Mitch K Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 (edited) Here's ZD-A, P9317, of 222 Squadron, finished. On 1st June 1940, the pilot, P/O H.E.L. Falkus took off in pursuit of German bombers. He pursued them aggresively, but in so doing he went too far and went from hunter to hunted. He was engaged by Bf109s of I./JG26 and Bf110s of I./ZG1 and forced-landed at Le Touquet in northern France. Falkus was captured. He claimed to have damaged two bombers in the pursuit, but the claims were never substantiated. Falkus spent the rest of the war in POW camps, including Stalag Luft III. He did support work on a large number of breakouts but didn't go through the wire himself. One particular highlight of his time as a POW was baiting his captors by killing the commandant's cat and cooking it in a stew... After the war, Falkus worked as a screenwriter and producer for the BBC's "The World About Us" natural history programme, collaborated with the Nobel prize-winning biologist Niko Tinbergen, and wrote many books on fishing, including the indispensible "Sea Trout Fishing", for my money THE greatest book on angling, ever. This is the Airfix 1/72 new tool offering, built more or less out of the box with a couple of embellishments. I did the nose band in ident red. This matches the tone in the B&W shots of the captured aircraft, but of course this cannot be said to be definitive. The aerial is brown EZ-Line, coloured with an artists' pen. Seerials are home-made and the codes are from Xtradecal. I went with essentially no weathering, just a light shading of the panel lines with oils. Even after a fight and a forced landing, Falkus's aircraft looked to be in very good trim. Black/white undersides with silver painted fuselage and tail as per the photo. The only build additions to the kit are a Sutton harness and head armour in the cockpit. The dates are such that Falkus was shot down before the introduction of the seat armour. Effort at a wartime-looking shot: Edited July 7, 2015 by Mitch K 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Very nice Mitch - good job 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fatboydim Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Very good. Nice wartime looking shot. Joe 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JWM Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Nice build but I am very sorry about the cat. I would be more brave to cook the commander himself instead... Cheers J-W 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 I do like a Spitfire, especially an Airfix one, and your one is very good indeed. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 7, 2015 Author Share Posted July 7, 2015 Thanks everyone! Jerzy, based on some of the other things I've read about Falkus, given half a chance he would have casseroled the commandant! He was a countryman, and his definition of "edible" was pretty broad! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Lovely little Spitfire Mitch,always nice to have a back story to a build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Knight_Flyer Posted July 7, 2015 Share Posted July 7, 2015 Very nice build and the paint finish looks great. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 8, 2015 Author Share Posted July 8, 2015 Cheers guys! I had a LOT of help from people on here with the background for this one, and I'm very, very grateful. I knew about Hugh Falkus having flown with the RAF, but I didn't really know how or where to look to find out about his aircraft. I learned a lot about what resources are out there, and how to use them. I think I was extremely lucky that people put me onto a series of pictures of P9317 after she was shot down, so I had about as good a set of references as anyone could wish for. Falkus flew Gladiators before he flew Spits, but not in combat, describing them as "the last of the gentlemen's aeroplanes". I hope the build's a fitting tribute to a man I quietly thank every time I catch a sea trout! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mixup_1 Posted July 8, 2015 Share Posted July 8, 2015 Very nice indeed! Great story too! Thanks for sharing 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Luis Alfonso Posted July 9, 2015 Share Posted July 9, 2015 Hi Mitch: Nice beautifful build you have done here, I liked the nice results how you finished your nice Spit and and I think the thing that made it more special is the background you have added about the pilot of this nice looking machine. Thank you very much for sharing. Cheers, Luis Alfonso 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mitch K Posted July 9, 2015 Author Share Posted July 9, 2015 Thanks, Luis! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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