What...

... is it?

Having surfaced, briefly, from the depths of daily life into the happy sunshine of bits of plastic, smelly glues, and sharp cutty things, I was able to begin this project today:

Clearly, it is not the He115 that I spoke of, and that I will tackle soon, but what is it? Answers on a virtual postcard to Alf at the Hobbit Bunker, West Mercia.

As more regular readers of this blog will know, I have a passing interest in the British Home Guard during its first incarnation. Recent news that a film of the television series - 'Dad's Army' - that came to represent most British people's views of the force meant that I was asked to write this brief account for a relatively recent innovation in academic-popular e-magazine thingies.

Lies !!

Lies !! It's all lies, I tell you!!!

If you have any interest in kit bashing aircraft you will know that among the various, much-touted techniques, the use of artist's oils is currently in vogue. Any sucker, sorry, reader, who persuses the pages of modelling magazines will meet with 'how to do it' accounts of smearing oils over their nicely painted models. The oils are wiped off after a while, using white spirit if necessary, and, hey presto, panel lines are all revealed and one's model is suitably weathered. But it is ALL LIES!!! See:

I can't bring myself to show a close-up of the oily mess that my second Tupolev has become. These blurred photos (rather like something from the old Cold War) will suffice:

 

Moving swiftly on... After my query in my last post re Norwegian He115s, the good blogger over on FalkeEins confirmed that there were two finishes sported by the Norwegian aircraft. The second finish involved the hastily applied camouflage shown below:

The photo shows two RAF officers on one of the Norwegian machines that made it to the UK. As for the finish - well, your guess is as good as mine.  So, it looks like the choice will be this:

'FalkeEins' assures me (from a learned perspective) that this was overall aluminuim/silver, rather than grey; so I'll go for that. Cheers, FalkeEins!!


Back in the world of beauty and truth, i.e., the garden of a middle aged Englishman:

Another Iris - wonderful, beautiful. I give thanks !