Some time back I asked as part of the Summer 1940 (Battle of Britain) campaign abvout interest in a First Shots campaign.
Rules
Any aircraft in active service with any combatant nation between 1st September 1939 (Invasion of Poland) and 13th March 1940 (end of the Winter War)
Post at least one in-build and one final photo on the campaign board
State reference or provide picture for provenance
Enjoy it
Start 1st September 2009 end 13th March 2010
Ribbons to be awarded if someone designs one (I'm rubbish at it)
I'll put it forward if we get at least 10 showing interest

I'm in for sure!

I am in! Good excuse to build some Polish fighters!

I'm in, time for early war biplanes?

Yeah, sounds fun. Good opportunity to build that special hobby's Mercury-engine Fokker D.XXI I got in my stash.

An excuse to build that amodel i-16 with all the goodies! Picked it up at show for a few quid on a whim and in the box
was a resin shestov engine (one cylinder missing, resin wheels, wing and tailplane corrections too for type 6 and type 10
Type 10 should be current at the time of the Winter war. I've spent some time researching and collecting pictures
about the "Rata" so a great chance to get it all together. 2 Finns vs a Rata or do I do one in captured colours a Siipiorava?

that makes 6... do i hear 4 more?

I was thinking about a Rata, anybody do a I-153? Failing that a Hawk 75 would be a good choice preferably in 1/48th or a PZL, great looking machine

smer(heller) do a nice one in 1/72. little detail in the cockpit but fits quite well, watch that cowl.

Some nice ones on google image search

Special Hobby do a I-152 and an I-15 and the prices aren't too bad. Anyone built one? I've never seen a Special Hobby kit. I like biplanes too - can you tell?

I haven't built that kit exactly,but I have some experience on their other kits. Special Hobby is Czech producer, and therefore its kits are multimedia kits with plastic, resin and photoetc. They require bit more work than Tamiya/Hasegawa, but with little effort they can be built into nice model from often rare objects.

I'm in too. Initially however, I thought of a Bf 109 C or D. I mean, me and my 109's....

Now that I see it includes all from the start of the Polish campaign to the end of the Finnish winter war I tend to lean towards a Gloster Gladiator from the swedish volontary F 19-force in Finland. I don't know if I will go for a freshly winterpainted one (broompainted in silver and without skis) or a worn overpainted one (with the weirdest skull-and-bones paintjob to date).

You can see the rough paintjob at the bottom of the Military aviation in Sweden website.

Tony

There has just came out new book about the Flygflottilj 19. See the link below Click

I've been thinking of making one by myself also. Either in F-19 or FAF markings.

Awmygawd-awmygawd-awmygawd!

Never seen that book, so thanks for the tip Toumas. That's a got-to-get. I really like the "Gul Erik" (Yellow Echo) with an allmost all green lower starbord wing. It's odd, and I like oddities!

Now it's definately a Gladiator in the pipeline. Never done rigging though, so that'll be a challenge.

Tony

Still only 7 chaps, not enough to make the campaign fly. The ideas of the Polish campaign and the Winter War were exactly what I was thinking of as well as early German and RAF bombers. It could also include Boing P-26s and Curtiss Hawk 75 of the Chinese air force and Japanese A5M fighters.
Oh well

Andrew, I would be able to join up, if my Blenheim PR Mk.I ( L1348) qualifies- it wasn't used over enemy territory, as far as I know, only tested for performance in November 1939.

Ok everybody. It's two days left, I won't get hold of a Gladiator, so I'll stick to my first idea. I'll build a Bf 109 from the polish campaign for "First shots".

The box has been in the stash a few years and is the last of a B-C-D-triple I bought and this is the last one of them. No surprises in here then. Maybe I'll try to find stuff in the spares box to make an opened canopy, and I'll also try the wire terminal method of making exhaust pipes. Thanks for that tip whoever it was.


There are some issues regarding the identity though. As usual I've been searching the web, and as usual there are pictures, info and profiles that counter each other.

First thin is a pic I can't remember where I found, but it proves the existence of shark mouths, and also shows my decals look right.


Then there is the bird below the cockpit. The boxart has it together with the shark mouth, but It's also shown without, and also teeth without bird.





Since my bird-decal looks fuzzy and a bit out of register I will scrap that one and go with shark mouth, red numbers and white spinner, all to "the best of my knowledge". (Read: The easiest way out )

Next weekend it's time for RLM 02 and cockpit fiddling. Yee-haa!

Tony

Wow, I didn't realize this starts so soon.

For Tony, nice choice of subject. I didn't even know that they used C-models still at the beginning of the war.

Well, I'm not reeeeally sure of it eather, but i've seen (maybe doubtful, but still) references to both c's and d's based in eastern Germany and northern Böhmen at the outbreak of war, so unless someone proove me wrong, I'll go with this one. The teeth are way too cool to miss .

Tony

Ok, the campaign is on, so I've taken the first steps. I couldn't find enough canopy parts in the spares to make it open so I will go for the shut option that Hobby craft supplied. I had to do some work on the pit, even though not much will ba seen.



Since the body need to be assembled before the pit is installed, and the pit needs to be assembled before the body (doh) to get the parts to stick while inserting them, I managed to get the pit a little too narrow on the port side. Good call for a closed canopy then.

I gave the plane a slightly softer preshade than normal, since I would guess the planes were in a rather clean shape at the beginning of war.



I've also realized that few, if any, C's participated in the Polish campaign, but It seems like the differences C and D are easy to replicate, so it's only a matter of finding markings for a D-model. Too bad if the Shark teeth weren't used in combat though.

Tony

Change of plan everybody. I found a Roden 48 Gladiator Mk II in the shop today, so I'm back to the original plan. Ian Iacobis "Gul Erik" (Yellow Echo) from the Swedish aid squadron in Finland 1940. Since the kit has no skis I will build her pretty freshly painted and on wheels, as shipped to Finland.

You can see a pic at the bottom of Military aviation in Swedens page.

The 109 might show up here later, if I succeed with making her a D.

Tony (Scared of rigging)

I've still only got 8, bit thin for a good campaign come on chaps I need to break out of WW1 and build something without rigging

Andrew,

I think I can squeeze in another campaign. Can someone here suggest a good kit with a good PE detail set that would be available that I could build? Any scale, any nationality.

Mark

And here I sit, all by my lonesome, started one kit and even shifted to another, totally oblivious of the fact that the campaign isn't even approved.

Well, I will go on, since I have no kits for other campaigns at the moment, and you're all welcome to join in.

Tony (Apparently a bit unfocused)