I knew about Edgar Brooks from the many forums on which he answered any and all questions about the Supermarine Spitfire. I first met him in person at the IPMS UK Scale Modelworld show in Telford. He was on one of the trade stands and I got talking to him about this actual project. I had started this using the old Revell Spitfire Mk I and I had bought an Aries Spitfire MkV cockpit (there were no Mk I cockpits and still isn’t but there was very little difference). I mentioned to Edgar that I had cut out the undercarriage selection mechanism and I would be scratch building the pump mechanism, as per the description by Geoffrey Wellum, in his book “First Light”. Edgar said that he thought that by that time in the Battle of Britain all Spitfires would have been retro fitted with the select mechanism? I said, yep that seems logical but I will ask Mr Wellum, as he lives just up the road from me Edgar agreed that if the man himself said that was the case then it was.
So the project stalled until I could get to talk to Mr Wellum. Then Revell Announced this kit, the Spitfire MkII, before I could speak to him and it was a couple of years or more, from their announcement to the release, and I knew that it would be a better option than the very old kit. When it was finally released I bought 2 kits, one to build for the Mullion heritage centre and one for this diorama.
Here is the model that I built for the heritage centre, it was built with the kit cockpit and with the canopy closed and no cockpit modifications, but the exterior was modified to the MkI



And the passage from the book shown with the model, now signed by the man himself:


Having built it I finally got to talk to Mr Wellum about the pump lever and he confirmed that yes, K9998 did have the pump mechanism. I also took the opportunity to ask him about where his 2 ground crew (Davy & Bevington) were standing on that memorable day because I am hoping that, for this build, I can depict the scene As Mr Wellum walks to QJ-K for his first ever flight in a Spitfire.

So this build.

Like I said, it has been a few years since I first had the idea so I had the Aries cockpit, so the first task was to make sure that it would fit, or could be made to fit! Into the Revell Mk II fuselage. The first problem is that I couldn't find the instrument panel and other etched pieces! After much searching and wanting to make a start I decided that I would just bite the bullet and buy another detail set! Then I found the Eduard "Brassin" set for this kit, so I bought it. It cost more than the kit!

The Eduard cockpit test fitted into the Revell MKII fuselage halves. All of the detail on the insides of the fuselage halves has been removed, with very little, if any, thinning of the sides and the cockpit fits very well







If anyone can point me to suitable figures, a pilot walking and 2 ground crew standing talking I would be grateful. I have searched without success I may have to resort to Airfix Multi Pose figures

I have been looking at the scratch built pump mech and I have decided that it isn't good enough so I am building another one, hopefully I also spoke to the man himself (Geoffrey Wellum) in the Mounts Bay inn yesterday lunch time and he gave me some more information on K9998 one of the questions that I asked him was "what colour was the crow bar in the door"? More on this when I get to the cockpit painting stage

Looking good so far Mal. It's nice to have the man himself to talk too. Not sure if your aware but on the 4 episode BBC TV program about the red arrows 'Britain's Ultimate Pilots: Inside the RAF' that was on a month or two ago Mr. Wellum featured with a few other veterans in the BoB flypast episode.

http://bbc.in/1PMl6gH

Well my Seafire 45 is still in it's box, I've got a little Pacific venture to finish first.

Hi Lucky,
Thanks, its early days and I need to get on with this, if it is to be ready for Telford this year! My biggest problem is going to be figures. Talking to Mr Wellum makes getting details correct, especially as he will see it and the fun thing is going to be telling the know it alls that they are wrong because I have those details from the horses mouth The trouble is how to convey the fact to the competition judges at the show? I'm not too worried about winning any medals but I can see the model being knocked back because some expert on Spitfire judge doesn't think that the details are correct! That remains to be seen, and I do have an interesting way of displaying the finished diorama

Yep, I'm aware of the BBC programs

Mal,
Sure sounds like another outstanding project, and I'm coming along for the ride. As you've said so often, one never has enough Spitfires.
Joel

Welcome Joel, yes there are never too many Spitfires. I am struggling to re-do the pump mechanism, but I have a plan that might work. I don't know what the problem is, the original one was done on the first attempt and yes I have considered using it but I now don't think that it is good enough and its a bit small!

Lovely cockpit detail Mal. It still amazes me the level of detail found in many of the excellent resin sets.
Keep up the good work I am certainly going to enjoy your build log.
tim

Welcome Tim, I will try and get some more done; the need to scratch build the pump mechanism has stalled further updates but I will aim to get on with some of the other stuff. There are some things on the exterior that need dealing with and I am try to confirm if this aircraft had the IFF wires or not.