sanguin

Well then, Richard, all you can do is look at lots of pictures and see what they show. Most are dated, but not all. I Googled 'Aer Lingus Dakota' and 'Aer Lingus C-47' and these are some of the images that appeared: http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1238251/ which seems to have a truncated tip. These all appear to be with the normal long tapering tip: http://www.flickr.com/photos/shanair/5783374584/ http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1032054 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/5...157626327840336 http://www.flickr.com/photos/kenfielding/5...157626327840336 http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1044992/ http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1195903/ http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aer-Lingus/...rain/1674222/M/ http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1044992/ http://www.airliners.net/photo/Aer-Lingus/...rain/1728043/L/ http://www.dhc-2.com/Renfrew%20Reflections.html I know not which markings Max supplies, but Googling the registration letters alone may well get you further images of the aircraft you want. From the pictures here the tapered tip seems to predominate, but other than some tiny aerodynamic bonus, I can see no obvious reason why it should be either fitted or removed. Are there any C-47 experts who can enlighten us about that? John

However, full marks to the crew who dealt with a major emergency, presumably followed the carefully-established (but untested in real life) procedures and successfully landed with no injuries and no obvious damage. On a brand new, and apparently fully tested, aircraft that was a pretty steep learning curve for the crew. I hope ANA recognise their efforts (as do Boeing, too!). John

Dear Anglo, I know nowt about ships, but this site implies that at least British Fame was a member of a relatively standard class of motor tankers: http://www.gan.philliptsmall.me.uk/00%20-%...tishLoyalty.htm The references cited at the end may also be helpful to you. good luck, John

Oh, what a tangled web we weave..... First, I must apologise for seeming to be rather dogmatic when I did not mean to be. I claim no expertise, just an interest in some of the dustier and more obscure bits of militaria. However, the Missing Lynx site has a huge number of threads about both towing and towed guns and my own feeble library has very little on the topic. So, after a further series of searches using different criteria, try these threads and see how they sometimes conflict and sometimes agree. They are from a range of dates and the contributors vary: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...British+Army--- http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...he+2+pdr+AT+gun http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...tank+gun--++n-t http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...r+AT+when+towed http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...ritish+2pdr+gun http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...Carrier+Options I know it is a lot to read, but I would add two things; my poorly explained reference to 1943 was linked to the introduction of the Stacey bar; and any vehicle with a towing hitch will, in any military service, be asked to tow anything that needs a tow, irrespective of its weight or suitability. My father was a gunner in 1937-39 and their 3 inch AA guns were towed by anything that would cope-not much did cope on hills, and virtually nothing did when it was muddy. His brief experience of the 3.7inch gun wasn't much better. Hooking a 2 pounder to a carrier of some sort (other than a Dragon) was done, but almost certainly not by choice once the fragility of the gun carriage became obvious. In North Africa (which was the original question) the roads were not of the best and much of the travel was cross country on rough rock and varying grades of sand. The guns needed to be carried rather than towed under those circumstances if they were to survive as pieces of artillery. As to the BEF, whilst most British major roads were relatively smooth tarmac, those in the Pas de Calais part of France and the Belgium towns and villages were predominantly setts or Belgian blocks and their rural main roads were often poorly surfaced in what was a predominantly agricultural area. Heavy military traffic took a toll of these roads and I believe their surface left much to be desired. This would be another incentive to only tow the 2 pounder if it was not possible to carry it. However, military expediency meant that when necessary it was towed by anything that moved and had a tow hook. I hope that this has been helpful, the topic is still quite poorly researched and in general artillery and its supporting soft skin transport is nowhere near as well known as armour. However, if you Google '2 pounder anti tank gun portee' you will find quite a lot of very useful information, including an excellent 1/35th build: http://planetarmor.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7307 All the best, John

