NASAM Update as of the 10th Aug 2025

 In This Edition

Summary of Contents

In this edition of the Blogs “Museum News“, we have an update from Gary of the first Meccano Exhibition which was in the main hangar of the museum on Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July  2025.  Steve produced the videos and photos of the event,

Thanks also to Joe for the Jeep visitor photo.

From the Teams “Inside and Outside – The Museum“, Barry has again produced a double update of the work of the volunteers on the Paint Team.

Under the “Events Information“, we have details of the Veterans Day at the Museum (30th Aug 25), which, weather and operational conditions allowing, we will see, and hear the sounds of, a BBMF Spitfire as it makes its flypast at the Museum.

Pete S

Museum News

General News from or about the Museum

Meccano Exhibition

Saturday 19th and Sunday 20th July 2025 saw the museum host our first Meccano Exhibition. They had heard that we had previously hosted a Brick Exhibition at the museum and were keen to present a display for our public. The focal point for this display was a chap called Christopher Kemp. He had been in contact with friends from The East Anglian Meccano Set (TEAMS) who are based in Norfolk and regularly display across East Anglia. They were only able to display their Meccano exhibits on the Saturday. They brought with them a selection of lovely Meccano exhibits which included some rare and unusual items!

Sadly the public turnout on Saturday was rather poor and Sunday proved to be no better! However on Sunday the museum suffered a power cut that forced the closure of the museum which didn’t help matters.

Overall the exhibits on display were both very interesting and exciting in equal measure. Many thanks to all the exhibitors on both days. We look forward to the possibility of seeing them again one day soon.

Gary

(Video & Photos)Meccano Exhibition

Videos and photos from Steve

Jeep Visitor 27/07/25

We had a Jeep visitor on Sunday, the 27th July 2025.  The Jeep bearing markings of the “446 Bomb Group”.

Photo from Joe

Inside and Outside At The Museum

News from the Various Team

Painters Update

29/07/25 – Fettle my Valetta!

Try saying that after a couple of sherbets! Or maybe “Valetta fettling” is the perfect antidote to a bad hand (of mainly T’s) in Bananagrams.

Anyways, down to business. The Skipper (Cliff) started the day off by fitting the final few strips of Flashband to the Valetta cockpit windows. Meanwhile, the boys looked to ‘touch in’ the Valetta in a few areas where the (now) 2-year-old original paint job had started to lift, and where recent cheat line masking tape application had removed some further paint. Barry painted round some of the fuselage windows while Mark (see pic) and Ian W. concentrated on the ‘ribbed’ leading edges of the wings.

Elsewhere, our top titivator (Gwen) turned her attention back the F100 and reinstated the ‘USAF’ (see pic) and registration number on the port side. These had faded rather badly due (we believe) to the proximity of the two adjacent trees. The starboard side seems ok.

Back on the big bird, the Skip and Mark then masked up the cockpit windows (see pic) so that they could get a coat of grey high build primer on before close of play. Success!

Around lunchtime, Mark also fired up the vinyl cutter to print off the ‘VX580’ fuselage registration number. In the arvo, Barry and Ian W. ‘weeded’ the vinyl and applied some clear application tape. After that they dropped the new decals into position at the rear of the fuselage and peeled back the application tape (see pic). Job done.

Subject to the weather, next week should see EPS on site to fit the much larger roundels and under wing registration numbers.

Also, in the arvo Flash Tony (C.) refitted the three missing aerials to the Sea Prince that were removed when the roof was flashbanded last summer (see pic).

(Photos) Painters Update 29/07/25

05/08/25 – An ill wind blows… EPS into touch!

Yes folks, we suffered from another bad case of wind this week. No, not last night’s Jalfrezi, but the tail end of Storm Floris! The very breezy conditions put the kibosh on EPS rocking up to fit the roundels and large under wing registration numbers to the big bird. This has been rescheduled for next week (weather permitting).

Further, with only two painters on duty for various reasons, progress was going to be fairly limited this week.

The day started off with Mark and Barry trying to fit the 24” high fin flash to the tail, but it soon became apparent that handling any form of vinyl sheet was going to be er… tricky, to say the least. Accordingly, the fin flash was soon tucked away back into the boot of the Dagenham Dustbin.

Down but not out, Mark and Barry turned their attention to top coating the Flashband around the cockpit windows. Despite being buffeted at the top of the scaff’ by the keen wind, Barry spent the day on the port side giving the window frames two coats of Traffic White (see pic). Over on the starboard side, Mark did likewise (see pic), punctuated by a trip to the Manager’s Meeting.

By close of play, the cockpit window repaint was complete. The next job will be to extend the cheat line down to the point of the Valetta’s nose and paint in the anti-glare section in front of the windscreen.

Barry

(Photos) Painters Update 05/08/25

Event information

What’s next at the Museum

Next Event @ NASAM

Below you will find the poster for the next event at the Museum.  Please click on the poster to see more detailed information about the event. As always with the BBMF, we have to let you know that these flypasts are subject to weather and operational commitments on the day.  Timings for the flypast will be notified on the day as soon as we are informed by the RAF BBMF Flight Ops.  Once we know the time, we will Tannoy across the site and put it on the blackboard outside the shop

Pete S

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.

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

Keep up to date

To keep up to date with what is going on at the Museum, you can follow us on Social Media (see the Social Media buttons below) or alternatively, you can be emailed every time a new blog is published.  To register for these email notifications, please click on the button below and complete the form.  We will take care of the rest. 

Go to the form forEMAIL NOTIFICATIONS

Pete S

Social Media @ NASAM

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