Park's Praetorian Guard

[Cookenbacher]

"Certain that their target was London, Park was no longer intercepting as far forward as he used to...He would hit them hardest at the point the Germans called 'die grosse Angstkurve uber London' ('the dreaded big turn over London)...Park had given his young braves height and surprise...As his forward units engaged, Park ordered up his own reserve, his Praetorian Guard of 602 and 303..."

- Stephen Bungay, The Most Dangerous Enemy

 

My plan is to build a Polish 303 Sqn Hurricane from the new 1/72 Arma kit, and 602 Sqn Spitfire from the already venerable 1/72 Airfix kit (probably the two most popular kits in this Group Build, so I don't get points for originality).

 

I've got some 303 references all ready to go:

 

And have thrown a little primer on the kit interiors. First up the Hurricane:

 

And next the Spitfire:

 

It's actually the Mk Va boxing, but contains everything needed for a Mk I.

[Rabbit Leader]

Nice post Cookie.. and I love those reference books. Although building a 1/48 kit myself, 1/72 is my favourite scale and I really ought to get hold off some of these Arma Hurricanes, they do look great. 
 

Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

[Cookenbacher]

OK, off to a start on the Hurricane.

 

 

 

The IP decals in the kit work incredibly well, I was impressed.

 

Fuselage together.

 

Should have used 0.5 mm masking tape for the harness - dang it.

 

The Arma cockpit is pretty complex, and I couldn't get the bottom tube structure to fit with the IP, so I chopped off the cross member that was interfering and added it through the gap for the wing after the fuselage was together.

 

After the wings were attached it really looked like a Hurricane, enough so that it made a few low flybys over the bench, much to the delight of the Vallejo paint bottles who paid extra for grandstand seats.

 

Sorry for the blurry pic, but it was going pretty fast.

[Stew Dapple]

Blimey, good start Cookie, off to a flyer!  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[TEMPESTMK5]

Hi Cookie

Very good start

Best Regards

Patrice

[rob85]

A flying start Cookie!

 

Rob

[Cookenbacher]

On 7/10/2020 at 3:00 PM, Rabbit Leader said:

Nice post Cookie.. and I love those reference books. Although building a 1/48 kit myself, 1/72 is my favourite scale and I really ought to get hold off some of these Arma Hurricanes, they do look great. 
 

Cheers and best of luck.. Dave 

Thanks Dave, it's a very nice kit and I recommend it. It does have a number of innovations and I've had a little trouble here and there, but a second build should go very smoothly.

 

On 7/12/2020 at 9:03 PM, Stew Dapple said:

Blimey, good start Cookie, off to a flyer!

 

On 7/13/2020 at 4:35 AM, TEMPESTMK5 said:

Hi Cookie

Very good start

Best Regards

Patrice

 

On 7/13/2020 at 6:58 AM, rob85 said:

A flying start Cookie!

Thanks Stew, Patrice and Rob!

 

Just a small update; the tail is together, and I have a couple of almost in focus pics.

 

 

 I should really get going on the 602 Sqn Spitfire.