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Aerolineas Argentinas Comet 4 colour schemes


skippiebg

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Aerolineas Argentinas Comet 4s saw a considerable number of variations in their colour schemes. Photos are few, far between, and of crap quality. Some a/c seem only to have a single photo online -- period! Sources are scanty and iffy... All in all, I need help! My research shows this:

 

Comet 4   LV-PLM/-AHN   "Las Tres Marias"   Jan 1959 to retirement 1971    
1st colours: style 1 (thick/thin, tall) titles, plain pinion tanks;
2nd colours: as above plus style 3 (ultimate) titles;
3rd colours (1964 onwards?): as above plus logo on fin, fuselage registration in cheatline

 

Comet 4   LV-PLO/-AHO   "Cruz del Sur, Lucero de la Tarde," then just "Lucero de la Tarde" (thank you!)   Feb 1959 to crash Feb 1960
1st colours: style 2 (bold, tight-set) titles;
2nd colours: as above plus style 3 titles, titles on pinion tanks;
3rd colours: as above plus painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-PLP/-AHP   "El Lucero del Alba"   Mar 1959 to crash Aug 1959
only colours: style 3 titles, titles on pinion tanks, "de Havilland Comet 4/Rolls-Royce Avon Turbojets" credit panel over cheatline aft of port door

 

Comet 4   LV-POV/-AHR   "Alborado," also "Arco Iris" (thank you!)   Feb 1960 to crash Dec 1961    
only colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-POZ/-AHS   "Las Tres Marias," then "Alborada" (thank you!)   Feb 1960 to retirement 1971    
only colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-PPA/-AHU   "Centaurus"   Jul 1960 to retirement 1971
1st colour: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks;
2nd colour (1964 onwards?): as above plus logo on fin, fuselage registration in cheatline

 

Comet 4C   LV-PTS/-AIB   "President Kennedy"   April 1962 to retirement 1971    
1st colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks;
2nd colours: as above plus fuselage registration in cheatline
3rd colours (1964 onwards?: as above plus logo on fin

 

My questions are:

 

1. Was LV-AHO really called "Lucero de la Tarde" rather than "El Lucero de la Tarde" (also, which words really had initial capitals)? No "El" and only nouns initial-capitalised, thank you!

 

2. Did other Comets also have credit panels ("De Havilland Comet 4/Rolls-Royce Avon Turbojets") over the cheatline, aft of the portside door? Al least AHN and AHO did, thank you!

 

3. Was LV-AHR really called "Alborado", rather than "Alborada"? Alborada it was, thank you!

 

4. Was the oddball LV-AIB (a Comet 4C, not a 4, and a "white-tail" bought much later than other fleet members) really called "President Kennedy", rather than "El Presidente Kennedy"? Was this ship named thus after JFK's November 1963 assassination? if so, what (if anything) was it called over its 18 months of service before Nov 1963? Appears to have been "President Kennedy" in English, not Spanish, from the start, reflecting a major visit by JFK to Argentina in 1961, thank you!

 

5. Did LV-AHS also get the post-1964 changes of fuselage registration in the cheatline and logo on the fin? It did, thank you!


6. Were LV-AHN and LV-AHS really both called "Las Tres Marias", or is this a mistake? They both were, thank you!

 

Sorry this is so arcane and age-old, and many thanks in advance!

Edited by skippiebg
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Hello skippiebg

Here is what I found in a book The first jet airliner - the story of the de Havilland Comet (ScoWal, 2000) by Timothy Walker:

1. Walker states rather enigmatticly that upon delivery "The aircraft was re-registered LV-AHO and named Cruz del Sur, Lucero de la Tarde and later named Lucero de la Tarde." No idea about capital letters.

2. The photo in the same book shows LV-PLM during her first flight on 27th January 1959. While a bit faint due to sun reflection, credit panel is visible aft of the port passengers' door.

4. About LV-AIB: ˇAerolineas Argentinas acquired a seventh Comet on 27th April 1962 ... On delivery it was re-registered LV-AIB and named President Kennedy."

6. Yes, apparently both LV-AHN and LV-AHS had been christened Las Tres Marias, although the latter was later re-named Alborada.

Not much, but I hope it helps. Cheers

Jure

P.S.: By the way, can anybody advice me on Mach 2 Comet 4C kit? I have a Caravelle kit of that manufacturer so is the Comet kit worse/about equal/better?

