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Yes indeed, an Airfix 109 in 1/72! Built for the recent Battle of Britain 80th GB here on the forum, the build thread is here but to recap: Kit: Airfix 1/72 Messerschmitt Bf109E-4 (new boxing A01008A) finished as an E-3 Build: OOB with masking tape for seat belts Paints: Tamiya & Revell Acrylics. Klear, Flory Model wash; Oil weathering; W&N Matt Varnish Decals: Southern Expo Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary - 'White 2" of 4./JG51 from August 1940 Notes: According to the decal notes, this a/c flown by Ofw. Johann Illner collided with a Spitfire flown by Al Deere on 9 July 1940 but managed to return to France. Illner was later shot down over England in November that year and spent the rest of the war as a POW. Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done_(3) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done_(4) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done_(2) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done_(14) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Airfix Bf 109E-4_Done_(7) by Dermot Moriarty, on Flickr Thanks for looking, stay safe and happy modelling. All the best, Dermot

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia (A05126A) 1:48 Airfix The Spitfire is perhaps one of the best known and well-loved aircraft in Britain, and deservedly so for its work in the Battle of Britain alongside the doughty Hurricane. It thrived in its point-defence role, and shone during its finest hour, the through many versions and types to the end of WWII and beyond. The Mk.I was predictably the first in-service type, and sported eight .303 Browning machine guns, and by the time hostilities commenced in 1939 many of them were using the blown canopies that gave the pilot a better field of view with less likelihood of smacking his head against the glazing. Fairly soon it was understood that the Brownings didn’t have enough destructive power, and the Ministry asked for a cannon wing to be developed, with those airframes being referred to as Mk.Ibs, and the original machine gun armed airframes retrospectively designated Mk.Ia to prevent confusion. As the early cannon installations were prone to jamming, sometimes it would have been better to have the more reliable smaller bullets than bigger ones you couldn't fire. The Mk.I was superseded by the Mk.II, Mk.III, and then the Mk.V due to the introduction of the Fw.190 by the Germans that gave the British Spitfire pilots a nasty shock when they first encountered it. The Mk.V gave them the extra horsepower to cope with these pugnacious little fighters, and so the tactical leapfrog continued to the end of the war with the Mk.22/24 being the last mark of the Spitfire with cut-down fuselage, bubble canopy and the monstrous power of the Griffon engine at the front. The Kit This is a reboxing of Airfix’s recent Mk.I that has been given new decals and box art to depict it as the retrospectively named Mk.Ia. It arrives in a standard Airfix red-themed top-opening box, with five sprues of light grey styrene inside, a clear sprue, decal sheet and the spot-colour instructions that have a colour painting guides on the rear pages. It brings with it all the detail you would expect from a recent Airfix tooling, and the knowledge that if you want more detail, the aftermarket industry will be there to help you out if you don’t fancy the DIY option. Construction begins with the cockpit interior, which consists of two inner skins that are decorated with the usual items we all know and recognise instantly. The pilot's seat is made from an L-shaped seat with separate sides, which can either be mounted on an armour panel or without one, with both having the adjustment lever on the right side. The frame behind the pilot has moulded-in lightening holes that you can either fill with wash or drill out at your whim, then add the seat frame and optional head-armour, finally fitting the seat to the frame on its four corners. The rudder pedal assembly goes through a section of the wing spar and has separate pedals that you should leave off if you are intending to fit the pilot, and the control column with separate top is planted in the middle of the sub-assembly. The instrument panel is glued to the next frame forward and has a nice decal with just the dials printed and an outline to help locate it correctly on the panel. A little decal solution should help that to settle down into the recesses nicely. The compass attaches to the rear of the panel, and is then inserted into the port cockpit side along with the rudder pedal assembly and a lever, allowing the two halves to be joined and a front firewall bulkhead to be fitted to close in the foot well. Then the seat assembly and next frame to the rear are slotted into the grooves, and your optional pilot with his two separate arms can be plonked in if you’re using him. Before inserting the cockpit tub you need to paint the interior of the fuselage above the waistline, and remove a small part of the sill if you are posing the canopy closed. Then it slips inside the starboard fuselage half along with an oxygen bottle, and the port side is joined up together with an insert in front of the canopy, which is where the fuel tank filler is found. You can also cut out the access door on the left side of the fuselage, bearing in mind that you have a new door on the sprue so you can be a bit brutal in removing the plastic. The wings are built next, and you have the option of opening up three of the four gun bays by cutting out three panels on the top and one larger one on the underside, using the instructions as a guide on where to cut. The full-width lower wing has two circular bay walls fitted along with a section of the front spar, which holds the landing gear top sections, before the rear spar and front extensions are also attached to stiffen the wing. If you are fitting the guns they are built up as breeches and mounts, then slipped into recesses within the spar, with a pair of boxes straddling the lower cutout. If you’re not cutting out the gun bays, it’s just a case of popping on the upper wings and moving on to joining them to the fuselage after making sure you’ve fitted the light in the belly first. The elevator fins are slotted into the tail at 90o to the rudder fin, then the flying surfaces are added with any deflections that you might wish to portray, remembering that some smart-alec will always complain if you don’t also offset the control column and rudder pedals too. The ailerons are also separate and can be posed with the same caveats applied. Under the nose the chin-insert is glued in, noting the Dzuz fastenings there and on the side cowlings. They could possibly stand a very slight flatting down to look less like semi-flush donuts, but maybe that’s just me. Under the leading edge of the wing there is a two-part intake, then the square radiator bath with textured radiator panels and tubular oil-cooler are added to their recesses, with optional open or closed cooling flaps on the rear of the radiator. The tail wheel was fixed in the Mk.I, so slots into a hole in the tail, and you then have the choice of wheels up or down. In-flight a small portion of the wheels can still be seen, so Airfix have provided a slim wheel to put on the doors so that a realistic look is obtained. For the wheels down option, you have separate struts and doors, which slot into the top-sections already within the bay and have a pair of tyres with separate hubs added, making sure that the slightly flattened section is facing the floor. A pair of scrap diagrams show the correct angles from the front and sides to help with positioning. A choice of straight or kinked pitot probe goes under the wing, then the exhaust stubs are glued into the nose, and joined by a one-piece triple-bladed prop, two-part spinner, and three parts that permit the prop to spin if you don’t flood it with glue. You then have a choice of open or closed canopies, using a three-part assembly plus rear-view mirror for open, and two-part plus mirror for closed. You did remember to paint and fit the clear reflector gunsight, didn’t you? The open option also allows the door to be posed down, which as previously mentioned uses a new part. There is a choice of wide or narrow aerial mast behind the cockpit with small teardrop light, and then if you’ve cut open the gun bays, there are four bay doors on each side that you can place on the wings or nearby. Markings There are two decal options in the box, and predictably they are both from the early part of the war in 1939/40. From the box you can build one of the following: Flown by Sergeant Arthur William Peter Spears, No.222 Sqn., RAF Hornchurch, Essex, England, August 30th 1940 No.611 (West Lancashire) Sqn., RAF Duxford, Cambridgeshire, England, Autumn 1939 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion A welcome reboxing of this recent tool from Airfix, and the early black/white identification markings are kind of cool. Detail is good, and you’ll be left with a number of spare canopy parts for the parts bin. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

