maltadefender Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 (edited) Getting myself organised and looking forward to this enormously - had a bit of mojo loss after Christmas so this is a good opportunity to get back into the swing of things. The plan is to build 12 Spitfires in 12 weeks, all of which will be mounted on stands as if in flight. I've got two Airfix '5-Up' stands plus a 'Dogfight Double' to put the finished products on. Ive started dusting down the boxes... Cat isn't too fussed at the moment, although will doubtless take an unhealthy interest once they're built and she thinks that they're budgies... Planned builds will cover quite a few different types, theatres, colours and services and be displayed as follows: 5-Up 1: Tropical Spits Mk.Vb EP706, 'T-L' 249 Squadron, Malta, October 1942 (Extra Dark Sea Grey over Desert/Sky Blue) Mk.Vb BP962, 'R-2' 603 Squadron, Malta, April 1942 (Blue-grey over Desert/Sky Blue) Mk.Vb Unknown, 'U' 610 Squadron, Malta, May 1942 (Extra Dark Sea Grey over Desert/Sky Blue/White) Mk.Vc Unknown, 'UP-T' 79 Sqn RAAF, New Guinea, 1944 (Foliage Green/White/Sky Blue) Mk.Vc A58-248, 'SH-Z' 58 Sqn RAAF, Victoria, 1945 (Silver/White/Black) 5-Up 2: Spits at Large Mk.I R7205, 'RY-V' 312 (Czech) Sqn, 1941 (Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky) Mk.Vb AD572 'DU-C' 313 (Czech) Sqn, 1942 (Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey) Mk.Vb LN853 'AV-D' 355th FS USAAF, 1942 (Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey) Mk.VIII MO280 'DG-R'155 Squadron, India, 1944 (Dark Earth/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey/Yellow) Mk.XIV RB159 'DW-D' 610 Squadron 1944 (Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Medium Sea Grey) Dogfight Double: Piece of Cake Mk.IX MH434 'Hornet Squadron' 1988 (Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky) Mk.IX ML417 'Hornet Squadron' 1988 (Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky) I've bought PJ Productions figures to go in those kits which come without (most of them!) so hopefully they will add something special to the party. Roll on March 5th! Edited March 2, 2011 by maltadefender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Rogers Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Yikes! Good luck with that! No sleep 'til June eh? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Deranged, possibly. I have been trying to shed a few pounds - this might help!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rowmk9 Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 wow, thats an ambitous target, great idea. After this GB you'll probably not need to build Spitfires for a year or two! Good luck mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jazzy Jase Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Nice. I'll be very impressed if you get them all finished. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Speckled Jim Posted March 2, 2011 Share Posted March 2, 2011 Braver Man than me.... I'll stick to my two builds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 2, 2011 Author Share Posted March 2, 2011 Well I figured that if you're going to be a bear, be a grizzly! 12 is the target but I'm not going to bust my hump if I don't get them all done - one step at a time and all that. Now come ON, Saturday! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 (edited) I’ll start this epic with ‘the first of my few’ and the Airfix Dogfight Double display base. On it will be two fictitious Spitfires from the Granada TV 6-part series Piece of Cake based upon the 1983 novel by Derek Robinson of the same name. The programme was filmed during 1988 and broadcast in 1989, when I was in the thick of reading all Robinson’s books for the first (of many) times. Piece of Cake is a 550-page epic and was cut down to 300+ minutes with great skill by the producers, telling the story of ‘Hornet Squadron’ from the outbreak of war, through the Phoney War and Fall of France to the Battle of Britain. The book and the series both courted controversy for their unsentimental and often brutal portrayal of RAF fighter pilots. Nevertheless they rang true for as many veterans as they offended, and as fictional characters in that period I believe they are second to none. Among the many memorable characters are: ‘Moggy’ Cattermole – the squadron troublemaker, bully and ace Christopher Hart III ‘CH3’ – a volunteer Yank whose experience in Spain makes him unpopular ‘Fanny’ Barton – a New Zealander who shoots down a Blenheim but becomes C.O. Squadron Leader Rex – an old school Cranwell man whose belief in pre-war tactics wastes lives in France ‘Uncle’ Kellaway – a veteran of Robinson’s WW1 novels, now