doorgunner

Thanks a lot Selwyn, I appreciate so much your help. This thing of the number is a real conundrum.... I have a real 6b/2361 gunsight (squared glass) with no sign of an early part number on its data plate that HAVE that number painted ! Who knows ? Thanks Maurizio

Hello OneEightBit and Edgar and thank you so much for this precious indications. My panel is made from scratch and most of the instrument cases comes from original instruments. These has been purchased, disassembled, cleaned as new, the case copied in black resin, re-assembled and sold away. I am now completing the phase of drawing with pc all the faces of the instruments that will be printed onto satin photo paper....it is a long process, this is my third panel and I took an average built time of one year each. But I found this so fun ! Altimeter as the one I was looking for was rare on Spit, respect to the many, many "standard" type seen on wartime pictures or onboard warbirds, even if they respect perfectly the part number indicated in panle original drawings. At the moment my panel is complete, and just a doubt remain....I wanted to do a Mk I panel, with doubled fuel indicator, ammeter and voltmeter. I wonder if the empy hole for flap position indicator must be present or not ? What a dilemma, but if I don't decide, show cannot go on ! Thanks maurizio

Hello, I have almost finished my last 1/1 scale kit, this time the famous Mk II gunsight, fitted to almost all RAF fighters and fighter-bombers during WWII. The cast was perfect and the kit can be assembled exactly as the real one, with no bubbles or flaws. This will available in two different kits, a 30 example run is for Mk II with oval glass and another 30-kits run is for MK II* with squared glass. I am now building the first example to do the instruction sheet, then take some shots and it becomes available just for mid-november. I only have some doubts and hope that someone can explain.... - What GM2 stands for ? I think it was the factory definition as ...Gunsight Mark 2..then official RAF name become Mk II - What means the white writing 4405 often seen painted with a mask in gunsight's body ? Thanks a lot... here are some pics maurizio

Hello and thanks a lot for your kind replies, I would like to realize it in 32nd but unfortunately Revell kit is a little dated and MDC one is very difficult to find. So I turned into my old scale: 1/48, for an hasegawa kit. I need wartime picture, even only one, because I am used to do my kits from pic and not profiles. Thanks to you all Maurizio

Hello, I have just bought the Valiant book about the Hawker Typhoon and my attention was captured by an a/c coded R7684 "JG". It is a machine gun armed Typhoon with car door type canopy and early markings. It is said to belong to Wing Commander John Grady, OC Duxford Wing, June 1942. I would like to build it and wonder if: - there are wartime pictures of it - if there were installed MGs and not cannon - if there are some clear pics of upper wing MGs panels and underwing spent ammo slots of early Typhoons. Thanks in advance Regards Maurizio

Hello, I am scratchbuilding the altimeter for my Mk I Spitfire dashboard in 1/1 scale and I need some information and pictures of this particular altimeter coded 6A/577. I cannot find any picture of it, and think it is a very early one. More or less is the same as the ones you can find Googling this a/m number, but all of them have a curved windows below the hands. Mine seems to have a rectangular one, as it can be seen from a screenshots taken from the famous "daily inspection of a spitfire", attached below. Who can help me with some pics, please ? TIA Ciao Maurizio

Thanks a lot for your kind replies, but the Barracuda seat is a SRBP one or a metal one (for early a/c') ?? I apologize for the dumb question ! Maurizio

Hello, I am planning to convert the new Revell's Mk II Spitfire into an early Mk I. I checked all the modifications needed and now I have just one questions: where to find an 1/32 metal seat ? Any aftermarket ? TIA Ciao Maurizio

Hello, during and after the building of my 1/32 mk.Vc in Malta colours, I had many suspects regarding the c wing upper bulges. Apart from the very large tear shaped one in corrispondence of the two cannon, I noticed another one that stands approx in the wing roundels across the two blu-red colours. It is in corrispondence pf the outer machine gun but why so big ? It is seen only on C wing ? In Brian Cauchi's malta Spitfire book there are many picture where these bulges are clearly evident... TIA Maurizio

Hello, I am posting this, following a friend's request regarding the Airfix 1/24 Typhoon kit. He (and me) watched carefully at Brett Green (and other modellers) that assembled wonderful Tiffies for a book, with a sort of yellow primer inside the gun bays. Was it real ? I mean was this primer used for that interior part as for american fighter ? Thanks in advance Maurizio

Hello paul I think that considering that the mast was painted in camo color, they didn't repaint it as the rest on a/c. If you see the others, they have mixed/ocean gray (?) antenna masts. The repainting could also explain the missing of walkways. One is for sure a mk I as for the oil cooler intake shape.

Hello, at the very beginning of the footage is clearly visible the antenna mast still painted in dark earth. The a/c is also missing its canopy.

