ltdann

Boeing F4B/P-12 family. Start with the F4B-1/2 and P-12 through P-12D. The F4B-1 and 2 are different beasts. I am working on a Ginter book and have a good idea of configurations. RIch

Check out some excellent Sunderland photos in the Norwegian national archives: Historiske foto - Arkivverkets digitale fotoarkiv (digitalarkivet.no)

I recently found that VF-6B tested their F4B-4s with a portion of the ring cowling removed. You can see it on four of the aircraft in this video. F4B-4 operations start at around 2:48. Meant to give the pilot better visibility and also to allow the sight to be adjusted through its entire range. https://catalog.archives.gov/id/76753

A Foxtrot with the dipping sonar would be a challenge to scratchbuild, but not impossible. Rich

All, Received my courtesy copy of the 1:35 SH-60B Seahawk the other day. My overall impressions are very positive, The detail is stunning, the options are many and the fit is excellent. That said, I have founds some discrepancies in the instructions, particularly on which holes to open in the fuselage for this particular kit. Additionally, I have not located the ALQ-144 IRCM mount for the lower fuselage. Granted that this was not installed on the earliest SH-60Bs, but it was installed in later production blocks. If anyone can help me figure out how to add photos, I'd be glad to share my observations. Rich

I would suggest that you do a F3F-2. The forward fuselage of the F3F-3 was significantly different. Hard to spot in photos, but most certainly different Rich

Cessna Skymaster 2

In your photo of your model with the pre-shading done, the wing is upside down. The guns should be down, not up when the wing is in the folded position. You probably know that though

So this is supposed to be the number 1 F6F-5. I obtained this photo from the Grumman archives. The other photo is a 800 Sqn F6F-5 with the blown hood. https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235041054-difference-between-a-late-f6f-3-and-f6f-5-cowling/ https://imgur.com/7HLepqp Rich

So the first F6F-5 was tri-color. There is a photo of this plane in the Squadron Walk Around. At one point it also sported a blown (Malcolm type) canopy, which you can see in the photo in the book. The blown hood was engineered by Grumman, but only a handful of these were produced. Most of these were assigned to No 800 Sqn, Fleet Air Arm. Rich

Please don't put drop tanks on this beautiful rendition of the F4F-3. They did not have provisions for them. They typically had two 110 lb bomb racks much further out on the wing

What CAD package are you using? Rich

There are a couple of things he could do and still stay in the WWI theme. Mate up some Liberty engines with the Felixstowe and you can do an H-16. No American subjects have been kitted either. A good JN-4 would be something. A Thomas Morse S-4C would also be most welcome. How about a Macchi M.5? R Dann

1. Grumman F3F-1/2/3 2. Grumman G-22 Gulfhawk II 3.Grumman F2F-1 4. Boeing F4B/P-12 series 5. Douglas B-18/A/B 6. Northrop BT 7. Northrop A-17 8. Good F2A series 9. Good P-35 series 10. Martin T4M

I have discovered a significant change to the F3F-3 from the F3F-2 that I never noticed or understood, until now. If you look closely at a 3/4 view of the aircraft from the tail looking forward, there is a crescent shaped opening that starts near the aft cabane strut and goes all the way down to the wing fillet fairing. Grumman attempted to clean up the design by fairing the cowling and fuselage a bit more closely. In essence, the fuselage is wider on the -3 from the aft cabane strut all the way to the cowling. That crescent shaped opening also eliminated the need for CO2 vents in the accessory section and near the horizontal tails. The cowl was also slightly different, and the exhausts are faired. Rich Dann