Dear Ian, You might find these two links helpful: http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...+anti-tank+gun- http://www.network54.com/Forum/47208/threa...w+Vulcan+2+pder As far as I can see, on a smooth road surface it was practicable to tow the gun, but it was too fragile to tow cross country. It was put on the back of either 15cwt or 30 cwt trucks to transport them and they were meant to be offloaded for firing..... As to using carriers to tow them, well that depended on the carrier having a towing hook and these were not introduced until '43. All the best, John

Dear Vesa, I have not yet found a picture anywhere of the Pan Am colours on an actual 107. However, the rear ramp is not actually a ramp, but a baggage area that slides out rearwards like a drawer: http://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/vie...20-%202247.html http://www.flickriver.com/photos/gbaku/2089715213/ I hope that diagram and picture are helpful. They are the best I have found so far. Here are links to photos of the helicopter in New York Airways markings for any of you to enjoy: http://psa188.tripod.com/weber/nya107a.JPG http://psa188.tripod.com/weber/nya107b.JPG http://psa188.tripod.com/weber/nya107c.JPG http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1036161 http://www.airlinefan.com/airline-photos/1...-Vertol/107-II/ And a later incarnation: http://highroad.smugmug.com/keyword/boeing...531470461_48zmu And then a partial view of the cockpit: http://www.flickriver.com/photos/gbaku/536527096/ This site had a Tamiya 1/100 Pan Am/NYA sheet for sale, tatty but cheap, it is arrange alphabetically by airline so scroll down about 1/3rd of the page to Pan Am to find it: http://www.airline-hobby.us/forums/showthr...T-FOR-SALE!! No guarantee that it is still available! I hope that this is helpful, All the best, John

Make what you will of this for the Bluebird K7 Orpheus and fin: http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1270921/ and then read through this: http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=49793 Allegedly XM691, one of the preproduction aircraft that I noted as having the silver/yellow trainer bands scheme on page 2 of this thread. Just because it is on the internet don't mean it's true, though..... John

Dear Spike, A Gripen in RAF roundels would be great, but I have never seen one in pictures or real life. If you have details, please let me know! The nearest was the ETPS one, briefly marked with the Qinetiq logo, that bore the usual Flygvapnet tre kroner roundels: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/lofiver....php/t21654.htm http://www.flickr.com/photos/saabgroup/5496542634/ Markings are from Model Alliance or Two Bobs: http://www.theaviationworkshop.co.uk/index...products_id=168 http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/TB48177 Have fun, the 1/72 kit is equally sparse but harder to spot the deficiencies! John

Dear Radleigh, Disappointing though it may be, your best bet has to be 1/72nd. Huma do a nice Do 27, Revell the Do 28 and Twin Otter, High Planes do the Turbo Porter, RVHP do a lot of differing (but expensive) military and civilian resin Beech KingAir kits, Arii the Cessna 172 and Airfix the Skyvan. I cannot find any plastic kit of the Cessna 206, although there was an old Rareplanes vacform. Gremlin may have done one (they seem to have done everything that Cessna built) but I cannot find it listed on the J-Bar shop website where Gremlin normally advertise their wares: http://shop.jbarhobbies.com/searchresults.sc There are some plans about for radio controlled flying scale models, but I think that is a bit excessive; well, it would be for me! Sorry to disappoint, best of luck, John

Just out of interest, there was a silver Gnat with yellow training bands in 1960, shown at Farnborough: http://www.abpic.co.uk/photo/1210834/ and this, a site worth a good look around: http://www.flickr.com/photos/billsboy/393997505/ and this: http://www.planecrazy.me.uk/html/template.html All are of XM691 so it could be argued that it wasn't actually a service aircraft, but it was in the 'old' pre-dayglo scheme. So far I have not found any illustration of another Gnat in the same scheme that is from the 1960s. John