I had an old tool Tamiya Spit, which seems relatively straightforward so I looked for decals as the originals are no good. I saw the Possum Werks decals that covered the dogfight that ended in both Dundas, his wingman PO Paul A Ballion and Maj Helmut Wick, Luftwaffe top scoring pilot and Group Commander of JG 2's demise. Perfect, 2 subjects in 1 go, I click buy.....then I looked at the date of Dundas' final sortie....28 Nov 1940......after the official battle dates....not wanting to feel the wrath of the GB moderators, I looked to use the decals as much as I could...no records I could find of Dundas flying X4586 or R6631 before 30th Oct so counted out both on the sheet. With Helmut Wick he was promoted to Major just before the end of the battle, but who knows if his aircraft was repainted by 30 Oct.... I digress - I looked at the records of aircraft that John Dundas to decide on an aircraft to model. One that stuck out was R6915, Dundas flew it as PR-U on 9 Oct and claimed a Bf110 probable kill, as well as being injured in the leg by a cannon round. He was then to be awarded the DFC. The aircraft is still around on display in the Imperial War Museum in London. ''Eleven days later Dundas claimed a probable victory against a Bf 110, after a battle with German aircraft six miles north of RAF Warmwell at 16:30. Despite firing a 12–14 second burst at the enemy fighter, he did not see it crash. During the battle Dundas was hit in the leg when a cannon round exploded in his cockpit, but flew again the next day. The Spitfire Dundas flew that day, R6915, still exists, having been preserved by the Imperial War Museum. By 9 October 1940, his score stood at 10 and he was award the Distinguished Flying Cross.'' Using the various sets I think I can get the right decals. Any pearls of wisdom ref the old tool Tamiya kit build please let me know - should it be the 'blown' cockpit? Also any more specifics about R6915/PR-U ? Kit - pilot does seem quite big compared to the airfix and Fujumi characters! Montex masks and decals Build research and plan! Got the bits off the sprue and cleaned up No head armour so I grabbed the airfix part and some plasticard to replicate! Nor perfect but hey it will do, will have the pilot in and hood closed Primed using Stynlrez - thought I would try it....bizarre put 30 psi through my Iwata Neo .3 needle, but it came out ok then clogged up and was a bit messy cleaning up.....results are good, but I do like the Mr Paint Laquer pre mixed or Mr Surfacer 1500...Will prime the prop and pilots in white for ease. As I have copious builds (see more on Maj Wick to come!) mt plan is to get all the bits off the sprues, prime, then paint interiors/crew together to save time, paint and airbrush cleaning! Things will then progress as whatever pace takes my feelings towards various subjects.... Any top tips v welcome ref this old tool and subject matter!

The next build I plan is of a BF109E-4/B. Reading through a bit of history, I became aware of the Fighter Bomber squadron, that was shortlived, but quite effective. Erprobungsgruppe literally means test group and were involved in the concept, with 2 x Bf110 Staffel and 1 x Bf109 Staffel. The fighter codes were smaller than usual on the units aircraft, about the same size as the cross in height, so again, great advice to use 1/72 versions! Having read a bit and become hooked, I bought a coy of Bombsights over England, by John J Vasco - a fascinating read for anyone interested in BoB history. But I expect plenty on this GB will know about the unit, the book etc. The Bf109E-4/B's had a ETC-500 bomb rack, I think it could carry 4 x SC 50KG bombs, or 1 SC 250 KG bomb? It appears I may have an SC 500 KG bomb in the kit? Can I gather that I should fit the SC 250 on my build? Also noted is the unarmoured Windscreen and lack of head armour, plus the latest 'square' canopy. Being a non Bf109 expert (I do see lots of German and RAF references to Me109 but won't go there as I have been warned!) I had to ensure I use the right parts on my build earlier on the chat, thanks for the help chaps! Will use part 26 Spinner Parts 3,6 and 8 for the canopy - think thats right? Will Omit part 36 Hintze flew the airframe from 1st July - 17th Oct, where it was taken off charge as it had flown 250hrs. He was shot down in White 6 on 29th Oct 40 right at the end of the battle, apparently by a Spitfire flown by Sgt Burgess of 222 Squadron. Hintze was wounded but managed to bail out and became a POW. Yellow 3 is also featured in the book, flown by Lt Horst Marx, shot down and injured, becoming a POW during the Croydon raid on 15th Sept 1940. That day was costly for the unit, with the loss/heavy damage of 7 Bf110 as well as Hintze's Bf109 Yellow 3. A Yellow 11 can also be seen in a pic, but I thought I'd go for Yellow 1 as it was the lead and was pretty much omni-present during the battle. The Staffel had a yellow painted spinner tip and a bit of non standard camo, appears to be the normal RLM 65 undersides and sides, RLM 71/02 wings and upper cam, but in place of the sometimes seen mottle, there appears to be a more stripe variation, using both RLM 02/71. Couple of builds here: http://www.hyperscale.com/2013/features/bf109e348rm_1.htm https://imodeler.com/2018/12/airfix-1-48-scale-messerschmitt-bf-109-e-4-b/ and a great 1/32 build here: https://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?/topic/32278-bf109-e-4b-yellow-6-oblt-otto-hintze-3-erprgr210-1940/ Whilst doing some research, I came up with a tenuous personal link! I was posted to Dover for 5 years, spent a lot of time running along the white cliffs etc, being Dover we were always running up the hill at the end of the PT, as the camp was just behind the castle....one young officer liked to take us to the port once a week, running down the hill.....straight into the sea, swim out to a wall, swim back, run back up the hill, a weekly joy! However some of the routes were fascinating, along the cliffs west, gun emplacements etc...even our sports field dated back to a WW1 fighter strip, and Fort Burgoyne was inside the camp, used as a vehicle park was fascinating, with tunnels, rumoured to go to the castle. Camp is now closed and the Land Trust open up the fort. https://thelandtrust.org.uk/space/fort-burgoyne/ I digress....we had various annual fitness tests, a couple unique to our unit. One of which was the 2 miler. To be done in max of 18 minutes, carrying 29Lb of webbing/daysack, wearing 10lb body armour and a helmet, carrying a rifle. This is a quite tough test. The route was around the masts just over the road from our camp....Turns out this was the site of the Swingate Radar station here (you can see a scar to the west which is the old site of the camp, now demolished, with the fort intact to the north end. I remember thinking it must be WW2 related. Turns out it was targeted by Erprobungsgruppe 210 on the morning of 12 Aug 1940. According to page 28 of the Bombsites over Britain book, Hintze led this raid of 8 Bf109E-4/B's. Am I right in saying its a SC 250 KG on Yellow 3? Depicted in Graham Turner's painting 'Attacking the Chain Home Radar Sites' https://www.studio88.co.uk/acatalog/Attacking_the_Chain_Home_radar_sites.html So, I think I plan to build the subject, Yellow 1, in flight that morning.

