NASAM Update as of the 11th Oct 2025

In This Edition

Summary of Contents

In this edition of the Blogs “Museum News“, we have reports and photos of two sets of visitors. First from Steve on the East Anglian Cyclemotor Club visit, and the second from Gary on the visit of the “Norfolk Fives” a Mazda MX5 Owners Club.

From the “Teams At The Museum“, we have updates from Malcolm and progress in the model workshop, also from Barry and a double update from the Paint Team.

Finally, in the “Events Information“, we have a list of open days for the remainder of 2025, and in addition to the 2026 February reopening date, we have a list of those event days so far booked for 2026.

Pete S

Museum News

General News from or about the Museum

East Anglian Cyclemotor Club Visit

The East Anglian Cyclemotor Club (EACC) visited the museum on Saturday, 27th September. They were on a ride out with a bigger meet at Earsham as their final destination, but they figured a drop-in visit to Flixton was the way to go.

Steve B

(Photos) East Anglian Cyclemotor Club

Norfolk Fives Visit

Yesterday (Wednesday, the 1st October 2025), we had a rather short notice (1 week) visit from a local car club.

At 1400 on Wednesday, we were privileged to be able to host a visit from the “Norfolk Fives” a Mazda MX5 Owners Club.

They joined us on a bright but overcast afternoon; luckily, the rain held off until they came to leave! They attended with a selection of 11 vehicles as shown in the photos. They had previously asked if they could visit our museum as part of a mid-week run that they often do. The group numbered 15 individuals in total and were led by a chap called David Holloway.

Unfortunately, they did not leave enough time to take in everything that the museum had to offer but promised to return sometime in the future.

We thoroughly enjoyed hosting them and very much look forward to the possibility of seeing them again in the future.

Gary

(Photos) Norfolk Fives MX5 Owners Club

Teams At The Museum

News from the Various Team

News from the MMU

This week’s news all stems from ‘WFH’ (working from home).

Gary’s Dornier 217E is progressing with the upper green/green camouflage applied, several coats of paint being required. Yesterday, two hours were spent applying a pre-cut cockpit mask to enable the canopies and turrets to receive their paintwork. As the kit is not a recently released item I was pleased that Hannants had a set of Eduard Masks for the model. Without them, it would have taken at least twice as long to prepare.

This month’s restoration comes in the form of an Airfix PBY Catalina. I must admit that I have scrapped several of these models due to them being in awful condition. This one was missing several parts and was a tail sitter, but overall, the completion of the model was generally good. First job was to replace the nose wheel and undercarriage doors as they were missing/damaged. Then as much weight as could fit was added to the nose wheel well. This however was still not enough to lift the plane off its tail. I had already considered replacing the canopy as the paint work was poor, so having removed it, further weight was added inside the cockpit. It’s now at a point where no more can be added, and it just about balances on its nose wheel. A ‘new’ canopy was obtained from the spares box, and it has been masked up for painting, which will be completed shortly. Once that is done, it will just need a clean to remove surface dust.

Malcolm

(Photos) MMU Update

News from the Paint Team

30/09/25 – Anyone for a nose job?

Yes folks, it was back on ‘Nosey’ (Canberra WG789) this week to try and get the repaint finished before the weather takes a turn.

Fortunately, Mr UK Weather was playing really nicely this week and the boys enjoyed balmy temps nudging 20 degrees by early afternoon for an uninterrupted day of painting.

Upon arrival, the boys encountered a ‘runny nose-y’ due to the overnight dew. Consequently, the first half an hour was spent drying up said snozzer.

Private Walker (Ian W.), who has a bit of a ‘nose’ for these things, was soon on the case wielding a soggy towel or three. By 10am Nosey was sufficiently dry on the starboard side to continue with the undercoating in Dacrylate Grey. Meanwhile, the Skipper (Cliff) prepped the supporting cradle (see pic).

Farmer Giles then swung by with his now seemingly regular Tuesday morning load of sileage, immediately turning the smell by Nosey up to 11!

Once the cradle had been prepped, the Skip turned his attention to some repairs to the back of the cockpit canopy. The canopy had previously been made watertight using some form of bitumen product, covered over by aluminium tape. Some of this had lifted and so the opportunity was taken to replace the affected area with Flashband. The curvature of the canopy meant that cutting the required Flashband shape by eye proved very difficult, and so the Skip went in search of some cardboard from which to make a template.

