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DH Hornet and Sea Hornet correct detail reference


ththtttu7

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The story of one Hornet:

 

Hornet PX293 seems to be unique for the type, in having every stage of its flying service marked with a photo, highlighting the variety of colours they wore. It also had one of the longest flying service lives too, from March 46, to May '55.

 

First flight 8th March 1046.

Medium Sea Grey upper surfaces, PRU Blue undersides.

Serials in Night Black on fuselage sides and undersides of wings.

Blue/Red B-type roundals in 4 places. Blue/Red fin flash.

F3_PX293

Delivered to 27MU (Maintenance Unit) 14t August 1946.

Fin extension added.

Delivered to 19 Squadron, coded "A" on the 18th November 1947.

Medium Sea Grey upper surfaces, PRU Blue undersides.

Serials in Night Black on fuselage sides and undersides of wings.

Blue/White/Red D-type roundals in 6 places. Blue/White/Red fin flash.

PX293 Linton 1950-51

Transferred to 27 MU by 17th May 1951.

Transferred to Airwork by 4th June 1952, to be converted to an F4, with the addition of a Target Tow attachment and downward facing cameras.

Green/Grey cammo upper surfaces, PRU Blue undersides with high demarcation line.

Serials in Night Black on fuselage sides and undersides of wings.

Blue/White/Red D-type roundals in 6 places. Blue/White/Red fin flash.

Hornet F4 PX293_V

Work complete by 29th January 1953, at 10 MU.

Ferried to FEAF (Far East Air Force) via Benson from 25th May 1954.

Joined 33 Squadron, coded "V" by 9th June 1954.

Hornet F4 PX293_V in Malaya

With combined squadron 33/45 by 25th March 1955.

SOC (Struck off charge by 27th May 1955.

F4 Hornet PX293 scrapping

 

And here represented by two 1/72 Frog kits.

F3 Hornet 19sqn PX293

 

.

 

Edited by David A Collins
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  • 11 months later...

Wow- incredible photos, John! Thank you so much for sharing them with us! BTW, in that photo of PX239, am I right in assuming the undersides are yellow? What a neat scheme for a modeling project. Such a beautiful airplane- wonder how the restoration of that derelict in Canada is going? (You know, I never noticed until just now that the Hornet had the same paired exhaust stack arrangement as the single-stage Merlin Mossies.) Looks like @David A Collins picked up on that when he did his two Frog Hornets- I sure didn't when I did mine as PX217!)

Mike

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5 hours ago, 72modeler said:

Wow- incredible photos, John! Thank you so much for sharing them with us! BTW, in that photo of PX239, am I right in assuming the undersides are yellow? What a neat scheme for a modeling project. Such a beautiful airplane- wonder how the restoration of that derelict in Canada is going? (You know, I never noticed until just now that the Hornet had the same paired exhaust stack arrangement as the single-stage Merlin Mossies.) Looks like @David A Collins picked up on that when he did his two Frog Hornets- I sure didn't when I did mine as PX217!)

Mike

Thanks Mike @72modeler it is( was) a magnificent aeroplane, good question  about the underside colour, I'd say yes, going on the fact the background inside the circle is a diferant colour to the underside(Ocean Grey?), perhaps to stop the bottom half of the 'P' disappearing? well that's my thoughts.

 

John

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On 6/11/2019 at 8:18 PM, canberra kid said:

Thanks Mike @72modeler it is( was) a magnificent aeroplane, good question  about the underside colour, I'd say yes, going on the fact the background inside the circle is a diferant colour to the underside(Ocean Grey?), perhaps to stop the bottom half of the 'P' disappearing? well that's my thoughts.

 

John

The underside of PX239 was yellow. The circle around the P is the same yellow. This is locally outlined in black. I will upload a photo to illustrate clearly.

 

I'll have to scan in an original photo of PX239, but until I do here is the original NF21 prototype PX230 showing the same detail.

 

48051395668_dd98713619_k.jpgPX230 by hornet project

Edited by David A Collins
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Not sure if this is ‘thread drifting’ however just wondering what’s everyone’s thoughts on the old Frog 1/72 Hornet kit? The Canopy looks a little small IMO and it definitely is if compared to the Special Hobby kit of the same scale. Besides that (not including its general basic details) it appears to be ok. Are there any other obvious issues that one would attempt to fix? 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

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1 hour ago, Rabbit Leader said:

Not sure if this is ‘thread drifting’ however just wondering what’s everyone’s thoughts on the old Frog 1/72 Hornet kit? The Canopy looks a little small IMO and it definitely is if compared to the Special Hobby kit of the same scale. Besides that (not including its general basic details) it appears to be ok. Are there any other obvious issues that one would attempt to fix? 

 

Cheers.. Dave 

Dave,

 

@The Wooksta! of this parish did an article in Scale Aircraft Modelling some years ago where he converted the Frog kit to an F.1, from what I can glean is the fin is too thick and of course there's the lack of detail you'd expect from a Frog kit of that vintage.  He spent some time refining the details and also tackled the tailplane for the F.1 config, I don't know enough about the beast to know what these differences are.

 

His summary was that in spite of a few outline errors it builds up well.

 

P.S Happy Birthday young man!

Edited by Wez
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18 minutes ago, Scimitar F1 said:

Why is it so difficult to get the Hornet right? Is Dynavector the only way to go for an accurate one? I have the Trumoy one but some company really needs to do it justice! 

Couldn't agree more.

