more Royal Air Force Phantoms - RAF Wattisham, 16 April 1980 and Claes Sundin, 'Luftwaffe fighter aircraft' profile book, No. 10

 

Well, the blog is ticking over - only just. Since the turn of the year I've been hard at work on another publication covering the Luftwaffe aces. Not only working on my own book, but helping out Claes Sundin too with his 'Luftwaffe fighter aircraft' profile book, No. 10, which has just arrived here..another lovely book from Claes!  

But, fear not, with summer 2021 around the corner, there is plenty of model building on the horizon as (early) retirement beckons. After 28 years of night shifts and 3 am starts in my current job, the pandemic has led me to think that I need to start doing more of the things that I want to do, rather than spending days away from home at a time. Life is too short to waste time doing things you don't want to do!

And thanks to those who have purchased my Casemate 'Luftwaffe Aces' books ! I appreciate it very much. Another book is on the horizon. 

Models coming soon here; the new Special Hobby Emil, some P-51s and a Revell (ICM) Gladiator..and some F-4s!

Royal Air Force Phantoms at RAF Wattisham, 16 April 1980

RAF Wattisham was the scene for exercise 'Elder Forest', in April 1980, one of the biggest military exercises of the decade, in which the air force played out a response scenario to an enemy attack on the UK which included conventional and chemical weapons. ( Hence the hazard suits and decontamination of the Phantom )

Three months since my last post ..so what's been going on ?

To paraphrase "Scale model soup " - blimey, I can’t believe it’s been more than three months since my last post! Time sure flies, especially as you get older. Suffice to say, I’m still here. So what’s been going on? On the basis that you might be vaguely interested....here goes..

 Since my last post here..I've written two books ! And a publisher is interested! Here's a mock up of the cover of the first one - doesn't take a great deal of effort to work out what the second title might be either. Of course these titles weren't compiled overnight - they are the synthesis of about ten years work on various projects..

Ok so you're thinking same old, same old..but both titles are jam-packed with great photos from a number of Luftwaffe alumini and artworks by Vincent Dhorne. And no-where do I say that Hartmann was credited with 352 kills or that Walther Dahl managed 128 victories including 36 heavy bombers...

In the same series I collaborated with Jean-Louis Roba on this next title earlier in the year and it is now available from the usual sources!

Features first person accounts, artworks, 200 photos, nice thick glossy paper and glossy card cover.

Elsewhere Eduard's new Bf 109 G-6/AS is released - one of the five markings options is for F-K Müller's 'red 2', the 1./NJGr 10 Moskito hunter flown by the ace during July-August 1944. I'd already written about this machine on my Luftwaffe blog and was invited to submit a lengthier appraisal for the latest Eduard INFO.

My 'history' feature on Müller's aircraft and night fighter career complete with rare photos and first person accounts is available to read in the free 76-page November issue of Eduard Info - download it here

...now to get some modelling done..

Zvezda snap-fit early-variant Panther - Pz. Abt. 51 Panther Ausf. D of the 9th Pz. Div, Kursk July 1943

Having completed a couple of the Zvezda snap-fit 1:72 scale Luftwaffe fighters I thought I'd have a look at one of their snap-together AFVs - this is their early variant Kursk Panther, which, er...,  just snaps together. The fit of road wheels and tracks is particularly ingenious - the outer wheels have pins which clip into lugs on the rim of the track and so hold everything in place securely and invisibly - well it was new to me at least...below; a few shots of progress on this build so far..

The tracks are on and done up and the hull deck is secured. Strangely only one of the tracks joins at the top out of sight under the skirts - the other join is under the road wheels. The fit is very tight and the road wheel assembly is under quite a bit of tension.

The Panthers at Kursk equipped the Pz. Abt. 51. Markings in the box are provided for "434 and " 445" which obviously would have looked something like "442" illustrated below - the pic is from the collection of my good friend Didier Lodieu who published a two-part feature on Pz. Abt. 51 Panthers in Heimdal's 39-45 Magazine a few years ago...