Procopius Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 "The English Air Force must be so reduced morally and physically that it is unable to deliver any significant attack against the German crossing." -- Adolf Hitler, Fuhrer Directive 16, 16 July 1940 "πόλλ' οἶδ' ἀλώπηξ, ἐχῖνος δ'ἓν μέγα." [Loosely translated: "The fox knows many tricks, but the hedgehog knows one invincible truth."] -- Archilochus "What a people! What a chance! The whole of Europe humiliated except for us. And the chance that by our stubbornness we shall give victory to the world.” — Harold Nicolson, diary entry for 31 July 1940 Indulge me for a moment. It is September 15, 1940, and twenty-five Dornier 17s are passing over Canterbury, fifty miles from London, where thick black palls of smoke still rise heavenward after a week of bombing. Looking in formation something like a great herringbone, a hundred and twenty five Bf109s are stacked above them for a mile straight up. This is not the main attack. It's the spoiler to open the day, to draw the remnants of the Royal Air Force -- and the Germans know it has been reduced to almost nothing now; perhaps as few as fifty of the dreaded Spitfires are still able to fight -- and to cast them down and destroy them utterly by forcing them to defend the greatest city in the world, to pin them at last in place and overcome them by main force and weight of numbers over a target they must defend. Cruising at just over 185 MPH, the bombers will be over London in a little more than fifteen minutes. It won't be long now. Four days before, Churchill said to the nation: "we must regard the next week or so as a very important period in our history. It ranks with the days when the Spanish Armada was approaching the Channel, and Drake was finishing his game of bowls; or when Nelson stood between us and Napoleon’s Grand Army at Boulogne. We have read all about this in the history books; but what is happening now is on a far greater scale and of far more consequence to the life and future of the world and its civilisation than those brave old days." Somewhere, before aeroplanes, before there was a Hitler, before Churchill's most famous antecedent had been born, bowls clatter and clink together within sight of the English Channel, "which serves...in the office of a wall, or as a moat defensive to a house." Shakespeare will write these words seven years from now. Maybe, if he strains, Drake can even see the sails. It won't be long now. Off Cape Trafalgar, the largest and most powerful fleet in the world is sailing for Brest, to escort the most powerful army in Europe across that narrow strip of sea and break the back of Napoleon's greatest and most tenacious foe. Off Cape Finisterre a few days before, a British fleet tried -- and failed -- to stop the Combined Fleet of Spain and France. It won't be long now. Leeward of Calais, near Gravelines, the Armada tries to regroup after scattering the face of the fireships the night before. As their heavy, cumbersome galleons heave to and fro, they can see the sails of Drake's ships bearing down upon them, in battle formation. The wind blows westward off Trafalgar, and Villenueve can already see the sails of Nelson's ships on the horizon. Flags flutter up the masts of HMS Victory in the early morning light. It is hours before England expects. It is 6:22 in the morning, and Nelson is signalling his fleet, standing now between Napoleon and Britain, PREPARE FOR BATTLE. Three thousand feet above the German top cover, 72 and 92 Squadrons have, for once, for once, the height advantage. Their twenty-four Spitfires seem drab and very small. Behind them, more are coming; the English skies are alive with Britain's defenders now, as squadron after squadron throws itself heavenward from as far north as Cambridgeshire. But at this moment, two squadrons of Spitfires are all of Britain, everything, the hopes of a nation, stretching back a thousand years into the past and as far into the future as victory or defeat today will dictate. Brian Kingcombe looks down at one hundred and fifty German aircraft, most of them fighters. What thoughts pass through his mind at this moment? "Okay, boys," he says. "Let's go." The Spitfires roll into the attack. I will be building two Airfix Spitfire Ia and one AZ Models Spitfire Ib (a birthday present from Stew). "Beware, I have warned you." R6800/LZ-N, as flown by Squadron Leader (later Air Commodore) Rupert Henry Archibald Leigh (1912-1991). Leigh commanded 66 Squadron from April to October 1940; before the war, he was friends with Douglas Bader; "he was given the task of conducting Bader's test flight having been given clearance by the Central Medical Establishment. Conducting the test in a Harvard, equipped with toe brakes which Bader would be unable to operate with his artificial legs, Leigh operated these for him knowing that on operations Bader would be flying Spitfires or Hurricanes which were fitted with hand operated brakes." (Air of Authority) As a pre-war regular, Leigh was a skilled tactician who evinced a preference for head-on attacks from slightly below enemy formations -- where defensive fire would be weakest. He finished the war with 1.5 victories. "They can because they think they can." R6776/RV-H, flown by F/Sgt (later Wing Commander) George "Grumpy" Unwin of 19 Squadron (1913-2006). A 14-victory ace, the irascible Unwin was a miner's son, and like Leigh, had served with Bader before the war; it's said that he gained his nickname for complaining about the racket Bader made when adjusting his metal legs. "If you dare." R6626/XT-Y, flown by F/O (later Air Commodore) Ronald "Ras" Berry (1917-2000), of 603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron, also a 14-victory ace. Born in Hull, he was not a pre-war regular like my other two subjects, joining the RAFVR in 1938. In 1965, he was one of the serving RAF officers who had fought in the Battle of Britain selected to march at the head of Winston Churchill's funeral procession. OK, boys. Let's go. 