303sqn

From Gifts of War Purchased with a donation of £5,000 by Higgs and Hill Ltd, builders of Crown Works, South Lambeth Road, London SW8. Allocated to Farnborough 1st Feb 1941 and sent to Air Service Training at Hamble for conversion to Mk Va prototype with Merlin 46. Delivered to A&AEE Boscombe Down on 11th March for comparison spin trials with X4942 and N3053. Also fitted with Volkes multi-vee air filter for cooling trials. These were carried out by Vickers-Armstrong at Worthy Down from 17th April. Returned to Boscombe Down 7th October. Back to worth Down on 9th October for trials with tropical filter and oil cooler. A wooden mock up made of the proposed 90 gal slipper overload fuel tank. 21st December 1941 back to Boscombe Down for trials of tropical modifications. Retuned to Worthy Down 25th February 1943 (sic). Trials and experiments continued on 7th July 1942 when speed test were carried out with a curved windscreen, whip aerials, and a Merlin 46 engine which gave 16lb of boost. On 21st March 1943 went back to AST, probably to have modifications removed, leaving it as a Mk Va. 20th May handed to 8 MU Little Rissington. Allocated to 349 (Belgian) Squadron Kings Cliffe 6th July. Allocated 61 OTU Rednal 1st August. Sent to Station Flight Northolt 13th August to fly weather reconnaissances. Transferred to 52 OTU Charmy Down 22nd August. Returned 4th February 1944 to 61 OTU. On 24th February FO M L Vatal injured when port undercarriage collapsed on heavy landing at Rednal. Repaired by Vickers from 5th March returning 24th March. 19th October relegated to 45 MU Kinloss to be handed over to 9 MU Cosford 5th November. 8th November First Officer A Powys of 12 Ferry Pool overshot landing at Brockton, a satellite of Cosford, running through two hedges before coming to rest. Declared Cat E 19th November and SOC.

http://www.hauler.cz/e-shop/1-72-accessories-21/50gal-drop-tank-british-1170 As they themselves describe, 50 gal droptank for Spitfires.

The machine guns were originally fitted with flash eliminators which is what you see protuding from the wings. Oops. Beaten to it while I was writing this.

Yes.

P2827 servd with 315 Squadron from February 1941. Note the light area behind the R/T markings below the hood that indicate it was repainted before assigned to the squadron. On 7th July 1941 P/O Jerzy Czerniak hit the airfield boundry while landing at Speke.

Sky and Sky Blue are different colours.

Most of the photos of early 19 Squadron Spitfires were taken at a press day at Duxford 4th May 1939. Airfix give a specific time of August 1938

It seems that there were two 'T's. The Airfix 'T' is supposedly K9794. This met with some kind of landing accident at Digby 10/1/39 and SOC 18/4/39. The second 'T' was possibly K9824 or K9826.

Very nice model of a Polish Mustang. It has already been pointed out that it is in the codes of 315 Squadron. If I may, I would note some other small errors. When fitted with a Malcolm Hood the aerial was replaced with a whip aerial, there was no lead running to the fin. The bombs in the mission tally were painted yellow not white, an annoying and consistent error made by kit and decal manufacturers. The band around the rear fuselage was white not Sky and narrower than the regulation 18 inches. Possibly in order to get the letter H in which touched the roundel and band. In the summer of 1944 FB353 was flown by F/Lt Longin Majewski of 316 Squadron at Friston coded SZ*H. In late 1944 it was transferred to 315 Squadron where it was flown by S/Ldr Andersz still with Majewski's scoreboard butr coded PK*H. Photo taken in late 1944 on escort mission to Norway.

