August 2025
Battle Of Britain 1940
Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1A
Dornier Do-
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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.1A
610 Sqn Royal Auxiliary Air Force, RAF Biggin Hill / Acklington,
Battle of Britain, August / September 1940
Airfix 1/72
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610 (County of Chester) Sqn RAuxAF was one of the first squadrons to re-
During the first two months of the Battle of Britain, 610 Sqn operated out of RAF
Biggin Hill just south-
The aircraft represented, P9495, was a Woolston built Spitfire Mk.1. issued to 610 Sqn in on 2 June 1940. She was eventually damaged in a dogfight with a Bf109 on 12 Aug 1940, crashing at Shepherdswell just north of Dover. RAF Pilot Officer Donald McIntosh Gray was slightly injured in the crash and the aircraft was written off as beyond repair.
Unfortunately, Gray was killed on 5th November 1940 aged 21, when Spitfire X4011 crashed on night takeoff from RAF Acklington. https://www.bbm.org.uk/airmen/GrayDM.htm
Building the 2010 Airfix Spitfire 1A kit
These little Spitfire kits were initially released by Airfix in 2010 to replace the well loved 1978 kit. As one of their best selling kits, they clearly put a lot of work into these to ensure that they would be accessible for the inexperienced to medium skill modeller, with excellent fit, restrained engraved panel lines and only 36 parts.
This particular issue was issued in 2010 as a promotional gift from the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday to celebrate 70 years since the Battle of Britain. A similar promotion in 2000 had used some very poor quality ancient Revell kits and perhaps this discouraged readers, because as far as I could see, there was rather a surplus in most newsagents. I picked up 2, but have never built them, although I did use the skinny DeHavilland propeller from one as a replacement for a Rotol version on another build.
As you would expect, the kit is a relatively easy build. The plastic is a strange light blue/green, which isn't a bad base colour for the sky/blue undersurfaces and it is quite soft. The kit includes a very credible cockpit with floor frame/pedal, forward and rear bulkheads, control stick and seat. Two oxygen cylinders are fitted behind the seats. With a little painting it looks more than enough for this scale. Unfortunately, the canopy is provided as a single part, so can't be posed open to show the detail inside the cockpit.
Joining the two fuselage halves together proved a little more difficult than expected. After shaving the cockpit frame down, I concluded that the issue is actually with the location pins (possibly because I had painted over them). I trimmed these and the fit was a little better, but in the end some filler will be needed. The top of the fin was similarly a poor fit, so filler was applied there too. Neither are major issues, but were unexpected.
Only one choice of decals is provided, with some basic but good quality markings for an aircraft of 610 Sqn at RAF Biggin Hill, which bore much of the brunt of the early German attacks. (DW@K flown by Pilot Officer Grey RAF). The diagram on the back of the box suggests that it belongs to 13 Group, but this was based in the North of England and for the BoB period it should read 11 Group. These are the same markings in the normal "basic series one" first issue of the kit, but as a "gift set" they are lacking the servicing stencils and other small details, some of which I shall gather from my spares folders.
The box also includes a tube of cement, a rather stiff brush and three of the usual barely usable Humbrol acrylic mini pots of paint.
Link to many more WW2 Luftwaffe / Axis models on my Other Side Pages
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2025 marks the 85th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, with which the Supermarine Spitfire will always be synonymous. I've built quite a few Battle of Britain builds, but always felt my original Spitfire build was a bit disappointing, so this month I'm going to add a new one, using the new(ish) Airfix kit, plus I intend to add some opposition, a Dornier Do17 Bomber that also took part in the Battle, attacking RAF airfields during the early strikes.
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Building the FROG Do-
The FROG Do-
As an "Orange Series" kit it is relatively large and complex. Whilst not comparing remotely with the superb current (actually 11 yrs old) Airfix kit, it remains a reasonable replica, externally at least, with good detail for its era and very finely raised panel lines that entirely justified its price premium over the contemporary Airfix Do217 kit (although the Airfix early Do17 kit is nice as well) . As was often the case with FROG, the transparent parts are very nicely moulded and very clear. Decals are simple but acceptable (including Swastikas), covering 2 options, the Luftwaffe KG.3 aircraft that I have built, or a Finnish example.
Unfortunately the standard of parts fit is poor; whilst I will allow a little sympathy for the fact that my kit is over 50 years old, it looks in good condition, but filler and sanding are definitely needed to fill some big gaps. Aligning the wings and tailplane needs care (I sat mine in a jig overnight to set). I added a minimal amount of essential sprue/polystyrene strip extra detail in the cockpit where it was visible.
That said, the full complement of nicely detailed seats, finely moulded control yoke and instrument panel (which is not mentioned in the instructions) is above average detail for its era. For some reason, my forward fuselage had "spread" somewhat, with the result that the locating ledges on either side for the cockpit floor did not meet, making it fiddly to keep the cockpit horizontal. Some gentle force, using my trusty spring clamps, kept the fuselage halves together long enough for the cockpit to set in the right position. I used the supplied crew figures to hide some of the remaining blank spaces.
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Link to many more WW2 RAF models on my Friends & Allies Pages
Unternehmen Adlerangriff (Operation Eagle Attack), 13 Aug 1940.
