Graham Boak

The Hasegawa canopy doesn't quite go down as far as the Mk.VIIs, and it does have a bottom frame. Worth considering though.

Looks like Tom from Tom and Jerry.

Yes, somewhere warm. I suspect the Med in August would count as warm. However a sensible pilot wouldn't fly with bare skin showing - not only because temperatures fall with altitude but also in case of fire.

Is this right? Or is the thrust line of the single-stage Griffon higher? Just an impression which may be wrong, but the Mk.XII always seems a little bit "perkier" than the sleeker, perhaps slightly drooped Mk.XIV. I could be being influenced by the old Frog Mk.XIV, which definitely did need the thrust line dropping, but is surely a poor guide to the earlier variant.

Well, you could pass one of them to Greenshirt above. I suspect that Hasegawa Spitfires will remain quite saleable for some time. I must admit tending to keep older "superseded" kits and even eventually making them (one day, yeah right), rather than sell on and spend yet more money on new ones. This could well have something to do with not having too large a stock of kits that are actually untouched and thus saleable! If they need a bit more modelling than the SuperKit then that's the hobby I'm in, after all. Which is not the same thing as actually buying an old kit where a better one is available of the subject, though I must admit getting an original Frog Typhoon (which I missed when it came out) just out of curiosity. There is a certain nostalgic attraction to those 1950s 1/72 kits which I never had at the time nor since - anyone got a cheap Frog Venom going?

That last photo doesn't look like a UK harbour, does it? Which suggests post Dragoon, so the stripes have been removed from most aircraft. Supporting this both JV145 and the one behind shows signs of a changes of tone corresponding to over-painted stripes. JV145 is recorded in FAA Aircraft 1939-45 as 804/L and then 800/E.L. If you want a theory, the white-outlined red codes were carried by the combined unit for a brief period (i.e transfer to the Med and Dragoon itself) as a gesture, only to be later replaced (when down-time and local repainting permitted?) by the original white of 800. It makes sense to me, anyway.

Thanks for re-posting this document. I don't recall seeing it before (which may simply be my memory, of course). Your previous comments have made clear that the SAAF did not adopt this colour. Therefore they will have received their Hurricanes in the UK Sky Blue, or repainted them in Sky Blue (using UK or locally-provided paints), and left them in this colour upon transfer to East Africa although the local instructions there were for the different Light (Middle East) Blue. Which wouldn't surprise me, and has the benefit of being a very simple answer to the original question: use the ColourCoats RAAF Sky Blue. I presume that South African supplies of Sky Blue were effectively identical to the UK colour, and thus the references to SAAF Sky Blue in the recent booklet do not refer to anything other than this. However it seems odd that it was thought necessary to distinguish only this colour in this way, which implies to me some difference to the standard RAF Sky Blue. However perhaps this is a question for the authors.

I've recently bought the Falcon Spitfire canopy set in order to get a Mk.VII canopy. You mean I could just have used the one from my spare Hasegawa kit? Whinge mumble moan. Ah well, lots of other possible let uses for the other canopies in the set. the

Look down the centre row of photos in your link and you will find E.W JV105.

Light ME Blue was a colour created in the Middle East, before the adoption of Azure Blue. It didn't exist in Air Ministry chips in the UK. There has been discussion of this on this site, with research from Nick Millman describing this colour and how it was created. It will be somewhere in the discussions on the so-called spaghetti scheme seen on Hurricanes and Fulmars in early 1941. It seems very likely to me that this colour is, or was developed from, the colour samples sent back to the UK that led to the adoption of Azure Blue. It was not duck egg blue, because that is just another term for Sky which was not considered acceptable in the ME because it was too light. It surely cannot be Sky Blue because that colour was even lighter than Sky. So if the colour named SAAF Blue can be considered as of a more intense hue than Sky Blue. Whether it is exactly the same as Azure Blue or even Light ME Blue, is I think unknown, but it presumably lies closer to these than to Sky Blue. I have seen a colour photo of the Hartbeest in the SAAF Museum with just such a blue, though I've no idea of the thinking of the curators. It is possible that the SAAF considered the pale RAF Sky Blue to be suitable but in that case why adopt a variant of Light ME Blue at all? Nonetheless finer details can go by the board in an emergency. PS I was thinking perhaps of this one Which however is NOT the one defining Light (ME) Blue. I have not yet been able to find one that did. There is a lot of relevant information in this one which you will doubtless recognise, Stefan. There are a number of other threads yet to search... oh for someone (Paul Lucas?) to tie these together and publish them in one place. Or perhaps I need to be looking in his articles.

It's a Hurricane: no hooks, no spools, and never converted at General Aircraft. Even if it is in the Navy, it isn't a Sea Hurricane. (Similarly Spitfires and Seafires a year later.) I do like the high demarcation scheme with Sky Grey, but as the aircraft didn't join the Navy until 12 months after the Temperate Sea Scheme with Sky undersides had been adopted, my vote is for Sky I'm afraid. Of course as the FAA should have had Hurricanes a lot sooner you can always regard it as a well-deserved What If. Or just enjoy it anyway.

According to the new book referenced above, the Mohawks retained RAF Sky undersides.

The Mk.XII had the wing from the Mk.Vc, as did the Mk.IX. There may be fine detail changes, but not important other than the oil cooler. (Just remembered that.)

The Eduard kits may indeed have finer details and more accurate shapes than previous kits, and so require greater attention and care, but they are still just plastic models. The same skills are required.

Lots of reasons, usually boiling down to lack of references or some specific interest. Perhaps he has a daughter called Teresa? JV188 was E.T, so there's nothing wrong with that. 800 Sq did paint their aircraft like that so that's ok too. It is only the combination of the two that might be wrong. I don't see a unit in the Med adding stripes to a replacement aircraft, some might see that as keeping things tiddley (neat and tidy the RN way) or maintaining a squadron distinction. Perhaps there is a photo? Getting the codes the wrong way round is presumably because he only had a view of the port side and assumed the carrier code would always be ahead of the roundel. Sadly the FAA wasn't consistent like that. I'm a little surprised that no-one else has come in yet.