Movie Stars in 1/48

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

This thread is intended to be a dumping ground for a few aeroplanes I want to build, capturing the shapes and colours and general nostalgia as best as I can from famous films I greatly enjoyed as a child. I'll welcome anyone else joining in on-theme too, but shall plod along myself.

 

The first one I want to build is, I'm sorry to say, a Spitfire. In my mind's eye, Spitfires have long clean slender lines and are painted green and brown, except no Spitfires really were, were they? The stubby little baby Merlins in green & brown lacked the Mk.IX's general purposeful and balanced form, yet the Mk.IXs were painted the wrong colour and had big sticky-out cannon barrels. Why is my mental image askew? Simple really, I wore out VHS tapes of the 1969 Battle of Britain film as a young boy where Spitfires of various marks were rounded up, stripped of cannon barrels and painted green and brown to star in the film and what an utterly superb piece of cinematography it was too. In my opinion it's the finest air to air footage ever to make the big screen, before or since.

 

 

I'm led to believe that's none other than Mk.IXc MH434 there, which is a fabulous candidate since like many boys I've sat in it! I was 17 years and a few months old. I had a provisional driving license and as a keen Air Training Corps cadet I benefited a great deal from our C/O, the late Flt Lt (VRT) Diane Elms who passed away from a brain tumour a few years ago making huge efforts to get me stuff. After plenty Chipmunk and Bulldog flying the rather brusque yet warm at heart "Mrs Elms" as we all fondly called her matter of factly informed me that I was applying for my RAF Flying Scholarship. You didn't have to be an air cadet, but it certainly didn't hurt. At 16 I was sent a travel warrant for a train ticket from Aberdeen to Grantham and I headed off south for half of the Officer & Air Crew Selection Centre assessment; a fairly modesty-shredding medical, aptitude testing and an interview, then I went home. After a period of time lost in the haze (this was late 1997 I think) I received a letter telling me I'd done it. Woo Hoo. As luck would have it, Mrs Elms had also decided I was top of the list for powered glider flying a weekend or two later at RAF Kinloss where, after a few circuits in the Grob 109B, the O/C (I think his name was Sandy - I've quite forgotten his surname but can still see his face) approached me to clarify that I'd just been awarded the Flying Scholarship. Somewhat unsure of why I was being asked, I dutifully answered anyway and was told that they'd had a last minute drop out from that weekend's Basic Glider Training courses, and since I'd got the Flying Scholarship paperwork through I'd passed all the medicals etc they'd have had to do for BGT, so would I like to stay for a few days and do 10 hours training to solo standard in the Grob 109B. Mum & Dad drove up with some clothes and toiletries that afternoon.

 

Come July 1998 I went to Dundee for what simultaneously seems like 2 weeks and 8 weeks. I've quite forgotten how long the Flying Scholarship course was. We stayed in a fairly naff hotel everyone called Fawlty Towers, and I did my 20 hours in the Cessna 152. Having had the head start on the Grob I was ready for solo in 5 hours as opposed to the average of 10, but bad weather at Dundee resulted in my instructor having me fly him to Perth where it was more pleasant and give him 3 circuits and bumps to familiarise myself with my new surroundings. After the third Marjan, the instruction (who was widely rumoured to have won the lottery but kept instructing because he enjoyed it) disembarked and told me to go enjoy myself. I remember the first solo like it was yesterday - almost every detail. The time to solo in my logbook ended up being 6 hours and 5 minutes, which I was still quite proud of. My uncle Stewart was the chief engineer at Tayside Aviation and snapped a photograph of Marjan and myself after my first solo landing.

 

The rest of the Flying Scholarship was a blast. Best time of my life I think. I did get an object lesson in collision avoidance on an extended solo whereby I noticed someone ahead of me banking steeply away from what been head on with me - I was disappointed in myself that I hadn't seen them until they'd already seen me. I don't profess to be an experienced pilot but whenever I see armchair experts musing about what kind of idiot can hit another plane in a big empty sky - well it would be much easier than you'd think is all I can say. Same goes for any sort of accident really. You have to work pretty hard to stop them happening all by themselves, it seems...

