BIGGIN HILL MUSEUM GIVEN THE GREEN LIGHT

The proposal to bring forward a Memorial Museum at Biggin Hill has received planning approval. The new museum will commemorate the significant contribution Biggin Hill made in the First and Second World Wars, particularly in the Battle of Britain as Churchill’s ‘Strongest Link’. It also incorporates, and will provide a sustainable future for, St George’s RAF Chapel of Remembrance at Biggin Hill.

THREE FOR SHUTTLEWORTH

May 9th saw the latest arrival to the Shuttleworth collection. Hurricane P3717 will be stationed there from now on making three of these beautiful aeroplanes for the collection and all airworthy as well! I cant actually think of a better place for her to be stationed and long may she stay in residence. Something quite special to look forward to this show season and it will be great seeing them gracing the skies of Old Warden.

NEWSLETTERJune and tonight brings the first open competition of the season. This month we catch up on what’s been happening on the social front and take a look back at an outing to Lancing…

JUNE 2017

Martin, Harry and I rendezvoused to visit this small but busy show attracting clubs from across the south east including

IPMS Mid Sussex, North Surrey Military Modelling Group, Bognor Modelling and Wargames Club, Aldingbourne Modellers, Hailsham & District Scale Model Club/IPMS East Sussex, IPMS Hornchurch, Tangmere Sector Modellers and West Kent Scale Model Club.

IPMS Fine Waterline Special Interest Group had a fine display of 700th scale dreadnoughts with some mind-bogglingly fine cage aerials and a nice dazzle scheme on HMS Audacious. On Medway Modelling Club’s table I was pleased to see a subject I attempted and abandoned 20 years ago, a Sea Hurricane on a CAM (Catapult Armed Merchantman) scratched catapult. Might have another go soon.

There was a broad range of subjects, including some nice AFV diorama work, masses of aircraft, finely finished cars (both pristine and rusty-wrecked) a smattering of figures, sci-fi and a small dinosaur vignette. I spotted a rather fine Vought Kingfisher in pre-war colours. Someone had built his own Harley from a kit with added scratch parts. There seemed to be a large proportion of cutaways, including a big scale B17 and

USS Wasp LHD. Egg planes are now being joined by egg tanks, if you like that sort of thing.

Only a small number of traders including The Aviation and Military Book Centre (picked up some absolute bargains), MAN Models (who gave a tidy discount on a Scammel) and Brigade Models (who were willing to haggle over a resin X-craft). Nice.

Harry’s Moth made it onto the competition table and got a cheeky award, and the Gooseberry acquitted herself against some traditional wood plank on frame ships and has gone off to feature in a Mulberry SIG but should reappear for Telford.

All that and dinner in Brighton with some talented modellers (and a bonus fiancé), and the last train home...

ALAN TAKES POINT AS WE HEAD SOUTH TO THE LANCING MODEL SHOW TO SEE THE SOUTHDOWNS MODEL GROUP

SPITFIRE XIX PS890 GROUND ROLLS ON TAKEOFF

PS890 was involved in a accident at the L’aérodrome de Longuyon – Villette in north eastern France on Sunday, June 11. According to reports from a witnesses on the scene, pilot Cédric Ruet escaped the accident without serious injuries. Additional reports suggest flying debris from the propeller may have injured one member of the crowd.

ANCHORS AWAY...

The Royal Navy’s new aircraft carrier has left its home port for the first time. One of two new carriers being built at the Rosyth dockyard is to begin her sea trials. She is the largest warship ever built for the Royal Navy and the flight deck alone is the size of three football pitches. Once in service the ship will operate a crew of 1,000 and 40 aircraft. The 65,000 tonne warship is the Royal Navy’s first aircraft carrier since HMS Ark Royal.

SEA FURY T20 GROUND RUN

Lots of ups and downs for the Navy Wings collection over the past few weeks but some good news coming out of Essex. Last week (June 21) Sea Fury T20 had her first engine run at North Weald captained by Lt Cdr Chris Gotke. We will look forward to seeing her in the skies soon. The aircraft is on loan from the Fly Navy Heritage Trust and is displayed by the Historic Flight under an agreement between the Trust and the Royal Navy.

HAWKER HURRICANE P2902 TAKES BACK TO THE SKIES

The Mk1 Hawker Hurricane thundered through the skies after taking off at Elmsett in Suffolk following a £2m restoration and some 25,000 hours of highly-skilled labour. In May 1940, the Hurricane of 245 Squadron took off from Kent with Pilot Officer Kenneth McGlashan at the controls, before being shot down over the beaches of Dunkirk.

Something you may have noticed but I am sad to report the death of the Forum. Moose, our service provider had a catastrophic failure on one of their servers and all though we were able to save the web page my own personal area which houses the Forum has been lost. This has been a huge disappointment for me but time to move on. I have a plan and the Forum will be back, new and improved by this time next month. I plan to get this done as soon as possible and will let you know as soon as we are back in business. Anyway, this hasn’t dampened the enthusiasm on the Facebook page and I’m happy to say it has been another busy month at the benches...

AVIATION Carl, Francisco, Harry and Steve have all been showing progress with current projects. Carl has a new project on the bench and is pushing forward with his Yak 3.

Francisco has been working through the stencil data on his Airfix Curtis P40 he also commented, “After applying 34 minuscule stencils my eyesight just turned into butter...!”

Harry claimed a finish with this beautiful Schneider SF38. A cracking commission for test pilot Desmond Penrose.

Steve has been showing off his rather unique technique for pre-shading using ground pastel dust applied with Microbrushes.

ARMOUR Both Martin and Simon have been showing various projects on the Armour front. Martin finally claimed a finish with his Panzer III project. It’s taken some time but very happy to get this one done, it’s been a journey.

Simon runs out of Tamiya primer which left him with a box of things to do. Carl mentioned that after trying all the new and improved primers he has now returned to his original favourite if it ain’t broke and all that...

SHIPPING Alan, Simon C and Simon H have all been busying themselves around the shipyard (Sorry Simon, I have none of your pics of work in progress since the demise of the Forum...) Alan has been pushing his skills to the limits with a new Liberty diorama.

Not being satisfied with this he also took a saw to a Trumpeter Belfast to convert her into Edinburgh. Some cracking drawing work from Al as well whilst he works out the differences.

Another project should be on the table tonight and he claims a finish with HMS Thanet.

Simon was in etch heaven or should I say hell, the railings on his current sub project nearly took him over the edge...

On another note... Harry was showing off some pretty cool bench tidy skills as he has now moved into his new workshop and things are operational, Harry commented “One for you ‘tidy bench’ wallahs”

THIS MONTHS LOOK AT WHATS HAPPENING ON THE SOCIAL FRONT... 18-23: Exhibition of the Guild

of Aviation Artists The Mall Galleries, London 0.00- 17.00, 10.00-20.00 Thursday

25-29: War and Peace Revival 2017 Hop Farm Showground, Maidstone Rd, Paddock Wood, Kent TN12 6PY

29: Figure World 2017 The Laxton Cloisters, Oundle School, Oundle PE8 4EE

30: The Essex Modellers Show Hannakins Farm Community Centre, West Billericay Community Centre Roseby Avenue, Billericay, Essex CM12 0SY

ERIC’S SHOW GUIDE - JULY

A BOMBER COMMAND CLASSIC FOR 2018

Airfix announced this month a new tooled 1/72nd scale Vickers Wellington Mk.IC. Another British classic for the ever growing Airfix wants list.