ALIWAL NORTH SAR LAYOUT: Diorama Project in Scale 1:72

A scratch built Hangar for a Vintage WWII 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb - Diorama project in Scale 1:72 - In remembrance of my late dad and pal.

What a coincidence, the posting date of this post, corresponds to my dad's birthday (born on May 20, 1921), only just realised it now - He fought during WWII as an Allied Infantry soldier in North Africa, ended up as a POW in Germany, and at the end of the war, returned to South Africa via France and Scotland.
I salute and miss you a lot dad, what a privilege to have had and known such a super dad and pal for 36 years of my life. Wish you were here today - Thursday, November 12, 2015.

WWII 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB
covered with a camo net...
(Natural daylight photography)

1941 - The German soldiers are waiting patiently -
"Schießen Sie nicht, bis Sie das Weiße in ihren
Augen sehen können".
(Don't fire until you can see the whites of their eyes).

WWII 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk VB
covered with a camo net...
(Natural daylight photography)

Supermarine Aviation: Spitfire History and spesifications;

Photograph by: Richard Mallory Allnut

An iconic figure of the Second World War, the Supermarine Spitfire was the only aircraft that could really rival the German fighters, especially during the Battle of Britain.

The Spitfire design incorporated some very modern features for that time, like the elliptical wings and a retractable landing gear; many new pilots crash landed because they assumed the landing gear was already in position for landing, forgetting to put it down.

It was fast, with a high rate of climb but also very well balanced. ‘Our Spits were so well balanced they would fly themselves. Many pilots owe their lives to this property …. If a pilot passed out through lack of oxygen, the Spitfire would fall away in a dive and correct itself’ remembers one of the Spitfire pilots.

The first Spitfire left the ground on 5 March 1936, and two years later it entered the Royal Air Force service. Being the main British fighter plane, the Supermarine Spitfire was produced during the entire war and remained in service until 1955.

It is said the Luftwaffe pilots themselves praised the qualities of the Supermarine Spitfire. The Battle of Britain wasn’t going very well for Germany, and the commander of the German Luftwaffe during the war, Hermann Göring asked for explanations. During a hot argument on this issue, the ace Adolf Galland gave his superior a stunning reply “I should like an outfit of Spitfires for my group”; a superb compliment the enemy paid to this amazing plane.

Lesser-known facts:

The Supermarine Spitfire has its origins in the Supermarine’s racing floatplanes the Reginald Mitchell’s team designed and built for the Schneider Trophy contest.

Some of the Spitfires had several modifications that allowed the planes to carry under the wings two small barrels of beer, instead of bombs. [An extract from: War History Online]

Vintage WWII 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb
Scale 1:72

Day 1: PVC glued the thin round bamboo skewers in

precision drilled holes in a 5 mm thick plywood base.

Day 1: Finished the reinforced pole structure.

Day 2: Finished the cladding - PVC glued the
5 mm x 1 mm balsa wood strips to the sides
of this pole structure.

Day 3: Finished the roof - Viewed the different
angles of the model in natural sunlight.

Day 3: Wood stained the cladding, deformed the
card stock roof covering and painted it with various
acrylic paints to create a weathered look.

Craft Acrylic Paints were used on the roof:
1st layer (base coat) = silver metallic (Dala), to
portray a new corrugated iron look.

2nd layer = Earth Brown (Revelle), thinly applied,
for a worn and dirty look.

3rd final layer = Umber (Dala), dry brushed for the
rust effect.

Day 4: The finished WWII 1941 Supermarine
Spitfire and Hangar diorama.
Silflor MiniNatur® static grass flock, 4mm,

spring, and Woodland Scenics® bushes,
light green, were used for this exercise.

Model mounted on a Meranti wood plinth.

Close up weathering detail...Fuel and oil stains.

In the left bottom corner, is a brand new
tarpaulin covered V12 Rolls-Royce Griffon
engine, capable of producing up to
2,340 hp (1,745 kW).

Close up weathering detail...Fuel and oil stains.

