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Hello fine folk of Britmodellerland, If I may I'd like to share this little project with you? It is intended to be a gentle amble through one of Tamiya's uber kits, their 1/32nd scale Spitfire Mk.XVI. I have begun building this in a group build as a tribute to Edgar Brooks who most will know passed away recently. Fairwell and blue skies sir. Originally the only Spitfire I wished to build was a Battle of Britain era airframe. Having recently completed the new tool Revell offering I appear to have banished those demons and decided to try something different. This is the closest I could get to the last of the line without enormous modification or resorting to the Revell (old Matchbox) Mk.24. (Secretly I'd like Tamiya to release a Mk.47 Seafire with contra-rotating props but I can't see it happening in my lifetime.) So here we are. A low back Spitty with a bubble canopy and (probably) a silver finish. This one will be largely out of the box although I reserve my right to deviate from that course when the mood takes me. For now, let's get started. Following the instructions (often a wise course of action with these complex Tamiya kits) has us begin by adding this little item to the port fuselage cockpit wall. Step 1: I began by painting the fuselage halves in MrMetalColor buffable aluminium which allowed me some leeway to scratch the green acrylic coat to simulate a little wear. More cockpit sidewall details in step 2, this time to the starboard side. Step 2: Finally for this short introduction post, step 3 which allows us to assemble the compass using a natty photo-etched bracket and plastic compass part. I replaced the kit compass decal with one from Airscale. http://www.airscale.co.uk/ This appears better than the kit item to me. Step 3: So, we're off. Next up, the IP but that will have to wait a while as I'm away. Back with more when I can. Cheers.

Hello fello plastic fondlers, (I'm going to add to this thread a bit at a time due to pc and photobucket incompatabilty related issues so please have patience with me) I recently completed the new tool Spitfire bt Revell in 1/32nd scale and was lucky enough to find a window in the weather that allowed me to take a few snaps. As is my want, I plopped the model onto a base and stood it in front of a scenic backdrop. I spirinkled some props around liberally in an attempt at realism before firing the shutter in full sunshine. Here we see AR213 at rest, possibly before an airshow? It is my theory that Revell used this exact airframe as their template for this offering of the Spitfire. It therefore made sense to try to model it. With the pilot aboard she sits awaiting engine start. (I think the extinguisher is a bit too close to the aircraft in this pic) With engine running the pilot awaits the removal of the wheel chocks before he can taxi onto the grass for takeoff. Finally, he taxiis past before soaring skyward in his precious mount.... This model fought me tooth and claw and in truth, I probably enjoyed it less than I should have. The paint finish is abysmal resulting in me leaving off most of the stencilling to avoid any silvering. I chose to adapt, alter and tweak many details on the kit to get a more accurate looking bird. When I get more time I'll take a few more snaps and detail some of the mods in case anyone is interested. In the mean time I hope you enjoy these images. Cheers.

Hello folks, After the last build I've leapt up in scale to the new Revell Spitfire. I've had the kit a wee while but lacked the motivation to start it after reading of a few issues with it here and there. However, bouyed by some recent top builds of almost OOTB models my joy has been re-kindled. I've long wanted a large scale early Spit in the cabinet and waited for Tamiya to release one of their uber kits, sadly to no avail. Instead, Revell came to the rescue with a brand new tooling. It's a fairly well known fact that opinion is divided on this model. Somehave said that the rivet and surface detail treatment is too heavy handed. Others, the exact opposite. I think we all have to take our own view of the subject and decide whether to proceed or not. Personally, I expect to be doing some work on the details so it bothers me not at this point. On to the build and it's a slow start. The instructions begin with the cockpit and as we've probably seen elsewhere, the detail is pretty good ootb. I expect to have to add some detail in there for my own personal satisfaction but, being the lazy b****r that I am, I'd like to keep it to a sensible level. To that end, I've opted to add a pilot. Unfortunately, Revell have chosen not to provide one. No matter, there are some super resin aftermarket pieces available. However, just to complicate things, I'd like to model this airframe as a kind of restored warbird type thing in which case, that whole Irvine flying jacket and Mae West combo is rarely sported. Instead, these warbird jockeys are often to be seen purely in a flying overall. Since I have never spotted a pilot model in that garb there was only one choice,....scratch build the blighter. In my hazy memory I seemed to remember that I had some armour kits that a chum had donated years ago. Sure enough, I found some German tank of some description or other with some unbuilt crewmen still on their sprues. Yes, they are 1/35th scale and might look a little, umm,...little but I thought it was worth a go. To get the clothign to look more like a pilot I sanded off the dude's tunic and used green stuff to add rolled up cuffs and stuff. I'll add a watch to one of his wrists and finish his flying gloves off with more foil once the green stuff has set overnight. If any of you pilot types spot anything that should be altered or could be improved please pipe up and I'll get on it. Originally I'd planned to use the head off a Hasegawa Spit pilot but it's quite crude. Luckily, and thanks to the smashing generosity of one of our members I may be able to revise the head issue. More on that in due course of course. While I had some green stuff on the go I splodged a bit on the backrest of the seat to represent the padding that Revell omitted. It's not brilliant but much of it will be obscured by the parachute pack, belts and harnesses. Once the pilot's putty is cured I'll dry fit him into the seat and see what can be seen around him. That will allow me to decide just how far to take the internal detailling. More soon. Cheers.

