Went on holidays and all I got was this plastic wrapped Spitfire!

[PADDY]

You heard it right! I've bagged myself a full size replica Spitfire (see photo). This crazy little mind of mine realised that where I was staying in Norfolk 'happened to be' just an hour's drive from the company that built the repro full-scale replicas of Spitfires and Hurricanes for the movies, Pearl Harbor and Dark Blue World. Could Paddy pass up this opportunity? of course not!!
So gave them a ring, I think they got the idea that I was enthusiastic (!!!) and I was invited down. Anyway, I'm getting a 'loan' of this £30k beauty, all gift wrapped for me (as you can see!!) for a wee photoshoot idea I have spinning in this vintage mind of mine. Always the opportunist when it comes along, grab it. Just need big hands to grab this baby, but she is lovely and has been moulded off an original (rivets..et al).

My cam batteries went dead after this first shot (think all the electricity from my enthusiasm just short circuited things around me!! light bulbs go "POP!!!"...etc).

Ideally, I want a squadron of these beauts lined up on a grass strip with the BoB boys in deck chairs ..etc, waiting for the scramble bell....(nice photo op!)

 

[J. M. Stovall]

WOW, I'm eating the wrong kind of cereal if that's the kind of prizes you get!

 

[Baggers]

I never found one of those in my box of crackerjacks!

Everyone else always gets the cool toys, WAAAH!

Cheers!

 

[Dixon Cannon]

Well spit fire howdy do!!!...

Is there a cockpit in that bird Paddy? I could sit in there all day playing dogfight! Do take more photos (the lunk can afford a Spitfire but not batteries for his camera! Go figure! )

Can we take that as in invitation to come visit and sit in your 'Spit' for a photo!!??

-dixon cannon

 

[Willi_Goat]

Very nice acquisition. Good luck on the rest of the squadron.

 

[Mycroft]

Holy Cow, dude, man can or will it fly?

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Naah, I think it's just for static display. About the coolest static display around, I might add.

A full-size flyable replica would be nice, but Merlins are a wee bit hard to find these days, and not much else would really work.

I ought to replicate one of my Dad's WWII era suits as a re-enactor if I make it across the pond in the near future.

After all, if John Rhys-Davies can play a dwarf, I could play my ol' pop with some camera tricks.

 

[Hemingway Jones]

Paddy, I know you will do something really exciting with this. I can't wait to see what you come up with, my friend.

 

[Daisy Buchanan]

That is sooooo cooooool!! I can't wait to see the photos. You are a lucky man. Now, did you choose a vacation and then say "oh wow, what a surprise, the static plane factory is only an hour away" "wow, I didn't even realize that, what a coincidence".......

 

[Cobden]

Wow! Just wow!

You wouldn't by any chance be needing an erk to lurk near it, would you

 

[mikepara]

Haha Paddy...

...sure your not a spiv? Lol! Seem to know all the right people.

 

[fortworthgal]

Very nice, Paddy! I can't wait to see what you do with it.

Makes me want to put together a British ATA impression! lol

 

[J. M. Stovall]

Naah, I think it's just for static display. About the coolest static display around, I might add.

A full-size flyable replica would be nice, but Merlins are a wee bit hard to find these days, and not much else would really work.

I ought to replicate one of my Dad's WWII era suits as a re-enactor if I make it across the pond in the near future.

After all, if John Rhys-Davies can play a dwarf, I could play my ol' pop with some camera tricks.

Great picture! And who said nobody had beards in the Golden era!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Great picture! And who said nobody had beards in the Golden era!

Thanks! Well, he was British, and I think he had a secret desire to become a pirate. After all, his name was Roger and he could be jolly at times.

 

[Serial Hero]

Now all you need is a replica of a Stuka.

You could hang them by ropes as if they’re dog fighting (the way kids hang model planes in their rooms).

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Well, to be sporting, maybe a Bf-109E. Not much of a contest with a Stuka. lol

 

["Doc" Devereux]

Well, to be sporting, maybe a Bf-109E. Not much of a contest with a Stuka. lol

Can we make it an FW-190? I can fit in an FW-190!

The only way you'll get me into a Bf-109 is with a shoehorn and a gallon of vaseline!!!

 

[Tony in Tarzana]

Make it an Me-323 and maybe I'd even fit. lol

 

[desertweasel]

YO-T?

Looks like she's a Canadian, YO was the code for 401 RCAF, she would have been referred to as 'T for Tommy'... alas not a very feminine name for such a goddess

 

[Clyde R.]

Too cool!

My Dad made a "fighter" for me to play in when I was a little kid(it was supposed to be an F4U Corsair) and it had an old tennis racquet handle for a joystick and some gauges mounted in it. It was just a wooden box, really

Neat thing was he wired a "trigger" to the joystick so when I "fired" by pressing the button a machine gun noise was created. Dad was quite handy like that. I loved playing fighter pilot lol