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A Summer Where the Bad Light Stopped


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"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.

 

IMG_20191020_210246

 

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. 

 

IMG_20191020_213256

 

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. 

 

 

IMG_20191020_213244

 

Eleven days until I leave for Albion. Looking forward to seeing you.

 

 

 

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Ah good to see you back in your natural element mate :D 

 

I agree regarding the panel lines on the Airfix Spitfire - they look a bit much in the bare plastic but provided you don't do anything to accentuate them I personally don't think they look outrageous under a couple of coats of paint.

 

I'm afraid I can't help with the transfers but I will keep my eyes skinned, or hopefully one of the good gentlemen of this parish might have a set...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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PC and Spitfires - all is right with the world (despite what you might have heard) :) 

 

Nice start matey, I'm in (of course). 

I do love your introductions and this is another great one… gripped here.

 

Panel lines? I'm currently running Klear into the trenches on the Sunderland thanks to hendie's suggestion. A quick brush along the lines and then capillary action can be used to fill some of the space. Works for me…

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One would rather like to follow also if one may young man,you are onto a couple of one's favorite subjects here-

the RAF fighters of the period and the Battle of Britain.

 

One has some decent reference material for the period,if one can help one,one knows the score.

Edited by DaveWilko
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18 hours ago, Tempestwulf said:

I might just have the decals you're asking for my prickly quadruped. I'll check when I get home in about an hour and PM you if so, very certain. I'll have to get them away this week as flying to 'Nam for a holiday on Saturday.

Looks like Tempestwulf has sorted me out; hopefully the decals will make it to me safely from the antipodes, and if they do, I'll be doing Bob Doe and Pat Hughes' 234 Squadron Spitfires.

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Now that I know what Spitfires I'm building, I was able to look up their serial numbers, and Doe's X4036 and Hughes's X4009 were part of the same Eastleigh production block in July of 1940, and so likely would have had the plastic/bakelite/whatever-but-it-was-orangey-brown seat seen on many Battle of Britain-era Spitfire Ias. I painted mine with a tin of red-brown Humbrol enamel thinned with hardware store naptha, and discovered in the process that my trusty Badger 105, the M3 Grease Gun of airbrushes, needed a new spray head, but amazingly, I had a spare on hand. Luck was with me! Luck being with me always makes me nervous.

 

IMG_20191021_210738

 

Battle of Britain-era Spitfire Is had the head armour which the Airfix kit very thoughtfully omits. At first I thought I might have some leftover PE head armour from an Eduard Spitfire, but it seems I don't, so I did minor surgery and sanding on a styrene plate left over from one of the many Eduard IXs I've built, and grafted it to the kit part, after drilling out the lightening holes:

 

IMG_20191021_215713

 

Erm, that's it. That's the whole update.

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Nice bit of recycling mate, good to see at least some of those Eduard leftovers won't go to waste :) 

 

I know what you mean about luck, when something good happens, I'm usually tensely waiting for something bad to follow...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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1 minute ago, opus999 said:

Nice!  Good to know that Airfix leaves out the head armor.  Give me time to find one! :) 

If you've saved your sprues from your Eduard Spitfires, there should be some spare rear frames with the armour plate on it. I just clipped the plate off one and sanded it with much vigour. 

 

Just now, Stew Dapple said:

I know what you mean about luck, when something good happens, I'm usually tensely waiting for something bad to follow...

 

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4 hours ago, opus999 said:

Am I crazy for following, 

It helps to have a bit of crazy on these threads, then you don't stand out from the rest of us so much, says he who is here, there & everywhere but seldom noticed. :D

Steve.

Edited by stevehnz
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Nice plastic/bakelite/whatever-but-it-was-orangey-brown seats PC :D 

Great start and good to see that keeping Eduard bits isn't totally without purpose… yes, I do it too.

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3 hours ago, Richard502 said:

Looking forward to the new thread, as both your modelling and writing skills are vastly superior to Kate Bush's singing.

Richard

How dare you sir!  Such talk could get you banned (the slur against the Devine Kate, not the description of PCs writing and modelling skills, both of which are self evident).

 

AW

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4 hours ago, stevehnz said:

...says he who is here, there & everywhere but seldom noticed. :D

Don't fool yourself, Steve- your every move is being monitored.

 

On 10/21/2019 at 12:08 AM, Procopius said:

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

Hmm, I recently got my hands on the new FR.XIV, and Sunday I bought the Academy "Special Edition" low-back at a show - otherwise known as a great Spit XIV decal sheet that comes with a free model kit...

 

Don't nobody badmouth my Kate, or it shall be water pistols at dawn! :rain: ("You're making rain, and you're just in reach...")

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7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

It helps to have a bit of crazy on these threads, then you don't stand out from the rest of us so much, says he who is here, there & everywhere but seldom noticed. :D

Steve.

Oh good, crazy I have in abundance! :drunk::frantic:

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Quote

Funnily enough, these are the exact two spitfires I am planning on doing for the 80th anniversary of the BoB GB next year! I am going to set them in an Amera E shaped blast pen, with Flightpath trolley accs, figures etc .  Will look forward to seeing how yours come out.

R

 

Edited by Ralph
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12 minutes ago, Ralph said:

Funnily enough, these are the exact two spitfires I am planning on doing for the 80th anniversary of the BoB GB next year! I am going to set them in an Amera E shaped blast pen, with Flightpath trolley accs, figures etc .  Will look forward to seeing how yours come out.

It looks like @Tempestwulf is very kindly coming through for me on that front, as he's sold me his sheet, which lacks only Deere's "Kiwi" and Bader's machine, both of which I have decals for elsewhere. I suspect your efforts will be a bit more impressive than mine!

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