Rabbit Leader

Interesting coincidence and just like the Gannets unique wingfold, the Barracuda’s wing stowage mechanism is even stranger. Both would be very interesting to design and model. Cheers.. Dave

Fantastic choice… cannot wait to see this kit being built. I’ve got the excellent Trumpeter 1/72 rendition and can only image how good this will look in larger 1/48 scale. Cheers and best of luck.. Dave

Great subject choice Gerard. The A-6 and this era of warfare will make for an excellent Salty Dog GB topic. Looking forward to seeing how you get on with all of this. Cheers and best of luck .. Dave

Happy New Year to you and Mrs. OD as well Tony. Enjoy the days off and catch up with you in 2023. Cheers.. Dave

Just adding my two bobs worth, I would think there’s more of a ‘potential’ market for a 1/48 Gannet to fill the void left behind from the hard to obtain and (when you do find one) expensive Classic Airframes kit. We’ve had the Revell, Trumpeter and Sword kits (of varying versions) in 1/72 scale, so modellers who already have either of these kits are probably less likely to buy another Gannet kit. Don’t get me wrong, my preference is for 1/72 scale, however my head tells me if it is a Gannet, she’ll be a big, folded wing optioned, multi boxed versioned 1/48 scale kit. Cheers.. (an often wrong) Dave

These series of articles are what got me interested in Paul Lucas’ content, so are highly recommended. Now I personally do not own any of the new Colour Conundrum books, however have all these articles as part of an online app I subscribe to on my iPad. The app is called Magster and for $A50 a year (approx GBP 25) you get the Paul Lucas articles as part of the whole Scale Aircraft Modelling magazine. Not only that, there’s also about 25 or so Warpaint books ready to download and a number of ‘House & Garden’ type magazines that should keep the Missus happy. I had no trouble re-subscribing again this year as Mrs RL gets onto the app more times than I do! Cheers.. Dave

Looks great, I’d be keen to see what the Canadian decals look like. I’m sure you’ll post the kits contents once you get it. Best of luck.. Dave

Enjoy the nap Heather….. Now when I ended up doing my No. 22 Squadron Beaufort, I spent quite a bit of time researching serials, codes and (importantly) Type A or B camouflage scheme combinations (something very often overlooked). I ended up finding all sorts of good info and am happy to share some with you to aid and hopefully lessen your research time. Now from what I’ve got, No. 22 Squadron operated at least three OA:G marked Beauforts. L4465 - 10.01.40 to 15.04.40 L4472 - 22.04.40 to 07.05.40 L9790 - 25.05.40 to 29.06.41 Best to run these three serials via Google and see where you end up. No doubt a few will end up at the RAF Commands website, where further details will be made available, unfortunately mostly of their crews tragic fate. Cheers and hope this is of some help.. Dave (here’s my L4461 OA:U, circa April 1940)

So impressive and all beautifully made. A very nice all round collection with lots of plastic card, strip and head scratching innovation expended. Great job Adrian. Cheers.. Dave

Great work Heather, really nice progress. A couple of points if I may.. I believe the lower fuselage towel rail was a later fit and is subject to the time period of Beaufort you are modelling (I’m sure yours is 1940!). I built mine as an initial 22 Squadron aircraft so elected to leave this part off. The rear turret is a little awkward to build up as we would normally assemble such kits. I painted up all the individual parts first, then attached the rear clear portion (only) to the turret base. Once dry I inserted this assembly to the rear fuselage, then with a bit of jiggling attached the front turret part over the gun and lined it up as best I could to rear half of the turret. Not the ideal way I would have liked to tackle this area, however it was the best method I came up with at the time. Cheers.. Dave

Sorry Dave, there is no ‘however’ here. You have no idea what Ian’s ‘assistance’ was, so how can one hope these errors would have been noticed and highlighted at some point because of it? Which is exactly what I said. Please just read the words I’ve written and not the words you seem to have ‘inserted’ to come to this incorrect conclusion. I’m not the one that added Ian’s name to the kits instruction sheet, that would be someone at Airfix. FYI let me repeat my comment again. “No, that would not be fair, however as Ian’s name is credited as providing ‘assistance’, one would have hoped that these errors would have been noticed and highlighted at some point. I have no idea when Ian’s input was provided - whether it was just at the start, during the kits development or reviewing the tooling at the end.”

