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Post by dewobz on Jul 1, 2013 14:38:10 GMT 12
I am building the perennial & OOP Classic Airframes Lockheed Hudson Mk III as an RNZAF example [yet to be decided and open to suggestions] and, inspired by Bruce Salmon's wonderful Rukuhia Hudson, I have scratch built cockpit/navigator/bombadier detail (based on other builds, what few photos I could find and MPM's 1/72nd kitset - it is none to highly accurate, sorry if that offends anyone) -  CA HUDSON Build 6 001 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA HUDSON Build 6 002 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA HUDSON Build 6 007 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA HUDSON Build 6 006 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA HUDSON Build 6 008 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr I'll post nose-cone pictures separately as I just realized I haven't uploaded them to Flickr yet. I haven't decided which RNZAF aircraft this will be and I am open to suggestions, especially if accompanied by photograph(s) and information (or links to same). If someone out there has a personal link to a wartime Hudson please let me know. I'd like to do one not commonly modeled, as are NZ2013 & NZ2035, and have a set of Grey Code Letter decals which will allow me to do any code letter combo. The assignation of code letters is where adf serials lacks information on RNZAF Hudsons. All suggestions welcome. Thanks for looking Wally. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 1, 2013 15:55:52 GMT 12
Just a little point, RNZAF Hudsons did not carry bombardiers. The crew when operational in the Pacific was Pilot (Captain), 2nd Pilot, Navigator (usually actually an Observer by trade), and two Wireless Operator-Air Gunners. The dropping of bombs or depth charges was done by the pilot-in-charge.
If it were me I'd make it a No. 3 (GR) Squadron Hudson, they were first into battle in the South Pacific. They had a neat four-colour camouflage scheme and a number of them had nose art.
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Post by dewobz on Jul 2, 2013 10:32:06 GMT 12
Thanks Dave. Maybe I'll disassemble the nose cone somewhat and meantime not post pictures of it. I put a seat in there based on photos from Wigram's example, depicted as NZ2013 I think, but I can remove the bomb sight and table. A four colour scheme!? I've seen a photo of our Hudsons over Guadalcanal in (apparently) NZ Blue Sea Grey & NZ Foliage Green over NZ (  ) - Duck Egg equivalent - before Code Letters were applied. I'd like to have code letters on this one. But nose art? Wow! I'm into that. Can you point me in the direction of photos or reference material? I'll search this site when I get a chance & search the web again. Thanks again, Cheers Wally. |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2013 10:53:27 GMT 12
When the blue was first applied by No. 3 (GR) Squadron it was only on the top surfaces, so the sides still had RAF (equiv) Dark Earth and Dark Green, the top had blue and original RAF green, and the undersides were sky grey in colour.
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2013 11:29:39 GMT 12
NZ2090 wore the name Kahu-Ta-Mai on the port nose, and a kill marking under the pilot's window, because it also had the first air to air kill in the Solomons for the RNZAF when Max McCormick shot down a floatplane. See a photo on the back cover of Errol Martyn's book "Swift To The Sky".
Another No. 3 (GR) Squadron aircraft had a cartoon dog on the port nose but I have not been able to establish which aircraft it was.
Another had the name Tutai Wera on it, from memory.
Gubby Allen's aircraft had nose art and was called Happy Daze.
It is thought that when the squadron first applied the blue-grey colour over the RAF Dark Earth on the top surfaces of the wings, tailplane and top of the fuselage, it was a US Navy blue-grey paint sourced locally at Santo. Possibly even Intermediate Sea Blue, that I am not certain of.
It wasn't long before the Dark Earth on the sides of the fuselage and tail verticals were also repainted in this way at Santo, so the aircraft had RAF Dark Green and US Navy blue-grey camouflage over RAF Sky undersides.
There's no "duck egg" involved at all in this Santo colour scheme.
This scheme's blue-grey application was done at Santo, but later when it was adopted as the official scheme repaints were done at No. 1 Repair Depot, RNZAF Station Rukuhia, and there New Zealand equivalents for the US Navy and RAF equiv paints were used. the NZ-made paint was officially known as Blue Sea Grey, and made by B.A.L.M. with the stores reference number 33B/N118, and the manufacturer's own code being S13-934.
The operational aircraft in the Solomons did not wear squadron codes, these were removed on arrival at Santo in 1942. They just wore an individual code letter, in white.