A while back AZmodel released a series of kits of the Auster AOP and as is their usual practice they went through all the marks. Auster kits are not common, perhaps the wings put off both the modeller and manufacturer, but when I saw the Auster Mk V kit had an option for 663 (Polish) AOP Squadron, probably the most obscure Polish unit of WWII, I had to have one. So what was in the box when it arrived. First and last impression is that is was a scaled down version of Sword's 1/48 Auster Mk III. Breakdown of the kit parts is almost identical. The kit is actually AZmodel's Mk III with some addition resin parts to turn it into a Mk V. You get a replacement nose, new propeller and an extra seat. Canopy is injection moulded, not vacuum. No brass PE. Typical AZmodel limited run kit. Good fit of parts with little flash but no locating pins or tabs. Everything is a butt joint. There are four options, the first two, RT461 and TJ569, are in the the well known Dark Earth/Dark Green scheme described as RAF. To be pedantic AOP squadrons were Army units not RAF and flown by Army officers. RT461, the one that interested me belonged to 663 (Polish) AOP squadron while TJ569 served with 659,660, and 652 AOP squadrons and is now in the Army Flying Museum Middle Walop. It features D-Day stripes which some Auster enthusiasts detest. In at number three is an Israeli example in a sand an spinach scheme. As there is no serial number I cannot tell you anything more. Number four is an all over silver example, MT108, described as Australia. At least one reviewer has mistaken this for a RAAF aircraft. After serving with the British Army, MT108 was civilinized before being sold to Australia in March 1954. Since then it has been restored and painted in its original British scheme. A clue is the civil registration in small characters under the tailplane. Type VH-BHA into your search engine and you will soon know all about it. It is also actually a Mk IV not a MK V although that does not matter in this scale. As normal, we begin with the cockpit, or perhaps in this case we should call it the greenhouse. A little sparse, floor, rear bulkhead, bench front seat, two control arms and an extra resin seat that goes in the rear. The only reference I could find is Barry Ketley's book, Auster a Brief History of the Auster Aircraft in British Military Surface. It has a walk around section of the beautifully restored Mk V TJ534. AZmodel's interior may perhaps be a good presentation of a Mk III but TJ534 has two bucket seats in the with a round seat in the back tucked in the corner. No doubt there would have been radio equipment etc. as well. Plenty of scope here for those that like detailing cockpits. I don't so I stuck with what AZmodel provided. Floor was painted black, sidewalls and bulkhead Grey Green. I ignored leather for the seats and painted them Humbrol Deck Green which matches the colour of the ubiquitous green material used to cover British aircraft seats in WWII. There are a couple rudder pedals which would scale up to the size of door mats. You might be able to fit them in if the nose were hollow but its not. I could not find a way of squeezing them in so I left them out. Every AZmodel kit seems to have something that appears easy and straightforward on the instruction sheet which leaves you perplexed when you come to do it. Often it's a part, usually in the cockpit area, that you cannot work out what its exact position should be. With the Auster it's the instrument panel. The panel itself is a semicircle of plastic with some embossed circles that is glued to circular piece of combing. You then have to place this under the cowling but there is nothing to help you get the position exactly right. This is essential as later you have to install a V shape strut with a bar across the top behind the windscreen, that rises from the combing to the top of the canopy. If not done correctly the canopy will not be able to seat properly at the base of the windscreen. What is worse, is that it is extremely difficult to insert the combing under the cowling as this area is extremely cramped. Eventually, after about an hour of trying with every type of tweezers I had, I managed to tack it in position with a drop of CA glue and test fit the canopy. In hindsight it may have been better to glue the combing to one half of the fuselage before gluing the two sides together. To turn it into a Mk IV/V a replacement resin nose need to be attached. No surgery on the kit is required, it simply replaces the injection moulded parts for the MK III nose. The resin nose is nicely cast with a backplate. This makes an excellent guide for a razor saw when cutting it free. It only needed a couple of passes with a sanding stick to remove the fluff around the edges before attaching it with CA. Perfectly square and the fit was spot on. Only the shoulders stuck out a little. The area behind was backfilled with thick CA and sanded into a smooth curve up to the windscreen. It is necessary to drill a hole for the propeller. By good luck I managed to select a