Michou

Some photos from a little Spanish book which I have. The aircraft is the one in the Museo del Aire. Mike

The drawings are from the IPMS Magazine, June 1970. Mike

This one is easier to read. It was taken at Emmen in 1991. The text in the red and blue circle reads: AIR COMP PRESSLUFT ARIA COMP Mike

Well, Jennings, I was not going to allow someone who didn't understand YouTube formats deprive me of the of the pleasure of looking at Vucans so I had a look around the Internet. I found a program called SMPlayer which permits me to change the aspect ratio. It's getting late in Europe so I have only taken a quick look but it seems to work just the way I want. Mike

How do I adjust the aspect ratio of this film? On my screen it is stretched horizontally and, at the beginning, those guys look like a group of fat dwarfs. Mike

A small photo, but clearly unpainted metal. Mike

You will find very few photgraphs of the Valiant cockpit. When in service, like all the nuclear bombers, it was considered secret. RAF personnel were not permitted to use cameras near the aircraft. Since then the technical documents have become available. Some drawings which may help. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/Valiantcrewstations_zps18aa1736.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/ValiantWToperatorsstation_zpse5841937.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/Valiant1stNavigatorsstation_zpsf83a2676.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/ValiantEngineandfuelcontrols_zpsc653d33c.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/ValiantEmergencyequipment_zpse2251191.jpg Mike

Hi Graham, I find it very hard to believe that Göring had a green Ju 52 but Lorenz appears to have done some serious work. Ref. "Kurt Wollf" - not "initially", but subsequently. It was returned to Lufthansa service in September 1935, repainted in standard Lufthansa colours and carried the name "Kurt Wolff", a WWI ace. As for the lack of replies concerning your project, it would seem that nobody knows which leaves you the possibility of choosing for yourself :-) . I would go for L.40/52 Hellgrau as the easiest to use. It can be matched with RAL7040 plus 40% RAL9001. Mike

I have been looking through my books and browsing the Internet thinking that, perhaps, I could help Graham with his still unanswered question (29 June) concerning the 1936 Olympics Ju 52 and I came across a photo of a Ju 52 on this site - http://www.flugzeug-lorenz.de/index.php?id=51 It is captioned "Hermann Görings dunkelgrüne Ju 52 landet in Dessau." I have found that there was one green Ju 52, D-ALUG named "Joseph Zauritz". It was light green and was the personal transport of Polizei-General Kurt Daluege and there was a brown Ju 52, D-ALUG, used by SA-Stabchef Viktor Lutze. All references indicate that Göring had three red Ju52s: D-2527 (D-AGUK) "Kurt Wollf" D-ABIK "Manfred von Richthofen I" D-ABAQ "Manfred von Richthofen II" Holger Lorenz gives the impression that he has dug quite deeply into the Junkers archives. Has he unearthed something new or is it a simple mistake? Mike

I can't agree that the Monogram model is 1:76 scale. From the station diagrams on the Seawings site the length of the SA-16B is 752 inches (19100.8 mm) and the span is 1160 inches (29464 mm). With these figures a 1:72 scale model should have a span 409.2 mm and length of 265.3 mm. I measured the kit and came up with 408 mm and 269 mm respectively. Close enough for me, and the 1967 boxing and instruction sheet do state 1:72 scale. The kit's biggest failing is the lack of underwing camber. Mike

Let's go back as far as possible to the time when memories have yet to fade. Google "DH88 Comet" and you will find an entry with an illustration from a cigarette card. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/De_Havilland_DH.88 It dates from 1935 and is very small. I have the original set of 50 of these cards in good condition and, in my opinion, the artist does a good job of distinguishing white from silver and from polished metal. It seems to me that the spinners are polished metal and the registration and stripe are white. And then there is this from just a couple of years later: My old Airfix kit built around 1958 and which has survived the years. Mike

Perhaps of interest - a couple of photos of a Swiss Bloodhound (BL64) which I took at Emmen in 1991. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/Bloodhound_Emmen_1981_01.jpg http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/Bloodhound_Emmen_1981_02.jpg This site has some aerial photos of Swiss Bloodhound stes. http://www.c-turbines.ch/bloodhound.html Mike

Not "missing" but according to the Frog bible by Lines and Hellström the mould was damaged beyond economical repair. The Venom kit was in production from 1955 to 1962 and was the first model to be deleted from the Frog catalogue. The last time I managed to pick up a couple of these kits was from a model shop in Norwich and that must have been towards the end of 1962. Mike

It looks like the Frog Venom to me. Here is mine built over 50 years ago and which has somehow survived.

