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Spiros Pendedekas
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Airfix 1/72 Short Stirling

September 18, 2024 · in Aviation · · 55 · 237

RAF No. 7 Squadron was founded at Farnborough Airfield on 1 May 1914, being the last squadron of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) to be formed before the First World War.

Having been disbanded and reformed several times ever since, it is still active today, flying Chinooks. The squadron spent most of the First World War in observation and interception roles and was responsible for the first ever interception of an enemy aircraft over Britain.

During the Interwar years it was re-formed at RAF Bircham Newton on 1 June 1923 to perform heavy night bombing, starting with the Vickers Vimy and continuing in this role with a succession of types, such as the Vickers Virginia, the Handley Page Heyford, the Vickers Wellesley, the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley, the Avro Anson and the Handley Page Hampden, gaining the reputation of being one of the leading RAF heavy bomber squadrons.

On 1 August 1940 it was equipped with Short Stirlings, becoming the first RAF squadron to operate four engined bombers during the Second World War and was re-equipped with the Avro Lancaster from 11 May 1943.

In total, the squadron carried out 5,060 operational sorties with the loss of 165 aircraft during the war.

Post-war it was successively equipped with Avro Lincolns, Vickers Valiants, English Electric Canberras and, from 1982 onwards, Chinooks.

In March 2020 it was awarded the right to emblazon battle honors on its squadron standard, recognising its role in the British military intervention in Sierra Leone in 2000 and the War in Afghanistan between 2001 and 2014.

Regarding the Short Stirling itself, despite the not extremely wise design requirement to limit its wing span to 100ft (which, among others, decisively compromised its service ceiling), together with the inherent drawbacks of the dimensionally limited bomb bays (meaning the longer โ€œsuperโ€ bombs could not be carried) and, finally, the elongated (aka prone to collapsing) main landing gear to improve take-offs, it was, especially for those early war times, a very fine machine: a delight to fly, able to perform its missions concisely and absorb quite substantial battle damage, making it back home.

This is the elderly 1966 Airfix mold that has accompanied us through the years.

By all means a vintage kit, soft in details, but with seemingly correct basic shapes and with its relatively low parts count promising a not too complicated build of the iconic four engine bomber.

Should you wish to read the full build review, you may do so by visiting my beloved site Modelingmadness:
https://modelingmadness.com/review/allies/gb/bombers/penstirl.htm


Happy Modelling!

Reader reactions:
16  Awesome 5  3 

55 responses

  1. Ah...the memories! Beautiful box art and you did the Ye Olde Stirling a great service!

  2. I too have been intrigued by the Airfix box art and this design, but have never attempted to build one. You have done a very nice job with it. I will definitely check out the build thread. Curiously, the underside photo gives the impression that the fuselage is longer than the wingspan. That has to be an optical illusion. The photo of the unassembled parts laid out clearly show the wingspan to be greater. Looking up the actual dimensions, the length was 87 feet, and the wingspan 99 feet. The bomb bay doors in the wings appear to be the same quirky design as those found on the Fairey Battle. Was there a bomb bay in the fuselage? So many things to consider. Thanks for posting this along with the No. 7 Squadron information.

  3. she's a beauty Spiros! A year or so ago I got rid of my "larger" kits, this among them, and it is the one kit I regret not feeling like I have the space to house, as I really wanted to do a nicely weathered rendition of the Stirling.

  4. Amazing work on this Spiros , definitely better than mine my friend well done you got depth into the colour and a bit of weathering , it's great.

  5. An awesome build of an awesome aircraft, Spiros @fiveten
    Even in 1/72 not that easy to handle and build it as beautiful as you did.
    Well done.

  6. Fantastic result, Spiros! Solid build of a great old kit. You did a great job with the tack putty masking too.

  7. Great job on this old beast Spiros!

  8. You have done honour to this venerable kit and breathed wonderful life into it. I find that admirable and beautiful! I also have childhood memories of the Airfix Stirling, even if I only dreamed about it back then but never built it.
    Great work, Spiros!

  9. Very nice work on this old Airfix kit.
    It turned out looking great, Spiros !

  10. Great work on this classic Airfix kit, Spiros. 1966 was a classic year for many of us, England won the football World Cup, beating Germany in the final, Ford eventually managed to beat Ferrari in the Le Mans 24 hour race, I joined the RAF as an apprentice, and Airfix released the Short Stirling kit.

  11. Hi Spiros
    I well remember building the old Airfix Stirling many years ago. I always retained an affection for the kit even though it was a difficult build. You've done really well in presenting a very accomplished model from such unprepossessing material. Great work.

  12. Yes, great work on this oldie but goodie, Spiros @fiveten. Didn't you once build an Italeri Stirling?

  13. Nice work Spiros @fiveten

    Looks fantastic ๐Ÿ˜Ž

  14. Thanks for the background info, very interesting! I didnโ€™t know about the limitations.
    You built a great looking kit of a very ugly bird, Spiros @fiveten!

  15. Excellent work Spiros !

  16. Very well done, Spiros. Like the paint job!

  17. Fantastic, Spiros. An absolute peach of a build. Really impressive given the vintage. The paint job is exceptional.

  18. That's very impressive, Spiros @fiveten! ๐Ÿคฉ You've produced a great result of a classic kit and a great article in which to present it! Congratulations on work well done, dude! ๐Ÿ‘

  19. Excellent paintwork Spiros (@fiveten). I missed that it was the Airfix kit until I read some of the comments and had to go back and take another look. These old Airfix kits can really be made to look nice if you have the desire to do so. You did a great job on this one. I'm trying to see if you removed the raised surface detailing or simply toned it down.

  20. Great work on this ancient kit, Spiros.

  21. I love it! Excellent work Spiros @fiveten.

  22. Wonderful job Spiros. I too had this kit as a kid, and it was one of my favourites. I see an Italeri kit in my future. (I'm not looking in a crystal ball. I'm looking in my basement.)

    Keep up the inspiring work.

  23. Sterling finish on this oldie but goodie kit!

  24. Very Very beautiful build! Tjis is that old Airfix kit?

  25. Fantastic job mate, love it. And the Stirling is my favourite of the RAF Heavies.

  26. Ha. I built this one as a kid. Nice one.

    The old Stirling did give sterling service, carrying on in one form or another, particularly dropping my predecessors over Europe on one way flying missions.

    Ironically I have a friend in the current 7 and was up at Odiham a few weeks back with the Beaver.

    Nice job matey

  27. A fantastic build of the venerable and old Airfix kit.
    Nice one.

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