drill bit of exactly the right size and the propeller clicked into place like a press stud, no glue being necessary. There should be a couple of exhaust pipes underneath, protruding from the cowling, but no mention is made of them in the kit instructions. I fashioned some from stretched plastic tube. The tailplanes butt join to the fuselage and there are no tabs to help locate and support them. I applied a liberal amount of tube cement and then pressed them hard so that it squeezed out from the joints before supporting them and leaving them overnight to set properly. Sanding was only required to clean up the joint and the 'weld' has proved very strong with no tendency to brake off. The same technique was used on the undercarriage legs. After the cement had set I added some thick CA to strengthen the joint and a couple of supporting struts made from stretched sprue were added. Next came the tubular framework that sits under the canopy. The scale thickness is probably that of scaffolding poles and some may want to build there own structure out of thinner material. No problems with the kit parts. The side pieces into place without any need for adjustments and the crown piece fitted exactly at all the joints. The canopy, injection moulded and a little thick, slid down over cage perfectly with no gaps along the bottom edges. Fit was very tight, and even tighter after a coat of paint. To fix the canopy in place I used Mr Hobby Clear Parts adhesive. This odourless but very gloopy like epoxy. It is in fact silicone based, similar to Evo Stick's Serious Glue. The joint is as strong as CA but not as brittle and you get ample adjustment time. It comes with a long white plastic pointy thing with which to apply it. Only a thin smear is needed as it is very tacky and if any squeezes out from the join it is difficult to clean off. It is a good idea to protected the areas adjacent to the join with masking tape. Once dry I applied watered down Gator Grip to the join to fill in any hairline gaps and level up the surface of the join. All the components, fuselage, wings, struts etc., were painted and decaled before final assembly. The scheme is a simple one, Dark Earth and Dark Green. The schemes are illustrated in colour on the back of the box. The camouflage pattern for the wings looks reasonable enough but I had reservations about the fuselage, in particular the nose. Instead I used the factory pattern as illustrated in the book mentioned above as a guide. Decals did not cause any problems and probably did not require the Micro Sol and Set that I applied. Everything was given a coat of Vallejo Matt Varnish before the grand assembly took place. Moment of truth had arrived, it was time to attach the wings. A dry fit of the wings to the canopy showed it was very good. The main problem was to make sure they were in exactly the correct position so that the supporting struts will fit properly. Again I used Mr Hobby Clear Parts as it gives a strong joint and ample time to make adjustments. Also I did not want an ugly mess visible through the canopy where the wing joined so the area had been painted Grey Green. Consequently the adhesive had to be kind to paint. One wing at a time was the way to do it. A smear of adhesive was applied to the end of the wing which was then positioned against the canopy supported by some tins of paint. Small adjustments to its position were then easy to make and it was left for 24 hours before repeating the process on the second wing. I then ran watered down Gator Grip into the join to build up the area and produce a smooth surface and also hope to strengthen the joint. Once that had been achieved a couple of applications of thin paint followed by Vallejo Matt Varnish finished the task. The bond was very strong and you could pick the model up by the wing tip with worrying that the wing would break off. Next task was the struts. There were flat spots on the underside of the wings showing exactly where to fix the struts. The struts are supported by an H shaped bracket the attaches to the underside of the wing. There are two holes for the bracket to fit into so the only questions was, would everything line up. Once again AZmodel had succeeding in making everything easy with a perfect fit for the struts. All that was necessary was to tack them in place with thick CA and then touch up the joint with a little paint and varnish. All of a sudden it was nearly finished. Just a few bits and pieces to be added. Two button wheels (oh gosh, oh gee, did I have fun cutting out wheel masks one by one). Not shown on the instructions are the supporting struts on the on tailplanes, both above and below. I used stretched sprue for these. Plastic rod was used for the radio masts which were glued into holes I had drilled into the wings before they were painted. A length of smoke coloured invisible mending thread was glued to the fin and each end stretched and glued to the masts and that was it, finished. Not my best model but I am happy that the anticipated disaster with the wing joint never materialised.