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 I'm in, after that magnificent intro, how could I not? Let's go, indeed. Cheers, Stew 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Yes! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
06/24 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Indeed. Stirring stuff young PC. I'm in. My Hurricanes will be up as soon as the boys have strapped in, we'll take the bombers, you deal with the yellow nosed baskets... 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Davek72 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Great stuff I am definitely in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Another great introduction PC - stirring stuff! I'm in 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Despite a couple of spelling mistakes in the Greek text, this is a brilliant intro! And , as we all know, another brilliant and entertaining build to come! With or without codeine. Have fun! JR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 My good lord Mr p, I read that and was so motivated I chucked on my jacket and hat and legged to to my spitfire to join in..... My spitfire turned out to be and 05 Mondeo.... Not as inspiring and a great let down! It's red! Not even DG/de Your best work yet that post Mr p excellent subject choices as well....your england (uk doesnt work as well) expects Cheers Rob 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyot Posted August 14, 2015 Share Posted August 14, 2015 Very stirring stuff,......come on them,........SCRAMBLE,.......SCRAMBLE!!!! Cheers Tony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AdrianMF Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Nobody writes a build intro like young Mr Procopius! Regards, Adrian 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted August 15, 2015 Share Posted August 15, 2015 Hi Procopius, Great intro! Count me in! We can't have too many Spitfires! Cheers Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
amblypygid Posted August 16, 2015 Share Posted August 16, 2015 Compelling intro, PC. As a young lad, my best friend's family farm was a bit south of Canterbury. On it was a small copse that was one of our favoured play areas, and they had pictures from the war of a crashed Dornier there. I couldn't tell you any more about when, but I suppose there's a remote possibility that it was shot down in this action. Certainly we used to "excavate" areas and we'd usually turn up various bits of twisted metal, plus what seem in retrospect to be a surprising number of spent .303 casings. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted August 17, 2015 Author Share Posted August 17, 2015 Despite a couple of spelling mistakes in the Greek text, this is a brilliant intro! Unfortunately, I can't read Ancient Greek myself, so I have to rely on secondary sources. It's been difficult to get up and down stairs recently, what with the knee surgery and all, so I've mostly been stuck on the ground floor of my house (I had to sleep on the couch for three days because I simply couldn't make it up the winding staircase to our bedroom), and have developed a sort of sad little proto-beard. However, today I've been feeling quite good, so I made it down into the basement. The AZ interior parts are kind of...hmmm...well...rhymes with kitty, I guess you might say, so there's not much that can be done with them until you close the fuse and make sure they even fit in a vaguely-Spitfiresque way. The Airfix bits are a little more reliable, so it was time to do some pointless and ultimately invisible detailing! Why not. As you can see, I drilled out the lightening holes with my trusty pin vice. Then I sprayed the interiors Tamiya XF-16 Aluminum. I have always painted the whole inside RAF Interior Green (which I'm told is not even the right name, it's something like Grey Green or Green Grey or whatever), but I feel this is more evocative. However, apparently, only the cockpit itself was that colour, and abaft it and for'ard, it was silver, so here we go. This is also what we call strategic thinking, since it's tough for me to get downstairs and Tamiya reacts so poorly with all other paints in the universe until it cures, so now I have an excuse to stall a bit. I didn't graduate college at twenty because of my looks. (They were glad to see the back of me, in fact.) I've also cut the canopies from their sprues (I used an x-acto blade in lieu of my sprue cutters and it worked much better, little late in the game to learn this), and dipped them in Future. No pictures of that, because a grainy photo of something wholly translucent is rather useless. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jrlx Posted August 17, 2015 Share Posted August 17, 2015 Great to see you back in action! Wish you a fast recovery, so that you can progress on your builds Cheers Jaime 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeW Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Just finding this now - Eventually I'll learn that when everyone mysteriously disappears, they can be found here, playing in Groups. As others have mentioned, that intro was great. Made me quite ready to go and battle the next nefarious group thinking of causing a stir. Happy to report that between here and the local post office, all seems well - but best not to let the guard down eh? This knee news is unsettling - any chance of rigging a work bench on the kitchen table? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Hi PC, Nice photobomb by your avian friend whose name escapes me... While you are waiting for the Tamiya silver to calm down you might wish to contemplate the proposition that early Spitfire cockpits were painted internally in a lighter shade of interior green than Aircraft Grey-Green which I believe has been discussed at length on this very forum. I use a pot of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green I believe it was termed at the time) with some 78 (Cockpit Green) mixed in that has lasted me years. If you wanted to stick to Tamiya I believe XF-71 is a good match. Having contemplated this to your satisfaction you can then do as you please as I am sure you know how little is actually visible in the cockpit once you are done... Happy building mate... Cheers, Stew 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Nice photobomb by your avian friend whose name escapes me... That's Beck, the smartest of my wife's birds. He spent almost all of today...how to put this...hmmmm...ah...in the words of our Antipodean friends, rooting for and with one of the other doves. This is louder than you might think, and definitely louder than you wish to imagine. Beck's stamina is prodigious and I felt rather self-conscious by sundown. While you are waiting for the Tamiya silver to calm down you might wish to contemplate the proposition that early Spitfire cockpits were painted internally in a lighter shade of interior green than Aircraft Grey-Green which I believe has been discussed at length on this very forum. I use a pot of Humbrol 90 (Beige Green I believe it was termed at the time) with some 78 (Cockpit Green) mixed in that has lasted me years. If you wanted to stick to Tamiya I believe XF-71 is a good match. I had a really clever Conan the Barbarian riff here (if I do say so myself) but I accidentally deleted it and then lost it more, so the gist of it is that my Pollyscale Grey-Green is slightly lighter than my Testors, and I'm lazy, so mission accomplished! [banner unfurls, war gets worse and worse.] 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 That's Beck, the smartest of my wife's birds. He spent almost all of today...how to put this...hmmmm...ah...in the words of our Antipodean friends, rooting for and with one of the other doves. This is louder than you might think, and definitely louder than you wish to imagine. Beck's stamina is prodigious and I felt rather self-conscious by sundown... I think he must have been my former upstairs neighbour in a past life, that was pretty depressing... ...I had a really clever Conan the Barbarian riff here (if I do say so myself) but I accidentally deleted it and then lost it more, so the gist of it is that my Pollyscale Grey-Green is slightly lighter than my Testors, and I'm lazy, so mission accomplished! [banner unfurls, war gets worse and worse.] Sorted! Would like to have read that though, it's a shame the way the forum software from time to time (and purely for evil kicks, as far as I can tell) will let you write a sprawling missive encompassing the some fundamental truth of human experience along with a couple of unusually witty quips, perhaps a deliciously precise aphorism or two, and then delete the lot at the stroke of a key. It must be fuelled by rage. Cheers, Stew 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Hi PC, glad the knee's getting better And Stew's here too, back to the double act - yay! The hair growth looks cool (is that the right word, bit out of touch...) - now if you can only cool Beck's ardour and teach him to say 'Pieces of Eight!' you'll have a great Pirate look going there. Har har me 'artie!! (Sorry, it's that Jon man tempting me to the Moth GB, all that talk of rigging). Looking forward to the Spits so I can just (try to) copy your work for my attempt. All this talk of paint colours is making my VMA sets move closer to the bin, especially after the 'faded Dambuster' episode... I'll try some mixing first though, my 'What Would Stew Do?' for today. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 Looking forward to the Spits so I can just (try to) copy your work for my attempt. All this talk of paint colours is making my VMA sets move closer to the bin, especially after the 'faded Dambuster' episode... I'll try some mixing first though, my 'What Would Stew Do?' for today. Stew and I discussed this a bit, and our ultimate consensus was that "but it sprays beautifully" is the modelling equivalent of "but he made the trains run on time". I mean, don't get me wrong, both of these things are desirable, but there's more to life and/or modelling than that. What I'm trying to say is you shouldn't use Vallejo Model Air, you should use all of the esoteric, unreliable, and finicky (but somewhat more accurately-coloured) paints the rest of us suffer through. I'm considering using a paint from Micronesia that uses phosgene gas as a base, their Sky Type S is said to be the last you'll ever need. Would like to have read that though, it's a shame the way the forum software from time to time (and purely for evil kicks, as far as I can tell) will let you write a sprawling missive encompassing the some fundamental truth of human experience along with a couple of unusually witty quips, perhaps a deliciously precise aphorism or two, and then delete the lot at the stroke of a key. It must be fuelled by rage. The greater and more profound the insight being committed to screen, the more keys trigger the back button. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Stew and I discussed this a bit, and our ultimate consensus was that "but it sprays beautifully" is the modelling equivalent of "but he made the trains run on time". I mean, don't get me wrong, both of these things are desirable, but there's more to life and/or modelling than that. What I'm trying to say is you shouldn't use Vallejo Model Air, you should use all of the esoteric, unreliable, and finicky (but somewhat more accurately-coloured) paints the rest of us suffer through. I'm considering using a paint from Micronesia that uses phosgene gas as a base, their Sky Type S is said to be the last you'll ever need... Na-uh, Martian paint is where it is at now mate, it actually is no colour until it is applied to the model, when it analyses the local colour spectrum, the kit, the variable light conditions and sets itself at precisely the correct scale colour. Unfortunately the shipping and import fees would bankrupt an OPEC economy... Cheers, Stew 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
06/24 Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 Can't spray for toffee, so just pick the colour that looks closest to my ageing eyes and then fail to apply it neatly. Usually all comes good in the end, and if not (2CV anyone?) then the thread just dries up and we all cough politely and look the other way! And everything looks better if you're a pirate. Must be the eye patch. AARRR me'arties indeed 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 I will apologise in advance for any gentleman's parts [my words] ups in this post. This morning the forum has destroyed my belief that I can write English without emoticons and exclamation marks... or ellipses... I am a broken man. Blub blub (you do the face) Stew and I discussed this a bit, and our ultimate consensus was that "but it sprays beautifully" is the modelling equivalent of "but he made the trains run on time". I mean, don't get me wrong, both of these things are desirable, but there's more to life and/or modelling than that. What I'm trying to say is you shouldn't use Vallejo Model Air, you should use all of the esoteric, unreliable, and finicky (but somewhat more accurately-coloured) paints the rest of us suffer through. I'm considering using a paint from Micronesia that uses phosgene gas as a base, their Sky Type S is said to be the last you'll ever need. The greater and more profound the insight being committed to screen, the more keys trigger the back button. Ah, Egbert old chap... you do make me laugh. I read the "you shouldn't use Vallejo Model Air" with horror and then read on and realised it was sarcasm - perfect! You are truly moving towards your goal of Britishness (is that even a word?). No, I'm being unfair... I think you have achieved it! Na-uh, Martian paint is where it is at now mate, it actually is no colour until it is applied to the model, when it analyses the local colour spectrum, the kit, the variable light conditions and sets itself at precisely the correct scale colour. Unfortunately the shipping and import fees would bankrupt an OPEC economy... Cheers, Stew The double act is back - it's been sadly missed! And Jon's here too - perfect, the whole set. Jon it may be the toffee that's giving you problems with the airbrush... keep at it old boy, it's not the man, or the tools, you just have to practice (get yourself a 'paint mule', or spoons) and develop 'the knack' (cue the Digbert video). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted August 18, 2015 Author Share Posted August 18, 2015 You are truly moving towards your goal of Britishness (is that even a word?). No, I'm being unfair... I think you have achieved it! This is a momentous day, gentlemen. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JasonC Posted August 18, 2015 Share Posted August 18, 2015 (edited) No pictures of that, because a grainy photo of something wholly translucent is rather useless.Transparent, you would hope. Though Airfix seem to have developed a reputation for being rather equivocal on that point.J. Edited August 18, 2015 by JasonC Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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