Graham Boak

Those balloon tyres look more like the Hardy, the long exhausts aren't for a Demon, and let's see if the fuselage has the correct lower fuselage. Maybe we are just seeing generic tooling intended for other versions, but it is not entirely encouraging.

The Hastings wing is a Halifax wing with extra bits added. I don't have a plan showing this: it did appear on the net a few years ago either here or perhaps on RAF Command Forums. I think that there's little else in common. The engine cowlings are the same diameter but not otherwise identical.

The Valom Hampden kit had over-sized transparencies and did not make a good torpedo-bomber - not a problem with your theme. However AZ replaced the transparencies including the ventral gun position for the torpedo bomber, so is the kit of choice. However the AZ transparencies were available separately. The Airfix tooling, if your example is not too worn, is still acceptable to good. The Hurricane kit of choice fs the Arma Hobby Mk.I. A personal marking carried by Nicholson's aircraft has fairly recently been (re)discovered so the your kit examples provided may lack this. There

It wasn't stuck down but rubbed hard to transfer the shiny surface to produce a (most unprototypical in my opinion) bright metallic finish. Would have looked good on (for example) a prewar Fury cowling but nothing like the duller and multi-tone finish on bare-metal jets. One such model did win the IMPS UK National Championship, so what do I know?

I've come to believe that Mitchell Mk.I s were the only ones in RAF colours. That US-built aircraft in RAF service in Italy retained OD/NA seems to have been normal, but to find that A-20s "broke the rule of thumb" is again interesting. The black underside suggests use as night intruders in a late stage of the campaign. HK serial allocations were largely all in the Middle East for impressed aircraft, of various kinds. Thanks again.

Thanks Syd: I find it surprising that aircraft recently painted in an approved USAAC scheme would be repainted for service in Australia - photo(s) do exist of early A-20/A-20As in these 2xOD colours - particularly as the considerably smaller P-39s were not repainted despite being in British colours. However, even this would only suggest a 2-colour scheme on a handful of aircraft, 3 of the examples given, the other 9 being wrong anyway. Out of 100 in the book, that's probably as high or higher than the majority of similar works available. Your comment on A-20Cs in RAF service in ODG is new

Thanks Jamie, but if you moved the wing backward you wouldn't want a heavier engine but a lighter one? As you imply, it is the relationship between the centre of lift (effectively the quarter-chord line) and the c.g., the latter being slightly forward of the former for stability. You'd certainly need to rebalance the whole design. The benefit of the Lysander's approach is that it increases the field of view for both the pilot and the observer, whereas moving the wing backwards would limit the observer's f.o.v.

I see no reason for it other than to combine crew (not just pilot) visibility with the required wing area. This approach was fairly common on high wings, even on biplanes.

I'm unsure what you mean by IGG: Grey Green interiors was on British aircraft so there is no reason for it to be present on the postwar rebuilds. These will have been whatever the USAF aircraft were. I suspect any built with NA's interpretation of a US interior green would have been repainted during the overhaul, but perhaps not?

I've just received Michael Claringbould's Pacific Profiles 3, which I can heartily recommend to anyone who likes the A-20 family, with 100 colour profiles. However it does leave some questions in my mind as to which colours are meant to be represented. Note that this is not a comment about his representation of these colours in theatre, but about the original factory choice. 1. He has every A-20 in a disruptive camouflage of a mid green and a dark olive green. Looking at Archer's classic work for Monogram on USAAC/F camouflage and markings, this is meant to be Light and Dark Ol

No idea about Vallejo I'm afraid. However Il.2s were not green and brown, but initially green and black, and later a three colour scheme of green, grey and tan (milky coffee). Look on this site for better information: massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/board/index.php and its associated set of profiles. http://massimotessitori.altervista.org/sovietwarplanes/pages/

Cork did the same in his detachment to the RAF. I suspect it may have been common: does anyone know of any other examples?

From my memory, which may be faulty, yes.

I agree. The market for a C-46 will certainly be much larger than for a Kalinin K-7. It is one thing to be enthusiastic that a model exists of an exotic type and quite another thing to buy one. Particularly bearing in mind that in the market, the vast majority of aircraft are exotic. Including the C-46, to be fair, but considerably less so as it does fall into the popular categories of WW2, military and US. As opposed to inter-war and Soviet. Which is sad for those of us attracted to the more exotic types, but if they were popular and widely available they wouldn't be exotic, would they?

You are quite right, it is a work of literary description based on true events but somewhat embroidered. You will find his accounts of major losses to horrendous flak low-level over Germany also somewhat exaggerated (perhaps not the flak, but the losses.)