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In the churchyard of St Edmunds or St James, Blunham, Bedfordshire, is a heavily worn gravestone. These days it is barely legible but back in 2005, it was much easier to read. We were hosting an American friend in November of that year and she was eager to take some photos in the churchyard. She got to one gravestone and said, "Oh, he died in the war!" I looked, and amongst the many names on the stone was a Pilot Officer Alan Dunn Hopkin, who died on the 10th July 1940. I have to confess that it was several years later when I thought of the young man whose name was carved into the gravestone. I remembered the date. The first day of the Battle Of Britain. I wondered how he was lost. Research revealed that he was with No. 59 Squadron, flying Bristol Blenheims from Thorney Island, West Sussex. At 22.20 hrs on the night of the 9th July 1940, Hopkin, along with Sgt T.J Rowles (observer) and Sgt J.W. Falconer (WAG) took off on a Hach patrol (anti-invasion reconnaissance) to Cherbourg. Another Blenheim, R3881 left for a separate patrol a couple of hours later. For some reason, both aircraft appeared to get lost on the return journey, both being plotted by RDF but neither acknowledging the calls from the plotters. At 3am R3637 exploded over Cardiff. None of the bodies were recovered. It has been suggested that Hopkin and his crew may have been the victims of friendly AA fire. The other Blenheim, R3881, flew into an electricity pylon near Cleehill, Shropshire, with the loss of all on board. These six men must have been among the first to lose their lives during the Battle Of Britain. I decided that I had to build Hopkin's aircraft as a way of commemorating one of my Village's fallen sons. I had the serial number, but precious little else. It took several years of digging before I finally found the individual aircraft letter on the 59 Squadron website. Photos of contemporary 59 Sqn machines gave me a good idea of how the aircraft would most likely have looked like and study of photos revealed that R3637 almost certainly would have worn the B scheme. I chose the new Airfix 1/72 kit to represent R3637. Mine was the bomber boxing and this was moulded in the UK. Although the plastic "felt" a little strange, it was much, much nicer to work with than the awful, soft but still brittle, made in India plastic and the fit was markedly better than I anticipated. It was only the bomb bay area that really let the kit down. Otherwise, the build was straightforward. Paints were Colourcoats and Humbrol, whilst decals were a mixture of Xtradecal, Modeldecal and Aeromaster, plus a few of the kit's stencils. The code letters were from an Aeromaster sheet and were the only ones in my stash that replicated the style seen on other 59 Sqn machines at the time. I also used some Peewit paint masks for the glazed areas. While they were a bit cheaper than the equivalent Eduard product, I felt that they weren't as precise as the Eduard masks I've used so far and the edges curled up after a relatively short amount of time, meaning a fair bit of overspray had to be removed. The retracted turret option was only used as the extended one was ropey to say the least, covered in deep gouges and having several moulding flaws. I'm sure I have heard others report that they encountered the same issue. I have to apologise for the quality of the photos but I only just finished the model in time. I am actually away from home at the moment and had to take the photos last Friday, the night before I left. My SLR is unserviceable at the moment, so I had to make do with my phone camera. So, my first completed build in years. I say completed, but it isn't *quite*. There's a not quite finished decal repair on the starboard side (hence no photos) and I haven't added the wireless aerial as yet either. Once done, I'll try to take some better pictures but otherwise, thanks for looking. Cheers, Mark. This model is humbly dedicated to P/O Hopkin, Sgt Rowles and Sgt Falconer.