My next build is the 1/48 Airfix Hurricane Mk1. I have some P Maks and decals for serial/Sqn Codes to model 249 Sqn Hurricane P3616 GN-F I read the book 'Gun Button to Fire' by Tom 'Ginger' Neil, who was a Pilot Officer and flew with 249 Sqn during the battle. He loved his Hurricane, P3616 coded GN-F. Whilst on a days leave, it was flown by another pilot, Pilot Officer Martyn Aurel King. Sadly he was shot down and killed, having bailed out but suffering a collapsed parachute. PO Martyn Aurel King He is buried in All Saints' churchyard, Fawley, Hampshire For his actions during this engagement in which PO King was KIA, Fl Lt Nicholson of 249 Sqn was to be gazetted for the only VC awarded to aircrew for actions in the battle. http://ww2today.com/16th-august-1940-flight-lieutenant-nicolson-wins-v-c Fl Lt Nicholson VC So I looked into the history, to find an interesting link. PO King was born in West Mersea, 15 minutes down the road from where I live in Colchester. Looking further into it, it became apparent that it is likely that PO King was the youngest serving RAF pilot in the battle and almost certainly the youngest to lose his life. It appears an admin error recorded him as being 19, but his birth certificate would show him to in fact be 18. The CWGC looked into this and apparently agreed to change the record on his grave stone. I is still generally reported that Geoffrey Wellum was the youngest RAF pilot in the battle - interestingly I saw a post on here about a spitfire build, describing him as the youngest spitfire pilot, rather than youngest. Some articles if interested: http://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/KingMA.htm https://www.gazette-news.co.uk/news/16884592.youngest-of-the-few-was-an-18-year-old-from-mersea-island/ https://249squadron.wordpress.com/2016/05/25/in-memory-of-pilot-officer-m-a-king-249-squadron/ https://www.essexlifemag.co.uk/people/youngest-battle-of-britain-pilot-1-6086942 So I thought I would model Neil's beloved P3616/GN-F, but reflecting on the young man who gave his life flying the that Hurricane fighting for his country.... I joined the Army at the age of 16 1/2, joined a frontline unit at 17 1/2 (I would not have been allowed to deploy on operations until I was 18, which I did. This was a throwback to 2 young soldiers from my unit who were KIA at the age of 17 along with another who died on his 18th birthday during the Falklands war....the rules then said they could not deploy to Northern Ireland, but did not count outside that theatre). I also commanded young 18 year old soldiers on operations; so I do feel I have an understanding as to what things were like for these young men, serving at a young age. However, they were forced into the ultimate battle, where losing would mean the end for Britain as they knew its amazing how quickly these airmen became Sqn Leaders and Wing Comds at such young ages.... Our armed forces still deploy young men and women, willing to put their young lives on the line, firstly for their mates, then for their nation..... Pte Damian Jackson, KIA, Helmand Afghanistan, 5th July 2006, aged 19. I must admit I did have misgivings looking at my younger soldiers at the start of that tour in 2006, thinking 'bloody Playstation generation', will they up to it, etc - but they all stood up to the plate and performed.... I just felt the local link, youngest RAF pilot in the battle deserved to be a subject in this GB...... P3616 'GN-F', Hurricane I, 249 Squadron, RAF Boscombe Down. The Hawker Hurricane was the primary air defence fighter of the Battle of Britain and was flown by Pilot Officer Tom 'Ginger' Neil of No 249 Squadron based at RAF Boscombe Down, part of No 10 Group. Hurricane Mk I, P3616 was his preferred mount but on 16 August 1940, when he was on a well-earned 24 hours leave, it was allocated to Pilot Officer Martyn King. That day, Flight Lieutenant James (Nick) Nicolson was leading Red Section, which consisted of P/O King in 'F for Freddie' and the supernumerary Squadron Leader Eric King (no relation). The Section was ordered to a patrol-line Salisbury to Ringwood but it was not long before it was vectored to a raid attacking Lee-on-Solent. During the engagement with Messerschmitt Bf 110 escorts, P/O King was shot down and died when his parachute collapsed and Sqn Ldr King was so badly shot up that he barely limped back to Boscombe Down. The leader, Flt Lt Nicolson was severely wounded in the side and leg, and was about to abandon his burning Hurricane when the attacking Messerschmitt overshot, at which point Nicolson gallantly returned to his controls and shot down his attacker. Badly burnt, he finally took to his parachute but shot on the way down by a watching British Army NCO. For this action, Nicolson was awarded the Victoria Cross the following November. Pilot Officer Neil returned from leave to find his beloved P3616 had been destroyed but when No 249 moved to RAF North Weald on 1 September, he arranged for its replacement, V7313 to be marked 'F for Freddie'. During the continuing Battle, Neil flew 62 times in V7313 before it too was lost on 10 October, and a total of 141 times against the Luftwaffe, by which time he had been credited with 13 confirmed victories. A replica of Hurricane V7313 now stands as 'Gate Guardian' at North Weald airfield. Words © Paul Beaver. Thanks for looking.

