Michou

You would need to do a little more work filling and engraving new lines. If you look at the kit instructions, step 16, part 25C, you can see the bomb bay doors and behind them is the air deflector. The rectangular panel on the deflector covers the Green Satin antenna. The PR version has a shorter deflector and between it and the bomb bay there is place for either a survey camera or, in the night role, a flash crate. Does your head spin clockwise or anticlockwise? Mike

Before starting a PR version of the Airfix Valiant you should check out the discussion on December 12, 2012. I don't know how to link you there directly but the subject was "Valiant camera windows" from stever219. (There is also useful information on building the kit to be found on the WIP forum under Pinned Useful Topics.) Briefly, you do not take photos through curved windows - they were flat and recessed. To protect them from dirt, squashed flies, etc., they were covered by sliding panels when not in use. The deflector ramp at the rear of the bomb bay was also a different length. Mike

Sorry J-W, but the fact that I can speak French doesn't make me an expert on French camouflage . I have the Azur/FRROM Potez 25, kit FR0037, and the colour of the Japanese version (a captured French aircraft) is given as Gunze Dark Green H36/C15. The Rumanian version is also the same colour and I presume this to be the original French colour. If I ever get around to making this kit it will be a model of an Imperial Ethiopian Aviation machine - also green! Mike

This might be of some help although it covers the two wars and not the 1930s. http://memorial.flight.free.fr/archives.html Mike

I would not spend too much time trying to seek an exact match to the colours quoted in the Matterhorn decals unless you wish to model a factory-fresh aircraft. Venoms in service wore a patchwork of colours - faded original paint and darker areas of fresh paint where repairs where made. Add to this the possibility that paint intended for the Hunter or Mirage IIIRS could have been used... Look at some US Navy aircraft to get an idea of the mottled appearance. The day-glo orange areas faded to yellow on the upper, exposed surfaces. Switzerland does not appear to have its own national standard for colours. This is the government's description of the colour red to be used for the national flag:- Définition de la couleur rouge: CMYK 0 / 100 / 100 / 0 Pantone 485 C / 485 U RGB 255 / 0 / 0 Hexadécimal #FF0000 Scotchcal 100 -13 RAL 3020 rouge signalisation The six digit numbers which are quoted are most likely Swiss army stores references or the paint manufacturer's reference numbers. Mike

I would suggest blue. The nose of the aircraft and the lightning flash are blue. Look here - http://flyblader.com/onewebmedia/Nr 25 F-86F.pdf Mike

I don't remember the Beverley as loud, just slooow! It took an eternity to fly from Norfolk to Malta. Loud,and really loud, was the RNZAF Bristol Freighter in which I flew from Butterworth to Changi. If I recollect correctly we were given earplugs on entering the aircraft. Mike

Let's hope that I can do it justice! I have an old Max Abt sheet of decals with markings for an Algerian machine which I would like to use. Mike

Thanks, James. That photo of the loop antenna is perfect and the Marker Receiver would be part of the Instrument Landing System. I ought to buy the Eduard MiG which looks superior to all the other available kits but I have a Hobby Boss kit which I want to finish. Mike Ouch! I replied to the wrong person. Soreee!

Thanks, James. That photo of the loop antenna is perfect and the Marker Receiver would be part of the Instrument Landing System. I ought to buy the Eduard MiG which looks superior to all the other available kits but I have a Hobby Boss kit which I want to finish. Mike

Underneath the rear fuselage of the Hobby Boss MiG-15 (1:72 scale) there is a circular and rectangular depression into which transparent plastic panels are placed. There is a similar arrangement underneath the new Airfix MiG-17. What is this? "Transparent" makes one think of lights but it seems an odd place to put lights. What is behind those windows? Radio, radar equipment? What colour should those depressions be painted? Mike

Thanks for your comments. I wrote "Duralumin" with a capital D as this is the word used in the in the 1937 manual for the Dewoitine D.500. Duralumin (upper case D) is a trade name for one of the earliest hard aluminium alloys which I believed used only copper. It has certainly been improved with other additives in the intervening years. Mike

According to the maintenance and repair manual (Notice d'Entretien et de Réparation) Duralumin was varnished. No colour is specified but, as Jure points out in post 10, there is some variation in colours so I would guess it was a transparent varnish. Duralumin was aluminium alloyed with copper, not magnesium. There is some useful information on this site - http://www.master194.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=106591 Scroll down and you will find the manual. The relevant paragraphs have been outlined in red. The complete manual is here - https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k318460b/f1.image.r=notice%20d'entretien%20avion%20Dewoitine This other manual, Notice Descriptive et d'Utilisation, has drawings of more interest to the modeller. https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k317619c.texteImage Mike

