maltadefender

Thanks, guys. Now having got myself all excited about a light blue spinner, a colour photograph has been unearthed of 56 Squadron in the Battle. 'Jumbo' is on the far left of the picture... and I guess that'll be a Sky spinner, then!

It's been a while since I decided to do this one, and the decals have been sitting impatiently for some weeks. Now I've got the kit and am chomping at the bit to get on with things... even with two as-yet unfinished Night Fighter GB entries glaring moodily at me. My chosen subject for the build is Hurricane Mk.I R2689, US-Z, flown by Flt Lt E.J. ‘Jumbo’ Gracie of 56 Squadron, based at North Weald through August 1940. History This particular aircraft was totalled on 30th August 1940 after Gracie scored his seventh kill of the battle, a He-111. Gracie attempted to nurse the old girl home to North Weald, but the engine seized and he had to make an emergency landing in a field near Halstead. In the ensuing crash the Hurricane was burnt out and Gracie suffered a broken neck – although this went undiagnosed for 48 hours. Gracie was a pugnacious, no-nonsense sort of a bloke, who could often terrify less experienced pilots under his command. Although his eyesight wasn’t brilliant he would press home his attacks ruthlessly, often at close range. The last flight of R2689 marked the effective end of his part in the Battle of Britain, but Gracie was awarded the DFC on October 1st 1940 and went on to become one of the most inspired fighter leaders in the defence of Malta, scoring another six kills. This in itself must have made a refreshing change from attempting to make the P-39 a viable proposition over France, as he had been doing in late 1941, but more important than his achievements as a pilot was his lead role in ensuring that the crucial third delivery of Spitfires to the island in May 1942 went ahead with none of the disasters that had met previous attempts. Gracie was C.O. of 126 squadron and ultimately became station commander of the principal fighter airfield at Takali. Another famous Gracie moment was to come when he erected a gibbet at the Takali gate after it was discovered that some of the locals had stolen one of the dwindling number of available parachutes. Gracie’s response was to build the gibbet and put up notices that theft would be met with summary execution, although this backfired somewhat when The Times of Malta got wind of it and word got back to London – an unrepentant Gracie was forced to pull down his new toy but the message had got through to any light-fingered Maltese and no more disappearing equipment was noted. After Malta, Gracie ended up flying Mosquitoes suppressing German night fighters in defence of the RAF bombing campaign until he was shot down and killed on February 15 1944. Model I’ve got the 1/48 Airfix Hurricane and a set of AeroMaster decals to put on it. Originally I’d intended to build the aircraft sitting on the deck with the pilot figure in the pose of lowering himself into the cockpit by holding on to the mirror. However, the old Airfix kit only comes with a one-piece canopy so instead I’m going to build her in my preferred ‘wheels-up and looking for trouble’ mode. Decoration Paint will be Xtracolor with a hairy stick to apply it. A light dusting of primer should help get a reasonable finish and some judicious weathering will, I hope, mask any major problems! There is some debate over the actual colours used on R2689 – as with almost every Hurricane! I’ve seen her represented with Sky, blue and Medium Sea Grey undersides and with her spinner in Sky, blue and white. Unique to Gracie’s aircraft was a pair of horizontal bars across the fin flash, denoting flight leader, which have also been variously described as being Sky, white and blue. I’m going to build my model as per the AeroMaster decal sheet with Sky undersides, using the tail flash with its Sky Blue horizontal bars on it. The spinner will however be Sky Blue, as it is reportedly the colour used by Gracie, Percy Weaver and Geoffrey Page as ‘blue flight’ during August. From looking at the decals I think that pre-war Azure Blue will be the way to go, although possibly the later Azure would better match the stripes on the decal. That’s something for me to chew on in the weeks ahead. Now it’s just waiting to get started and hoping that I can get the bulk of the paint on reasonably with a brush!

Which E7 decals does the kit come with Erwin? Are they JG26 by any chance?

