The Little World

Yes, you read that right. Rafwaffe.

Specifically 1426 Flight RAF. The unit that took captured and abandoned German equipment and tested it for the RAF. At Duxford and RAF Collyweston. They got one of the Heinkel 111’a that had been downed to a soft landing early in the war over the UK and repaired and refurbished it. There are films of the fuselage being towed through the streets toward the base.

The colour references to this are a little thin at present, but definite enough to mean that the project can go ahead.

This is one of the new Airfix kits – well moulded with a very great deal of detail incorporated. The armament will be off-loaded but most of the rest of it is applicable. The intriguing thing for me is that it is entirely new territory for me. I build few German machines and have never done one of these at all. Every part of it will be strange.

Actually, I suspect that might be the case for a number of German aircraft. I look at the shapes of the components and most of them do not suggest any aircraft shape I am used to. Perhaps they were more a product of scientific dogma than an actual designer’s eye. And perhaps that scientific dogma was dictated by people who could not be gainsaid – on the penalty of death. Certainly the method of suspending and releasing the bombs seems to be in this class  – the original way to do it would have been as inaccurate as hell.

The kit plastic is pure Airfix, as are the decal and plans. I still have no answer to who the pilots depicted in the instructions are but I am looking forward to finding out. Phil Flory is interviewing an Airfix official next year and this may provide a clue.

The encouraging thing I’ve discovered is that 1426 Flight had some other gems as well – Messerschmitts and Focke Wulfs as well as Junkers planes. If I can find the schemes I can finally build some of the kits that crowd the shelves of the hobby shops.