About this Group

100 Years of The Royal Air Force Group Build.

Firstly, a big thank you to everyone for the impressive response to the suggestion of an RAF centenary group build. Secondly, special thanks to Boris for his behind the scenes coaching on how to organise my ideas for the project!

The aims of the group:

1. To build subjects to commemorate 100 years of RAF history.
2. To ‘reveal’ builds (new and old) in the form of a timeline from 1918 to 2018.

Start date: 1st of April 2018 (the 100-year anniversary of the founding of the RAF).
Reveal begins: 15th of September 2018 (Battle of Britain Day).

The ambition is to run 2 threads, one after the other:

1. The ‘work in progress/build log’ thread, for new builds only – showing progress, discussing kits and accessories, asking questions, sharing techniques and generally chatting away and supporting each other, as with any group build.

This would open ‘officially’ on April 1st 2018 – although much of the ‘inventory’ would undoubtedly shape up well before.

Although this seems a long way off (if you are reading this in December 2017) it has been set to coincide with the anniversary and to avoid clashes with the excellent group builds taking place on iModeler at present: please check them out – it is not too late to add something to either of the Year of the Cat or Kasserine Pass groups.

2. The ‘reveal’ thread: opening on September the 15th.

This will be an experiment to see if ‘reveals’ can be organised to produce a timeline representing the RAF’s story by decade.

At this point those wishing to submit previously completed builds would be warmly welcomed!

The first models revealed/posted would be subjects from 1918 -1919; at that point builds of subjects from these dates, both old and new, could be posted to the thread. Once we are satisfied that all subjects from that decade are in place, hopefully within a day or two, we’d move on to 1920-29, then 1930-39 and so on. This would finish with 2010-2018.

The reveal thread would show no ‘work in progress’, evaluations of kits or comments on techniques (etc) – only photos of the finished article, brief details of the kit (just name of subject, scale and manufacturer); and some writing about the subject pertaining to its operational history or specific story in terms of the RAF.

I am happy to run an inventory that is organised chronologically to help this run smoothly and to keep people well informed as to which builds are taking place.

I would be grateful if group members with new builds could initially let me know, whenever they are decided (and as of now):

1. Name of subject;
2. Manufacturer;
3. Scale;
4. Year(s) in operation (specific to the subject of the build not the type);
5. Pilot, campaign and/or operation.

For those builds where ‘life gets in the way’ we will find a way to add them later – nothing will be excluded – but there is an undeniable time element to the project given that a decade by decade reveal couldn’t happen otherwise!

Some guidelines (not rules):

During the lead in to the build I have been asked some great questions about which aircraft would be ‘allowed’ into the group. Should we include Fleet Air Arm, Dominion Squadrons and lend-lease subjects? These are important and very valid questions but in short, I can’t answer definitively because I don’t know enough. The spirit of the group is to commemorate the history of the first 100 years of the RAF. I certainly don’t ‘know’ all of that history! In fact, I am hoping to learn a lot!

In essence, if it can be linked to the RAF it can be built! If in doubt I’d ask: ‘Did it come under RAF operational command?’ That said I am aware that there are other ways to judge it, and I wouldn’t want to limit anyone’s contributions. In the end, there will never be a strict ‘in’ or ‘out’ policy – only the spirit of the build.

Finally, here is what I’d consider might make this a successful project:

1. People having fun while developing their modeling skills and knowledge in the usual iModeler atmosphere of camaraderie.
2. Subjects built spanning the whole range of 100 years – with some models produced for every decade of the RAF thus far.
3. Iconic aircraft being represented.
4. Less well-known or less commonly built aircraft being represented.
5. A completed ‘time-line’ style reveal in approximate chronological order.

Anywhere else this might be too big a wish-list, here on iModeler however I think we can borrow, with confidence, Per ardua ad astra (just this once).

Hosted by

Group admin:	Paul Barber
Moderator(s):	(none assigned)

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