Hello everyone.. Id like to present the third of my Robert S.Tuck builds. This is the great 1/72 Arma Mk.I Hurricane representing V6555 DT*A of 257 Squadron September/October 1940. This is the third of my builds from the Battle of Britain group build going on currently. It is also the 26th completed build for me this year. Without further talk here it is. A couple of family photo’s from the group build. Tuck’s Spitfire Mk.I QJ*Z 92 Squadron and B.P.Defiant Mk.I PS*U 264 Squadron both from July 1940. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and Ive added a link to the Hurricanes build thread. Dennis

This build was inspired by a good friend and Army colleague of 25 years + (he is actually serving, still must be in his 36th year!). He posted that PO Crelin Bodie was his childhood hero, turns out he was my mates Bob's mothers cousin. I decide to look into his story, which was quite interesting. He was a Suffolk lad, so has a local connection too. He became an ace and was gazetted for the DFC on 8 Nov 1940. He has a chapter in 10 Fighter Boys by Jimmy Corbin. Apparently he had a habit of belly landings....hence I plan to model Spitfire X4321 Coded LZ-F, 66 Sqn RAF, based at RAF Kenley. He belly landed the Spitfire after being damaged in a dogfight on either the 5th Sept or 7 Sept 1940, anyone who can confirm please do! X4321 Ia 1085 EA MIII FF 29-8-40 8MU 30-8-40 66S ‘LZ-F’ 5-9-40 damaged by Bf109 over Norfolk force-landed P/O Bodie safe C3 7-9-40 Weathering will be minimal as it appears it was only about a week old! Some date the forced landing as 7 Sept 1940. Can't find any actual ref pics (probably as it only lasted a week!) , but anything I do find points to a black spinner rather than the red sometimes seen with 66 Sqn? Any advice welcomed.... So Port LZ - F and Std F-LZ would seem correct from other references? @nimrod54 - been looking at your build as a reference, did you go for the standard Sky underneath, xtradecal seem to show a more Blue sky which I can't read? Bodie in the Battle of Britain On 8th July 1940, he claimed his first kill; a Heinkel HE111. A second Heinkel followed on 19th August and two Messerschmitt ME110 the following day. He rounded off August 1940 with a hit on a Dornier DO17 on 31st. Pilot Officer Bodie was a respected ace in the Battle of Britain, registering the destruction of the following planes. Destroyed HE111 (2nd September) Probable destroyed ME109 (4th September) Damaged two ME109s (6th September) Destroyed HE111 (11th September) Destroyed two DO17s (15th September) Destroyed HE111 (18th September) Probable destroyed ME109 (24th September) Damaged JU88 (5th October) Destroyed ME109 (11th October) Probable destroyed two ME109s (12th October) Probable damaged two ME109s (12th October) Destroyed ME109 (13th October) Destroyed ME109 (25th October) Destroyed ME109 (14th November) Kit: Has anyone used P Masks? Could only get them as others sold out... Also have some B Scheme camo masks and various codes/serial decals to help with my RAF builds. My own quick notes He was promoted and posted a couple of times, sadly he died later in the war at RNAS Eglington (now City of Derry airport) in Northern Ireland. Again, I flew out this airport regularly when posted to Ballykelly camp in the late 90's.... A fatal accident in Northern Ireland At the age of only twenty-one, Bodie was involved in a fatal incident in Northern Ireland. On 24th February 1942, his Spitfire Mk IIA P8077 spun out of control near RNAS Eglinton. By this time, Bodie was Flight Commander of B Flight. He had been practicing aerobatics over RNAS Eglinton when he lost control of the Spitfire. The plane came down near the airfield and Bodie was instantaneously killed and the aircraft was written off. Crelin Arthur Walford Bodie’s grave is in St. Canice’s Church of Ireland Churchyard, Faughanvale, Eglinton, Co. Londonderry. I plan to build this with the pilot inside, but on the ground ready to go. I will mount on some sort of surface (never done before but have the base of an old cat scratching post to use!) with some model grass surface etc.... I will just need to wrap it well and post it safely to Hereford for Bob, who hopefully like it! Any historical/build advice etc be much appreciated!

Hello everybody In full knowledge that there are plenty of these Arma 1:72 Hurricanes milling about I wanted to add my own humble contribution. Its from the Mk. 1 Expert Set in the kit scheme of Josef Frantisek of 303 Squadron. I finished it last week and am posting now because we are at the 80th Anniversary of the formal establishment of 303 Squadron and completely co-incidentally, as I was applying the last touches, the Historic Aircraft Collection were kind enough to also reveal the public certification flight of a 1:1 scale edition ;-) from Duxford. In terms of the kit, I found the cockpit very well detailed but a very tight fit - much fettling was required to get the wing installed. The wing root was very good but due to user error the leading edge wing to fuselage join needed a little filler. Nonetheless, I was pleased with the end result with much thanks to Bruno from the Dakota club here in Flanders for helping out with a spare u/c strut to replace the one consumed by the Carpet Monster (in addition to the PE rear view mirror after I had spent a good thirty minutes making the glass out of kitchen foil). Oh, and I hand made the navigation lights from clear sprue only to discover I could have used those on provided by Arma all along! Oh well. It was painted with a mix of Vallejo, Tamiya and Lifecolour paints, with Ammo of MiG weathering powders and pencils and W&N oil paints. Overall very enjoyable but I'd probably do the junior set as the trade-off of PE versus visibility for the cockpit is not necessarily valuable for my purpose (i.e. to go on my shelf at the office). On reflection I think the panel line wash on the upper surfaces of the wings is a bit Over The Top (vertical surfaces are more muted) and also the chipping on the gun panels but I'm quite happy how the interior and exhausts worked out in the end... As usual, errors and omissions are my own but as a long time lurker here on BM I would like to say how very grateful I am to all those who have posted their Arma Hurricane builds & experiences already (e.g. @Procopius, @CedB, amongst others) and those with seemingly boundless Hurricane knowledge, especially @Troy Smith all of which I found very helpful indeed!