After quick raid of the NAAFI cupboards, the Skip returned with suitable material and drew out the required shape (see pic).

By early arvo, the priming of the front fuselage was complete and while the primer dried the Skip picked off the remaining nose repairs (geddit). With fresh Flashband in place, the repairs were finished off with some strips of aluminium tape on the back edge. Peeling off the backing paper from the aluminium tape proved challenging and the language got a bit fruity for a short while as the Skip wrestled with said tape (see pic).

Having completed the necessary repairs, the boys then set about top coating Nosey with Dacrylate Aluminium. By close of play, plus a bit of Fergie time, the boys just managed to complete the top coating of all of the front fuselage (see pic).

Next week, we hope to work on the cradle and maybe start some of the detailing (markings etc.) too.

(Photos) Paint Team 30/09/25

07/10/25 – A runny nose and a broken nose!

‘Snot funny folks, really. With Mr UK Weather set to serve up another relatively mild and dry Tuesday, the race was on to finish Nosey (Canberra WG789). The nose squad was hand-picked this week (geddit) with Mark ‘sniffer’ Kellerher back on the pitch, subbing for the Skipper (Cliff) who was evidently worn out by the previous day’s (allegedly) marathon Committee meeting.

Being that time of year, although the weather was dry, the boys rocked up to find a very wet nose, due to a heavy morning dew. Therefore, the first hour of the day was spent wiping Nosey’s nose, with a view to getting some more paint on later in the day.

While Nosey’s nose was drying out, the boys went to inspect the nose of the Mozzie model that the Skipper had radioed in a damage report on, last Thursday. Due to unexpected flak in the Flixton area (friendly fire?), or more likely the sun beating down through the skylight in Bomber Command ‘melting’ the glue on the masking tape holding the nose blister in place. Either way, the net result was a broken nose (see pic) found on the floor of BC. Further, the (taped down) cockpit canopy had become dislodged, forcing the Mozzie to have to RTB (return to base).

The 3D printed cockpit canopy was reusable, but the 3D printed nose blister was quickly written off by the ground crew.

The boys then executed the RTB manoeuvre, bringing the Mozzie model back down to ground level, so that Barry could effect some repairs. Fortunately, since the Mozzie’s initial sortie (i.e. back onto the ceiling of BC), our friends at HJ Plastics had supplied 3 copies of an (improved) vacuum formed nose blister. This was soon installed onto the Mozzie with the help of some electrical tape. The cockpit was then glued, rather than taped, back into place. The Mozzie was then left ready for an air test later in the day (see pic).

Attention then swung back to the now dried up Nose(y). Ian W. led the way, breaking out the Dacrylate High Build primer, so he could give the frame a good protective coating (see pic). Meanwhile, Barry got on with giving Nosey a second coat of Dacrylate Aluminium top coat, touching in a few low spots from last week, and seeking to even out some of the streaky-ness of last week’s initial coat.

After luncheon, the primer had gone off sufficiently to allow Ian to get on with top coating the frame (see pic), while Mark helped Barry finish off the fuselage. By close of play, Nosey was looking pretty sharp (see pic). A coat of clear lacquer will hopefully be applied next week to protect the ‘silvering’ in the fuselage paint. The markings will then be reinstated over the winter.

Last job of the day was to get the Mozzie model back into the air in BC. Ladders were quickly assembled. Ian and Barry then took the weight of the model, while Mark re-connected the supporting wires to the ceiling via carabiners. Conveniently, Bob C was also on hand to provide some extra stabilisation towards the rear (see pic)! Job done.

Barry

(Photos) Paint Team 07/10/25

Event information

What’s next at the Museum

Open Days – Remainder of 2025

2026 Event Dates

Provisional planning for the event days in 2026 has been carried out by the Museum Manager, and the following dates have been agreed.

Stay in touch with the NASAM BLOG, and we will publish other dates as they are added to the museum diary.

The Repeat Information

Funding

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 who keep the Museum and its exhibits both manned and maintained. We hope, that a few people would consider helping in any the three ways below:

Help by becoming a Museum Member, volunteering to help at the Museum, or by making a Donation to help with our running costs. To learn more about these three methods of assistance, please click the corresponding button below to access the relevant information.

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