 

Anyway, the end of the RAF Flying Scholarship course is (or at least was 22 years ago) a Final Handling Test which essentially is a one hour ghosted solo with another instructor, similar to a driving test really. Pass or fail I'd be going home that evening anyway so my parents and younger sister all drove to Dundee to collect me. As I was doing my pre-flight walkaround of my Cessna, a Spitfire dived onto an extended finals from the west of Dundee's runway and settled at around 30ft and 250kt (wink wink) for a hard break right in front of me. I had mixed feelings at this point you see. My dad was there to see my amazing flying skills and here I was like a bride upstaged on her wedding day by some geezer with a much better aeroplane.

 

The Spitfire levelled off onto downwind leg and lowered his undercarriage to land, taxied in and shut down on the ramp right in front of both my spam can and anyone there to watch at the viewing area. My little sister had a Poleroid camera with her, which, strangely, had some of the obscenely expensive as I recall film in it.

 

Brakes on, run up and cut the fuel, and the big Merlin goes quiet. The pilot clambered out with red lines on his face where his mask had been, and removes his helmet. It must be understood that this was pre-internet and pre-Youtube videos of course, but after the event my dad told me I did a double-take at recognising Mark Hanna who's picture I had seen in an Aeroplane Monthly or Flypast magazine once, as he strolled into towards the building and Lovatt Fraser, the boss of Tayside Aviation and, today, my assessor, greeted Mark and continued walking out towards me. Bugger.

 

The Final Handling Test was passed. I got a "minor" or two for being a little sloppy at maintaining my heading or something like that, but in the end he told me I'd done well and he was happy to write up a good report for me. This was prior to landing, and as number 3 to land I got a little bit of drama in No.1 being tardy to vacate the runway for whatever reason and No.2, some private pilot not associated with the usual goings-on decided to orbit on short finals. I think Mr Fraser was more aghast than I at having someone come head-on at us on finals and his instinct kicked in and he announced he had control just as I was feeding in full power to climb and turn away with some sharp words over the R/T. Nothing was held against me after the eventual landing, I am happy to say.

 

After landing, I had my third surprise of the day. The late Mark Hanna had fobbed off the ushering flying club owner-y sorts and he and Laura Wetton, then of the Old Flying Machine Company (now married to Red Bull air races pilot Paul Bonhomme) were sat at a little table with my family. I am told that on learning I'd love to have met him but had to do my final test, he decided to wait the hour or so and chat with mum, dad and my little sister. Folk say never meet your heroes and that's probably true in the main but Mark Hanna, his father Ray whom I met the following year and Capt. Eric Brown are people who were nicer, more encouraging, humble and downright gracious than I ever thought they'd be. Like most people who met Mark, both my sister and I were to try on MH434 for size.

 

Mark Hanna died 13 months later at 40 years old from severe burns following a crash in Hispano Buchon G-BOML arriving for an airshow in Spain. It was a very calm evening and he did is usual arrival run in and break before landing in the reverse direction owing to no wind. According to the investigation report, he's thought to have flown through his own wake turbulence from pulling G over the end of the runway which hadn't drifted away owing to the same lack of wind. His Buchon apparently went out of control on late finals, crashed, and the rest is history...

 

It seems fitting that MH434 be the film star I build here for this thread.

 

I have a very nice yet slightly unwanted Eduard Spitfire IXe which I got from @Duncan B's BlackMike Models a while ago. I'm not particularly interested in the markings generally on offer for the IXe, so given that MH434's C-wing distinguishing features were mostly removed for the Battle of Britain film, I am happy to make the necessary modifications to this kit and get the use out of it.

 

From what I've found so far, there should be no cannon bulges on the wings at all for its appearance in the film.

