Tempest Mk.V “Hi-Tech” 1/32 Special Hobby - P.CLOSTERMANN but not the JF-E !!!

[Furie]

 

After a well-deserved vacation with my wife in Egypt (no deaths reported on our boat cruise on the Nile...) I'm back in my cellar business!
After the black crosses and red stars, it's time to move on to the roundels.
So I'm going to start with a Tempest piloted by our national Cloclo, whom I'm sure you know.
The problem is that one out of two Tempest built and seen on the forums is a Cloclo's plane.
And it's always the JF-E that's featured.
As I don't like to do anything like the others, I won't do a 10,000th JF-E.
It'll be a US-W flown by Cloclo when he was in 56 Sqn.
It's got very sober pyjamas, but with a “Sky” stripe on the back of the fuselage that shows through a little, and victory marks on the right, under the windscreen.
Considering the contents of the box, I wouldn't buy an AM and I'd use my Cameo as much as possible for this model.
See you on Monday!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[mozart]

Excellent Denis! Great to see you doing a British aeroplane for a change, albeit with a French pilot. A very wise choice to do the lesser known 56 Squadron one, not that I’m biased of course! Will be following closely since one of these will soon be on my bench too, NV641 in which W/Cdr Brooker met his death on 16 April 45. 
 

 

My kit is the Pacific Coast Models Vc, it will be interesting to see how the two kits of the same plane compare. 

 

Edited August 24, 2024 by mozart

[ROM]

salut!

super sujet!

[dennismcc]

The more Tempests the better, and a great looking subject.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[scvrobeson]

Excellent!  Happy to see you back on a new build, and it looks like it should be a great one

 

 

Matt 

[Furie]

@mozart  : Yes, Max, I like to think outside the box, and we can pay homage to P.CLOSTERMANN without just doing the JF-E.

I like the idea of pilots switching from one plane to another when their own plane broke down.
I've put together a few fuselage and wing sections, and this Tempest is really impressive.
What a brute!

 

@ROM  : Hi Romain, how are you?
See you in Bron next year?
I'll try to reserve a table or two to display my “works” and I'd be happy to see you again.

 

@dennismcc  : Not everyone says that, Dennis, especially when you're out at sea on a small boat!

Anyway, I'm looking forward to building this big beast. 

 

@scvrobeson  :  Thanks Matt, there are lots of pieces and the resin kit included in the box promises some pretty things.

I'll just have to work on the assembly and be patient...

Edited August 24, 2024 by Furie

[mozart]

Here’s a very interesting interview with Clostermann Denis which I think you would appreciate. 

[David Hansen]

Just because i don't know my Tempests (and the pilots that flew them very well), i was curious: This "JF-E" that you mention is *not* a plane flown by James Francis "Stocky" Edwards, RCAF is it?

 

Purely a coincidence of the codes?

 

thanks!

[mozart]

1 hour ago, David Hansen said:

Just because i don't know my Tempests (and the pilots that flew them very well), i was curious: This "JF-E" that you mention is *not* a plane flown by James Francis "Stocky" Edwards, RCAF is it?

 

Purely a coincidence of the codes?

 

thanks!

Coincidence I think. Edwards was with 274 Squadron latterly flying Tempests (as indeed was Clostermann), the squadron letters were JJ rather than JF of 3 Squadron with which Clostermann had served earlier, though he had his own “personalised” Spitfire:

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2024 by mozart

[Furie]

4 hours ago, mozart said:

Here’s a very interesting interview with Clostermann Denis which I think you would appreciate. 

 

Thanks Max for the link.
I must have read it in French a few years ago.
There are a few translation errors here and there, but overall we find Cloclo's spirit: not exactly modest, a high idea of himself and a blindness to Rudel's ideas and actions that leaves me speechless.

Especially at the time of the interview, when so much documentation was available on the Kameradenwerk founded by Rudel...
We'll come back to Cloclo's military career later, but I'm grateful to him for leaving the USA to join the FAFL and RAF.
Not everyone did, far from it.
What a character!

 

Quote

One of my friends, Henri Mattey, arrived on base out of uniform. He was wearing a sweater over a canary yellow shirt with socks to match and when we stood in our initial formation Commander Mouchette Mouchotte reproached him soundly. Henri didn't miss the opportunity and responded, "Yes, my Commander, I am out of uniform, dressed as a civilian, but I am here because I want to wage war against our enemy. Uniformed soldiers here are not nearly as eager for this as me." And he was right! You know, we were only a small cohort but the role of the Français Libres [Free Frenchmen] was out of proportion to our actual numbers.

 

A more correct translation to the best of my recollection:

 

Henri didn't miss the opportunity and replied: “Yes, Commandant, I'm out of uniform, but I'm a civilian who's come to fight the war with the FAFL in place of all those professional soldiers who refuse to do so... 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2024 by Furie

[Furie]

3 hours ago, David Hansen said:

Just because i don't know my Tempests (and the pilots that flew them very well), i was curious: This "JF-E" that you mention is *not* a plane flown by James Francis "Stocky" Edwards, RCAF is it?

 

Purely a coincidence of the codes?

 

thanks!

 

Hi David.
No, the JF-E I'm referring to is a very famous Tempest piloted by P.CLOSTERMANN.
This JF-E is inseparable from Cloclo and the Big Show/ Le Grand Cirque.

 

In fact, there wasn't just one JF-E, but at least three JF-Es piloted by P.CLOSTERMANN: NV994, SN222 and NV724.

The only Tempest by Clostermann to bear the inscription “Le Grand Charles” was SN222, which did not bear the Lorraine cross.

 

 

 

 

Edited August 24, 2024 by Furie

[Dpgsbody55]

This should be good.    Lots of great information here already.  One day I'll get around to building mine.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[mozart]

I haven’t read Clostermann’s “The Big Show” but I was speaking recently with “Peter” (R E P) Brooker’s nephew Malcolm Sutherland who suggested to me that Clostermann’s description of Brooker’s demise wasn’t very accurate, but I need to find and read it.

 

Pure fiction:

 

 

 

Edited August 25, 2024 by mozart

[Furie]

A little reading:

 

Pierre Clostermann (e-monsite.com)

 

info-eduard-2019-02en.pdf  (Page 26)

[Biggles87]

Looking forward to this.

I read ‘ The Big Show ´ many years ago as a teenager, and keep telling myself I should read it again.

 

John