Hi all! Almost exactly a year ago, I put my first WWI kit together here, Roden's challenging 1/72 Fokker D.VII. After recuperating for twelve months, I built a second biplane for a Group Build over on Britmodeller these last three weeks. This was the first model I've ever tried to rig; I also had a test mule Camel, which I used nylon monofilament to rig. I had originally intended to use Uschi ultrafine to rig the SE5a, but it turns out that I can't really see it with the naked eye. So instead I used fine EZ-line on the SE5a, and despite much frustration, eventually managed to almost rig it entirely. I didn't get the control surfaces rigged, however.
James Ira "Taffy" Jones is credited with 38 victories, including "Out of Controls" and a balloon, making him I believe the ninth-highest-scoring British (as opposed to RFC/RAF/RNAS) ace of World War I. Jones doesn't fit the classic mold of an ace: 5'1", with a terrible stammer, and he came from decidedly humble origins, having begun the war as a telegraphist. After the war he left the RAF and wrote several books, including a biography of his friend and hero Edward "Mick" Mannock, a collection of personal reminiscences entitled
An Air-Fighter's Scrapbook, and a history of 74 (Tiger) Squadron.
The irascible Jones was an indifferent pilot who never quite mastered the art of setting the plane down (the aircraft I'm modelling was in fact written off by him in a rough landing), an excellent deflection shooter, a teetotaller during the war (but not after), and he nursed a fierce antipathy to all Germans, famously gunning a balloon observer down as he dangled in his 'chute: "My habit of attacking Huns dangling from their parachutes led to many arguments in the mess. Some officers, of the Eton and Sandhurst type, thought it was 'unsportsmanlike' to do it. Never having been to a public school, I was unhampered by such considerations of form. I just pointed out that there was a bloody war on, and that I intended to avenge my pals."
During the interwar period, Jones met Hermann Goering while serving as personal pilot to Sir Sefton Brancker: "Sir Sefton said "'I wonder if you two ever met in an air fight, Taffy.' 'He wouldn't be here now, sir, if we had met,' I retorted. Brancker laughed, but Goering did not."
In World War II, Taffy, now a Group Captain, returned to the RAF, training pilots. 16-victory Battle of Britain ace Peter Malam Brothers recalled: "at Uxbridge there was this splendid First World War pilot, Ira Taffy Jones, who stuttered terribly. One day he stood up and said 'There is going to be a b-b-bloody wa-wa-war and you ch-chaps are going to be in it. I'll give you one piece of advice - wh-wh-when you fir-first get into combat you will be fu-fu-[redacted] fr-frightened. Ne-never forget the ch-chap in the other cock-cockpit is tw-twice as fu-[redacted] fr-frightened as you are.' I reckon he saved my life with that piece of advice. In my first combat over France, I suddenly thought, My God, the chap in that other cockpit must be having hysterics, and shot him down. But I give all credit to Taffy."
Jones is one of my heroes, and when I discovered the Pheon sheet had his markings, it became a must-buy for me.
Anyway, without further ado:
