HK Models Mosquito B Mk. IV Series II (FPU) - (Diorama Finished)

[Spitfirepr1v]

Kent

 

You were wondering about the camouflages scheme for DZ 383. I think it would have definitely been the same scheme as the aircraft it was accompanying, otherwise still  in its original PRU blue, it would have stood out and been an obvious target for german gunners and fighters as a "special".

 

Got some interesting images about the FPU nose for you soon as soon as I get my files organised which only cloudy the water !

 

Richard

[kkarlsen]

Well, thank you Richard. I'm going to create a diorama with DZ 383, around the time of the attack on Shellhouse in Copenhagen, just before or after 21/3/1945.

And i think you're right, the photo with Robert Kirkpatrick and Ray Hearne, taken at Rackheath, shows the standard camouflage without the invasion stripes?

As far as i know, DZ 383 was only PRU Blue before she was converted into FPU, some time after May 1943.

 

Do you have any knowledge regarding the Silvia Hearne/D. Carter Collection or Bob Kirkpatrick?

 

Kent 

[Brundledonk]

Another Mosquito and another really cool project ! You have a serious amount of goodies for this bird too.

 

It's always a bit of sphincter shrinking moment when you cut into a kit, but it looks you are right on top of things and I'm really keen to see how this one comes together

 

Pete

[kkarlsen]

Managed to get the scratched Perspex nose part done. I had to make 2-3 trials 90 %, before I finally got it right.

 

 

 

It fits!

 

 

 

 

So now i am able to breathe again, no permanent "damage" done to the Mosquito!

[Spitfirepr1v]

Hi Kent

 

Looking really good; a brilliant piece of home vac forming .

 

I have emailed Bob Kirkpatrick some years ago, sadly he has now past away, about his role as a pilot with the FPU mosquito on the Shell House raid; his replies were very enlightening and helpful . Silvia Hearne, I believe was Ray Hearne's (the cameraman) wife and owned the photo and is noted as to her copyright.

I have also emailed Derek Carter who was very helpful and I have included part of our emails regarding crews.

 

“DZ414 was flown by Wickham on the Amiens raid, Lee Howard was the camera operator.

Aarhus raid she was flown by Flt/ Lt Brian (Titch) Hanafin with Lee Howard on camera again.

For Shell House and Odense she was flown by Flt/ Lt Ken Greenwood with Flt/ Lt F.E. Moore as camera op.

Ted Moore later gained fame as the camera director on a number of James Bond films and also received an award for "A Man for all Seasons".” Derek Carter

 

I have asked a friend to check the 540 Sqn ORB which shows only one entry so far, of DZ383 having flown operational sorties although he has not had the time to go thoroughly through the relevant years at present.

 

DZ383 had an accident on 29/07/1943 and was sent to Martin Hearn Ltd ( RAF Hooton Park) a Civilian Repair contractor, for repair then to 27 MU (RAF Shawbury  Shropshire) . I will try RAF Museum at Hendon the record card which might take some time.

 

I have been having a really good look through my "stuff" and it is always DZ414 that gets photographed, rarely DZ383 and there is nothing on DZ592 !

I have some images of DZ414 (O-orange) before the under chin perspex window. DZ414 also had a an anti glare tunnel in its nose for the cameras  before and after the under chin window being fitted  - I told you the FPU are a strange bunch. I think various fits were done for operation type and weather conditions ( sunshine) plus individual cameramen's requirements.

 

 

Will attach photos soon.

 

Richard

[kkarlsen]

Wow, the amount of Information you are providing Richard, is staggering to say the least! 

 

I must say, DZ414 sounds more and more interesting to me!

 

 

Since I live only 20 km's from Aarhus, i'll have to get a closer look into "her" history and the Operations she participated in?

 

It's only two or tree weeks since i watched a Docu on the Amiens Raid. The weather was a major factor, and the weather was

really poor when the attack planes left Britain. The Mosquitos took off from Hunsdon into weather worse than many of the

crews had previously experienced. And only shortly before they reached the target, the weather got a little better?

 

Were the PRU planes armed with bombs or were they only participating for documentation purposes?

 

The Model:

 

I am currently getting started on detailing the interior, I'm assuming it was almost identical to the Mosquito B Mk IV?

 

A thank you doesn't, at no point suffice!

 

Kent Karlsen

[Spitfirepr1v]

Kent 

 

Very happy to help because of my own family interest in the FPU mosquito and my wanting to model DZ592 in 1/42.

Interior: I guess, standard as all DZs, series ii BIV.

 

Richard

[Spitfirepr1v]

DZ414 with "glare tunnel"

 

 

 

DZ414 with no chin window but glare tunnel for cine film camera - see shadow

[Spitfirepr1v]

Hi Kent 

 

Given up on trying to upload/paste images on this site.

