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An Albert's Tale (or four, or even five)..... Actually a Beady Eyed Herky Debs Albert Epic...


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Hi Debs,

Looking at the photos of your period appropriate Herc and ref: cream. I think possibly that vallejo's Aged White might work well.

Unfortunately no funny stories from me as I'm a STAB and we rather famously lack a sense of humour (breaking my kneetripping over a kerb at Chilwell doesn't really count) but I am enjoying both aspects of this thread immensely.

Cheers,

Paul

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Cracking photo's Tony.

Thank You. :)

Although the last one's bloody odd - roller conveyor with side guidance rails and a forward and central seat fit?

Definitely not a Para set up!

Also the photo is 180 degrees about face (ie a mirror) because the entrance to the Freight Bay at Station 245 was on the port side not on the stbd.

Cheers Deb`s, I`ll wind my neck in now and stop hogging your excellent thread!

Oh yeah,....I didn`t notice the roller conveyors,....I was mainly looking at the seat fit to be honest, plus it is a good reference for the roof! plumbing etc,....although I think that it is probably a C-130J? I`m not sure what you mean by Station 245 but my failing memory seems to remember the entrance from the cargo bay to the cockpit area being on the left hand side where the forward entrance door was,.....is that what you mean?

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Aye, Station 245 was the bulkhead 'tween the flight deck and freight bay.

It could be a J (more probably an H) - the floor doesn't look like the Brit floor in the K to me.

No the British `legacy' (urgh,...horrible business speak word) Mk.1 & 3 Herks had much thinner anti slip panels on the floor rather than those larger looking ones. I was just using the pic as a reference for the seats and roof detail really, especially as it is hard to find a photo showing the middle seating in place.

Tony

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That's a J back end albeit not a Brit one. Certainly don't have roller down for para but the side guidance as you know it from the K is a permanent fit on the J.

All this talk of Hercs has got me thinking that I could perhaps nearly almost maybe possibly get round to doing the 1/48 J I've had for what must be nearly 10 years now...... Maybe.

Interesting reading Debs. Trying to work out if I know you but suspect you left the K as I joined it. Looking forward to seeing how Snoopy turns out; I did 3 or 4 dets on it as gear monkey too. Still driving the J albeit in my spare time now; day job driving one of Mr Branson's shiny 'planes.

PS. Uncle Fester could indeed be a bit grumpy but I also got on with him just fine :)

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Top photo definitely a J, it has Dash 4a side guidance rails and roller fitted which the K didn't. The other give aways are the wider panel on the hog's trough in the roof and the NVG compatible lighting. The other is a K but it looks far too clean to be real.

I know what you mean about how close the Harvard got. I once asked one of the Harvard pilots how he judged his position and he told me that it was just a matter of keeping the cargo door's hinge line in view - and trusting the Loadie to marshal him in correctly. I don't know about walking on to its wing, I used to say it was close enough to read KLG on the spark plugs. The Harvard's prop was often less than three feet from the edge of the ramp!

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I second the Vallejo Aged White recommendation, Debs.

Awesome photos, Tony. You mentioned earlier that the sickness comes because you can't see out. The same is true of seasickness. Baby sailors who were feeling rough always wanted to curl up & groan in their pit, and took a lot of persuading that doing the opposite was far better. Get somewhere where you can see the horizon, preferably on the upper deck so you also get fresh air. It's amazing how quickly you feel better.

Always had the utmost respect for anyone who would jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft, let alone carrying that sort of weight. In the Falklands I was working on Fearless' flight deck for most of the war, and some of the SF bergens were so heavy I could barely lift them (& I was a Navy rugby player in those days, not the middle-aged lard-bottom I am now). By about D+3, CO SAS (Mike Rose) was basically using the 3BAS Gazelles & AAC Scouts as personal taxis. He'd just saunter onto the deck, wave at me, get cleared under the disc by the pilot, and stand on the skids hanging onto the flot gear. Completely illegal in peacetime, but provided someone stood on the other skid so the CofG didn't go completely out of limits, it seemed to work OK for short hops. I can't help thinking the Scout's over-torque alarms must have been ringing like a telephone, but they got away with it.

The same mob did the trials to get clearance to para drop from the back of a Sea King 4 while we were at Ascension, too.

Bonkers.

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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I second the Vallejo Aged White recommendation, Debs.

Awesome photos, Tony. You mentioned earlier that the sickness comes because you can't see out. The same is true of seasickness. Baby sailors who were feeling rough always wanted to curl up & groan in their pit, and took a lot of persuading that doing the opposite was far better. Get somewhere where you can see the horizon, preferably on the upper deck so you also get fresh air. It's amazing how quickly you feel better.

