Airfix 1/48 Spitfire XII (5) - edit

The warm spell continues, 24, 25, 26 C and rising. Getting too hot to model and paint. Is this some sort of record for April? Or is this going to be our summer like it was last year?

Latest on the Spit XII. I'm having a bit of trouble with this one. It's all me I should add. Perhaps I'm not doing enough modelling or something, but I keep making silly mistakes. It fits well ..and yet it doesn't. Plenty of filler on all the major joins. The cannon especially proved rather hard to fit and I ended up cutting away rather more of the wing than I wanted to. Drilled out some holes for the flap actuator rods in the upper wing but somehow I don't think it will add anything to the 'look' of the kit so I might well fill those in again. Drilled out the exhausts. Added some wing-tip nav lights from coloured plastic filed to shape. The intake needed lots of scraping and sanding to get it looking tidy. Posing the stabiliser wasn't easy either. There is a very small part that clips on to the rudder to line everything up - needless to say I couldn't get it to fit. I don't like the 'step' on the lower nose part either so that's all filled and sanded/polished. Just got to add the cowl intake which I'm scratching from a 72 scale bomb cut and filed to shape and then perhaps I can think about getting some paint on the beast..Phew!

Airfix 1/48 Spitfire XII (4)

Here in the 'Garden of England' our spell of 'summer' weather continues - and the Battle of Britain museum just a mile up the road doesn't open for the summer season until Easter! Another day in the sun in the garden. The modelling table is out of the garage and set up on the back lawn. A few quick shots of the cockpit in situ and the fuselage and wings assembled. Fit was not brilliant on the lower surface joins, but that may be because the cockpit location was not very positive. Next job will be to remove the upper cowl intake and replace it with something a little more prominent..click on the pics to get in close.

As usual with these new tool Airfix kits there are still some gaps to fill. Much of that may well be down to my own cack-handedness since other builds of this kit don't seem to mention any particular concerns - and mostly the whole thing just clips together quite brilliantly. For gap-filling I use Squadron Green Putty rubbed down with my daughter's nail polish remover..

1/48th Airfix Spitfire XII (3)

Some work on the cockpit of my Airfix Spitfire XII - while waiting for some decent etch seatbelts to arrive.
Above; cutting back the fuselage sides to accomodate Airfix's unusual 'open canopy' option - which I'm not too sure about on second thoughts. Trying to work out which bits of the clear part to mask and what colour to paint them..below

The cockpit detail OOB is not bad at all  and includes a neat control column, seat, adjusting handle, moulded instrument panel - which I might just cover with some etch, throttle quadrant (discovered it on the sprues after scratching mine).  Rudder pedals are  a little disappointing comprising two solid lumps of plastic. Still time to replace them... possibly. All washed with Raw Sienna oil paint. Once inside the fuselage half the cockpit and bulkhead assemblies complete with oxygen tanks look very good and fit just as well.

I've subsequently added an etch instrument panel and seatbelts, added the compass under the panel and re-located the seat further forward in the cockpit - not as shown below.

Airfix Spitfire XII (2)

The second kit decal option and box-top illustration subject is EB-B (MB882) , a 41 Squadron machine also based in Hawkinge. Image via 'blueyonder' photostream on flickr. Combat report posted by 'bombed' on BM. Click on the image to read the text and enlarge the pics. Note the IFF aerial under the starboard wing and the beam approach antenna under the rear fuselage.

Spotted this history of EB-B (MB882) posted by Dan Johnson on The Aviation Forum..."MB 882 was a Flight Commander's aircraft, first flown by F/L Don Smith RAAF and then F/L Terry Spencer when Smith went on to command 453 squadron. It had one of the last two Spit XII kills of the war when F/L Spencer shot down Luftwaffe Experte 'Bully' Lang and his 190 on 3 September 1944. MB882 took hits to the tail during that fight. Spencer downed a number of V-1s flying MB882 and it's the bird he was flying when he 'tipped' a V-1, something difficult to do with a clipped wing Spit. Peter Cowell was flying MB 882 at low altitude over the Channel when he 'bounced' off the water, shattering evenly all 4 blades about halfway down on each. He barely limped back at full throttle. This was in June 44."








Click on the photos to see more of  'blueyonder's super collection of veterans photos


2002And has already finished his Airfix Spitfire XII and made this great video. A single click to view here

Airfix Spitfire XII 1/48

From France's leading WWII ace to France's second WWII ace Jean Demozay...well not quite, but I fully intend to complete the new Airfix Spit XII in the kit scheme, 91 Squadron during 1943. Demozay was CO of 91 Squadron through 1942 - the first French pilot to command an RAF squadron, as opposed to a Free French one - but he might just have left the unit by the time the Spitfire XII arrived. The Spitfire XII was the first Griffon engined variant to see operational service with the RAF. Only around 100 were built and only three squadrons used it, including and probably most famously, 91 (Nigeria) Squadron who were based in Hawkinge, just a stone's throw up the road from here.

