Interview with Wing Cdr W "Taffy " Holden

In the post about my 1/48 scale Lightning F.1 I mentioned that the aircraft that I had finished the model as, had been taken on an unintentional flight by an engeneering officer, Wing Commander Walter "Taffy" Holden at RAF Lynham. By chance I came across the video below on YouTube, to be strictly accurate it is a still photograph of the actual aircraft preserved at Duxford as backgrown to a recording of an interview with the retired Taffy Holden on the BBC Radio 2, John Dunn Show some years ago.The matter of fact tone that he takes and his obvious concern for the safety of others in the predicament that he found himself in, only adds to
the admiration for his cool handling of a situation that would leave most of us jibbering!


Video from YouTube




This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Handley-Page Hampden 1/72 Scale

This model was built back in the mid nineties and was actually awarded a commended in the Bomber Command Trophy at the IPMS Nationals in the year that it was finished. It still appears from time to time on the Bomber Command SIG (Special Interest Group) display table at model shows

It is built from the old Airfix kit with quite few improvements, the wing tips were reshaped and a lot of internal detail was added (Little of which is visible). The tail and tail boom required a fair amount of reworking and filling to correct gaps and areas were the tools appear to have been damaged resulting in moulding faults.

The paint used was Extracolor and the decals came from Modeldecals range of roundels, codes and serials.

Although it requires some work the Airfix kit is not a bad representation of the aircraft, for sure the moulds show their age, but the kit has been around since the late sixties after all.

Sometime in the future I intend to tackle the Fonderie Miniature 1/48 scale Hampden but must get a few existing projects finished first!
 


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.

Normanrie Niemen Yak-3

This Yak-3 is built from the Eduard kit and is finished in the markings of Normandie-Niemen Regiment, the Free French fighter unit operating within the Soviet Air Force.

The model is built pretty much straight from the box and uses the kit decals, the paint is from the old (Original) Aeromaster acrylics range.

The Normandie-Niemen unit fought a distinguished campaign on the easten front from 1943 and one of its Yak-3s is on display at the Musee de l'Air et Aerospace at Le Bouget just outside Paris.

History of Normandie-Niemen at Wikipedia.
Normandie-Niemen Museum (In French).
Photographs of the preserved Yak-3 at Le Bourget.


This work by Roland Turner is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 UK: England & Wales License.