NASAM Update as of the 25th Jul 2025

In This Edition

Summary of Contents

In this edition of the Blogs “Museum News“, we have a number of photos from Joe, as he recorded visits by the Four Counties Motorcycle Riders and a couple of flypasts by a Piper Cub and an Apache helicopter. It was a shame about the overcast skies for the flypasts, as this did not help Joe’s pictures.

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, we have an update from Malcolm and the models he is working on. Additionally, we have two updates from Barry and the continued work of the Paint Team on the Valetta and the memorial to the fallen airmen of the Second World War.

Under the “Events Information“, we have the next two events at the Museum, which will take us from July into the start of August. The first of these events is tomorrow, Saturday, the 26th July 2025.

Pete S

Museum News

General News from or about the Museum

Four Counties Motorcycles

On Sunday, the 13th of July 2025, we had a visit from the Four Counties Motorcycle Riders.

Joe

(Photos) Four Counties Motorcycles

Piper Cub Flypast

Also on Sunday, the 13th July, we had a passing Piper J-Cub, who took a look at the Museum. It was an overcast day.

Joe

Apache Visitor

On Wednesday, the 16th of July 2025, a passing Apache helicopter took a look as it flew by. Different day, same overcast weather.

Joe

Inside and Outside At The Museum

News from the Various Team

MMU Update

8th July – Had a full day at the museum. After signing in for the day, as usual my first task is to open up the model store and take a few moments to gather my thoughts as how the day is going to pan out. I vaguely remember how I left it at my last visit and it is usually obvious if anything has changed since.

As everyone is aware we have just parted with our Sea Harrier so it came as no surprise that the store has had an influx of ex display Harrier models, 9 of them. They must have been on display for quite sometime as most of them looked ‘tired’ and had seen better days. Knowing that there are several other Harriers in store in much better condition I decided that these ones would be retired and several were boxed up for eventual sale. Throughout the day 3 sale boxes were completed as part of batch 6 plus one box was put together containing models to be retained (Boxing them up eases storage and keeps them clean, prevents damage and importantly free from dust).

There is a regular to and fro of models through the store. To counter the incoming Harriers two models were released for display in Room 2, a Short Stirling and a Gloster Meteor F.8, both 1:72 scale plus a Red Arrows Gnat T1 and a WW1 RE.8 were handed over to Peter W. The Gnat is to be reworked as a scaled down version of the Gnat cockpit we have.

Back home, the Dornier Do-217 being built for Gary’s Luftwaffe display is slowly coming together. The cockpit has been built and placed inside the fuselage. The engines have also been completed although at this stage I leave the propellers off to avoid any damage to them. It is also easier to paint it with the props off when the time comes. Next stage will be to complete the wings(see photo).

On the refurbishment side I have just finished restoring an Avro Shackleton MR.2. I found the model in the store in good condition but it lacked most of its decals. I managed to purchase a set of Shackleton decals from Hannants which included an example of 38 Sqn from the 1960’s which fitted the models existing paint scheme.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU Update

Paint Team Update

15/07/25 – Betta Valetta!

This week the team were all over the Valetta like a rash! Up front, the Skipper (Cliff) got cracking with painting the starboard side cockpit windows with Flashband primer (see pic). In the morning, Mark, Ian W. and Barry gave the port side cheat line a second coat of Traffic Red.

Just across the way, Gwen continued with her refurbishment of the Tin Man. Having repainted the top of the base last week, this week she gave the bottom half of the base a coat of high build primer using her hyper-productive ‘brush mit roller’ technique (see pic). Sehr gut!

After luncheon, the boys took the masking tape off the port cheat line and then moved the ‘blue steps’ hybrid scaff’ into position to paint the (very large) blue outers for the port wing top side roundels. At 75 inches in diameter, these roundels are too large for commercially available vinyl roll sizes, so the plan is for us to paint the blue outers and then EPS will provide vinyl for the white and red inner parts.

My thanks to Dave D. for helping me rig up a 37.5 inch radius ‘compass’ comprised of a pencil, a wooden block, some plastic reinforced wire and a nail! This proved to be surprisingly accurate, as predicted by bystander (and modeller) Peter W.

Barry started off by cutting in the roundel edge with a one-inch brush, before Mark got into position to roller the bulk of the centre. At one point it looked like he may have painted himself into a corner (see pic), but he managed to tippy toe out just in time! About halfway through the job, the sky went very black and for a couple of minutes we had a few dibbie dobbies of rain, which thankfully came to nothing much. Roller-ing out duties were then passed from Mark to Ian W. who finished off the blue outer for us (see pic).

As the boys packed up and headed for a post-match cuppa, the skies darkened once again (see pic), but no further precipitation materialised. Phew, that was a close one!

Next week should see the application of some Flashband to the cockpit window frames, plus the painting out of the starboard wing blue outer roundel, before we extend the (tapering) cheat line down to the tip of the Valetta’s nose.

Author

(Photos) 15/07/25 Paint Team Update

22/07/25 – Flash geezers!

Yes folks, another week of frenzied activity on the Valetta. Having painted the wing top blue outer roundel on the port wing last week, this week the boys turned their focus towards the starboard side. Having got roughly into position it became apparent that there were some areas of flaky grey paint that also required attention. Ian W. then set about lightly sanding back the offending areas (see pic), ready to receive some RAL 7001 Silver Grey topcoat.

Having drawn out a pencil circle for the blue roundel using the improvised ‘Dawson Compass’, Barry then cut in the edge of the roundel using a one-inch brush (see pic).

The new Dacrylate 7001 proved not to be the greatest colour match, so Mark decided to repaint the entire outer wing section in order to make the ‘patching’ appear a bit more intentional as it were. Simultaneously, Ian W. then backfilled the blue edged roundel using a four-inch roller (see pic).

Up front the Skipper (Cliff) continued to repair the cockpit windows, ably assisted by Flash Tony (not to be confused with Swiss Tony from the Fast Show). Pretty much all day was spent by the Flash geezers cutting out and then apply sections of Flashband to the cockpit window frames (see pic) in order to make the whole thing watertight.

Just across the way, Gwen finished off the refurb of the base of the Tin Man (see pic).

With the forecast rain still yet to arrive, in the arvo the boys spent a bit of bonus ‘dry’ time repairing some bare patches of fuselage where the masking tape for the red cheat line had pulled away some of the white paint. Clearly interesting work, a bovine audience soon gathered to look on, or maybe they had just been drawn together by the Cow Whisperer, aka Paul R (see pic). A bit of joshing then ensued with the boys suggesting that Paul probably wouldn’t find anything to PAT test over there, (apart from a cow PAT maybe? – Ed.)!

And that’s this week’s moos… er news.

Barry

(Photos) 22/07/25 Paint Team Update

Event information

What’s next at the Museum

Next Two Events @ NASAM

Below are the posters for the next two events at the Museum. Clicking on the posters will take you through to the events as listed on the main website.

The Repeat Information

Funding

Here we are in 2025, and although we now charge for admission to the Museum, we still appreciate any additional help we can get from the general public, readers of the blog and visitors to the Museum. So the repeated information below is still here, just in case you would like to help.

We are a charitable organisation, relying now on admission charges, grants and donations from the people that visit. Any and all help is greatly appreciated 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”.

Would you like to help??

One of the ways we save money is by having a dedicated group of Volunteers that keep the Museum and the exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope, therefore, that a few people would consider helping in the three ways below:

Help by becoming a Museum Member, also Volunteering to help at the Museum, or by making a Donation to help with our running costs. Please click on the appropriate button below to access the appropriate information.

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