squadron adjutant ‘Skull’ Skelton – the intelligence officer who makes himself unpopular with all and sundry by bringing truth into the equation ‘Flash’ Gordon – dreamy young pilot who marries a French girl and goes loco during the fall of France ‘Zabby’ Zabarnowsky and ‘Haddy’ Haducek – refugee airmen hell-bent on killing Germans ‘Amanda’ Steele-Stebbing – the butt of most of Moggy’s ill humour in the Battle of Britain The literary Hornet Squadron of course flew Hurricane Mk.Is, but in the mid-1980s there were few enough airworthy Hurricanes of any type, so Spitfires had to make do. This in itself brought a lot of flak from aviationistas, but brought together some fine aircraft and airmen. In total five airworthy Spitfires were flown in the UK, these being: Mk.Ia AR213, Mk.IXb MH434, Mk.IXe ML417, Mk.IXc NH238 and Pr.Mk.XI PL983. In addition there was one air-to-air scene flown in the USA with the then-Confederate Air Force owned Spitfire Mk.IX MK297 engaging and shooting down the CAF’s Spanish ‘He-111’. Plans to used Graham Warner’s Blenheim were scuppered by his aircraft crashing, but three Hispano Buchons were flown by Nick Grace, Reg Hallam and Walter Eichorn. Spitfire Pilots Ray Hanna Mark Hanna Stephen Gray Pete Jarvis Hoof Proudfoot Carl Schofield Brian Smith John Watts Howard Pardue - USA ‘Messerchmitt’ Pilots Nick Grace Reg Hallam Walther Eichorn - Germany As ever, considerable amounts of footage from ‘The Battle of Britain’ were rehashed – often very effectively, although the difference in film stock stood out almost as much as the fact that many Spitfires seen blowing up were radio-controlled Stukas! Undoubtedly the most memorable stunt in the series was when Ray Hanna flew MH434 beneath the biggest single-span stone bridge in the country, the Winston Bridge in County Durham. I did think about making a 1/72 model of the bridge and putting a Mk.IX under it – but that would need more than three months! As the lead pilot (and the one happiest to throw his Spitfire around with abandon), Ray Hanna and MH434 were central to most of the flying scenes. Most often PL893 flew with him, and for a while I considered attempting to modify the Matchbox Mk.IX/XVI to Pr.Mk.XI trim – but time is of the essence with 10 more Spits to build! As a result I’m going to make this pair of Airfix 1/72 Spit Mk.IXs into MH434 and NH238. Here are photos taken of them during filming: NH238 MH434 They are in a simple, generic 1940 camouflage of Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky with their serial numbers very small on the upper rear fuselage. Initially ‘Hornet Squadron’ carried identification letters ‘NS’ but these were abandoned when the self-adhesive letters used (in order to chop and change to make it appear as though there were more than five Spits) proved incapable of dealing with a Merlin’s prop-wash! This resulted in a line of dialogue being inserted when the squadron shoots down a Blenheim. Squadron Leader Rex demands that the identification letters are obliterated ‘so that we don’t get caught next time – and there will be a next time…’ I have decided to base my pair of Spits on those of Yellow Section (‘Moggy’ Cattermole and ‘Amanda’ Steele-Stebbing) during the Battle of Britain. Moggy (who is also my Avatar) always wore a Sidcot suit and Steele-Stebbing his Hairy Mary uniform. Other than that it’s going to be a bit hard to differentiate them... but let’s give it a go! I'm tapping my fingers impatiently now, waiting for Friday midnight! Edited March 3, 2011 by maltadefender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunshine coast Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 "Piece of cake"..... I was lucky enough to be working in East Dean (next to Friston airfield) when some of the filming was done.....working on roofs at the time and have fond memories of being buzzed several times as they flew up and down the valley during the days of filming .............nothing quite like being waved at by a Spitfire pilot at close quarters :coolio: .....still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up !!!! Regards Trevor .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 I was lucky enough to be working in East Dean (next to Friston airfield) when some of the filming was done.....working on roofs at the time and have fond memories of being buzzed several times as they flew up and down the valley during the days of filming .............nothing quite like being waved at by a Spitfire pilot at close quarters :coolio: .....still makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up !!!!Regards Trevor .... I'm officially 100% jealous! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunshine coast Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 I'm officially 100% jealous! :shithappens: I have been quite lucky living down here....watched bits of the making of "Battle of Britain" too ...... the most surreal thing I remember during "Piece of cake" was walking along Eastbourne seafront early one sunny evening (quite a lot of people about) when they were doing a sequence with a Spit chasing an "Me 109" just offshore .......a spontaneous cheer broke out ...as though we had all slipped back in time to 1940... Regards Trevor .... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 (edited) "Steady on, Amanda, I've got several maiden aunts living in Eastbourne..." Edited March 3, 2011 by maltadefender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sunshine coast Posted March 3, 2011 Share Posted March 3, 2011 (edited) One last bit ....promise not to take up any more of your thread ... filmed at Friston and along the Seven Sisters cliffs and off Eastbourne ...can't quite see me waving back!!!!!! Regards Trevor .. Edited March 3, 2011 by sunshine coast Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 No apologies needed, Trevor - it's all about the things we enjoy! That's the highlight of the whole show for me... the music in that scene with Chris Hart and the Messerschmitt over the cliffs is my all-time favourite orchestral piece, always hear it when I see a Spit, thanks so much for finding it. I'd better get these two right! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 3, 2011 Author Share Posted March 3, 2011 I decided to make the decals for my Piece of Cake pair, with 4mm being the smallest size my printer could manage for the serial numbers so that will have to do. It seemed a bit extravagant to use a whole shet of A4 decal paper for that, and looking at the kit decals for the Airfix Mk.IX I saw that it will be possible to make up the serial EN199, this being the Mk.IX on display at the Malta Aviation Museum. I found a good photo of the name 'Mary Rose' and trimmed and shrunk it to fit, then printed off a Wing Commander's pennant to complete the scheme for Wing Commander R. Berry D.F.C in North Africa, early 1943. I've got the R-B identification letters in the Airfix Mk.Vc kit, so she's about good to go too. And I've just bought another Airfix Mk.IX to put them on! I might drop one of the RAAF Mk.Vc's for this one... or do a baker's dozen! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 New arrivals... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 4, 2011 Author Share Posted March 4, 2011 My third build will be Mk.Ia R7205, flown by Pilot Officer Jaroslav Muzika of 313 (Czech) Squadron in the summer of 1941. The Spitfire carried Muzika’s slogan ‘Provident’ and was crashed by him on returning to RAF Leconfield on 9 August 1941 after the undercarriage collapsed. Like my pair of Piece of Cake Spitfire Mk.IXs, this is another build inspired by a film – in this case Dark Blue World, the Czech-made story of her airmen in World War 2. It was made on a budget and that shows, but was quite brilliantly done. It uses lots of footage from The Battle of Britain, with the result that the ‘Czech’ aircraft all carry identification letters from the 1969 movie - a good way of getting lots of action footage! I’ll make no secret that I love the Czech Republic - a it’s a beautiful country. Its unpretentious, welcoming and rich with history and culture – so a movie about Czechs and Spitfires is fine by me - and well worth a build to commemorate. The central story of Dark Blue World is of the airmen who, upon returning to their homeland in 1945, were soon out of favour with the Communist authorities and often incarcerated as potential threats to the regime. Conditions were brutal and many men died and it is only recently that they have been recognised as war heroes at all. In real life, Jaroslav Muzika was spared this fate. He survived crashing R7205 and ended up in command of ‘A’ Flight of 312 Squadron from October 1942-August 1943 before being promoted to Squadron Leader and taking over 313 Squadron before the end of the war. He was one of the 300 surviving Czech airmen who flew home to a country that had changed beyond all recognition at the end of the war, but he was spared the fate of imprisonment that befell the central character in Dark Blue World. Instead, Muzika engineered a famous escape to the west in 1949. On April 22 1949, after months of planning, ex-311 Squadron navigator Jaroslav Nýč took off on a routine patrol in a Czechoslovakian Air Force Siebel Si 204 twin-engined reconnaissance aircraft from Pardubice military airfield. He flew to a small flying club at Náchod near Vysokov where Muzika, together with ex-313 Squadron