RAF Upper Feckie

[Dave Homewood]

My mate Ian Bisset in Hamilton has a WWII RAF station in his garage, called RAF Upper Feckie. He often sends me photos of the latest additions. Here is his latest update.

Hi Dave, hope you're keeping well, just thought I'd send you a few pics from my garage/RAF Upper Feckie. The kiwi connection of course is F.O Brian Carbury of 603 City of Edinburgh Aux Sqn and he's modelled there in his Spitfire Mk1a 'Aorangi' R6835 taxying out of a fighter pen. I modelled the whole 12 Spitfires of the Sqn that took off from Hornchurch at 1227pm on Wed 28th Aug 1940 on their 1st defensive patrol there after flying down from Edinburgh the day before, Carbury was one of them. Please feel free to put any of these on your excellent online sites, I'd hoped to have sent them to you on the anniversary. All the best Ian

[oldspotter]

Cheers Dave, thanks for posting my pics. Just a wee bit of background on my airfield diorama; I grew up next to Raf Turnhouse which is now Edinburgh airport and spent my youth planespotting, recent years have seen me developing a large model railway at home here in Hamilton NZ based on a fictional Scottish Highland location called Auchenfeckie (there was a bit of cursing during construction!). As i got my Aviation interest back and read about 603 Sqn Royal Aux AF/ RAFs history i decided to model the buildings at Turnhouse and run a branchline from Auchenfeckie to the adjoining airfield, hence Raf Upper Feckie built to protect Scotlands Whisky industry from the Luftwaffe! As with most modelling theres always a bit of modellers licence and i intend to change the aircraft era as i build them to match the corresponding railway stock era, its very enjoyable and has connected both hobbies perfectly. Incidentally i've modelled the 12 Mk1a Spitfires 603 Sqn took to the sky on their first day at Hornchurch 28/8/40 which included Kiwi ace Brian Carbury. Visitors welcome, cheers

[planecrazy]

Love these dioramas that recreate history, lots going on and lots to look at.

You would have got good at putting together those Spitfire kits I count six
maybe seven and a sneaky Hurricane in the hangar.

[oldspotter]

Thanks, aye the worktop at home looked like a scene from the Castle Bromwich works! Theres 12 603 sqn Spits and 2 other Mk1s there as well as 2 nightfighter Hurricanes taking a rest in the hangar, James Maclachlans and Karel Kuttelwaschers, enjoyed reading their stories, all brave men. The hangar was built from MoD plans of 1934 C type and converted to 1/72 scale, space limited me to building only the front third but this turned out in my favour as you can look through it from the edge of the board and see the internal construction as well as view the airfield through the moving doors- i used n gauge railway wheels and tracking just like the real thing- i have fond memories of the hangar at Edinburgh airport, sadly now demolished as with most of the old base. As you say by recreating history we can time travel!