Heather Kay

Thank you, and I can understand what you mean! I have the Pavla Miles Master in the stash, and after this experience it might be a while before I decide to tackle it.

Thanks Colin. The paint job could be better, but I say that with every build I do!

Thanks Adrian! I made the decision a year or so back not to take on new loco commissions once I have finished the ones in hand. I find I don’t enjoy building locos, and get an awful lot more satisfaction from coaches and wagons. That’s just as well, as a quick survey of the workshop shows I have something over 20 coaches of various types to build! Ha! Yes, that patch of grass does look the worse for wear. It was a sort of experiment to try and turn the neatly-manicured flock stuff into the thin and careworn grass of a typical 1940 airfield. I think I’ve slightly overdone it! When I get a day spare I might have another go on a fresh patch.

Finished, and over in the gallery thread. Thanks for following along and helping with comments and observations. Thanks, also, to Tony @The Baron for the donated replacement turret vac-form, even though I didn’t use it in the end. I’m quite pleased with the way this rather curmudgeonly kit turned out. My 1940 collection now has an Airspeed Oxford to complement the other trainer aircraft in the cabinet.

Airspeed Oxford MkI, V3354, No 14 Service Flying Training School, RAF Cranfield, 1940 A 1/72nd scale kit from Pavla, which threw up its fair share of problems over and above its limited run origins. I decided from the off to replace some of the resin parts, such as the undercarriage, and added some interior detail and a better rendition of the turret gun mounting. I also replaced the kit gun with a better version from the spares box. The kit was bought second hand, and the decal sheet was cracking. I chose a suitable aircraft from an internet search which had a fairly simple camouflage and markings scheme that could be replicated from my decal stocks and fitted my interest bubble of 1940. The rather protracted build meant this was the only entry I managed for this Group Build, abetted by real life throwing spanners all over the place! WIP is here:

Nearly there. I’ll glue the bubble on later, paint the antenna mast, and fit the props.

Ta. The tank engine has reached the painting stage, where all the hard work up until now can be ruined in an instant. Happily, it’s not a particularly complex livery, mainly being black with a single red line in various places. Thanks! I do appreciate the delicacy and fidelity of some of our fellow modellers here on BM, but sometimes you have to draw a line under things and say "that’s enough". Speaking of paint, this lot is drying. The particular brand of enamel I’m using takes an inordinate amount of time to dry properly, so it’s a good excuse for patience. Time to go and see if the tank engine is ready for some top coat.

Cheers m'dear! If I can paint the frames neatly, I’ll be happy. It’s a shame I couldn’t use Tony's generously donated turret in the end.

Oooohkay! Where was I? Ah, yes. Distracted. This L&YR 2-4-2T has finally reached primer stage, at least for the bodywork. Now comes the tedious job of painting it. Happily, the weather has warmed up sufficiently making the paint shop somewhere fairly comfy to work in. That other thing - what is it? Um, I think it's called "Life" or something - also got in the way a bit, so the poor old Oxford bided its time on the shelf. In amongst other things, I did discover that V3354 was actually a UK-based aircraft after all. Turrrets. Tony, @The Baron, very kindly sent me a copy of his bubble top. I was keen to use it, but I wasn't at all confident I could work out and paint the frame structure on the bubble itself. There was also the issue of making it fit the kit properly. I then took a closer look at the kit vac-form, and decided that the better defined framework would be easier for me to work with. At least, if it didn't work out, Tony's turret could still be used. Anyway, before all that, I had to make some kind of internal structure. The original plan had been to make brass wire copies of the resin parts in a Special Hobby Avro Anson. After some careful bending, soldering and gluing, attached to a slightly modified kit base ring, and with a superfluous Airfix Vickers K at rest, this is what I came up with. It doesn't have the more common looped gun mount, but I was copying the SH square version and who am I to argue? Besides, by this stage of this build, with the end of the GB lumbering over the horizon, I really just want to finish the poor old Oxford before I lose the will to live! To think I had envisaged I might polish off a couple more trainers during this GB. Such is life. With the kit vac-form bubble perched on, it sort of shows that I might well have had to excise quite a bit of Tony's example to match the injection moulded ring. I wasn't about to attempt a full-on brass framework and ring. Sometimes, there are lines to be drawn! After a bit of scraping and filing to the aperture inside the fuselage, and some adjustment to the base ring, the unit is a comfortable interference fit in the plane. As a sort of compromise, I am happy with the look. Perhaps my wire fence is a little large, but I'll stick with it. I suppose some paint on the innards, and an attempt at painting the framing is next on the cards. Things still to do before I'm finished? Antenna mast, glaze the landing lights, paint the engines and exhausts, fit the props. Then photo shoot for the gallery. This week? Could be!

The markings show post-1941, and I would think the undersides would be Sky. We can go down all sorts of rabbit holes regarding colours, markings and whatnot. Essentially, Dark Earth/Dark Green topsides, aluminium dope undersides for UK-based aircraft in Army Co-operation and Coastal Commands. Before about May or June, the port wing underside may have been painted black in an effort to aid identification of friendly planes. The mission you’re depicting took place in June 1940, and the plane was fresh from the factory, iirc. Aluminium underneath is what I would expect, but as we’ve already discussed, it may well have been painted black to make it a bit less obvious in flight. In the end, it’s your model to finish as you think best. Without definitive information one way or the other, we can’t be sure what the plane actually looked like on the night.

Overseas commands had different rules, if I understand things. Your chosen plane would have been under UK administration. Then again, black seems quite plausible. If Troy or Graham B turn up with further insight, I reckon you’re on to something.

Being someone almost completely obsessed with aircraft that served all sides in 1940, I’d like to throw my tuppence in about the likely underside colours of Annie. I am emphatically not an expert, and bow to the superior knowledge of other BM members here, but… I am led to understand that since Ansons were generally operated by RAF Coastal Command, they would have been finished in the standard dark earth/dark green on top, with aluminium dope undersides, during most of 1940. Now, that doesn’t necessarily mean that a plane destined for a clandestine mission at night might not have been treated differently. Logically, such an aircraft might have received either a quick respray of overall black, or black undersides with the standard disruptive camo on top. A side note, for those that do care about these things, the black undersides of bombers of the period was not actually black, but a special mix termed "Night Black". Specialist model paint makers provide the correct mix. I have a pot from Hannants in their Xtracrylix range, and next to a plain matt black there is a subtle difference. All of the above are my own thoughts, and I will happily be corrected by others.

There’s a reason why I haven’t made any progress with my own version of the turret. It’s because the bar keeps getting higher, and I can’t quite reach it without a set of step ladders! Some very lovely work going on here, Tony. Very lovely indeed.

And, we're done! Oh, wait... New turret glazing, courtesy of @The Baron. Thanks, Tony!

Kute kittens aside - I’m sitting next to our floofball at the moment, so I have to be careful in case he gets jealous - if my Oxford turret even begins to approach anything close to that result I will be a very happy camper indeed. At the very least, with a helping heave from your waffle dalek, it can’t be worse than the kit offering! I shall now review your last post for some more turret ogling.