pilot Oldřich Filip, ex-311 Squadron navigator Miroslav Laštovka, their four wives and two children were waiting after camping in a nearby forest, disabling the telephone lines and overpowering a suspicious guard. With that the dangerously-overloaded aircraft made off – flying over East Germany and ending up landing at RAF Manston. Upon landing Muzika, acting as spokesman for the group, said: “Only 20 out of the 300 ex RAF airmen who returned to their native Czechoslovakia in 1945 are now still serving in the Czechoslovak Air Force. The rest have either escaped from the country or have been arrested.” The Siebel was eventually repatriated, although the airmen refused to foot the bill for the fuel they 'stole' claiming it as their reward for six years of fighting against fascism! As a result of this escape, the Communist authorities banned all flying activities at Náchod airstrip and Major Formanek, who had been in the Pardubice control tower when Jaroslav Nýč initally took off, received a long prison sentence for his negligence whilst on duty. I'm using the Airfix Mk.I (new tool) for this build, together with MDP decals. She will be painted Dark Earth/Dark Green/Sky with Sky spinner and tail band - I'll start work on this one during gaps in the build of the two Mk.IXs! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 (edited) After a couple of months with no mojo I'm itching to get on and build my 12-ship 'flypast' so it was a long, long night after midnight! Here's how the bench looks... After dancing round the garden in the small hours with a rattlecan of primer there's a reasonable surface to key the paint in. Being a brush painter means doing things a bit out of sync with most other people, but I got the noses of my first three builds painted up ready to put together. The reason for this is that I'm planning to put the interiors in, close them up and then paint the camouflage so that it's clean and continuous first time around. If the front of the cowlings are done I can put the propellers in and then concentrate on the rest of the fuselage. In theory anyway! That's where we're at, with pilot figures and interiors taking the strain at the moment... Edited March 5, 2011 by maltadefender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 5, 2011 Author Share Posted March 5, 2011 End of Day 1: All three pilots, cockpits and props painted, assemble and installed in their respective fuselages, which have been closed up and left to dry for the night. I've also cut slits in the lower half of the wings of the Mk.IXs to seat the Dogfight Double stand and drilled out the hole for the '5-Up' on the Mk.I. Here's my little Jaroslav Muzika in Irvin and battledress trousers (the tooling of the Mk.I may be new but that's an old schol pilot figure!) Moggy and Steele-Stebbing (hmmm... modern pilots, eh? Well I trimmed their bone domes down as far as I dared and let the paintwork do the rest!) Pegs on for the night... these new tool kits really do go together crisply. The pegs are just insurance - no filler required so far! Inbetween times I primered the Mk.Vb, Mk.XIV and Mk.VIII plus their PJ Productions pilots, put the yellow on the nose of the Mk.VIII and on the prop tips of all three. That's a heck of a day for me really - nice way to celebrate the Spit's actual birthday and get a good start on the builds. Time to catch up with the Mrs, watch some TV and look forward to putting camo on the first three tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 Day 2: ahhh, the problems are setting in! First of all I've run out of masking tape. So that scuppers the lower fuselage parts for now. Secondly the wife's threatening mutiny unless I spend some quality time away from the bench today, so after dabbing some Dark Green onto the 'Hornet Squadron' Mk.IXs I'm having to call it a day and come back to this lot tomorrow sometime. Funny stuff, Xtracolor Dark Green - it's by far the nicest paint when on, but getting it on is a complete As you can see, I'm also trying to build an Alfa Romeo slot car to compete at a rally meeting later in the year and my home-made decals have been problematic to say the least. I'm sure the Spits, the Alfa and everything else will come together nicely. Just not today! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antony Robertson Posted March 6, 2011 Share Posted March 6, 2011 You're a brave man trying to build 12 Spitfires although reading your thread has made me want to build one now! Antony Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 6, 2011 Author Share Posted March 6, 2011 You're a brave man trying to build 12 Spitfires although reading your thread has made me want to build one now!Antony Go on Antony, you know you want to... three whole months, you have to fit in a Spit somewhere?!? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 (edited) Feeling the pace a little bit, mostly because of the long drying time that Xtracolor requires! The two Piece of Cake Mk.IXs are closest to the finish, with fuselages closed and painted. Muzika's Mk.Ia still needs Dark Earth putting on the fuselage but the Dark Green is taking forever to dry - I am rather pleased with my painted-on Sky tailband, though. Here are the IXs - with apologies for the flash reflections! In the meantime I've primed and painted the interiors of the next two: First up is Italeri's USAAF Spit Mk.Vb out of the box with markings from the 355th FS, 4th FG (formerly 121 'Eagle' Squadron, RAF) from late 1942. The conversion of the RAF volunteers to USAAF airmen is an interesting tale. 121 Squadron was formed on 14 May 1941 at Kirton-in-Lindsay using Hurricanes and was initially tasked with convoy patrols and the odd sweep over France. Neither of these were very pleasant chores. A conversion to Spits and a move to 11 Group at North Weald helped, with the unit's first major engagement coming in the pursuit of the Gneisneau, Scharnhorst and Prinz Eugen on 12 February 1942 with their new Spit Vbs. A very busy summer followed, mostly over Abbeville, until the USAAF activated the 355th Fighter Squadron in August 1942 and the majority of 122 Squadron and its aircraft moved across in September to become this unit, based at Debden. Major William J. Daley had been squadron leader of 121 Squadron and retained this post with the 355th, flying AV-D as his personal Spit. Unfortunately it seems that Italeri has muffed up the serial number - LN853 was in fact a Wellington and EN853 was Daley's Spitfire! He remained in command only until November 1942. Next is the Hasegawa Mk.VIII also to be done out of the box with markings for MD280 DG-R of 155 Squadron in India. This aircraft was primarily used for ground attack duties and belly-landed out of fuel on ground attack mission Singaling Khampti on 27 August 1944, sustaining damage beyond repair. Still hunting for more info! I've used Tamiya Racing White to prepaint the white areas on the fusegage, spinner and wings - its almost ivory and a little less in-your-face than straight 'appliance' white. Unfotunately, like any white, it's a complete *!£@ to get it on evenly. Taking a LOT of patience! The pilots for these two are aftermarket jobs from PJ Productions. Lovely little figures, although having finished them off last night I'm not sure where I left them and can only hope that the dog hasn't decided theyre a tasty snack!! Edited March 8, 2011 by maltadefender Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Incidentally, I see that Neil Dudgeon (Moggy in Piece of Cake), is getting a long-overdue lead role once again in Midsomer Murders. He's been a repeat character as Tom Barnaby's cousin, and has now become the new chief inspector - series starts soon. Of the other Piece of Cake leads, Nathaniel Parker (Flash), performed in lots of other wartime dramas and plays before becoming Inspector Lynley, Boyd Gaines (CH3) is a regular on Broadway, Jeremy Northam (Fitz) is a regular posh British bloke in Hollywood movies, Tom Burlinson (Fanny) has a successful Sinatra tribute act, and there are endless appearances by Richard Hope (Skull), David Horovitch (Uncle) and Tim Woodward (Squadron Leader Rex) on stage and scren in the UK. George Anton (Pip) has been in all sorts of things like Monarch of the Glen, Saxondale and 1000 Acres of Sky - and was acquitted of assaulting a police officer at an anti-war march in 2009! Most of the others disappeared... Julian Gartside ('Amanda' Steele-Stebbing) did a few of Kenneth Branagh's Shakespeare films and Gerard O'Hare (Flip) is now sales and subscriptions co-ordinator The Bookseller Magazine. Sadly Ned Vukovic (Haddy) had his brilliant career as a dialect coach, actor and director in Canada and the USA cut short by motor neurone disease and I can't find anything more about him since 2007. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maltadefender Posted March 8, 2011 Author Share Posted March 8, 2011 Quite astonished at how much filler is needed on the Airfix Mk.IX wing roots! For a new tool model that seems a bit off, but having got them in place I'm very happy with them - although the paint needs touching up before I even think about putting a photo up! Dry-fitted the PJ Productions pilots in the Italeri Mk.Vb and Hasegawa Mk.VIII - they might be a bit short to see over the cockpit but they look happy enough! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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