I know nothing about the RAF versions, but an internet search was intriguing. Just because it is on the internet does not mean it is true..... Have a look at this: http://www.rafjever.org/vamp5pictures.htm Look at Cockpit Equipment and Emergencies. No ejector seat mentioned there..... I also came across a website with the coroners report of a fatal FB5 crash in which the pilot had baled out too low for his parachute to deploy; no mention is made of an ejector seat. For the definitive answer for an RAF FB5, try this man: http://cockpitfest.21.forumer.com/a/vz193-...le_post251.html He mentions a 'seat' but not an ejector seat... Also the much praised CMR single seat kits do not have ejector seats and nobody has complained about that. Whether some RAF airframes were later fitted with Martin Baker products is possible, but as built for the UK it would seem that Edgar is correct. John

Grizly, You may find this link helpful: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...3&hl=Sutton I think that the general consensus is that US single seat fighters built for RAF contracts were fitted with Sutton harness; those for RAAF and RNZAF Pacific Theatre use had US harness. This certainly applied to P-40 and P-51 aircraft. The presumption is that it also applied to the P-47, but I have not seen that clearly illustrated. I have searched my local and regional UK library system and have not yet found the Geoff Thomas book on Royal Air Force Thunderbolts, sorry. Perhaps another more learned site member can give a more definitive answer? Good luck, John

My thanks, Nick. I knew the Iraqis had some Tutors, but I never thought of the Egyptians. At least I was right about the "?stars", must have been some ancient brain cell that just flickered briefly and died...... Now to see what I can find about Egyptian aircraft serials. Thanks again, John

Thanks for the images, they are very interesting, as ever. I hope that the apparently cannon-firing Spitfire isn't actually sending 20mm rounds somewhere along the airfield..... But one other aircraft seems to be more mysterious. Avro Tutor / 626 ? J332 The Avro Tutor is intriguing. Apart from its odd serial of J332 it appears to have a crescent and ?stars in the centre of the fuselage roundel and an odd underfuselage pod/tank that possibly may have been some sort of target towing equipment. Can anyone else throw any light on this rather unusual picture? Did the Iraqis use an atypical RAF style roundel with a central crescent later in the war, and not their usual triangle? Thanks, John

Lawksamighty, I can claim no glory or credit for the superb Chaffee build for which I gave the link. I just found the website, it is not my model but just a very good build of the elderly (and somewhat inaccurate) Italeri kit of a late-model M24. I believe the new Italeri re-release this summer has parts to backdate it to an earlier version, similar to the new Bronco version. John

Thanks, Dave. This was the old Italeri M24 kit, built years ago, in US Korean markings: http://www.guntruck.com/M24ChaffeePage.html And this site has everything! Wander about and you have Gavins galore, carrying a 105mm gun inside an Aussie M113 and even Chaffees of all sorts. http://www.combatreform.org/ARMORHISTORY/index.htm John

Thomas, The picture you found comes from this book: http://www.scribd.com/doc/39722522/Avijaci...-BiH-i-HRVATSKA The book also has the transfers/decals in 1/72nd scale if you buy it. Hannants have a copy for £9.50: http://www.hannants.co.uk/product/BRINSP02 I would suggest that you may find the book quite helpful in actually linking the colours to paints, although that is not always true, it depends upon the book and author. Perhaps another modeller has a copy of this book and can add any more information? and this is another illustration, although I cannot give any guarantee about the colours shown as they are not quite the same as on the cover of the book: http://www.insigniamag.com/bos.html I hope this is helpful, John

