new-tool Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant Mk I, 264 Squadron, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, July 1940

Finished my second Defiant of the year, this time in the day fighter scheme of 264 Squadron, Martlesham Heath, Suffolk, at the start of the Battle of Britain

 Below; Images from the IWM's collection of 264 Sqd Defiants are free to re-use on non commercial sites with the IWM's embed code

ROYAL AIR FORCE FIGHTER COMMAND, 1939-1945.© IWM (CH 874)
a href="http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205208434?cat=photographs" target="_blank"> ROYAL AIR FORCE FIGHTER COMMAND, 1939-1945.© IWM (CH 196)

Airfix new-tool Hurricane Mk 1 72nd scale VY*G, 85 Sqd

Putting the finishing touches to another small scale Airfix Hurricane Mk I, this time the 85 Sqd boxing. What a nice kit and great decals. Recommended references for these early Hurricanes are the two monographs recently produced by Lela Presse in their 'Air Battles' series entitled 'Hurricanes on the Continent'..

Note the use of the use of the Squadron "hexagon" marking on the fin, even though the fin flash is now in use and the gas patch ouboard of the wing roundel usually applied closer to the cockpit. Of interest as well is the light-toned spinner..

Albert Lewis's Hurricane, also 85 Sqdn, showing the outboard gas patch on both wings, but no sign of a hexagon on this or other pics from the series. The fin had the broad red stripe

More on 85 Sqd Hurricanes here

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234907653-hurricane-i-vy-cg-of-85-sqn-lille-seclin-around-apr-1940/page-2

Dunkirk Spitfires- Al Deere's 'Kiwi' Airfix Spitfire Mk 1 54 Sqd Hornchurch, May 1940

Up from Hornchurch on 28 May 1940, 54 Sqd's Al Deere attacked a Dornier over Dunkirk and had to belly land at Dunkirk/De Panne. His 'Kiwi' N3180 KL-B was his first of three Kiwi's. KL-B was crash-landed on the beaches after taking hits from return fire. The aircraft subsequently burnt out after Deere made his emergency landing..

This particular airframe is covered by the Southern Expo decal sheet (see below). Note they go with black and white undersides, no roundels. No rear fuselage serial on the aircraft I modelled..

Image below shows crash-landed Spitfire flown by PO Davies, 222 Sqn, N3295, ZD-?, 31 May 1940 - a great detail shot of the undersurfaces

Ducimus Spitfire undersurfaces colour chart

a description via Edgar Brooks of the evolution of early Spitfire camo and markings..

 "..The May 1st., 1940 order was for yellow circles to be added to the fuselage roundels, not underneath. On May 11th., repeated on the 15th., an order was issued for underwing roundels to be painted (without any yellow.) On June 2nd., an order was issued to paint the undersides all Sky, with underwing roundels being thereby completely painted out. On June 12th., a signal stated that, due to a shortage of Sky, the black/white scheme might still be seen, and the roundel under the black port wing was to have a yellow ring added, which must not encroach onto the ailerons or hinges. On June 14th., units (including the Civilian Repair Organisation) were told that the black/white scheme could be overpainted by a maximum of two coats of Sky, but (due to balance considerations, which units were not equipped to deal with) that did not include ailerons, which should have the original paint washed off before application of Sky. On August 11th., apparently due to some units having painted them anyway, an order gave tacit approval for underwing roundels to reappear.."

Thanks to Troy Smith. Much more on his britmodeller thread here

new-tool Airifx Spitfire Mk I 1:48th scale build review (part 2)

..assembling the cockpit and fuselage on my first new-tool Spitfire Mk 1.. So far so good. Lovely kit, no real problems with fit - just a couple of parts snapped where the large sprue flexes. A bit of fettling is required to get the frames (?) to 'sit' properly in the tub. I don't think the instructions are explicit enough in some areas. The cockpit walls (C1/C2) are not meant to fit 100% flush to the fuselage bulkhead (C52) as they 'overlap' to then lock into the fuselage halves, but no- where is that indicated. Bit of trial and error there. Note the pilot's door can be easily cut out - the open door is supplied as a separate part and there are a choice of forward cowls with reinforced frame mount -or not - depending on the variant being built.

..cutting out the gun bay covers, both upper and lower wing surfaces.

new-tool Airifx Spitfire Mk I 1:48th scale build review (part 1)

..another new tool from Airfix, Battle of Britain Spitfire Mk I in 48th scale - lovely kit with lots of options.  There are three different props and canopies, optional cockpit side walls and separate cockpit entrance doors. In addition you'll find both types of undercarriage pump, different gun sights, regulators and even armour plate fits. Excellent early exhausts are also provided. Its possible to build an accurate representation of almost any Mk1 from this kit, including pre-war minus the cockpit armour. The striking box art depicts the 602 Sqn a/c LD* G flown by PO Osgood Villiers Hanbury who shot down his first Dornier on 15 September 1940. A local Kent boy as well, attending boarding school in Broadstairs before Eton and study periods in France and Germany before a job in a City with Shell, where he made the acquaintance of one Douglas Bader as detailed in Roderick-Jones nice Grub St. bio " Pedro.."

.. another nice sunny day in the garden so this is the result of an afternoon's work. Note the rather nice instrument panel (decal), which compares very favourably with some Eduard pre-painted etch. You can click on the images for a closer view.

new-tool Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant in 1:72nd scale build review - finished

A few shots of my finished Defiant  night fighter using my phone camera.The model represents an RAF 151 Sq machine as seen early in February 1941 at RAF Wittering. Pretty pleased with the way the model turned out..the 'Night' finish I achieved more by good fortune than planning - Humbrol 33 on its own looks a bit too 'black' so I 'misted' some schwarzgrau 66 and then some light grey over the airframe until I was reasonably happy with the effect! An overspray of Windsor and Newton Galeria matt varnish really helps achieve that typical 'sooty' Defiant nightfighter look..

This new tool is another neat Airfix kit with no particular problems and plenty of detail. Scroll down the page for the build log. All the major components go together without any difficulty - the cockpit fits into the fuselage perfectly, although beware to get all the bulkheads aligned correctly as tolerances are tight. The wing root and undercarriage fit is perfect. The placement of the undercarriage doors is a little vague though and the head armour needs filing down a little to enable the canopy to sit over it properly. The decals are very good, but one of my serials rolled up on me; fortunately I bought two kits and am about to finish the second in the day fighter Battle of Britain scheme..

new-tool Airfix Boulton Paul Defiant in 1:72nd scale build review (3)

" ....All things considered the Airfix Defiant is the best all round kit I've seen in this scale..."
 " ..Apparently the new one is even better. LOL.."

.. the first of my two coming along nicely - canopy and turret framing a real chore though! that, and trying to get a decent finish in black..here I've gone over the black with some schwartzgrau 66 to give it a little faded and worn look..three or four different canopy options on the sprue as well..

left ; gear on and drying; gear door fit/location is a little haphazard. The small curved triangular lumps at the front of the door are the hinges and can be clearly seen in the front view of the Hendon machine in the first Defiant post below..scroll down

...the (phone) camera flash makes the streaky effects I've added to break up the solid black look a little stark; hopefully should look okay-ish under a coat of varnish