NASAM Update as of the 8th Sep 2024

In This Edition

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Summary of Contents

In this edition of the blog’s “Museum News“, we have a couple of photos taken by Joe on two days when we were open. These are when a 40s Jeep and a classic Aston Martin came calling.

The rest of the year’s dates when we are open are listed in this edition of the blog, together with details of some Scout visits which will disrupt the normal activities on those dates .

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have updates from the Paint Team, the first from Mark, who was subbing whilst Barry was away. The second is from the man himself, having returned from his short break.

Also, in this section, we have an update from Malcolm as he continues to make and repair the models for the museum.

We have details of the next event day at the Museum, this being the ROC and Battle of Britain Day on Sunday, the 15th of September 2024.

Pete S

Museum News

General news from the Museum

Visitors to the Museum

Joe took two photos of visitors to the museum on the 25th and 28th of August. The Classic Aston looking good alongside our own classic Hunter.

Museum Opening Days

Normal Opening Days

If you would like to make a note in your diaries, following are the days we are open for the rest of the season.

Until November 2nd, we will be open as normal on Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday from 1000 to 1600.
Then on Sundays only, November the 10th, 17th & 24th, from 1000 to 1600.
- Please note, however, that some areas may be closed during these days.
We are planning to be open for a couple of days between Christmas and New Year,. We will publish these dates as soon as they have been agreed by the Trustees.
We plan to reopen in the New Year on Wednesday, the 19th of February 2025 (half term).

Scouting Days

On the following dates, we give priority to the Scouting Organisations who visit the museum for educational visits and to take examinations in aircraft-related subjects. The coming dates this year are :

Saturday 28th of September and
Saturday 26th of October.

Please note that there will be no cockpit tours on those Scouting Days shown above.

Pete S

Inside and Outside – The Museum

Information from the various teams

Paint Team Updates

27/08/24 – Prime Time with the Painters

With Tuesday 27th starting bright and sunny, first job was setting up Gwen’s game of ladders-and-ladders and putting her behind bars to continue giving the hangar doors a much needed refresh – see photo 01.

Then, for the rest of the team, it was back to the Sea Prince. Again.

With Tony having finished the waterproofing last week it was over to Ian and Mark to prime the flashband and fuselage – see photo 02.

Whilst Cliff started under the starboard horizontal stabiliser before working down the side of the fuselage.

With the metal starting to heat up after lunch the team sought shade, with Ciiff in particular going to great lengths to avoid the sun – see photo 03.

By CoP, Gwen had taken early release for good behaviour and finished her door for the week, whilst the Sea Prince is approximately 50.1% primed – see two photos 04 & 05.

The team are hoping, with Barry’s return from holiday, to get four of us priming the Prince next week, which could see us get within a whisker of finishing the first pass. That will be followed by a bit more rubbing down and re-priming before the first top coat goes on.

Here’s hoping for a long dry September…

Mark K

03/09/24 – Turned out nice in the end!

The team rocked up on site to be met by grey low scudding clouds, accompanied by a bit of mizzle and drizzle, which did not bode well for a days’ painting action!

First job of the day was to position the scaff’ tower for Gwen (the ‘Queen of Green’) so she could carry on with the refresh of the Main Hangar doors (see pic 06).

As the clouds started to lift a bit the boys started wiping down the Sea Pest in the hope that some painting would be possible. By 10am the light rain had pretty much packed up, so Marky Mixy Man got on with mixing the grey primer down with 10% thinners. This proved to be quite a sloppy process, resulting in Marky Mixy Man covering his chops with flecks of grey primer (see pic 07). Thankfully, no lasting damage was done.

With the grey primer ready to go, the Skipper (Cliff) led the team off and set about finishing off the front of the starboard fuselage and around the cockpit windows (see pic 08). Out on the left wing, Mark primed the port wing underside, while Ian attended to the port engine, prop and spinner (see pic 09). Over on the right wing, Barry spent the morning priming the starboard wing underside.

Lunch was spent discussing the life and works of David Lynch and whether anybody understood the plot to Mulholland Drive. Mark had also brought in the first ‘test’ decals produced on the Museum’s new vinyl cutter. Once the process has been refined, we plan to fit our own decals (for the first time) to the Grasshopper Glider.

Back to work and a yellow thing started to appear in the sky, spurring the boys on to the (potential) completion of the priming of the Sea Prince. The Skipper (Cliff) got down and dirty, dealing with the under belly of the Sea Pest (see pic 10). On the port side, Mark moved on to the port tailfin, while Ian worked his way down the port side of the fuselage (see pic 11). On the other side, Barry primed the starboard engine cowling.

At close of play, the boys had come up just short of completing the priming of the Sea Stealth (see pic 12), but not a bad effort given the first hour of the day had been lost to rain. Next week should see completion of the first pass of priming. The matt grey finish had however, shown up quite a few areas where the paint still needs more feathering in order to get a stable surface (see pic 13). What we really need now is half a dozen dry Tuesdays in a row in order to have any chance of getting the Sea Prince finished before the weather turns.

Barry

(Photos) Paint Team Updates

MMU Update

Following receiving its grey undercoat, several layers (6+ so far) of white paint has been applied to the topside of the Valetta model, all but the last being Matt White, a single coat of Gloss White has now been applied and it will probably need a further coat. Once I am happy with that, then the undersides, lower fuselage and tailplanes will be painted Aluminium. A long way to go yet.

As mentioned in the last blog another new build has been added to the production line, a 1/72 Italeri Lockheed Hudson. As can be seen in the photograph, the fuselage and wings have been put together, so far not quite so challenging as the Valetta but I did struggle to get the two fuselage sides to mate properly, hence the large quantity of tape holding them together.

On the restoration front, a request came in for a Lockheed Neptune. Two models were found, I chose one which appeared to be the best with the intention to borrow parts from the other. In the end the first one turned out to be wanting more work done it than I initially thought so a reversal was made and the second was chosen. Both examples had various pieces missing including the propellers. A search through my spare props failed to find the missing parts so a compromise was made, I’m sure those of you who are familiar with Neptunes will note the incorrect props, a case of needs must in this instance. The wing tanks are also the wrong design for a RAF example but there is nothing I can do to alter them.

Finally the Model Store was able to help out a museum in Edinburgh earlier in the month, the Barnton Quarry Museum, described as Edinburgh’s Secret Nuclear Bunker. The museum is in the process of renovation, and we were asked to supply 10 models which had been advertised as surplus to requirements and ranged from a Supermarine Spitfire through to a Bae Harrier.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU update

Event Information

What next at the Museum

Next Event Day

The next event day at the Museum is scheduled to be the ROC and Battle of Britain Day on Sunday, the 15th of September, 2024. For more information, please click on the poster below.

Pete S

The Repeat Info

Here we are in 2024 and the repeat information is still here I’m afraid, and I make no apologies for keeping his section in our blog. We are a charitable organisation relying on monies from the public to keep us going. Any help we receive is gratefully accepted and enables the museum to continue in our mission “To conserve, preserve and promote the history of aviation in East Anglia, whilst providing a fun, family-friendly and interactive museum, promoting education and remembrance of the events of the past“.

Are you thinking of helping ??

We obtain most of our finances by donations and by membership fees. We save money by having a dedicated group of volunteers that keep the museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope therefore a few people may consider helping in the ways below.

There are three easy ways to help: Help by becoming a Museum Member, also by Volunteering to help at the museum, or by Donating to assist in our running costs. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the appropriate information:

Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM MEMBER Click to see how to becomeMUSEUM VOLUNTEER Click to make aDONATION

Keep Up To Date

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