whats the purest warbird flying?

If your interested the Lanc could do with a touch up!!!! inside

If you need any more for the Lanc, count me in!!! and I’m sure lancman can find a brush from somewhere. I would love to get inside the old lass again! Anything to make her look nothing but the best!

Originally posted by Fluffy
Eddie

If you like the Lanc could do with touching up!!!!! inside

😀 I’ll be in touch 😀

Well done Fluffy – hope you don’t think I was being hypercritical, the BBMF is a national treasure and you all do a fantastic job…….but those roundels have irritated me ever since they appeared on the last repaint. Thanks.
I’ve just realised (from looking at the BBMF website), that P7’s current paint scheme is meant to represent L1067, so maybe, in that context, the sky fuselage band is correct. Because of P7’s 603 Sqn. history, I had always assumed the current scheme was meant to represent its actual markings in a previous life, rather than a different machine!

Fluffy,

Thanks for letting us know. It is indeed heartening that we all have a common aim. Thanks really to Moondance for spotting it in the first place.

Cheers!

Eddie

If you like the Lanc could do with touching up!!!!! inside

It’s great to know that people listen in situations like this 🙂

Do you want us to get together a painting party to help out? 😀

P7350 roundels

Mark V

I have checked both fuselage and under wing roundels this morning and as you suspected both are wrong. The fuselage roundel is 36″ with a 9″ centre and the u/wing is a 36″ ‘D’ roundel which has a 12″ centre. The a/c was painted at St Athan and they were supplied with the correct info so I don’t know what went wrong. I believe she should have 50″ u/wing & 35″ fuselage we will sort this out over this winter servicing. Many thanks for noticing these errors because I didn’t spot them, but then I have 12 a/c to look after

Hi Fluffy,

I agree with you. BBMF aircraft look better than ever, particularly the Lanc.

I know it seems churlish to criticise but Moondance has a point. If you would like to throw a tape measure at the roundels of P7350, the normal type A1 fuselage roundels should be overall 35″ diameter, with the red centre spot being 5″ across and each ring 5 inches wide. There were, however, many Spitfires manufactured with a larger 7″ centre spot due to some unknown factor which ocurred when the Supermarine drawings were updated so for some aircraft this is authentic!

The 40 inch type A underwing roundel always has the rings divided equally, the centre spot and each ring width being 8″. It would be more likely that 50 inch underwing roundels were carried but the smaller 40 inch variety were also used.

Do let us know the results please.

Quite agree, the paint schemes on the BBMF have improved hugely in recent years, just a shame that the most historic machine in the fleet looks the most unconvincing (still think the fuselage roundels are wrong as well!)

P7350

Yes we know about the fuselage band and if time allows it will be removed this winter I will look into the underwing roundels.
I like to think that over the past eight years we have made vast improvements with our colour schemes, no more gloss paint, correct stencils etc. The Lanc & AB910 are two such examples.

Anyway talking of the purest warbird Black 6 was the one for me original engine, instruments, weaponary even the correct end fittings on all of the hoses. Shame she still isn’t flying, but thats another story

Hi Moondance,

I see what you mean. I have not looked at P7350 in a good while and the underwing roundels do not look right. There was a great deal of variation in underwing roundel size and position at this time (1940) but the proportion should be right. These may be 40 inch diameter and if so the centre red spot should be 8 inches across – looks larger in the photo. Good point about the sky band too.

According ‘Spitfire Survivors’ (Riley/Trant), P7350 was with 602 Sqn. from 17-31 October 1940 (hence the XT code). The sky fuselage band was introduced from 27 November 1940, so the current scheme is probably only an approximation (unless photos exist – I’ve never seen one)

BM597 has been fully restored. If we are including aircraft that have been restored to an original condition I would like to include ‘Janie’ as the level of attention to detail that has gone into that restoration is superb.

I would have agreed with Shuttleworth’s Spitfire AR501 until they decided for “aesthetic reasons” to keep the pointed wingtips that were put on it for film work. I think this was a bad decision – it takes away from the historical value of the aircraft which was after all, built as a clipped wing VC. Apparently it is not such a good flyer either.

How about the Historic Aircraft Collection’s BM597?

What about the fuselage band – was that a post-Battle marking, too? When did that come in – winter 1940?

The red in the centre of the roundels under the wing and on the fuselage has a too large diameter, which appear to correspond to the post-war ‘D’ type roundel (compare, for example, with the correctly proportioned ‘A’ & ‘A1’ roundels on BM597). I can only presume P7350 was sprayed by the RAF (who have frequently got it wrong over the decades), as opposed to one of the private warbird firms (who usually get it right!)
Such a great shame that the only airworthy, genuine Battle of Britain Spitfire has such a basic mistake in its markings.

The underwing roundels, perhaps? They don’t look exactly spot-on to me, but I’m not an expert! I know there were variations in the style and sizes of underwing roundels on BofB aircraft.

Just a shame that P7350 has those dreadful ‘D’ roundels, look such a mess on such a truly historic machine

Hi Moondance, what D type roundels? Please explain. Thx.

WV908 is awaiting its safety equipment back from overhaul.
After that it just needs weighing and a full re-spray before the test runs and flights can begin.

VR930 is still awaiting the engine back from rebuild.
The rest of the aircraft is serviceable I believe so once the Centaurus comes back, it’s test running time.

What’s the progress on the RNHF SeaHawk and SeaFury?