Kit: Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire I Decals: Victory Productions “Aces of the Empire” Here’s my entry for the group build The subject is Spitfire I R6893 “KL-T” 54 Sqn, based at Hornchurch in Summer 1940. This aircraft was regularly flown by Pilot Officer Colin Gray and he recorded a number of kills whilst flying this aircraft. First, the box and sprues And the profile from Victory Productions

I was trawling through the builds, looking at some great skilz that I can only wish I had, and pointed out a few to one of my guys at work, an ex submariner. He pointed out that the Royal Navy was involved in the Battle of Britain but is always overshadowed by the RAF..... I have had a love/hate relationship with both the RAF and RN, 26 years of waiting around for Crab Air to turn up, cursing them when they went U/S somewhere nice and ended up in some swanky hotel, or when they have dropped me by helo at the wrong Grid, adding some extra K's tabbing and making me late on target etc etc....however they have also came to my assistance on a few memorable occasions, with GR9's, some dicey infils/extracts by Chinook in Helmand, which saw some extraordinary flying and brave airmanship....when we called, they came, sometimes into enemy fire. Then they fly me around the UK at 250ft, 300 knots, some wannabe jet jockey up front getting his annual low level flying ticket whilst 90 paratroopers are jammed in like sardine, the smell of avgas and puking inducing more vomit.....only for them to pop up to 600ft and throw us out.... I spent most of my time avoiding the RN, when forced I embarked on various ships, including aircraft carriers, a destroyer and various underwater tin cans....what a pain, just trying to find my way to the galley for food was a mission, where we were gawped at by sailors who clearly thought we were some type of lower class animal, muttering words like pongo.... In the worst case scenario the 2 horrors were combined and I was twice part of a 6 man patrol who jumped into some freezing Scottish water having been subjected to the aforementioned low level horror, to then embark on those hideous underwater contraptions for a few days, before being thrown out on an inflatable we bought with us to go ashore... Anyway I digress as usual....It must be said that the RAF did have their finest hour during the battle, I also felt that the Navy should be represented in this GB....it seems the Army spent a lot of time recuperating after Dunkirk and sometimes shooting at our own fighters during the battle....their time was to come later in the war. For that reason, I have decided to include the RN in this GB. I have a Roden Gloster Sea Gladiator, will model as N2272/G, flown by the FAA's 804 NAS from HMS Sparrowhawk, which was the name given to the RNAS Hatston on Mainland Orkney, in Scotland during the BoB. References show it was flown by Sub Lt. J.W. Sleigh during the battle. Beautifully modelled here by @Arkady72 - I suspect I will not come anywhere close as I have never modelled a bi-plane! I have the book, 'Forgotten Few' by Paul Beaver that is quite interesting. It seems Sleigh went onto quite a distinguished career, having had a couple of near misses... This may be a bit of overstretch, with so many builds, but I will see how it goes. current state of crew, typically Roden do not include a pilot...I have asked on the wanted page for any surplus unwanted pilots... Box Sprues - put some primer down last night when I was spraying the Apache.