Later when the Rukuhia repaints were being applied to operational aircraft such as the Hudson, Anson, P-40, Harvard and others the B.A.L.M. Ltd colour equivalents used were the paints they called Duck Egg Blue, Foliage Green and Blue Sea Gray.
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Post by dewobz on Jul 2, 2013 14:32:22 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2013 14:53:57 GMT 12
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2013 14:54:38 GMT 12
Ah shoot, I forgot my stupid account isn't working at the moment.
I'll email them to you Wally.
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Post by dewobz on Jul 2, 2013 15:21:29 GMT 12
Got those Dave, thanks heaps. Confirms to me the seat and table are okay but I should remove my bombsight (which can only really be seen in the last of my photos but from the front is very obtrusive).
I'm very keen to pursue the NZ2049 option you've suggested although I also found in the "Aircraft with Nicknames" thread that NZ2078 was the one with 'Snifter Dog' artwork. Of course, I don't know exactly where it was applied or what code letters the aircraft wore ...?
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Post by ErrolC on Jul 2, 2013 15:35:58 GMT 12
Ah shoot, I forgot my stupid account isn't working at the moment. I'll email them to you Wally. You can now put a huge number of photos in a free Flickr account now Dave. Sent via Proboards Android App |
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 2, 2013 16:46:00 GMT 12
I'm very keen to pursue the NZ2049 option you've suggested although I also found in the "Aircraft with Nicknames" thread that NZ2078 was the one with 'Snifter Dog' artwork. Of course, I don't know exactly where it was applied or what code letters the aircraft wore ...? This was a No. 1 (GR) Squadron aircraft coded SJ-W, and was based only at Whenuapai as far as I'm aware. The Snifter dog cartoon (based on a popular Australian cartoon strip that was syndicated in some newspapers or magazines, although none that I have seen) was on the starboard side of the nose. A photo appears in Charle's Darby's "RNZAF: The First Decade" and several other publications. One of the Mustangs flying in Aussie has Snifter on it. Snifter appeared on several other aeroplanes in WWII too. Errol, I've never been a fan of flicker, it's one of those programs that annoys me. |
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Post by dewobz on Jul 2, 2013 16:56:31 GMT 12
Ah yes, I've seen the photo of SJ-W and detected some artwork on the starboard nose. I'd rather do an operations area one so I'm dead keen to see those NZ2049 at Cactus photo(s). SJ-W might be an option if I can ever afford another CA Hudson kitset. Have you seen the prices they fetch on eBay!?
Or ... as I have often prayed ... and stated online in case they are watching ... in the event that Revell bring one out ...
Please please Revell, please produce a Hudson ...?
Cheers
Wally
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Post by silverfox on Jul 5, 2013 21:15:41 GMT 12
That is fabulous work on the interior.
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Post by dewobz on Jul 17, 2013 18:11:01 GMT 12
I've ended up spending alot longer on this build than I expected, partly because CA's Hudson is kinda 'tricky' at every turn with precious little guidance from either the model parts or the instructions and partly because once I had started detailing I couldn't stop. This has meant constructing interiors for wheel wells, re-scribing all the very faint panel lines plus some new ones, cutting the astrodome hole, fitting the engine nacelles and then the cowlings to them, fitting the nose, blending it in and scribing panel lines and adding some structure to guide and maybe strengthen the wing root connections plus other little details -  CA Hudson BUILD 4 004 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 5, Corsair 043 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 5, Corsair 037 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 5, Corsair 040 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 5, Corsair 041 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 6, Corsair DECALS 003 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 7, DECAL 32nd Corsair 018 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 6, Corsair DECALS 005 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 5, Corsair 032 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson BUILD 4 012 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr Thanks for looking in. Cheers Wally. |
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Post by denysjones on Jul 20, 2013 22:01:10 GMT 12
Hi Wally,
As a 1/1 scale Hudson man I see many things that could rectify/enhance your model, Pm me if you'd like some info before you get any further on the job.
cheers
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Post by Dave Homewood on Jul 20, 2013 22:58:42 GMT 12
Do it Wally, I have been inside Denys's Hudson and it's fantasticly detailed, being the real thing of course.
