Airfix 1:72 A50135 Dogfight Doubles Spitfire Mk1a and Messerschmitt Bf109e-4 Military Aircraft Gift Set,White

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Little and large, our Dogfight Doubles Bristol F2B Fighter pays tribute to an aircraft which is on display at the Imperial War Museum Duxford.

Pilot David ‘Bull’ Whitley joined No.264 Squadron straight from successfully negotiating his flight training courses and before the unit moved to Martlesham Heath. He was going to fly the new Defiant turret fighter and would go on to forge a successful working relationship with his assigned air gunner Sgt. Robert Charles Turner, a team which would fly together throughout the savage fighting which followed the German Blitzkrieg offensive in Western Europe.

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This latest Dogfight Double kit is due for imminent release and should be available through your usual model supplier over the next few weeks. Italian ‘Sparrowhawk’ a classic addition The RAF Museum at Hendon in London is planning an exhibition about Airfix which is due include examples of Roy Cross’ artwork for the company. The exhibition is due to open in June 2013 and is planned to relocate to the RAF Museum at Cosford in Autumn 2014. Both RAF Museums are free. A hugely popular kit range over the years, our ‘Dogfight Doubles’ sets are still very much a part of every Airfix model range and regularly benefits from the inclusion of some recent new tooling releases, keeping these magnificent sets as hobby relevant as they have always been. The latest range includes a classic jet pairing from the mid 1960s, aircraft which proved that sometimes the most simple designs were the most effective in a combat situation. Operating in the same hotly contested airspace during the Vietnam Air War, both the North Vietnamese MiG-17F and US Navy Douglas A-4B Skyhawk may not have represented the latest cutting edge aircraft designs, but they were both extremely agile, highly capable and as tough as they come. They make for an ideal Dogfight Doubles pairing. Referred to as 'The Red Devil' by French airmen by virtue of the distinctive colour of his aircraft, the legend of the Red Baron would only begin to form in the years after his death, once all the facts about his heritage and flying prowess had become more widely known. Arguably the world's first aviation celebrity figure, the legend of von Richthofen was made more compelling by the chivalrous manner in which he flew combat missions, something which proved an irresistible distraction from the indiscriminate carnage of trench warfare for many people.

Scheduled for impending release, our MiG-17F Fresco and Douglas A-4B Skyhawk ‘Dogfight Double’ setcomes complete with everything to ger the modeller started, including a tube of poly cement, a selection of paints and paintbrushes. It also includes the following scheme/decal options with which to finish your models. Douglas A-4B Skyhawk, 142132/NG, VA-93 ‘Blue Blazers’, Det.Q, USS Bennington (CVS-20), Sea of Japan, 1963-65

Just as it seemed the hapless May would either hit the ground or appear large one final time in the red Fokker Dr.1's gunsights, the German aircraft was seen to rear up and immediately attempt to make a forced landing in a nearby beet field, with the undercarriage being ripped off the aircraft due to the rough ground. Mortally wounded, Manfred von Richthofen shut down the engine of his machine and cut off the fuel supply, before succumbing to his injuries at the controls of his aircraft, the result of a single bullet wound to his body. This historic victory was initially attributed to (although not claimed by) Captain Roy Brown, however, subsequent research revealed that the bullet lodged in von Richthofen’s chest was most likely fired by a trooper from an Australian machine gun position on the Morlancourt Ridge.

The Vintage Classics range is about to welcome the return of two much loved and eagerly anticipated warship kits, one British and one German, but both possessing strong links to the sea battles of the Second World War. The origins of No.39 Squadron began with No.19 Reserve Aeroplane Squadron and how in February 1916, they were assigned to fly Home Defence duties, protecting the greater London area. In April, the unit was renumbered No.39 (Home Defence) Squadron, initially based at Hounslow, but also operating from satellite airfields at Hainault Farm and Suttons Farm. In August 1916, the Squadron's 'A Flight' relocated to North Weald, where they were joined by the rest of the Squadron early the following year. For this reason, it can be surprising to learn that the Fokker Dr.1 was not actually built in huge numbers and was only in service during the final months of the war and despite its links to the Red Baron, he only used this aircraft to score the final 17 of his 80 aerial victories. The vast majority of his victories were actually scored using various Albatros fighters.This fantastic image shows built examples of both scheme options which are included with this latest 1/35th scale armour kit

Messerschmitt Bf109E-7, aircraft flown by Oberleutnant Joachim Muncheberg, 7./JG26 Schlageter, Gela, Sicily, Spring 1941. The next edition of Workbench is due to be published on Friday 24th July, when we will have more interesting features from the world of modelling.

The classic combination of Spirit and any other worthwhile adversary would lead to a classic kit combination. However in this case, the rather strange pairing of these two craft in a realife dogfight led to Airfix combining these two in a 'one-of-a-kind' Dogfight Double. The legendary tale of the first encounter of this other-worldly craft by Flight Lieutenant Paul Dugget in 1944 and an unknown and unnamed Nazi airman has left an imprint on our collective minds much greater than the impact of the actual battle on the outcome of events in World War II. Dugget's encounter was the first reported example of an allied aircraft being engaged by what the Allied pilots began to call "a tinhat". The brief encounter can barely be called a dogfight as the Haunebu MkII was merely making its fast vertical assent when a chance came to fire a burst of 20mm cannon at the unaware Allied craft cruising in horizontal flight. The fact that the allied plane was untouched by fire and was unable to engage the enemy craft in return does reduce this 'dogfight' to the more prosaic realms of a mere encounter. However, the concept of these two craft, built for entirely different roles, trying to engage each other in mortal combat has an enduring appeal that has had modellers, over the decades, creating far more Haunebu models than ever were constructed in real-life. How many children have run around the Christmas bedroom holding a model of the 'tinhat' flying saucer pursuing a spirit in a life-or-death mortal struggle to the bitter end? In reality we know that Paul Dugget survived the encounter but how many more allied craft succumbed to such an encounter unable to report their own destruction? We shall never know. His opponent was clearly an experienced pilot and May simply could not shake him from his tail - his only chance of survival was to dive for the ground and try to make it over Allied lines, in the hope that his enemy would not follow. What he didn't know at the time was that he was being chased by the distinctive red Fokker Dr.1 of Manfred von Richthofen, the greatest air ace the world had ever known.