1:48 de Havilland Chipmunk In Military Service Part 4

The 1960s on the training airfields

Whereas the later parts of this series capture machines from the end of the type's service, this sheet aims at the time when the Chipmunk was still an everyday part of operations. All eight subjects fall into the years 1961 to 1973, with two of them given only by decade, that is into the period when the Royal Air Force operated hundreds of these aircraft and everyone knew their silhouette over country airfields.

The aerobatic team from Little Rissington

The most striking entry is a machine of the Central Flying School aerobatic team, caught in August 1968. This school trained instructors, that is the pilots who were to teach the others, and its displays were part of showing what can be done with a light trainer. A second machine of the same school from 1961 completes the picture of its everyday work.

Eight machines and their homes

The list goes on to hold an aircraft of No. 12 Air Experience Flight from Turnhouse, machines of the University Air Squadrons of Liverpool, London, Yorkshire, Oxford and Southampton and their airfields, from Woodvale through Benson and Finningley to Hamble. With most of them an individual letter or number is given as well, which will appear on the model on the fuselage beside the national insignia.

Recommendations for the work

The older finishes of British trainers tended to be silver or painted in bright yellow, and it is precisely on smooth gloss surfaces that every unevenness under a decal shows. A thin coat of varnish beforehand, careful squeezing of the water out from under the film and patient drying without moving it all help. It pays to keep to the order of working from the largest areas to the small lettering.