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Edgar Brooks

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Everything posted by Edgar Brooks

  1. Spitfire undersides:- Silver until 27-1-39, then:- black/white wings (rest silver, or supposed to be) until 15-5-40:- red/white/blue roundels added (to fill available space, so similar size to top roundels) until 4-6-40:- yellow ring added, but not to encroach on ailerons or hinges, until 6-6-40:- all Sky underneath, no roundels, but delayed until 12-6-40, due to lack of paint. Some units again added roundels, off their own bat, but there was no official sanction to that, just an official blind eye, until 27-11-40:- black port wing added, plus roundels, with port roundel surrounded by yellow, plus Sky tail band and spinner; delayed 28-11-40, until 12-12-40, when A.M.O issued. Simple, really. Edgar
  2. I doubt if you realise the vast scope of what you're seeking, but I'll try to give you some idea (and I'm only conversant with British sizes.) For the first part of their lives Spitfires and Hurricanes carried a vast array of different roundels, on the fuselage and under the wings (upper wings are a whole different ball game, anyway.) Fin flashes changed mid-war as well. Fuselage roundels depended on the depth of the fuselage, so could be 3' or 4' across; code letters were also fuselage size-dependent, being 4' on bombers, 3' on medium-sized (like the Beaufighter) and 2' on fighters (though Spitfires were permitted 20" due to their thin fuselages.) As well as differing in height, letters varied in width, and thickness of brush-strokes. Serial numbers were usually 8", but 4" on RN aircraft. Upper-wing roundels are a game all of their own, since there was a formula:- Take the wingspan (clipped or extended tips didn't count,) and divide by 3; take that measurement, and measure from the centre-line of the fuselage, and you have the position of the centre of your roundel; now fill the available space, without encroaching on the ailerons, hinges, yellow leading-edge stripe, or de-icer boots. If you can find a copy of a book "Camouflage & Markings," by James Goulding & Robert Jones, published by Ducimus Books in 1970, you'll find 21 aircraft inside, and it'll give you a good grounding; there was also a series of pamphlets, with the same title, which covered the same subjects. As the book is so old, it doesn't have an ISBN, sorry. Edgar
  3. The kit is back with its owner, now, and I'd like to check the spinner against Peter Cooke's article on spinners, before commenting, but its shape seems more reminiscent of a de Havilland, rather than Rotol, example. Metal-covered ailerons were introduced 17-7-41, and there was a somewhat unseemly scramble, as senior officers "pulled rank" to get them, often causing problems for Supermarine; Bader, famously, got them, while the rest of his Squadron did not. Fitting was retrospective, so any Mk.I or II could have them (and did.) Edgar
  4. The second "crossbar" was introduced on the production line 12-1-41 (don't forget that's January,) and was mooted as early as 27-7-40, so it'd be a brave man (and that's not me) who set either type in stone. Both the Mk.I & II Pilots Notes show the single bar, but Tuck had his pedals modified, and I'd be very surprised if he didn't have the whole Squadron done at the same time, together with any other Squadrons sharing the airfield. Incidentally, many don't realise that exactly the same applied to the Hurricane's pedals (I didn't until I read the files.) Edgar
  5. This is what I found, today, when I was briefly loaned one to look at:- 1/. it needs a "Mk.I" oil cooler. 2/. it needs the crowbar deleting, unless your model dates after January 1942 (the fit was retrospective.) 3/. 2-bar rudder pedals are o.k., but need the fabric straps over the top. 4/. gun button was brass, with a silver surround, not red (post-war elfin safety?) 5/. Very pistol cartridge rack was normally left off, and Castle Bromwich had (red) plastic seats, not (green) metal. Spitfire seats were never Bakelite. 6/. seat armour is missing. 7/, seat backrest has an odd depression moulded in, which I've never seen. 8/. I can only guess at what part 40 is, but I think it's the landing light operating lever, and Revell forgot to switch it over, while they did sort out the instrument panel. Part 41 (oxygen bottle) should be black, not green. 