 

The stubs on the leading edges need to go as well. My 2oz bottle of Zap Medium CA is almost done and starting to turn gloopy, so I used it to fill the cannon blisters from the inside thus:

 

I do need to go brush up on my Spitfire C versus E wing rivet counting to see if there's anything else I really should do...

 

In the mean time, I've started the cockpit although haven't assembled any further yet since I need to do some photo etch work, and my 2oz bottle of Zap Medium CA is almost done and starting to turn gloopy, but it was hosing down with rain at the time. It's stopped now, so I may go grab a bottle from the shop before bed.

 

I did drill out the lightening holes in the fuselage frames. It's the law.

 

 

Thanks for reading my lengthy introduction!

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Go for it, Jamie! Oh, and, Repeat Please!

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

9 minutes ago, Pete in Lincs said:

Go for it, Jamie! Oh, and, Repeat Please!

 

Two. Thureee. Zero.

 

Unless you're blind as well as ... oh gods truth...

[bigbadbadge]

I love the line "Silence,in Polish", such a great Film, my all time Fave too.  I watch it regularly.  

Great background and intro, you shouldn't have to apologise for modelling a Spitfire either.  

Good luck with your build.

All the best

Chris

[jackroadkill]

Hi Jamie,

 

That's a great story (I have many ATC-yarns of my own, as I suspect many here have), and I share your obsession with the aircraft in the Battle Of Britain film.  My brother and I still say "Click!?" to make sure we've made our point...

 

Anyway, I'll say "Jump, jump John".

 

Cheers,

 

JRK

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Thanks all. Bow that Stew is up we're concentrating on trying to get as much paint made as we can this week since we now have no less than 3 trade orders open and our total stock levels look very sick after hundreds of people with a lot of time on their hands recently got heavily into modelling (or at least building up their paint stashes).

 

If anyone is also reading my Canberra T17 thread, you may have spotted Mike from Belcher Bits in Canada dropping in. Thanks to Mike I can now name my second Movie Star - there are a pair of Rolls Royce Merlin power-eggs (RR's modularized Merlin, mounts, chin mounted radiator and cowlings) on the way along with, I think, a pair of spinners. These along with some cockpit and nose glazing modifications to a Revellogram Heinkel He111 shall become this:

[Jochen Barett]

3 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

---. Thanks to Mike I can now name my second Movie Star - there are a pair of Rolls Royce Merlin power-eggs (RR's modularized Merlin, mounts, chin mounted radiator and cowlings) on the way along with, I think, a pair of spinners. These along with some cockpit and nose glazing modifications to a Revellogram Heinkel He111 shall become this:

I can hardly wait to see what correct (movie) wrong (RLM) paint you will chose ;-)

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

6 hours ago, Jochen Barett said:

I can hardly wait to see what correct (movie) wrong (RLM) paint you will chose 😉

 

Indeed I have been having a think about that. I think the RLM65 is in the right sort of ballpark but the contrast between RLM70 and 71 is quite exaggerated as many modellers like to do.

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

After lots of work today I started on removing the Spitfire's cannon blisters

 

 

 

 

Apparently my old bottle of superglue was a bit too gloopy as I've ended up with a cavity anyway, although on the bright side it's quite minor and shallow so it shouldn't be too much of a problem for filling and surfacing.

 

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

That's better. We're now de-gunned.

 

 

One thing I've never quite mastered, actually, is a suitably lazy way of clearing sanding dust out of recessed detail. Panel lines are easy enough but getting it out of rivet and fastener detail is a bit harder.

 

By the way - it's just the lighting. I haven't obliterated all the detail on the starboard wing!

[alt-92]

I'd just pick up a sowing needle for that probably...

Does it rinse off with some alcohol?

[Fritag]

Fascinating intro - love the ear-to-ear first solo grin - and a cracking theme.  

