Pavla 1/72 Miles Martinet TT.1

[Acklington]

I started this at the same time as my previous Martinet (Magna Models). The Pavla one is also a limited production kit, mainly plastic, but with resin parts and vacuform canopy. It appears nicely detailed in the box, but everything goes rapidly downhill from there on. It is the wonkiest model I've ever made - nothing is straight! And I did try hard to thin the wingtips, not that you'd notice ........

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (3) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (10) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (15) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (16) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (18) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (19) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (21) aw by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, APS Acklington, 1949 (23) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

It is MS924 of the Armament Practice Station at RAF Acklington, Northumberland circa 1948/early 1949. All RAF Fighter Command squadrons visited Acklington for live firing practice on the Druridge Bay coastal range, and the Martinets towed target gliders, banners and drogues. MS924 was fitted with an internal electric winch, so didn't have the external wind driven winch (see my previous Martinet model).

MS924, SN260, XE869, APS Acklington, 1949 (4) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

MS924, SN260, XE869, APS Acklington, 1949 (6) w by Philip Pain, on Flickr

By 1950 the Tempest TT.5 was replacing the Martinets, and the APS also had DH Vampire T.11 for live firing training. Also plenty of Meteors - that is a model still to come. In 1956 the APS closed and Acklington became a fighter station once more. At the same time the former Druridge Bay range was re-opened to the public, and this must have been when we made an early family outing to the fantastic sand dunes and long sweeping beach. The dunes were absolutely full of 20 mm canon shells (inert heads), and as kids we could collect them by the bucket full. Sadly I never retained a few as souvenirs, and a few years later the dunes had been completely swept clean.

[Hawkers Finest]

Nice to see models of the less well known aircraft,well tidy mun.

Regards

Hawkers Finest

[stevehnz]

Very nicely done. There is nothing to show of the hassles you had. That scheme with the yellow bands is a favourite of mine & your trio catch it well.

Steve.

[SAT69]

I have to agree with stevehnz, your model shows no signs of the difficulties you faced. A true tribute to your modeling skills.

[RidgeRunner]

Gorgeous

 

Martin

[Natter]

If it had a pilot and the prop was spinning, that second photo could easily pass for a shot taken at a Shuttleworth airshow.  Excellent.

[adey m]

Fantastic low level aerobatics over Acklington's runway.

 

Best Martinet model I have ever seen, great to see one of these.

 

Regards, adey

 

P.S. does your wife not mind if you paint runways on the carpet .................

Edited October 3, 2020 by adey m

[Wulfman]

Looks great to me, and that’s a lovely line up!

 

Wulfman

[Andy Dyck]

Amazing modelling and photography. Especially the flight scenes are very innovative!

Cheers

 

Andy 

[upnorth]

That's a lovely finished model given the provenance of it.

 

I've built one or two Pavla kits and my hat goes off to anyone who can finish one to the standard you have got this one to.

[bigbadbadge]

Wow, the Martinet looks wonderful, you have done a great job in overcoming the issues you mentioned,  love the photos too and the other machines in you line up look great too.  The local connection and back round is very interesting. 

Chris

[Acklington]

Many thanks for the comments everyone.

 

One issue I didn't mention was the font style for the large serials and code letters.  None of the Xtradecal or Modeldecal sheets I had matched the 'square' style of the real thing. I'd almost given up when I found a long forgotten sheet of RAF inter-war numbers and letters which were almost spot on.  The only thing missing was the letter 'M' which was not used between the wars. Also the code number '8' could only be achieved by adding an up-side-down '3' on top of another '3'.

[Mr T]

A very nice model of a largely forgotten aircraft. I have the kit that has come out of the box, but then gone in again! Perhaps now is the time whilst my masochistic streak (think MPM Hudson an Mach2 York) is still running strong. You are right about the kits looking good in the box, I built the Gloster E28/39 and that took some work on the wings. 

[Sky Keg]

The complex striping patterns are PERFECT!!!!  What a great subject!!!!! 

 

Mike