maltadefender

Got it in one - JG53... later to be the scourge of Malta! Because the CO had a Jewish wife the Geschwader was forced to obliterate the Pik As emblem, so the pilots retaliated by obliterating the swastikas. Glad you like the Spit... whichever one it turns out to be!

Thanks Mish, On the build front, progress has been pretty good. The first coats of camo have gone on the top... And the bottom... I kept things pretty rough to be tidied up once assembly of the main parts was complete.I don't know if it's the age of the moulds or my cack-handedness but the moveable parts are a bit reluctant. At least the rudder swings quite freely: Flash is now sitting inside something resembling a Spitfire and I'm sanding the rough joins prior to final painting.

Cliff - 14/10 for effort so far!!! One you'll be able to look back on with pride I'd have thought.

Wonderful work!

Added the missing ones to the list, Cliff, thank you. Here's the Latecoere at rest in Grand Harbour - shot down off Sicily with the loss of her all-French crew. Has anyone ever made a kit of this little 'un? Glad you enjoyed the read!

Fuselage buttoned, taped and pegged up. 'Flash' isn't looking too certain how well everything's holding together but I think he'll be OK so long as everything's left in peace to set!

Absolutely lovely work and that camouflage is fantastic.

Thanks Rowan. I'm hoping that I'll get one more done after this one... a swastika-free 109. Any guesses? Thanks both. I'm afraid that it's unlikely the elevators will marry up the way they would have done back in the mists of time. I'm also a bit worried about the ability of the rudder and aileron hinges to cope - but fingers crossed!

Some progress on N3029 today. I'm trying to get the fuselage buttoned up as quickly as possible, so have left a few rough patches on the paintwork to go over once everything's together. The surface detailing and overall shape of the kit is lovely, but it does take a fair bit of work to unearth it under all the flash, sink holes, injector marks and general tattiness of the kit!

Who he?

Bring them all on! We've got plenty of time to prepare and I really, really would be thrilled to see every arm represented to the full. I might not build a single aircraft and look towards the other contributions made. Ohhhh... maybe one! If this thread gets people reading it's already doing good things. Rob - great starting point. Be warned: it's addictive! Cliff - another great choice. I ran out of Euros when on holiday there this year, so could do with an in-depth review!

Eligible Kits Here's the original list from when I proposed the idea of a Malta build. All shapes and sizes, and if our vehicular, armour or ship-building experts have more to add then feel free. RAF Air/Sea Rescue Launch Avro Anson Blackburn Skua Bristol Blenheim Mk.IV Bristol Beaufighter Mk.I, Mk.II Bristol Beaufort De Havilland Mosquito PR Mk.I Empire Class flying boat Fairey Albacore Fairey Fulmar Fairey Swordfish Gloster Sea Gladiator Grumman Martlet Hawker Hurricane Mk.I Hawker Hurricane Mk.II (all types) Hawker Sea Hurricane Mk.I Lockheed Hudson Martin Baltimore Martin Maryland Miles Magister Short Sunderland Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb (trop), Mk.Vc (trop) Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk.IV Supermarine Walrus Vickers Wellington Luftwaffe Junkers Ju52/3 Junkers Ju87B Junkers Ju87D Junkers Ju88A Heinkel He111H Heinkel He115 Messerschmitt Bf109 E7 Messerschmitt Bf109 F2/4 Messerschmitt Bf110C/D/E Regia Aeronautica Camproni Ca313 Cant Z.501 Cant Z.506b Cant Z.1007 Fiat BR.20 Fiat CR.32 Fiat CR.42 Fiat G.50 Macchi MC.200 Macchi MC.202 Reggiane Re2000 Savoia-Marchetti S.79 Savoia-Marchetti SM.81 Savoia-Marchetti S.82 U.S. Grumman Wildcat Royal Navy HMS Warspite HMS Ark Royal HMS Illustrious HMS Eagle HMS Furious HMS Argus HMS Welshman HMS Penelope U-class submarines Assorted merchantmen and destroyers Regia Marina Practically anything and everything US Navy USS Wasp (CV-7) British Army Matilda tank Austin Tilly Austin/Morris trucks Anti-aircraft guns etc. etc. etc

