David Bathe - RAF Fighter Collection
INSTRUMENT FACES
MODEL INSTRUMENT PANELS
MODEL PANEL PRINTS
Better late... than never!
As so many of you have requested it, the next plane soon to leave the board is the Hawker Typhoon. I've looked at it from both a
car-door and bubble hood perspective... and as you can see, the bubble hood won! Reason was simple... I drew the plane left to right, which put the car door on the wrong side... staggeringly professional of me... Still it's wicked! Loaded with rockets on Mk1 rails, Invation stripes, weathered, scratched and real field-dirty.
I'm, happy with the progress. Sourcing some more details and it'll be ready to fly. Stay tuned.
My god, I must have been a fighter pilot!
If there's something I love drawing, more than women, it's airplanes. There's just something about them that makes me get goose bumps. Instantly. Always has done, since I was a kid. Wondering around aviation museums has got to be the ideal way for a gentleman to pass his time and here in Scandinavia we're so lucky that one can actually touch the planes without the indignity of having to veiw them while standing behind a rail, so common in other countries. I believe that being able touch and not only look, has really helped me achieve a tactile quality to my drawings. Unlike most profile that tend to be flat, I strive to produce textures in my illustrations that your eyes can feel. Try it for yourself.
I don't know what it is, may be the smell of aviation oil or slowly cooked avionics that make 'em so attractive... but there's one thing for sure, somewhere in my past life, I must have been an aviator.
How do I choose which plane?
Because, during active service, WWII aircraft instrument panels where often modified, bastardized and generally hacked around to keep them operational, it's VERY difficult to find genuine panels that remain in genuine WWII condition.
All of todays flying examples will have been modernized, some almost out of all recognition compared to their forebears, either to make them comply to present day Aviation Authorities regulations or satisfy some owner desire to have his airplane restored to Hollywood showroom condition. All of which leaves someone like me with a problem. I want to illustrate real, genuine panels... in a real genuine state; and because even then there is no such thing as a standard panel even in identical planes, there aren't that many possibilities available to me.
Thus I've chosen museum keep airplanes where the emphasis has been on preservation, instead of conservation.
The aircraft featured here is Spitfire LF. Mk.IXE TE-565 NN-N and an exact reproduction of it's instrument panel is available here.
Hurricane Mk 1b
Ready for delivery... it's looking very nice, click on the picture and take a look. Matching instrument panel can be found here.