The lead up to the war years promoted scale aircraft modelling to new heights,every week in the 'Flight' & 'Aeroplane' magazines a new aircraft would be described,usually very little was known of some of these machines and a hastily prepared silhouette was shown,the Luftwaffe in particular as we know were gearing up their fleets of aircraft to frightening levels,Dornier's,Junkers 88's and Heinkels were being stockpiled ready for action,the layman could hardly tell which aircraft was which ? and to this end Penguin books published a small recognition handbook,which sold in its thousands,the problem was that when an enemy aircraft approached the coast and with the sheer number of British aircraft training by day they quickly infiltrated and got to their target at very low level,usually munitions factories and other important sites were targeted and it was vital to track these aircraft and if possible shoot them down with AA fire as they dodged between the balloons strategically strung around the country.
The government acted quickly to establish factory roof spotters,these spotters would man the roof and hopefully positively identify oncoming aircraft and report them together with the ROC ( Royal Observer Corps ) usually they were some of the factory workers themselves and their skills were dependent on how good they were at recognising quickly an aircraft type to determine whether it was one of ours or not ! many mistakes had been made with the Junkers Ju.88 and the Bristol Blenheim,and oddly enough the Focke Wulf 190 and the Hawker Typhoon at certain critical angles.Above all the building of wooden aircraft models was actively encouraged and people would gather around Salamander heaters in squadrons and units carving away at what were termed 'Solid' models,these models took many forms,they could be built from commercial kits which supposedly were only available to members of the forces,also plans were published in magazines from which to build them,accessories such as tin propellers,cast lead cowlings,pot wheels were also available in model supply stores.The Air Ministry also commissioned companies such as 'Skyleader' and pattern making shops and furniture manufacturers to make black painted recognition models ( like the one above from my collection of a Fairey Albacore biplane ) all these were basic accurate shapes of the aircraft ( or ship for that matter,made by Bassette Lowke ) that could be hung from the roof nissan huts together with silouette recognition charts pinned to the walls alongside the inevitable pin-ups ! all of this frenetic activity was serious stuff and the importance of these models which were the tools,were to play an important part for those involved in identifying aircraft not only quickly but with great accuracy.One magazine/paper that appeared was to be the 'Aeroplane Spotter' a newspaper like publication which kept people up to date with what was likely to be seen in our skies,it was full of silhouettes,drawings and dimensions to keep everyone up to date.
As the war years thankfully draw to a close the seeds had been sown for many people as they became interested in looking at aircraft as an hobby,this is where the aircraft spotters of today first originated,it is all part of our social history.
Part 5 will deal with the immediate post war period and how scale modelling developed in peacetime,hope that you are enjoying these stories about our hobby and how it gradually developed through circumstance.