#forEdgar - 1-48 Airfix Spitfire Vb, 122 Sqn, Jun-Oct 1942

[Kallisti]

At last month's Abingdon show, quite a few members of my club picked up the newish Airfix Spitfire Vb for a nice bargain price, myself included. Then at Telford, I had a peruse of the Eduard stand toward the end of the show and was able to pick up a couple of items at bargain prices as well so that gave me the raw materials for this build:



So thats the Airfix kit along with a Eduard Brassin Cockpit update set and the Radio compartment set. I've been off work all week with a chest infection and an awful wracking cough, so this has curtailed my work on the Metor NF build I'd started before as I'd got to the stage where I was sanding resin and even with a mask, it didn't seem a sensible thing to do with a bad chest, so I started preparing this build earlier in the week.

With the sad passing of Edgar this week, it seemed perfectly apt to continue and dedicate it to his memory, so I've tagged the build with #forEdgar

This is also another build in my series of "Aircraft my Father Fixed", which is a project I've been working on for a couple of years. You can see more about this project at this thread which now contains links to all the previously completed parts of the project. After his initial training and being posted to South Detling in Feb '42, he was then attached to 122 Squadron for the rest of the summer until Oct '42 when he was transferred to 81 Squadron. in this time 122 Squadron migrated between several airfields in southern England tasked with flying offensive patrols across northern France, at the time flying the Spitfire Vb.

The particular aircraft I'll be building will be BM329, MT-C, which was believed to have been shot down by flack near Boulogne on 15th July 1942 and its pilot, Sgt Dennis James was killed. More details can be found here: http://aircrewremembered.com/james-dennis.html



This built will be a mini-diorama as I've done with several of these builds before, including my Father in the diorama as one of the ground crew servicing the aircraft BEFORE it was lost. To this end, here are some other kits that may (and will) contribute to the overall build:



So looking at the Eduard bits in more detail, these look to have some superb detail in them...



and then there is the Airfix kit itself, which is great in its own right. Lots have already been written about this kit before, all I can say is I am really looking forward to building this.



To begin with, I decided to build the accumulator trolley from the Airfix kit. I've featured the resin Iconicair 1:32 scale accumulator trolley in earlier builds so this is becoming a tradition and since my Dad was trained as an Electrician, it seems appropriate! The Aurfix ground crew kit contains a lovely rendition of the acc trolley, giving you the choice of building one with a recharging generator on the top or not. I chose to build the basic one as this is a UK airfield so electricity supplies would have been available to charge up the acc trolley.

Here it is build up before weathering





Its shocking how many faults you see in close up photos

I'm currently working on the Radio compartment which has required the removal of some of the moulded detail inside the fuselage



Here you can see the replacement internal detail panels at the back with the door at back left, radio shelf and bracket centre, radio centre front and some other details still on the PE fret. I still need to drill out the door in the fuselage, which I'll have a go at this afternoon I reckon...

Edited April 24, 2016 by Kallisti

[Val]

I had wondered why I had not seen Edgar's expert input on the forums recently. How incredibly sad to hear, and I can not think of a more fitting tribute than a Spitfire build. Excellent start to the project and I'll be watching with interest.

Val

[rob85]

Fantastic tribute to a great guy.

I was looking at one of these the other day as it was going for a 10 er.... Your build my tip me over the edge!

I have really enjoyed your other builds in your 'aircraft my farther fixed' so looking forward to what you do with this.

Rob

[Knight_Flyer]

It is a nice tribute and I believe that particular Spitfire kit is the one Edgar helped Airfix create.

[Kallisti]

Exactly!

[Kallisti]

Blimey time flies and I'm progressing really slowly on this one, never mind at lest there IS progress.

So having sorted the radio compartment, attention turns to the cockpit. This Eduard resin set is pretty awesome, with some lovely PE and finely cast details. Here is the instrument panel

and at another angle

The camera flash has made the dark wash appear much darker than it actually is by the way. next come the sidewalls which have lovely details cast into them and then you have a sew extra pieces of resin and PE to attach

Need to finish off the seat next and add the seat belts before I can close it all up and start on the rest of the build.

[rob85]

That really does look a extremely nice set, and you have done a fantastic job of it!

Rob

[stevej60]

Great start and a fitting tribute.

[Biggles87]

Great start and a fitting tribute.

That goes for me too

John

[Kallisti]

Just looking back through some of my old threads and I realised I never posted the completed photos of this build from back in December! So here goes - I used the accumulator trolley from the Airfix RAF groundcrew set, along with one of the figures. I've reused the step-ladder and toolbox from my recent Avro Anson build and I pinched the Accurate Armour Standard Tilly from an old Battle of Britain diorama I built several years ago to complete the scene

[malpaso]

Nice model. But...shouldn't it be grey and green camouflage by that date?

I do like the Vb in green and brown but the markings on them would only be in equal ring roundels, I think.

Edited April 24, 2016 by malpaso

[rob85]

I no nothing of the colours, but it is a lovely dio! Really enjoy seeing your set ups.

Rob

[Kallisti]

If you look at the first post in this thread you'll see a photo of the actual aircraft I've modelled and see the roundels (fuselage and underwing) that it carried.

[malpaso]

If you look at the first post in this thread you'll see a photo of the actual aircraft I've modelled and see the roundels (fuselage and underwing) that it carried.

Yes I saw it had the narrow white ring roundels, but these came in months (a year?) or so after the change to grey and green camo.