An October Vampire

Last operated by the Royal New Zealand Air Force as NZ5776, this de Havilland Vampire FB.5 was built for the RAF as WA375.  Once in storage with the Museum of Flight, it is now a future restoration project for Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum. In October, the Museum put some unrestored artifacts on display and these included the Vampire.

Modeler's Note: Special Hobby is hands down the best Vampire in 1/72.  It has also been reboxed by Revell.  Cyberhobby has a kit that has some interesting engineering, but also some odd inaccuracies.  Also there is the old standby Heller Vampire FB.5 which has been reboxed by Revell, Airfix, and Lodela.

Sweet Eloise II

In remembrance of Canadian Warplane Heritage founder Dennis Bradley who passed away last week at 81.

One of the surprise visitors to Flying Heritage's Skyfair  yesterday was the newly restored A-26C Invader 44-34313/N4313. Owned by Mr. Bradley in the early 90s and flown in French markings on behalf of the Canadian Warplane Heritage as C-GHLK, the Invader has been repainted into its Korean War markings as "Sweet Eloise II."

Tired of the Mosquito yet?

Because I'm not...

European Theatre day on a Sunny Seattle Saturday.

Mosquito TV959 First Flight

The first North American flight of Mosquito TV959 took place right around 10am on Friday June 23, 2017, at Paine Field near Seattle.  The Mossie went up again Saturday morning; both times with Steve Hinton at the controls. The first "public" display will be on July 22, 2017, during the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum's Skyfair event. (Note: The pictures look better if you click on them.)

Modeler's Note: The FHC Mosquito is a T.III that has been restored as FB. VI NS838 of 605 Squadron flown by Alan Wagner. Decals for "Wag's War Wagon" are included on Eagle Edition's EagleCals #168 decal sheet which has been released in all three scales.

Mosquito!

A few years ago after missing out on seeing Mosquito KA114 in the air, I joked that I'd probably see the Flying Heritage Collection Mosquito flying long before I enjoyed the sight of the ex RCAF Mosquito taking flight. Looks like that wisecrack was pretty close to the truth.

Arriving in Seattle as an early Christmas present, it has been fun to watch Mosquito T.3 TV959 slowly being assembled at the Flying Heritage & Combat Armor Museum. TV959 was built by de Havilland at their Leavesden, England factory, being accepted by the RAF in August 1945.  It spent most of its time with the RAF shuffling between various training units and MUs.  It was featured on the silver screen in the "633 Squadron" movie, before spending most of the 60s, 70s, and 80s on display at the Imperial War Museum in London.  Sadly, the right wing was cut off to better display the Mosquito in the Museum.  TV959 was acquired by Stephen Grey's The Fighter Collection and then traded to Paul Allen.  Allen had the Mosquito transferred to AVspecs Ltd. of New Zealand for restoration.  The original plan was to use as much of the original wood as possible in the restoration, but it was later decided to complete the airplane with a new build fuselage and wing.  Taking to the air in late 2015 in New Zealand, the Mosquito was then disassembled and shipped to Washington.

The Mosquito as it arrived at the Flying Heritage Collection. (Photos taken January 14, 2017.)

That is one large piece of wood!

A couple of attempts at cockpit photos.

The Mosquito as it appeared today.

While the Mosquito was originally built, and then restored, as a training variant, there was no question the aircraft would masquerade as a Mosquito FB.VI in the night intruder scheme.  While I had hoped that the FHC would honor a local Mosquito ace who flew with 418 Squadron RCAF, they instead decided to finish it was "Wag's War Wagon" NS838 UP-J of 605 Squadron.  Wag's War Wagon was flown by Flight Lieutenant Alan Wagner who had downed two Aichi Val dive bombers while flying Hurricane in Ceylon.  Flt. Lt. Wagner had at least one V-1 kill flying the Mosquito, but was killed while chasing a V-1 in a Hawker Tempest in July 1944.

The Mosquito looks stunning in its Intruder scheme, especially the matt Night undersurface, and it is neat to see both German and Japanese kills on the type.   I can't wait to see it in the air.

The mighty Rolls-Royce Merlin.

Modeler's Note: Tamiya has scored a hat trick of the best Mosquito in all three scales. The 1/32 Mosquito FB.VI is one of the best kits ever released in plastic. The 1/72 Mosquito is beautiful but, as can be expected, it is quite a bit simplier than the 1/32 scale beast.

WWII Modeling Day at the Flying Heritage Collection

On Saturday, my local model club, the Northwest Scale Modelers, hosted the first of what we hope will be quarterly modeling displays at the Flying Heritage Collection.  Each modeler gets a table to build on and to display a few models.  We spend the day BSing with each other and talking to the museum patrons.  It is a nice way to spread the word about scale modeling and I even got some progress made on an Academy P-40N.

My workspace for the day.  Yep, it is a rough life...

The nose of Lancaster Mk. I (FE) TW911 makes a nice display. This Lanc was built for the Tiger Force but carries the more common night bomber scheme.

One of the newest displays at the Museum is a Scud missile on its launcher.

The Spitfire had the engine off for some winter maintenance.

Flying Heritage Collection Battle of Britain Day

Ok, so they were off by a week and a day.  Ok, the Spitfire was a later model, but it was still totally fun. The Messerschmidt Bf-109E and the Spitfire Vc took to the skies yesterday after a short weather delay to entertain all in attendance.

And what is a post from Paine Field without a Dreamliner?

FHC's June 29, 2013 Fly Day

The theme was Air War in the Pacific and it was also the public debut of the newly restored F6F-5 Hellcat BuNo. 79863/N79863.  I got some nice shots of the Hellcat, but the Zero fared less well.

Not quite Pacific, but it did spray quite a bit of water...