Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Arthur Scarf'.
Found 2 results
-
So having been born and raised in Malaysia and Singapore, and having parents lived through the Japanese occupation in WW2, subjects relating to WW2 and post-war aircraft subjects from that region are near and dear to my heart. I've been slowly accumulating associated with that region for years. At the moment the holy grail is a Malaysian Scottish Aviation Twin Pioneer, which I'm hoping there'll be an injection kit sometime soon. Anyway, I saw that Airfix's new Blenheim had the markings of Sqn Ldr Arthur Scarf VC from his fateful mission on Dec 9, 1941. The build order is pretty interesting as it has you starting with the wings and fuselage instead of the cockpit. I'm pretty impressed with the complex wing spar and landing gear. While the wingbox was glued together and painted, I put the beautiful cockpit together. The only thing I did was some masking tape seatbelts made out strips of Tamiya tape, lightly painted with Tamiya Buff and then washed with a bit of diluted Burnt Sienna. It's a lovely cockpit, and I'm sad that I have to close it up. I've found that so far, the hardest part of this kit is the nose. The very precise fit of the transparencies and nose leaves very little room for error. I've had to pop off the clear parts, reattach them to make sure they aligned, and wiped the fingerprints off the insides more than once. I was also reminded of why building WW2 aircraft with greenhouse transparencies drove me bananas.
-
If it isn't too late to join I'd like to participate with my Airfix Blenheim I. It is a lovely little kit with a well appointed interior, options for an open bomb bay and additional external bomb mounts, well engineered positionable landing gear, flap, and turret parts, and two nice decal options in the box. The first of these is for a Romanian aircraft, and the second for an airplane flown by Arthur S. K. Scarf with 62 sqn. in Malaya. On December 9, 1941, Sqn Leader Scarf and a flight of blenheims were taking off for a raid on a Japanese airfield when they were bounced by Japanese fighters. Scarf's aircraft was the only one to get passed and he pressed on to the target. He evaded fighter screans and completed his bomb run. On the return trip, Scarf's aircraft was attacked once again by fighters and he was mortally wounded. He crashlanded his blenheim and saved the lives of his navigator and gunner. For his actions, Scarf was postumously awarded the Victoria Cross. I began the build with the wing. There are two internal spars which form the front and back of the main gear bays, along with some gear strut details to mount inside the housings. All of this, allong with the inner flap surfaces were painted with Humbroll 78 - which looks a tad dark to my eye. Surprisingly, Airfix doesn't offer gear bay side walls, but I'll leave things be, as the idea is to have an enjoyable out-of-box (almost - nearly) build. Almost, because I'm replacing the solid moulded wingtip lights with clear bits, and I may attempt to open up the access hatches. More exciting stuff to follow shortly.
