JohnMacG

if you're intrested in Pat Wing 10,you ought to read 'In The Hands Of Fate' by Dwight Massimer. - the story of Pat Wing 10 from December 1941 - May 1942 It's on Amazon.uk & it's not too expensive

Dave's posting a couple of comments above persuaded me to dig my Hasegawa A-24 out of the 'cupboard of doom'. It's kit AP138 and it does indeed have the larger tailwheel, but there's only one prop; sprue 'K' There are no etched dive brakes in this kit. Decals are for two a/c, a 1941-42 a/c with 6 (?) red-centred stars and a 'ate '42 a/c, yellow serial 115780 and six sters without the red centres. Neither a/c is identified by unit or base or date on the instruction sheet. A couple of A-24 questions now; the Navy SBDs had the inside of their dive brakes painted a red-orange colour.- were the A-24s similar? The A-24s didn't have the SBD's tubular gunsight; ring & bead sight instead?

The Hasegawa Dauntless kit also comes in an 'A-24' boxing - same spues, only the decals are different.

I've seen reference that the early A-24s were actually SBD-2 equivalents.(can't confirm this, tho'). About a dozen went to Java during the disastrous DEI campaign and saw limited action there in early 1942. There are pics - somewhere - of a seemingly intact A-24 in Japanese hands on Java. The USAAF also used them operationally in new Guinea, but losses were heavy and the type was soon withdrawn from operational use. I've seen it posited that the USAAF didn't really believe in dive bombing and the A-24, was, after all, a Navy aircraft.

The above comment about the large window on the starboard side of the nose being a Cobham mod is incorrect. Every pic I have of bomber Harrows shows this window. I suspect its' purpose was to give the pilot (who sat high up in the port side of the cockpit) to have a view down & below to starboard. The Cobham refuelling test plane did have a large area of glazing behind & below the cockpit, but this was on the PORT side (pics exist).

A couple of points about the Harrow kit - although Valom provide resin & brass for the cockpit I think it still needs some extra work. Pics of the Harrow's interior (there's quite a lot on Google Images) show the interior to be a bit of a maze of steel tubes, which the kit doesn't provide. the large window on the starboard side of the nose in particular has much steel tubing behind it. And the interior of the dorsal gun turret is even worse. Also, the front & rear gun positions aren't turrets; they're glazed cupolas that fit on to fuselage - the only part that rotates is the 'tray' carrying the guns. And it seems there should be a door between the rear gunner's position & the rear fuselage, which you'll have to make yourself. (At least this will prevent a view down the cavernous length of the fuselage. There's no bomb bay detail. The kit comes in 3 packagings - a pre-war bomber, a wartime aerial minelayer with a sharkmouth (which Valom calls "toothy version" on the box), and a Sparrow transport.. As mentioned above, the sprues look identical - the only differences seem to be the boxtops, the decals & the instructions. I bought the "toothy" version simply on price - it was £30 incl. post on Ebay; Hannamt's and others are charging £38 + post. A last thought; I once saw a built Contrail Harrow kit at a modelling Show - it's a big aeroplane. It positively dwarfs it's younger brother the Hampden.

Thanks all! So, no kit. Pity. Jim, I corresponded with you about the WH-3 differences some years ago; I've thinking trying to convert the Williams B-10 kit for a long time now, but the more I think about it, the harder it looks, to the point of near-impossibility. Or maybe I'm just getting old (wiser?) It is strange tho' that a plane that was built in fair numbers (85 went to NEI, if I count correctly), saw MUCH combat and a variety of markings (3 Dutch schemes, Thai, Japanese & USAAF), hasn't attracted somebody to kit it.

I'm looking for a 1/72nd scale kit of the late-model Martin 139WH-3'3A (AKA the Martin 166). For those who can't place a 139WH-3, it's the one whose most recognisable feature is the long glass 'greenhouse' on top of the fuselage (along with many other changes from the standard B-10 type). I'm looking for ANY kind of kit, limited-run injection, resin, vac-form, conversion - anything. Of course I don't expect firms like Airfix or Hase to produce one, but I can still hope for from of smaller producers, but I know it probably won't happen, at least not while they're churning out 'Luft 46' twaddle.

