2996 Victor Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Hi All, welcome to my second build in this STGB. This will be P-51B-5-NA 43-6643 "Spare Parts" of the 310th Ferry Squadron, 27th Air Transport Group. The kit will be ICM's 1/48 P-51B Tamiya clone with added Aires cockpit and wheel well sets, finished with KitsWorld's decal set. Here's the real thing, courtesy of the American Air Museum in Britain: "Spare Parts" 43-6623 Note that they caption it as a P-51B-15-NA, whereas Joe Baugher's USAF Fighters states it's a P-51B-5-NA, which is what I'm going with! And here is the story behind "Spare Parts". Incidentally, RAF Speke is now Liverpool John Lennon Airport. More when the kit and bits arrive! Thanks for looking in, Mark 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Nice, Mark, I wonder what the story behind the spare parts name is? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted March 25 Share Posted March 25 Good afternoon Mark Welcome aboard again Have fun with your build Best regards Patrice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said: Nice, Mark, I wonder what the story behind the spare parts name is? I think it was to do with the airframe being rebuilt with parts scavenged from others, but I'll have to see if I can find the "info" that makes me think that! Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted March 25 Author Share Posted March 25 2 hours ago, Wings unlevel said: Nice, Mark, I wonder what the story behind the spare parts name is? I've added a link in the heading post to the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team's history of "Spare Parts" - apparently she consisted of parts from five different Mustangs! Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 20 hours ago, 2996 Victor said: I've added a link in the heading post to the Lancashire Aircraft Investigation Team's history of "Spare Parts" - apparently she consisted of parts from five different Mustangs! Cheers, Mark What a great little story. Love this bit: “its most important jobs were training flights to Renfew near Glasgow were, somewhat conveniently, there was a nearby distillery that would supply bottles of Whiskey at wholesale prices.” Important war service indeed! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 4 minutes ago, Wings unlevel said: What a great little story. Love this bit: “its most important jobs were training flights to Renfew near Glasgow were, somewhat conveniently, there was a nearby distillery that would supply bottles of Whiskey at wholesale prices.” Important war service indeed! Absolutely - shame there's no evidence of whisky kegs being slung on wing pylons like the RAF Spit IXs transporting beer to Normandy! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 Shame there's no evidence (AFAIK) of the beer kegs under the Spitfire (Modification XXX) actually being used to transport beer to Normandy, either. Beer was carried in the cylindrical belly fuel tank - clean ones of course! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted March 26 Author Share Posted March 26 16 minutes ago, Graham Boak said: Shame there's no evidence (AFAIK) of the beer kegs under the Spitfire (Modification XXX) actually being used to transport beer to Normandy, either. Beer was carried in the cylindrical belly fuel tank - clean ones of course! Ah - I didn't know that - thanks, Graham. What was in the underwing kegs, I wonder? There's definitely a photo in Wing Leader by JEJ of a Spit in flight, captioned "our version of the brewer's dray", or words to that effect. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Boak Posted March 26 Share Posted March 26 The kegs were a Supermarine publicity shot - the photos I've seen show an aircraft without codes. It would certainly be interesting if they were used (even if only once?) but the photo(s/) I've seen of Normandy show the fuel tank. I suspect that the kegs may not have been rugged enough - although in view of the handling they'd receive on a dray that might not be a fair assumption! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted April 4 Share Posted April 4 Or perhaps they were afraid that ANYONE who caught sight of the aircraft would try to force it down! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 8 Author Share Posted April 8 Well now, after a little interlude, the kit (and several of its brethren) have arrived, along with Aires' P-51B cockpit and wheelbay sets, and of course the all-important KitsWorld decals. So here at last are some pics. Box top: Given that this kit is a clone of the Tamiya P-51B/C, the box is a lot smaller! I particularly like the sturdy box-proper - the artwork is on a sleeve-like topper. Sprues: Instructions are limited to two sides of A4. The brevity is, in some ways, quite refreshing! Colour call-outs are on a separate sheet of A4. Aires resin goodies: KitsWorld decals: And here's a different kit - a photo of Daisy, just coz! A recent and tenaciously lingering cough/cold/man-flu/thing has kept me away from the bench, but I'm hoping to make a start soon, as well as getting on with "Weaver's Nude". Thanks for looking in! Cheers, Mark 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Good morning Mark I hope that you feel better now and I am looking forward to see you starting this build Best regards Patrice 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr91 Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 Cute post. And the cat looks good as well! Sorry. Had to be done. Sorry that you've been under the weather, but glad for your recovery. I can sympathise. Went to Dublin last week for a few days, including meeting up with daughter no. 3 who lives in Limerick. Got laid low with a very bad cough and missed some of the outings. Although mostly gone, it still lingers a little. But that's better than if I'd been near your cutie cat. Although I like cats I'm highly allergic to them ...... Enjoying the Spare Parts story. cheers Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 13 minutes ago, Zephyr91 said: Cute post. And the cat looks good as well! Sorry. Had to be done. Sorry that you've been under the weather, but glad for your recovery. I can sympathise. Went to Dublin last week for a few days, including meeting up with daughter no. 3 who lives in Limerick. Got laid low with a very bad cough and missed some of the outings. Although mostly gone, it still lingers a little. But that's better than if I'd been near your cutie cat. Although I like cats I'm highly allergic to them ...... Enjoying the Spare Parts story. cheers Rob Thanks Rob - sorry to hear you've been "got" as well Jane and I had the Easter weekend planned in North Devon but cut it short because we were feeling so grotty. Didn't do any of our "regular" outings. Shame about your allergy, it must be a bit of a burden sometimes. I wouldn't be without ours, but if you'd have issues with Daisy, you probably wouldn't want to spend much time with Arthur. I present to you the Rittmeister Count Arthur Freiherr von Flauffenbaum: That's a whole lotta floof! Cheers, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zephyr91 Posted April 9 Share Posted April 9 21 minutes ago, 2996 Victor said: That's a whole lotta floof! I think my reaction would be 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 9 Author Share Posted April 9 6 minutes ago, Zephyr91 said: I think my reaction would be I feel like that sometimes, and he's our cat! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 On 09/04/2024 at 17:39, 2996 Victor said: present to you the Rittmeister Count Arthur Freiherr von Flauffenbaum He’s almost perfectly camouflaged against your couch too! 🤣 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 Been having a closer squint at.the Aires resin/etch cockpit set. Have to say it looks splendid! Lots of nice detail that a bit of careful painting should bring out rather nicely. The pour blocks are quite hefty, though. I'm thinking an initial blu-tak assembly of the tub to check for fit to the fuselage, which is bound to result in some fettling of both, before finishing and fully assembling the tub. And in some ways, I'm looking forward to this more than carrying on with the state-of-the-art Eduard 'D'..... Thanks for looking in, Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wings unlevel Posted April 11 Share Posted April 11 3 hours ago, 2996 Victor said: And in some ways, I'm looking forward to this more than carrying on with the state-of-the-art Eduard 'D'..... I reckon they’d both bring joy, albeit for different reasons? 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 1 hour ago, Wings unlevel said: I reckon they’d both bring joy, albeit for different reasons? Definitely - the Eduard kit is a stunning kit, the ICM a little less so! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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