Thanks guys, The decals are coming together - correct fin flashes thanks to Troy Smith and fingers are crossed that Colin at the decal bank thinks he might be able to cobble together the right serial number. I have to say that despite having only been a member of the forum for a short while, the way everyone chips in is absolutely astonishing. If it weren't for my fellow members neither night fighter would have seen it through to the end, plus I've enjoyed seeing all the other builds, chewing the cud on research and some ace trading. Aside from getting married it's been the highlight of 2010 so thank you.

The interesting thing is the Fulmar before it. Slate grey/Extra dark sea grey anyone? That said, I think this was 'colorised' as I've seen a lot of this footage in black-and-white.

MEGASTAR!!

Thanks for the encouragement guys. While the Hurricane awaits its decals I had another look at the Hellcat. I've rigged up an 'in-flight' display using a length of 2mm tube and an old 10x8 photo frame. I've got a few ideas on making it presentable in time for the end of the GB. Now if anyone has got a 1/48 US Navy pilot going spare I think I'll have a crack at pulling that lovely photo-etch interior apart to squeeze him in!!

Love it... got it at the top of my stash but probably won't look as nice as that one!

She's sulking up in the loft while I build my 12-gun Hurricane and figure out what to do. Inexperience on my part really - the parts were a tight fit when dry-fitting them before paint and I clearly didn't put enough cement in the box to hold it in the wing. You would have thought that a load-bearing piece like this would have some sort of support built into the top half of the wing but them's the breaks! Glad you like her so far though, Andy!

Yes they are... more's the pity when it comes to fitting them to a 1/72!

Thanks to ideas and encouragement from Troy the roundels are sorted and the 'J' codes. Only hurdle now is the serial number, which I tried to hand paint and then had to go over with another coat of black. Might just have to live without! After the disappointment of the Hellcat I'm rather enjoying this one, however. At least it looks meaty, even if Tom Neil described the performance of a Hurricane with Vokes filter and long-range tanks as akin 'to a nippy Tiger Moth'!

Spot on! JG26 operated E-trops, the Revell re-release has the right decals for it I believe.

Finally got the cockpit glass painted. A few more scuffs to put on the bottom of the cockpit hood and on the hand hold on the fuselage. I'll save glueing the glassware in place until I've sorted the decoration. Looks like a composite B-type decal for the fuselage, a modified late-type fin flash, home-made 'J' and serial number. Not a big ask then!!

Thanks Antoine... this morning's work on weathering: Because Takali was waterlogged for much of December/January I thought some mud splashes would be needed from muddy wheels: The only problem now is trying to sort out decals. As you can see b-type all over, quite rough... hmmmm... I found the decals and then... ummm... lost them. Wifey thought they were rubbish and so put them in the bin with the remains of the dog's breakfast and an open flat bottle of Diet Coke. Words currently fail me!!!

Welcome among us hopefuls then!!

Found this website, which seems to have been put together with loving care. Unfortunately all the markings are described as VE-? 110 Blenheims Thanks for all the insight BTW!

