Like a Fairy Tale (1/24 Airfix Spitfire I)

[Procopius]

It's like a fairy tale. The wicked old empire, born a new, with a new leader -- whose name meant wolf, you couldn't make this stuff up -- and marching under an evil sigil, flooding over the map, sweeping away the armies that had held it in check for the last generation, bringing the continent to its knees, only a thin strip of sea between them and the last hope of the world. And because it's a fairy tale, there's magic, too, call it RDF, maybe, and of course a sort of magic sword, an Ascalon for the twentieth century.

 

My oldest son, Winston, is four and a half years old. Last month he asked me to read to him about the Battle of Britain for the first time, a moment which I've been preparing for since I was eight years old. I'd love to say he was engrossed by the book he selected, put out by, I think, Osprey for the Battle's fiftieth, but it was too technical for someone of his age. But even at four, the word "Spitfire" has a magic, totemic power for him. There were more Hurricanes, of course, but it was always the Spitfire the Germans feared, Dowding's fire-wreathed sword barring the way to the island of last hope. Winston knows, with the certainty that only a child can have, that the Spitfire means hope, and the promise of a better future. Very old men and women today were once as young as he is now, and they looked heavenwards as the contrails twisted tight above Dover and London, and they too believed. We are living in the world it saved*.

 

I recently liquidated almost all of my collection of kits and decals (but not my supplies), and now I only have eleven kits: three Eduard Spitfire IX/VIIIs, three Arma Hurricane Is, an Arma Pzl P.11c, an Arma Yak-9, an Arma FM-2, and a Sword Spitfire XIV. Oh, and the kit I'm going to build for this GB, the Airfix 1/24 Spitfire Ia.

 

The kit is a venerable one, and mine dates to about 1990. The decals look to be in surprisingly good shape, but I've bought a Montex set with masks for the codes. The aircraft in question is a Spitfire flown by F/Lt Frank Howell, a pre-war regular who was ultimately credited with seven and three shared destroyed, including at least one Japanese aircraft during his time commanding a Buffalo squadron at Singapore. After surviving the miseries of a Japanese prison camp, he was killed in 1948 in a stupid accident, when, while filming Vampires landing at Odiham, one struck him with its wingtip, killing him instantly. He was thirty-six, one year younger than I am now.

 

 

 

I have a small assortment of aftermarket: seatbelts, resin exhausts, control column, and seat, and of course the aforementioned Montex set. 

 

I began work on the model upstairs, out of the grotto, for both reasons of scale and so that my children could "help". Even by a very generous definition of the word, they did not, unless you count Winston hugging me with excitement just as I was about to use my scalpel to cut a part free, nearly causing me to shorten my right index finger by an inch or two. 

 

I didn't get much done, because after the initial excitement wore off, my children wandered away to see if they could flip the coffee table over onto each other, which eventually necessitated my full attention.
 

I assembled most of the engine, and put the gun covers on the wings.

 

 

I'm not a super-detailer, so I plan on closing up the aircraft as much as possible. Winston wants me to add a pilot, but the enclosed figure doesn't look too much like F/Lt Howell, who seems to have been a rather slight man with a mustache. 

 

I understand something needs to be done w/r/t dihedral; a fellow Britmodeller had very kindly sent me a spar some time ago, but it was lost in the mail, and so I'm going to have to muddle through, I suppose.

 

 

 

* Some of you may not rate that world very highly. But we give the past meaning by what we do in the present. The Few fought and died to give us the chance to build a better world. We must not waste the opportunity they paid for in blood.

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Very glad you could join us Edward  

 

I built this many years ago and I guess (like me) the kit shows it's age a bit now, but it turned out a nice representation of a Spitfire without any extra work - with the aftermarket bits it should be a beauty  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Brandy]

Lovely to see you back Edward, and your intro is well up to your usual high, and very evocative, standard.

 

Ian

[Dandie Dinmont]

Great to see you back at the workbench, or at least the upstairs table, and a great subject too. I’m looking forward to seeing what you do with this. 
 

Craig. 

[Planebuilder62]

Hi there PC

 

How is your Spitfire getting on?
 

regards Toby

[stevehnz]

I've just tripped over this only to discover I've arrived in the midst of a hiatus. The bar man seems to have pushed off out the back somewhere & its looking a bit like a ladies temperance meeting just now, lets hope that can be rectified before long.

Steve.

[Procopius]

Sorry for the radio silence, chaps, I'm not dead, I just have children and I was managing a $5,000 paid social media ad buy, which is peanuts in normal terms, but is the most expensive project I've ever directly controlled, for the least together and...is blivious a word? Anyway, least together internal clients I could possibly work with, for the highest profile event my org does. Oh, and my deputy was on vacation for two weeks, too.

