme can I assume that Armeria still looked more or less the same structurally as when she was commissioned? Or had she been refitted with a new mast behind the bridge etc... The only other photo around of Armeria seems to be this one, which I assume is as she was first commissioned: http://theflowerclasscorvetteforums.yuku.com/topic/622/HMS-Armeria#.UR-RwI7qvOF Any ideas about the colours used for that scheme? I ask primarily as the model is planned to go into the local museum and someone is bound to say that I got it wrong..... Thanks, John

Tommy, If you want an RAF but not in SG/EDSG/White have a look at this thread that I started with a question: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=51643&hl=sanguin#entry545569 As ever, ask a question and a host of helpful responses and information comes from the members of this site. John

Mind you, the railways were not without risk, either...... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soham_rail_disaster There were brave men in all sorts of places.

Not really my modelling interest, but these links may show how sad a few of my musical interests still are.......and stimulate a few more ideas for those who want a fancy colour scheme. http://travellingeternityroad.yuku.com/reply/219361/Re-Starship-One-A-Brief-History#.UOX-mI7qvOF http://www.adastron.com/lockheed/constellation/stones-connie.htm http://www.iorr.org/talk/read.php?1,1059176,page=1 Oh for the joys of the Tom Waits touring Shackleton growling its way around the world......now that is a potentially great whatif ! John

This link may help as someone from California gives a picture reference: http://www.aero-web.org/specs/martin/a-30.htm Not a book that I possess so I can't help any more than that. John

I have not found any other images of this aircraft, Gary, but have you seen this: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=72055 The black 'Z' above the fin flash matches and there is even guidance on the correct shade of blue. A picture with tanks is unusual on a Diamonds aircraft. I do not know of any 1/48th Blue Diamonds markings, nor of the red/black bar. As there is the red/black bar on the fuselage it should be likely that the 92 Squadron chequers have been removed below the cockpit but the ladder and liney stop any hope of confirmation. John

Assuming (a dangerous thing to do) that you want an aircraft torpedo and not a submarine or ship torpedo, then Flightpath has what you need: http://www.djparkins.com/acatalog/1_72ndwwii.html John

Bari, years ago I tried and failed to build a 1/72nd Eduard Strip down kit of the Storch: http://www.scalemates.com/products/product.php?id=146221 The plan was to have the bare frame emerging from a hangar as an angry officer berates an innocent erk for forgetting to put moth balls into the aircraft for the winter...... It never happened. Not as easy as it looked, my first real experience of etch and it did not go well. Really boring stuff like trying to keep wing ribs parallel and with a flat underwing. Doomed..... Trying to make the fuselage without any twists or bends was another test that I failed. For years I had a box full of useful etch brass bits that went into all sorts of kits. I did not have a stripped down Storch, though. I have not seen any of their Strip Down kits on sale for years, but they also did this: http://www.users.freenetname.co.uk/~schowwi/eindkr.htm There may have been others, but I have never seen them. I have also never seen a completed kit 'in the metal', so to speak, but then I don't go to many shows. Respect to anyone who has successfully completed one of those kits, not easy in 1/72nd. John

Simon, Swedish colours are never completely straightforward. But then what is? I think that the Marivox kit colours are of the earlier Team 60 aircraft, pre 1994. They would be Olivgrun 328, FS34064 and Morkbla 438, FS35042 uppersurfaces and Blagra 058, FS35237 underside. (With apologies to the Swedish members for my lack of Swedish alphabet characters) From the IPMS Stockholm site: http://ipmsstockholm.org/colorcharts/stuff_eng_colorcharts_sweden.htm Olivgrun 328 is Humbrol 116, Tamiya XF13/62 Morkbla 438 is Humbrol 77, Tamiya XF17+03 Blagra 058 is Humbrol 175, Tamiya XF66/53? All of these colours are as close as possible, most are good very near misses rather than 100%! Team 60 airframes were all kept in good clean condition, there are not many pictures of them looking too grubby even though they were often used as ordinary training aircraft as well as for their airshow appearances. Post 1994 they were Olivgrun only uppersurfaces with a large yellow 'FLYGVAPNET' painted across the top wing and the undersides were Swedish insignia blue (Tamiya XF8) with Swedish insignia yellow stripes (Tamiya XF-3) I hope this helps. Please do a Google search for Team 60, there are a lot of excellent images there for you to look at. Enjoy the kit, it was an... interesting build. I made the original 1/72nd Pegasus kit by Chris Gannon many years (and tears) ago, not a success. Chris admitted that it was much more difficult to produce as a kit than he expected and he then knew why nobody else had done it. The Marivox version is better, but it isn't completely straightforward. John

Dear Kari, As nobody else has responded, may I point you to some links that may help? I know nothing about the Lysander, but these restorers/rebuilders may have the information that you want. Of course you or your friend may have already asked, but this is the best that I can do to help you. http://www.warplane.com/pages/restoration_lysander_update.html http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/373/language/en-CA/Just-Wingin-It.aspx http://www.divernet.com/Travel_Features/red_sea/157708/plane_truth_about_the_thistlegorm.html http://www.arc-duxford.co.uk/restorations/lysander/ I hope that some of this is helpful, John

Does anybody know of any kits or resin bits that feature the new, improved upswept Black Hawk exhausts? I am interested in 1/72, but I am sure there are those who would want this in 1/48 and 1/35 too. This is the new system that is being fitted to new build and re build Black Hawks and also apparently being retrofitted to existing machines: http://www.ducommun.com/dco/casestudy-tighitco.aspx These are on the new Swedish Hkp 16 helicopters that have recently been delivered: http://marcelburgerphoto.smugmug.com/Airplanes/Helicopters/uh-60-blackhawk-helicopter/23403356_4rkzcg#!i=1893944942&k=t86wDm2 I just know that after carving balsa, adding layers of milliput and then slivers of plastic card, by the time I actually prepare a matching pair of exhausts some enterprising company will belatedly announce their small contribution to my sanity! Thanks, John

Your Reverence, A few more links for you to pursue and peruse, these are about the Swedish contribution to Finland during the Winter War: http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/gladiator_sweden.htm http://www.sci.fi/~fta/f19-1.htm http://www.sci.fi/~fta/flygvapenmuseum-2.htm http://surfcity.kund.dalnet.se/sweden_f19.htm and then a kit review with a lot more information: http://koti.mbnet.fi/~jjuvonen/planes/gladiator.html http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234906925 You are embarking on a lengthy and fascinating project involving a wide range of aircraft, just remember in ten years that you started doing this for pleasure! John

Graham, I asked this question here in June this year: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=234921091&hl=merlin The very helpful answers then are just as relevant now. I went for the Revell kit, not yet built but it looks to be a good fit. There is a review here: http://www.scale-rotors.com/galerie/1-utility-helicopters/209-eh101-merlin-hm1-revell.html Note the horrible prominent steps behind the cockpit on the port side, an attack with a file and wet'n'dry makes them less obvious. Hope this helps, John

As in Colonel Cody and his 'Cathedral' biplanes. I first assumed that their name was derived from their size and complexity of struts and wires, but it was down to the French word (as Sean says) that describes the multiple curvature of the wings. http://www3.hants.gov.uk/aldershot-museum/local-history-aldershot/samuel-franklin-cody/kites-and-flying-machines.htm If Cody had ever seen a Starfighter, he would have be blown away, as would his Laffans Plain tree with a J79 engine tied to it! John