The Alex Henshaw Trophy Percival Mew Gull G-AXEF

In 2005 we were approached by the Guild of Aviation Artists on behalf of Alex Henshaw to put forward a proposal for a new trophy based on the Percival Mew Gull G-AXEF as flown from London to Cape Town by Alex Henshaw. This trophy was to be awarded to the best painting of a civil aircraft between the wars.
Tim Staples and I formed Diverse Images in 1996 with the aim of producing the definitive range of aircraft models. Using plans photographs and first hand information we meticulously research our subject to not only produce an aircraft which is technically and historically accurate but looks as if it can fly. Many of the aircraft we all know and love weren’t designed by a computer so we feel it is inappropriate to use a computer to sculpt one. Aircraft have character and personality and this is something that can only be captured by hand whether in a painting or in a sculpture.
After initial discussions a design proposal was worked out for the project and a date was set for Alex to visit us at our Brighton studios.
Having met several test pilots previously we were fully aware of just how exacting Alex would be in ensuring we produced an accurate representation of his aircraft. His aircraft G-AXEF however posed us with many problems. The aircraft was unique in that it was progressively modified throughout its life, from its days wining the Kings Cup to the Cape record and beyond. Unlike a painting where a subject is viewed only from one angle a sculpture is viewed from 360 degrees and it is not possible to hide any uncertainty it was therefore doubly difficult with G-AXEF. Many wartime pilots do not recall details such as colours or markings as they had more pressing things at hand, but Alex was different.
On arrival at our studios Alex was shown a mock-up of the trophy and 1:32 scale plans of G-AXEF and was able to explain many of the detail points of his aircraft in Cape record specification. He soon became fascinated by the technical aspects of how we create our aircraft from sculpting to production and was given a tour of our facility which he greatly enjoyed.
We then set to the task of sculpting G-AXEF. We use a material called Milliput which is an epoxy based two part putty, on mixing equal amounts of this plasticene like substance it progressively hardens over a two hour period. Hardening can be accelerated in an oven until the Milliput is hard enough to file/sand to shape, more Milliput can be added and the process repeated until a master is completed. This process takes several weeks because the aircraft is not sculpted as a whole but as individual components which must not only fit together but be designed within the parameters of mouldmaking and silver casting. The enemy of all forms of metal casting is porosity, this is when cavities appear in the casting resulting in a poor quality product. It can be caused by poor design when an item is too bulky or during casting when the metal too hot or is poorly fed into the mould. To minimise this, our silver aircraft have to be ‘hollow’ but this is un-noticeable in the final result.
On completion of the masters a second meeting was arranged to discuss the finer details of the aircraft, and its base. The masters were then sent to our silver casters, cold cure silicone moulds were made of all the component parts. Wax was then injected into each of these moulds. The wax components were then joined to a wax ‘tree’ which was placed into a metal flask and filled with a ceramic medium which binds to itself forming a solid unit. The flask was then heated and all the wax is poured out leaving the cavities clear for the molten silver to be poured in, this process is known as the lost wax process and has been used to cast metal for centuries.
The castings were then sent to our silversmiths who began the process of cleaning up, assembling and polishing the component parts. At this stage the components were sent to the London Assay office where they were tested for purity and received the hallmark stamp of approval to certify they were 925 Sterling Silver.
The completed aircraft was then mounted on its base together with a solid silver ‘grass’ surface and its plaques for presentation at the Guild of Aviation Artists Summer Exhibition 2006.
The day of the exhibition came and Tim and I were both very nervous of Alex’s reaction to the completed trophy. After studying his commission in silence for what seemed to us an eternity Alex exclaimed ‘It’s a work of art!’ we could not have hoped for more.

In 2006 the trophy was awarded to Michael Turner.


	The Alex Henshaw Trophy
	In 2005 we were approached by the Guild of Aviation Artists on behalf of Alex Henshaw to put forward a proposal for a new trophy based on the Percival Mew Gull G-AXEF as flown from London to Cape Town by Alex Henshaw. This trophy was to be awarded to the best painting of a civil aircraft between the wars. Tim Staples and I formed Diverse Images in 1996 with the aim of producing the definitive range of aircraft models. Using plans photographs and first hand information we meticulously research our subject to not only produce an aircraft which is technically and historically accurate but looks as if it can fly. Many of the aircraft we all know and love weren’t designed by a computer so we feel it is inappropriate to use a computer to sculpt one. Aircraft have character and personality and this is something that can only be captured by hand whether in a painting or in a sculpture. After initial discussions a design proposal was worked out for the project and a date was set for Alex to visit us at our Brighton studios. Having met several test pilots previously we were fully aware of just how exacting Alex would be in ensuring we produced an accurate representation of his aircraft. His aircraft G-AXEF however posed us with many problems. The aircraft was unique in that it was progressively modified throughout its life, from its days wining the Kings Cup to the Cape record and beyond. Unlike a painting where a subject is viewed only from one angle a sculpture is viewed from 360 degrees and it is not possible to hide any uncertainty it was therefore doubly difficult with G-AXEF. Many wartime pilots do not recall details such as colours or markings as they had more pressing things at hand, but Alex was different. On arrival at our studios Alex was shown a mock-up of the trophy and 1:32 scale plans of G-AXEF and was able to explain many of the detail points of his aircraft in Cape record specification. He soon became fascinated by the technical aspects of how we create our aircraft from sculpting to production and was given a tour of our facility which he greatly enjoyed. We then set to the task of sculpting G-AXEF. We use a material called Milliput which is an epoxy based two part putty, on mixing equal amounts of this plasticene like substance it progressively hardens over a two hour period. Hardening can be accelerated in an oven until the Milliput is hard enough to file/sand to shape, more Milliput can be added and the process repeated until a master is completed. This process takes several weeks because the aircraft is not sculpted as a whole but as individual components which must not only fit together but be designed within the parameters of mouldmaking and silver casting. The enemy of all forms of metal casting is porosity, this is when cavities appear in the casting resulting in a poor quality product. It can be caused by poor design when an item is too bulky or during casting when the metal too hot or is poorly fed into the mould. To minimise this, our silver aircraft have to be ‘hollow’ but this is un-noticeable in the final result. On completion of the masters a second meeting was arranged to discuss the finer details of the aircraft, and its base. The masters were then sent to our silver casters, cold cure silicone moulds were made of all the component parts. Wax was then injected into each of these moulds. The wax components were then joined to a wax ‘tree’ which was placed into a metal flask and filled with a ceramic medium which binds to itself forming a solid unit. The flask was then heated and all the wax is poured out leaving the cavities clear for the molten silver to be poured in, this process is known as the lost wax process and has been used to cast metal for centuries. The castings were then sent to our silversmiths who began the process of cleaning up, assembling and polishing the component parts. At this stage the components were sent to the London Assay office where they were tested for purity and received the hallmark stamp of approval to certify they were 925 Sterling Silver. The completed aircraft was then mounted on its base together with a solid silver ‘grass’ surface and its plaques for presentation at the Guild of Aviation Artists Summer Exhibition 2006. The day of the exhibition came and Tim and I were both very nervous of Alex’s reaction to the completed trophy. After studying his commission in silence for what seemed to us an eternity Alex exclaimed ‘It’s a work of art!’ we could not have hoped for more. In 2006 the trophy was awarded to Michael Turner.