WWII War Birds - pics and video

These are my first efforts after a 30 year break. Used to love making Airfix kits as a kid and am now trying to get my 10 year old son to take up the hobby (beats sitting on a xbox all day long!)
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One of my 577/450 cases next to the models to gauge scale.
 
The restorations look so perfect. When you see pictures from the war, many of the invasion stripes and numbers on allied planes look like they were slopped no with a mop. British carrier planes look like they were painted with brooms by simpletons in many pictures.
 
RMXC51 said:
The restorations look so perfect. When you see pictures from the war, many of the invasion stripes and numbers on allied planes look like they were slopped no with a mop. British carrier planes look like they were painted with brooms by simpletons in many pictures.
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True, but for what they cost, wouldn't you go for 'pretty'? How many 'pretty' milsurps have you seen on this forum that don't really look like those that went ashore on D-Day?
 
Wow...love those P51's with the Malcolm Hoods....I read somewhere in long ago that many of the pilots that flew these Mustangs with the Malcolm Hoods much prefered them to even the ones equipped with the standard Bubble Canopies. They said the design allowed for more all around visibility because you could get your head further out the side to allow you to see down and forward more as well as behind you. I guess it must have been wider then the traditional bubble. In either case they both beat hands down, the early B and C models that had the Greenhouse Canopy.
 
Now we need some pics of the Martin-Baker fighter, last of the high performance Brit piston engine fighters made redundant by the advent of the jet fighter.

As I recall, it was a sleek beauty looking like a marriage between the best features of the P-51 and the Spitfire. Too beautiful for war.
 
Sharps '63 said:
True, but for what they cost, wouldn't you go for 'pretty'? How many 'pretty' milsurps have you seen on this forum that don't really look like those that went ashore on D-Day?
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I would totally go for pretty as well. I'm just saying that if the current owner went back in time and saw that plane about 6 months into its service life, he might have refused to fly it!
 
Kermit Weeks has a large collection of planes, and often flies them. If you have not been to Fantasy of Flight in Florida, I urge you to drop in.

He is a fascinating guy to talk to. How many pilots can discuss the handling characteristics of a GeeBee racer vs a B-24?

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He has made videos of him flying many of his planes. Here is a video of him flying one of his P51s:

 
Cool formation, but anything that dampens "Merlinsong" is an affront. Dang modern jets with their shrieky blowjob engines...:)

The Blackburn Botha, one of the early war's least capable aircraft:

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No survivors, and much unloved.
 
Sharps '63 said:
Now we need some pics of the Martin-Baker fighter, last of the high performance Brit piston engine fighters made redundant by the advent of the jet fighter.

As I recall, it was a sleek beauty looking like a marriage between the best features of the P-51 and the Spitfire. Too beautiful for war.
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RMXC51 said:
The restorations look so perfect. When you see pictures from the war, many of the invasion stripes and numbers on allied planes look like they were slopped no with a mop. British carrier planes look like they were painted with brooms by simpletons in many pictures.
Click to expand...

A small scale test exercise was flown over the OVERLORD invasion fleet on June 1, to familiarize the ships' crews with the markings, but for security reasons, orders to paint the stripes were not issued to the troop carrier units until June 3 and to the fighter and bomber units until June 4.

In most cases the stripes were painted on by the ground crews; with only a few hours' notice, few of the stripes were "masked".[1] As a result, depending on the abilities of the "erks" (RAF nickname for ground crew), the stripes were often far from neat and tidy.
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I'd say given the numbers to be done, in the time frame to be completed, they did a passable job.
 
The Martin-Baker fighter is one of the aircraft in;

"British Experimental Combat Aircraft of World War II Prototypes, Research Aircraft, and Failed Production Designs By Buttler, Tony".

Martin-Baker MB 5 Fighter aircraft

The British Martin-Baker MB 5 was the ultimate development of a series of prototype fighter aircraft built during the Second World War. Wikipedia
Top speed: 740 km/h
Range: 1,770 km
Wingspan: 11 m
Length: 12 m
Weight: 4,188 kg
Cruise speed: 579 km/h
Engine type: Rolls-Royce Griffon
 
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