I have been meaning to get this one built for a very long time. I won it in the monthly random drawing here on Imodeler a little over a year ago. Here's the picture I posted when I received the kit from Martin and his team back in October of 2016 ! Sad to say it has been a long time ago...

I had good intentions, but I was always too busy building things for other Group Builds. Other times that thing called "life" got in the way.

This 100 Years of the RAF is perfect for this. Thanks go out to Martin and his team for providing the kit (and website to post it on), and Paul for starting this great idea for the Group Build.

So as promised much earlier Marin, here goes ! Sorry for the delay...

I'll be starting out with this kit:

It will be an out of the box build. I will be using the supplied kit decals, and decided on building the plane depicted on the box art.

The plane I'm building will be coded "PS * V" and flew from Martlesham Heath. The reason I picked this version is that I became friends with an American P-47 pilot many years ago who flew out of this airfield. He flew with the 356th Fighter group and his name was Ed Malo.

Sadly Ed passed away a few years ago.

So please follow along with this build. I plan on doing a kit review of the BPD prior to commencing the construction.

Thanks David ! It's good to hear from you.

I hope I don't make a foolish mistake and mess something up too terribly on this one. So if anyone has any pointers on building troubles they may have had while constructing their kits, I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to post your experiences here. 🙂 and Thanks in advance.

From what I have been reading, these new Airfix kit go together quite well. I'll try to do an in depth kit review tonight, and post it in the headlines section.

This is a great choice Louis, thank you so much for doing it and for tirelessly promoting this group build!

A rather nice link here is that 264 Sqn was formed in September 1918 - shortly after the RAF came into existence. Up to then and at that point they operated Short 184 float-planes - the first plane to sink a ship with a torpedo! Also the only RAF plane to operate at The Battle of Jutland. The use of the Short 184 to target submarines was not dissimilar to the use of the BPD in attacking convoys and subs, when 264 Sqn reformed in 1939!

Very much looking forward to this build - can't wait to see you work your magic on the Airfix plastic!

Can't wait to see that review Louis. I am reading a book called 'Flak' by Michael Veitch, you may have seen or read it? Lot's of short chapters with interviews with veteran flyers of WW2 - usually (but not only) Aussies - many trained in The US or UK. The story of the Gunner in a BPD night-fighter is fairly hair-raising! Apparently the Luftwaffe worked out the rear gun quite quickly and the extra weight of the gun-turret and gunner made them a very difficult prospect to manoeuvre. Such brave men to crew these!

That's great Louis, I'm in for this one also. Airfix did a good job on the new tooling and I like the subject very much. I had no real issues with the new tooled 1/72 version of this aircraft, only had to take care with building and fitting the gun turret. I'm looking forward to your work.

Thanks Ferry for the response and building information on the smaller 1/72 kit.

On this one, the turret looks like a little kit of its own. It's very detailed and I will definitely have to be careful during assembly because I want to get it right.

Thanks for following along with this one. I appreciate that.

Take care my friends.

Having this little poster that was autographed by both pilots flying the plane is special to me. I am very fortunate in this regard. It does have a direct link to Martlesham Heath, and this is the main reason I chose to build the BPD in the markings I did.

I do plan on building a FAA Corsair fairly soon. Using that picture I provided above as a guide. Would it be acceptable for this GB ? I also have a FAA Hellcat (or two) I can build providing they are acceptable too, (and time permits).

Thanks Paul.

Hello Louis, I'm just using a slower Sunday morning to catch up on what people have been up to on here. Wow - you blink and loads of excellent builds and posts appear!

Of course the Hellcats and Corsairs can be used in the build - I have always said the individuals can chose - and you have always said everybody must just have fun!