Hello, I ever wondered if there was a colour key for painting the rims and body of such engine instruments during WWII. I refer to the three regarding the Boost pressure, the Oil and Radiator temperature, and the rectangualr two devoted to Oil and Fuel pressure. Oil pressure and temp seems to be a yellowish brown, while the Fuel pressure and Boost seems to be painted in a sort of red, a little darker. At last, the Radiator temp was a green with some yellowish hue. Were that colour coded ? I mean, if one wanted to reproduce them, what modelling range has a close match ? Below a pic of a restored Mk V, where the Oil press is plain yellow instead.... Any help will be appreciated, ciao Maurizio

Hello, I solved almost all my problems and doubts deciding that the best thing will be to match perfectly the panel that appear on "The daily inspection of Spitfire", a well-known footage where MkI R6692 is checked. This means the adding of many instrument, switches and writing respect to a generic Mk I or II, but the panel will be exactly as the one a real wartime Spit was. My trouble are now on the adding of an Ammeter 5a/1635 below the Voltmeter 5a/1636 in the upper left part of the panel. Well, if you look at the shape of these instruments, you will notice that their front cover is flat, to be mounted externally respect to the 3-4 millimeter thick panel. In the footage, please see the attached frame, the ammeter is seen fitted BEHIND the panel, and only a circular ring is evident. Looking at the real instrument there is no trace of rim, that instead could be seen on a generic late mark Spit instrument (Mk IX) that could be as attached, with blue paint. What's wrong ? Any help, please ? TIA Maurizio

Hello, I just would like to note that on ebay there are two MkIs (as declared...) original items for sale. It worth a look, these are the item's numbers.. 111432614471, 321487462662 ciao Maurizio

Thanks a lot, my doubt still resist as why in a late Mk I and in Mk II drawing too, this switch (and I presume the whole light assembly) isn't fitted. At this point it disappeared very soon and do not arrived up to early MkVs? Is this to be considered a feature of early Mk Is as seen on the footage "the daily inspection of a Spitfire" ? TIA Maurizio

Hello, I cannot miss the occasion to do a (stupid) question and have a reasonable reply..... Some post ago it is talk about the two retractable underwing light that was on Mk I to V. I am building a full scale late Mk I instrument panel as per original drawing n° 30034 SHT 10H where many items are missing respect to early Mk Is (gunsight switch, ammeter, top tank fuel gauge, dual compass card holder....) and one of these is the switch for landing lamps (port and starboard). Am I miss something ? TIA Ciao Maurizio

Hello, I am working on this full scale instrument dashboard and some writing are needed. The letters are in white and are tall more or less 3,2 millimeters. I am wondering how to realize them and doing so, I selected some solutions: 1) dry transfert = I have them but are difficult to be placed one after each other and the risk is to have letters not aligned 2) decals = the surface is flat black and do not want to gloss and then flat the surface 3) have some custom made dry trasfert with ALL the writings. I contacted a firm in USA but they asked me 120USD (shipping to Italy inlcuded)to realize a one-color (white) 5x7 centimeter sheet !! 4) let a cutting-plotter to cut a vinyle sheet to use it as a mask and to spray some flat white with my airbrush. The last two seems to be the best options but...where to ask for a cheap quote of this simple dry transfert sheet ? And regarding the cutting-plotter my question is: would it be able to cut so small letters ? A friend of mine has a Cameo one..... This is a part of the writing I need. Thanks a lot in advance Maurizio

A public thanks to Edgar ! With his knowledge and huge material about this wonderful plane he quickly solved this intricate white writing inscription problem. Thanks Ciao Maurizio

Hello, I am building a full scale Mk I panel, and it is time to realize the writings that were engraved on the panel regarding landing speed, generator, start switches and floodlight controls (see pics). I know that the original were etched and then filled with white paint, but I wanted to realize them with white paint using a normograph, or dry trasfert or a mask with airbrushed white paint. I cannot define the height of these writings (in inches or millimiters) and before doing some mistakes, I would need help - if you can, to know: 1) used font or a suggested very close one ? 2) altough the factory drawings shows an "italic" writing for "WARNING FLAP SPEED...." beside the flap lever, all the wartime pics seems to show a non-italic character 3) two different height seems to be, what can be the height of the taller and the smaller ones ? Thanks a lot in advance Maurizio

Hello, a friend of mine lent me a B&S RAF Mk II gunsight 8b/2361, and I wanted to dissassemble it completely to cast the parts. Some of the screws are very difficult to be removed, while the bottom part was taken away with few efforts. Unfortunately the two lower dented wheels and the top part (the one that bears the glass) are NAILED. I do not want to ruin any part of it, so I wonder if someone of you can help with a disassembly guide or its manual, just to let me know the order of disassembling, please thanks a lot in advance regards Maurizio

Hello KAri, the official manual for the G-50 fighter say 3 metres for prop diameter, hth ciao Maurizio

Hello, I apologize for this surely uncommon request on a modelling site, but I hope someone can help .....I am continuing the building of my 1/1 scale Spitfire Mk II instrument panel and have some trouble in reading a sheet of original drawing, just in the parts where is a list of screw type applied for each instrument. I know that at that time, screws were of 3BA, 6BA..etc type regarding of the body diameter, but what I am looking for is their head shape (Pan head, mushrooms..etc). Attached is the right hand part of the drawing, that is clearly...not clear ! The red arrow indicates in which column is reported the (3BA, 6BA) screw codes. Who can help, probably because have a better copy of this drawing, please ? Thanks a lot Maurizio http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v11/mausab28/30034-10-HInstrumentBoardcopia_zpsa777e3b9.jpg

Thanks a lot so much, Maurizio

Hello, I solved almost all regarding this Tiger Moth, but I still need to know the height of the fuselage serial in the real plane. It seems to be exactly as tall as the rudder's one. Who can help me please ? TIA MAurizio