Smithy

I second the recommendation for a Fokker Dr.I/F.I as a kit to cut your teeth on in WWI. It has minimal rigging but some and none of it overly problematic so also a good example to try rigging for the first time. 1/48 is a good scale for WWI and is my preferred scale for it although I do do some 1/72 and am working on a 1/72 Fokker at the moment. 1/48 is big enough to not be horrifically fiddly but not demanding the detailing which I find 1/32 kits require without looking sparse. One thing I would recommend is not to make any Camel your first WWI experience. The rigging is quite involved and the cross bracing in front of the cockpit would be particularly tricky for a rigging novice. If you're keen on one of the Albatri models, I'd leave that as a second build after a Dreidecker as it's a little more involved. One final word of advice, whatever you do choose, for your first build stick with a well engineered injection kit such as an Eduard. Once you've got your multi-wing and rigging skills down pat then you can move onto those kits which require more work, but for your first one, you'll have enough new skills to pick up without having to wrestle with a problematic kit. Short answer? An Eduard 1/48 Fokker Dr.I would be perfect for a first WWI kit. HTH, Tim

If that's the case then get in touch with the squadron association (if there is one, there should be, or should have been). Your next step is to try and track down logbooks of others in the same flight (I imagine they were B Flight?) because almost certainly PZ350 will have been flown by other members of the flight who very probably recorded the code number for the sorties they flew in her. If you have information regarding 464 at this time you should be able to make a list of those flying in the same flight. After this it is a matter of tracking down the logbooks via family via the squadron association, via specialised fora such as RAF Commands, 12 o'clock High, genealogy websites. Sounds daunting but it's actually not as awful as it sounds. I was able to hunt down a lot of information and documents for a fellow who flew with the AFC during WWI (which is an even trickier proposition). You also want to get in touch with the RAAF History and Heritage Branch and their Heritage centres at several RAAF bases around Oz as they will be able to help as well.

Admiral Puff, Steve is right that the best first thing to do is to access what is available through online archives to see if anything comes up. Unfortunately most squadron ORBs and other squadron level information sources use the serial rather than the code. Yes some ORBs do list the code but these are the exception rather than the rule. If you can't find anything by that route and no photos turn up of the airframe in question, then your only other option is to track down logbooks, either for the men in question or for members from the same flight. Airmen in logbooks often list the aircraft code and therefore by matching the logbook code letter with the ORB entry for a particular sortie you can match codes with serials. Because aircraft were usually used in instances by differing crews from the same flight, there is an excellent possibility that you'll be able to find a match for PZ350. The logbook for one of my relatives is missing and I used the same method by getting in touch with a fellow who had a logbook from the same flight. As a result I was able to put codes to a number of aircraft that my relative flew. HTH, Tim

The Oslo Gestapo raid didn't go to plan. 190s intercepted the raid and downed one Mossie and then the bombs intended for the Gestapo HQ hit the building but went through it to explode in a number of residential buildings, killing 80 civilians. Lots of these mistakes happen during wartime and add to the calamity and tragedy of war. My wife's old landlord was a child at the school which was hit in Bergen during the raid on the U-boat bunkers there. He hadn't felt well that morning and so he had very luckily stayed home. I remember talking to him about it and asking whether he was angry with the RAF, and he replied not at all. He said they were frightened men, doing a very dangerous job and trying to liberate Norway from Nazi occupation. As he simply said, these things sadly happen in war.

For antennae I use smoke coloured invisible thread (available from a sewing supplies shop), cheap as chips, strong and doesn't sag. I also use it for rigging in 1/72 scale. In terms of CA (super glue), I personally really like Zap-A-Gap and also use their accelerator, Zip Kicker when I do rigging and antenna/radio lines.

Well here's a blast from the past... I was going to start a new build (a P-47) but I was looking at the Shelf of Shame and thinking that I really must finish some of those builds before moving onto anything new. As you can see from the thread resurrection I started this quite a few years back. Today I dragged it out, finished the decalling and gave it a matt coat. Need to do a bit of sanding so the Spandaus sit nicely and some detail painting but it's not terribly far of getting the rest of the wings on. Late and dark here so excuse the lighting. I've included the Zippo to give an idea of just how small a 1/72 Fokker Tripe is!

Both of Frank Speer's excellent books on the 4th ("The Debden Warbirds" and "Eighty-One Aces of the 4th Fighter Group" - both published by Schiffer) contain appendices on the nose art carried by the group and especially Don Allen's work, who was the 4th's exceedingly talented artist. A superb documentary called "Nose Art and Pin Ups" was made a few years back and contained a lot about Don and his work and interviews with him. Well worth watching if you can find it.

Absolutely loving this John!