Always had the utmost respect for anyone who would jump out of a perfectly serviceable aircraft, let alone carrying that sort of weight. In the Falklands I was working on Fearless' flight deck for most of the war, and some of the SF bergens were so heavy I could barely lift them (& I was a Navy rugby player in those days, not the middle-aged lard-bottom I am now). By about D+3, CO SAS (Mike Rose) was basically using the 3BAS Gazelles & AAC Scouts as personal taxis. He'd just saunter onto the deck, wave at me, get cleared under the disc by the pilot, and stand on the skids hanging onto the flot gear. Completely illegal in peacetime, but provided someone stood on the other skid so the CofG didn't go completely out of limits, it seemed to work OK for short hops. I can't help thinking the Scout's over-torque alarms must have been ringing like a telephone, but they got away with it.

The same mob did the trials to get clearance to para drop from the back of a Sea King 4 while we were at Ascension, too.

Bonkers.

I knew there was a method in my madness when it came to air/sea sickness which is why I always ask for a window seat on airliners nowadays and go up on deck on a ship, but away from the funnel fumes!

I`ve seen blokes jumping from a Sea King HC.4 during the 80`s but it was by no means common and it was normally the Herk, Chinook or Balloon that was used. I`ve also abseiled from a Scout with four of standing on the skids, two per side and the pilot (mad man!) decided to go off flying around over Aldershot with us hanging on for grim death,.... which wasn`t the most pleasant experience I`ve ever had,.......trying to stop your boots from slipping off those skids (which are unbelievably chunky when you think how spindly they are on the Airfix kit!) and holding a locking hold on the abseil kit! Why anybody would choose to fly around like that rather than getting inside the cabin beats me,.....but then again you have to be slightly bonkers to be SAS/SBS!

Speaking of bonkers,.....having seen a Lynx land on such a small deck in high sea`s once while on exercise,...... bloody hell,....... that and some superb flying by Junglie pilots over the years has given me such great respect for naval aircrew like yourself and this led to my interest in the Fleet Air Arm.

Cheers

Tony

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I

Awesome photos, Tony. You mentioned earlier that the sickness comes because you can't see out. The same is true of seasickness. Baby sailors who were feeling rough always wanted to curl up & groan in their pit, and took a lot of persuading that doing the opposite was far better. Get somewhere where you can see the horizon, preferably on the upper deck so you also get fresh air. It's amazing how quickly you feel better.

I preferred a mix of the two curling up on the flight deck in a force 10, at least the noise of the wind drowned out my sobs of 'let me off, I want to go home' and that was just as we passed the Isle of Wight! I thank the RN for the MASU draft, two and a half years of living it up like the RAF and no ships :thumbsup:

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WRT Flight Deck colours you need to be careful.

During my time it looked like this:

ATT00012_zpsgl9fvx2y.jpg

Although the seat cushions, armrests, and headrests could also be a faded yellow.

Is that "painted at Lockheed's" or "painted at Marshall's" cream do we know?

Wiv moi being "in the trade",I can more than likely suss out the FS/BS.381/RAL/BS4800 or what ever it is

they were daubed with for ye if ye're interested Debs/other folkses building/planning to build 'Erkerleeses.

Love how it say's "Lockheed" in great big letters on the rudder pedals just in case anyone forgot what they were driving

for ATC purposes or something.

Edited by Miggers
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I'm petty sure that the RAF Alberts' interiors were painted by Lockheed at Marietta, Georgia. They certainly looked the same as the late C-130E/early C-130H that I have been onboard.

So if you can work out the paint codes that would be great. :)

Originally there was an enamel badge in the centre of the yoke atop the control column.:

37d691f1124630686f14d4083a664dbe_zpserqp

Sadly by my time on Albert, said badges had all been half-inched!

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Whilst waiting for stuff to arrive (paint) so that I can continue with the Flight Deck, I continued with the theme of 'Small Acorns and Large Oaks' by having a look at the landing gear, specifically the wheels.

Sadly both the Airfix and the Italeri are not without problems. Looking at the main gear, both manufacturers have reproduced some spurious bolt heads on the hub which are not present on the real thing. Indeed the rim of the main wheel hub on Albert has a 'channel' shape:

DSCF1385_zpszorp0mae.jpg

Turning to the size of the wheels, the Airfix are overscale in diameter but about right in section, whereas the Italeri are correct in diameter but somewhat too thin in section.