Hi folks, Please permit me to share a potentially exciting topic with you all. Here is a link to a 1/32nd scale resin dH Chipmunk that is in development: http://s1375.photobucket.com/user/freemodeller/media/Mobile%20Uploads/_IGP6731_zpse74a2fe2.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0 No news on pricing yet but keep abreast of things on this LSP thread: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=51822 Plenty of scope for extra detailling if that is one's bent. At this scale it might even be possible for some to approach the level of detail Steve Friday managed with his 1/72nd scale beauty... Cheers.

Use this link instead: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234939162-132nd-north-american-t-6-texansnj-harvard-by-kittyhawk-sprue-shots-released/page-2#entry1518368 They are not my images nor of my kit. Regards,

Hi all, I decided that it was time to start posting again, but thought I would try to pile on the pressure a bit. For a start I have signed up fot the obsolete kit build, but that should not divert me too much from this as I will be making in the same way I did when I was twelve, so two days building and a day slapping paint on it. So, "what is this going to be about?" you ask? well, last year at Telford, my son picked up a Revell 32nd scale Red Arrows Hawk with a decal set containing the ETPS scheme, as well as the 19 squadron dark green, dark earth scheme. I was impressed by the moulding, and accidentally fell in to The Works where I found to my amazement that they had the same kit on offer for a tenner, so who was I to argue? Actually, there were three on the shelf, and the other two looked so lonely when I took their friend that I had to comfort them into the same bag. Fortunately SWMBO was in the kitchen when I got back so was able to sneak them into the stash without her seeing. Also, fortunately, she pays little interest in my modelling, and even less on aircraft, so when she saw me working on these she assumed it was the same kit. But I get ahead of myself a little. The plan here is to knock together FOUR 32nd scale Hawks at the same time, with different colour schemes, and have them ready for shoving on the club stand at Telford. Those who saw my build last year will know the last decal was applied on the morning I set off! Hopefully I will be better this time. However, I do not have oodles of dosh, so will not be using much in the way of aftermarket. To be honest, I have never used resin before, but have picked up a set of seats and one exhaust. this means one will have a reasonable cockpit, and the other three will need a bit of plastic card throwing at them, we shall see. I have made a start by hacking apart the wings. Considering this is a well detailed kit, I cannot believe that Revell cocked up and didn't give us the option of dropped flaps, as this is the standard position at rest! added to which, they did not supply a pilot to stick in the office to pretend that the engine was running, or the thing was flying! they must have had an idea about this, as there is a score line on the inside of the wing indicating where to make the cut. This suggests that either this was going to be an option which was forgotten about / binned due to cost etc. or there was a plan to release a dropped flap set in the future. As I was not going to spend extra cash on this build, the flap dropping is going to be scratchall the way, so here is how I attacked it (so far) The first stage was to remove the flap from top and bottom sections. This was done with a sharp blade (11a) working firstly along the external hinge line, and then by extending the depth of the scoring before breaking away. This approach was done in case the score line was a little out and caused future problems down the line. Each section was marked port and starboard before being stuck together to avoid confusion. As the bottom of the flap is longer than the top, the gap was plugged with 20 thou card which was sanded to shape following the pics on the hawk walk around. the position of the six mounting bracket for the inner airfoil was marked out, and thin slots cut into the leading edge at the appropriate positions. Even taking this pic has not raised the suspicions of SWMBO that there is anything other than one kit on the go here. At the back, in the greatest tradition of Blue Peter is one I made earlier to test the theory of the project. Thin slivers of ten thou card were then added to the slots These were subsequently sanded level with the top, cut to about two mil from the leading edge and sanded to shape. For the inner airfoil, I took a two mil wide strip of ten thou card, and added a 1 mil strip of the same to the top and glued it together. This was then sanded to shape according to the photos and cut to length. the whole thing has then been set to one side whilst I decide what to do next. Also, I need to work out how to do the flap hinges and actuators as well. More to follow.