PaulR

Top builds MrP- looking forward to seeing the decals going on. Good job with the multi colored prop - had a similar challenge with my JG3 project hereabouts.

Hi there, it's come up a few times what literature people are currently reading about the BoB. Have just finished the 'Last Enemy' by Richard Hillary as part of my project on his spitfire XT*M, and I have got Patrick Bishop's book The Battle of Britain for holiday next week. Alfred Price's books, particularly the Hardest Day, has also leapt its way off my shelves a couple of times... but what are other people reading? Paul

Hi there, if you have a look at the 151 Association website (amongst others) it has this to say as to when the Defiants were first delivered, which was indeed early December. The Battle of Britain 'officially' ended on 31st October (although I don't supposed it made much difference to the people involved!) so unfortunately Defiants from this squadron are out of the parameters of this Group Build. Having double checked the box, Airfix has indeed got the date for those markings as being Feb 1941. As noted before, no reflection on your skills - that's a top model, and one from I shall be benchmarking my own version . . . about 15 models away by my reckoning.... DECEMBER 1940 Mid December was a turning point in the Squadron’s role as a true Night Fighter Squadron, when on December 1~, seven Boulton Paul Defiant aircraft were delivered. Concurrent with the delivery of the Defiants was a change in the aircrew personnel establishment with the introduction of Air Gunners. Over the following two months many new faces appeared and the training of pilots and crews for the Defiants took place. Considerable training of crews in night interception techniques was undertaken and this was a very concentrated task, the air gunners now becoming the "eyes" of the aircraft. Hurricanes were still kept on the establishment for daylight operations and it was also a Squadron requirement to provide twelve aircraft and pilots for night readiness to fly them each night. This dual requirement kept the Squadron very busy. The idea of flying a "curtain" to intercept enemy aircraft flying in at night had been put forward, and putting this idea into an operational reality wasdeveloped. This involved having aircraft in stepped formation at 1000 ft intervals. The objective was to fly round in a block to improve the chance of getting a visual. This work was undertaken by the Hurricanes. December 22 The Squadron was posted to Wittering. During the month, training on Defiants became more intense, and the matching of crews to achieve compatibility of temperament and communication was undertaken. A Night lighter crew had to be totally compatible to ensure that success was achieved.

Morning all. One of the great advantages of a career in education is the ability to indulge one's hobbies during the hols. . . anyway, progress on the phantom. Spent a very pleasant hour or so applying the stencilling and national markings. All beginning to come together. The Caracal decals behaved brilliantly; I am holding my breath for the nose art I am planning to rescue from the Experts Choice set that were so incredibly delicate! Will hopefully get the unit marks on tonight. I have to say I have really enjoyed this kit, despite it being superceded by newer kits; it captures the look of an F-4 very well indeed, and makes a nice break from my normal diet of RAF stuff. Am now motivated by a Euro 1 F-4D in rather cool AFRES marks that I have just espied from Speed Hunter Graphics (go to Reid Air Publications for more info - some great modern USAF subjects!) Have also seen some super Monogram F-106 models in Michigan marks - might have to make a visit to Ebay!

That's a seriously scary pic, but even that ain't gonna do it! Parameters of the GB is for an airframe/marking combination as would have been been seen between July 10th and October 31st 1940; gets too messy otherwise! Doing R6915 in the marks she wore in between those dates would be very much in keeping, but not as she would have appeared in 1944...

Have just started the same kit - an excellent fit so far, and not overly compljcated either. Just the job!

Speaking as a co-host, what he said! Never mind; plenty of interesting spits to do! The new xtadecal sheets have some top options! Cheers, Paul

Hi all, Quick update! Basic airframe all done and painted, and parts added, and glossed for decals... then I decided I just couldn't live with the joint line around the starboard intake. At certain angles, you could see a clear divot where I had sanded too far, so out with the milliput to see if I can't level it off! I have finally decided on Cyrano the Fearless as my choice of artwork - am going to give the decal a coat of future prior to use to stop it from disintegrating...

That rescribing makes it look like the new kit! There's actually nothing wrong with the old kit that a little modelling won't put right - as your model demonstrates in style! Fantastic finish!

Right, update pics plus some links to the history of the actual combat. This is a link to details about Sgt Holmes and the action concerned, and here is a pic of the man himself. The combat itself has also been immortalised in art, via a picture by the artist Geoff Nutkins. Here is a profile by Aviation Art of Holme's Hurricane which I will use to guide my model (I can't find any pics of his machine), and finally a shot of the remains of the DO17's tail section on a London roof. Here's where I am with the Dornier. It is crammed with detail; hearing of very tight tolerances I elected to build the whole thing as you would when you were seven (i.e. no paint!) and get it all together. I primed afterwards, and then gave the cockpit an airbrushed shot of Tamiya 'RLM Grey' which is their equivalent to RLM02. Prefer it to the Xtracrylix version - slightly lighter, and dries to a lovely hard wearing matt finish. It looks darker in the photo than it does in reality. I'll pick out details later with a fine brush, and give it a light oil wash. I wil also add Tamiya tape belts for the seats. You will note I haven't bothered with the bomb bay particularly - this will be closed up for my model. Here's the hurricane. Not built a Hasegawa Hurricane before, but Mk1 Hurricanes (metal winged anyway) are not exactly common. Can't help but think Airfix would have done well to release a metal winged version of their fabric winged kit, but there it is. Codes and roundels etc will be courtesy of Xtradecal and the spares box. The fabric effect on the fuselage is rather overdone, so have just spent five minutes knocking it back a bit with sandpaper. Looks much better now. More later!

Hi all, am about to post initial pics of this project, but have just twigged that this is the machine that went down into Victoria station after being rammed by the hurricane of Sgt Holmes of 504 sqn - and the codes and serial number for his machine are known! So, this thread is going to become a. 'dogfight double' project as allowed in the rules, i.e. two specific machines that are known to have fought each other at a specific point in time. V. pleased - wanted to do this but couldn't find an example that wasn't already being done, or for which references for markings are known. Will use a Hasegawa 1/72 kit for this, and plan to have both ready for the 15th - BoB day and the day this encounter happened. Pics to follow.

Hi, certainly 151 fought in the BoB with hurricanes, but a couple of sources are pretty specific about December being when 151 got defiants. Don't know how to copy and paste on a tablet, but if you check out Wikipedia on 151 squadron they have the transition dates in their somewhere, and without checking the box I think Airfix has that option as being Feb or March 1941. In any instance, a finely wrought model, regardless of date. Any more potential projects from the stash? It seems to be the sort of GB which is attracting multiple projects; have four going myself!

That's a smart model, and in a set of markings that I am keen to myself. Only snag is that I am fairly sure 151 didn't get defiants until December of 1940, which is would be out of the csope of this GB - the BoB officially drawing to a close on the 31st October. Still a top model though, and one I will be trying to emulate in due course!

Fascinating builds Procopius. Am doing an Airfix 109 myself in Jg26 colours, and am so far finding just fine..Talking about the canooy, I found by masking over the slightly heavy frame lines in the middle of the main canopy -basically just ignoring them- works just fine as you dont tend to notice them when everything is installed. Looking forward to seeing paint going on! Paul

Thought I'd post a few pics of where I am up to while I wait for replacement decals. The airframe is broadly finished; just have to detail painting on nose wheels, oleos and the like. By the by, the main retraction link on the nosegear seems to be too long, as it follows the undercarriage door retraction mechanism. I am positive I have the latter in the right place, so is the retraction link for the nose gear too long? Any guidance appreciated. I have also asked Mish to move this to WIP so I can carry on with updates there. Cheers for a top group build, just disappointed my model couldn't make it to the gallery!

Right - quick update! Props done, and the main airframe altogether, and canopy futured ready for masking. People often say this is a dodgy fit, but if you apply a couple of gentle swipes with a sanding stick on the rear of the canopy, put the windscreen in first and then push the rear in last you should be rewarded with a perfect fit, I just applied a tiny smear of PVA to the edges for belt and braces. Anyway, final sanding, masking and priming next.

Well, the spinner on this plane has taken awhile! The spinner is a quarter white, so this was sprayed and then masked off before the dark green went on. I used a spare circular strip(not the solid circle they often use to mask a hub, but the circular strip they sometimes use to mask the tyre) from an Eduard masking set in the spares box to mask off the tip so I could do the red tip. Am pretty pleased with how it's turned out, although the picture makes it look much less smooth than it looks in real life; onto the pilot (if I can find him...) and the wings!

Well, so much for that. Model all painted and glossed, but the decals have just disintegrated on me, and not just one but the whole lot. Am going to order the caracal sheet, but won'tbe done in time for the deadline. Will continue to post updates on this thread, as want to finish even if it doesn't go in the gallery. Cheers, Paul

Cool choice! Didn't. Know hasegawa did a mk1- did they come with resin parts for the flat tailplanes? Paul

Have just realised the close date of this GB! Had better get motoring. All the fiddly bits - undercarriage doors etc all painted and ready for installation, but have been beem held up sorting out the intake joins; a problem with every phantom kit, or so it seems. Anyway, I have taken my normal pattern for painting all the fiddly bits - natural metal areas, radome etc - and masking them up prior to the final camouflage colour. This is where I am up to - intend to have the ADC grey on today. It's Xtracrylix, so should dry quickly and allow me to get onto decalling tonight. These birds were kept very clean, so little to do on the weathering front.

Fantastic painting of a less obvious subject - looking forward to seeing this complete! Cheers, Paul

Looking good. I've one of these myself, but it'll have to get behind several other BoB projects for a while! Cheers, Paul

A quick update - cockpit all done. Am currently working on the pilot to go in it! Must also fous on model not thumb next time...

Right - an update! Have been messing around with wings and prop, but thought I'd better get going with the cockpit. Basically OOB, but I added seat armour from plasticard, seatbelts with strips of Tamiya tape, and put in a piece of clear plastic for the gunsight. Oh, and I replaced the reinforcement beam (?) at the back of the cockpit with something slightly more in scale. So not really OOB at all. Am pleased with result; will marry all the major components together in the next couple of days once I start on my hols... oh, I include the profile of Hilary's machine I working from. Have got up to his posting to his first spitfire squadron in his book 'The Last Enemy' - compulsive reading if you haven't already!

Evening all, Have rather neglected this project, and need to get going! Here's a couple of shots of the airframe coming together; all the other bits are being primed ready for spraying! More to follow...