Reading List: Here are the books I've read so far, although there are still plenty more to add. If anyone has a recommendation - positive or negative - on any books they've read then add them as replies to this one. 185: The Malta Squadron Combat Diary - ed. Anthony Rogers (Wonderfully fresh squadron diary, hilariously irreverent and gives you the voices of the pilots straight away) Air Battle For Malta: Diaries of a Spitfire Pilot – James Douglas-Hamilton (good detail on the 1942 battles, based on the diaries of Lord David Douglas-Hamilton, leader of 603 Squadron in Malta) Air War Malta: June 1940 to November 1942 - Jon Sutherland/Diane Cowell (Does a solid job of retelling the story of the fighters, anti-shipping and other branches of the air war in a compact book). ‘Buck’ McNair: Spitfire Ace – Norman Franks (story of the waspish Canadian flight commander from 249 Squadron who rose to great rank in the RCAF after a tough tour in Malta through the darkest days) Call-Out! – Frederick R. Galea – (Day-by-day diary of the Air/Sea Rescue launches throughout the battle, edited into a very detailed and interesting account of the war, aircraft and casualties) Faith, Hope and Charity – Kenneth Poolman (The story of the earliest defences of the islands from Italian attack, centred around the legend of the Gloster Gladiators) Faith, Hope and Malta G.C. – Tony Spooner (Extremely good story of the air war as fought on the ground and by both fighter and bomber crews, told by a ‘Special Ops’ Wellington pilot) Fortress Malta – James Holland (Good starter book on the subject, largely drawn from previously-published memoirs. Covers RAF and U-class submarines in great detail). Hurricane Aces 1941-45: Osprey ‘Aircraft of the Aces’ – Andrew Thomas (usual fayre from Osprey, just beware the colour profiles which paint all aircraft in all theatres the same colours!) Hurricane: The Last Witnesses – Brian Milton (Unashamedly putting the case for the Hurricane as the greatest aircraft of the war including recollections of surviving pilots, with big section on Malta). JG26: Photographic History of the Luftwaffe’s Top Guns – Donald L. Caldwell (Solidly-written and brilliantly-illustrated full history of the unit. Fair section on its time in Sicily during early 1941) JG53 ‘Pik As’: Osprey Elite Units – John Weal (Good solid information on this storied Luftwaffe fighter group, including a double spell in Sicily trying to tame Malta’s threat to the Axis). Lest We Forget - Frederick R. Galea and John Agius (RAF casualties of the war listed by squadron and date... a staggering record) Malta: The Hurricane Years 1940-41 - (Day-by-day, sortie-by-sortie account of the first 18 months of the war, illustrated with as many anecdotes as the authors could fill in. Riveting stuff). Malta: The Spitfire Year 1942 – (Same formula as The Hurricane Years but with so much more action crammed in to the first six months as Malta is brought to her knees – and still fights back). Malta: The Thorn in Rommel’s Side – ‘Laddie’ Lucas (Lucas’s memoir of life in Malta with 249 Squadron from late 1941 to mid-1942. Very diplomatically written but with some nuggets). Malta Spitfire Aces: Osprey ‘Aircraft of the Aces’ – (once again a solid little book but as with any Malta aircraft beware of the colour profiles). The Maltese Spitfire – Harry Coldbeck (Great