Post by MikeC on Jun 4, 2008 20:06:57 GMT
Hi people,
I have a Seafire 15 kit and two possible sets of decals - by Ventura and Carpena - depicting different post-war Seafire 15s in French Aeronavale service.
Carpena give one coded "54.S.22", with the British serial PR397. The drawings depict it with a "sting" hook, which I think is correct, but hold that thought ...
Ventura's decals depict "IF23", serialled SR520, and this is where the fun starts. They specifically state that it was an "early prodcution aircraft with A-frame arrestor hook", and quotes a reference book "Les 'Seafire' dans L'Aeronautique Navale francaise", Jean Frelaut et Claude A Pierquet. "Wings Pallette" supports this view - wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/72/21/0/2 - but how reliable is either that site or the decal instructions? Because ...
One of my Spitfire "bibles", the Harleyford book by Bruce Robertson, states that serial range PR338-PR506, built by Cunliffe-Owen, were ordered in July 1943 and delivered as Mk XVs. "The first 50 had 'A-frame' arrester hooks and the remainder 'sting-type' arrester gear". This ties in with accepted wisdom that only the first 50 of all the 15s had the A-frame, and this is the first listed production batch. It also indicates that, assuming they were sequential, the last A-frame would have been PR388 or thereabouts, and therefore PR397 is probably correctly depicted as having a stinger hook.
Now, SR446-645 were the serials for 140 aircraft ordered from Westland in February 1944 according to the same source. SR520 clearly falls in this batch (which included "blackouts"). So by simple deduction it should have a stinger hook, yes? However, in the same source on P 196 it says "... sting-type hook ... incorporated on production from the 50th Mk XV produced by Cunliffe-Owen and on most of the the aircraft produced by Westland" (my italics and bold).
Thanks for reading this far if you're still awake!
So with apologies for the preamble. my question is simple - can anyone point me at a photo or other proof showing which sort of hook SR520 actually had? I'd like to build that one as, being Westland-built, there's a West-country connection.
TIA,
I have a Seafire 15 kit and two possible sets of decals - by Ventura and Carpena - depicting different post-war Seafire 15s in French Aeronavale service.
Carpena give one coded "54.S.22", with the British serial PR397. The drawings depict it with a "sting" hook, which I think is correct, but hold that thought ...
Ventura's decals depict "IF23", serialled SR520, and this is where the fun starts. They specifically state that it was an "early prodcution aircraft with A-frame arrestor hook", and quotes a reference book "Les 'Seafire' dans L'Aeronautique Navale francaise", Jean Frelaut et Claude A Pierquet. "Wings Pallette" supports this view - wp.scn.ru/en/ww2/f/72/21/0/2 - but how reliable is either that site or the decal instructions? Because ...
One of my Spitfire "bibles", the Harleyford book by Bruce Robertson, states that serial range PR338-PR506, built by Cunliffe-Owen, were ordered in July 1943 and delivered as Mk XVs. "The first 50 had 'A-frame' arrester hooks and the remainder 'sting-type' arrester gear". This ties in with accepted wisdom that only the first 50 of all the 15s had the A-frame, and this is the first listed production batch. It also indicates that, assuming they were sequential, the last A-frame would have been PR388 or thereabouts, and therefore PR397 is probably correctly depicted as having a stinger hook.
Now, SR446-645 were the serials for 140 aircraft ordered from Westland in February 1944 according to the same source. SR520 clearly falls in this batch (which included "blackouts"). So by simple deduction it should have a stinger hook, yes? However, in the same source on P 196 it says "... sting-type hook ... incorporated on production from the 50th Mk XV produced by Cunliffe-Owen and on most of the the aircraft produced by Westland" (my italics and bold).
Thanks for reading this far if you're still awake!
So with apologies for the preamble. my question is simple - can anyone point me at a photo or other proof showing which sort of hook SR520 actually had? I'd like to build that one as, being Westland-built, there's a West-country connection.
TIA,