The Supermarine Spitfire is one of a handful of aircraft to have passed from history into legend. Its good looks helped (good looks often do) --- the curve of a Spitfire's wing might well stand for an essence of beauty in the ruminations of some Romantic esthete. It is the Spitfire that is the emblem of the Battle of Britain, the iconic mount of 'the Few' who delivered the first solid check to Nazi arms, and it does no good to point out Hawker's Hurricane did more of the heavy lifting, or that the effectiveness of the Me 109 was greatly hampered by limited range, and at times by escort deployments mandated more for boosting the morale of bomber crews than for their combat utility. When the legend becomes fact, print the legend, so the saying goes, and don't bother arguing. Just about every modeller feels impelled to do a Battle of Britain Spitfire sometime, and this model of Spitfire Mk Ia serial R6915 is mine. Spitfire Mk Ia serial R6915 is preserved at the Imperial War Museum, albeit as it appeared during the twilight of its career in an Operational Training Unit. This aeroplane, however, began its active service career just as the Battle of Britain commenced. It was built to a contract let shortly before the war began, and on July 11 1940 was delivered to No. 6 Maintenance Unit. On July 21, R6915 was received by 609 (West Riding) Squadron, an old Auxiliary Air Force formation based then at Middle Wallop. The aircraft was assigned to B Flight's Blue Section, and marked as PR-U. Several pilots flew R6915 PR-U in its early days with the squadron, but by late August, this machine became the favored mount of a Pilot Officer with the striking name of Noël le Chevalier Agazarian. Noël le Chevalier Agazarian was one of four sons and two daughters born to an Armenian electrical engineer and his wife, a genteel Frenchwoman. After the Great War, she purchased a surplus Sopwith Pup airframe that was installed in the garden of their London residence as a children's plaything. Which may account for the unusual degree of 'air mindedness' among the Agazarian brood, for four of them when grown took up aviation. Noël's younger sister Monique was a ferry pilot for the Air Transport Auxiliary during WWII, and afterwards became a prominent authority on simulator training and instrument flying. Their eldest brother, Levon Berdj Agazarian, joined the RAF and served in the Far East, flying Thunderbolts from Calcutta at the end of the war. Another of the brothers, Jack Charles Agazarian, joined the RAF, but during his training was recruited into the Special Operations Executive for service as a radio operator in France, where in 1943 he was betrayed into Nazi hands under circumstances which on their face are none too favorable to MI-6 (see note below). Known as 'Aggie' to his friends, Noël le Chevalier Agazarian proved to be quite an athlete in his school days, excelling at rugby, swimming, and boxing. He was denied entry to Trinity College by its President, with the comment that "In 1911, when the last coloured gentleman had been at Trinity, it had really proved most unfortunate." Noël was accepted at another Oxford school, Wadham College, in 1935. While studying law Noël kept up his championship caliber boxing, and joined the Oxford University Air Squadron, part of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. Here he met and became good friends with another aspiring pilot, Richard Hillary, who in his war-time memoir The Last Enemy (see note below) described Noël Agazarian as an extremely intelligent fellow with 'a pleasantly ugly face' who seemed a bit bewildered at finding himself to be such a fine athlete instead of a scholar. Early in 1939, the reservists of the Oxford Squadron were called up for active training at Lossiemouth. Agazarian and Hillary, along with several others, coalesced into a clique who referred to themselves as 'the longhairs', and plagued the RAF sergeants in charge of their initial training by their studied indiscipline. On completion of their flight training, Agazarian and Hillary both were disappointed to be assigned to Army Cooperation School at Old Sarum. There they flew exercises on obsolete Hawker Hector biplanes (one of which Noël crashed without injury to himself) and on the standard service type, the Westland Lysander. When their class at Old Sarum concluded in June, 1940, the RAF was bracing itself for an impending aerial onslaught by the Luftwaffe, and almost all graduates of the Army Cooperation School were assigned to Fighter Command. Noël le Chevalier Agazarian joined 609 Squadron in July, and soon showed himself a good fighting pilot. By mid-August, he had been credited with destroying three German fighters in air battles over naval installations on the south coast. Noël was flying PR-U R6915 on August 25, when he was credited with a fourth German fighter, an Me 110. From then through the end of September he flew this machine, being credited with two more fighters confirmed and two bombers as probables. On two occasions while attacking bombers, PR-U R6915 took damage from their defensive fire that forced Pilot Officer Agazarian to make a hurried landing, once with a bullet through the Merlin engine's oil sump, and once with a bullet through its glycol coolant tank. Both these, being in the lower part of the aeroplane's nose, were particularly vulnerable to well-aimed fire from a gunner directly attacked. PR-U R6915 was not flown by Pilot Officer Agazarian on its last sortie for 609 Squadron, but instead by Flying Officer John Dundas, considered a leading 'ace' at the time. Engaged with an Me 110, R6915 was struck by cannon shells, and the damage was beyond what a squadron workshop could cope with. The aeroplane was sent to a Civilian Repair Unit at Crowley on October 14, where it would remain till December. Noël le Chevalier Agazarian requested a transfer to North Africa in December, and was assigned to 274 Squadron there in January, 1941. Flying a Hurricane in support of 'Operation Brevity', he was killed on May 16. Spitfire Mk Ia R6915 had emerged from the repair shops and been delivered to 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron in late January, 1941. With the new Spitfire Mk V coming into service, in July R6915 was relinquished to an Operational Training Unit, 61 OTU. R6915 then commenced to shuttle between various training units and repair facilities till summer of 1944, when it went into storage at Cardiff. From there, it was struck off RAF charge to the Imperial War Museum for static display in 1947, where it exists today. This model is built from the 'old tool' Airfix Spitfire I/II in 1/72. It was recommended back when I bought it as having better shape to the wing than the Tamiya offering, and Airfix was at the time putting out a 50th anniversary re-issue of the kit, the first one it had put on the market, which like the original came in a bag, not a box, and was moulded in bright blue plastic. I built the kit to OOB standard, with panel lines scribed and pilot figure employed. National markings are from an old Techmod sheet, ID codes from what remains of a Fantasy Workshop sheet. Wife printed up the serials. I doubt many of these are going to be built up nowadays, with the excellent new tooling available, but it went together well, and I think still does the business of making a decent miniature Battle of Britain Spitfire. When I chose PR-U R6915 as a subject for my model, I had no idea what lay behind the machine. I was simply looking through profiles in an old Aircam number for a Spitfire that had been in the thick of things in the Battle of Britain, whose codings could be replicated with decals I had on hand. Looking into operations of 609 Squadron, and refreshing my memory of Spitfire development and service, led to the discovery this machine was preserved in the Imperial War Museum. Reading the museum's 'History Note' for R6915, the name Noël le Chevalier Agazarian leapt out as something that just might be worth a closer look. Doing so led not only to a good deal of information about the gentleman, but to other stories his touched on, such as the skein of betrayals which caught up his brother Jack in France, and the painfully-won celebrity his friend Richard Hillary briefly enjoyed. I have prepared a note on each of these gentlemen, presented below in separate posts. It would be churlish to present here no detail concerning the career of Noël's sister Monique, but I can do no better justice to her than was done in her obituary in The Independent, written by someone she taught to fly, who considered her both mentor and friend.... https://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-monique-agazarian-1499214.html

Even though it all started with Spitfires for me,as I’ve gotten older and learnt more about the Battle of Britain and the aircraft I’ve developed a soft spot for the crews that flew and fought in the less glamorous types. My entries for this build will be two Airfix kits: A 1/72 Defiant to be built as L7026 ‘PS-V’ and a 1/72 Blenheim If to be built as L8665 ‘BQ-A’ of 600 Sqn. A note for posterity: Defiant L7026 PS-V 264 Sqn shot down 28 August 1940 P/Os PL Kenner and CE Johnson - both killed Blenheim L8665 BQ-A 600 Sqn shot down 08 August 1940 Pilot: F/O. Dennis Neve Grice. Killed Air/Gnr: Sgt. Francis John Keast. Killed Obs: AC 1. John Benjamin William Warren. Killed

On this, the 80th anniversary of the start of the Battle of Britain, I can't resist sharing this one. It actually dates from Easter 2010. It was my then 10-year-old son's entry for his school Easter Egg craft competition (which he won). I helped him with some cutting and sticking but otherwise it's his work. (He's a great bearded brute now, not modelling nowadays, too interested in the stuff 20 year lads are interested in...)

Hi All, For this group build (my first!), I'll be building a Ju87B from the Airfix kit. Still a month left for the GB and from memory this kit should fall together nicely. I have a few goodies to go with it: My plan is to represent a Battle of Britain aircraft, and to narrow down a subject I couldn't resist summarising what the Stukas achieved. The charts below show information compiled from my references. Hopefully this comes out OK for everyone. I'm planning to build one of the aircraft that flew on one of the major Convoy Peewit raids (8th August), but if possible I'll try and find one that is likely to have also participated in other major Battle of Britain raids such as the Tangmere Raid (16th August) or the "Hardest Day" raids (18th August). We'll see what I come up with as I go! Thanks for looking - and I'll be back with progress soon! Matt

