Hornet133

Wotjek, There is a typo in the instructions for the 3 Sqn RAAF airframe CV-V FB144. FB144 was CV-V from 5/4/1945 till they returned their airframes to the Air Depot in Aug 1945. The instructions say April 1944 which is wrong, 3 Sqn was using Kitthawk Mk.IIa airframes (P-40L) at that date. Steve Mackenzie

I suspect that due to the circumstances (very hastily impressed civil machines in a war emergency) that the machines of the bamboo fleet would have indeed retained their original civil schemes.

Considering who was behind that Hobbyvista profile I would have major doubts without seeing a photo. Mr Pilawskii is not considered to be very accurate on many occasions with his writings...Printscale just copied from the webpage which is usually the limit of their research.

At that stage the IFF on Spitfires was in the form of the wires running from horizontal tail tips to fuselage. The under wing aerial that replaced them did not come along till 1943. Radio aerials depended on the type of ground equipment being used locally. The UK had long changed over to the type that used an internal wire inside the mast (and no external wire) but not all Overseas commands had that equipment. You need to look at photos of Malta based airframes to determine what type of radio equipment they were using then.

1B+NX would be a code from 13(Z).JG5 which flew Me-110s in Norway and Finland. The unit originally used the code LN+ but later changed to 1B+(individual letter)X.

Your link does not work

Great photo not seen that one before, so thanks. You have actually answered your own question Ed. The band has been toned down to remove it, one sees that often in the Meditterean. The top part is overpainted with Dark Green. The odd bit is the lower portion where they look to have tried to remove it by stripping rather than overpainting with fresh Ocean Grey, maybe they were short of OG at the time. Peter - yes Red spinner with original Sky backplate. As you said it was common to remove the front portion of the spinner, leaving the backplate attached to the airframe along with the prop in order to repaint. It was a lot easier to paint the front portion with it sitting on a bench or something, rather than trying to do it in situ where you have to paint around the prop blades which got in the way.

Yes photos of 'Blunderbuss' are reasonably uncommon. Attached are the ones I have collected. Not seen a colour photo only the drawing. Hope this helps Steve Mackenzie

Yellow 5 as pictured above is from III/JG52 (they were the ones who used the oversize III Gruppe insignia) not JG54. The airframe is pictured after an incident at Coquelles on 28 Jul 1940. Ref: 'Die Jagdfliegerverbande de Deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945' Teil 4/II P.167.

According to Jochen Prien's 'Die Jagdfliegerverbande de Deutschen Luftwaffe 1934 bis 1945' Teil 4/II, JG54 did not use Gruppe Bars at all during the B.O.B. None of the photos of JG54 in the book carry Gruppe bars. This is probably due to the unit only having been formed in late June 1940 from three independent fighter Gruppen, III/JG 54 having previously been I/JG 21.

No they did not use 'GA' on Gladiators. In fact they did not apply the 'GA' code to their original P-40s (Tomahawks) for several months, originally using only an individual letter plus the serial number.

More correctly it means that the Valiant Wings book is incorrect. Again. Be very wary of the Valiant Wings books, there are many errors in some of them.