 

[fightersweep]

Pulling up a seat for this one! Fantastic introduction too. Although as a fellow ex "Space Cadet" from the 80s, I'm a little jealous as I never got off the ground once in over two years as our CO favoured bull over flying. Hence the reason we called ourselves 1312 Ground Training Corps. Extra frustrating as we were based at an airport!

 

Looking forward to this BoB movie classic progressing. Must dash as I hear the Fuhrer "wishes to avoid any further bluuuuuuuudshed" and my "nasty little shack full of dead flies" need a spring clean. Still, they're "responsible for all this mess". Maybe I'll just "give them a bloody shovel".

 

Steve

[Peter W]

9 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

One thing I've never quite mastered, actually, is a suitably lazy way of clearing sanding dust out of recessed detail. Panel lines are easy enough but getting it out of rivet and fastener detail is a bit harder.

I always use a stiff toothbrush to clean the lines out.

 

Pete

[Jonners]

On 7/19/2020 at 8:49 PM, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

Thanks for reading my lengthy introduction!

...and very enjoyable it was too! (That's from someone who got his air cadet glider 'budgie' wings in a Slingsby Venture, flew in allsorts as an air cadet from Chippie and Grob 109 to a VC-10 and Nimrod, completed a 30-hr flying scholarship on the C150 and got to sit in a Spitfire courtesy of a UAS attachment to the BBMF.) More than a touch of déjà vu...

 

Jon

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

On 7/22/2020 at 10:52 AM, alt-92 said:

I'd just pick up a sowing needle for that probably...

Does it rinse off with some alcohol?

 

I've tried a few types of thinners and it looks like it's worked until it dries and it hasn't had a huge effect. That said, after numerous attempts it has cumulatively made a difference and seems close to be workable now.

 

On 7/22/2020 at 11:01 AM, Fritag said:

Fascinating intro - love the ear-to-ear first solo grin - and a cracking theme.  

 

 

Thanks Fritag - I still had hopes and dreams then. When you're 17 years old you haven't watched them all turn to ash yet!

 

On 7/22/2020 at 4:44 PM, fightersweep said:

Pulling up a seat for this one! Fantastic introduction too. Although as a fellow ex "Space Cadet" from the 80s, I'm a little jealous as I never got off the ground once in over two years as our CO favoured bull over flying. Hence the reason we called ourselves 1312 Ground Training Corps. Extra frustrating as we were based at an airport!

 

Looking forward to this BoB movie classic progressing. Must dash as I hear the Fuhrer "wishes to avoid any further bluuuuuuuudshed" and my "nasty little shack full of dead flies" need a spring clean. Still, they're "responsible for all this mess". Maybe I'll just "give them a bloody shovel".

 

Steve

 

Hi Steve, I'd heard that about some squadrons and never really understood it, although in hindsight the days going flying burned up some adult volunteer's weekend and I suppose cumulatively it's a big burden on them. It is, probably, what most join for though so you'd think that if anything was going to give, it would be something other than flying!

 

On 7/22/2020 at 8:28 PM, Peter W said:

I always use a stiff toothbrush to clean the lines out.

 

Pete

Hi Pete. Stew suggested the same thing although the detail is very fine here - much finer than most toothbrush bristles actually.

 

On 7/22/2020 at 8:56 PM, Jonners said:

...and very enjoyable it was too! (That's from someone who got his air cadet glider 'budgie' wings in a Slingsby Venture, flew in allsorts as an air cadet from Chippie and Grob 109 to a VC-10 and Nimrod, completed a 30-hr flying scholarship on the C150 and got to sit in a Spitfire courtesy of a UAS attachment to the BBMF.) More than a touch of déjà vu...

 

Jon

 

Hi Jon,

 

I retrospect I too was very lucky, amassing quite a number of flying hours. In my logbook are around 10 hours of Chipmunk and Bulldog flying, just under 5 hours in the back of a Nimrod, something similar in the E-3D Sentry, 45mins front seat in a Tucano, the Grob Vigilant and Viking and the Brize Norton to Akrotiri and back VC-10 run. I forgot I got some Grob 115E Tutor hours too in the UAS. The Tucano was probably the highlight of the lot for me and as it was after the Flying Scholarship most of it was stick-time and I feel I got a lot out of that.