"Qu'il avoit cainte Escalibor, la meillor espee qui fust, qu'ele trenche fer come fust." [For at his belt hung Excalibur, the finest sword that there was, which sliced through iron as through wood.] -- Chrétien de Troyes, Perceval, le Conte du Graal (c.1190) thene he drewe his swerd Excalibur but it was so bryght in his enemyes eyen that it gaf light lyke xxx torchys [Then he drew his sword Excalibur, but it was so bright in his enemies' eyes, that it shone like thirty torches.] -- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book I, Chapter IX The name of it said the lady is Excalibur that is as moche say as cut stele ["The name of it," said the lady, "is Excalibur, that is as much to say as Cut-steel."] -- Sir Thomas Malory, Le Morte d'Arthur, Book II, Chapter III "The flash of the Spitfire's wing, then, through the misty glare of the summer sky, was the first flash of a sharpened sword; they would fight, they would hold out." -- Vincent Sheean, Between the Thunder and the Sun On 18 August 1940, the day on which losses in the Battle of Britain were highest for both sides, the Stukas of Luftflotte 3 were detailed to strike south coast targets in England: the Coastal Command stations RAF Thorney Island and RAF Ford; the RDF station at Poling; and the Fleet Air Arm in Gosport. Poling aside, none of these targets were essential to the air defence of Great Britain, but as a prelude to invasion, the destruction or attrition of the Fleet Air Arm and Coastal Command would be essential to the success of Operation Sea Lion -- assuming, of course, that the British didn't just give up after a week or two of the Luftwaffe pounding the home islands. Over a hundred Ju87s from StG77 and StG3, the largest concentration of dive bombers to attack Britain so far, were escorted by over a hundred 109s from JG27 and JG53 and preceded by a frie jagd of fifty more from JG2 to sweep aside the RAF. Hard-pressed already, 10 and 11 Groups scrambled sixty-eight Spitfires and Hurricanes to meet the enemy, though through misappreciation on the part of the controllers, the fighters were mostly out of position initially. The eleven Spitfires of 234 Squadron were directed to intercept the enemy south of the Isle of Wight. I/StG3, on its way to Gosport, was protected by close escorts and a twenty-five strong top cover, both supplied by I/JG27's Bf109Es. The jagdgeschwader's gruppenkommodore, Major Eduard Neumann, leading the close escort, heard garbled radio calls from his top cover above, as 234 came into action against more than twice their number of Bf109s. Outnumbered, but not outmatched, 234 had at its disposal two of the Battle of Britain's leading RAF aces: twenty-year-old Robert "Bob" Doe (14 and 2 shared between 7 August and 7 October 1940) and twenty-two-year-old Paterson "Pat" Hughes (14 and 3 shared, from 8 July to 7 September 1940), who betwixt the two of them shot down three 109s out of six from I and II JG27 brought down by the squadron's Spitfires, while Hurricanes from 601 (County of London) Squadron and Spitfires from 602 (City of Glasgow) Squadron and 152 (Hyderabad) Squadron tore into the Stukas. It was a bad moment for the Luftwaffe on a long day. For my next trick, I'll be building some Spitfires, because I think things tend to go a little better in the world as a whole when I do, and right now, I think we can all agree it needs the help. I have an idea of which specific Battle of Britain Spitfires I'd like to do, but don't have the decals, so will make a final determination closer to H-Hour, as it were. In any case it's almost inconceivable that I'll finish these puppies up before I leave for England with @Cookenbacher on 1 November, and thence to Telford with noted raconteur @CedB and the wise and mysterious @Navy Bird. So perhaps I'll get lucky on the decal front. In any case, we all know the new but getting older Airfix Spitfire I. I experimented earlier this year with using a syringe to fill the panel lines, but ultimately decided it wasn't worth it; the way I paint, the panel lines don't look all that deep anyhoo. Despite their age and the fact that Airfix has probably sold a cool billion of these kits, the latest issue of the Spitfire is still pretty devoid of flash save on one part: The starboard landing gear leg. The flash around the mounting point was quite thick and required careful carving to get it into shape; this was true for both kits. Close enough, I hope. Tonight I had just enough time to drill out the holes for the locating pins on the fuselage to save on heartache later, remove the fuselage pieces from the sprues, and begin, almost imperceptibly, work on the cockpit. Eleven days until I leave for Albion. Looking forward to seeing you.

Hello guys, here are thirteen photos of my most recently completed model, Airfix's 1:48 Bf 109E-4 with the markings of Franz von Werra.

Hello all! Here are some photos of my recently completed model, Revell's Ju 88A-1 in 1:32. It was a fight from start to finish, some pieces, such as the rudder pedals, didn't live to see the end of the project. I take all that to my own poor construction methods. I won't build another 32nd bomber again.

Decided to start a side project, apart from Airfix's 1:48 Bf 109E. This photo is from earlier today. And this one is from today's evening. The camouflage has been outlined with a pencil. I had glue remaining just for the left engine cowling, I'll buy more tomorrow, if I can.

So, having recently re-discovered a passion for model aircraft, I decided to start again with the first model I ever bought myself when I was about 8, the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk.1a. I fully intend to build 1/72 kits to every (or as many as possible) aircraft that has served on 39 Sqn but to start I needed to break myself in slowly! It's taken me a full 3 weeks of trawling this forum for ideas as there is such a wealth of information (and it's so easy to get side-tracked by some amazing unrelated builds like the scratch built HMS Eagle in 1/144 which blew my mind!) As it's been about 20 years since I last built a model, so I've been scouring Hannants for extra decals, etched cockpits and new canopies which I certainly never had previously. I came across 2 of the new Airfix Mk.1a sets for stupid cheap and have bought Hataka Acrylics to brush paint them (I've never airbrushed but that's next on my list). I'm still researching which aircraft I will model them on but I'm drawn to doing a couple of 54 Sqn aircraft from summer 1940 ish. Any advice for a complete beginner (it's been that long and looking at the builds on here, I feel every inch of one) and any pitfalls I should avoid?

This model marks some firsts for me, it's my first Spitfire, my first properly British aircraft, and my first Pegasus Hobbies kit. Many of you may have read about this brand, which makes snap fit aircraft models. Now, some may consider them as unworthy of building because of their simplicity, but the decals that come with the kits are EXCELLENT: glossy, easy to work with and most importantly, need no setting solutions to conform into the panel lines (fifth photo). However, you should let them dry thoroughly before handling the aircraft, or you may end up distorting them (fourth photo). As always, the model was handpainted with Revell acrylics. Again, no decal softening solutions were needed.

