Those Daring Young Men In Their Flying Machines!

Some time ago, I promised to show a bit more of this beautiful wooden aeroplane. Well today is the day and I thought I would make it an 'Aero Special' and write about all of the air fleet currently flying from Apperley Towers.

This biplane was given to me by my very generous friend John Begg, after I commented on how nicely it would compliment hollowcast toy soldiers. John insisted that I give it a home here at Apperley Towers with my growing collection of old figures.

There is absolutely nothing to give us a clue about its origin. It is an expertly made model made from various hardwoods and metal components. Nothing about it suggests a mass made commercially produced model. The workmanship is meticulously precise and the result of many hours work. If I had to place a bet, it would be on a skilled craftsman producing it as a one off hobby project. There is little to date it apart from possibly the commercially produced plastic pilot, but its not new! My guess is 1960's to 1970's. 

 I will be only too pleased to give it a hanger to rest in, until its someone else's turn to look after it!

Here we see the oldest plane in the fleet. I can't recall where I recruited this one from but it seemed like a nice piece to add to my hollowcast collection. It is a fairly crude tin plate model made I would guess in the last 20 years. No pilot, no makers name, but I'm thinking China or the far East? 

Here aircrew are making some repairs or checks before flight. As with the wooden model,  have no way to actually put this one up in the air. Its construction makes it too heavy unless I build a really hefty flight stand. The alternative is to use a smaller 'stand in' during games, but I'm happy to use it as a scenario piece or just as a display piece in the cabinets.

This brings us to the newest ariel acquisition and in some ways my favourite of my little air fleet. This is the tinplate plane that I acquired at this years Plastic Warrior. 

This simply made tin plate model cost me £2 including the original Britains hollowcast pilot. Its a simple attempted copy of the Britains monoplane (?) made in the last 20 years, maker unknown. Its much lighter than the previous two planes and I decided early on that it would be put on a flight stand.

Now flight stands are an interesting proposition. A stick with a base into the underbody of the aircraft, is the normal way of doing them. In this case, I finally got to use a telescopic magnetic pen that I had bought many years ago with just such a use in mind. It cost a pound. It is a stainless steel, telescopic, pen sized device with a magnet on the end. It was sold to make your life easier when trying to pick up a small metallic object like a dropped screw. You took the 'pen' from your pocket, extended it to the required length and then picked up the screw with the magnet. Brilliant! Except how many years would you carry the damn thing around before the right opportunity to use it arose? 

As soon as I saw it, I thought of it as an extendable flight stick for a model aircraft. Well we wargamers are an inventive lot and can often see potential in all sorts of junk! I dug it out and found it attached really firmly to my new monoplane, so the die was cast!

Attaching it to a heavy base was the real challenge. It was then that I recalled that I had a Britains hollowcast tree in the spares box, which really was hollow! I opened up the top of the tree and found that the pen fitted almost perfectly inside the trunk. This mean that the 'pen' would not be visible. Additionally,  the tree would glue nicely to a base and being metal would make the base heavier and hence more stable. 

I then found other pieces of metal foliage and a lying tree trunk to add to the base, making it even heavier but also more attractive visually. The Plane was flying over a scenic woodland base which would look great on the table top.

More importantly the telescopic device meant I could alter the height the plane was flying to anywhere between about 6 to 18 inches. Result! I will admit to being more pleased than I should be with this little modelling project, but sometimes the fruition of a vision from several years ago, will have that effect. What do you think?

Tara a bit!

Post Script

Whilst researching the origins of a figure for my friend Michael, I spotted a plane which looked remarkably similar to my 'Britains copy'. The plane in question was by the French maker CBG Mignot. The cast engine and propeller is identical. I believe a new production run of this plane was produced in 1983 and I am beginning to wonder if this was indeed manufactured by them. I am still researching this and will update later!