 

Talking of getting things right, I have Xtradecal 72124 which is a sheet covering 19 Sqn RAF which includes F.1 PX284/H, it is shown as having a silver fuselage but the wing undersides and engine cowlings are PRU Blue and the top of the forward engine cowlings in MSG.

 

I'm a bit dubious about this, is this an aircraft a partial way through re-paint (which is a very un-RAF thing to do), or does it have a replacement cowling or even wing robbed from another aircraft (which is a very RAF thing to do).  The Warpaint has a profile which has a similar rendition of the scheme but the upper cowlings are PRU Blue.

 

Picking up Troy Smith's mantra about not trusting a profile without a photo, can somebody verify this scheme?

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37 minutes ago, Wez said:

Couldn't agree more.

 

Talking of getting things right, I have Xtradecal 72124 which is a sheet covering 19 Sqn RAF which includes F.1 PX284/H, it is shown as having a silver fuselage but the wing undersides and engine cowlings are PRU Blue and the top of the forward engine cowlings in MSG.

 

I'm a bit dubious about this, is this an aircraft a partial way through re-paint (which is a very un-RAF thing to do), or does it have a replacement cowling or even wing robbed from another aircraft (which is a very RAF thing to do).  The Warpaint has a profile which has a similar rendition of the scheme but the upper cowlings are PRU Blue.

 

Picking up Troy Smith's mantra about not trusting a profile without a photo, can somebody verify this scheme?

 

Hi,

 

There are four main reasons why the Hornet hasn't been modelled accurately by manufacturers so far:

 

1/ Lack of a whole airframe to measure.

 

2/ As far back as the late 40's the length and tail-plane widths of the airframe were published inaccurately for some of the marks, leading to confusion.

 

3/ Accurate manufacturers drawings were not available outside of deHavilland/British Aerospace until recently.

 

4/ Most profile artwork has re-hashed the same inaccuracies and spurious schemes due to lazy research or not actually looking at good photos that have been available for years.

 

And finally, the Frog Hornet doesn't look too bad in plan view, but as a previous poster said thicknesses of many parts are off, leading to parts that cannot be corrected as you start chasing the errors everywhere!

 

Wing is too thick. Fin is too thick. Nose is too pointy. Canopy is too flat.

Edited by David A Collins
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14 hours ago, Wez said:

Couldn't agree more.

 

Talking of getting things right, I have Xtradecal 72124 which is a sheet covering 19 Sqn RAF which includes F.1 PX284/H, it is shown as having a silver fuselage but the wing undersides and engine cowlings are PRU Blue and the top of the forward engine cowlings in MSG.

 

I'm a bit dubious about this, is this an aircraft a partial way through re-paint (which is a very un-RAF thing to do), or does it have a replacement cowling or even wing robbed from another aircraft (which is a very RAF thing to do).  The Warpaint has a profile which has a similar rendition of the scheme but the upper cowlings are PRU Blue.

 

Picking up Troy Smith's mantra about not trusting a profile without a photo, can somebody verify this scheme?

 

Regarding 19 Sqn RAF which includes F.1 PX284/H, I will dig out some photo's to show what is right/wrong with this scheme.

 

There were a couple of aircraft from 19, 64, and 65 Squadron that received partial trial colour schemes. All were rejected.

 

19SQN

- PX246 (two photo's of one scheme)

 

48051434932_f68211774a_k.jpgPX246 by hornet project

 

- PX284 (one photo, three schemes)

 

64SQN

- Unspecified aircraft, description only.

 

65SQN

- PX252 (no photos, description only) - This particular aircraft has had the same incorrect artwork re-hashed for years, in fact currently in the latest Flypast.

 

I will update this thread with descriptions and photo's of these schemes.

 

 

Edited by David A Collins
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16 minutes ago, Jordi said:

A lot of airplanes seem to be cursed.  How long was it before we finally got an accurate 1/48 Spitfire Mk.IX?  

Quite agree about the Hornet. As for the Spit IX, wotabout Eduard?

 

Trevor

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11 hours ago, sloegin57 said:

.....just thought that I would pop this in, following on from Canberra kid's excellent series.

found on the web, thanks to original poster :- 

 

spacer.png

 

Dennis

I love this picture, both props are feathered and the aircraft is only flying on kinetic energy and gravity yet it still looks like it's roaring along at over 400mph!

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Re David Collins' comments on the Frog Hornet kit issues, I am in total agreement with them all-the wings look like they would be better suited for a glider. The wheel bays and cockpit are bare, and although it's a very minor issue and hard to see unless you are looking for it, one of the engine cowlings is 3" longer than the other right behind the spinner backplate due to the gearing needed  to reverse the rotation of one engine, but this poor old Mk 1a brain doesn't recall which one at the moment! Like the rest of you, I think she is one gorgeous airplane and I hope we will see an accurate one in both 1/72 and 1/48 someday.

Mike

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3 hours ago, Wez said:

I love this picture, both props are feathered and the aircraft is only flying on kinetic energy and gravity yet it still looks like it's roaring along at over 400mph!

806 Sqn demonstrated a Hornet F.20 pair at airshows, one of which would perform what was described as an engines stopped (guessing props feathered) loop.  There was also a four ship NF.21 demonstration by 809 Sqn which featured one with both engines going, one each with stb'd & port props feathered and the lead aircraft with both props feathered!

 

 

Is there anything wrong with the Special Hobby Hornet? That looks quite nice to my eyes?

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