The Boston itself is almost finished, with just a few small items to fit, and last minute touches to complete before it's placed on the 'mini-diorama' base. So, work has started on the 'crew', the 'ground crew' and accessories.
The first two figures to be tackled are the pilot and the 'spare' gunner/camerman.
The pilot figure has been sourced from the Tamiya 'German Infantry on Maneuvres' kit, using the Panzer commander to represent Flying Officer'Jack' Bell Wilson, the New Zealand pilot of BZ399, whilst the Gunner and Pathe News camerman, Sgt. 'Terry' Hunt , will be created from a (I think) Hasegawa Japanese pilot figure, kindly provided by Karl (rochie).
The first thing to do was clean up both figures, removing any flash, and the mould seams, some of which were in really awkward places, such as across the ears and neck of the Panzer commander's separately moulded 'head'. Then, any carving and re-shaping was carried out, to alter the look of the moulded clothing and boots, particularly on the Japanese figure, before some work was done to mould life jackets and parachute packs, using Milliput.
PIC 1 Shows the Panzer commander body for the pilot, before clean- up.
PICS 2 and 3. The figure after clean-up, and with the additon of a 'Mae West' life-jacket, moulded into place with Milliput. This will be trimmed and carved to shape properly once fully set.
PIC 4. The head and right arm have now been fitted. The high-peaked German cap was trimmed and 'flattened' to look more like a RAF Officer's Service Cap, and the short Panzer jacket was trimmed at the bottom, in order to create the look of a British Battle Dress blouse, commonly worn on operations. The object in the figure's right hand is a pair of gloves, and, when finished 'Jack' will be posed as if talking to the ground crew 'Chief', ready to sign the Form 700, the aircraft log, before boarding. His parachute, flying helmet and oxygen mask will be on the ground near his feet.
PIC 5. The Japanese pilot figure as provided.
PIC 6. Again, the figure has been cleaned up and trimmed, and the 'baggy' trousers straightened, and the thigh pockets removed. The boots have been shortened, and will be painted to represent the RAF 'escape' flying boots, which were suede boots, the bottoms of which had leather shoes attached. These could be cut away from the uppers, to look like ordinary shoes, in the hope they would aid in disgusie in the event of being on the run in enemy territory. A chest-pack parachute has been made from Milliput, and is being held by the right hand of the figure, and the oxygen mask was also made from Milliput. Both of these have yet to be carved to their final shape once set, and a hose added to the mask. The parachute harness will be altered slightly, and the large attachement clips for the parachute pack added.
The figure will be painted to show a 'Mae West' life-jacket worn over a dark brown, fleece-lined 'Irvin' jacket, whilst the trousers will be RAF blue grey, with brown and black boots, whilst the flying helmet will be dark brown leather with black earphone cups.
Thank you once again for your interest and kind comments, and I'll post more up-date pics soon.