discussion Alan 45 Battle of Britain Aircraft , RAF, Luftwaffe

[Alan 45]

Some audio here of Johnnie Johnson and Douglas Bader at a BCATP reunion in Canada in the 1970s. Bader relates the well known story of his arrival at "two hundred and forty two squadron, brackets, Canadian, brackets, Royal Air Force".
The BCATP was the WW 2 British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. Many airmen were trained under its auspices in Canada and other Commonwealth countries.


http://spaads-reunion.ca/trivia/aceshigh.mp3


Cheers


Steve

Thanks for that Steve it gave a good inside as well as being funny cheers

 

[john i am]

Wow Alan this is a mammoth project but your making a great start I can't wait to see it all come together on that large piece of mdf well done mate on coming up with such a great idea good luck with the rest

 

[Alan 45]

Now I got a bit carried away last night will watching the footy and realised this morning that I should post up the box lid and sprues , this is what is up next


The Airfix 1/48 Ju 87 B2 stuka View attachment 104769

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and this is what I did last night View attachment 104773



This isn't the nicest looking kit ,raised panel lines, lots of rivets but it does go together rather well , on test fitting and actual fitting this fits very nicely, the office is very basic but it doesn't look to bad and will look ok when painted


That it for now

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[yak face]

Great work so far Alan , particular Kudos for the hand painted nose art on the Hurricane. The cockpit on the Stuka looks quite nice , i'm sure with a bit of painting and washes it'll look great , compared to some of the old airfix cockpits (seat on pins, pilot -thats your lot !) it looks positively superdetailed!! cheers tony

 

[Alan 45]

Cheers Tony your right the cockpit is quite detailed and ive put the first coat on


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Ive chosen a black green for a base instead of proper colour and then a wash as I wasn't too happy with the hurricane cockpit I painted

This will have a couple of dry brushes of the field grey ( grey/green) just to pick up the detail

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[Alan 45]

So the dry brushing is done , ive added a touch of silver to edges just to give a little wear and tear look View attachment 104778

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[Dave W]

Just caught up with this Alan.The Hurricane looks great.Ive made a couple of those Stuka's and it's not that bad a kit.

 

[Alan 45]

Cheers dave I agree about the stuka it's not a bad kit


I have now put together the sections I built last night and found out I have a piece missing View attachment 104784

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the rear support on the starboard side was not in the kit View attachment 104787

so I built one its not perfect but it will be tucked away underneath so you won't see it
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[Dave W]

How does the Stuka fit into your BoB airfield diorama?.Is it going to be overhead dive bombing the airfield?.

 

[Alan 45]

No mate ive had to change it from the 242 squadron I had planned, to finish it how I wanted would take years because if your going to do something like this it has to be done right and there are things I want to do so I asked if I could change it to have smaller dios of every plane and if so do other things set during the BoB

 

[Alan 45]

Well it's done now just needs painting View attachment 104837

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[Alan 45]

Base coats now on View attachment 104935

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ive had to hand paint a lot of the splinter camo due to the millions of rivets the masking tape wouldn't sit completely causing a jagged edge , I'm not happy with the canopy frame as there is no frame just rivets

Next is a couple of coats of varnish then decals

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[flyjoe180]

Wow, that was quick, and all painted in situ as well, no idea how you do that but it looks pretty good from here Alan. So I guess you now have an excess stock of Hurricanes?

 

[Alan 45]

Cheers Joe , ive found a great new way to build that saves a lot of time and you can do multiple kits , in the evenings I sit and build the kit in its entirety but leave it in the sections as in the instructions, then all I have to do is paint and assemble , when I come to painting the hull/shell of a model like this I paint one side usually the underside then leave to dry for a couple of hours then paint the second coat if it's sufficiently dry , so in a day starting at Seven in the morning I can paint an entire aircraft still having time to do my work as well ( my work is all home based) so in a few days I can complete a build and be halfway through another depending on how detailed the kit is

 

[Alan 45]

Ok gloss varnish is on now but it will be a few hours before its cured properly !View attachment 104975

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[Alan 45]

All decaled up now and they've settled back enough to photo but I'll leave it over night to set properly then it's matt coat time , I wouldn't matt it at this point but with all the rivets and raised panel lines it helps to keep the wash where you want it instead of spreading out , it saves dry brushing time View attachment 104993

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[Alan 45]

Here it is complete, I went a little over the top with my wash but I think it's turned out ok View attachment 105104

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in this next one I took a close up of the surface to show the worn look ive given it, I think it's come out ok as the scale seems to work as you can see from the two photos above it looks more grubby just like it would at the same distance if it was full size View attachment 105106

this is just a simple dry brush with Vallejo oily steel View attachment 105107

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[flyjoe180]

Nice one Alan. Your Stuka looks suitably war worn and used.

 

[Alan 45]

Now I come to the next aircraft in this little sig for the BoB and it's airfixs new tool spitfire MkI a nice looking kit but I've been tol it has its problems when attaching the cockpit well we will see


I've decided to to do pilot officer Eric Locks spitfire as it was at the beginning of the BoB in No 41 squadron RAF Caterrick


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I have made a small start but only the first two pages I got itchy last night View attachment 106238


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[Alan 45]

I have decided to make my own seat and harness out of tamiya tape , I just cut cut a piece off and folded it until I was happy for the seat and cut off strips for the straps of the harness ,


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