Sitting here looking at the Eduard box and thought I would break my rule and have two builds underway at once.
My second subject with be a Spitfire Mk. I in the markings of Australian Ace Pat Hughes X4009 AZ-Q 234 Squadron, who tragically lost his life in the Battle of Britain September 7, 1940.
Paterson (Pat) Clarence Hughes was born in Cooma, New South Wales on September 19, 1917. There is a nice article on Pat here:
https://www.battleofbritainmemorial.org/squadron-logbook/australias-few-and-the-battle-of-britain/
Some I quote:
On 7 September, the first day of the London Blitz, Pat thrust his Spitfire towards a formation of Dornier Do 17s and picked out a straggler. His machine gun fire was so concentrated a large piece flew off. One of the wings then crumpled and the stricken aircraft plunged into a fatal spin. Pat baled out as his Spitfire plummeted too, but no one knows if it was hit by enemy fire, knocked by falling debris or if the aggressive pilot had deliberately rammed the Dornier. His parachute failed to open. The young pilot fell to his death in a suburban garden 12 days before his 23rd birthday. He was the eighth Australian to die in the Battle of Britain.
Pat was posthumously awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross. He had accrued 14 and three shared destroyed aircraft, one shared destroyed unconfirmed, and one probably destroyed. With all the part shares, he was a triple ace and was later ranked in the top ten Battle of Britain pilots, in the top three Australian aces of the Second World War, and in the RAF’s top 50.
So here it is, the nice new Eduard rendition.
Let's do it justice in Pat's memory.
Ray