Battle of Britain GB 2006 - 1 May to 31 Oct 06

Tweets - a CR.42 in one of their colorful "WWI ish" style schemes would do your Iwata justice... just a thought, amd a chance to try out your hand at rigging biplanes as well!  I'll see if I can find a link to an account of the CR-42's coming over the channel and the British reaction to it...

Scott not a problem, I'll update the roster this evening when we get back from my Mums house.  I'm taking the kids there for an Easter egg hunt with their cousins.

All, in case you weren't around or may have forgotten here are a couple of images of Sean's 109 from last years BoB build so you can see what he is talking about.  You can see that a simple mottle (which is hard enough for me at the best of times) is not enough for him, he needs a challenge.

Happy Easter everybody

Well I placed my order with Aeromaster this morning for their Early Hurricanes Aces of the British Empire Pt III as a small Easter present to myself.  Aside from that nothing much to report really apart from the fact that there's only 15 days to kickoff .

Cheers

Sounds Great Jay   I will take a closer look this weekend and let you know which ones.  I already have a sheet of BoB Hurricanes, Spitfires and Bf 109's so I'm not really interested in those. 

Send me an email with your address and I'll drop a check in the mail for you.

Okay Dave, great news.  The decals should be here this weekend and I should have them in my hands by Monday night.  So just to give you an idea of the aircraft:

Bf-110c, Cr.42, G.50, Blenheim Mk1, Gladiator, Walrus Mk1, Hurricane Mk1, Spitfire Mk1(two ac), Bf-109 (Wick), Defiant, Beaufighter Mk1, Ju88, Ju87b (two ac), Fw200, Do-17p, Do-17z, He-111, Do-18, Br.20 and a He-115b.  22 different planes!

The ones I want for sure are the Bf-110c (obviously), Defiant, Ju88, G.50 and one of the Spitfires. All the rest is up for grabs but if you really want one of the ones I want, we can talk.  I think the only two that are non-negotiable would be your Br.20 and my Bf-110c! Cost is $15 so if we split it that makes it $7.50 for each.  Not bad for 11 different Aircraft each!

Let me know which ones you want.

Jay:  You bet I'm still interested.  Give me a shout when you get them and we can figure it all out.

Dave, for an older kit, the Italeri Br 20 is a pretty nice build.  I think you'll enjoy it.

Regards,  Rick

j.s.harrison wrote:

Oh Yeah Darren I've been meaning to ask you if you could add the mid sized badge to my sig, but Please don't email it to my current address because i no longer have use of that computer...I"ll have to create a new email address through hotmail or something....

Of course Jules, no probs at all.  I keep copies of yours Sean's and JB's sigs on record so updating them is easy, just let me know when you get an email address going .

Oh yeah you've got an incoming PM with my phone number.

Cheers

Darren, here's a pic of the Hurricane I built for last years GB.  I used the kit Windscreen & the Squadron Vac Form Canopy.  Like others, I trim the Vac Form close with scissors & then gently sand to the final lines.  I brace the canopy with Handi-Tac, same stuff as Blu-Tac.

Regards,  Rick

jboutin wrote:

Darren, I've now used Vacformed canopies on two of my builds and I also used surgical scissors like Chris to get it off the sheet and then sand it down bit by bit until it fits.  But I didn't add anything for support like Chris did, it would make sense, especially with the Hurricane Vacuform canopy from Squadron.  I used it for my BoB build last year and it looks very nice, just don't do like what I did and cut too much off the bottom edge so it won't sit right.  Thank God they come in pairs!.  Another hint, specifically about the Hurricane vacuform canopy.  With your Hasegawa kit, cut the front part of the kit supplied windscreen off and use it with the vacuform sliding part.  I did this because the kit piece looks more "in scale" for the armoured glass in front than the Vacuform piece.

Thanks a bunch for the advice Jay, I've seen some online builds where they have done exactly as you suggest so I am pretty sure that's the path I'll go down as well.