The Botha's been a favourite of mine for years - I tried building the Contrail vac-form, but.... let's just say I failed. This is what info I have on this plane. Best is a 4-page article, complete with the only pic of an operational Botha of 608Sq I've ever seen, + 4 csvs in the French aero mag 'Aero Journal' #42 (April-may '05). In French of course. No idea where you could find this, maybe E-bay France. There's a few articles from UK mags - 'The Blackburn Botha - A Cautionary Tale' two parts, Air Pictorial, August & September 1988. Next, Aeroplane Monthly-'Take A Card' series two pages on flying the Botha, August 1990; & lastly, AM again, from the 'Tested & Failed' series, a 6-page article on testing the Botha, February 1999. Again, E-bay might be your best bet for finding these. One point about the actual a/c - it wasn't just rejected because it was grossly underpowered, which it was, (many other types have been re-engined to become great successes, think of the Manchester/Lancaster or the P-51). It was really because of the appalling view out of the cockpit - something o9fa problem for a GR type I would have thought. Apparentlyno one noticed this when the mock-up was inspected!

Thanks John, exactly what I wanted. John MacB

The info I have on the armament of the Hawker Hartebeest - the South African-built variant of the Hart Family - states one fixed forward-firing machine gun (plus a flexible Lewis for the gunner). However all the photos I can find of the 'beest seem to show a gun through on both sides of the engine cowling. Can anyone help?

I have a somewhat inaccurate 1/72nd scale PZL P.11c kit by a Polish outfit called 'PZW'. Is this the same kit as is currently being sold under the 'Misterkit' label?

Now that Airfix have re-tooled several British WW2 aircraft types, the Swordfish, Gladiator, Blenheim IV, plus others, does anyone know if they have any plans to re-tool the horribly inaccurate piece of junk that purports to be a Fairey Battle/ TIA

guys, I just whined to Walter at Bataafsche about the very high costs of doing bank-to-bank transfers from UK banks and he came up with the above e-mail address for Paypal payments. Job done!

Good news guys! I finally managed to pay for the book by Paypal. So now at least I don't have to pay a small-ish fortune on bank charges.

Jerzy, none of the types you mentioned are covered in the book, as they are all Dutch NAVY types, and hence not covered in a book about Netherlands Indies ARMY types. We'll just have to wait on Peter doing a companion book on Dutch Navy aircraft..

well, the guy at Bataafsche must have been reading this forum 'cos I got a reply about 30 minutes after I posted here. Unfortunately, they DON'T take either credit cards or Paypal. Can you believe it? 2016 and they don't take either! I must admit I don't know what to do - every way I can find of paying makes an already very expensive book more & more expensive. I'm serious I'm thinking of just sending the thing back. After all, if they can't be bothered to get a sensible means of payment, I'm not sure if I can be bothered to buy it. Ahhhhh....

Peter, I e-mailed these people two weeks ago, when I got the book (which is very good, except for the somewhat muddy pictures), saying I couldn't pay by direct bank transfer. Still haven't the courtesy of a reply yet. Do they WANT paid? I'm going to try again later today, and if I haven't got a reply in 10 days or so, I might even write them a (rather sharp) letter!

I received the book yesterday, it's a 560 page hardback, about A5 size Pictures are spread throughout the text(Bloody Shamble'-style)and, it has to be said, even after reprinting, are a bit flat & murky. Price is €46 + €7.50 post, which is a bit high but not outrageous. The big trouble is that the publishers want paid by direct bank transfer, which thanks to the rip-off charges by UK banks is going to bottom about a third extra to the cost of the book! I'm going to e-mail the publishers to see if there's a more sensible way of paying (credit card or even Paypal.) If not, they can have it back! John MaccG

Thanks very much for the info Peter. Much appreciated.

Peter, I've tried to order this book through the process you mentioned, but iit's been 10 days or so now, and I haven't heard back yet. Is this typical for this lot or should I put in another order? Regards, John MacG

I'm currently hacking & chopping my way through Airfix's ancient 1/72 Fairey Battle trying to produce something thst looks like a Battle (new resin wings and tail and other bits). Were there ever any etched-brass sets, particularly for the undercarriage, for this thing?

It's my understanding that the uppersurface triagles (on the M139WH-2) were removed in the second half of 1941 - they definately compromised the a/c's camouflage! Interesting to see them rolling the bombs along the ground - didn't they have bomb trolleys in Dingapore?

I didn't realise that 60 had Mk.IVs in Malaya, and I thought 60 was based at Kuantan.

OK, after playing with the pic on Photoshop, and looking closely at it, I think the serial is actually L483x, which would indeed make it a Mk,IV - right?