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Although the Khee-Kha Fairchild 71 kit has been discontinued it can be found on eBay. There are 2 there right now and at half the price of the Aeroporto Modelos resin kit. (personally, I much prefer vacuform over resin) The floats you can still purchase from Khee-Kha. And the Pacific-Alaska decals can be purchased from Arctic Decals.

Lars Opland at Khee-Kha Art Products produces a beautiful 1/72 vacuform kit of this very plane... Khee-Kha Art Products (opland-freeman.com) Unfortunately, it's now OOP. Perhaps you should email Lars and ask if he has plans to reissue this beauty.

I think there is a good chance that the E &T resin Jacob engine will be fine. I have ordered a number of E & T engines over the years and have found that the ones which were soft in detail have been the popular WW2 engines. The more obscure engines I have ordered, mainly 1920s-1930s, were nicely detailed; not up to today's 3-D printed standards but very useable. I believe this has to do with how many copies were pulled from a mold; the more copies made the more the mold gets worn and copies lose detail. At their best I have found that the E & T resin engines are better than the Aeroclub metal ones.

As to colors of this D17 you should contact the Staggerwing Club... https://www.staggerwingclub.com/ They might be able to supply you with its original build order, which may include the colors specified, often the interior colors/materials as well.

Hi Stefaan, Email me directly as I can help you with Fuller paints. Tim

I don't know if it's suitable, but Copper State Models sells a resin 1/48 Salmson 9Ac engine.

Randolph paint used to offer, for free, a paint brochure which contained actual color chips. You might want to contact them and see if they still offer this. The colors you have listed are all standard Randolph colors. If you can't obtain a color chart from Randolph I can supply color matches as I have their charts from the 1930s through the present. Tim

The color film of the Norwegian Fairchilds, especially in the close-up of the noses with the names, sure seems to match my color chip of the iridescent 'Fairchild Blue'. Tim

Hi Nils, I have a 1941 Titanine Canada aircraft color chart which contains a color chip of an 'R.C.A.F. Yellow'. Fairchild may have matched this color with an US equivalent, as you suggest, as the 'R.C.A.F. Yellow' appears to be similar to the US 'Army-Navy Yellow'. I will match these color to each other and see if they are basically identical. Tim

Since you have not been able to get an answer to your question here on Britmodeller, I suggest you join the forum at 'Airlinercafe'... Airlinercafe – Airliner modeling hobby central! This is the very best source for airliner modelling questions. Tim

I have a Titanine UK commercial aircraft paint chart from 1935 and it contains a paint chip of a 'Grey Green - Shade No. TE 38' which appears similar to the war era cockpit Grey Green. Tim

This Berryloid color chart is from 1935 and it's a scan I made decades ago and can be found on the 'Lockheed File' website... CONSOLIDATED BLUE - The Lockheed File (adastron.com) The original is not actual paint but is printed in CMYK, so is an approximation of the actual paint colors. I believe 1935 is the only year Berryloid used 4-color process for their paint charts. All other years I have in my collection, and there are many, are actual paint chips. Tim

Nils, I do not have the NCS color system but can match to FS, BS, And Pantone. The Berryloid 'Fokker Red and 'Loening Yellow' are very common colors from the 1930s. For reference, Amelia Earhart's trans-atlantic Vega, which is preserved in the NASM, is painted 'Fokker Red'. Tim

Be very cautious when using the color charts in this issue of 'Skyways'. I have discussed this topic here a fair number of years ago in a thread about the exact colors used on the Gee Bee R-1/2. The Berryloid color chart in this issue of 'Skyways' is from around 1940-42, all the other color charts appear to be from the 1960s and the 1970s. And I strongly doubt that obtaining the FAA Aircraft Records will help with colors as they almost never mention colors, and in the rare instance they do it's merely in generic terms. The Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum does hold the Fairchild Archives but you'd need to access these in-person at the museum research library... Fairchild Industries, Inc. collection | National Air and Space Museum (si.edu) Tim

