This is a proxy build for Popala
(Thanks again for the opportunity for me to participate in this madness of a contest, er I mean very cool community endeavor :D).
While I have not received my kit in the mail, I have been able to start the mental preparations of building it. While I am absolutely against piracy of printed paper models, I have no qualms about stealing some Russian bandwidth to see what I'm getting into since I know the kit is on it's way. And no worries about me printing the model onto better cardstock, I will show pictures of cutting the actual book up to verify I'm dealing with whatever quality card it comes with
Now - the first thing is that this kit is said to be that of Flying Officer K. Campbell. Here's a description of what makes that plane memorable (from
http://www.pewteraircraft.com/STRUCK...0I%20144.htm):
Quote:
The aircraft featured was on April 6th 1941 piloted by Flying Officer K Campbell in an attack on the Gneiseneau in Brest harbour.
The Air Ministry account of the part played by Coastal Command in the battle of the seas 1939-1942 and published at the time states .. Six were given the task, three became bogged down while trying to take off. The fourth failed to find Brest in the haze.. The fifth went into attack a few minutes too late. This aircraft pressed home its attack through continuous streams of fire but found a bank of haze completely hiding the Battie Cruiser.
The sixth and last Beaufort had attacked a few minutes before.. . The Beaufort came in very low and was at once under the fire of some 270 anti-aircraft guns..... the barrage of the guns of the warship itself and from those of the three fiak ships. The torpedo attack was successfully made and the Gneisenau badly damaged. It is believed that the Beaufort was subsequently shot down by 20mm cannon fire from the mole protecting the warship. All of the crew A graduate from Cambridge a Canadian from Toronto, a farmer from Somerset and a chauffeur from North London" were killed. Flying Officer Campbell was posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross.
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More information here
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Campbell
Now, the lettering of the plane from that site is OA/X (or is that a DA/X?)- which is different than the MW/P of the MM kit. Unfortunately my research online has been unable to find any other references, so I'm unable to confirm if the MM letting is correct or not. Either way, I'll be building the kit as printed.