9/. part 42 (compressed-air bottles) was silver, not green. 9/. rudder and elevators' "stitching" is overdone. 10/. I have no idea what the two "lozenges" (on the top of each wing) are. 11/. unless your Mk.II dates from 1940, the rudder "prong" shouldn't be there, neither should the aerial. 12/. post 1940, IFF aerials were fitted, and the position of the discs is marked. 13/. if you drop the flaps, the door, in the top of the wing, needs to be cut out, and opened. 14/. 50B, which fit into the square holes under the windshield, is/are/were "station keeping lights," which might have been coloured like the navigation lights, but that remains a mystery, for now. 15/. while over-prominent, the "rivets" are nowhere near as bad as the photos appeared to show. 16/. the fuselage is about 2mm shorter than the Hasegawa Vb (all at the spinner end,) but it doesn't "shout," and it appears to have better curvature than the (somewhat slab-sided) Hasegawa fuselage. 17/, wingspan and chord (minus wingtips) are identical to the Hasegawa Vb. 18/. Revell have matched Tamiya, in the wheel wells, by providing back-sloping walls - very well done - but the "orifices" are too oval. 19/. there are three oblong "protuberances" on the spinner, but Revell do tell you to file them off, so that might be something to do with the requirements of the mould. 20/. Revell appear to have confused Sky with Sky Blue, but their "Sky Blue" is reportedly a match for Sky. 21/. instrument panel is fixed, but possibly missing the landing lights control (see no.8.) Hope that helps, and I've had to give it back to the owner, so can't help further. Edgar
  6. With the Typhoon, the original harness was the standard Sutton (it's just visible in the Pilot's Notes, and a photo sequence on how to extract the pilot from the car-door version, and is illustrated as such in the A.P.) It's entirely possible they're fine for a post-war airframe, after all the Tempest did have the so-called "Q" type from the start, and the Typhoon might have changed, but I can't find any reference, in the list of modifications, to the Sutton being replaced. Edgar
  7. In a perfect world, and immediately after repair, that's true, but, in use, things wear, and the bearings holding the rotor in the gyro housing are no exception. The rotor is balanced (usually by removing small amounts with a drill bit,) then the housing is balanced, usually by a couple of threaded headless bolts, which move left/right or back/forth. It takes only a tiny amount of extraneous matter to upset the balance (even late shrinkage of the material used for locking nuts and bolts into place can make a difference,) and the balls in bearings also wear, causing imbalance, even drag. Many WWII instruments were air-driven, and, even though the input was filtered, dirt could eventually get in, and cause trouble. Edgar
  8. You'll find a build/review over on Britmodeller.
  9. Can't speak for any other nation, of course, but U.K. aerials were stainless steel, so shouldn't be black; they were multi-stranded, too, but that's way beyond my abilities, even in 1/24. Edgar
  10. Mks I, Ia, 2 had black cockpits, F2A, F3 onwards were grey. Intake trunking was normally unpainted n/m.
  11. Methyl Ethyl Ketone (MEK.) Usually available in outlets for plumbing materials, plumbers use it for cleaning plastic pipes before assembling them with a dichloromethane mixture.
  12. One of our club members used to build airliners, and always bushed white (and silver,) and his finish was immaculate, so white can be brushed, but it needs care (don't look at me, I use an aerosol white primer, which can double as the top colour with the addition of a clear gloss varnish.) He always says that you should never brush backwards and forwards, since, by the time of a return stroke, the enamel will have started to dry, so you'll drag it off with the second pass. If you thin the paint, you thin the covering power at the same time; with old Humbrol, we found that adding about 10% white spirit was (just about) acceptable. One tip, which we always found useful, was to stand the tinlet in a dish of warm water; this had the effect of making the paint "runnier," without losing any covering power.
