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Battle of Britain Day 15th September


PaulR

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Evening all,

I've long been mildly obsessed with the Battle of Britain, and now have more books on the subject than I care to mention. I think what kicked it all off was my father telling me about it when I was about 6 and couldn't get to sleep one night. That, and the blue Battle of Britain activity book by Dennis Knight complete with rub down decals - anybody else had/have that? Anyhow, I recently read the Last Enemy by Richard Hillary of 603 sqn. In it, it details his friendship with Peter Pease who was to lose his life in Spitfire XT-B X4324 mid afternoon 15th September. I found an account and painting of his last action in the Alfred Price book in the photo. The model used was the 'old' 1/72nd Airfix Spitfire, which is still a very good kit despite the release of the new tool edition, and is in fact the kit I would like to be buried with! It was actually painted and more or last finished apart from decals, and had sat in my cabinet in 'delivery colours' for a while. After reading the account of the heroic (in every sense of the word) last action of Peter Pease, I had to do his plane. It's not my best model; but for all sorts of reasons - the Battle of Britain, the links back to childhood and the story of the pilot who flew it - it is one of my favourites. A tribute to a very brave man who died exactly 71 years ago.

Paul

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Your model and your post epitomize what attracts me to modelling. It is a connnection to the history of the world, aviation, remarkable people and remarkable events. For me, building a model evokes the spirit of the times from which the subject came, and when it is a representation of a particularly storied aircraft, the spirit that moved the people. Your Peter Pease model embodies boyhood memories and I can think of no more fitting subject for a classic Airfix kit. Ah, we few, we happy few.

Cheers,

Morpheus.

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nice Spit - and thanks for the memory of the activity books with rub down transfers.... really used to enjoy them (think most of mine were nature/dinosaurs - but think I had one on flight - and if my failing memory serves I am sure one of the decals was of a plane crashed in to a hanger (or rather 2/3 of a plane (missing one wing) which I assume was meant to be posed just emerging from behind a building - i put it into the hanger......)

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