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Graham Boak

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Everything posted by Graham Boak

  1. 45 years on, is that surprising? Your Fiesta is also turbocharged. The big US V8s were not designed for high power per litre but good solid dependable running. Even as a racing engine they were matched and often beaten by Ferraris with half the engine size. Some good racing though.
  2. The canopy certainly wasn't. One of my few attempts at push-moulding wasn't brilliant but it was better than Frog's. And yes, it was a bit clunky, but that was almost a definition of Frog kits by that stage. Not too bad.
  3. Given that the FRS2 was an FRS1 with an extra fuselage section, I think there's no "might" about it. However the pitot probe is a good point.
  4. Most of the esoteric subjects are WW2. Because most of the aircraft ever built were WW2, and there are still untouched subjects.
  5. How far out? I do have a Skybirds night fighter. if you are desperate for one. I didn't realise Magma did one, but I suspect the less said the better. Possibly expunged from memory banks.
  6. I'd rate them slightly higher. Not quite up to the latest "1000 piece" kits but still above the average,
  7. Quite sensible if this was the 76 topcoat, with only the top of the fuselage colours and mottle to be added. Turning to the tailpiece. This not a 1945 photo, with the depleted-pigment version of the 76. This is 1943, when 76 was a distinct blue-grey, not an off-white. The photo suggests that this part was subcontracted, and it it might well have been primed if it had to be built elsewhere and transported, with inevitable built-in delays. In all the different prints of this picture I have seen, as shown here with various shades of the main fuselage colour, this tailpiece never seems to have the slightest hint of blue - it is off-white (and not very far off) in all of them. Whatever it is, it is not 76. Not yet suggested is that these airframes may have been intended for the desert, with the brighter blue. I don't think so, but it makes more sense than an unknown colour invented to match one of the options of a varied colour photo.
  8. It is difficult to imagine them not using whatever material was available. Herdla in Norway had a planked runway, so it would seem like an excellent candidate.
  9. They were all clean and gleaming once. It's an entirely legitimate approach to modelling. It wouldn't look right for a Wehrmacht vehicle deep in the heart of Russia, but horses for courses.
  10. I think that Galleria also have a satin finish, not just the straight matt. They do however also do a straight gloss, so a mix could be tried? If you follow this course, do let us know.
  11. There is a widely used/copied profile claiming to be a KG51 Me.410B in 70/71, as indeed presented in the Matchbox model. I've never seen any photograph of such an aircraft in any reference. If this is what you are thinking of, beware.
  12. Doesn't the Hudson have a spanwise elevator with the rearmosr part of the tail sliding into the rear of the fuselage? The point with the elevator would not be to reduce the gaps to the tail sides but to fill them completely, and continue the spanwise gap across the top of the fuselage,? It's a while since I thought about this, but I'm pretty sure that's the case.
  13. This is probably a fool's game. but the two prime candidates I see are the F-104 and the F-5. Both were long-standing well-selling kits for Airfix in the past, and both have retained reputations that suggest they would sell today. The Ju.52 is a bit large to be a favourite here. They did do an F-84 which didn't seem to last in their catalogue but does fit the Fifties trend - I doubt they would have known about the SH offerings to come. So maybe, but a bit of a long shot. I would suggest that the most significant type in the list, never moulded by Airfix, would be the T-33, but trainers don't sell as well. A 1/72 Lynx ? Maybe. The rest I think can be discounted, either because they are civil or have no significant British history. Or those that did have British counterparts (H-19). I wouldn't put it past Airfix to surprise us, but not with one of the more unlikely ones here.
  14. Found it. Two Blenheim photos, one an unarmed Mk.IV, the other, mark undetermined but no gun pack. The latter was being prepared for air-ground exercises with the Norwegian Army in 1943.
  15. Or, Airfix will beat SH to it and their NF Mk.30 will have us all drooling like Airfix tifosi. Of course, those are two separate assumptions.
  16. The Mk.IFs were converted in Southern Railway workshops, and required considerable work in the bombbay for structure and ammunition bins. The actual tray itself only held the guns. So conversion backwards and forwards would not be an easy task. How much of the bomber would be retained I don't know. I do suspect that a defanged Mk.IF would not be much use for anything other than hack work - which may well have been its role in 771 Sq. I suspect 771 was more a support unit than having a specific role in crew training. Being based near Scapa, there would be a large continuing need for air-ship training, for which any actual armament would be discouraged in case of incidents. My copy of Sky over Scapa seems to have disappeared into L-space, sorry.
  17. You've made your point with me. I was looking at/thinking of the view more from above, which showed them apparently much wider than the earlier shrouds. Whereas they would at least make a better starting point for the final shroud, perhaps you should send the photo to Special Hobby. With, of course, confirmation that they were like this on the Mk.30. I have just looked through a number of my Mosquito books, but there certainly are a large number of wartime Mk.30s with the plain shrouds, and a majority of postwar with the later ones. Every profile I found shows the later ones, but I only found one possibly wartime photo, claiming to be winter 1944/45, showing these fitted. As SH have also announced a number of accessories for their kit, it will be interesting to see if the later shrouds are offered, there or as an option in the kit. Whilst waiting to find out what the markings options are, I think it fair to say that SH are still ahead on points. Annoyingly, if the shrouds aren't needed, then I could have done, or still do, an NF30 without the SH kit. I also have a feeling that I obtained a set from somewhere for a Halifax. If they are still available...
  18. There is a reference to 02 primer being abandoned for interiors in 1943. This is clearly relevant, but not by how much. There would indeed be testing and approval required, as in everything, but much of this would have been done before production began, and the transference of licences would not have taken long. Nor, I suspect, would the ability of the other companies to produce to the new standard. I have seen it said that the shelf life of paints in RAF stores was 2 years. If this was also the case for German paints then we are looking at perhaps early 1941 as the time for a complete change.
  19. That's true enough about the details, but when it comes to making the first of the GA's, in particular the project drawings at the start of the project, the basic dimensions would be right. Things like span, length and taper ratio would be what was thought to be correct at the time. This belongs to a time before the more detailed drawings had been considered. OK, I wasn't around in Hurricane days, but I was at Hawkers, working adjacent to the project office, in the days of the 1182 (Hawk) and 1184 (not the final Harrier II). The draughtsmen who drew up these were serious engineers and would be insulted by such comments. Whilst they would agree entirely with such comments as the importance of working from the lower levels than the GA - once these existed.
  20. Aren't they the same as on the Mk.30? Not to mention other late Merlin-engined types. RAE's final attempt at glare-free exhausts. If not, well it is the Mk.30 I want so was going to paint over the radome anyway.
  21. That's the FAA colour scheme. Curiously, I have studied turning my old Frog Typhoon into a naval interceptor (got to be better than a Firebrand) but think Hawker's could have gone to a simpler (in some ways) approach with a smaller wing extension (as flown on a fixed wing) and Fairey-Youngmann flaps to get the approach speed down. As always, once you change one thing something else needs changing (Tempest tailplane?) but I still think something better could be done. This is of course for the fighter, not a torpedo bomber. It's a shame you didn't have the Scale Models with Bentley drawings, of some ten years later.
  22. Extra Dark Sea Grey should look too dark for a Typhoon. The correct colour was Ocean Grey.
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