MikeC

I'll be dropping in, Hannants order already placed.

Humbrol acrylics 230 is good. Vallejo is OK too. I use Tamiya acrylics mostly, and 3 parts XF18 medium blue mixed with 2 parts XF2 white works.

Excellent! For another book recommendation, try and get hold of Flying Fever, AVM Stanley Vincent (sadly long out of print, and no, my copy's not for sale or loan). As a Group Captain, he was Station Commander at Northolt during the Battle of Britain, with the Poles under his command.

Very nicely done.

Yes, I realise that, thanks. I thought some might (like me) be interested to see what TS112 actually was.

Just checked my copy of British Military Serials: TS112 was allocated to a Typhoon from an order which was cancelled.

It is not almost certain, it is certain - and he was ordered to remove the markings. This scheme is in the Eduard Royal Class kit, and that states: "This aircraft was flown by the CO of No.132 (Norwegian) Wing W/Cdr Rolf Arne Berg. Berg ordered ground personel of his unit to paint the pre-war Norwegian national insignia on the wings and rudder in the fall of 1944 and asked RAF Supreme Command for permission to carry this marking. RAF Command deemed the marking as forbidden and Berg was forced to remove it in January 1945. Berg met his fate on February 3, 1945. At the very end of his combat tour he decided to fly one more combat mission. His Spitfire PV181 was hit by AA-fire over Eelde, the Netherlands. Wing damage led to a crash and Berg´s death. He scored 53 confirmed and 11 probable kills with 3 1/2 damaged. " The reasoning was that as they were not a roundel, the aircraft was more difficult to identify as friendly (ie non-German). http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/a-question-of-foreign-markings.html HTH

This "fine" for leaving the flaps down was never an official regulation, but it was a common practice. And my understanding is that it varied depending on the squadron: round of drinks in the mess, payment into some non-public squadron fund, or whatever. To give another example of flaps being raised, the DH Chipmunk pilot's notes clearly stated that flaps were to be raised immediately after landing; if there was a tailwind component during taxying, it was apparently possible for the flaps to move in such a way that the operating cables slackened and came off their pulleys. In any case, isn't it simply good airmanship? As a final thought on that type, anyone else who's ever flown a "Chippie" will appreciate the difficulties of entering and exiting the cockpit with the flaps down. And beware: if you ever post a model of a Spitfire with flaps down, you won't get a fine, but chances are that I will ask you "Flap lever a bit sticky, was it, Sir?"

So long as you take your time, take care, and "measure twice, cut once", I don't see why not. And remember, the only daft questions are those that don't ever get asked.

(Just to be strictly accurate, Homebee was quoting here.) Do those parts include a camera by any chance? I know 60 Sqn equipped one or two of their aircraft with cameras to make an early FR aircraft, sadly can't find any more details ... yet ...

Nice to see a 311 Sqn bird.

Nice model. I've wondered for a long time why they didn't send another Mosquito squadron with rockets to suppress the Flak defences first.

Emailed on July 11th, replacement canopy arrived today. That's very good service, many thanks Mikro-Mir.

Exactly the word MrsC used, and somewhat more polite than the words I used. Imo whoever authorised this, as well as whoever did it, should not be allowed into any museum, let alone given responsibility for running one.

Looks like they've dropped a Canadian marking option. Still a reasonable choice though.