Gamera,

What happened to 'KL-B's' propeller in the top photograph? Did he clip the Me-109 on a head-on pass? I would be interested in hearing more about that picture and the story behind it. Also did pilot Alan Deere fly for a British squadron as a Commonwealth volunteer from New Zealand? I know more questions than answers yet the paintings sparked curiosity.

SF-Yeah it looks odd but I think the artist was trying to give the impression of the high speed of the spitfires dive by distorting the prop.

I was first interested in Deere's plane because of his interesting NZ kiwi emblem. After doing an internet search I found out he had one heck of a life story. He lost NINE spits but survived the war to reach the rank of Air Commodore and pass away in '95. One of his spits was destroyed in a mid-air collision with a Bf-109. I'm not sure if the top painting was intented to represent this event or not though.

I assumed he was one of the many Commonwealth pilots called up to defend the UK along with the Polish and Czech pilots in exile but I found out he applied and was accepted to the RAF in 1937.

He's two good sites I found on him:

http://www.rafhornchurch.thehumanjourney.net/pilot_pages/deere.htm

http://www.nzfpm.co.nz/article.asp?id=deere

Gamera,

I would believe the top picture is of the mid-air collision. Under the 109 appears to be smoke and debris. A wrecked propeller would be of concern and the plane must have crash landed or he bailed out. Quite possibly the 109 survived the collision, most of the impact area looks intact. Food for thought. Thanks for the links, ill check them out!

Wow!!  everyone that has sent pics of thier work  good stuff exelent work. I have started on my airfix 1/72 scale Avro Anson MKI. All of the interior is scratchbuilt except the pilot compartment. Hope I will be able to see all that work once I install a falcon vacuform canopy. The airfix windows are like 1/16" thick. Well hope you like my work so far as I have enjoyed seeing all of your work. [:)

Nomad I am liking your scratching!! All painted up should look great!!! I have that kit and am looking forward to seeing ur progress!!

Awesome Nomad! Nice to see something that isn't a Spit or a One-oh-Nine!!!

Gentlemen, I'm taking off for a bit of a vacation/holiday as well. Going to run by the NASA museum in Huntsville, Alabama, and then down to the U.S. Navy aviation museum in Pensacola, Florida. See you guys in a week and half.

Cliff have a great holiday

Nomad thats looking really nice, can't wait to see more progress.

Cheers...

Have fun Cliff!!!! Make sure you get pics of the A-12 in Huntsville!!! Well lots of pics in general!! As if I have to say THAT to a modeller. Have a safe and fun trip mate!!!

Are you going to the Space and Rocket Center?  I grew up not too far from there.  Lots of cool hands on stuff there as well as big rockets.

Mike - Your Spit pit looks amazing! Wish I had some of that talent.

Nomad - Nice job on scratching that interior! Looks like it's going to be an interesting build.

Here's the kit I'll be working with... 1/48 Hasegawa. The kit comes with markings for seven aircraft. I think I've decided which one to build. More on that in the future.

I managed to slap together the cockpit tonight. I plan on going OOB with this one.

Thanks Jeremy, I appreciate your kind words. You've made a damn fine start on your 109, keep it up

Cheers...

That Hasegawa cockpit engineering looks remarkably like the Academy cockpit.  Yours did turn out better, though.

satch_ip

That Hasegawa cockpit engineering looks remarkably like the Academy cockpit.  Yours did turn out better, though.

Yes, they look like they fit together exactly the same Satch. It looks like the Academy pit has more detail though.

No matter who did what your office looks great Jeremy!!!!

A little more progress on my Spit.

I'm amazed at how easily this kit goes together, barely need the instructions, hope that doesn't come back to haunt me!!

I decided to try and improve the gun barrels, never done this before so I hope you all approve of my efforts.

As you can see I've done some preshading, a bit messy but that never seems a problem on the preshade.

I bought some Xtracrylics for this kit but I've had a few problems spraying the interior green so I wimped out on the underside and used Tamiya sky

Still need to work on a few spots before I flip her over.

A quick question, are the wheel wells "sky" or "interior green" on the Spitfire Mk.1?

Cheers....

Some mighty fine work fellas, loving it!  Really want to get started on mine but trying to clean up a couple of other projects first.

Jeremy- Great looking office, OOB is perfect IMHO.

Mike- Great work on your Spit!  One thing I was made aware of in the last BoB GB, was that the flash suppressors on the outboard guns were removed on these aircraft.  I was able to remove mine before painting, not sure if you would be able to at this point without damaging your paint.  Also, the gear bays are the same color as the underside of the aircraft, so Sky would be correct.  HTH!

Ohhh blast . Thanks Frank, I will see if I can coax them out and maybe if necessary create some of the red fabric that was pasted over.

Cheers...

Jeremy nice looking cockpit I built that kit a few years ago and had fun building it. Mike perfect preshading under the Spit most people put too much paint over the preshade lines. My airbrush needs an adapter have it hopefully end of the week so I can start pianting. Love the WIP pics guys keep up the good work.

Sounds like a good plan Mike!  I think the red fabric covers will do nicely after fixing up those gun ports.

 Great work guys, some fantastic looking builds coming along nicely

Spike, Great looking Spit Love the interior detail....

Nomad, I like all the scratch detail going on over there mate, good job

Jeremy, Your pit looks cool, very well done you put more detail into 109 interiors than i do, i got a little peeved after i put an Eduard zoom set in one only to have it vanish when the canopy went on....

Nuthin to report over here, still plugging away at the 110 interior, man there's some detail in the Eduard kit....

Mike I'm loving your paint work!!!

Love some of the print art posted a few pages ago.. nice! Also the previous work…excellent and very inspirational! Love the figures too…  some GREAT work so far, I will just sit back and enjoy the builds for awhile.. cheers

JMart

Love some of the print art posted a few pages ago.. nice! Also the previous work…excellent and very inspirational! Love the figures too…  some GREAT work so far, I will just sit back and enjoy the builds for awhile.. cheers

it's great work isn't it..........

I'm moving Heinz Bar from the workbench to the shelf.  I have to go to work today for about two weeks so I'm clearing the bench.  I't pretty much done except for a flat coat and the antennae wire.  But I'm calling it done for now.

The canopy frames were decals!  They acutally worked well, just needed a little Sol to lay down.

Heinz Bar's White 13 of 1/51 Summer of 1940.  Painted with Model Master 70/02 and Aeromaster 76.  The yellow is Tamiya.  I used a oily/grimy black pin wash on the panel lines and wiped off the excess.  The guns are MM metal gun barrrels.  Everything else is OOB.

Thanks

Thanks everyone, glad your enjoying the Spitfire so far.

Satch, hope you can get those little extra bits finished asap, looks good so far.

Cheers...

Hey Satch, I like the canopy decals. Thought about trying that myself. I've been meaning to ask about the splinter camo schemes and the colors. I've seen reference to 70/71 and also 02/71, and with your Hienz Bar from JG51 I'm seeing an 02/70 that looks great. Nice work on the 109!

Nice work Satch!   Is the whole paint job a decal?

Just a little progress for me as I'm kinda slow. Main parts are together and this is a nice little kit. The wing halves are a little tricky because there are no real locating tabs. I don't remember this problem on the Hasegawa F's or G's but I haven't built one of them critters in years.

Satch,

Nice work.  Hope my Bar miniMe looks as good.

Jeremy,

Looking good, keep at it.

Hammering out an Airfix Spit Mk Vc for the Pac War build.  Hope to get started on this one next. 

Great work on the 109 satch! Keep up the great work!