The Price of Flight – part thirty-two

Interludes - Nose-Art of the Pegasus Service

Special bonus chapterette. I really can't let this one go… just a few odd observations on plane-spotters and Airfix modellers and the supporting industry of magazines that grows up around both.

V0.2. A related short. This is the sort of thing that really makes me wish I could draw. Well, draw better. I can see the pictures in my mind – each Pegasus Witch and the nose-art design from the forward panniers that identifies her and her mount… but I really do not have the skill. Alas. I'd really appreciate an artist partner who can turn my characters into illustrations, on Deviant Art or elsewhere… as said before, I do wonder what some of my tales would look like as graphic novels. Also retconning Irena's mount's name from the increasingly unsuitable "Cupcakes" but keeping the tea-and-cakes association. Still not sure if it's absolutely right, I don't know if any Russian readers could suggest better? Spassibo.


From Air Pictorial magazine (pub. Dibbler and Topplis, Brewer Street) – the essential publication for the discerning aviation enthusiast!

Advertising Content:

Also from Dibbler Enterprises – The Fix Your Own Air range of self-assembly model kits, in an approximately constant 1:48 scale. Build your own representative Air Watch models from our growing catalogue!

Choose from:

Pegasus Service #1 the Pegasus in Flight with seated rider

Pegasus Service #2 - the Pegasus at rest with standing pilot in full dress uniform

Pegasus Service #3 – as no.2, but with pilot in her regular Service uniform

Accessory Pack: personal weapons and sidearms, including crossbows, pistol crossbows, five different sorts of sword and dagger, cavalry lance with pennant.

Accessory Pack no 1 – a drone towed cargo carpet with hawser (load not included, sold separately)

The ME109 all-purpose broom with pilot figure

The ME110 two-seater with crew figures and repeating crossbows

The ME110a stealth broom with pilot figure and Assassin passenger

NEW!

The MiG-21 strike combat broom with pilot figure

The ME-262 interceptor fighter (first production variant)

REMEMBER – USE ONLY DIBBLER INDUSTRIES GLUE AND PAINT, AND ENSURE ROOM IS PROPERLY VENTILATED*

If, however, you just intend to get completely wasted, keep the window closed and the cap off the glue bottle. And you haven't heard this from us. (1)


Our illustrated feature this month is there for the guidance of aviation enthusiasts, Pegasus-Spotters and scale modellers who want to get every last little detail right on their portrayals of the intrepid ladies of the Pegasus Service and the colourful heraldry of the air, to be found decorating the forward panniers of each majestic wingèd horse.

At the time of publication, there are seventeen active Pegasi with two more, belonging to Fledgling Air Cadets being trained for a future Air Watch role. Each of these seventeen Ladies of the Air has her own distinctive and unique heraldry, which is carried prominently on her mount, and which is a unique recognition feature.

Although this is nowhere near the nostrils of the Pegasus and (contrary to ill-founded rumour) is NOT painted or tattooed directly onto the animal, this Air Service tradition is generically known as "nose art". The derivartion of this is unclear, but Pegasus Witches we have spoken to all said "It felt right to call it that. Don't ask us why. Amelia's idea, I think."

There follows a description of the best known and most colourful examples, for the guidance of air enthusiasts.

Captain Olga Romanoff (The "Red Baroness").

Mount: Raduga Desh (Радуга Дэш) – stallion – "Rainbow Dash"

Callsign: Syren

Artwork: The classic mermaid on a rock – the original Syren – combing long red hair, which is artistically draped in much the manner of an urn or a length of gauze. (see illustration) (2)

It is understood the name relates not to the mythological archetype, but to the standard Watch police siren, or Syren No. 1, mounted to Air Watch patrol brooms. Captain Romanoff opted for this visual interpretation as "it looks better than a picture of the siren box and spares me having to explain it all the bloody time."

Lieutenant Irena Politek

Mount: Priyanika (Прияника) – mare. – "sweet cake served with tea" (note: no precise Morporkian translation)

Callsign: Krasnya Zvezda/ Red Star (Красная звезда)

Artwork: A large red star, outlined in gold, on a black background. The red star carries at its centre an abstract representation of a hammer crossed by a sickle. The legend "Красная звезда", in Cyrillic script, is emblazoned underneath.

Lieutenant Politek has explained, with a completely straight face in the presence of Captain Romanoff, that the crossed implements are symbolic of the nobility of the working proletariat in factory and field, the foundation of the Soviet state. She also points out that working Saturday night shifts for the City Watch has left her with no illusions about what the noble working proletariat is capable of after a skinful, and that she has nicked both farmers and factory workers without fear or favour, for anti-social behaviour, and a corrective spell in the Watch cells.