If you really want to add something (and more is definitely less) there could SOMETIMES be faint stains trailing from the bottom of the rear fuselage. This was from the bottom half of the rearmost diagonal frame, station 1145 in this drawing. http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/Valiantfuselagestationsdiag.jpg Also, and perhaps more frequently seen, trailing rearwards from that black hole visible under the tailplane. http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2480/3779633069_347922da75.jpg Mike

The Valiant was a very, very clean aeroplane. Nearly all the systems were electric and there was no leaking hydraulic fluid to stain the airframe. To this ex-Valiant ground-crew's eyes, a pure white model would be far more realistic than one which has been "weathered". Mike

Len, I used to work on Valiants, but that was over half a century back and I have forgotten a lot of the details. According to the AP those anglepoise lamps were red. I have no memories of groping around in a dim red light when working on the radio equipment when the aircraft was on the ground and can only assume that these were used only in flight. There is a very good film of the Black Buck operation which shows white anglepoise lights in the Vulcan. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=40knj0qg_Us However, I think that this was a liberty taken for the purposes of filming. The charts used by the navigators had "strange" colours, apparently optimised for use under a red light. Mike

Will, Most of the photos of Valiants from that period were either taken at air shows or were carefully staged for the press. There are few photos of Valiants surrounded by ground equipment. You just could not take a camera with you to photograph a squadron at work unless you wanted a very rapid and unpleasant end to your career in the RAF. And where nuclear bombs were concerned... When an aircraft was bombed up it was surrounded by a screen and only those whose presence was absolutely essential were inside that screen. Most of the squadron never got to see the reason for their training and for all those exercises. However, there are some photos in the Air-Britain photographic images collection which show the generator. This site might help with information: http://www.airfieldinformationexchange.org/community/showthread.php?2187-Airfield-Ground-Equipment&s=0c3de8a9d199e972451e7933954fa524 And this is a scan from a book: The sockets are just below the chaff/window chutes. There are two black cables, one for 28V and the other for 112V. The thin wire which is just visible crossing the undercarriage door is for the crew-chief's headset. It would not be there during normal maintenance. Incidentally, those chutes should be open. Airfix simply copied the museum aircraft which has them blocked to seal the aircraft. Mike

The 1:96 scale Vulcan and Valiants are Frog kits. The Lindberg Vulcan had straight leading edges and seperate control surfaces. Here are my two Frog kits. Alas, I never had the Frog Victor. The decals on the Valiant are not original and the fin dielectric should not cover the rudder.

Where did that smiley come from? That was supposed to be the letter B inside brackets. Mike

Will, I don't want to discourage you in your project but, on the ground, there would only be lights if (a) The engines were running, i.e. aircrew inside. ( Normal maintenance in which case there would be a generator plugged into the left side of the aircraft. In flight the lights would be UV (invisible to the eye) or dim red. For ground servicing there was general lighting, a single white light in the centre of the canopy and a single white light in the cabin roof. Sorry, but I can't find any illustrations of these. The APs are mainly concerned with the positions of the switches and dimmers, or the electrical circuits and fuses. Your options would appear to be to put the model on a stand in an "in flight" attitude (with pilot figures) or to scratch build a generator for an aircraft under maintenance. Mike

What went wrong there? Let's try again. A small correction: items 70 are the windows and 69 the sliding doors. The doors slide forward to open. Perhaps this drawing is clearer. The doors have the diagonal frame. Mike

I don't have the Airfix mod kit but, judging from photos, I think that they got this one wrong. As Steve pointed out at the start of this thread, you don't take photos through curved windows. Did Airfix get the shortened bomb bay doors and deflector right? I don't think so. The reduced lengths result from an insert, the photo flash crate for the night role or the "fairing" for the day role. The fairing contains a vertical camera which can clearly be seen in the photo which John has posted. The question is - what are the dimensions of the bomb bay doors, insert and deflector? Where's that general when we need him? :-) http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o163/deMichu/ValiantPRNight.jpg Mike

Camera windows- from the AP. Mike