Paolo, I have managed to have a look at a copy of 'Twenty One Squadrons'. These are some of the 614 Squadronaircraft listed in it, no guarantees as to absolute accuracy: Prewar 614 Squadron had an Avro Tutor K6104 at Llandow. Postwar, back in Llandow, they had these examples Spitfire LF16e TE120 RAU-A, TE208 RAU-F, TE385 (probably camouflaged) Spitfire F22 PK542 7A-O, PK604 7A-E, PK619 7A-G Vampire F3 VF348 G, VT860 T, VT667 V (all probably silver overall) Vampire FB5 WA291 N, WG799 A, WG829 R (?camouflaged, Edgar thinks and he should know) Vampire FB9 WR157, WR253 (?camouflaged, as above) Meteor T7 WL341, WG991 S, VZ636 V Their wartime code letters were YX for the Hectors, LJ for the rest of the war. Their Lysanders at Odiham in October 1939 were confusingly marked as B Flight of 614 was used to form 225 Squadron; 614 Lysanders were LJ but those transferred to 225 were coded LX and apparently at least five Lysander IIs wore both codes during the month. Post war it was RAU until 1949 when it became 7A, then this was replaced by the green and red interlocking triangles that Edgar mentioned. Hope this helps, John

Dave, I hope that these links may be of some help, they are the best that I have found: http://www.focalplanes.co.uk/archives/321/...s-valiant-s062b http://www.focalplanes.co.uk/archives/321 and just for a bit of local interest for you: http://www.adf-messageboard.com.au/invboar...?showtopic=1123 well, why not, eh? Markings here: http://www.theaviationworkshop.co.uk/maf19...rt-3-p-621.html I cannot find anything more helpful about the Blue Steel conversion, the Aerofax book and my ancient collection of magazine articles lack any decent pictures of the bomb bay or the various sorts of fairings that were applied at different stages of development. My uncle (who was also my godfather) was the Crew Chief on a 207 Squadron Valiant and his aircraft was the second one scrapped at Marham after the spar failure was identified. Ralph, my uncle, was very upset when he saw the state of the spar of 'his' aircraft, he said he was absolutely horrified as there was no way to know of its condition without removing the wing skin. He kicked his heels for a few weeks then walked away from the RAF after nearly 30 years service. He joined a bank and got bored.... His aircraft is the camouflaged version available in the Airfix kit, WZ404. It was never considered for Blue Steel as far as I know. Before anyone asks, no, I don't have any pictures....but I did have a guided tour of his aircraft when it called in at Luqa, Malta en route to Salisbury. Rhodesia on an exercise c1962-3. Just out of interest, it was then in anti-flash white with I think standard dark roundels and serials and the white was noticeably 'semi-gloss' above and glossier below. Ralph said that eventually the uppersurfaces tended to weather to a less glossy finish. It was then one of the first given camouflage when 207 went low level. This is a useful link for some Squadron pictures, none showing Ralph but a couple of 'his' WZ404: http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/vali...liant_album.htm All the best, John

Dear Admiral, You have mail...... Many Thanks, John

Glen, I can recommend a book by David Ogilvy, DH88: The Story of De Havillands Racing Comets. Go through your library, it should be available via an inter library loan if your county doesn't have it in stock. It isn't a vast tome, but very useful. David Ogilvy was one of the people involved in the restoration of G-ACSS for the Shuttleworth Trust and wrote what is probably the definitive book about the UK use of the Comet. Some points from the book: There is no reference to any Comet being associated with an RAF squadron, only G-ACSS being tested at Martlesham Heath as K-5084 (fuselage) and K 5048 (that two line format with the 'K' central)) on the fin and underwing between roundel and engine fairing as well. It was in silver (some references cite overall white, but the images in the book look like aluminium dope or paint) but may have been painted twice in its short RAF existence. Martlesham had huge problems with the undercarriage as its retraction/lowering mechanism was far from satisfactory. It twice had undercarriage failures, the last one resulting in the nose fuel tank breaking through the underside of the fuselage. The air intakes under the propellors were enlarged at some time, but this may have been associated with the engine problems that the RAF encountered, too. David Ogilvy make no mention of any other RAF use by the DH88 nor any application of a camouflage scheme,but this does not mean it never happened. I hope this is helpful, John