On 13 Aug 1940, the Luftwaffe launched Operation Eagle Attack, intended to destroy the Royal Air Force and gain air superiority over the British coast in advance of the planned sea borne invasion of Great Britain, Operation Sea Lion. Air superiority was critical because it was clear that the Royal Navy could prevent the intended landings and the only way to overcome this would be through Luftwaffe superiority in the air. The target of the operation was RAF Fighter Command and its airfields in the south and east of the UK.
On 12 August 1940 the attacks began in earnest, with RAF Hawkinge, Lympne and Manston bombed, alongside raids on the radar stations at Pevensey, Ventnor and Dover. With a misheld belief that these first raids had been highly effective, the main assault on a much broader range of RAF targets came the next day and continued throughout August and September.
Despite the German belief that it was on its last legs, RAF Fighter Command remained effective throughout, inflicting major losses on the Luftwaffe attackers and the Battle of Britain was comprehensively won by the RAF. Whilst it was indeed a close run thing, by the height of the battle, British aircraft production was replacing more aircraft than the Germans could shoot down.
Pilots were, perhaps, another matter.
Having failed to destroy the RAF and pave the way for invasion, the Luftwaffe turned its effort to bombing London and other British cities, in what became known as “The Blitz”.
Now at this point in my build, my Advanced Modeller Syndrome (see last month) kicked in again and I began to look at other people's builds of this kit and this aircraft.
DW@K has always been a popular subject, since there are many superb photographs of it during the Battle of Britain. Unfortunately, as these are all black and white and leave open some doubt as to colour, specifically of the underside, but also of the markings. It would appear that Biggin Hill Sqns, including 610 may have used a locally mixed/alternative light blue colour for their undersurfaces, possibly "RAF Sky Blue no.1", rather than the officially specified "Sky" (which was in short supply). This is where the regular debate over "Duck Egg Green" and "Duck Egg Blue" starts.
The evidence seems convincing although the actual colour is not certain, but it did
seem to me to be an opportunity to build something a little different from the stock
Airfix scheme, plus the rushed local wartime overpainting is also a good reason why
there are no stencils with the kit (they probably would not have been repainted in
mid 1940, since there were other things on their minds).
So what colour to use? Well, I have gone with Humbrol 23, which claims to be "Duck
Egg Blue" and is definitely lot bluer than the various "Sky Type S" paints that I
normally use. It may be a little lighter than it should be, but it is almost impossible
to tell, 85 years after the fact. Airfix actually duck out of suggesting what colour
the underside should be, possibly to avoid having to include another pot of paint,
which would explain the plastic colour. For my other colours I have gone for those
suggested by Airfix -
There is also a suggestion that the aircraft serials may have been overpainted for
security reasons -
Does any of this actually matter? Not really, and I'm sure someone will prove me to have made the wrong choices, but it's a good discussion point for future model shows!
In summary, this is a nice kit, well up to modern standards, although with a surprising need for filler, but a particularly nice cockpit. I got it for free, but even at its full retail price, it gets my vote!
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The Dornier Do17 made its first flight in 1934 and entered Luftwaffe service in 1937.
As a conventional (i.e. not dive) bomber it lacked the agility of the Ju-
Popularly known as the Fliegender Bleistift ("flying pencil") due to its narrow aft
fuselage, it was a contemporary of and had a similar design and capabilities to the
Handley Page Hampden', albeit with distinctive shoulder mounted wings . The Do17
Z was the definitive variant, modified and up-
Battle of France/Poland: Dorniers of KG.3 participated in all the early Luftwaffe operations in Poland and France, but suffered particularly heavy losses in their early battles against the French Air Force and RAF around Metz in early May 1940. By late May, the Germans had regained their position and KG.3 aircraft saw action over Dunkirk and Calais.
Battle of Britain: Following the French surrender, the Luftwaffe quickly reorganised
for the forthcoming assault on Britain. Do-
The Blitz: Airfield attacks continued until the end of August, when the effort shifted to the bombing of London and other British cities, with all of KG.3's Dorniers engaged. Losses were high, but concentrated raids on cities such as Coventry during November 1940 had a devastating effect on British morale. KG.3's Dorniers also participated in highly damaging Blitz raids on Bristol, Birmingham, Derby, Watton, Wattisham, Grantham, Ipswich, Newcastle, Gorleston, Portsmouth, Newcastle, Hull and Chatham.
The undercarriage is quite a fragile assembly, although it is provided with good location points. Unfortunately two of the very thin legs on my supporting struts broke as I removed them from the sprue, but I was able to rejoin them with some care, although they will still have a small kink and be more fragile than intended.
After a good amount of filling and sanding, the shape of completed kit looks good
and any missing panel lines can be restored using thin pencil. Although the main
fuselage and wing parts are quite chunky, smaller finer detail like the undercarriage
and defensive guns bring the kit up. For kits such as these, I find it pays to concentrate
on those parts that the mould designer has done well. In this case, I think the
most important feature is the complex multi-
Decals in my box were rather yellowed (unusual for FROG), but this was not a problem
as I have several bags of pristine ex-
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