 

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Jure, kolega, najlepša hvala (huge thanks) for this excellent information which I did not have!

---

I have both the Mach 2 Caravelle and Comet 4C kits.

 

The Comet appears to be based on the Airfix Nimrod. This means the engine intakes and the entire forward halves of the engine tracts are very much deeper than they should be (the Comet had thin and spindly Avon turbojets. The Nimrod had much fatter Spey turbofans.) Other than the wrong engine housings, the kit has inherited all Airfix's Nimrod faults, which are niggling, but not too offputting, to me at least. Among them is an indifferent nose shape, an indifferent fin shape, indifferently shaped wing pinion tanks, and the general feeling of a so-so kit. The really crooked cabin windows are a purely Mach 2 addition. In summary, using the Mach 2 kit to make a faithful model of the Comet 4C wouild call for a brave and complex refashioning of the lower centre section of the wing. This might, or might not, be your thing... Oh, and the Dan-Air decals my version has are wrong both typographically and geometrically, as well as being extremely crude.

 

To answer your question, I would say that, despite its much greater age, the Mach 2 Caravelle is an altogether nicer and more straightforward kit than the Comet.

---

Among Comet kits, the King-and-Sire has to be the FROG 1/96 kit of the Comet 4, much more widely available under the Soviet Novo late 1970s brand. It is chunky and sound in all general and quite a few particular aspects, and offers a superb basis for superdetailing or improvements. Best of all, it remains fairly widely available at very reasonable prices. The decals, either FROG or Novo, are unusable, but that is a small inconvenience easily forgotten while the rest of the kit fills you with a deep and therapeutic sense of satisfaction and gratitude :)

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Hello skippiebg

Няма защо (you are welcome). While this is probably old news for you, here is a short documentary clip of the ceremonial baptising of the first Aerolineas Argentinas Comet 4, with the title Las Tres Marias visible at about 29th second. Of course, the time stamp covers the second word. Still, to me it looks like all three words start with a capital letters.

Thank you for your Mach 2 Comet 4C review. Now I am balancing on the fence: I have done my share of conversions and scratchbuilds so I would not mind investing some of my time into correcting the kit's faults. However, if there is a better kit available, I would prefer a more accurate starting point. The model would be conversion anyway as I built Plastikard Comet 4 forty or so years ago and got hooked on a BOAC livery. According to Scalemates both Welsh Models and Transport Wings produced multimedia (but mainly vacuform) Comet 4 kits in 1/72, so perhaps I will obtain of those kits, if I can find one. Cheers

Jure

 

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Wow, never knew of that clip. Thanks!.

 

The Transport Wings Comet, hmm-m... I had one 20-odd years ago and sold it unbuilt. As I remember, plenty more problems than the Mach 2. Never seen the Welsh Comet 4s.

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Bet this is a hole in most people's archives

Can't really help you on the colour schemes with any real accuracy  .

 

According to Ian Allan's World Airliner Registrations 1967 ish ,68 ish and 74 issues

 

Lucero de la Tarde was the name ( El missing) Lucero of the Afternoon . de la is USUALLY  in lower case

 

I have a photo of AHS at Lasham ,Dan-Air bought just about all the Comets that were left and either broke them for spares or re registered them and back in to service

LV-AHS is listed as Alborada and not LV- AHR which is listed with the name Arco Iris .

The LV-AIB President Kennedy , that entry doesn't mention any name but maybe left out to save space .

If you pm your email , I'll send you a copy of LV-AHS , also have an AA issued Comet postcard ,1st day cover of the 1st Comet service Buenos Aires to New York ( Idlewild ) Just found 2 more postcards , LV-PPA and - AHS no dates of the shots though .

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Many thanks to Jure Miljević and Bzn20 for some fascinating input! AA seems to have had a fairly ecclectic attitude to naming aircraft (and indeed painting them in a uniform manner). Lovely colour, though, and once I have decided on one of the many schemes the few AA Comets wore, I shall design and print my own decals and go at it :)

 

Incidentally, it took me ages to work out what the writing on the AA Comet fins said. It is "DE HAVILLAND/COMET-4 (or COMET-4C, and yes, with a hyphen)/TURBINAS/ROLLS-ROYCE AVON". This, plus a 'credits panel' in English on some early a/c... Typographically, things were also quite haphazard. Wonderful :)

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Hi skippiebg I have all 4 1/72 scale kits of the Comet 4 /4C and in (my) opinion the Welsh multi media kit is far and away the most accurate , I worked on the Comet for Dan-Air  for 15 years, so I think I know the aircraft reasonably well,

Some info about the AA comet 4 that you will not find in any book, at least I have not seen it in any, is that the windscreen panels on the AA aircraft, and as far as only AA were not flat but curved to conform to the nose profile.

      

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Proplineruk, thank you for the tip re. the Welsh Models Comets! (Now, if only they didn't cost well over a ton..! And, having said that, where would I shoehorn one of them without the missus raising hell..?)

 

Fascinating, that about the AA Comet 4s, thank you! I had always assumed only the 1/1A and 2 had the curved windscreen panels. The Comet had quite a few winsdcreen layouts, mostly subtle changes here and there. I know for sure the front four panes on the 4B and 4C were taller. (Still not very clear on whether the Nimrod didn't end up having even taller windscreen panes all around...)

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Hello

Very late to the party, and perhaps risking redundancies.

Here is an image

Aerolineas+Comet+4+836143097+cropped+1.j

 

From here:

http://argentina-airline-news.blogspot.com/2018/03/historical-photo-aerolineas-argentinas.html

 

Another source (again, sorry is this has been shown or discussed or you already know of it):

https://loudandclearisnotenought.blogspot.com/search?q=Comet+IV

 

I was born in Argentina, although my modeling interests are completely different (early aviation and Golden Age) and have no knowledge on the type whatsoever.

 

Hope this helps

Cheers

 

https://www.clarin.com/ciudades/comet-iv-alto-cielo-argentino_0_EJRhQpUVZ.html

 

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Moa, your modelling is an inspiration that leaps across periods and subject matter and I am happy to have attracted your interest! Thank you for your contributions!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Through a Facebook group, friend Esteban Bodzak gives me this information on the Comets:

 

Comet 4   LV-AHN   "Las Tres Marias"   Jan 1959 to retirement 1971    
1st colours: style 1 (thick/thin, tall) titles, plain pinion tanks -- this was a montage and the typography was wrong, so ignore;
2nd colours: as above plus style 3 (ultimate) titles;
3rd colours (1964 onwards?): as above plus logo on fin, fuselage registration in cheatline

 

Comet 4   LV-AHO   "Cruz del Sur"    Feb 1959 to crash Feb 1960
1st colours: style 2 (bold, tight-set) titles;
2nd colours: as above plus style 3 titles, titles on pinion tanks;
3rd colours: as above plus painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-AHP   "El Lucero del Alba"   Mar 1959 to crash Aug 1959
only colours: style 3 titles, titles on pinion tanks, "de Havilland Comet 4/Rolls-Royce Avon Turbojets" credit panel over cheatline aft of port door

 

Comet 4   LV-AHR   "Alborado," later "Arco Iris"  Feb 1960 to crash Dec 1961    
only colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-AHS   "El Lucero de la Tarde"    Feb 1960 to retirement 1971    
only colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks

 

Comet 4   LV-PPA/-AHU   "Centaurus"   Jul 1960 to retirement 1971
1st colour: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks;
2nd colour (1964 onwards?): as above plus logo on fin, fuselage registration in cheatline

 

Comet 4C   LV-PTS/-AIB   "Presidente Kennedy"   April 1962 to retirement 1971    
1st colours: style 3 titles, painted pinion tanks;
2nd colours: as above plus fuselage registration in cheatline
3rd colours (1964 onwards?: as above plus logo on fin

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  • 10 months later...
On 9/15/2020 at 10:16 PM, proplineruk said:

Hi skippiebg I have all 4 1/72 scale kits of the Comet 4 /4C and in (my) opinion the Welsh multi media kit is far and away the most accurate , I worked on the Comet for Dan-Air  for 15 years, so I think I know the aircraft reasonably well,

Some info about the AA comet 4 that you will not find in any book, at least I have not seen it in any, is that the windscreen panels on the AA aircraft, and as far as only AA were not flat but curved to conform to the nose profile.

      

In search of the perfect 1/72 Comet 4/4B/4C - I have the Welsh models  and Transport Wings kits, and was considering the Mach 2 offering. From my observations and research none of these models accurately reproduces the intake and engine cover contours. Transport Wings seems to come closest but is very crude and requires a lot of work, and they have a totally different (more accurate?) representation of the exhaust area and fuselage fairing in that area. Welsh Models offering, despite their assurances to the contrary, is very similar to the Airfix Nimrod, especially in the depth of the engine nacelles and the layout of the tail pipes to fuselage fairing. Reports are that the Mach 2 model is also very similar to the Nimrod so would also not be particularly accurate.  I am considering removing the engine areas from the Transport Wings kit and grafting them onto a different kit, but the wing cross section at the joint with the outer engine is wrong.....

