B
Boldman
Guest
Hi Guys, sorry I'm not around as much as I used to be, I seem to have cut down on my forum posting a lot in the last few months because of various reasons, but I thought you'd be interesting in seeing the completed version of this build.
This is another in my series of builds "Aircraft my Father Fixed".
Up to now I've built mostly the aircraft my Father worked on while in Burma in the latter half of WWII while attached to 5 Squadron. Before that he was with 81 Squadron from their entry into Operation Torch at Gibraltar Oct '42 up until Sicily had been pacified in Oct-Nov1943 whereupon he was transferred to Cairo en-route to India and 5 Squadron. Funnily enough, 81 Squadron followed his his wake a couple of weeks later and ended up based 5 miles down the road in India, re-equipping with Spitfire VIII, hence why we have a Christmas dinner menu from 81 Sqn in 1943 in my father's effects.
Anyway, back to Tunisia in the spring/summer of 1943. Up to that point, the squadron had been equipped with Spitfire Vb Trop and Vc Trop (hence my earlier abortive attempt to convert the Hobbyboss Vb Trop to a Vc Trop), however these were beginning to be outmatched by the German aircraft. The Tropical filters used on the V series had an unfortunate side-effect of reducing overall performance of the engine. So in early '43 81 Sqn started receiving Spitfire IXs. At this point they were based in Tunisia at Souk-el-Khemis airfield and subsequently moved to other airfields in the general vicinity.
From reading Alan Peart's book "From North Africa to the Arakan" you get to see that conditions on these airfields were basic to say the least. So I want to try to capture a snapshot of the activity of the groundcrew in these conditions in my diorama.
The kit is a Tamiya Spitfire IXc, with aftermarket cockpit details including door, seat and controls, resin wheels and other photoetch details. I used Miracle Masks to paint the wing roundels. The battery compartment by the tail has been opened and a representation of the 12v battery that powered the Spitfire electrics has been scratch built. Work is being undertaken on the starboard side of the engine, which has been detailed with extra pipework and wiring, with the underside panel also having been removed and subsequently covered in leaking oil! The accumulator trolly from IconicAir has had a small petrol driven engine added to keep the batteries charged and this is plugged into the socket in the port wing root.
Figures are Airfix 8th Army multipose figures, suitably modified to be RAF groundcrew, with accessories from a variety of sources, eg Value Gear boxes, AFV Club jerry cans and flimsies and a PE toolbox from Aber.
So enough talking, here are the photos of the finished build:
It was only after taking these photos that I made the shocking discovery that I had forgotten to put the tail fin flash on! I had painted the wing and fuselage roundels using masks from Miracle Masks, but I made a complete mess of the fuselage roundels and ended up using the kit decals and as a result I forgot the fin flash! Sadly the matt coat and weathering had already been applied so I had to clean the tail up and apply the decal with LOTS of micro sol to make it conform!
This is another in my series of builds "Aircraft my Father Fixed".
Up to now I've built mostly the aircraft my Father worked on while in Burma in the latter half of WWII while attached to 5 Squadron. Before that he was with 81 Squadron from their entry into Operation Torch at Gibraltar Oct '42 up until Sicily had been pacified in Oct-Nov1943 whereupon he was transferred to Cairo en-route to India and 5 Squadron. Funnily enough, 81 Squadron followed his his wake a couple of weeks later and ended up based 5 miles down the road in India, re-equipping with Spitfire VIII, hence why we have a Christmas dinner menu from 81 Sqn in 1943 in my father's effects.
Anyway, back to Tunisia in the spring/summer of 1943. Up to that point, the squadron had been equipped with Spitfire Vb Trop and Vc Trop (hence my earlier abortive attempt to convert the Hobbyboss Vb Trop to a Vc Trop), however these were beginning to be outmatched by the German aircraft. The Tropical filters used on the V series had an unfortunate side-effect of reducing overall performance of the engine. So in early '43 81 Sqn started receiving Spitfire IXs. At this point they were based in Tunisia at Souk-el-Khemis airfield and subsequently moved to other airfields in the general vicinity.
From reading Alan Peart's book "From North Africa to the Arakan" you get to see that conditions on these airfields were basic to say the least. So I want to try to capture a snapshot of the activity of the groundcrew in these conditions in my diorama.
The kit is a Tamiya Spitfire IXc, with aftermarket cockpit details including door, seat and controls, resin wheels and other photoetch details. I used Miracle Masks to paint the wing roundels. The battery compartment by the tail has been opened and a representation of the 12v battery that powered the Spitfire electrics has been scratch built. Work is being undertaken on the starboard side of the engine, which has been detailed with extra pipework and wiring, with the underside panel also having been removed and subsequently covered in leaking oil! The accumulator trolly from IconicAir has had a small petrol driven engine added to keep the batteries charged and this is plugged into the socket in the port wing root.
Figures are Airfix 8th Army multipose figures, suitably modified to be RAF groundcrew, with accessories from a variety of sources, eg Value Gear boxes, AFV Club jerry cans and flimsies and a PE toolbox from Aber.
So enough talking, here are the photos of the finished build:
It was only after taking these photos that I made the shocking discovery that I had forgotten to put the tail fin flash on! I had painted the wing and fuselage roundels using masks from Miracle Masks, but I made a complete mess of the fuselage roundels and ended up using the kit decals and as a result I forgot the fin flash! Sadly the matt coat and weathering had already been applied so I had to clean the tail up and apply the decal with LOTS of micro sol to make it conform!