 

But I'm back now. Winston has made a friend, a little boy named London, whose dad was apparently a pioneer of House music in the UK (hence the name) before moving back to the states to be my neighbor. Yet again I have a neighbor with their own wikipedia entry (I used to live next door to a prominent Chicago sportswriter). Am I intimidated? Yes, even though London's dad is super nice. (I suppose it's only natural a Winston would get along with a London, name a more iconic duo.) London is six, but he and Winnie are very, very  sympatico, which is why I found them running through my house with wiffle bats having a lightsabre fight last week. When Winston bit London, I tenderly explained to him that I loved him, but biting was wrong, and he'd need to go to him room. We hugged, to show I'm a Loving Dad, and then the little so-and-so bit me as hard as he could. Ho ho ho. 

 

Winston's also befriended a ten-year-old girl named Payton, sort of. She mostly I think comes over for our excellent wi-fi (since I'm working from home through 2021, it has to be good), but Winston was very excited when she showed up and cheerfully informed me that "it's so good to finally have someone nice around here." Mrs P has been the only woman in Winston's life for the last four years, so how is she taking this? Not well. She's not a fan of Payton. It's delicious. I could never make Mrs P jealous, because she's so beautiful and I'm a lumpy troll, but she can't really compete with Payton, who's in the long stretch of life where you don't need to nap during the day, which Mrs P is not. 

 

Anyway, the strain of having four or more children in the house all day every day last week was too much for Mrs P. ("I feel like I'm at work still," she complained to me, a person who is actually still at work and remains so every summer that she has off.) So on Saturday she decamped to Michigan at short notice to avoid all the extra children, leaving me here alone to get some work done without having to come upstairs and yell at my children for putting the hose in the sump pump pipe while Mrs P spends ninety minutes "putting Grant down for a nap". Nobody is fooled, but still we play the game.

 

Anyway, today I finally had time to do a little modelling. 

 

I airbrushed the resin seat:

 

 

 

And started laying down some interior green:

 

 

The size of the kit is a little daunting, but there really aren't that many more parts than a modern Eduard 1/72 Spitfire, so I'm hoping it's not going to be too tricky.

 

In other news, in a quest to make myself look like a huge idiot, I'm collecting bits of MTP Osprey IV kit for my own nefarious purposes, and my UBAC came in the mail today. Sort of exciting? It's the privilege of middle-aged men who can afford it to make fools of themselves.

 

 

 

 

[John Laidlaw]

4 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I'm not dead

He's alive... he's alive!

 

Good to hear from you, PC.

[Stew Dapple]

Edward, your post provided a brilliant start to my weekend  Glad to hear all is well at Hedgehog Manor, or at least 'lively'.

 

That resin seat is a thing of beauty; have you had a look at the harness yet? I've actually become proficient enough to love them but they are a little intimidating at first...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

33 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

That resin seat is a thing of beauty; have you had a look at the harness yet? I've actually become proficient enough to love them but they are a little intimidating at first...

I give it a furtive glance now and then, yelp like a frightened animal, and immediately look away.

[Stew Dapple]

I'd recommend a dual-wield of tweezers, one to hold the buckles and one to feed the strap through; trying to hold the damned things and do it leads to sweariness

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[stevehnz]

Hi Edward. pleased to see you getting into this again, lets hear it for Mrs P running off to Michigan, it sounds like a win win all around, especially for you, us & modelling.

OK, UBAC, I tried to google it so I wouldn't feel ridiculous, cripes, the things that can be UBACs, you don't want to know where my imagination was taking me, so I thought best I ask.

Steve.

[Dandie Dinmont]

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

 

In other news, in a quest to make myself look like a huge idiot, I'm collecting bits of MTP Osprey IV kit for my own nefarious purposes, and my UBAC came in the mail today. Sort of exciting? It's the privilege of middle-aged men who can afford it to make fools of themselves.

How badly does Winston bite? Is this in case it turns into a habit?

 

Craig. 

[Putty Animal]

He could prove useful for biting pieces off sprues.  A little nipper. 

 

[Procopius]

16 hours ago, stevehnz said:

OK, UBAC, I tried to google it so I wouldn't feel ridiculous, cripes, the things that can be UBACs, you don't want to know where my imagination was taking me, so I thought best I ask.

 

Under Body Armour Clothing. It's a sort of athletic shirt like runners might wear, but with long camo sleeves. It's meant to be worn under the Osprey and Virtus body armour systems and not slowly broil the soldier. 

 

14 hours ago, Putty Animal said:

He could prove useful for biting pieces off sprues.  A little nipper. 

 

Womp womp wommmmmmmmp

 

16 hours ago, Dandie Dinmont said:

How badly does Winston bite? Is this in case it turns into a habit?

Not that bad. I bit long after his age, I'm sad to say, so I'm working to nip, no pun intended, it in the bud now.

[stevehnz]

4 hours ago, Procopius said:

Under Body Armour Clothing

That was my first choice.

Steve.

[Stew Dapple]

On 8/1/2020 at 3:35 AM, Procopius said:

... then the little so-and-so bit me as hard as he could.

and

6 hours ago, Procopius said:

Under Body Armour Clothing.

 

Are these two items connected? You, the jury, must decide...  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew