More childish things

[amateur]

and now the Spitfire. 

We had almost completed it last week, but now that we can't build it together, I finished off the detail last night.

Whilst we are in purdah, Elliott agreed that I should crack on with the Boeing Stearman and DH82c Tigermoth biplanes - he thought that they might be a bit tricky.

He is right!

The first problem was that I could not find a model of the DH82c, all sensibly priced models are of the DH82a, the open cockpit version, whereas the Canadian version had a green-house like cockpit canopy. So I'm fabricating one in the workshop out of some 0.5mm stainless sheet and clear plastic from a laminating pouch.

The Stearmans were supplied with open cockpits, but the RAF were still flying them in Oct/Nov 1942, and indeed Dad made his last RAF flight in one on Friday 13th November 1942. He was a Yorkshireman after all!

The RAF sent the Stearmans back to the USA and thereafter flew the DH82c as an elementary trainer

Edited March 24, 2020 by amateur

[Pistol p]

On 21/03/2020 at 13:41, fern01 said:

I have been building this 11' 6" Thermalist glider for weeks now. 

I dreamed of doing so when I was twelve years old as it was the biggest one in the APS plans handbook.

If any PW member would like to own it,install the R/C and fly it PM me 

I am in N Yorks.

Do you live in colditz castle?

[TIGHTCHOKE]

1 minute ago, Pistol p said:

Do you live in colditz castle?

Very good!

[TIGHTCHOKE]

3 hours ago, amateur said:

and now the Spitfire. 

We had almost completed it last week, but now that we can't build it together, I finished off the detail last night.

 

Whilst we are in purdah, Elliott agreed that I should crack on with the Boeing Stearman and DH82c Tigermoth biplanes - he thought that they might be a bit tricky.

He is right!

The first problem was that I could not find a model of the DH82c, all sensibly priced models are of the DH82a, the open cockpit version, whereas the Canadian version had a green-house like cockpit canopy. So I'm fabricating one in the workshop out of some 0.5mm stainless sheet and clear plastic from a laminating pouch.

The Stearmans were supplied with open cockpits, but the RAF were still flying them in Oct/Nov 1942, and indeed Dad made his last RAF flight in one on Friday 13th November 1942. He was a Yorkshireman after all!

The RAF sent the Stearmans back to the USA and thereafter flew the DH82c as an elementary trainer

I was lucky enough to fly in a Stearman a few years ago.

[amateur]

10 minutes ago, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I was lucky enough to fly in a Stearman a few years ago.

The last entry in Dad's log book was August 2003 when, aged 80, he went up in a Stearman. His entry reads "Familiarisation and aerobatics". He said at the time that it seemed that that aircraft had a less powerful engine than the ones that he had flown in the RAF. The pilot confirmed that it was a lower rated engine.

 

Edited March 24, 2020 by amateur

[panoma1]

How you gonna get it out of the room? 

[amateur]

1 minute ago, panoma1 said:

How you gonna get it out of the room? 

The "room" is 3 strategically placed place mats to provide a plain background.

I was aware of lots of kitchen clutter in the model Harvard shot

[TIGHTCHOKE]

4 minutes ago, amateur said:

The last entry in Dad's log book was August 2003 when, aged 80, he went up in a Stearman. His entry reads "Familiarisation and aerobatics". He said at the time that it seemed that that aircraft had a less powerful engine than the ones that he had flown in the RAF. The pilot confirmed that it was a lower rated engine.

Sweet, he still knew what he was up to then!

[amateur]

Just now, TIGHTCHOKE said:

Sweet, he still knew what he was up to then!

Yes, most of the time, but the dementia was setting in

[TIGHTCHOKE]

I am sure that making these models will help all of you.

[amateur]

Just now, TIGHTCHOKE said:

I am sure that making these models will help all of you.

Well, it's certainly keeping me occupied.

....... and the bike is running so well now 😥

[fern01]

7 hours ago, Pistol p said:

Do you live in colditz castle?

Ja, Frau Fern has told me escape is impossible, and if I try I will be shot

Also she has ways of making me shut up

[oldypigeonpopper]

On 21/03/2020 at 19:09, akka said:

Salisbury cathedral👍

hello, i thought it was, have fished those river banks many times, was hoping for a mayfly day this year,

[Cosmicblue]

I'm 62 now, back when I was a youngster I used to build Airfix and Revell plastic kits - I'm sure lots of us did?  I grew up in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and the local model shop was Knights...I remember as a kid, nose pressed against the shop window seeing a large scale car kit (1:8) from an Italian company called Pocher - incredible detail, miniature engines with internal components, etc.  I can remember my dad saying the cost was more than his salary for a week at the time.

Roll forward to about year 2000 and I'm surfing the web (early internet user) and read that Pocher had gone bust ...a dream was in the bin!   I found a model shop on-line in Germany that evidently thought that they had been stuffed with obsolete stock and I managed to buy three kits for about £300.   A Bugatti T50 (K76), a separate Bugatti engine and one of the simpler Porsche 911... Pocher history    As it happens Pocher has changed hands a couple of times and kits are still made... the early kits like the K76 are changing hands for north of a £1000 unbuilt so wasn't a bad investment either

I had a lot more patience 50+ years ago...maybe this is the moment to test it....

[oldypigeonpopper]

2 hours ago, Cosmicblue said:

I'm 62 now, back when I was a youngster I used to build Airfix and Revell plastic kits - I'm sure lots of us did?  I grew up in Abingdon, Oxfordshire and the local model shop was Knights...I remember as a kid, nose pressed against the shop window seeing a large scale car kit (1:8) from an Italian company called Pocher - incredible detail, miniature engines with internal components, etc.  I can remember my dad saying the cost was more than his salary for a week at the time.

Roll forward to about year 2000 and I'm surfing the web (early internet user) and read that Pocher had gone bust ...a dream was in the bin!   I found a model shop on-line in Germany that evidently thought that they had been stuffed with obsolete stock and I managed to buy three kits for about £300.   A Bugatti T50 (K76), a separate Bugatti engine and one of the simpler Porsche 911... Pocher history    As it happens Pocher has changed hands a couple of times and kits are still made... the early kits like the K76 are changing hands for north of a £1000 unbuilt so wasn't a bad investment either

I had a lot more patience 50+ years ago...maybe this is the moment to test it....

hello, that was the shop in Bath Street, ? Fred Knight was a well know shop owner or 3 if i recall, the one in Ock street was our fishing tackle and bait shop, every Saturday a few bob of maggots, oh happy days 

[fizzbangwhallop]

On 13/03/2020 at 14:20, amateur said:

Following on from steam-engines, I have now found myself building 1/72 scale plastic model aeroplanes, over 55 years since I last built one.

Why? Well my late father was in the RAF during WW2 and, before he died last year, had, unbeknown to me, promised our grandson that he would help him to build a model Spitfire.

Our grandson was very upset at my father's funeral because he thought that he would not now be able to have his plane.

Trawling through father's effects we found his wartime log book and in it were pasted the two photos below.

Dad had learned to fly in Canada under the BCATP scheme and the photo of the Harvard is him flying in Saskatchewan in 1943 after he had trained as a flying instructor.

After the BCAPT closed in 1944 he returned to the UK and continued training potential fighter pilots, so managed to obtain his only flight in a Spitfire Vb in April 1945 for "familiarisation". He never forgot it.

 

Somewhere or other I’ve  got a similar photo to this from my dad’s training and signed by the squadron/flight.... I know he did his training over in Assiniboia Canada and was then assigned to 18Squadron in the med. 

Now I’ve got a bit of time on my hands I’ll have a dig around, I know his logbooks are around too... found his final one from March 1954 a few weeks before I was born. There’s a history of 18 Squadron in the same bag..

 

cheers

 

fizz

[Cosmicblue]

3 hours ago, oldypigeonpopper said:

hello, that was the shop in Bath Street, ? Fred Knight was a well know shop owner or 3 if i recall, the one in Ock street was our fishing tackle and bait shop, every Saturday a few bob of maggots, oh happy days 

Yeah - Bath Street - that's the one - Fred Knight.   I recall that there was Howes model shop in Broad Street in Oxford which as another much revered place of wonderment.

[amateur]

2 hours ago, fizzbangwhallop said:

 

Somewhere or other I’ve  got a similar photo to this from my dad’s training and signed by the squadron/flight.... I know he did his training over in Assiniboia Canada and was then assigned to 18Squadron in the med. 

Now I’ve got a bit of time on my hands I’ll have a dig around, I know his logbooks are around too... found his final one from March 1954 a few weeks before I was born. There’s a history of 18 Squadron in the same bag..

 

cheers

 

fizz

Dad did his elementary training at 31EFTS, De Winton (South of Calgary) in 1942,  intermediate training at 37SFTS,  Calgary, in 1943, flying instructors' school at 1FIS, Trenton, Ontario also in 1943, then gave intermediate training to prospective fighter pilots at 41 SFTS, Weyburn, Saskatchewan until he returned to the UK in 1944 and continued training others until he was demobbed in 1946.

Your Dad did his elementary training at 34EFTS, Assiniboia and it would be interesting to know which SFTS he trained at.

The chances of their ever having crossed paths would have been pretty remote, given the huge scale of the BCATP.

[fizzbangwhallop]

12 minutes ago, amateur said:

Dad did his elementary training at 31EFTS, De Winton (South of Calgary) in 1942,  intermediate training at 37SFTS,  Calgary, in 1943, flying instructors' school at 1FIS, Trenton, Ontario also in 1943, then gave intermediate training to prospective fighter pilots at 41 SFTS, Weyburn, Saskatchewan until he returned to the UK in 1944 and continued training others until he was demobbed in 1946.

Your Dad did his elementary training at 34EFTS, Assiniboia and it would be interesting to know which SFTS he trained at.

The chances of their ever having crossed paths would have been pretty remote, given the huge scale of the BCATP.

I’ll have a better look tomorrow for the bits and pieces....in the  ‘90’s I took a call from someone fairly local who’d just got back from holidaying over there... he’d actually got into conversation with the local postmistress who asked after my dad! Apparently they were keen on each other while he was over there..... I could’ve been Canadian! ....Fantastic! Chances of that?

She sent some press cuttings over and there was a picture of him standing in front of a bomber of some sort.... after he died in 2005 and we moved mum out of the family home, my brother found an undeveloped roll of film...developed it to find pictures of dad’s time over there.... 2nd chances of that? 
 

I know he stuck a Hurricane into the snowdrift at the end of the runway too......
 

cheers

fizz

 

Edited March 25, 2020 by fizzbangwhallop

[amateur]

14 minutes ago, fizzbangwhallop said:

........conversation with the local postmistress who asked after my dad! Apparently they were keen on each other while he was over there..... 

The effect of the influx of the thousands of virile young airmen on the prairie-women of Canada must have been immense.

Indeed, Dad told the story of his going skiing in the Rockies and a toothsome blonde fell over at his feet. Ever the gentleman, he photographed her wth his Box Brownie and sent the photo home to his fiancee. Well, they had been an item from the age of 14, and she died next to him at age 96. He lasted a further 3 months.

[amateur]

...and now the Stearman, the first aircraft that he solo'd in.

This was an absolute sod to build. I now remember why I built few model biplanes when I was a teenager

[TIGHTCHOKE]

very nice!

What make of kit was it?

If it's an old one that may be a large part of the problem.

Edited April 5, 2020 by TIGHTCHOKE

[amateur]

It was a Revell, but I can't blame the kit.

Fumblefingers  here took several sessions to fit the top wing ( and 3 different adhesives) until I found that Evostick gave me instant adhesion, yet enough flexibility to align it correctly. Had I stayed with styrene cement, I would still have been building it. 😁

[TIGHTCHOKE]

Just now, amateur said:

It was a Revell, but I can't blame the kit.

Fumblefingers  here took several sessions to fit the top wing ( and 3 different adhesives) until I found that Evostick gave me instant adhesion, yet enough flexibility to align it correctly. Had I stayed with styrene cement, I would still have been building it. 😁

But it was probably made in moulds that were first cut in the 1950s!

[amateur]

This is the Avro Anson 2 in which Dad flew his first solo in a multi-engined aircraft in October 1943.

 

As well as a bomber, navigation, gunnery and wireless op trainer, the Anson was also used as a general runabout to ferry crews and senior officers between airfields.

The Anson's lavatory systems were very basic, a tube exiting into the airstream for number one's and a bucket for number two's. Dad used to tell the tale of having to regularly ferry the CO to group HQ for meetings. If the meeting went badly, the CO would order Dad to overfly HQ whilst the CO made use of the tube. If the meeting went very badly, the bucket's contents would also descend upon the unsuspecting top brass. 

There are no available kits for the Anson 2, so I used a Coastal Command Anson 1 kit and had to fill in the fuselage for both the gun turret and the forward firing gun

 

Edited April 10, 2020 by amateur