Senior Sergeant Hanna von Strafenburg ("The Golem")

Mount: Blitzen (Lightning) - stallion

Callsign: Valkyrie

Artwork: Two stylised lightning flashes in silver on a black background. The word Blitzen below in Gothic type.

Senior Sergeant von Strafenburg has told us her artwork is out of long-standing Prussican berwaldean military tradition, and constitutes part of her family coat-of-arms.

Sergeant The Crown Princess Margaret Esmerelda Note Spelling of Lancre ("Look, just call me "Nottie")

Mount: Spike - mare

Callsign: Ynci

Artwork: A representation of Ynci, Warrior-Queen of Lancre, scowling threateningly and raising a spear.

"Historians claim she never existed, but if she did, she's an ancestor and therefore Family. One of the ghosts in Mrs Ogg's laundry room is a fierce warrior queen in a chariot with all spikes on. But nobody speaks her language, so we've never been able to ask. It's all rather a mess, really."

Pilot Officer Amelia Cronkhart

Mount: Zemphis Al - stallion

Callsign: Zemphis Al

Artwork: A stylised representation of a muscular and becoming young man wearing a smile and minimal clothing. The words "Zemphis Al" underneath in a casualised font.

"Ok, so you got me. Who wouldn't have a cheesecake guy for company on long flights? Is he a picture of what my Pegasus might look like if he was human? Hey, a girl can speculate!"

Pilot Officer Rebecka Smith-Rhodes (Air Constable when on routine Air Watch duties)

Mount: Boetjie. - stallion . (Means "boy" or "boy-child" in Vondalaans).

Callsign: Firebird

Artwork: A phoenix rising from the flames on a green background. The Firebird is gold, the flames a particularly vivid orange-red. The legend, in Vondalaans, "die Vuurvol" underneath (starboard pannier). and the Cyrillic жар-птица (port pannier).

"There's a Rodinian name too, but I can't remember it justnow. It goes back to history lessons at school when my teacher taught Ankh-Morpork's version of events. I'm Rimwards Howondalandian enough for it to matter, so I looked up our version of history. The original Boetjie was General de la Rey's horse in the War of Independence. You know, the Boor War. Which Ankh-Morpork lost. So this is for Miss Lonsdale-Rust, my old History teacher. Without her teaching, I would never have been inspired to go and look these things up."

Pilot Officer Sophie Rawlinson (Lance-Corporal when on routine Air Watch duties)

Mount: Rosie. - mare

Callsign: Lancre Punch

Artwork: A representation of the Lancre Punch, the largest breed of domesticated horse on the Disc, distinguished by the breadth of its withers, its considerable musculature between crest and brisket, the strong powerful stifle and gaskins, and the growth of long hair between fetlock and coronet known fancifully as "feathering". The Lancre Punch is depicted as a dapple grey on a grass-green ground, wearing bright jolly brasses about its collar.

"Golly-gosh. Rosie was my first pony. I'll never forget her."

Flying Officer Vasilisa Budonova (Lance-Corporal when on routine Air Watch duties)

Mount: Stravinski - stallion

Callsign: Sneguroschka (Снегурочка) - Snow Maiden

Artwork: Ded Moroz, Дед Мороз (Rodinia's name for the Hogfather) in the background, in his blue robes trimmed with white. Very much in the foreground: his grand-daughter and Helper, Sneguroschka, also in blue robes trimmed with white. She has a long sabre raised in a warning posture.

"Snegoroschka is Hogswatch thing. She watches over little children and takes notes. If they are good, she brings gifts. If they are bad, she cuts off head with Cossack sabre and feeds body to fierce bears who draw sky-troika of Ded Moroz. Hey. It keeps children quiet at Hogswatch. Stravinsky. Is name of musical composer. Some good tunes. I like sound of name."

I'll probably add a few more as I think of them, but this kick-starts the idea. Seven down, ten to go… and there are Pegasus pilots I haven't even named yet…. If anyone in my readership can draw and paint and might like a go, I'd love to see the realisations!


(1) Really true. Humbrol, who manufactured glues and paints for model-making enthusiasts, stepped up to liquid cements applied with a brush. For modellers who had hitherto squeezed the stuff out of a toothpaste-ish tube when building plastic kits, this was hailed as genius. Technically speaking, it meant that model glue could be applied with far greater precision and a certainty that you would not end up with an uncontrollable spurt all over your new model. The problem was…. After a while Humbrol realised a different client group, one not especially interested in building models, was buying the glue. Their first formulation of model glue had distinctly mind-altering properties. Bad publicity forced them to reformulate to something less inadvertently psychotropic. Especially when considering a customer base of thirteen and fourteen year old boys who sincerely wanted to make models, not get stoned while doing so. Parents complained.

(2) This is where I wish I could draw…