Send me a personal message with your email and I will send them as attachments to you direct.

 

Richard

[Spitfirepr1v]

Hi PH - GEO

 

Thanks for explaining - I think its age ! Can I use my drop box account or do I have to have a photo bucket account?

 

Thanks 

Richard

[Spitfirepr1v]

 

DZ414 No chin window but "anti glare" tunnel plus nose art 

 

 

DZ414 No chin window but camera tunnel seen with shadow in nose compartment

 

 

DZ414 with chin window but still with anti glare tunnel ; note change of colour on spinners 

 

As far as I have seen the anti glare tunnel is special to DZ414 and not seen ( so far ) in any images of DZ383. Will post up some more and a few camera images.

[Spitfirepr1v]

Here's DZ414 similar to Kent's profile artwork with D-Day stripes and a chin window (when blown up and lightened ! )

 

.

[kkarlsen]

Ok Interesting, I think I found another Photo of DZ414?

 

While I was watching "Narrow Escapes of World War II - The Amiens Raid" yesterday,

 

I captured these frames from a take-off scene... 

 

 

 

 

It's a very low quality (youtube), but i think this is DZ414 taking off? And without the Invasion Stripes.

 

I'm not able to make out the chin window. Would be nice to be able to watch the original footage!

[Wingco57]

Great pics Chaps.

Cees

[kkarlsen]

When I was "trawling" through some more footage of Mosquito Raids, this frame suddenly came up!

It's from the RAF raid on the Philips factory in Eindhoven, Holland 1942.

 

The narrator states: "The raid is filmed from the Mosquito of Sqn Ldr Charles Patterson"

 

 

It is very dark, but I think it helps to get some kind of understanding, as to how the Cine Camera was used in the early raids.

 

NB: I also found the footage from my last post, in a better quality!

[JeroenPeters]

Oh wow what a great project!

Love the Vac form work you've done.

[Grant]

Love what you're doing with this fabulous kit Kent! What an interesting subject!

 

I wonder, have you considered contacting the "Mosquito Museum" (the de Havilland Aircraft Museum) for information [ http://www.dehavillandmuseum.co.uk/]? I've been there and can report that they are some of the friendliest, most helpful people I've come across in a long while (I really must post my photos!!)

 

Grant.

[kkarlsen]

I was able to find some of the footage of O-Orange DZ414, you supplied earlier today, Richard.

 

But I am sorry "she" appears not to have the chin window, in the footage from where this capture was taken? 

 

The 2nd and 4th picture is captured out of the same footage, DZ414 with the invasion stripes (summer 1944)

 

 

So, I have to ask, can we be absolutely sure that the picture, apparently showing DZ414 with the black spinners and a chin window actually is of DZ414?

It might as well be another FPU Mosquito, maybe the one shown in the footage of KB196 AZ-B, it has the black spinners and a chin window?.

[Spitfirepr1v]

Kent 

 

Thats nixed nose camera is in DZ414's anti glare tunnel taken at RAF Ford in June 1944. The photo is in the Imperial War Museum collection as FLM2310. You beat me to it; I have a lighter copy if you want it.

 

 

 

Hand held camera used by Navigator /cameraman.

[Spitfirepr1v]

Mosquito  KB196 - Swung on take-off into a snowbank on a ferry flight from RCAF Moncton NB 2.4.1944, so is not associated with FPU.

As far as I have discovered so far there seem to be only three FPU mossies; DZ383, 414 and 592 (383 and 592 are ex PRIVs from 540 sqn) and 414 was chosen by Patterson himself fresh from the De Havillands factory .

My uncle's nav/camerman Alan Newell filled out a "dope" sheet after each of their ops and I have copies of some of them. He recorded the camera types, position, film type etc on these sheets plus other technical info.

 

"..a hand held , spring driven Eyemo (no 13, 380905) with 2” Cooke Speed - Panchro lens , 100’ magazine , 24 fps in the cockpit and nose and in the nose a fixed electrical driven Eyemo ( no. 367522) with 3” Cooke Speed - Panchro lens, 200’ magazine, 32fps.

Bell & Howell Eyemo 71 , single-lens, 35mm motion picture film camera. " “I switched on the fixed camera and started operating the one in my hand "

The Bell & Howell Eyemo, fitted with Cooke lenses, was standard issue for World War II combat cameramen with British and Canadian forces. 

 

 

​The fixed nose camera has a the small electrical motor and is able to move to adjust the angle of depression for the cameraman when filming. How it was mounted to the aircraft nose floor ... well who knows?

