plasto
Leading Aircraftman
Posts: 1
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Post by plasto on Jul 11, 2018 21:38:01 GMT 12
Hi,
I was listening to the xtended podcast and thought I’d say hi and hopefully pick a few brains if I may..
I’m a scale modeller and I’m currently building amongst other things a 1/32 Hawker Typhoon 1b. For those that know (or care) it’s the old Revell kit... I’m going to finish it as an early 486 Sqn machine... From what I read 486 initially flew Hurricane IIC’s in the night fighter role before re-equipping with Typhoons.
I have found a photo online of a 486 Sqn Typhoon in the early scheme with black undersides and a temperate scheme on top. It’s for R8697 SA Z based at RAF Wittering in 1942...
I was wondering if anyone knew of any images of any other 486 Sqn Typhoons in the same scheme. Or knew when the night intruder scheme was dropped by 486 for the temperate day scheme...
Thanks in advance
John S
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Post by hbpencil on Jul 14, 2018 15:53:48 GMT 12
Hi John, The one photo I've seen of a 486sqn Typhoon in this scheme is in the book 'The Wild Winds' (which the following info is from), a history of the squadron by Paul Sortehaug. I don't have a scanner but it look's like this... taken on the ground from the aircraft's 10 o'clock and with five pilot's standing in font of it, the aircraft's code letter and serial number aren't visible (the blurb doesn't say either), however the top of the SA code is visible and appears to be red, while the aircraft isn't wearing the Temperate Land Scheme (which the RAF stopped using on its fighters in the ETO during August 1941) but rather the standard Day Fighter Scheme (Ocean Grey and Dark Green upper surfaces, along with a Sky spinner and fuselage band) with the lower surfaces completely black, painted over the under-wing roundels and the bottom part of the fuselage band as well as the bottom part of the yellow bands on the wing's leading edge. However the interior surfaces of the undercarriage covers are still the factory colour. The following profile art (of R8697) matches up well: kitchecker.com/reviews_2017_2/icm_35504_htm_files/41231.jpg486 was indeed a 'Turbinlite' night fighter squadron at first, using a mix of Mk I and II Hurricanes with the IIb being the most numerous. It received it's Typhoons at the very end of July and the beginning of August 1942 and at first continued to do Turbinlite night fighting ops (no indication of any Intruder ops, although they did a few at the end of 1943) with both Hurricanes and Typhoons while converting to the new aircraft, but on 21 August it was withdrawn from ops to focus on the conversion. The book doesn't give a hard date for when the conversion was considered complete, but given that the Typhoon was worse at Turbinlite ops than the Hurricane the squadron was turned into a day fighter squadron. Again no date for when this took place however on 27 September the squadron moved to North Weald to help combat German hit-and-run fighter bombers as well as for ops over France. Presumably the black was removed from the underside of the aircraft around this time. Here's some info about R8697: with the squadron from 4/8/42 until 3/8/43 when it went to 13 MU for repairs following a ground collision. The following aerial combat claims made with this aircraft were: 22/12/42 - F/O A. E. 'Spike' Umbers, 1/2 share of Do217E-4 bomber caught laying mines, of 4./KG40 code F8+DM, WNr.5537, crew KIA. 8/2/43 - F/L H. N. Sweetman, 1 Fw190 damaged. 5/7/43 - P/O A. N. 'Artie' Sames, 1 Fw190A-5 of I/JG2 destroyed, Yellow 14, WNr.140019, Fw. Gustav Grötzinger KIA. Hope this helps, HB
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