"633 Squadron took over its new airfield at Sutton Craddock on the 8th January 1943.....The first Boston appeared out of the cloud. It was piloted by Grenville"
The 1963 film forever connects the fictional 633 Squadron with the de Havilland Mosquito, but at the start of the original novel they flew Bostons, making that a nice subject for my what if collection of the squadron's aircraft. My build of Squadron Leader Roy Grenville's A-Apple is based on the Italeri Douglas Boston III.
There is a clear implication in the first part of the book that a lot of 633's work had been in the anti-shipping business, so I took a liberty and imagined they might have adopted the Temperate Sea Scheme of Dark Slate Grey/Extra Dark Sea Grey over Sky. The cover photo of Sky over Scapa (a Fleet Requirements Unit Boston based at RNAS Tern at Twatt (really!) in Orkney) provides a tenuous justification for this.
The kit goes together fairly well but the reviewers who advised gluing the nose halves to the fuselage halves first, rather than assembling as per the kit instructions, were spot on, as I discovered the hard way. It also requires a massive amount of lead in the forward part of the bomb bay and anywhere else you can put it (mine has the only lead dinghy in RAF history) to prevent tail-sitting.
20190423 (8)_633_Squadron_Douglas_Boston_III by John Dixon, on Flickr
20190423 (6)_633_Squadron_Douglas_Boston_III by John Dixon, on Flickr
20190423 (2)_633_Squadron_Douglas_Boston_III by John Dixon, on Flickr
20190423 (11)_633_Squadron_Douglas_Boston_III by John Dixon, on Flickr
20190423 (12)_633_Squadron_Douglas_Boston_III by John Dixon, on Flickr
Thanks for looking!
1:48 Douglas Boston III: 633 Squadron
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Re: 1:48 Douglas Boston III: 633 Squadron
Fantastic back story for a model and well executed.
For evidence of Twatt, look out for Big erics avatar!
Arabest,
Geoff.
For evidence of Twatt, look out for Big erics avatar!
Arabest,
Geoff.
52 in a year! We must be certifiable!