Spent the afternoon in the garden in the sunshine and made a start on the cockpit. The kit comes with plenty of interior detail moulded into the fuselage halves. I've used .015" plastic sheet to overlay and 'beef up' the moulded detail, scratched a throttle quadrant, cut out the door and added the canopy rail so that I can use the neat 'open-canopy' option.  


A relatively straight forward enhancement is to drill out the lightening holes of the internal structure. Note how thin the plastic is in the cockpit area (the sun shining through it in the pics below!). This is Tamigawa quality.

Clostermann's Tempest JF*E NV 724 - Academy 72nd scale Tempest

Academy Tempest finished in the markings of Clostermann's NV 724, the last of his JF*E Tempests - just the yellow prop tips and a matt varnish coat to add. Note the scoreboard ahead of the cockpit, 23 confirmed and nine probables. Perhaps best known today as the author of one of the finest of all WWII flying memoirs with over 3 million copies sold, "Le Grand Cirque - The Big Show", Pierre Clostermann's record has in recent years been the subject of some considerable controversy and re-evaluation. The doyen of French aviation historians Christian-Jacques Ehrengardt wrote in his 1999 history of French fighter pilots; " the official archives are there to prove it, only 12 victories of Clostermann's can be identified with certainty....in Clostermann's case 'probable victories' would tend to mean 'improbable..'

I believe I am correct in writing that in the subsequent court case (Clostermann sued during the year 2000!) the offending book (see image below) was pulped and substantial damages awarded. Indeed Clostermann spent the latter years of his life seeking to redress and re-establish the 'official' record, even writing in to Scale Aircraft Modelling as early as 1982 to rebutt accusations that he had overclaimed his number of actual aerial victories and that he was now wearing a medal (the D.S.O.) to which he was not entitled. Clostermann responded thusly:

" ..As to my claims, they never changed. They were painted on my Tempest, (see accompanying photo), (The photograph that Pierre sent with his letter, with him in the cockpit of 'Le Grand CharIes'~, NV724, JF.E of 3 Sqn., circa July 1945, showing the twenty-three black crosses representing his accredited confirmed 'kills', and the nine white outline only crosses for 'probables' and 'ground kills') and are substantiated by the following citations and letters. My two DFC citations, by Air Marshal Slessor and AOC 83 Group Sir Harry Broadhurst, are enough for me - "DFC 26/8/44 This officer has displayed outstanding courage and devotion to duty throughout his operational career in the course of which he has destroyed at least 11 enemy aircraft and damaged other military objectives". "Bar 28/5/45 since being awarded the DFC this officer has participated in 70 new operational missions during which he has destroyed a further 12 enemy aircraft. Throughout, Lieutenant Clostermann has displayed outstanding courage and ability, and has proved to be a source of inspiration to all". 23 black crosses and 23 confirmed by my DFC citations. I never personally asked for anything else.... "

Aside from the fact that the aircraft referred to is SN 222 and NOT his last JF*E, NV 724, 'Avions' magazine in their Clostermann special (issue 151) - the best recent and most detailed account of Clostermann's career - do not even attempt a compilation of Clostermann's score. Indeed, author Christophe Cony, a friend of Clostermann's, refers to 'The Big Show' as a 'roman' - or novel. In 'Avions' No. 100 Clostermann's score was given as 24 confirmed  and nine probables, making Clostermann the leading French ace of WWII. His 'official' score as promulgated by the French Air Force historical service (formerly SHAA, now SHD) is still 33 victories.
 

Thierry Dekker artwork from 'Avions' No. 151 reproduced here with the permission of editor Michel Ledet and the artist

Academy Hawker Tempest V (2) - JF-E

The Academy model is very good on the whole. No real issues to speak of at all - aside from an incorrect rear radiator duct profile, but that's hardly visible in this scale. I've added some wingtip lenses and will have to add a whip aerial. Otherwise some of the kit parts are so small and so finely moulded they are bit difficult to see! Some 'experts' maintain that the wing shape needs to be re-profiled, but frankly there's not a lot in it - the biggest problem to my eyes was the over-sized tail wheel doors, which I've trimmed down a little. Decals going on - and for once even these are performing okay. You will note that I haven't worked terribly hard on getting a 'hard' camo scheme...done freehand after all..This is Clostermann's last JF*E which he had for a matter of weeks during August 1945 - so no weathering to speak of either !