  13. VHF radio aerial was short enough to be contained inside the aerial mast, therefore invisible. By the time of the VIII's entry into Pacific theatre service, the long IFF aerials, from fuselage to tailplanes, had been replaced by a single bar aerial (about 12" long, and 1" wide, and there's at least one photo where it's visible) under the starboard wing, roughly in line with, and just in front of, the inner aileron hinge. Edgar
  14. All VIIIs had the C wing, so you should be fine; from what I've found, the VIII & XIV used four-spoke wheels, from the start (the modification, introducing the 4-spoke, did not include the VIII, which is a fairly strong clue that they already had them.) There were plans (which never happened, apart from the odd airframe) to fit four cannon into the VIII, which probably explains the need for the stronger wheels. Edgar
  15. I don't do violence, so will have to bite the bullet, and take your sample in your stead.
  16. They were self-adhesive fabric, with a peel-off backing (think sticking-plaster for wounds, and you'll be about right.) They first appeared in 1940 (on the Spitfire, but it's not known when other aircraft had them, possibly even earlier.) Spitfires, at first, had "gun covers," but I've never seen what they looked like; it's possible they slid down the gun tubes and over the muzzles. They were all designed to stop open breeches from freezing at high altitudes, with (possibly) the secondary ability to indicate to passers-by that the guns were loaded, and cocked, so best to approach from the rear. Freezing guns was always a major consideration, with rubber sheathes (not the apocryphal condoms) being used, at first, on the cannon, but they were still prone to freezing, becoming hard and breaking-up, with pieces entering the guns' mechanism. On the IIb & Vb, the cannon could be separately cocked by the pilot using a mechanism (looking rather like a clockwork toy's key) on the starboard cockpit wall; the eventually redundant pipework can still be seen in photos of the relevant cockpits, even as late as the Mk.IX. The patches appear to have been pre-coloured, with red predominating here, but blue can be seen on South African Spitfires, and white on American aircraft. Contrary to popular myth, they were not colour-doped into place, but were pre-coloured and coated, after application, with clear dope, which is why the edges always appear sharp in photos.
  17. In a signal dated 20th February (no year, but presumably 1943) Malta H.Q. said that 229 Squadron's spinners were yellow, and those of 249 were red. Edgar
  18. The "spring tab" elevator was only fitted to the 24, not the 21, or even the 22. Edgar
  19. It's funny how every author quotes the damning test report of February 1st., 1945, in which the conclusion was not to prolong the Spitfire line, and always miss out the follow-up test, on March 10th., in which the trials airframe, as well as some (invisible to modellers) internal mods, was fitted with metal elevators with the inside faces of the projecting horns rounded off. This time the recommendation was that the 21 could now be cleared for Service use. It also means that there's no need to fret about "fabric" elevators. Edgar
  20. It looks as if I might be ruining your plans again, but the radiator flaps were fully automatic, and temperature controlled; with the coolant below 115 degrees C, the flaps would remain closed. To operate them, on the ground, a pushbutton, on the electrical panel needed to be operated. This system saw the removal of the flap-operating handle, as seen in the Mks I - V, and the automatic flaps were introduced with the 60-series Merlins. Edgar
  21. Are you planning a "straight" 21, or a contra-prop version? The reason I ask is because the contra-prop 21s had the broader-chord rudder of the late 18/14 bubble-canopy airframes, plus a 2" deeper rudder horn with shortened-height fin to match. Edgar
  22. Sorry (I'm due for an eye-test, and new glasses, so that's my excuse,) mistook the support framing for pipes. Edgar
  23. Wheel wells were always painted, and those of the RAF Museum's 24 have been repainted (as has the cockpit, which was green, not grey.) This well is on a never-rebuilt 22, which exhibited green paint in the interior and on the insides of the doors; this matches a note on a late drawing, in the RAF Museum's library, which advocates green for interiors instead of silver (possibly due to a shortage of aluminium, for paint, at least, at the end of the war.) Sorry if it ruins your day, but pipes did not cross the wheel well, on any Spitfire; with a maximum clearance of 1 inch, the u/c would never have closed. Edgar
  24. 18" (18 inches) = 9/16" in 1/32" = 14.2875mm, and the rear end of the stripes was supposed to be another 18" in front of the l/e of the tailplane. Edgar
  25. Yes, but in the days when it was the Hasegawa Vb and Matchbox 22/24, or nothing, and before I'd discovered the wingroot "anomaly." Edgar
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