Sorry, it is not very good but it is the only one I know of. BTW. I look down on Hucknall, I live at Bestwood Park

In 1943, and again in 1944, BS381c was issued with a reduced set of colours which specified the particular uses that various colours were to be employed. Three categories were given: General Purposes; Special Purpose Colours; Colours Used on Public Service Vehicles. No 1 Sky Blue No 2 Turquoise Blue No 3 Peacock Blue No 4 Azure Blue No 6 Royal Blue No 11 Middle Brown No 12 Dark Brown No 21 Brilliant Green No 25 Light Brunswick Green No 26 Middle Brunswick Green No 28 Silver Grey No 29 Quaker Grey No 31 Light Battleship Grey No 32 Dark Battleship Grey No 37 Signal Red No 43 Salmon Pink No 44 Terracotta No 46 Red Oxide No 51 Chocolate No 52 Pale Cream No 53 Deep Cream No 55 Lemon No 56 Golden Yellow No 57 Orange No 59 Middle Buff No 61 Light Stone No 64 Portland Stone

The photograph is of Mustang FB123 PK-W of 315 Sqn flown by W/O Idrian and Beaufighter TF.X NE429 P6-S of 489 Sqn crew P/O E.F.C Burrows & F/Sgt D.A.Young. Taken on 30 July 1944 on a Roadstead to Norway. The ten Mustang escort suffered four aborts. The remainder engaged about 15 Bf 109s over the sea , 30 miles west of List airfield. The enemy appears to have been completely surprised and lost eight aircraft. Michał Cwynar's account. NB. Canadians were in fact New Zealanders. In the early morning of the 30th of August 1944, nine Mustangs of 315 Squadron, with Horbaczewski leading, took off from Brenzett with empty dropable combat fuel tanks (one under each wing). After an hour long flight we landed at the RAF station at Coltishall. We enjoyed a sumptuous lunch in the Officers' Mess and then went back to the airfield to wait for the order to take off. Our Mustangs had been refuelled. The dropable combat tanks were also full - they each held 75 US gallons. There was nothing else to do but lay in the shade of the aircraft wings and try to relax before what was to be an arduous, five hour long flight. I closed my eyes and my mind began to wander... Abrakadabra (nonsense)... what a change. After our stodgy meals under Brenzett canvas, good steak and desserts, all served up by WAAFs with pretty faces and shapely, inviting legs... At this point, to explain the purpose of our mission. I must digress. The Allies were receiving reports that the Germans were shipping uranium ore from the Bergen region of Norway, along the coast towards the Kattegat and on to Schweinemünde (now Świnoujście in Poland). To cause disruption, the British were sending light bomber formations to sink anything that rnoved along the Norwegian coast. The Germans posted one Staffel (squadron) of Messerschmitt Bf 109's to Stavanger to protect that vital traffic to them. Our light bombers, mainly Canadian Beaufighters, were taking heavy losses at the hands of the German fighters. To counter the losses, the RAF High Command decided to surprise the Germans by sending an escort of Mustangs along with the Canadians. Finally the orderly arrived from the control tower with the order to get airborne for a rendezvous with the Canadian squadron. We took off, as usual, with the fuel on main tanks behind the pilot's cabin. When escorting bombers at heights of 20,000 feet or more, we always flew for 25 to 30 minutes on these tanks to make sure we used up a certain amount of fuel. That eliminated the Mustang's adverse lateral instability. This time, however, heading low towards the Wash, north of King's Lynn, we had to change to dropable combat fuel tanks soon after being airborne. This, as it later transpired, was going to pose some difficulties. As we approached the Wash, the weather began to close in with a rainy, warm frontal system approaching from the west. We soon spotted the Canadian Beaufighters, in close formation, low down, "on the deck", to avoid radar detection. Horbaczewski with his section of three Mustangs, took up position on the starboard side of the Beaufighters while I went to port and Maciek Kirste to the rear. The weather worsened rapidly as we closed in on the Beaufighters, forming a tight formation around the Canadians whose leader kept a steady course while hugging the waves. Maciek Kirste came through on the radio transmitter to inform our leader that he lost visual contact with the formation. Horbaczewski ordered him to fly back to England. It was always dangerous in bad weather or while in the clouds to accelerate in an attempt to rejoin a formation after losing visual contact. With only six of us left, we ordered our wingmen to go echelon starboard and port respectively, and, as in cloud formation, held on grimly. We did not dare lose the Canadians because we had to protect them. After two hours of total concentration, suddenly it was as if we had flown through a curtain or passed over a cliff. There was a complete transformation. We had overtaken the eastern edge of the frontal system. The sun was behind us - a useful tactical advantage - and in front we had the beautiful panoramic view of the Norwegian coast.,So this is Grieg's homeland,I said to myself. But it was not a time to think of music! A few miles from the land, the Canadians turned to the right along the coast in search of shipping. Behind them and slightly above, Horbaczewski tucked in with his section while I moved to his right with mine. We changed to the main fuselage fuel tanks and, keenly observing the Norwegian coast, waited. Not to betray our positions in the sun, we still kept our dropable fuel tanks under our wings. Within a few minutes, one of Horbaczewski's wingmen spotted German fighters approaching through a fjord's inlet, headinq for the Beaufiqhters. There were two groups of four Messerschmitt 109's, leisurely, almost nonchalantly carrying out a left hand tum to take up