GB 29 - Feb 1st-Jun 5th 2016.... (1 Viewer)

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Found this today on a French website, the guy modelled his as white 7 with a small yellow 7 on the rudder ?

My French is pretty poor but he used a few pics to show patches of cammo that matched up with a pic showing the seriel mumber on the tail of a Ta152 with some LW guys in front.

View attachment 308041

Yeah, there are other pics of this bird, at this point it was clearly White 7, but may have been yellow 7 at an earlier date.
 
Off to camp now but I need a favor as the internet sucks there. I'm looking for a photo of F/O L.F. Berryman's (RCAF 412Sqn.) Spitfire Mk.IX, s/n MJ722. What I need is the code letter. Any help would be greatly appreciated.



Geo
 
Will have a look at what I have Geo. Might be some pics in my Robert Bracken works. I also have access to the RCAF ORBs.
 
So no pics in my Bracken stuff. Some references to Keefer VZ-A, Beurling VZ-B = MH883 in early 1944, Ketterson VZ-K = MJ306 on March 4, 1944, Likeness VZ-W = MJ959 in May 44, also VZ-V = MH617 at same time.

According to the Spitfire Production database, MJ722 spent very little time on 412 Squadron before being packed off to a repair unit. I would need to look at the ORB a little closer to find out what caused the aircraft to be pulled off the squadron. The dates in the database don't jive with the ORB though as it shows up on missions past the date noted in the database. However, the early-mid July/44 on strength date jives with the database.

MJ722 was not a personal aircraft for Berryman as others are shown flying the same rig. Where are you getting your info from Geo? Are you trying to model the aircraft at a particular time or for a particular event?

In the meantime, I'll keep looking.
 
Thanks for looking guys, that's the info I have as well. Andy, I have the Spitfire "XXX Depth Charge" Version with Johnnie Johnsons markings and while I have nothing against him, I just think that he's been modelled to death. Berryman was one of the pilots who flew a beer run and though I know others flew MJ722, there's always the off chance it was this one. I've read his article on the event but no mention of the aircraft involved. Several sleeps left before the build starts and if nothing comes up, I'll build the kit as Johnsons bird. Thanks again guys.


Geo
 
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Here's the squadron diary entry for Berryman's beer run on June 13/44

Capture.JPG


..and the ORB for the same date:

Capture.JPG


Berryman was flying MJ841 on the 13th. MJ722 doesn't show up until July. Is there another date you were thinking of Geo?
 
That's great Andy. I only chose MJ722 as that was the only aircraft of his I could find during the beer run time frame. The 2nd Tactical Air Force book mentions him making a claim in this bird as well. MJ841 seems to be the more likely candidate. Any photo(4) I've seen with with the kegs attached don't show any codes




Geo
 
Those are great. I would love to do the FW but my Luftwaffe painting skills, penmanship and the werke nummer prevents me. Just noticed I have the drop tank as well but I can't find the aircraft letter for MJ841.


Geo
 
Unlikely to find it without a pic. The ORB's tend to be vague on that, mostly using the s/n's. You'd have to get hold of Berryman's log book. He might use letters and then these could be correlated to the ORB s/n's
 
Thanks Andy. I've found a 403sqn kite but I'll need a bit of interpretive help when I start the GB thread. From the two photos I have, it looks oddball but that just might be wishful thinking.


Geo
 
Hey Andy... have you decided which one you are going to start out with? It'd be interesting to build the Ta152's together to compare the Zoukei-Muira and the Dragon/DML kits. I think I'm going to start with the Ta152 before tackling a big scale Dora.
 
I won't be starting this til the Ju88 is done or near done and that's not happening soon. The Dragon kit will be no comparison to your Z-M.

To be honest, I'm not sure I'll do a LW bird as, looking at the remaining GB's, there are several that I can put the Tank and others into but, of the 11 remaining GBs, only this next one would qualify a late, single engined WW2 RAF bird, of which I have many. I see a Tempest or one of my 2 Typhoons being more probable now.
 
A Tempest would be great.. not too many of those being modeled. I'm not sure the Z-M Ta152 is better than the Dragon kit. From the little that I see in terms of online builds, it looks like the Z-M may have some issues... overly complicated modular design to account for all of the internal detail (of which I am not interested in showing)... bad fit... soft molding details, notably in the cockpit. We'll just have to see. I'm aiming to go OOB on this one.
 

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