 

 

 

Back to movie stars for a moment, the third subject should be fairly predictable by now - the Hispano HA-1112 Buchon which I think looks better than a "proper" Messerschmitt and is certainly vastly superior as a movie star than a Bf108 Taifun or a Harvard painted with black crosses masquerading as Bf109s, regardless how much some people take offence at their existence.

 

 

Today most Buchons have been retrofitted with 3 bladed propellers but as-built, the Hispanos only had a 3-blader when fitted with the original substitute engine in the form of the Hispano Suiza V12 which was not a great match for the aeroplane. The HA-1112 Buchon fitted with the surplus Merlins all had 4 bladed propellers fitted, and indeed all the flyers in the film had 4-bladers although shutter speed choice etc made that less than obvious. The stills make it quite clear though. What was always obvious is that despite being a Bf109G-2 from the firewall back, the film Buchons had their wingtips squared off and had struts fitted under the tailplanes in the style of the Bf109E - features the Buchon did not have originally. They have also had gun barrels fitted to the wing leading edges, and the Buchon's pointy spinner has had a hole made in the front in the style of the centreline firing cannon on some Emils.

 

I've had the Academy Buchon in the stash for a long time.

 

It has recessed panel lines but otherwise I was never impressed with the box contents and hence it's never been built. Baldrick had a cunning plan though, and Duncan at BlackMike Models sent me an Eduard Bf109G-2 Weekend Edition.

 

The cunning plan involved using the Eduard Bf109G-2 firewall back as it's superior in every respect compared to the Academy kit, except that it has the ugly wrong engine on the front. I'd use the firewall forward from the Academy Buchon and invest the effort making that look decent. Initial inspection reveals some inevitable differences but in profile I'd just need to cut the engine away 1mm behind the actual firewall panel line and fill the panel line in.

 

Before committing to ruining two kits though, I cut out a profile from card to compare the fuselages in cross section. I started with the Academy kit.

 

The Eduard Bf109 is much narrower in cross section though.

 

Dinner's just going out, so I'm going to ponder over how I could and if I should.

 

[alt-92]

Interesting  
I have the same Academy Buchon, picked it up somewhere last year for a tenner, with largely the same idea.

The ones at Duxford are a bit of a mixed bag, four and three bladers and square & round wingtips.

 

There's always the option of using the Eduard G-2 as a template/guide for rescribing or riveting the Academy one.
Although they are pretty slick as is..

 

 

 

Beware the Hun in the sun!

[fightersweep]

Buchon! Nice. This just get's better. Dare I ask, Casa 2.111?

 

Steve

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

21 minutes ago, alt-92 said:

Interesting  
I have the same Academy Buchon

 

 

 

This photo was the one I was away to go find on tinternet, so thank you for saving me the bother! My memory is functioning and what's wrong with the Academy Buchon is that it lacks that twist in the cowlings approximately abeam the back of the cylinder blocks. Instead the Academy fuselage is the width it would have been if designed for the Merlin from the outset. I am optimistic I can do this, although it won't help my reputation around the house. Just last weekend my wife asked as I was working away:

 

"Is your hobby actually just sanding things?"

 

14 minutes ago, fightersweep said:

Buchon! Nice. This just get's better. Dare I ask, Casa 2.111?

 

Steve

 

Either see post above for affirmative answer if you're asking if I'm going to build one - Belcher Bits engines and some spinners are on the way (though I need to buy another Revell Heinkel), and "It's the Merlin engines Heinkel He111 H-22" if you're asking "what the hell is a Casa 2.111?"

 

I often am tempted to buy the latest and greatest and whilst the ICM H-3 looks very nice, I think the parts breakdown of the Revell Monogram He111 is probably better suited to grafting new engines on.