That’s the beauty of this GB, so many choices on offer and it’s quite hard to decide what to do. We’ll all watch on and see how you go with these Stu. Best of luck. Cheers.. Dave

Thanks Paul, thats some sound advice. I’m seriously considering doing something with rigging within the ‘Out of my Comfort Zone’ GB, I’m sure the encouragement will be more than generous. Cheers.. Dave

From someone who knows… can I say that’s highly recommended!

….. Mother would probably throw Rocks at it! Thanks Tony, please add this to the build list whenever you get the chance. Cheers.. Dave

Very nicely done, you don’t see too many Spit Va’s so it’s always good to see something quite familiar but also slightly different. Looks perfect in every aspect. Cheers and nicely modelled.. Dave

Nice choice Bill, I’ve got the same kit although in the even earlier blister pack so will be watching on with interest. My inherent fear of rigging does however keep this kit firmly stashed so your build may possibly entice me to go silly and give it a crack! Cheers and best of luck.. Dave

Right then, decision made! The Revell Gannet will be the first Salty Dog off this potential list of British export Carrier subjects. I’ve pretty much got everything I need to make a decent start and have made good progress reading the very good Mushroom publications book “Submarine Hunter”. This kit is also the oldest one of the four in my stash, so probably deserves to be built more than the other three. A few years ago I also purchased the excellent CTA (Cut then Add) ‘Aussies at Sea’ decal sheet, which has two Gannet schemes on this large and very impressive decal sheet. Still yet to decide which one of these schemes to do, however the basic colours are identical, so its just a matter of what decals I happen to slap on when I get there. Since the initial post, I’ve also managed to track down a spare set of Canadian Banshee decals from another BM member, so that kit is also a good possibility when these decals arrive from overseas. Cheers.. Dave

No, that would not be fair, however as Ian’s name is credited as providing ‘assistance’, one would have hoped that these errors would have been noticed and highlighted at some point. I have no idea when Ian’s input was provided - whether it was just at the start, during the kits development or reviewing the tooling at the end. Cheers.. Dave

I’m sure it is, although Airfix do credit him with assisting them in the design and development of their new tooled Mossie XVI - which as we all know has a number of ‘not quite right’ issues. Cheers.. Dave

I’m going to start a Revell Gannet WIP thread for the Salty Dog GB - this starts on the 7th of Jan. Three days later, Airfix will announce their new tool Gannet kit on the 10th. Naturally, this will generate one of those ‘All you wanted to know’ threads, which will raise my interest in the subject and suit my build plans perfectly. Cheers.. (a very convinced) Dave

Nice choice Steve, I’ll be watching on with interest and joining you with Hobbycraft s larger -3 version soon enough. I hear the kits have many similarities so it will be nice to see how you get on with this one. Cheers and all the best .. Dave

I've lost count of the amount of times I've tried to 'educate' modelers (especially on FB) who have incorrectly applied two letter squadron codes the wrong way (example: AB-C one side, A-BC the other). No matter how nice I think I've approached the matter, there is always someone else who takes offence to my comments and tells me that I am wrong, or how the heck would I know? I now stop giving 'educational' feedback and just say something positive without offering advice, or just ignore things altogether. Shame it's all come to this, but trying to help sometimes is just not worth the trouble. Cheers.. Dave

As others have mentioned, that would be a safe bet. The initial Avro Anson colours were painted overall Aluminum. When 'war clouds' were looming, the top surfaces were painted Dark Green and Dark Earth whilst the lower sides were left in their painted Aluminum finish. Sometime during mid 1940, Sky paint was applied over the Aluminum, however the exact dates and / or any official orders for this are not exactly at my disposal at the moment. Paul Lucas penned a good book a number of years back "Camouflage & Markings 2: The Battle For Britain-RAF May to December 1940', which details all this much further. Cheers... Dave

My understanding is that the lower surfaces of Coastal Command aircraft went from Aluminum to Sky, with no Black / White 'Fighter Command' style split pattern being applied to this command's aircraft. A good study of photos for the period should set you straight. Cheers.. Dave