 

A 100-foot roll of 35 mm film weight about four pounds and cameramen carried up to 10 rolls.  The Eyemo lacked special grips for steady hand-holding so a lot of World War II footage bounces and wobbles. Eyemo cameras could be modified to hold a 400-foot magazine, but  that made the camera impossibly bulky for front of the aircraft.

 

A 100-foot roll zipped through the camera in just a little more than a minute and then the cameraman had to reload, a tricky process in a aircraft in combat conditions requiring him to thread the film carefully through the camera's inner rollers, gears and gates. With a motor-driven model a photographer could shoot 100 feet much easier,

[kkarlsen]

Very nice Richard. 

 

A have this photo of an Eyemo:

 

 

Look what I found in my stash, an Eyemo in the right scale!

 

 

I've also started scratch building cameras for the FPU project. First up - The F.52 Camera with 36" lens...

 

[Spitfirepr1v]

The Eyemo is perfect - brilliant both the photo and the model but don't forget the small little motor drive on the side for the fixed nose camera.

 

Not sure about the F52 camera - Sorry, as its beautiful constructed.

As far as I am aware the FPU did not carry any cameras like those, as they are designed as Photo Reconnaissance vertical cameras to be used at very high attitude, 20,00 feet plus giving fantastic detail of ground targets for interpretation by the PIU at Medmenham. FPU a/c would not operate at high altitude with stills cameras, they flew at low level .

 

I have seen on the internet a credit given as an oblique camera shot from either DZ414 or 383 in July or August 44 but  I am dubious about that as the the cameramen were not trained in their use ( the obliques were normally operated by the pilot aligning a small sight on the cockpit window with a black strip on the wing ) and the cameramen would likely have an ordinary 35mm stills camera to use from the cockpit . Stills were made from the FPU films and used both by the military and in the press but were are they ? I have looked both at Kew and the IWM.

 

Richard

[kkarlsen]

So the search continues, and still new pieces of the puzzle is added:

 

 

France. 24 May 1945. N1720 Frank Bagnall, Australian Department of Information (DOI) cameraman. He's in front of a Mosquito

aircraft in France holding a 35mm Bell and Howell Eyemo motion picture cine camera, where he made a film record of an RAAF

Mosquito Squadron. This is the standard handheld camera used by the camera man flying on the FPU Mosquito's

 

 

Lincolnshire, England. 1945-03-16. 424082 Pilot Officer Robert Arthur Buckland, RAAF, in the film laboratory checking

over his cine-camera before a bombing operation during which he will film the results for the RAF Film Production Unit.

He's holding a Bell & Howell Eyemo 71 35mm camera.

(Interesting camera accessories in the background. 400 ft. film magazines, camera mounts?)

 

I was puzzled earlier, by the closeup photo of the Mosquito showing a mounted camera in the nose.

It's supposed to be DZ414 (Charles Patterson) in the Eindhoven raid in 1942?

 

 

I was puzzled, because the camera mounted, didn't look as an Eyemo 71 (the standard camera of FPU). It definitely has a turret for 4 lenses. Also, I think I can make out the contour of a larger film magazine on top of the camera? Then I tried searching for another camera, and found this, it's also an Bell & Howell, but a model 2709, it's not handheld, but mounted and a bigger 35 mm Cine camera.

 

Was this camera used in the earlier raids? Was it replaced when the FPU planes was equipped with the chin Perspex in late 1944?

[Spitfirepr1v]

Kent 

 

Great images.

See my reply of 19/01/16 for the date of the turreted lensed camera in the nose of DZ414's anti glare tunnel it was taken at RAF Ford in June 1944. I have that date from the stills collection at the Imperial War Museum where I got my copy.

Hand held are always 16mm because of weight.

35mm are fully fixed where as the16mm fixed could be moved on its fixing by the camera man in the nose compartment for tracking, panning shots etc

 

Your right about the larger film magazine in the photo which is for 35mm 400 foot rolls.

As we have discussed you need to see the actual ops dope sheets made by the cameraman for the actual technical spec of cameras used on each op by the FPU mosquitos.

 

​As we have said I think you have to make your own decisions about cameras as the" detail is in the devil" and no one can really correct you . 

[kkarlsen]

Finally managed to finish my camera research-journey: 

 

First up: I decided to build a complete set of cameras used in various constellations by the PR Mosquito's:

 

2 x F.52 cameras 36" for split vertical installation + wooden mount -  2 x F.24 cameras 14" - 1 x F.24 14" port facing oblique camera incl. mounts.

 

 

Next, the cameras used in various installations on the FPU Mosquito's:

 

Handheld/Fixed: Bell & Howell Eyemo 71 motion picture Cine camera, Cooke lenses and Eyemo camera motor.

 

Fixed: Cine camera Bell & Howell 2709, incl. Cinemotor and control box.

 

 

Well, I think that's it, time to get on with the Mosquito build...