Cheers

---edit---

I forgot to mention, I will do some roster additions tonight when I get home so all the guys that aren't on there at the moment will be soon

Darren, I've now used Vacformed canopies on two of my builds and I also used surgical scissors like Chris to get it off the sheet and then sand it down bit by bit until it fits.  But I didn't add anything for support like Chris did, it would make sense, especially with the Hurricane Vacuform canopy from Squadron.  I used it for my BoB build last year and it looks very nice, just don't do like what I did and cut too much off the bottom edge so it won't sit right.  Thank God they come in pairs!. 

Another hint, specifically about the Hurricane vacuform canopy.  With your Hasegawa kit, cut the front part of the kit supplied windscreen off and use it with the vacuform sliding part.  I did this because the kit piece looks more "in scale" for the armoured glass in front than the Vacuform piece. 

Darren - actually I was thinking that same question last night... I thought about posing the question but I must have forgot!

Chris - thanks for the info and I like the avatar! 

PanzerWulff wrote:

Darren I tend to use a pair of surgical scissors I have to remove most of the excess but after that it is GENTLY sand check and sand some more until it fits emery boards will be your friend  as for bracing it you could use the kit part with the vac form placed over it if the fit is close enough  or again GENTLY press moistened TP (toilet paper/tissue ) or Kleenex and i mean moistened andsquished  almost to a dough consistency  into the inside let it dry out and it will make a custom formed brace for it if you have any difficulty geting it off dunk it in a bowl of tepid ( not warm enough to possibly deform it! ! ! ! ! ! ) water and let the paper fall apart I have used this on 2 of the 5 vac form canopies I have used I got the trick from my LHS owner i hope this helps TTFN btw How do you guys like my Flying Tigger avatar

Thanks a hep for that it sounds like great advice and I love the TIGGER

Cheers

Darren I tend to use a pair of surgical scissors I have to remove most of the excess but after that it is GENTLY sand check and sand some more until it fits emery boards will be your friend  as for bracing it you could use the kit part with the vac form placed over it if the fit is close enough  or again GENTLY press moistened TP (toilet paper/tissue ) or Kleenex and i mean moistened andsquished  almost to a dough consistency  into the inside let it dry out and it will make a custom formed brace for it if you have any difficulty geting it off dunk it in a bowl of tepid ( not warm enough to possibly deform it! ! ! ! ! ! ) water and let the paper fall apart I have used this on 2 of the 5 vac form canopies I have used I got the trick from my LHS owner i hope this helps TTFN

btw How do you guys like my Flying Tigger avatar

Hmm one of these days I'm definitely going to do a Martlet, I really like those FAA schemes especially on the F4F.

Ok All, JB mentioned using a vac formed canopy on his Me 110C and that reminded me that I have to use one as well on the Hurricane if I want to display it with the canopy open (which I do).

The only thing is I have never used a vac formed canopy in my life and was wondering if any of you guys have any tips that you could share.  Particularly around removing the canopy from the excess moulded material and what do you use as a brace inside the vac form while you are painting it.

Oh yeah, it's a good thing I checked my references because the decals I was going to use are from early 1941.  Looks like I need to place an order with Mr Aeromaster.

Cheers

Nick - here are a few references on the varying Martlet models.  you would want to build the Martlet Mk I, specifically called out on one of the provided websites as having only the upper carburator intake scoop (you'll have to sand or cut out the inner cowl scoops) and no cowl flaps.  Just putty them up a bit above the level of the plastic and sand it down to get rid of the ones on the kit.  It seems all the other variations for that particular model were internal so you wouldn't see them.

http://www.vectorsite.net/avwcat.html (pay attention to the mention of the French order of Wildcats about 1/3 down the page.  These were the Martlets flown in the BoB. to qoute:

"The French variant was the Grumman "G-36A", to be fitted with the Wright R-1820-G205A Cyclone 9-cylinder single-row radial engine with 750 kW (1,000 HP) and driving an uncuffed Hamilton Standard propeller. It was fitted with a shortened cowling, with an inlet in the upper lip but no flaps in the rear. The G-36A was to have fixed wings and six 7.5 millimeter Darne machine guns, with two in the nose cowling and two in each wings. The guns and other French kit such as radio and gunsight, were to be installed after delivery. The French ordered 81 plus 10 complete sets of spares."