I have just taken a look here: https://www.flightglobal.com/flight-international/flight-magazine-archive It seems that the site is under maintenance. Mike

Udet's machine was most definitely RED. There is no need to guess the colour from a black and white photo when it is possible to read a contemporary newspaper report. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung, 26 July 1937, had the following. "Ist etwas passiert? Wo ist Udet? Doch da kommt die rote Maschine..." Has something happened? Where is Udet? Ah, here comes the red machine... Mike

I am quite certain that the photo shows a dummy Blue Danube in a test at the Orfordness bombing range. No aircraft flew beside WZ366 during the live drop. The other aircraft modified for the atomic bomb tests was WZ367 which flew 15 minutes behind 366 to monitor and record the explosion. The Pathé film of the event shows WZ367 taking off but gives the impression that you are looking at the Valiant which actually dropped the bomb. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_NLEOxYJvzI Mike

DG202/G was once the gate guardian at RAF Yatesbury, the radio trades school. When I was there in 1959 my rusty memory tells me that it was painted silver. Sorry, no photo. The aircraft was surrounded by bushes and I did not consider it worth taking a picture. Mike

How do I make a prototype Hurricane? The answers will discuss the radiator, flaps, keel under the rear fuselage, undercarriage doors, tailplane struts... However, nobody mentions the angle of sweep back of the wing leading edge. James Goulding's book, "Interceptor: RAF Single-Seat Multi-Gun Fighters" has on page 70 a 3-view of K5083 with the note, "The straight front spar in the wing can be seen." In the text, "The wing planform of K5083 differed from the subsequent Hurricane wing in having a straight front spar and consequently less leading edge sweep back and considerably more forward taper on the trailing edge. It is very likely that the change of planform for production aircraft was because of the change to eight Browning guns, the weight of which would have moved the centre of gravity too far forward." Comments? Mike

Merci BS, This shows that you can have only a good idea of the appearance of the other side of an aircraft shown in a photo. The Luftwaffe and the RAF had camouflage patterns shown on a grid and the pattern was reproducible to within a couple of centimeters. Mike

I haven't had the book very long so my opinion is formed after a quick browse through it. It is, as far as I am aware, the only book which covers the subject. Do not expect a work similar to those which have appeared on Luftwaffe, RAF and American colour, i.e drawings of camouflage patterns to be applied to specific aircraft and colour chips. If I translate a few words from the preface you will receive some idea of what to expect. "The French, inflexible, always dissatisfied and rebellious, have only vague notions of discipline. The camouflage patterns ... perfectly reflect this mind-set in which the exception is the rule." And the last words of the preface are - "Why be simple when it can be made complicated?" The book does not contain plan views together with left and right profiles of specific aircraft. It does provide enough material to make a convincing model. Mike

Thanks, Alexey. I did look at Scalemates but overlooked it. There are lots of MiG-21s on their database! Mike

It's the beginning of the month and I took a look at the French site "modelstories" where there is a short article on a MiG-21 of unknown provenance. I have this kit (still unbuilt) and have often wondered where it came from. I also have the model moulded from the same tool and sold by a Russian charity, Eternal Memory To Soldiers, which, if I remember correctly, came in a plastic bag with a very poorly reproduced instruction sheet stapled to it. Does anyone know the origin of this model? http://modelstories.free.fr/analyses/avions/MS2019_09P/UNK_MIG21/ http://modelstories.free.fr/analyses/avions/MS2019_09P/UNK_MIG21/DSCF0000.JPG Mike

There are a number of extracts from Italian tech manuals, the "Manuali per il Montaggio e Regolazione" and the "Catalogo Nomenclatore" mentioned by Giorgio, to be found here: http://www.cmpr.it/manuali.htm The pages have been chosen for their interest to modellers and if there are no illustrations of undercarriage bays I think it save to say that there aren't any. Mike

There are extracts from the S.55 tech manuals to be found on this site which you may find useful. http://www.cmpr.it/manuali.htm Mike

My MPM L-29 (kit no. 48042) has a vac-form canopy which has turned golden-brown. That's enough to turn me towards the Trumpeter kit. Mike