 

I need to dig out some plans of the Comet to confirm the cross section through the engines at the wing root, but at the moment I don’t believe that there any kit accurately reproduces the engine contours of a Comet 4. Can anyone convince me otherwise?

 

 

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On 8/14/2021 at 2:35 PM, dambuster said:

In search of the perfect 1/72 Comet 4/4B/4C - I have the Welsh models  and Transport Wings kits, and was considering the Mach 2 offering. From my observations and research none of these models accurately reproduces the intake and engine cover contours. Transport Wings seems to come closest but is very crude and requires a lot of work, and they have a totally different (more accurate?) representation of the exhaust area and fuselage fairing in that area.

 

Hear, hear! The Comet 4's engine area is critical if you want a true model. There are gulleys between the engines on the top, but at the bottom the gulleys are much shallower. Moreover, near the the aft end the two engines become completely "Siamesed," like those of Concorde, before becoming sharply separate again at the tailpipes. This, plus really rather odd (if very interesting) thrust reverser outlets and grilles. The only good drawing is the Aeromodeller one of a Comet 4B, and even that has its failings... Guy Montagu-Pollock's digital Comet model for flight simulator programs gets it 100 percent right. Here is a back-of an-envelope sketch of mine that I hope you can all see (the prescribed method of sharing photos fails for me...) https://photos.app.goo.gl/ojQMkbXxEpxiwPZf8

 

Thank you very much for the rundown on Welsh Models. I was toying with getting one, but won't now. I have sanded the living daylights off the Mach 2 bottom engine area (having backfilled it with Milliput first) and am toying with going at it with diverse files to sculpt it further, but fear it won't be strong enough to withstand handling. https://photos.app.goo.gl/gHwUxFrdrM8rCNHy7

 

I am awaiting a Transport Wings Comet 4B package, hopefully tomorrow, and am happy to read what you've written about it. (It's the old Aircraft in Miniature mould, I hope. Remember drooling over it at Hannants Colindale much-missed shop two decades-odd ago and deciding that She Who Must Be Obeyed might, just, take a more than usually dim view of my acquiring one... Plus the large package was definitely not "deniable" at the doorstep.) From distant memory, the Airways Vacform has issues with the critical engine area -- not enough toe-out at the aft end among others.

 

 

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4 hours ago, skippiebg said:

 

Hear, hear! The Comet 4's engine area is critical if you want a true model. There are gulleys between the engines on the top, but at the bottom the gulleys are much shallower. Moreover, near the the aft end the two engines become completely "Siamesed," like those of Concorde, before becoming sharply separate again at the tailpipes. This, plus really rather odd (if very interesting) thrust reverser outlets and grilles. The only good drawing is the Aeromodeller one of a Comet 4B, and even that has its failings... Guy Montagu-Pollock's digital Comet model for flight simulator programs gets it 100 percent right. Here is a back-of an-envelope sketch of mine that I hope you can all see (the prescribed method of sharing photos fails for me...) https://photos.app.goo.gl/ojQMkbXxEpxiwPZf8

 

Thank you very much for the rundown on Welsh Models. I was toying with getting one, but won't now. I have sanded the living daylights off the Mach 2 bottom engine area (having backfilled it with Milliput first) and am toying with going at it with diverse files to sculpt it further, but fear it won't be strong enough to withstand handling. https://photos.app.goo.gl/gHwUxFrdrM8rCNHy7

 

I am awaiting a Transport Wings Comet 4B package, hopefully tomorrow, and am happy to read what you've written about it. (It's the old Aircraft in Miniature mould, I hope. Remember drooling over it at Hannants Colindale much-missed shop two decades-odd ago and deciding that She Who Must Be Obeyed might, just, take a more than usually dim view of my acquiring one... Plus the large package was definitely not "deniable" at the doorstep.) From distant memory, the Airways Vacform has issues with the critical engine area -- not enough toe-out at the aft end among others.

 

 

Would be interesting to know your thoughts on the Transport Wings engines.  I’m trying to do some drawings of the engine area on both the Comet and Nimrod. I’ve sent off for the Alley Cat Nimrod engine upgrade for another reference. I also need to check if Welsh Models did a 1/144 Comet - their 1/144 vacform Nimrod has  a pretty good engine area in that scale.

