1:48 de Havilland Chipmunk In Military Service Part 2

The aircraft almost everyone started on

The Chipmunk was designed by the Canadian branch of de Havilland just after the war as a replacement for fabric-covered biplanes. What came out of it was an all-metal monoplane with a tandem cockpit, tailwheel landing gear and an inverted inline Gipsy Major engine. The British T.10 version became the basic machine of elementary training, and many pilots who later sat in jets had their first flight in its rear seat.

Air Experience Flights

Most of the subjects on this sheet belonged to units whose only task was to get young hopefuls into the air. There are machines of No. 6, No. 7, No. 10 and No. 11 Air Experience Flights from the airfields of Benson, Newton, Woodvale and Leeming, and with them an aircraft of an elementary flying training squadron from Barkston Heath. The span of years reaches from 1979 to 1995, so the sheet captures the late part of the type's career.

The finishes of training machines

The subjects come from a period when British training aircraft wore bold combinations with large areas of rich red or white, so that they would show up well in the air. That is exactly why it pays to give attention to the edges between the colors on them. The individual letters and numbers on the fuselage are as a rule small on Air Experience Flight machines, and they decide whether the model will really match a particular example.

Before gluing

It is a good idea to unify the surface with a gloss coat, so that no air bubbles form under the carrier film. The Chipmunk has only a slight curvature on the fuselage, so larger markings will settle without trouble. Smaller lettering is worth a little softener and a gentle press with a cotton bud.