While it is perfectly acceptable to give markings for a museum airframe (EZ999) which never carried those markings during the war, never being issued to an operational unit (as some people would be wanting to model the Museum's airframe), it is only acceptable if the transfers etc are accurate, WHICH THEY ARE NOT on those drafts. a) The letters NH and Y are too compressed horizontally. Also the gap between the N and H is smaller than you have drawn. See the attached photo. b) The roundel is taller than the 'NH' codes, the 'Y' is also taller than the 'NH' per the above photo. They are not also the same size as you have drawn them. C) The colour of the Girl's dress is darker than you have drawn it on the artwork. D) What happened to the mission markings and victory flags which are left off the artwork completely (they are present on the decals). See the photo below for points C and D. The serial has 45 Degree corners per the photo below. Your artwork is too small to be sure on this point but I suspect that your artist has used the more common rounded style. Some other points on EZ999. When Harold Thomas acquired the airframe from Sydney Tech College, it was missing some parts. He reportedly did an epic journey across the continent of Australia (crossing the Nullabor in those days was a major undertaking) towing a trailer behind his vehicle and returned with some parts from Vengeance Mk.IV wrecks located in W.A. Because of that EZ999 has a .50 Cal rear gun and also at least one seat from a Mk.IV which is different to the earlier versions. Are you going to give these Mk.IV parts in your kit. If not one CANNOT DO AN ACCURATE model of EZ999. Also look where the 'Dina Might' script is, there is a hinged panel which it is overlapping. That panel was present on later production airframes to alleviate air pressure building up too much inside the cowling. One needs some etched brass pieces that can be added to the outside of the cowling on those airframes that had them. Some points on the artwork for the other airframes. A27-200 should be coded NH-A on both sides. The artwork incorrectly has HN-A on the Starb side, the decals are correct however. Also the nose art on this airframe was in Greys, NOT Browns, see the photo of the actual panel in a Museum. The colourised photo above was guesswork and is incorrect. Steve Mackenzie

Be very wary of the Airframe & Miniature CAC Boomerang book. It is full of errors also.

RAF P-40Es used American bombs regularly. Photo of 1000th bomb dropped by 3 Sqn RAAF in July 1942 from CV-P. Painted White colour.

Ed, If you refer to Red Roo decal RRD7242, you will see that it has DU-G MB765, DU-Y MB828, and DU-Z MB763 all in DFS along with DU-G MD114 in the High Altitude scheme. I supplied you scans of the photos of the MB serialled airframes with 453 Sqn which clearly showed them to carry DU codes and be painted in DFS colours. Photos came from a Sqn member that I interviewed in the 1980s. These three airframes were then replaced in the Station Flight by later MD serialled airframes which took up the same individual codes. MD114 DU-G was one of them All three were believed to be in High Altitude scheme, and the photos of MD114 later with 602 Sqn show such. So yes there are other photos of DU coded Mk.VIIs. I have no doubt that MB763 was likely always in DFS but the interesting thing is that apparently it was still up there in the Orkneys if it was damaged with 313 Sqn in July 1944. I have no info on the 'KS' codes as Franta from DK Decals did that sheet with his Czech contacts and I was not involved. Steve Mackenzie

EV-W FL218 as per photos below. Serial is readable.

Incorrect - kit 03939 is a re-issue of the SH mouldings and has all the parts for the bomber nose included as per the sprue shots linked to by Jerry Brewer on post #2. kit 4420 is a rework of the 1970's Revell A-20 moulds and only includes a solid fighter nose. The only clear parts are for the cockpit canopy and the gunners position. I have both kits and just checked 4420 to confirm what was included.

Yes that Revell boxing has all the parts to do a Mk.III Boston. Unlike SH who block off the gates so that you only get the parts appropiate for the version they have in the boxing, Revell's release includes the parts used for all the NF versions. That includes the bomber noses as some of the P-70 ones that SH did had overpainted bomber noses.

Shown in the open position on this photo (last Australian production airframe)

The crest on the nose of BS342 is Cerberus, the 3 headed dog that guards the gates of the Underworld to prevent the dead from leaving. It is the centrepiece of the 238 Sqn badge. Thus that lineup has been said to be of 238 Sqn airframes.

Has happened before. Way, way back the FROG PV-1 Ventura was on sale in Sydney (the local shop got one container full which sold out in 3 days) but was never sold retail in the U.K where it was made before FROG went bust. No I didn't buy one.

Note - create an account first to get FREE downloads, otherwise they charge 3.50 PDST for item.

The 73 Sqn book (actually books) is 'The History of 73 Squadron' by Don Mintern. Tutor Publications, Dorchester. I only have Vol 2 (ISBN 0 9523157 1) published in 1997. There were 3 Vols, the last covering the Spitfire period. As I said there were a number of variations, but in general the flash became more toned down as the war progressed.

Originally it was but on Spitfires it was toned down somewhat to a Dark Blue flash with 2 NARROW Yellow stripes (there were a couple of other variations in between also). See this discussion for more details plus photos.