Gentlemen, my thanks for such a number of prompt replies. A couple of weeks ago I watched a BBC4 documentary on the history of Pathe Newsreels and saw a brief shot of British troops beside a camouflaged airliner fuselage. A few careful looks at it again on iPlayer and I had the black registration G-AAUE which I then found was an HP42. The internet gave me some more information, but then I saw the article in Aeroplane Monthly in my local newsagent and bought it. Sadly it does show some camouflage (but not for the HP42) and concentrates on those impressed aircraft that were written off for a variety of reasons. It has been of little help in my quest for the colours of Hadrian. From what I can now understand, it was in a standard top surface pattern, probably shadow shaded and its underside colour is still not known. I believe that the undersides of short range aircraft, meant to fly only within the British Isles, were yellow and those of a more international tendency were in sky or grey. The photo of Hadrian that I gave a link for does not have the civil fuselage registration shown on the Pathe newsreel which was described in commentary as being part of the evacuation from France in May 1940. Any other suggestions, gentlemen? Thanks, John

Paolo, Although your local library may not have the book Twenty One Squadrons by Leslie Hunt, other libraries do. Kent libraries have an on-line search facility for book titles or authors (I don't think that South East or South West Wales libraries do, though) and also link to some other library systems. Currently that book is listed as being available in Kent, Camden in London, Slough and the Buckinghamshire reserve stock. You should be able to get a copy of the book sent to your library using an Inter Library Loan; it may take a week or so and cost a couple of quid, but it is a brilliant facility. I've had odd books from libraries all over the country and most of them were either unobtainable to buy secondhand via something like Abe Books or way beyond my wallet. Every librarian that I have met has been really helpful in finding the obscure or rarely-borrowed books that I sometimes want. If you know a title (or sometimes just a part of it.....) and/or author then you can usually track something down. I found Twenty One Squadrons on the Kent Libraries website by searching under 'Leslie Hunt' as the author; I now know he has other aviation titles to his name! As Edgar said, they had Lysander II YX-O but that was at Odiham, where 614 went in September 1939. Formed in June 1937, they were at Llandow until September 39 so these were some of their aircraft before the move to Odiham: From June 1937 until 38 they had Hawker Hinds K5379, K5478, K5493, K6735, L7239. From Dec 37 until Nov 39 Hawker Hectors K8109, K8111, K9727, K9729, K9735, K9742, K9748, K9762. This is from Rawlings book Coastal, Support and Special Squadrons so is fairly reliable. They may well have had other aircraft as the list of serials may not be comprehensive. I hope this helps a bit, John

Large numbers of civilian aircraft were taken over by the RAF in late 1939-early 1940.l Most of these were painted in dark green/dark earth upper surfaces and ?colour undersurfaces with back registration letters or serial. The word 'hurriedly' is often used as a prefix to 'painted' or 'camouflaged' by writers about the subject., implying a less-than perfect job. Can anyone help with the uppersurface pattern(s) used? Were they to a standard design or do they seem to have been variants or even randomly applied? I am interested in the HP42 (I have an ancient Airfix kit lurking in the loft) in military guise. As a biplane I suspect/hope that it avoided the shadow shaded lower wing in 'light' colours but do not actually know if this was the case. I would like to know if it is possible to deduce whether it was painted to a standard pattern and if so then what was it? This picture indicates a fairly good paint job for G-AAUE Hadrian, my likely chosen subject : http://www.scienceandsociety.co.uk/results...creenwidth=1223 However, what colour was the underside? I have seen references to grey, 'sky' or yellow. Can anybody give me any more definitive guidance on this, please. One artist chose to go yellow with G-AAGX Hannibal for its last flight, an alternative identity for my kit: http://www.rrhobby.ca/Hannibal/flight_cw197.htm Any suggestions or help gratefully received, Thanks, John

Does this help at all? http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thre...wealth+aircraft. I know that you can't believe everything on the internet, but it corroborates what I have always heard about 'SNAKE'. Hands off, it ain't for you! Just send it to India as soon as you can. John