 

Were the Aeromodeller plans the ones drawn by DH Cooksey in 1/144th scale? If so I have a copy as they were reproduced in an Aviation Archive volume, I think it was. I have made some templates using the cross sections from the plans which confirm the inaccuracies in the Welsh Models kit. You mention that the plans had some issues - what in particular is wrong?

 

I live fairly close to a Nimrod which I can access for photos, but it’s a 3hr drive to the nearest Comet.  I’m very tempted to go on a visit in a couple of weeks to see if I can get some photo coverage and rough measurements.

 

 

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38 minutes ago, dambuster said:

Would be interesting to know your thoughts on the Transport Wings engines.

 

 

Hope to get it tomorrow, fingers crossed! Will let you know.

 

38 minutes ago, dambuster said:

I also need to check if Welsh Models did a 1/144 Comet

 

 

They have one. Risking being accused of libel, I'd say they took a good look at Airfix...

38 minutes ago, dambuster said:

Were the Aeromodeller plans the ones drawn by DH Cooksey in 1/144th scale? ... You mention that the plans had some issues - what in particular is wrong?

 

 

The engines as shown in the side and front elevations are insufficiently deep. It is as if they got squashed by about 20-25 percent in that plane only. The rest of the issues are minor. Of them, the biggest is that the bulge beneath the rear spar is not shown. This shows, as halfmoon bulges, at the outboard engine (both top and bottom) and reappears beneath the centre section. The nose is a teeny tad off, which I only discovered when comparing it with Guy Montagu-Pollock's 3d model and its flat projections, kindly shown on his website.

 

The Comet 4's sexy bits, of course, include the two pinion tanks, which the venerable Cooksley drawing utterly sadly does not show! I did draw them and I believe the results are on Britmodeller (I lost them a couple of laptops ago).  I'm not claiming my drawings are correct or anything, but I suspect Mach 2 are a noticeable tad too short. Welsh's 1/144 Comet ones are also a tad off. The pinion tanks seem to be karmically unable to be represented properly, with the 144 scale aftermarket geezers also making a thorough hash of them...

 

38 minutes ago, dambuster said:

I live fairly close to a Nimrod which I can access for photos, but it’s a 3hr drive to the nearest Comet.  I’m very tempted to go on a visit in a couple of weeks to see if I can get some photo coverage and rough measurements.

 

 

I'm currently 3/4 hr from the Nimrod at Manchester Aivation Viewing Park, but the similarity with the Comet in the engine and centre section area is practically nil. My nearest Comet is also three hours away at Duxford. I know from experience that IWM staff are very protective of her (and rightly so!), rendering any attempts to get too close and personal -- let alone wave tape measures around -- void. Also, the metallic silver they painted her undersides in makes things very indistinct. Add to that the general gloom in the exhibition hall... Give me the old days when she decaysed slowly outdoors in her Dan-Air garb!

 

Given all this, alongside any live Comet visit, I'd warmly advise a thorough trawl of Guy Montagu-Pollock's website which has many hidden gems and resources.

Edited by skippiebg
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Got the Aircraft in Miniature Comet 4B and have to say, the wing centre section underside is indeed beautifully unfussy and properly represented. Much better than the Airways Vacform one which has some amount of "squash" (as if someone has sat on the engines' tailpipes) and not enough toe-out at the rear. The aft end of the wing/fuselage fairing is properly represented, with a "kick-up" and a "prow." This again being an area where Airways Vacform fails, showing a rounded fairing which stays level. Only criticism is the amount of sanding still to do (but I have a mini-sander-and-Hoover rig :), pity my poor neighbours) and the smooth-as-a-baby's-bum surface. The latter I find much preferable in my old age to fussy detailing. (Can't be bothered to post piccies here, and anyhow the pros-and-cons of 72 scale Comets is slightly off-topic.)

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That’s good to hear. I’m still working out how to use a Nimrod centre section and rear fuselage, outer wings and other details, grafted onto a Transport Wings forward fuselage, centre section undersurface and engines, and wing fuselage firing to produce a better Comet 4C.  One main issue is the wing root at the outboard engine housing has a pronounced droop on the Nimrod but not on the Transport Wings offering.  
 

Anyway, having now gone way off topic I’ll leave it at that for now.

 

Peter

 

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