That's an interesting question Chris. I think the most important thing initially is that is it an acrylic floor polish. The bits and bobs that are added afterwards to the mix probably make the difference between whether it's OK or excellent. In that Norwegian Reflex one I posted above it's acrylic based with: 2- (2- butoksyetoksy) etanol 1-5% = (butoxyethoxy) ethanol Ammoniakklosning <0,5 % = Ammonia solution Sinkoksid <0,5 % = Zinc oxide I have no idea how that stacks up against old Klear or some of the others but I've been playing around with it and if you twisted my arm I reckon it's better than the original stuff which I used for years.

Often the reason for trouble opening the canopy was a bullet/cannon strike on a canopy rail or the framing which prevented the canopy being opened or jettisoned. How often were the crowbars used? Who knows. If you did have to use it, then you probably would have wanted to be in the situation where you were on dry land rather than in the air in combat under fire or after ditching. Actually ditching in a Spitfire was considered more dangerous than bailing out due to the fact that despite what films such as "Dunkirk" like to show, single engined fighters tended to sink incredibly quickly even when perfectly ditched. The P-51B pilot notes for example state that the aircraft will sink within 2 seconds of ditching, and I can't remember which marks but in the Spit pilot notes it recommends bailing out rather than ditching for that reason. Tragically Butch Aikman watched Paddy Finucane (a very gifted Spitfire pilot) make an absolutely perfect ditching and yet the aircraft sunk immediately. Did the crowbar save lives, very probably but it's also probable that in certain circumstances where it could be used as a last resort it was possibly too late for the poor pilot to extricate himself from the situation, crowbar or not.

I dip canopies. Leave to dry on paper towel in a tupperware box, before masking and painting. Back home I used Klear/Future. When I moved here I didn't bring it with me and subsequently had to use Scandinavia's equivalent of Pledge Multi Surface which is called Pledge Extra Protection. Recently though I stumbled upon some stuff here called Reflex Floor Protector and which I thought I'd try out and very pleased I am too. It gives easily as good a finish as original Klear and if truth be told I'm actually inclined to think it gives an even better finish and appearance. It's made by a Norwegian company and I have no idea where else it's available but if you stumble across it and you're a canopy dipper definitely pick some up, brilliant stuff.

That Albatros is absolutely beautiful!

2002 is right in the sweet spot for the shattering decals. Anything after 2007 should be fine.

The serious decal problem with Roden is something from around a decade and a half ago and sadly still gets propagated and usually by those who have never made a Roden model, or at the least made one recently. Often this gets floated around by those who have heard about that problem and perpetuate it without any firsthand experience of actually making a model and using recent Roden decals. They are not as robust as some decals but using luke warm water and a bit of care to not leave them in too long, they go on beautifully. Because they're thin they also tend to bed down superbly and react well to Micro Sol. The shattering decals will only be encountered with early boxings.

Yes because the outcomes of the Expansion Schemes were things that the AM wanted to have happen and implemented into their regulations. The Expansion Schemes were not external to the AM (they were developed by the AM) but unlike things such as camouflage development, tactical revisions, etc which could be passed internally and put into AM regulations without wider governmental approval, all things pertaining to the Expansion Schemes had to be passed by Cabinet first (for the simple fact that these recommendations required extra government funding and monies).

At the beginning of the war so the period you are interested in the number of aircraft for a fighter squadron within Fighter Command was set at 14 to 16 aircraft. This had been mandated under Expansion Scheme L approved by the Cabinet on 27th April 1938.

The photo of GN-C and GN-A taking off is actually only a very small part of a larger photo which was taken by Georges Perrin and in which six Hurricanes are visible, four in flight and two on the ground. Georges joined 249 on the 1st October so the photograph dates from after Nicholson's VC action and the aircraft was lost.

Absolutely terrific!

Steve, the double skeleton key is technically for the 1st SS Panzer Corps which did serve with the LSSAH whose emblem was a single skeleton key. The 12th SS H-J had a single skeleton key with a sowilo rune. This is really looking wonderful now, coming along great guns!

Looking awesome, great work!

Many thanks for posting that pic as I'm interested in it for another reason - the fellow is wearing a 2nd pattern Winter Combat Jacket or tanker jacket, a piece of kit meant for Armored Force personnel of the US Army, although there was limited use in some USAAF units. I'm always after photos of tankers in USAAF use so many thanks again.

It's quite simply one of the best researched books I have ever read Steve. The translation from French isn't perfect but the research in it is just downright astounding. The part I am up to in reading it, it even breaks down SS platoons into individual members - you don't usually see this kind of microscopic detail in relation to a combat narrative of this scale. Just a fantastic book.

I haven't built any armour since I was a kid but I'm really starting to think I'm going to have to change that and I'm seriously considering picking up this Opel kit to cut my teeth on. I just got "Three Days in Hell" on Friday about the fighting between the 12th SS and the Canadians between Bayeux and Caen on the 7th to 9th June and it has a photo where in the background an Opel is driving up to the front carrying Panzergrenadiers. Absolutely fantastic book and the level of research in it is astounding and I thoroughly recommend it to anyone with more than a passing interest in the fighting in Normandy.

Nice work!

I'll be watching!