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Desert Spitfire Staffel...plus a Spanish intruder!


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Hi all,

 

a slightly misleading title in that only one of these Spits is a desert bird but the meaning will become clear momentarily! I used to post here until about 5 years ago when I took up a new job in the middle east and modelling had to take a back seat. Having recently moved into a bigger place and my stash grown to excessive proportions I decided it was time to get building (and posting) again. Here are my first few across the bench!

 

Eduard Spitfire IXc early (weekend edition), EN354 of the 4th FS, 52nd FG based in Tunisia 1943. What a beautiful kit, so good I went out and bought two more IXs and three VIIIs! Built OOB.

 

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Hasegawa Spitfire VI, BS111 of 616 Squadron 1942. A nice kit but not the best fitting. I added some Eduard seatbelts, scratch built pressure bulkhead and DV window. Since the canopy on this version was removable and did not slide I had no idea where to put it(!), so I tacked it to the wing with some white glue as if the erks had placed it there.

 

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ICM Spitfire VII, MD187 of 131 Squadron 1944. This one fought me a lot of the way! Scratch built pressure bulkhead/canopy rails, Falcon transparencies and decals from the spares box. Spare Eduard elevators and Airfix tailwheel plus shortened oleos to improve the sit. Had a lot of trouble painting the invasion stripes, I'm passing their resulting roughness off as being hurriedly applied!!!

 

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Tamiya Spitfire I N3290 of 92 Squadron, May 1940. What else to say about this beautiful kit? OOB with Xtradecals markings. And I should have removed the crowbar and the seat should be green and not plastic!

 

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Academy (Hobbycraft) Hispano Buchon, Spanish AF. Have to say I love this scheme! Looking at photos these aircraft seemed to be immaculate hence no weathering. I added a Eduard Bf109 cockpit set.

 

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Paints used were a mix of Vallejo, Tamiya and Model master. Flat finish by Windsor and Newton.

 

I've decided to build one last Spitfire before I decide to change subject for a while. I've never been a fan of the Airfix Spitfire XII, to my eye it seems too chubby and does not capture the hot-rod look of the real thing. I had a spare Hasegawa IX fuselage in the spares box so I corrected the length and grafted the Airfix nose onto it, reduced the Airfix wing chord using an Eduard wing as a guide and added a spare Eduard rudder. Although I still wonder why I did this (especially as the Airfix bits fit together so well!) the result looks OK to me. Its currently waiting on some paint masks for the codes, which I should receive this weekend. I am at the end of a fairly long supply chain!!!

 

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I hope you've enjoyed looking at these as much as I have enjoyed looking at and being inspired by the work on this site over the last few years. Please do let me know what you think and also any constructive criticism is most welcome!

 

cheers,

 

Chris

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What a beautiful collection of Spitfires and some of the more unusual marks and colour schemes to boot.  The quality of your paint finishes is outstanding.  A very interesting point about the Mk VI canopy although most of the photographic evidence I've seen has the canopy in the closed position while on the ground, presumably without the pressurisation applied.   Funnily enough there seem to be a lot of builds out there with the canopy in the slid back position and one I've come across even has the side door in the open position when, of course, the door didn't exist on the Mk VI.

 

I have to agree on the Buchon's coulour scheme.  Very attractive.

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What a beautifully built and finished selection :thumbsup2: !

 

You caught my eye with the 'Spanish Intruder' in the title. I wasn't disappointed; that's a gorgeous Hispano Buchon.

 

i have the kit in a stash far, far away, and a 'Classic Plane' kit in 1/72 closer to home - I doubt that I could do either justice like this.

 

Great stuff, thanks for sharing

:goodjob: 

Best regards

TonyT

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Thanks for the kind comments everybody. I can confirm that the ICM kit is a bit of a pig! Shape-wise it looks OK to me but I've never seen so much flash on one set of sprues before! I had heard that newer editions had solved this problem so I picked up a brand new one a few days ago only to find that it was even worse! :o

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A super line up. I especially like the VI & the XII, both of which I've done in the last while in 1/72, I'll be keen to see more of your XII when its complete, they're a satisfying aircraft & as you say, have hotrod looks. :thumbsup:

Steve.

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