first-hand account of flying an unarmed PRU Spitfire from Malta in 1942, including what a prat the rest of the recce pilots found ‘Warby’ to be) Onward to Malta – T.F.C. ‘Tom’ Neil (Absolutely the most entertaining book on the war in Malta. Gripping story amusingly told by a bona fide ace and brilliant author) Osprey Messerschmitt Bf109 Aces of North Africa and the Mediterranean – Jerry Scotts (Mostly to do with Marseille and the North African campaign but some nuggets about the Malta campaign). The Shiphunters – R.E. Gillman (Story of life on a Blenheim squadron flying at mast-top height to bomb enemy shipping. It will make you weep and wonder). Siege: Malta 1940-1943 – Ernle Bradford (Very readable book, extremely good on the naval war and conditions in which it was fought). Spitfire – Leo McKinstry (Good chapter on Churchill, Roosevelt and taking Spitfires to Malta on the USS Wasp). They Flew Hurricanes – Adrian Stewart (Positively frothy-mouthed enthusiasm for the type and quite shouty in its insistence that it was the Hurricane ‘wot won it’ in every theatre of World War 2, covers Malta). Torpedo Leader – Patrick Gibbs (Quite late-on in the Battle, Beauforts came to ease the load on the few remaining Blenheims and Swordfish in tackling the enemy convoys... told by the man who brought them there). War in a Stringbag – Charles Lamb (Brilliant autobiography by a Taranto veteran who spent almost three years solidly at the helm of Swordfish throwing torpedoes at the enemy) Warburton’s War – Tony Spooner (Solid telling of the curious story of six-medal recce pilot ‘Warby’ who remains a legend in Malta but largely unknown in the UK... updated in 2004 to cover the discovery of the lost pilot's aircraft and remains). With All Modesty – Colin Pomeroy (Edited transcripts of recollections by servicemen and women in all branches of British, Maltese and Dominion armed forces). Women of Malta – Frederick R. Galea (Lovely book looking at two very different women united by the war: Christina Ratcliffe, the showgirl who became a senior WAAF plotter, figurehead of the Home Front and lover to ‘Warby’ Warburton, and Tamara Marks, wife of one of the early fighter C.O.s in Malta). One to avoid!!! Band of Eagles – Frank Barnard (Fictional retelling of the battle as part of his series about British pilot ‘Kit’ Carson and American volunteer ‘Ossie’ Wolf. Words fail me). DVDs Guns for Malta: documentary on the restoration of a set of AA guns by a former gunner and their journey to Malta as a permanent memorial. Brilliantly-made documentary, very moving and with great interviews with the veterans. Malta, G.C.: The official wartime newsreel, voiced by Laurence Olivier. It is a brilliant piece of work, although it is propaganda and must be treated as such – staged in places, but some remarkable footage). Malta Story: Alec Guinness plays a very Warburton-like reconnaissance pilot in Malta, with a script co-written by Warby’s former lover Christina Ratcliffe. Heavy on schmaltz, uses a lot of wartime footage mixed in with shots of bubble-top Spits based on Malta after the war. Merlins Over Malta: The story of flying back the Spitfire Vb and Hurricane IIb as told by Martin 'Doyle' Shaw. Nicely done. A Quiet Little Rock: Brilliant story of a returning naval pilot from New Zealand and covers briefly the 'Merlins over Malta'