OK here goes! James Holland's book Fortress Malta is a good introduction to the war on the island, albeit one drawn mostly from previously-published memoirs. To my mind the best bit is the prologue, a dramatic 're-enactment' of the last moments of Pilot Officer Alex Mackie. Essentially on January 27 1942 Mackie, of 1435 (night fighter) Flight at Takali, was the first of several Hurricanes preparing to take off at dusk for test flights due to the installation of long-range tanks for intruder duties over Sicily. As Mackie took off in Mk.IIb Z3571 'J', however, six Messerschmitt 109s popped over the hill behind the nearby town of Rabat, three of them breaking off after Mackie's Hurricane and the other three strafing the airfield. 1435 Flight officers were billeted in the old Xara Palace in Mdina. This is a view down from the terrace where later in the year a machine-gun was set up for off-duty pilots to take pot-shots at enemy aircraft attacking the airfield - reportedly with one 109 downed. The 109s that attacked Mackie would have swept in from right to left in much the came conditions. With the aircraft badly damaged, Mackie force-landed over behind the hill from which the Messerschmitts had appeared, halfway between Rabat and Dingli near St. Catherine's church. Hitting the unavoidable dry stone walls that mark out the fields in that area, Mackie was thrown out of his aircraft and discovered, conscious, nearby. Locals gave him whiskey but he slipped into a coma before transfer to Mtarfa hospital where he died two days later. The hospital is now a school, seen here: And Mackie is buried at Capuccine cemetary in the Three Cities: Meanwhile parts of Mackie's Z3571 have been restored and fitted to the rebuilt Hurricane Mk.IIa of the Malta Air Museum: So with all this in mind I decided that the only way to get over the shock and disappointment of my Hellcat nightmare was to build Mackie's plane from my stash of 1/72s. The first problem? Turning a Mk.IIc into a 12-gun Mk.IIb... I drilled out the holes for the exhaust shrouds and long range fuel tanks and, after building the wings, I filled in the holes for the cannons with Miliputt, expecting to be able to paint on the canvas masks. Except of course the tips of the four outer machine guns protrude from the leading edge! I therefore cut the muzzles off the four cannons and glued them into place, smoothing the inboard guns into the wing with more Miliputt. After that I gave her a coat of flat black (Humbrol rattlecan acrylic) Currently I'm finishing the build and painting the cockpit glass (one panel at a time - masking hell!!!) More to follow...

I don't see how Jase. It's a box to sit inside the wing, can only wriggle it out as far as that and no further. I think it's b****ered.

Aaaaaaarrrrgh!!! Disaster strikes!!! Picked up on this little beauty again yesterday, hoping to get the build finished to put the decals on today. Fuel tank went on fine, undercarriage went together fine (although, bizarrely, I had a few issues getting the wheels together - the resin inserts both shattered under the knife so I had to resort to the 'spare' plastic ones). Then fitted the undercarriage assemblies and found that somehow between dry-fitting, painting and assembling nothing fitted. I tried to manipulate the pieces together and 'boom' the box inside the wing into which the leg fits popped out and disappeared inside the fuselage. So I've got a Hellcat with a nice photo-etched cockpit and no way of building her with the wheels down. Neither can I build her wheels-up because I've got no pilot (who would stuff up the interior anyway) and all the undercarriage parts have been cemented for gear down. Gutted. Used my last Tamiya rattlecan and spent £30 on what's now a rather abject piece of plastic, and worse I'm now further behind than ever on my first GB!!! Over to Plan B...

Love it to bits

Hi there, My Dad is currently researching the life and times of an old family friend who was an LAC gunner with 110 Squadron in 1939-40. Their aircraft was shot down on May 14th 1940 while bombing German troop columns to try and stem the tide towards the Meuse - one of five that 110 Squadron lost on that day from 12 sorties. All three on board survived, despite the intervention of a tree (and presumably a lot of p***ed-off Germans), and thus began a five-year spell as POWs. Bill fitted in seven escape attempts including the 'Great Escape' and earned himself a grand total of more than a year in solitary... seems he got around a bit having been in Stalag Luft I, III, VI, VIIIb and VIIIc. Question is - does anyone know of any photos of 110 Squadron in 1938-40? They were flying Hawker Hinds and re-equipped with Blenheims shortly afterwards. Dad's friend Bill's aircraft on May 14th was L9214, code unknown. Incidentally both Dad's friend and the navigator both became greengrocers when they got home - probably so used to having soil down their trousers!

Some hope is at hand then, thank you chaps. Yes my Spits have all got their noses right (Italeri Vb and Airfix Vc), but Hurris are harder to come by unless they're IIc or IId. Shopping list duly updated with thanks.

Oh dear! Thanks for the help guys

Morning all, Does anyone know of a source for 1/48 and/or 1/72 Vokes filters for Hurris please?

That's a 100% job well done Mish