I have numerous copies of this Berryloid color chart in my collection. It's from the later 1930s. On my monitor the scan at your URL appears a bit lighter than the actual paint chip of 'Fairchild Blue'. So if the scan appears too dark for your purpose, the actual color will definitely be too dark. Tim

I have an actual paint sample of the 'Fairchild Blue'. It's a dope in the Berryloid range, produced by Berry Bros. This color chip is most likely from around 1930. It is a medium blue with a slight iridescence cast. This iridescence was most likely achieved by mixing a small amount of very fine aluminum powder into the colored dope. I can find no sample of a 'Fairchild Yellow' amongst my 100's of civil aircraft color charts from the 1930s. I suspect that the 'Fairchild Yellow' most likely was simply a commonly used yellow of the period, perhaps the widely used 'Loening Yellow'.

What year(s) and colors are you seeking color chips on? Lewis Berger & Sons manufactured a line of automotive lacquers and enamels called 'OPEX'. OPEX was also manufactured by Sherwin-Williams, and by Rogers Paint as well. If you have no luck finding the required Lewis Berger color chips, perhaps locating a S-W or Rogers color chip chart would prove useful. Tim

Lone Star Models produced a resin 1/48 B-10 kit. They will be releasing an improved version soon, I am told... LSM 48695 Martin B-10 – Lone Star Models Tim

There is a Douglas Company DC-10 blueprint currently at auction on eBay and it shows a step, as you perceived... Vintage 1970s 18" X 56" Aircraft Blueprint: DC-10 Series 30 Inboard Profile | eBay The quality of the seller's scan looks good enough to download and compare the Revell kit against. Tim

I know it's been a rather long time since the question was first asked, but I finally found a line drawing of Earhart's Vega NR7952 (Atlantic flight) which indicates the location, and number, of the cabin fuel tanks. This drawing comes from the NASM and shows 3 cabin tanks installed at the very front of the cabin. There are 2 tall, thin vertical tanks, with 1 horizontal tank laid on top of the 2 vertical tanks. These 3 tanks only take up a small portion of the very forward section of the cabin, right against the bulkhead at the back of the cockpit, extending to the front of the second cabin window. Along with the 5 wing tanks this does make a total of 8 fuel tanks, as described in the FAA Aircraft Records for this particular Vega. I have no idea of what references the artist used for their drawing so can't confirm its accuracy, but this is the first time I have seen a drawing of Vega NR7952 showing the cabin tanks. Unfortunately, I cannot post photos here, but I can email a low-res scan if requested. Tim

Complete information on RAAF Hudsons can be found here... RAAF HUDSONS PART 1 - The Lockheed File (adastron.com)

I suggest you try contacting Lars Opland, the EDO floats guru... https://www.opland-freeman.com/khee-kha/extras.htm#floats Besides producing 1/72 resin EDO floats, Lars knows everything about floats and most likely can tell you which EDOs these are. Tim

Thanks for the video Rob. The exact colors of the R-1, including the dark blue pinstripe, was discussed extensively here back in 2013... Refence colour for Gee Bee red on R1 aircraft - Classic - up to 1968 - Britmodeller.com Tim

On Earhart's Atlantic flight Vega the plastic (a DuPont celluloid product called 'Pyralin') was removed from the cabin windows. The window openings then had 2 wooden stringers added to their openings, which then were doped over with fabric. You can see this effect on Earhart's Vega in the NASM... Amelia Earhart's Lockheed Vega | National Air and Space Muse… | Flickr I suppose simply painting over the clear windows on the Dora kit would suffice as the actual subtle draped effect may not be that noticeable. Tim

Earhart's Vega is currently at the Udvar-Hazy restoration facility being cleaned. You can find a few photos of it being moved to Hazy here... https://www.flickr.com/search/?user_id=9921536%40N07&view_all=1&text=vega Tim