A 1/72 Unofficial Dogfight Double

[stona]

My CR.42 is on hold as I try to source some better decals, and didn't fall properly into the Battle of Britain period anyway.

Fortuitously, I was given a 1/72 scale Bf 109 by daughter No 1 as payment for childcare services

I was just going to put that together on its own, but noticed that it represented the Bf 109 of Franz von Werra, shot down by 'Stapme' Stapleton whose Spitfire was the subject of my earlier entry in this GB.
Now the old grey matter starts doing its thing! I have gone and got me the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire to make up an unofficial, but totally authentic dog fight double.
There are a few issues. I will need to make the Spitfire look like 'Stapme's' XT-L which he was flying on the day he downed von Werra. I want to pose the two aircraft in flight, it was a dogfight after all, which means that I will also have to concoct some kind of double stand, as I obviously don't have the one that comes with the 'real' dogfight doubles. None of this amounts to an insuperable problem, and having a description by Stapleton of the events that day should mean I can make something both realistic and entertaining...here's hoping.

Anyway, here is the traditional box shot, featuring both boxes in glorious colour. The box art is rather good in my opinion.



No, I won't be using the paint or glue that comes with the Spitfire

 

[stona]

Just to prove I've actually started this one, I have stuck a few bits together, separated the pilots from the flash (particularly 'Stapme' who will be flying the Spitfire, Franz wasn't too bad), dipped the clear parts in Klear, and even applied a bit of primer.



If I get a bit of time I don't think that these will take too long

Edit: I drilled out the lightening holes in the frames of the Spitfire. I'm not sure it will make much difference, there's not enough of them to be realistic, but it seemed an easy thing to do.

 

[stona]

I've started on Franz and Gerald.



Gerald does not appear to be wearing a parachute, which is very brave of him, good job he won this dogfight

You can only paint what's there and to be honest, at this scale, it will almost all be hidden once the canopies are closed.

 

[dave]

I don’t know if they still do but Airfix used to do the dogfight doubles stands separately as a pack of 2.

 

[adt70hk]

Better than my two Steve.

Be warned though you might have to cut the feet off the Spitfire pilot to get him in properly. I had to with mine and also Tiffy one I did a few years ago! My 109 pilot fitted fine.

ATB

Andrew

 

[stona]

Be warned though you might have to cut the feet off the Spitfire pilot to get him in properly.

Hi Andrew, I remember doing some fairly radical surgery to make various pilots fit. It sound like poor old Gerald will be going under the scalpel!

The trick is to cut off their legs and shave their arses while leaving their heads alone

 

[stona]

I don’t know if they still do but Airfix used to do the dogfight doubles stands separately as a pack of 2.

Airfix still do dogfight doubles, I just checked their website, which shows the Spitfire I vs Bf 109E-4 for £21.99. Andrew (adt70hk) is making one of these.

I had no intention of building one until the little Bf 109 arrived. Because, entirely by chance, it was von Werra's (an aircraft I have made in 1/32) it gave me a chance to make another very much smaller version of Stapleton's Spitfire (which I've also made in 1/32 for this very GB). I've researched both aircraft before, which means I just had to buy a Spitfire I and make some markings for Stapleton's aircraft to complete my 'double'.

What I don't have is the double, poseable stand that comes with the dogfight doubles, but I'm considering some options for that. Plan A is to pose von Werra just before landing or even on the ground with Stapleton above. It means I can condense the space and height of what will effectively be a little diorama or vignette

 

[dave]

Airfix still do dogfight doubles, I just checked their website, which shows the Spitfire I vs Bf 109E-4 for £21.99. Andrew (adt70hk) is making one of these.

I had no intention of building one until the little Bf 109 arrived. Because, entirely by chance, it was von Werra's (an aircraft I have made in 1/32) it gave me a chance to make another very much smaller version of Stapleton's Spitfire (which I've also made in 1/32 for this very GB). I've researched both aircraft before, which means I just had to buy a Spitfire I and make some markings for Stapleton's aircraft to complete my 'double'.

What I don't have is the double, poseable stand that comes with the dogfight doubles, but I'm considering some options for that. Plan A is to pose von Werra just before landing or even on the ground with Stapleton above. It means I can condense the space and height of what will effectively be a little vignette.

i was referring to the stands on their own without the aircraft, managed to find a pic

 

[stona]

i was referring to the stands on their own without the aircraft, managed to find a pic

Sorry Dave, I misunderstood your post.

Good to know that they do the stands as a separate entity. I made a dogfight double a while ago and used the stand. It does the job.

 

[colin m]

Nice to see Airfix actually moulded two different pilots. They could have easily cheated in this scale.

 

[stona]

Nice to see Airfix actually moulded two different pilots. They could have easily cheated in this scale.

The Spitfire pilot looks a lot like the Airfix pilots I remember as a kid, which means he hasn't changed in...ahem...a while and is a bit of a blob

The Messerschmitt pilot is an altogether better molding. At this scale, only a couple of hundred mil. or so tall, and for injected molded plastic, he's quite impressive. The only drawback is that he needs a steady hand to paint him!

 

[stona]

I now have Gerald and Franz in their respective cockpits, both required a little adjustment to make them fit!

Gerald:



And Franz:



Getting ready for when they have complete aeroplanes :

 

[colin m]

he hasn't changed in...ahem...a while and is a bit of a blob

Just a high standard of living I'm sure...............

 

[adt70hk]

Steve

Did you have to carry some amputation activity on Gerald or did you do something else?

ATB

Andrew

 

[stona]

Yep, I'm afraid Gerald had to lose his feet and have a little shaved off his arse to make sure the canopy would fit.

The good news is that both Gerald and Franz are now inside their respective cockpits and nobody would know, well, except for everyone reading this.



I most often build kits in larger scales than these two. I'm pretty sure I've stuck together drop tanks which are bigger than these fuselages

 

[colin m]

1:72 is good for the soul, or for impatient does like me, a quick result.

 

[stona]

1:72 is good for the soul, or for impatient does like me, a quick result.

These are both nice little kits. The fit so far is very nice. I did a dry fit of the Spitfire wings earlier, before I glued top to bottom, just in case, and it was a near perfect as you can get.
Obviously you can't get all the detail, the instrument panels must be a scale foot thick, but the kits make models that look exactly like a Spitfire and Bf 109 without too much fiddling about. You can't ask for much more than that!

 

[stona]

I now have these more or less built and primed.



They are both nice kits and some thought has gone into making them if not simple, then sympathetic. For example it is almost impossible to fix the Spitfire's horiziontal stabilisers at an incorrect angle relative to the fuselage. That might be obvious to someone who builds a lot of aircraft like myself, but maybe not to someone having a go at something different or just starting the hobby.

Everything has fitted as near perfectly as can be, with the single exception of the Messerschmitt's lower engine cowl (with the oil cooler molded in) which required a couple of swipes with some sandpaper.

On the downside both the tail plane support struts on the Messerschmitt broke in exactly the same place when I was cleaning them up. Annoying, if not exactly an insuperable problem.

Unseen above is the tube I have fitted in the fuselage to accept 3mm clear acrylic rod, which will form part of the stand. According to my calculations there should be a nice interference fit, but the rod hasn't arrived yet, so we'll see

 

[scottie3158]

Steve,
All looking mighty fine.

 

[stona]

I found a bit of 3mm brass rod in my cupboard. As long as the acrylic is also 3mm when it arrives the stand should work well.

It's not very elegant, the acrylic will be much more, shall we say, subtle but it shows that it will work.