Procopius Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 "And we go on fighting despite the assurance that we have lost the war. Why, then, do we go on dying? Out of despair? But there is no despair. You know nothing about defeat if you think there is room in it for despair." -- Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, Flight to Arras Hope is the only good god present among men The rest abandoned us and went to Olympus. -- Theognis, Fr. 1135-6 They came in the night. They killed everyone. I hid in the shadows. And then it came to me: The magic sword. -- "Kill Them All", The Magic Sword You're gonna have to do better than fear You're gonna have to step out of the shadows and fight. -- The Protomen, "Keep Quiet" "This then, my lords and gentlemen, is the message which we send forth today to all states and nations, bound or free, to all the men in all the lands who care for freedom's cause. To our Allies and well-wishers in Europe, to our American friends and helpers drawing ever closer in their might across the ocean, this is the message-lift up your hearts, all will come right. Out of depths of sorrow and sacrifice will be born again the glory of mankind." -- Winston Churchill, "Speech to the Allied Delegates", 12 June 1941 I've just finished up three Eduard Spitfire IXs, and I was wondering to myself what would make a good follow-up to building three of a pretty great (but not perfect) kit of my favourite airplane of all time. Easy. Build four more. Since I have four of the quad-kit Royal boxings of Eduard Spitfires, I have plenty to spare. Poland's been much on my mind recently, as I'm currently reading Richard Lukas's The forgotten Holocaust: the Poles under German occupation, 1939–1944, and recently finished his shorter work Did the Children Cry?, about the brutality inflicted upon Polish children by the Nazis, so one of the four Spitfires I'm building will be EN526/SZ-G, Polish ace Aleksander "Gabby" Gabszewicz's first Mark IX, with the wide cannon blisters and short carb intake. I can't seem to find a photo of this aircraft, so if anyone knows of one, I'd be most grateful. In the event EN526 can't be represented by the model, I have a backup plan in the form of another Polish Spitfire. I'll also be building WZ-GJ/"Eleanor", a reverse lend-lease Spitfire LF.IXc flown by Major Garth Jared (3 + 1 probable + 1 damaged) of the 309th FS, 32nd FG in 1943. Tony recently built this aircraft, and I agree with his conclusion that it was painted in the standard Day Fighter Scheme rather than desert colours. Major Jared was a graduate of the University of California, where he met his wife Eleanor; he would later name his Spitfire after her. He served as a test pilot in the P-47 program before heading out to the front, where he was killed in action on 18 April 1944, when his P-51 was hit by flak. In addition to his wife, he left behind a year-old son, Stephen. I was able to locate Stephen on LinkedIn, but figured he would be unlikely to respond well to some weirdo contacting him with questions about his late father and so have not bothered him. My third Spitfire will be LF.IXe NH432/OU-D/"Waipawa Special", flown by Flying Officer Max Collett of 485 Squadron RNZAF. In 1993, Max Collett took the time to write a letter to a small boy in America after seeing his letter to the editor in D.C.O., the official magazine of the Spitfire Society. I've kept it ever since. It would be impossible for me to not build this aircraft. Lastly, I'll be building TB752/KH-Z/"Val", flown by Squadron Leader Henry Zary, an American of Polish descent (his birth name was Zartykiewicz) from New York City, enlisted in the RCAF in February of 1941 and remained with it throughout the war, though as an American he could have joined the USAAF and received much higher pay after his own country entered the war in December of 1941. He scored five victories, three of them in a single sortie on 25 July 1944, when he shot down two Bf109s and then, having expended all of his ammunition, caused the third to crash by skillful flying. He contracted pleurisy after the war and died in Quebec on 11 February 1946, aged 27. 20170208_223137 by Edward IX, on Flickr 20170208_223141 by Edward IX, on Flickr So far I've begun the seats. I'm doing one with the styrene seat armour for scientific reasons. 20170208_223125 by Edward IX, on Flickr 21 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crossofiron1971 Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 You should be building them in Castle Bromwich, then you have the real production line! Quite the project... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 This feast of Edwardian elegance should be worth its weight in Pierogi ruskie. Tony 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted February 9, 2017 Share Posted February 9, 2017 Pleased to see its hard to keep a good man down. I'll be looking on. Steve. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 Do you ever try and do something just to see if you can even do it? 20170209_204242 by Edward IX, on Flickr Me too. 20170209_212255 by Edward IX, on Flickr Anyway, only a little work done so far: 20170209_212108 by Edward IX, on Flickr I'll still need to paint the seats that curious reddish-brown colour they were, as well as the black of the seat backrest -- that will come once the enamels dry. I may rethink which Spitfires exactly I'm building -- I had originally wanted to do more aircraft from the occupied countries, but last night I was kind of exhausted when it was time to pick out paint schemes. So that might be a little up in the air, we'll see. 19 hours ago, Crossofiron1971 said: Quite the project... We'll see! It took almost a month exactly (granted, January is interminably long) to build the last three, so hopefully I can get these done within six weeks. 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Squibby Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Wow you must have a lot of spitfire kits sitting around, What's the tally up to now? 7? Looking forward to seeing these develop too 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 12 minutes ago, Squibby said: Wow you must have a lot of spitfire kits sitting around, What's the tally up to now? 7? These'll make seven built this year (hopefully). I have four Royal boxings, including this one, two of the XVI combos, and three VIII combos, plus a lone F.IX. So, not counting these four, twenty-three unbuilt. You could say I'm somewhat fond of them. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 9 minutes ago, Procopius said: These'll make seven built this year (hopefully). I have four Royal boxings, including this one, two of the XVI combos, and three VIII combos, plus a lone F.IX. So, not counting these four, twenty-three unbuilt. You could say I'm somewhat fond of completely obsessed by them. Fixed that for you mate. Glad to see you are working on reducing the stash. Superb opening as usual, I'll come along if you don't mind? Cheers, Stew 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 Great start Mr.P looking forward to how these turn out, weather that's the options you have said above or others that you choose! I need to make sure I take notes ready for my one. Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 PC, you may be single handedly preserving Western Civilization. Keep up the good work. Also, you managed to get those multi-part seats together very nicely, mine ended up a little wonky - I must try harder next time (I don't have as many Eduard kits as you [I also noticed you didn't count any overtrees]: twelve, minus the one LF.16 on the go). 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 10, 2017 Share Posted February 10, 2017 I now consider that the collective noun for a group Spitfires should be a procopiosity... 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 10, 2017 Author Share Posted February 10, 2017 1 hour ago, Cookenbacher said: Also, you managed to get those multi-part seats together very nicely, mine ended up a little wonky - I must try harder next time They took a few tries for me -- not really sure why they needed to be three parts. I've had a fair amount of practice by this point, though. 2 hours ago, Cookenbacher said: (I don't have as many Eduard kits as you [I also noticed you didn't count any overtrees]: twelve, minus the one LF.16 on the go). I did omit my two overtrees, you're quite right! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Navy Bird Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Nice work on the compass! When you get a chance, stop by Rottenchester and build some of my pile of AZ Spitfire kits...I think there's one of every mark. Well, maybe not, but darn close. Cheers, Bill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 6 hours ago, Navy Bird said: When you get a chance, stop by Rottenchester and build some of my pile of AZ Spitfire kits...I think there's one of every mark. Well, maybe not, but darn close. I have a four-day weekend. See you soon! Anyhow, slow going right now. Just worked on making sure I got a cockpit right before doing the other three, and repainted the chairs. 20170211_000544 by Edward IX, on Flickr I also got one wing together. Even with extensive modification of the wingtip locating pins, it proved beyond my abilities to get the panel line to form a continuous line. 2017-02-11_12-22-43 by Edward IX, on Flickr 15 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stew Dapple Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Kudos, you managed to fit the belts without cracking the paint off Cheers, Stew 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 Just now, Stew Dapple said: Kudos, you managed to fit the belts without cracking the paint off These ones are pretty good -- normally I just skip the belts, but they behaved so nicely when I used them on one of the last three Spitfires I built, I felt they deserved a chance. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Sneaking in at the back PC - great start, especially on the compass, i/p and belts... great stuff 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lasermonkey Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Any man with aircraft grey green on his fingers is ok in my book! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
825 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Joining in a few days in and already over 400 posts. There goes a few hours. You can never have enough Spitfires. All the best with one man Group Build. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 That cockpit looks excellent Mr. P, well done! Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 Greetings from the assembly line. 20170211_103900 by Edward IX, on Flickr 20170211_103905 by Edward IX, on Flickr 20170211_103841 by Edward IX, on Flickr 20170211_103851 by Edward IX, on Flickr 20170211_092648 by Edward IX, on Flickr I applied one a them thar filter things to the cockpit sides, but then I thought better of the colour I was using after the first side panel was done and switched; pro tip: this will wrinkle enamel paint. It looks okay now. I dropped Mrs P and Winston and my mother in law off at the airport -- they're off to sunny Arizona and I'm back here alone for a week on kind of a tight budget thanks to the need to pay for a week's worth of daycare for Win while my mom (who watches him during the day) goes to Florida to visit her friend (the daughter of the Waffen-SS officer I mentioned in a prior thread, in fact -- she's in a bad way, with Alzheimer's and breast cancer, and this will likely be the last time my mom sees her), and also for the ultrasound we had a little while back, which my (pretty good) insurance through work only covered two-thirds of. So that's fun, and slightly derails some decal acquisition plans for the immediate future. We're doing better surely than we deserve, ahead of both the mean and median household incomes for American families, but for some reason, every January and February, we find ourselves pretty tight on cash. Since these are already the most depressing and cold months of the year, it's pretty frustrating. At least I have my Spitfires. 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 1 hour ago, Procopius said: my (pretty good) insurance through work only covered two-thirds of. So that's fun, and slightly derails some decal acquisition plans for the immediate future. We're doing better surely than we deserve, ahead of both the mean and median household incomes for American families, but for some reason, every January and February, we find ourselves pretty tight on cash. Since these are already the most depressing and cold months of the year, it's pretty frustrating. At least I have my Spitfires. Law 5 of cosmic invariance: 'No matter what one's station, life will never go beyond meeting two-thirds of expectation.' You're right PC. These are glum and rather penurious months of the year. No matter whether I was working, unemployed, or a student, I can never recall it being any different. T.S.Eliot showed lamentable judgement picking on poor April, if you ask me. Those are very swish 'pits on your Spits. Nice work. Tony 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted February 11, 2017 Author Share Posted February 11, 2017 6 minutes ago, TheBaron said: You're right PC. These are glum and rather penurious months of the year. No matter whether I was working, unemployed, or a student, I can never recall it being any different. T.S.Eliot showed lamentable judgement picking on poor April, if you ask me. Frankly, and I know it's cruel to say, as he was so proud of it, but "Wasteland" is not his best work. (I'm partial to "Choruses from 'The Rock'", myself.) EDIT: And "Gerontion". 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 Nice production line going on there PC and the internals look great! Spitfire envy is an embarrassing condition. I must take something 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheBaron Posted February 11, 2017 Share Posted February 11, 2017 5 minutes ago, CedB said: Nice production line going on there PC and the internals look great! Spitfire envy is an embarrassing condition. I must take something Supermarine Viagra! 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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