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This is my second thread on BritModeller, the first being my long-winded and ultimately ill-fated Introductory thread (there's a lesson or two there). My first horse out of the gate is the Pavla/Octopus 1/72 Seafire Mk III. Seafires had their ups and down, quite literally, on account of their narrow-track undercarriage, resulting in many an unfortunate "mishap" on deck. From what I have been able to gather, the Seafire Mk. III was based on the Mk. V land-based fighter airframe. I could be wrong, though, and will no doubt be corrected quick-smart if I am. Pavla's kit is typical Central European short-run stuff - with two vac-formed canopies (one and a spare), some resin bits as well as the typical soft short-run polystyrene, but no photo etch; much like many of MPM's and the late lamented (because of their brave and highly interesting choices of subject) Classic Airframes kits. The A5 instruction booklet is also highly reminiscent of those from the latter companies (plus Special Hobby, Azur, et alia). The first two snaps in this first post have already appeared in my introductory thread, but I am giving them another outing; the other two are much more recent: 1. Pavla/Octopus 1/72 Supermarine Seafire Mk III: RN and Free French Navy markings. Short run kit with resin and vac-formed parts. Panel lines restrained, but the texture of the external surfaces feels rather gritty and will need a bit of polishing (the recently-located micromesh cloths will come in handy here) 2. Close-up of resin parts for Pavla Seafire Mk III. Nice crisp moulding for the most part - the resin wheels are at least 1000 % better than the rather horrible polystyrene parts; lovely resin moulding also on the intakes, exhausts, U/C torque links, cockpit walls... 3. The renowned Brian Taylor's 1/5 Spitfire Mk VIII/IX cowling and spinner set. What's this snap doing in this thread? Not only is it the wrong scale it's the wrong mark, and indeed the wrong forum (it should be on www.rcscalebuilder.com). It appeared on CedB's MPM Mk XI PR Spitfire thread as a juxtaposition of the starboard fuselage part of the 1/72 Pavla/Octopus Seafire with the 1/5 Mk IX bits... And it shows off one of my DIY benches slightly 4. Overview of my DIY reed-tying/modelling bench, populated with (most of) my paint collection and various tools. Gunze and Tamiya on left of shelf; Revell, Humbrol, PollyScale, ModelMaster and White Ensign to the right. This was almost entirely - but not quite - unintentional - it's just how it turned out. And yes, that's three cutting mats (I have a couple more around somewhere, too) Follow this link to my Flickr account; note that some of them are for my gaze only, so there may be no point in looking for these snaps there The kit comes with a veritable embarrassment o' markings. There are transfers for four aircraft: 1. Seafire L Mk. III NN212, No. 887 NAS, on HMS Indefatigable, British Pacific Fleet, August 1945 (EDSG, DSG, Sky and White); 2. Seafire L. Mk. III NF491, D6oY, 809 Sqaudron FAA, on HMS Stalker. 1944-45 (EDSG, DSG, Sky and Red); 3. Seafire III Serial no. unknown, I.F_12, on Arromanches, 1st Flotille French Navy in Indochine, October 1948 (EDSG, DSG, Sky, Red and Aluminium) 4. Seafire Mk. III PR171, D5oJ, 807 Naval Air Squadron, on HMS Hunter, British East Indies Fleet, early 1945 (EDSG, DSG, Sky, White and Matt Black). At this point I have no particular inclination to make any one of the above aircraft rather than another, so I'll see how the fit takes me. I also don't know which paints I am going to play around with either: I have an embarrassingly large collection of Gunze (aqueous and lacquer), Tamiya, Model Master, Humbrol, Revell, Hannants and White Ensign enamels, Xtracrylix, plus a stack of Alclad II metal paints for bare metal/doped parts. I also have some primers such as Humbrol (various including rattle can), Tamiya, Model Master and - gasp - MIG/AK. I will NOT be using the latter on anything except the odd AFV, and I don't have any Stynylrez - yet. That will change. There are also a small compressor and two airbrushes lurking around, but I haven't actually ever used the dreaded AB, so will be sticking to paint brushes for this build - otherwise the build will simply not happen. Or, I suppose, I could stick it all together without paint, but I can imagine the (totally justifiable) Great Squawking and Clucking were I to attempt to do that. Although it could be quite amusing in a rather nasty sort of way. And end up with me being permanently banned. I am kicking off with this model since I promised CedB and Procopius a while ago that I would start with a 1/72 scale subject in their honour given that they put up with a lot of (well, incessant) PM-ing when I first popped up like a veritable weasel on this site. Nigel Heath also gets guernsey in this respect too - and he also happens to be a 1/72 scale gentleman. Me? My plastic model collection is mostly 1/48, 1/35, 1/32 and 1/24 - I have about five or six 1/72 models (maybe a few more). I was working on a Hasegawa 1/72 Fw 190 A7 with Eduard etch a few years ago, but since Procopius doesn't like German WWII aircraft, I decided no to start with that one; it is probably over halfway done, with everything closed up. There won't be any more for a while, so consider this to be something of a placeholder - and it does at least give me something of an anchor, modelling-wise. I am still working slowly and (apparently) patiently away at finishing off my workbenches in my workshop so that I can get on with all my stalled projects - including my modelling. At this stage, however, I can't stop working away at the shop for a bit of impatient modelling. I think that that is enough gas-bagging from me for the time being, in any case. Cheers, Alex.