position to attack the Canadians. Jettisoning our wing fuel tanks, we attacked. Horbaczewski went in first, attacking the inner group, and I engaged the outer formation. They were taken completely by surprise at first. They turned towards us and, having learned a thing or two in battles over France (they were told the Spitfire. when diving shuddered and with us approaching out of the sun they had not recognised our Mustang's) they dived towards the sea. In diving and their climbing in a left hand turn, I had engaged the group's leader. By the way he was scything through the air, the edges of his Messerschmitt's wings stitching the sky with air-condensed threads, I realised he was good. He pulled hard, so did I. With the fuselage fuel tank still full and the Mustang's adverse lateral stability, there wasn't much room for imaginative manoeuvring. I had to hold a steady, smooth turn. With a few hundred revs always in reserve, I held on patiently. For one 360 degree circle or more there was stalemate. Then the Mysza/Michal duo's idea came in useful. I lowered flaps l0 degrees and was gaining on him. My solar plexus stopped churning as I felt sure of getting on his tail, all the time thinking Pull smoothly. Get that extra reserve throttle on. I got him in my gunsight's illuminated ring, pulled straight through his line of flight, one diameter - two - three diameters of deflection and then pressed the firing button. For a split second there was nothing, then I saw bullets punching holes, first on his tail section, and then on the fuselage, canopy, wings... I broke-off to the left, put the flaps "up" and, diving to gain more speed, in left turn, started to climb, and spotted another Messerschmitt 109 above, at about eleven o'clock, also in left-hand tum! It appeared that he did not see me. I came close behind him, and opened fire... His undercarriage dropped down, so did the wing flaps - hydraulics shot-up. Pilot's canopy flew past me above. I stopped firing, and moved to his starboard side to avoid collision (his speed dropped). I came close abreast. The pilot, leaning forward, was wiping his face. Suddenly, one of colleagues' Mustangs started firing at him, pumping tracer bullets from behind. In this grim, merciless "it's-either-him-or-me-down-in-the-water" situation, a spark of humanity took over... I pressed R/T button and shouted - Zostaw, go! Zostaw go! Leave him alone! Leave him alone! My colleague stopped firing: The Messerschmitt 109's pilot was still wiping his face with his left hand, the aircraft's propeller idling, he glided gently towards the dark blue waters of the sea. War is a strange, cruel affair! The following year, 1945, as Commanding Officer of 316 Warsaw Fighter Squadron, I flew the unit to Fairwood Common, South Wales, for air to air and air to ground gunnery course. At the pre-course cinema show there was a selection of fascinating air battles of the war... my film of the engagement in Norwegian Fjords was there!...Somewhere in the Air Ministry archives Michal's film is gathering dust. ...After the engagement which ended in an individual melee, we tried to gather ourselves together. To save valuable fuel, it was decided we would fly home in two separate sections. Horbaczewski "inherited" my wingman, ldrian. Dziubek' s Bożydar Nowosielski became my companion. We headed home. In no time we had flown back into the same atrocious weather. It seemed, probably because of the strain, even worse than before. There was water below and water lashing down from above. It is written that God created land, sea and the firmament. There was, as far, and much farther, than we could see, only one: the water. I decided to pay more attention to the flying panel, the instruments. Came gradually to the sea level, approximately l0 feet above the waves, and to get that extra safety margin set the altimeter to zero! Only now and again checked to see if the wingmen were still with me and continued to head for home. Tadek Jankowski, a gifted pilot and trusted wingman, good raconteur, began to pester me. Michal! Let's go above the clouds. Let's climb up! It would have been pleasant to go above, to see the sun and skim over the clouds having a breather. But soon we were to realise that we were in trouble. I was approaching land through a low cloud base without a clue as to my position or when and where I was going to get down. To have gone above would only have compounded our difficulties. I told Jankowski to keep quiet. Steady Nowosielski did not utter a word. After reaching the English coastline, I turned south and to orientate myself, flew along the coast. South of Bridlington, I found an airfield and the three of us landed safely. We spent the night in a comfortable bed which was a pleasant change from Brenzett's camp bed in the tent. Dziubek Horbaczewski's section landed about thirty miles south of us near Hull. The next day, we flew back to Brenzett to learn that after sinking one merchant ship and setting a few barges on fire, the Canadian Beaufighters returned safely to base. The result was 7 : 0, the enemy casualties were seven Messerschmitt Bf 109's destroyed. After a successful mission, you are exhilarated; you light a cigarette, talk and laugh, and, most importantly, it strengthens friendship with your flying colleagues that remains until your dying day. Mercifully, you never knew whether the following day you might be packing your friend's personal belongings to be kept for relatives in his native land. Final Score. F/Lt Michał Cwynar PZ-Z 1 ½ Bf 109 P/O Gwido Świstuń PZ-Y 1 ½ Bf 109 S/Ldr Eugeniusz Horbachewski FB382 PK-G 1 ½ Bf 109 F/O Bożydar Nowosielski FB174 PK-S ½ Bf 109 W/O Tadeusz Jankowski FX985 PK-V 1 Bf 109 W/O Ryszard Idrian FB123 PK-W 1 Bf 110 W/O Tadeusz Jankowski FX985 PK-V 1 Fw 190