I therefore elected to go with the Italeri but to widen the tyre by sandwiching a piece of 20thou plastikard between the 2 halves:

DSCF1388_zpsoraqfxz9.jpg

DSCF1389_zps7psbckup.jpg

This was then sanded to shape:

DSCF1390_zps6kndeujy.jpg

The offending bolt heads were gently removed, and then the PE overlays supplied on the Flightpath etch put in place:

DSCF1391_zpsjranbwbo.jpg

Et voila. Far better as I'm sure you will agree:

DSCF1392_zpsbm0fq9gv.jpg

So that's one down with 3 to go. Once I have completed the set I will use them as masters to cast them in resin.

WRT the nosewheels, again there are problems:

DSCF1386_zpsqqjcp19t.jpg

The Italeri is better in diameter and has a better rendition of the hub but, just like with the mainwheels the Italeri is too thin in section. A similar technique was therefore used to widen the tyre. Having done so, again, these will be used as masters to cast up new nosewheels in resin.

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Although I do have this as a cloth badge:

12234888_1034660699930681_72675322690271

You want to see the t-shirts that I've got............................,they're USAF but indeed have Alby connections.

I'll grab a mug-shot of 'em when I get chance.

I'll have a dekko at my paint charts in the morning at work,but off the top of my head(yes,it is flat before anyone else mentions it :spider: ),

I'd say possibly 13594,Aircraft Cream ANA507

Edited by Miggers
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I`ve also abseiled from a Scout with four of us standing on the skids, two per side...

You're Lewis Collins in the not-very-camp-really Who Dares Wins, aren't you?

Speaking of bonkers,.....having seen a Lynx land on such a small deck in high sea`s once while on exercise...

The sport of kings! People either love the challenge of deck landings or simply see them as a means of finishing the sortie. I was definitely in the former camp - I ended up with over 1,200 of them in my log book, and never got bored with them (in a Lynx, anyway; Sea King on a Type 22 could be a whole different ball game!).

Like most things, it isn't as lunatic as it often looks; even in the heaviest of seas, a ship will have brief periods when the deck is still. The knack is to get to know your ship's characteristics so that you come to be able to sit in the hover alongside, looking ahead at the bow, and predict when those relatively still 5 second periods will be. Then when the moment comes, don't fanny about; move sideways, get yourself over the grid and throw it down. The Lynx was designed as a deck lander from the outset (hence the odd wheel arrangement and lack of proper brakes), and could take a shed-load of G provided you were going straight down.

Edited by Ex-FAAWAFU
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A grunt from your Observer was the audible sign!

I flew Sea Kings first, and when it came to the DL part of the conversion the instructor took me up to Merryfield and told me to do a deck landing. Then he took control and showed me a Lynx deck landing. There was quite a difference, and it took me a while to gain the confidence to chuck it down really hard. The pilot will chicken out long before the aircraft will - and remember you can push through into negative pitch as soon as you are on deck (the blades pushing the cab downwards), and engage the harpoon (deck lock, not the missile), so the thing can handle some really hideous seas. As I say, the only critical thing was to be going straight down; any drift and you were in a whole heap of cack.

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Ex-FAAWAFU, on 18 Jan 2016 - 12:30 PM, said:

A grunt from your Observer was the audible sign!

I flew Sea Kings first, and when it came to the DL part of the conversion the instructor took me up to Merryfield and told me to do a deck landing. Then he took control and showed me a Lynx deck landing. There was quite a difference, and it took me a while to gain the confidence to chuck it down really hard. The pilot will chicken out long before the aircraft will - and remember you can push through into negative pitch as soon as you are on deck (the blades pushing the cab downwards), and engage the harpoon (deck lock, not the missile), so the thing can handle some really hideous seas. As I say, the only critical thing was to be going straight down; any drift and you were in a whole heap of cack.

And we Canuckians invented the Beartrap to take the guesswork out of the process.

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I've also been doing a wee bit of casting, albeit a tad out of sequence since it concerns the Tanker.

I alluded earlier on that I was thinking of using the C-Scale white metal Tanker parts as masters to cast up resin in case anyone wanted to build a Tanker. Well I had a request, so here they are.

HDU cooling intakes:

DSCF1393_zpsyblbi4lk.jpg

Miscellaneous bits 'n' pieces. From the left, starboard side fuselage HDU heat exchanger exhaust, under-fuselage HDU heat exchanger exhaust, spotlight holder, drogue:

DSCF1395_zps0pl6mf1j.jpg

Looks like I got a couple of air bubbles in the second strip. :(

I can't yet show you the HDU and HDU fairing because I am still awaiting the second half of the 2 part mould to cure.

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Looking good Debs,have found out why there is a fuel vent in the ducks bill.It was originally a vent for use when a fuel cell was carried in the cargo area.Infact the tanker aircraft used this facility.Why all the legacy hercs needed this is beyond me,Maybe Lockheed were thinking of using them to transport fuel in bulk.

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