The other Tim's 1/48 Roden Gloster Sea Gladiator - modelled as N2272/G of 804 NAS, Fleet air Arm, Royal Navy, flown by Sub Lt. J.W. Sleigh HMS Sparrowhawk, July 1940

[Tim Moff]

I was trawling through the builds, looking at some great skilz that I can only wish I had, and pointed out a few to one of my guys at work, an ex submariner. He pointed out that the Royal Navy was involved in the Battle of Britain but is always overshadowed by the RAF.....

 

I have had a love/hate relationship with both the RAF and RN, 26 years of waiting around for Crab Air to turn up, cursing them when they went U/S somewhere nice and ended up in some swanky hotel, or when they have dropped me by helo at the wrong Grid, adding some extra K's tabbing and making me late on target etc etc....however they have also came to my assistance on a few memorable occasions, with GR9's, some dicey infils/extracts by Chinook in Helmand, which saw some extraordinary flying and brave airmanship....when we called, they came, sometimes into enemy fire.

 

Then they fly me around the UK at 250ft, 300 knots, some wannabe jet jockey up front getting his annual low level flying ticket whilst 90 paratroopers are jammed in like sardine, the smell of avgas and puking inducing more vomit.....only for them to pop up to 600ft and throw us out....

 

I spent most of my time avoiding the RN, when forced I embarked on various ships, including aircraft carriers, a destroyer and various underwater tin cans....what a pain, just trying to find my way to the galley for food was a mission, where we were gawped at by sailors who clearly thought we were some type of lower class animal, muttering words like pongo....

 

In the worst case scenario the 2 horrors were combined and I was twice part of a 6 man patrol who jumped into some freezing Scottish water having been subjected to the aforementioned low level horror, to then embark on those hideous underwater contraptions for a few days, before being thrown out on an inflatable we bought with us to go ashore...

 

Anyway I digress as usual....It must be said that the RAF did have their finest hour during the battle, I also felt that the Navy should be represented in this GB....it seems the Army spent a lot of time recuperating after Dunkirk and sometimes shooting at our own fighters during the battle....their time was to come later in the war.

 

 

 

 

 

For that reason, I have decided to include the RN in this GB.

 

I have a Roden Gloster Sea Gladiator, will model as N2272/G, flown by the FAA's 804 NAS from HMS Sparrowhawk, which was the name given to the RNAS Hatston on Mainland Orkney, in Scotland during the BoB.

 

References show it was flown by Sub Lt. J.W. Sleigh during the battle.

 

 

Beautifully modelled here by @Arkady72 - I suspect I will not come anywhere close as I have never modelled a bi-plane!

 

 

I have the book, 'Forgotten Few' by Paul Beaver that is quite interesting. It seems Sleigh went onto quite a distinguished career, having had a couple of near misses...

 

This may be a bit of overstretch, with so many builds, but I will see how it goes.

 

 

current state of crew, typically Roden do not include a pilot...I have asked on the wanted page for any surplus unwanted pilots...

 

 

Box

 

 

 

Sprues - put some primer down last night when I was spraying the Apache.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[GREG DESTEC]

Very interesting choice there Tim.

 

Its.not often you see anything about actions during the Battle out with the South east, and certainly not as far north as Orkney. I presume they would have had trade from Luftwaffe units based in Norway. 

 

Good luck with your build.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[Ozzy]

Fantastic choice Tim,

[Tim Moff]

No real movement with this, just taken some bits off the sprue and masked the canopies - just too hot to go in that garage!

 

The glass is a bit rough if I am honest, will see how it goes. A good feature in the latest Airfix mag on the 1/32 ICM kit that could be useful too. Thanks to @PLC1966 and @invidia I have some crew for this and future builds - thanks guys.