Two more shots of L1043... Now, there's something still missing isn't there? Oh, I know...

Great news Enzo and Mish. Once I've got the BoB and Buccaneer GB entries done I'm reverting to my Malta collection full-time, so hopefully will be able to have a few 'inspirationals' done by 2012! Currently in the hangar is a 1/48 Airfix Spit Vc to become a 'Malta Blue', plus a 1/72 Airfix Hurricane IIb to become the mount of 'Sonny' Ormrod, 185 Squadron. In the meantime I'll transfer the list of elligible kits for land, sea and air plus rough out a reading list for people to add to.

A good catch-all book is James Holland's 'Fortress Malta' - he basically churned out 500 pages as a 'greatest hits' package of previously-published work! All in all not bad as a starting point on the subject, covering RAF, Navy, civilian and some Axis perspectives. I might post a book list... Will do Mish!

L1043 is finished, so that's two entries done for this GB. Pictures in the cabinet with the 'Jumbo', the Riley and the pilot for her big sister... now it's time to get the identity of this Spit sorted and that big nasty mess of flash turned into something Spit-shaped!! Many thanks to Mish for the advice on IFF wires!

A bit more progress on L1043 this morning. I really should have done a bit better with the paintwork, but Xtracolor is a bit of a pain to work with and I'm still finding my feet a bit when getting a consistent colour and finish on camouflage with the hairy stick. Single colour schemes: fine. Multiple colour schemes: room for improvement. Mind you, the Tamiya decals are lovely and it was well sorth putting on a second coat of softener before I went to bed. Lots of lovely surface detail has been pulled through overnight:

Hi Troy, I think you hit the nail on the head when it comes to the paints on our old kit. I remember being surprised by how dull-looking the Spits in the RAF Museum and the Science Museum looked compared to 'our' DW-K. Looking back I'm almost tempted to think that Dad used Foliage Green - but the pots of paint he had were definitely Airfix. We threw them away after 20+ years because they separated into about four layers and started smelling rather evil! The Hawkinge pictures are from the same early July Fox shoot as the 32 Squadron ones - the two units having seemingly been working in tandem to the greater or lesser extent from May until the end of August when they were both pulled out of harm's way for a bit. Interesting that the roundels are of different sizes, I hadn't picked up on that. I'm assuming that this is because of replacement aircraft coming in - possibly even N3029 although we're still no closer to the answer on that score! The 610 Squadron Association doesn't have all that many photos, and by far the majority of the early Spit photos are from Hooton Park in the winter of 1939, when they were wearing B-type roundels on the fuselage. I've compiled them here: (Courtesy of 610 Squadron) The famous air-to-air photo of 610 Squadron including L1043 and P9495 was actually taken in June, so isn't a Battle of Britain shot at all. That said, it is P9495 in the picture carrying DW-K and it seems that she did so until she was shot down, so the prospects of N3029 carrying DW-K if she was ever a 610 Squadron aircraft during July are slim. Hopefully a combination of the 610 log and the recall of her former crew chief will help finally reach a conclusion on that before long.

Woo-hooo! We're off! A date to end in June would be ideal please, Mish.

Letting her dry out before finishing off the detailing, varnishing and adding the glasswork. As a 1939 delivery she would have had a lot more aluminium underneath than a later Spit, so I've kept the wheel wells natural. Mind you, I wouldn't be surprised if you didn't notice them due to the colour of the undersides! Sky Blue says the most recent research - Sky Blue she has got. Not quite as eye-popping in real life but still quite jazzy next to Sky Type S.

25!!! Thanks, guys. Bigger thanks still to RobW, who has offered to co-host. So we've got potential dates, two novice co-hosts, a truckload of possible builds and 25 eager souls. Thanks all! Maltadefender MadNurseGaz Nick Belbin Jazzy Jase Philip Mish Deon Enzo Matrix wyverns4 robw_uk English Electric H Deacon Rusty Erwin CliffB Madam I’m Adam Doug Rogers Paul R Shar2 markmarples Mentalguru CPNGroats c.smith10 John

Almost could have entered this one for the Blitzbuild she's coming together so nicely. I can see now what all the fuss is about - it's a wonderful kit for someone with my modest abilities, I just hope all the little flaws I can see in my work get rectified. The belts were made from tape... I'm getting experimental! IFF wires should be fun but thanks to Mish for the counsel on that. Weathering is quite heavy but L1043 was an 'old original' Spit to 610, delivered in September 1940, and after a no-doubt cosseted early existence she was in the thick of things over Dunkirk and the Channel convoys before the 'Battle' officially started without any respite from May onwards.

I've got a Swordfish up my sleeve for that!!

I'll be in with a 110 Squadron (RAF) Blenheim IV.