 

 

Lastly, Stew and I were discussing today a photo I found online of the filming of a famous scene from the film 

https://pin.it/7Ll1CrM

 

During which, it briefly crossed my mind to attempt the "Psychedelic Monster", the modifed B-25 with open camera tail turret which, let's be honest, was the difference between the incredible air to air cinematography seen in the film, but in the end decided that some things are best left with a little mystique and not picked apart too much.

 

However, all that said, I think the Buchon is going to have to be one with a red spinner rather than yellow, if only because the shark-like appearance and screaming sounds of that just-below-centreline nose-on shots of the Buchons are iconic in themselves. That's the Buchon I want to capture here.

[fightersweep]

Casa 2.111 as well then? I'd better buy a bigger bag of popcorn.

 

I've got the Revell 1/32 111, along with the Heritage Casa 2.111 conversion, plus another un named conversion I picked up online when the Revell kit came out. Trouble is, both Merlin units in either conversion look way off (I could do with some engine nacelles from the HK Lanc). I may see how your 48th version comes along as I have the Monogram kit kicking around somewhere.

 

Steve

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

On 7/23/2020 at 6:14 PM, fightersweep said:

Casa 2.111 as well then? I'd better buy a bigger bag of popcorn then.

 

I've got the Revell 1/32 111, along with the Heritage Casa 2.111 conversion, plus another un named conversion I picked up online when the Revell kit came out. Trouble is, both Merlin units in either conversion look way off (I could do with some engine nacelles from the HK Lanc). I may see how your 48th version comes along as I have the Monogram kit kicking around somewhere.

 

Steve

 

One could get a bit carried away doing this in 1/32 scale! I have just had a 1/32 Bf108 arrive though, which I'd intended to build as a proper Bf108. I am considering expanding the scope to include 633 Squadron next since I've committed funds to developing bulged bomb bays and new canopies for the Tamiya 1/48 Mosquitos to go with the two-stage nacelles we already carry which will get me very close to a TT.35, and then one would naturally require a Nord 1001 Pingouin to go with it, but I haven't looked yet to see if anyone makes a decent commercial conversion to the Renault engine for Eduard's 1/48 Bf108. If not, I'd need a bunch of photos etc to scratchbuild it myself.

 

Coming back to the Buchon's cross section, here's a view down the Academy fuselage.

 

The cowling needs the curve flattened a bit, and those kinks ironed in. My original instincts may have been right afterall in that the best way to get a good Buchon may be to use the best G-2 available and spend the effort on the Merlin firewall-forward installation. The fact that Academy moulded the bulges over the rocker covers separately would be a big help here.

[Peter W]

3 hours ago, Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies said:

since I've committed funds to developing bulged bomb bays and new canopies for the Tamiya 1/48 Mosquitos to go with the two-stage nacelles we already carry

That's the best thing that I've read for a long time. I built a PR Mk.34 a while back using the Paragon parts and really wanted to do a B.35 as well but couldn't find any more of the bulged bomb bays or canopies. I've got your two stages Merlins already in the box waiting and now you've just made me very happy.

 

Pete 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Hello Jamie I'm definitely following this as its a favorite subject of mine. Please Please let me know when you get a new U.S. Distributor. I really need to get away from acrylics, they're really making me unhappy lately. 

[Biggles87]

As a long time fan of the Hannas and MH434, how could I not follow this after that lovely introductory story.

 

John

[Jamie @ Sovereign Hobbies]

Hi folks,

 

Stew has now left after a full week of help. We had a quality issue and had to reject the latest large batch of our best seller, but apart from that our first trade consignment to the US in over 2 years is done. The replacement 507C (yep, it's that one) should be finished by the mid/late week as I have to go back to day job tomorrow morning since the bills still need paid.

 

To serve as addendum to the opening post though, this photo has finally been found - it was at my mother's house: