Found out today that my Granddad was one of five men wanted by the police during the war. He wasn’t a draft dodger nor a conscientious objector. He wanted to join the army. But he and his mates were tasked with building the Sunderland Flying Boats at Rochester in Kent. Reserved occupation they called it. Locals thought he was a draft dodger and coward. The UK armed forces were warned that if he and his mates tried to join up they were to be arrested. My granddad ended up in court; fined and threatened with prison if he tried to join up again.

In the end he did see action – he was responsible for digging up a UXB single handed. But it wasn’t he who got a medal – it was his C/O in the Home Guard. In the end he gave his one and only medal (Defence Medal) back to the government – disgusted at his treatment.

Leslie Rhodes his my war hero. He never flew with the RAF, but he did build the Short Sunderland. He died in 1989.

Sorry everyone – my fault for not reading the original message. Dont know of any feature films depicting FAA carrier operations. Maybe it’s time someone made a film about the epic Swordfish attack at Taranto, there are how many airworthy examples, though where do you get a period aircraft carrier from?

Here is a pic of an original quad poster for the movie…….i picked this up from an anitques fair a year ago:D

all the best Matt;)

You lucky, lucky, lucky chap. Can I ask how much you paid, and please don’t say £5. Suggested to Ken Ellis that they stick a repro copy of Reach for the Sky poster on the cover of Flypast – they are considering my suggestion. There is an original quad going to auction next week – guide price of between £300 and £600.

How flattering for him 🙂 Listed status really means it cannot be altered without consent. In reality if consent is obtained for example, for an extension to a listed dwelling, you can carry out the works VAT free. Of course if you just wish to repair or maintain said listed structure VAT is charged at the standard rate :rolleyes:

Listed status is a double edged sword. Yes, it prevents a building from being demolished (though the owner can block any attempt to have a building listed), but it also makes it financially unviable to refurbish or renovate the building in the first place, because restoring a building using like for like materials and processes is very expensive and financially unviable.

Also going down the route of getting a building listed might prompt the owner to demolish the building sooner rather than later. I think this happened at Driffield.

There needs to be an alternative in which a building can be protected from demolition while allowing the owner to use modern materials during refurbishment. As long as the external appearance and prominent internal fixtures were retained, the owner should be given consent to redevelop the building without the usual constraints that otherwise would prevent a lot of buildings from being saved.

Regarding the listing of aerodrome buildings. There isn’t a level playing field. You can have two identical buildings (built using the same plans) on two different airfields with comparable histories, yet one building is recommended for listed status and the other is left to its own fate. Like it or not, but the whole issue of aerodrome protection (from single structures to entire sites) has become extremely political – this due in part to the housing crisis. Without going off on a tangent (too late), house building is about money (profit) and the government will do anything it can to bolster the housing market. They have changed the rules that dictate what can be build and where, while the recent Thematic Study by English Heritage has been used by numerous government officials to prove they care about our aerodrome heritage but not beyond what has been done so far.

If the building you wish to save is miles from anywhere, singular and not in the way of the developer you might succeed, but if you consider listed status as being the means to save a building from being demolished because someone wants the land on which it is built for houses then good luck. There is support out there, but…

Matt, can I ask what building you are trying to save?

It could be called The Bad German. :diablo:

I honesty don’t know what to make of her. I’ve read her book (written soon after the war) and one written a few years ago about her. She was a NAZI and proud of it. No wonder no one has made a film about her. I like to consider that the only thing worst than a bad Nazi was a good Nazi. She knew about the holocaust, though only at the very end of the war (late 1945?).

Four Films:

Biographical film on German Test Pilot Hanna Reitsch (shot in black and white with plenty of CGI, though filmed in 1930s style – similar to The Good German)
Thunder and Lightnings by Jan Mark (using CGI and Cranfield Lightning)
Operation Jericho (CGI Mosquitos and plenty of green screen)
Mission to the Moon (fictional, what if story) based on actual proposal by The British Interplanetary Society in the late 1930s. Check out: http://www.britain-in-space.co.uk/1930/index.html

Great show…my only gripe being that they should have given the kids the Airfix Churchill tank to do.

You try getting all those little boogie wheels in place and sticking the two halves together!!

Chumpy

Oh thanks Chumpy. Brilliant. 30 years of therapy undone in one sentence. I thought I was passed that bast**d model. Totally forgot about it. Choosing between Airfix’s Churchill tank or being ******** by a priest, I would have chosen Catholicism any day of the week. Not an evil kit, nor one that was badly designed, but…

…I was only ten 🙁

Try the 21st Century Models 1/32 kits if you can find them – exactly that approach – problem is they’ve stopped making them – but one of the bargain chains had them on sale at £1.99 – they flew out the stores…..

Compare that with Tamiya’s new 1/32 Spit IX at £99.99 and Airfix’s new 1/24 Mossie at c. £120……………

Yes, I think it was Home Bargains. They had the Me109, Zero and some Italian design. Unfortunately I was too preoccupied with other pet projects to buy one. I actually think they went for £2.99? Home Bargains also sold the Airfix Shaun the Sheep Tractor for £7.99. Thing is, there has always been discounted kits – even in the 1970s, though usually from the then Eastern Block.

I believe my suggestion would work if production was limited (5000 copies). Pile them high and sell them cheap works with things that most people want on a day to day basis, but not with products with limited appeal. I also don’t think you could produce 1/24th scale models in their hundreds.

Watching the programme last night only reinforced my belief that kids will give anything a go, and that just below the surface most youngsters want more than what we expected of them to be only interested in (computer games and MP3s). That said Aifix will never be as popular as it was in the 1960/70s, because (I suspect) we (those in their 40s) are the second (AND LAST) generation to live off the wartime generation (those who fought in or who experienced the war).