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Post by dewobz on Jul 29, 2013 15:49:05 GMT 12
Thanks Dave and thanks especially Denys. Although the extra detail is too late for this build I am now armed with a fabulous array of photos and info for my next 1/48 Hudson build. I just have to mortgage the house so I can afford to buy a kitset! One sold on eBay out of Aussie over the weekend for $148 + shipping. As 1/48 scale kitsets go that is mighty expensive! If anyone has one to sell cheaper please PM me. I finally resolved to do NZ2049 as described by Dave and despite kitset challenges and self-imposed difficulties my Hudson is now painted in its rather odd looking 4 tone scheme  CA Hudson 10 to12 019 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr - and decaled -  CA Hudson 10 to12 033 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 10 to12 030 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 10 to12 031 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 10 to12 029 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr In the end all the decals except the fuselage roundel red dot (Aussie Decals) and code letter 'H' (Techmod Sea Gray codes - sorry Dave but at least it's very light Sea Gray) are NZ's own Ventura decals scrounged from various sets - Avenger fuselage roundel (white bars off), PV-1 NZ4509 fin flashes cut down and PV-1 NZ4624 upper wing roundels (white bars off). Decal application was quite a saga (on kiwimodeller which I won't repeat here). Thank goodness for the versatility of Ventura's re-issued PV-1 set with its darker blue RNZAF roundels! So far I've used them for P-40M Kittyhawk and now Lockheed Hudson. Thanks for looking in. I hope it's not too much of a disappointment to anyone in the accuracy and detail departments. Wally. |
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Post by davidd on Jul 29, 2013 19:15:32 GMT 12
Wally,
Just to add a note of caution, the "4-tone" scheme may have only been applied to one aircraft, and we do not know which one was used for the first trial in November 1942 at Espiritu Santo. The only consolation is that 2049 was there at E/Santo right from the start! I am not cetain why they chose to paint up the first aircraft in this way, but possibly to check the effectiveness of the new colour against the type of background present in the operational area. It is possible that this partial scheme would prove its worth one way or the other, and once the decision was made it is probable that all the brown colour was eliminated, and subsequent repaints would have appeared in the new "2-tone scheme". The interesting thing is that all the initial aircraft repainted at E/Santo were likely repainted with American blue grey, whereas any aircraft later repainted in New Zealand (probably at Ohakea) would have used the new NZ colour, which was also intended for Kittyhawks. And I am impressed with the general appearance of this model - a vast improvement on the rather dodgey Airfix 1/72 kit of the early 1960s.
David D
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Post by dewobz on Jul 30, 2013 10:09:51 GMT 12
Hi David, thanks for that information. It is too late to change it now so if there was only one I guess I'm assuming NZ2049 was that aircraft. I have painted the Blue-Grey in AeroMaster Warbirds Acrylic USN Blue Grey and self-mixed faded variants rather than my own self-mixed NZ Blue Sea Grey. As Bruce Salmon said in relation to his marvelous 'Hudson at Rukuhuia' build, the Classic Airframes 1/48 Hudson is more-or-less an empty shell, apart from some quite nice but incomplete resin cockpit and navigator position detail. It is certainly a vast improvement on the Airfix 1/72 Hudson, as are the various 1/72 MPM/Italeri/Revell kitsets released this century. The 1/72 MPM et al versions have considerably more interior detail than the Classic Airframes 1/48 kitset!
I'm now working on scratch building the fuselage aerial arrays for mine - no kitset includes these - which is time consuming and not especially accurate. I think they will look okay. The challenges of this kitset have shown me some limitations in my current modeling abilities. There's always more to learn!
Cheers
Wally.
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Post by dewobz on Aug 3, 2013 16:17:12 GMT 12
I won't go through all the (what I call) "representative detail" I have added to complete this kitset or its final assembly. This can be seen on www.kiwimodeller.com if anyone is interested. However, two examples are a turret base - mainly for the purpose of securing the turret in position - and exterior fuselage-mounted aerials -  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 006 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 021 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr So here are some finished photos starting with a few detail shots. You can see the whole set on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 014 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 016 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 022 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 044 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 045 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 050 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 055 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 053 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr  CA Hudson 15 & FINISH V1 038 (Medium) by Wally Hicks, on Flickr Thanks to those who have had input and those who've looked in. The next one of these I do will be a whole lot more accurately detailed. Meantime, NZ2049 'H' looks the part, sits well in my collection and I've learned a great deal from the build. Cheers Wally. |
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) - Duck Egg equivalent - before Code Letters were applied. I'd like to have code letters on this one. But nose art? Wow! I'm into that. Can you point me in the direction of photos or reference material?