As a teenager I was a fanatic scale modeller, but when I bought my first PC in the mid-'90s my scale modelling was pushed to the background as I focused more on my illustrator ambitions. I always intended to return to scale modelling and last year I made some initial steps by illustrating a couple of box tops for Tan Model (1/48 RF-84F re-release and 1/72 T-33A Limited Edition kits). Currently I'm taking it one step further as I'm in the process of designing an actual scale model conversion kit. It's a commission by Spitfire display pilot Espen Tjetland from Norway, who is a great fan of the Buchons in the "Battle of Britain" movie. This kit will allow conversion of a 1/32 Hasegawa Messerschmitt Bf 109 G kit into an accurate Buchon. Both "Battle of Britain" movie star and Spanish Air Force variants are planned, as well as other models and other scales in the long run. 3D photo scanning, measurements of actual aircraft and Me 109 engineering plans are used to ensure absolute accuracy and to capture the Buchon's iconic grin (love it or hate it!). Work-in-progress on the 3D design: Pre-prototype 3D prints of the first major parts for test-fitting against the donor kit. The final printing quality will be of higher quality. Prints and photos by SBS Model from Hungary. More to come! Cheers, Ronnie Olsthoorn

Dear All, This is my rendition of Airfix's 1/72 Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I. The kit comes in an Airfix Dogfight Doubles boxing, which also includes the Dornier Do 17z. These two aircraft met over Britain in August 1940. The Defiant managed to shoot down the Dornier but was, in turn, itself shot down next by an escorting German fighter. This specific Defiant was based in Martlesham Heath, where BT Labs were later built. This is quite meaningful, personally, because I did my MSc. Project there in 1993-4 (on self-pulsating lasers for fibre optic communications systems, by the way). I started the build in the Summer of 2015, in the 75th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain GB but didn't manage to finish it in time and shelved it in November of the same year. The build was resumed in June this year for the 100th Anniversary of the RAF GB. Again, I didn't finish it in time and only managed to conclude it last week. Some points of interest regarding the kit and build: The fit is generally good. The only problem were the joins between the wing and fuselage, including the wing roots I used Eduard's PE sets for detailing the interior, exterior and flaps (my first use of PE flaps). Eduard's masking set was also used. The kit is good in terms of detail out-of-the-box but the PE sets really improve it a lot The navigation lights on the tips of wings and on the spine were scratch built from transparent sprue. I used Alclad black primer on the external surfaces to provide pre-shading but it only worked well on the undersides. On the top sides it looked like the effect was killed by the dark camouflage colours, so I resorted to post-shading. I tried to not overdue the weathering, as period pictures show the aircraft in a relatively clean state: panel lines were enhanced with a dark wash a silver pencil was used to provide some chipping on the walk-way area of the wing and around the cockpit pigments were used to make exhaust stains and earth stains on the undercarriage area and elements "fresh engine oil" was applied around the carburetor The WIP is here. And these are the photos of the finished build: 1. General views IMAG5936 IMAG5937 IMAG5938 IMAG5939 IMAG5940 IMAG5941 IMAG5942 IMAG5943 IMAG5944 IMAG5945 IMAG5946 IMAG5947 IMAG5951 2. Details of wing and navigation lights IMAG5950 IMAG5955 IMAG5956 IMAG5960 3. Details of flaps and radiator IMAG5961 IMAG5962 IMAG5966 4. Details of cockpit, machine gun turret and exhausts IMAG5948 IMAG5964 IMAG5965 IMAG5957 IMAG5959 IMAG5958 5. Details of cockpit interior before closing the fuselage IMAG5565 IMAG5566 IMAG5568 6. Details of undercarriage and wheel wells IMAG5953 IMAG5954 To finish with, pictures of the real thing: I hope you like the build. All comments and criticisms are very welcome. Thanks for looking Jaime

Three from the BoB - well actually the Hurricane is April 1940 according to the painting guide but perhaps it made it home to defend the Home Isle against the Luftwaffe??? I really like these 1/72 Airfix kits. The are fairly accurate, easy to assemble, come with a "wheels up" option and a pilot figure! I acquired a set of AIrfix stands and used them here - talk about a step back in time!!! They are all built out of the box and airbrushed using Tamiya paints on top and Gunze aqueous for the Sky. Kit decals too. I built them over a year ago but put them into storage. This week I got them out and painted them. I lost a few bits along the way including a pair of the turret guns and the rear antenna for the Defiant. They look pretty cool together and I think the large code letters suit these older types. Cheers!!

Hi All, I'm taking a bit of a break from my Thunderbirds project to work on a new game I just received in the mail (ordered last September)! I now have as the titles says 27 very small aircraft to paint, and this is a scale unlike anything I have ever attempted before. I began by giving them all a nice hot bath as some of the aircraft had slightly misshapen wings. The soak soon sorted that with very little effort. I took the opportunity to give them a ll a bit of a wash as well, to make sure there was no residual mould release agent or other chemicals. Once dry, I cleaned up the surprisingly few mould lines, took some time to admire the details and then got them under the airbrush for a coat of light grey primer. Here are the Spitfire mkII and BF-109E after their primer was applied. and the Boulton Paul Defiant MkI Apologies for the photo quality. I then flipped them all upside down and gave the RAF aircraft a coat of Vallejo RAF Sky, and the Luftwaffe got a RLM76 I've now masked the undersides of all the RAF aircraft in preparation for a coat of RAF Dark Earth. This is where your help comes in, please! I know very little about Luftwaffe camo schemes, and even less about year specific patterns. I have begun researching, but my goodness the rabbit hole appears to be extremely deep, and wide, and oh so very dark! So any diagrams/patterns etc that are simple to follow would be appreciated. In addition to this, I want to get a standard camo pattern across the Spitfires as I do know enough about them to know they ran either the Pattern A camo or Pattern B camo, applied using rubber mats as stencils. My research here seems to suggest that the same pattern was rolled out across multiple squadrons at the same time, so the chances of my aircraft sporting different patterns seems to be slim. Is that correct? If so, does anyone have any tip, tricks, advice or suggestion on the best way to do this? I was unable to find masks in the correct scale, which leaves me either attempting to make 13 of my own using tamiya masking tape, or finding another method, perhaps brush painting would be the best way forward? If it is of any help, the markings I will be using are: Spitfire Squadrons 19 and 609 and BF109 Schwarm Gruppe I, II, III and IV All help and suggestions are greatly appreciated and needed.

Are there any good resources on the first "real" Bomber Command raid on Berlin on 25/26 August 1940? I've seen a number of vague statements about it: it was all Hampdens; there were some Wellingtons; etc etc etc. Which squadrons participated? Are there any 1/72 decals out there for any of the bombers involved?