Arma Hobby announce 1/48 Grumman F2F-1 kit, available October. http://www.armahobby.com/1-48-grumman-f2f-1-pro-set.html

Nice model of an interesting aircraft. Fuel was oxidised by red fuming nitric acid which is not the same as nitric acid which is mild in comparison. Very nasty stuff. As they say on television "do not try this at home". https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_fuming_nitric_acid

No, the camo goes down the complete fuselage. That big rectangular patch is Dark Earth painted around the serial number leaving it on the original yellow. Same on the rudder. Originally it would probably have looked like this. I have some left over decals both for R1918 and this one which might suit you. The decals worked fine for me so they should not cause you any problems. If you would like them send me a SAE and they are yours. I will send you my address in a PM.

Does any of this help?

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?129176-Spitfire-Forked-Pitot&highlight=pitot A question I have asked in the past. You will find all you need in the above link. Cheers Antoni

Yes it was a P.11b, brain not in gear when I wrote it. I have two in the pending pile.

Yes, it's a resin kit. Very well cast with no fit issues. Had to steal various bits of PE from a Part PE set for the Mirage P.11c. After I finished it Toro issued the kit with a PE set and the PE set on it's own. Very annoying, that. Should never have been sold with out the PE. They also issued a P.11f (Rumanian) but none them seem to be available now. Arma Hobby recently produced PZL P.1, P6, and P7 prototypes which are exceptional resin castings. Glad you like.

Built from the Toro resin kit a few years ago.

On 21st July 1944 at 02.40 Lt Horst Prenzel, Staffelkapitan of 1./JG 301, landed at RAF Manston thinking it was an airfield in Northern France. Two hours earlier he had taken off from Epinoy in Belgium on a Wild Sau mission. It was sent to RAE Farnborough where it was tested by S/Ldr R J Falk. After eight test flights it was transferred to AFDU at RAF Wittering on 31st August 1944. At the AFDU it flew comparative performance trials with a Mustang Mk III, Spitfire MK IX and XIV. Similar tests were planned with a Tempest V but on 23rd November it crashed at Wittering during take off. The pilot was injured and the aircraft written off.

In early 1944 HQ AEAF requested from the Air Ministry permission to remove the black and white markings from Typhoons and Tempests. On 1st February 1944 it was agreed that the markings were no longer to be carried by Typhoons from first light 7th February 1944. Gloster confirmed that they would cease to apply the markings on production Typhoons by 6th February 19944. From 14th February Tempests were also to cease carrying the markings. This lasted until June 1944 when Typhoons and Tempests were painted with black and white stripes in the same manner as other aircraft.

This is a case where there are as many opinions as there are people with opinions. Your guess is as good as anyone elses.