Still around. I lurk a lot, with jaw dropped in awe at what you guys are producing, but tend not to post unless I have anything to contribute.
So, Meteors. 42 Squadron were never equipped with Meteors. Post-war the (now Royal) Auxiliary AF squadrons used three letter squadron codes so what you have there is actually a later incarnation of 616 Squadron, who used 'RAW' codes (the other RAuxAF Meteor 3 unit was 500 Sqn, coded RAA); it should I suspect be finished in aluminium not white. The white finish was a recognition aid applied to Meteor 3s based on the continent, who were being fired on by ground units mistaking them for 262s!
Re. producing a Mark I, Mark Walsh released source files for a Meteor project he abandoned; sadly they are in .fsc format so would need converting, and then quite a bit of work. Do Virtavia still have the source files for their Meteor, and would they be willing to pass them on?
Gecko, the long nacelles were associated with the new Derwent V engine (basically a scaled down Nene) and had the dual purpose of improving airflow to the engine and reducing drag. There were only two Mk 3s with this engine/nacelle combo, the Meteors especially modified for the successful air speed record attempt; aside from that, if it has the long nacelle it is a Mk 4, the early models with the longer F3 style wing and the later ones with short span wing which became the standard for all the later day fighter variants.
Your comment about combat and the Meteor, obviously the later Mark 8 saw combat in Korea with the Australians, and both the Egyptians and the Israelis used them (and night fighter models) before and after Suez. But the Mk 3 was indeed the only version to see actual combat with the RAF (with three provisos, of which more later); strictly speaking the only air combat the Mk 3 saw was against the V-1 doodlebugs but they did also fly in exercises against the USAAF (in an early example of DACT) and, apparently, more than held their own against the escorting Mustangs - this gave valuable lessons in how to deal with the Me 262 threat, and showed that the only realistic approach was to be able to dive on them from height.
I said there were three provisos:
39 Squadron was based at Nicosia during the Suez Crisis, tasked with defence of Cyprus; although officially they were in combat as far as I know they were never engaged in any action.
Two Mk 8s were attached to 45 Squadron during the Malayan Emergency, where they operated alongside the 81 Sqn PR10s.
FR9s were used in armed recce missions against EOKA in Cyprus, by 208 Sqn, and against rebel tribesmen in Aden, by 208 and 1417 Flight.
Sorry, bit of an essay. Hope it helps. Pat, as I said, plenty or reference material here if needed.