The intake on the F4F-4 kit is a little too high but it will work good enough to give the representation of the Mk.I  Also I *believe* the Brits only put the guns in the wing on these particular aircraft.. so two guns per wing.  You can sand and putty the third one off.

http://fleetairarmsig.netfirms.com/articles/martlet/scottspencer-martlet/martlet.html

http://www.clubhyper.com/reference/martlettipe_1.htm   (I wish I had found these pics when I did my BoB Martlet way back when, a lot different than the decal call out sheet, especially the demarcation line.)

If you want to be very realistic, here's the rough pattern you will need to cut out of the floor of the cockpit.  If it is the Tamiya kit there are definite markers you can use to go by to cut it out.  Namely a raised center stripe, just cut towards that and that will be the center post for the seat.  The cutouts were to allow the pilot to see through the lower windows in the belly.

I've got some more references so if you run into a snag let me know.. I'll see what I can dig up for ya!!

-=edit=- sorry... my exhuberance over another Martlet being built got the best of me... I built my first one up almost OOB, only puttying the flaps and rescribing a single line to represent two large flaps as I was reading about the BRITISH Martlets not the French order... feel free to have fun and just build OOB if ya want!  It's a very enjoyable kit and didn't want to give the impression I was a rivet counter... I just love the aircraft!  It was the first US built aircraft to down an Axis plane... almost a yr before we entered the war!  (A FAA Martlet downed a Ju88 over Scapa Flow)  Enjoy!!!!

JoeRugby wrote:

Does any one know if there are mottle stencils available for BoB 109's?  All the ones that I found cover later war period.

Jay,

Good luck on the -110...

Does any one know if there are mottle stencils available for BoB 109's?  All the ones that I found cover later war period.

So I've ordered the FCM 1:72 battle of Britain decal sheet which has over 20 aircraft that participated in the BoB.  Actually if you got the BoB mag published by FSM last year, it is the same decals used for the Bf-110 and Ju88 in the mag.  I will be doing Hans Joachim Jabs' Bf-110.  I think he had 12 victories during the BoB and went on to get a lot more during the rest of the war.

I also ordered the Falcon Clearvax Luwaffe set #15 which has the only 1:72 vacuformed canopy for the Bf-110 I can find.  It may be the weakest link in my build as the LHS owner said they are hard to come by. 

After further review of the Airfix Bf-110 kit, it is going to take some work to make it look good.  I'll be spending about 4 times as much on extras as the kit is worth!  But I'll have fun doing it!

Darren you are using photobucket for the roster aren't you.  I can't see it from work!

Tom & Nick, the info you are both looking for is on pages 17 & 18 of Squadron / Signal's F4F Wildcat in Action.  I can scan it for you if you want.

Cheers

Nick - Go to that Eaglestrike page, leave the 48 in scale, drop down aircraft type and choose Martlet... this is the one you want for markings: -=edit=- actually just click on the name below and it takes you to the page showing you which set... somehow I copied the correct link over when I cut and pasted the info...

 48-548 : Grumman Martletts & Wildcats    (Martlet, Mk I, II, III, V, VI)

I'll look around for the ref I have on modding the F4F to a Martlet Mk I.  there's a few differences like the outer intake on the cowl needs to be sanded off I think, and the cowl flaps need to be modded a bit but it's nothing extensive... all you'll need is some putty, sandpaper and something to scribe the correct cowl flaps with...