DONE - Blackburn Skua

[Leading Observer]

This will be from the very ancient Frog kit:

[PR19_Kit]

This will be from the very ancient Frog kit:

Are there any others?

[The Rat]

This will be from the very ancient Frog kit:

Are there any others?

[The Rat]

Built one of those recently. Ancient kit, and it shows, but it goes together fairly easily. There are accuracy issues, like the wing chord, but that can only be fixed with a lot of work. Once it's finished it's recognisable as a Skua, and that's all that matters to me.

[PR19_Kit]

It'd be interesting to cross kit one with a new Airfix Defiant to make anice Roc.

[Leading Observer]

Built one of those recently. Ancient kit, and it shows, but it goes together fairly easily. There are accuracy issues, like the wing chord, but that can only be fixed with a lot of work. Once it's finished it's recognisable as a Skua, and that's all that matters to me.

I thought the same - it'll obviously be a Skua, but wearing a new suit

[jcf]

Built one of those recently. Ancient kit, and it shows, but it goes together fairly easily. There are accuracy issues, like the wing chord, but that can only be fixed with a lot of work. Once it's finished it's recognisable as a Skua, and that's all that matters to me.

I thought the same - it'll obviously be a Skua, but wearing a new suit

Italian? The Skua would look at home in Italian markings.  

[kitbasher]

This will be from the very ancient Frog kit:

Are there any others?

Yup:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/special-hobby-sh72140-blackburn-skua-mkii--102577

And a Roc:

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/special-hobby-sh72141-blackburn-roc-mki--102578

The FROG/NOVO/Revell/Eastern Express/Uncle Tom Cobbley/And All Skua is truly ancient and seriously lacking in accuracy and detail, but.....it has tons of cheap and cheerful whif potential.  Go for it!

[kerick]

That's the kit I build a very long time ago as a kid. At least that's what I remember. No idea what happened to it.

[NARSES2]

Pavla (Octopus) also released a kit which believe me you want to avoid if at all possible.

One of the very few kits I've actually given up on and the main parts are destined for a trip up North once we are allowed to travel again 

[buzzbomb]

One Aircraft I really have a soft spot for.

Be great to see it in some interesting livery

[Leading Observer]

A little progress:

[Leading Observer]

Progress update - a bit of extra detail added to the cockpit [control column, bulkhead and fuel tanks], and an exhaust stub to the engine cowling. Assembly can now commence.

[NARSES2]

Venerable kit it may be but it goes together better than the Pavla one  Only kit I've ever given up on and cast to the winds.

Looking forward to this, got a soft spot for the Skua. Comes from reading Hornet & Victor etc as a kid.

[Leading Observer]

Blackburn Skua Backstory
During the Norway Campaign of 1940, the Fleet Air Arm quickly learned that the Blackburn Skua, despite its initial success in sinking the German cruiser Königsberg in Bergen harbour during Operation Weserübung, the German invasion of Norway, was very much inferior to the modern Luftwaffe fighters it was now facing, evidenced during an attempt to bomb the German battleship Scharnhorst at Trondheim on 13 June 1940; of 15 [mostly Skuas] aircraft in the raid, eight were shot down and the crews killed or taken prisoner.
Of the eight shot down, two Skuas made forced lading and were recovered virtually intact by German forces, along with the remains of at least one other, and these were shipped to Germany for repair and evaluation.
After an initial evaluation by the Luftwaffe, who were dismissive of the aircraft, the Kriegsmarine requested permission to evaluate the aircraft themselves as part of their development of aircraft handling techniques for the Graf Zeppelin Aircraft Carrier, which was nearing completion.
Surprisingly this request was granted, and two airworthy Skuas and parts from the other incomplete example were handed over to a newly formed Navy Unit, known as Entwicklungsgeschwader fur Flugzeugtechniken der Kriegsmarine [Naval Aircraft Technique Development Squadron]. A number of Luftwaffe pilots who had already been selected for roles in the Graf Zeppelin air wing as part of Erpbungsstaffel 167 based in The Netherlands, where they had been working up the Fieseler Fi-167, were seconded to the new Naval Unit, to gain experience in flying foreign aircraft specifically developed for use on Aircraft Carriers. With usual Germanic bureaucracy the new unit was allocated the unused squadron codes of EBS167 and so the aircraft wore TJ+??
The Unit was based at Nordholz, historically a Naval Air Station during WW1, and a section of the main runway was modified to represent the proposed deck layout of the Graf Zeppelin, complete with 4 arrester cables so that air and deck crews could learn the necessary basics of cable arrested deck landings. The two airworthy Skuas were soon being put to good use training future Carrier Squadron aircrew. One aircraft was written off in a landing accident, and the other retired and scrapped once the navalised version of the Stuka became available.