spanner's 1/72 Airfix Starter Kit Spitfire.....'Reach for the Sky' (1956)

[Jim R]

Looking good. Nice work making a buh from a duh with a bit of wuh. Very inventive.

 

[spanner570]

Thanks Jim.
Sorry mate, the usherette has gone home - No customers...... I'll nip out to Ice**** and buy us both some lollies.

The butchery begins.
Fuselage cut in half and elevators repositioned.



Kitchen foil glued on and ready for some paint.


Cheers.
Ron

 

[Mini Me]

'ang on to yer 'ats, it's about to get interesting!!....great work on this 570!

 

[Jim R]

...... very interesting

 

[Allen Dewire]

It is very interesting Jim! But to me, Aloomiumiumy or what we call tin foil, usually means you put it in the oven @ 400° for 15 minutes.........Oh wait, that's a pizza, not a Spitfire..........Sorry Ron, got confused a bit...

Prost
Allen

 

[Mickc1440]

This is getting very interesting

 

[JR]

It is very interesting Jim! But to me, Aloomiumiumy or what we call tin foil, usually means you put it in the oven @ 400° for 15 minutes.........Oh wait, that's a pizza, not a Spitfire..........Sorry Ron, got confused a bit...

Prost
Allen

Time for your Meds Dude 1 !

 

[JR]

Excellent 570 .
Is this after Mrs Ron threw it and you missed ?
453 .

 

[JR]

In Bed! Now't debilitating I hope matey?

On we go.....

Decals done for now.

Bader's aircraft I.D. letters were D * B (Dog's Body was his call sign).

The kit luckily contained a couple of duhs, but no buhs, just two wuhs. So I altered a duh by cutting a bit out and added a bit of a wuh to what was left of the duh. This left me with an acceptable buh. I've stuck on a duh and a buh, but left off the remaining duh and buh until I have decided just how much damage to do to the airframe. I might even try and hand paint the duh and buh onto any rippled aloominum. Likewise I have left off the two roundels until later.

Both works numbers will probably be obliterated, so their no doubt lack of accuracy is of no importance, so can hopefully be dismissed from any rivet counters agenda.

The cockpit is now in place too.

View attachment 479388


View attachment 479389


View attachment 479390

Ready for some bending......

Cheers.
Ron

570 , knackered have a bloody chest infection , not good with my asthma .

 

[spanner570]

Sorry to read of your infection, 453. I hope today finds you on the mend.

Update.....
I've made inroads on what at first I thought was going to be a straight forward build, to what's turned out to be complicated and difficult project!

I painted the aloominum foil, then stuck the decals on with glue. Added the stringers and wires, then squished and bent things about.

Here's the progress.












Work still to do with the damaged area. I'll leave it all to dry for a while.

Time to tackle D.B. himself.....

Cheers and thanks for looking in folks.

Ron

 

[outrunner]

Looks like realistic damage Ron.

Andy.

 

[minitnkr]

Do you have a chucker lined up?

 

[Jim R]

Looks very believable Ron

 

[adt70hk]

Great work Ron, as always.

Had read Reach for the Sky in my teens but wasn't aware it was most likely friendly fire, so had a quick read up last night.....I see there is a very likely candidate too.

Yet another example of the things you learn on here.

Keep up the great work.

ATB.

Andrew

 

[Mickc1440]

Wow Ron, that looks incredible

 

[Mini Me]

Incredible "Bashing" Mr. Ron!

 

[spanner570]

Thanks for all your support and encouragement during the build chaps. Much appreciated.

Paul. Chucker all lined up and flexing her muscles.

Andrew.
Steve (stona) kindly exchanged p.m.'s with me on aspects of the incident and the Spitfire pilot's baling out procedure. Thanks Steve.

As you have read and Steve wrote, there is a candidate. The British pilot concerned claimed he had shot down a 109.

He stated he watched it descend and saw the pilot eject safely. Surely in that time he would have identified his 'Victim' as a Spitfire?

Also, the Luftwaffe combat records state only one 109 was lost in that action and that was 100% confirmed as being shot down, and claimed by another Brit. pilot. Not the one involved in the Bader incident.

So, there you go.....

Thanks again for great comments boys.
Cheers.
Ron

 

[Tim Marlow]

Thanks for all your support and encouragement during the build chaps. Much appreciated.

Paul. Chucker all lined up and flexing her muscles.

Andrew.
Steve (stona) kindly exchanged p.m.'s with me on aspects of the incident and the Spitfire pilot's baling out procedure. Thanks Steve.

As you have read and Steve wrote, there is a candidate. He claimed he had shot down a 109.

He stated he watched it descend and saw the pilot eject safely. Surely in that time he would have identified his 'Victim' as a Spitfire?

Also, the Luftwaffe combat records state only one 109 was lost in that action and that was 100% confirmed as being shot down, and claimed by another Brit. pilot. Not the one involved in the Bader incident.

So, there you go.....

Thanks again for great comments boys.
Cheers.
Ron

Looking very fine as always Ron. Believable damage

As to Bader’s final flight, Ive read that evidence as well. The clincher for me is that the friendly fire pilot describes the shot down pilot struggling to get out exactly as Bader himself described his own escape.
Possible not that easy to identify an aircraft in combat conditions though Ron…..I’ve just read a book on the Bomber campaign, and there is a comment from a rear gunner which approximately says this “I flew about fifty trips and never fired my guns once, never even saw a night fighter. There was another gunner in the squadron that claimed half a dozen night fighters shot down. None of us ever wanted to fly any where near him because we wondered what he was firing at”

 

[stillp]

I remember being taken to the cinema to see "Reach for the sky" when it was first released. I had nightmares for a while after. I was nearly 8.
Pete

 

[spanner570]

"Matron, nail clippers, if you please!"

I've been working on yer man.
Here's progress thus far.
I found an 1/72 RAF pilot in my bits bag, so I've chopped him up a bit to try and make him look a bit 'Rag Doll'ish'.

Just seconds after he escaped from his aircraft, he has yet to orientate himself to reach for the parachute shrouds, which I made from the paper from the instruction sheet......



Still a bit to do to him, but the basics are set down.

Cheers.
Ron