AndyL

Here's my Eduard Bf 109K from an overtrees boxing with AIMS decals for the swastikas and Blue 12. The national insignia is painted, and various stencils come from the spares box. Paints are Mr. Hobby acrylics with the hand painted stuff in Vallejo. And yes the ram that sits behind the harness attachment points is currently being looked after by my carpet Anyway, I thought I have a go at a grubby K which is more than likely totally incorrect but it was enjoyable. Thanks for looking.

In my haste to finish it, I made a schoolboy error - I forgot to paint the eyes on it. So here's a couple of new ones

Just done - as per the title it's the Airfix 1/48 Defiant as the shark mouthed N3328 of 151 Squadron. The only decal used was the one for the instrument panel. Paints are Tamiya with a mix of XF1 and XF8 in a 60/40 ratio to give the bluey black finish. And the item with it is a base of one of the cockpit lamps from N3328 which was generously given to me by the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team who recovered the remains of N3328 a few years ago. They even recovered the more or less complete spade grip and that is quite an item. I'll add a few more photos later.

And now an update on just where we now are. And apologies for not being about so much as I have had other things to the fore, and have just started another book, which considering I had said that I would never write anything again might come back to bite me OK, for those that don't follow the book page on Farcebook here's a rough time line from January to date: On January 9th I submitted the working manuscript to my editor. Had a few tweaks here and there. and then it went quiet but I was assured that everything was in hand. The about six weeks ago (or so) my friend Dave Brocklehurst MBE of the Kent Battle of Britain Museum, Hawkinge made mention that there was a trade flyer doing the rounds which gave a release month of this September, the cover price and it having '75 photos'. Now this 75 photos thing was really alarming as the roll of honour in the book has more than 75 images alone. I had been asked to make the book as big as possible with as many photos as I can, and now a trade flyer stating 75 was pretty alarming. The actual book size is the standard nine inch by six inch hardback format, however I was told that the book, because of the size of the text alone would be in a larger format. Here's an example of the size of the content - I have just over 700 photos to choose from. One chapter is just short of 67k words - the average hard back is around 70k give or take. So I contacted my editor with my concerns; at the bare minimum 75 photos just won't cut it. The reply was that the book should not have featured in the trade flyer at all and where they got the figure for the photos was unknown. But I have had people contact met to say that they have already put in pre-orders. It was on the flyer at £29.99 but obviously we're talking a much larger physical book, and naturally that will make that cover price increase. I have asked when did they start pre-orders, and how many have orders have been taken. No reply to that. Yet. There has been some recent discussion relating to editing content, plus there is also the upcoming link up between the book and Kōtare with their Defiant project, which I am honoured to have been asked to be in from the start. Then this week I was contacted by Pen and Sword that they now have the manuscript and the first proof in PDF format getting to me in early August. There then is the second proof stage before signing off on it but the question that needs to be asked is just what was being done between January 9th and May 21st. This obviously means that anyone pre-ordering and expecting a physical copy in September will unfortunately be disappointed. Another frustrating thing was that I emailed P&S nearly five months ago asking that they should now use my main email for correspondence relating to the book as the one I set up solely for the book is no longer monitored. Guess who found two emails in the old inbox? Brought this up again, and again no reply or acknowledgement. I have also raised the images issue again, as they are to be inserted into the text and not put in a glossy insert and stitched in to the manuscript. The idea is that the the photos will be in context with the text; I hate those glossy photo inserts! Just the insertion of the images into the text increases the physical size of the book and we're back to the pre-orders/price thing again. I admit I am a tad frustrated but here we are. I have started a book called 'Ghosts of the Dying Light' (title stolen from the Defiant book where it's the night fighting chapter title - and too good not to use again!) and that will be on the intruder operations undertaken by Defiants, Blenheims and Havoc. I have already located 19 families who had relatives lost on these intruder sorties and they have provided me with material and some rather nice previously unseen photographs. Compared to the Defiant book I think I can get this finished in just over a year. I have also been asked if I would do something on Hurricane intruder operations but it is not something I plan to commit to at this stage. Aaaaand there we are. I'll give better updates when I know more. Many thanks! Andy

Brilliant. Thank you so much that's really helpful and much appreciated.

Morning, Something totally out of my comfort zone here - it's modern for a start! I will have to make myself a set of roundel masks to adorn an aircraft the size of a Tucano and I'd appreciate it if anyone could give me some rough dimensions in mm please? And as I am going to spray them, what's the colour matches too. Very many thanks, Andy

Here's my second 109 of the year, from the recent G 10 Profipack boxing finished in My Hobby acrylics. Thanks for looking.

Another overtrees 109 using decals from the Eduard Gustav Pt. 3. Finished in Mr Hobby and Tamiya acrylics with small detail stuff picked out in Vallejo. My third 109 of the year. Thanks for looking.

First one of three finishes this year (the others being another Eduard 109 and an Eduard P 51D, both in 1:72) but this is an overtrees box using the decals for option three in the Afrika dual box, that of Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Bendert of Stab II./JG 27 based in Derna, Libya, December 1941. This brought back good memories of a long gone 1:48 Hasegawa F which had the same decal option, so I had to do this one first. Finished in Gunze paints and weathered with pastels. Not great but I enjoyed myself

Oh that’s really lovely work. I like that a lot.

Brilliant, thank you very much for this. It gives me (who knows nothing about the uniforms) an excellent starting point. Much appreciated. Andy

Morning all, I have a Das Werk Jagdpanther G2 on the bench getting painted and really fancy putting a couple of crew with it, however I am wondering what type of uniforms I could depict. Reed Green uniform as per the SPG crews, or could I wing it with a mix of panzer black jackets with pea pattern or grey trousers. You can tell I know nowt about the uniforms, so any suggestions much appreciated. Cheers, Andy

Sadly no joy on that I am afraid. I have images of several A.I. equipped Defiants on 264 that show no code letters at all, not even the PS codes. One was named 'Roo' while there are others carrying presentation names as there were about twelve presentation Defiants assigned to the squadron. If I come up with anything I will let you know; I know I need to chase up the Mervyn Maggs log book just in case.

Hi Michael, Thanks for the interest - sadly 456 Squadron has been difficult to sort out images, and all I have is one after a belly landing. 456, along with 153 were exceedingly camera shy, but the holy grail would be a photo of a 85 Squadron Defiant. I have been spoilt with photos relating to 141, 256, 264 and 410 Squadrons but others have been a tad hit and miss. But this week I submitted 614 images for consideration and there are about 20 more to come in to be captioned. Alec Brew passed me some photos but he sadly passed away earlier this year. Such a loss to all things Boulton Paul. Cheers, Andy

The manuscript is now complete and with my editor, with a word count of a shade under 146k not counting photo captions ( average hardback is 70k including photo captions). Hopefully out late summer next year and will be launched at the Kent Battle of Britain Museum, Hawkinge obviously on a date TBC.