2 ANS Varsity Paint Scheme

re;

does that just leave the Amiot left from the clear out? Have the rest all gone to new homes?

It was lying outside one of the hangars Duxford on Sunday dismantled waiting for delivery to Newquay.

re;

who knows, in the long term The ex Duxford example might appear in Silver and Yellow – how is she getting on?

I am currently trying to decide which machine to have the model painted as, so am looking through his logbooks to help decide.

At the top of the page where Varsity’s first feature, it says ‘No 349 Refresher Course Thorney Island 2ANS’ – why would he need a refresher course?

It had only been about 2 months since he last flew previous to this course and similar sized gaps in his flying appear to be regular throughout the logbooks!

Also, further to a previous post – WL326 ‘Z’ appears several times in the books – in fact it was the first Varsity he flew solo having been the second Varsity he flew! Although if it was WL626 (which I hope it was!), I need to go to East Midlands Aeropark!!

Yes serial applied in large type underside of the wings, and roundel (smaller than the uppers) outboard of the serial.
Of hand I think FTC followed the general practice of having the serial written one way around under the wing and the other in reverse.
There are some nice colour pics of the prototype on the net, they should help, but try to obtain good side, upper, & underside views to ensure accuracy of the overall scheme.

You will have to show us the end result!

I think I now have sufficient photos to approach the ebayer – 2 more questions in the mean time!……..Would the RAF roundel be on the wing underside? And what about the registration under the wing?

Thanks again

ajw

Thanks for all the help guys – it is greatly appreciated!

Ron, I think I’ll have to take responsibility for the mistake – I copied all the registrations of the aircraft out of the logbooks and onto excel to avoid opening them too often – must have got lost in translation!

pagen – I was actually thinking of getting one of the ebay mahogany jobs – I got an Argosy from there before and was very impressed with the quality – besides I haven’t found a Varsity model that isn’t a vac kit as I can’t stand the vac kits!

I just need to dig through the pprune thread to find some more pictures for the ebayer to get the paint scheme correct!

Some good photographs here of a thread that I started on another forum http://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/333015-vickers-varsity.html

AJW

..a couple of very small points –

a. In the 1950s 2 ANS belonged to FlyingTraining Command. It wasn’t until 1968 that it was absorbed into the new Training Command

b. The log book entry, WL 326 ‘Z’ is wrong (there wern’t no such animal). I think it should be WL 626 which carried the 2 ANS code ‘Z’ between 6/55 and 8/56

good luck with the kit – hope it goes well

As said above, the Varsity complied with the general training scheme of the day, all over aluminium silver, with Golden Yellow training bands, one around the rear fuselage, and one around each wing just outboard of the engine nacelles.
ANS code letters were usually applied in black, one each side of rear fuselage, and one each side of nose

WF428 ‘J’ 2 ANS here, http://www.na3t.org/air/photo/MIL28097
WJ888 ‘Q’ 2 ANS here, http://www.abpic.co.uk/popup.php?q=1304544
This is the prototype, but may be useful for positioning of the bands, http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://www.airteamimages.com/pics/114/114654_800.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.airteamimages.com/vickers-varsity_VX828_united-kingdom—royal-air-force_114654.html&usg=__ydA6Q8RvNPeN4hPLGEglnCVXyqQ=&h=410&w=585&sz=99&hl=en&start=2&zoom=1&tbnid=2W1bmHg4YwuYxM:&tbnh=95&tbnw=135&ei=ApSfUPfJOK6r0AX094HgCg&prev=/search%3Fq%3Dvickers%2Bvarsity%2Bprototype%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26safe%3Doff%26rlz%3D1G1ACAW_ENUK473%26tbm%3Disch&um=1&itbs=1

BTW, which kit are you building?

Thanks for the speedy reply!
My grandfather was flying there on the following machines between December 1955 to January 1956 and the letters he has in his logbooks:
WF 375 ‘U’
WF 388 ‘R’
WF 425 ‘F’
WL 326 ‘Z’
WF 377 ‘V’
WF 412 ‘A’
WF 429 ‘K’

I don’t suppose you have a photo/diagram showing how the t bands would have looked by any chance?

Would have been silver overall with yellow T-bands on wings/fuselage. If you have a particular machine in mind I can help with code letters ? Yes the ANS would be under RAF Training Command.