Fuel stains were created by placing tiny dabs
of black acrylic Dala paint on the floor surface
and then using a thin clean paint brush dipped
in Isopropyl Alcohol to thin out the black paint.

During WWII in North Africa; my dad
had found an unopened wooden crate lying
in the desert. He opened it up and found a
similar German motorcycle with sidecar
inside. He assembled it and used it to go
fishing. His method of fishing was to find
an oasis, drop a hand-grenade into the
water and collect the dead fish for supper
for him and his colleagues that evening.

1941 - The German soldiers are waiting patiently -
"Schießen Sie nicht, bis Sie das Weiße in ihren
Augen sehen können".
(Don't fire until you can see the whites of their eyes).

Friday, December 25, 2015

Part of my Hobby being featured in this Journal:

World Airnews, January 2016, Africa's Leading Aviation Journal.

My Diorama: "Unbroken" 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb and Hangar in Scale 1:72.

~ Hangar Talk January 2016 - Written by: Tom Chalmers ~

THE BANE of my life is the literally hundreds of emails I receive each day – not the ones of a personal or business nature, of course – but the scores of other ones offering everything from funeral policies to ladies’ underwear, none of which is of any interest to me.

But one recent one which arrived on my computer overnight was of a picture (below) with an introductory sentence which made me sit up and take notice. It said simply: “Download this picture and see if you can identify this aircraft which is currently in Aliwal North.”

Now Aliwal North is a relatively small town in the Eastern Cape which spans the main road between Bloemfontein and East London. It has a small airport which does not suffer from over-use. But how did a Spitfire find its way there? Fascinated, I downloaded the file and the emerging image showed a wooden hangar protecting a WWII aircraft which was obviously a Spitfire. The caption to the picture gave more details – it was a 1941 Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb 1:72.

I had to wait to the following day to receive the answer to the “1:72” from the sender, one Andy Gillespie, a long time resident of the town.

The 1:72, it transpired, was actually the scale of the Spitfire metal die-cast model which had been given to Andy by his brother-in-law. Now Andy Gillespie is a modeller of considerable expertise and one of his specialties is model railway construction and operation. The problem was that, although the Spitfire was originally intended to go with one of his railway layouts, it was not the same scale – the railways are in HO scale. This disparity in scales was a “no-no” as far as Andy was concerned.

So Andy built the Spitfire model and made a wooden hangar to go with it on a separate diorama. Andy noticed that the postage date stamp on the package in which the model had been sent to him was May 20, 2015, coincidentally the anniversary of his late father’s birthday. His father had served with the SA Infantry in North Africa during WWII and at some point had found an unopened wooden crate lying in the desert. He opened it up and found a German motorcycle with sidecar inside.

Gillespie Senior assembled it and used it to go fishing. His method of fishing was to find an oasis, drop a hand-grenade into the water and collect the dead fish for supper for him and his colleagues that evening. He was eventually captured by the Germans and spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Germany. Andy, who idolised his father both then and now, decided to make a model of the motorcycle/sidecar to go with a motor vehicle and Spitfire on the diorama.

But the story of the diorama and its connection with aircraft and WWII does not end there. Andy takes up the story: “I decided on a name for the diorama after I had finished it. I called it “Unbroken” after I had watched a true-to-life movie going by the same name,” he wrote.

"The movie was produced and directed by Angelina Jolie and was based on the 2010 nonfiction book by Laura Hillenbrand entitled: Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience and Redemption. The film revolves around the life of USA Olympian and athlete, Louis "Louie" Zamperini, portrayed by Jack O'Connell. Zamperini survived at sea in a life raft for 47 days after his bomber was shot down in the Pacific during WWII and his rescue by a Japanese warship. He was sent to a series of prisoner of war camps in Japan," wrote Andy.

Andy is a model railroader par excellence, as well as a self-taught electrical engineer whose pastime is building model railway transformers-cum-speed control systems. This, incidentally, is how I came to come in contact with him - he is currently building one for me. It is strange how some wartime memories and stories are revived. Tom Chalmers ➣

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