gingerbob

The 20 T__ serials - were they Hawker, or CCF? The production directory on the database says Hawker, but other comments and internal evidence say Canadian.

No extended wingtips- there may be some exception on a IX somewhere along the way, but basically never. All low-backs (and all XVIs) were with the 'e' armament configuration. Normal delivery configuration for low-back XVIs was clipped tips. (I don't know about IXs for certain.) Postwar there are a few examples with standard tips- 'JMR', if I remember right, is one well-known example. For high-backs, I think standard tips were... standard, but you can certainly find some clipped tips.

And in 504 Squadron's ORB: 10 July 41 (Thursday): 504 took off at 0920 for Friston, 12 Hurricanes (plus 2 spare) on Gudgeon I operation. There S/Ldr Rook took command of a Wing comprising 504, 316 (Colerne), and 317 Sqn (Fairwood Common). The wing then flew to Le Havre escorting 12 Blenheims and crossing the English coast at 1202. 504 provided high cover and arrived over target about 5 minutes ahead of bombers, at 7000 ft. 316 medium escort at 3000, 317 in flights at 500 and 700. 317 destroyed one Me 109 and damaged another. The Blenheims bombed shipping and all aircraft returned safely, landing at Friston by 1330. 504 arrived back at Exeter at 1615 and had not fired their guns. 13th: In the evening the Sqn took off for Friston for Gudgeon III. 14th: took off from Friston 0723 as medium cover to 6 Blenheims, 317 providing close escort. The weather was hazy and therefore 316 Sqn did not go...

No, the intake is a different shape on the XIX compared to the XI. You want "Part #1" of your Quickboost conversion set.

Aaaaanndddd... the Final Reckoning! If I counted accurately, we achieved a total of 123 completions. One of those: Davek72 finished an Eduard 1/48 quite early, but never posted into the Gallery. Two others (also counted by me) were declared finished at or around the cutoff, but didn't get into the Gallery in time. We had 106 participants (or so- see next paragraph), and around 205 individual airframes, but the latter figure does not include all of Marklo's "Take that, Enzo!" Group Build group builds. I did count the 12 that were finished/ went into the Gallery, as well as the builds that were in more specific threads, but there are a number that saw significant building that just didn't make it over the finish line. In terms of participants, I think I counted anybody who expressed intention by putting up a thread, even if it turned out to be a placeholder that never launched (myself included). There are always a few of these in Group Builds, for one reason or another. And we also had a few that began, but then the builder opted to pull the plug on the project. We also had one "refurb" that had a thread, but was not counted within the terms of this Group Build. For kit manufacturers, I'm going with the company who did the original tooling (if I'm aware), rather than what name the particular kit was boxed under. [NOTE: posting this now to check some things, but I'll be back with more polished data in a while] Brand of choice, perhaps unsurprisingly, was Eduard at 50. Compare Eduard's 27 in 48th to the other manufacturers, none of which exceed single digits! Interestingly, though, in 1/72 Airfix (23) just nudged out Eduard, and AZ with 21- these three WAY ahead of anybody else. The breakdown by scale: Eduard 50: 1 32nd, 27 48th, and 22 72nd Airfix: 4 24th (all Gs, and the only 1/24), 5 48th, and 23 72nd) (That's 32 total) AZ: 21, all 72nd Hasegawa: 2/8/6 (32nd/48th/72nd) (16 total) Tamiya: 0/9/5 Special Hobby: 12, all 72nd Kōtare: 5, 32nd K (and the leader in that scale) Hobbycraft (including Academy): 5, all 48th- and 3 are Buchons! ICM: 5, 1 48th, rest 72nd (of which 3 are from the same builder) Zvezda: 0/2/1 and a 1/144 Mistel Revell: 4 (1/2/1- though the 72nd one met with an unfortunate glue accident) Academy and Avis 3 each, all 72nd After that, ones and twos from: 21st Century Toys, A&A, AModel, Armory, Beacon, Fine Molds, Heller, Hobby Boss, Huma, Intech, Italeri, KP, Matchbox, Merlin, Monogram, MPM, Pegasus, RS, Trumpeter, Wingsy Kits, and Zoukei-Mura. The big hitters by scale, from 24th down: E: 0/2/18/32 (total all scales 54) F: 0/1/10/11 (total all scales 23) G: 4/3/22/50 (total 79) K: 0/6/3/1 Hispano: 0/1/4/5 (one 72nd is an Ha-1109, rest 1112s, though one of those is a two-seater) Whew! p.s. That works out to about: (and these do not include all of Marklo's "catchall" builds, which were mostly 1/72) 1/24: 4 (completed: 2) 1/32: 13 (completed: 4) 1/48: 67 (completed: 36) 1/72: 114 (including a Mistel) (completed: 80) 1/144: 4 (including a Mistel) (completed: none! huh.) 1/250: 1 (a 3D print, which WAS completed)

Wow, quite the transformation in the last hours! Congratulations, and I hope you get to/got to sleep it off. bob

It does kind of leave me thinking, "Where's the rest of the airframe?" though! (I mean, as an actual flying (or "falling with style") machine, I get it, but as a model, it does feel like I'm missing a sprue, and seeing Adam's pictures of the result prompted that feeling, too.)

Looks great, Adam! I've got the 48th kit, and still trying to work up the courage to "lace her up".

With hours to go, as of now I count 106 completed examples- and Marklo's busily posting more to the Gallery. I'll update the stats once the war is over- it is changing too fast to bother right now!

Yes, as Alain says, it appears that they did a "common" clear sprue (as, if I recall, they did with the 1/48) to cover all the variations in the Mk.I/II/V Spits. So it looks like there's original "un-armoured" for early Mk.I, external (for up to "Mk.V early" by Eduard's way) and internal (Mk.V late). Note that they tool a different fuselage to fit either style of armoured windsreen, so be careful which Mk.V kit you get for the subject you have in mind.

I'd expect the spinners to come from the manufacturer in black (finish coat).

wow. Very impressed with the fuselage-side "whatever you call it" painting, in particular, but that's not to say that anything else is less worthy.

Hi Bill, here's what you said before. I can't speak to the truth of the statement. Looking at your photos, I don't think I'd want to fly this as a "convertible"! (It looks weird with no glass.) bob

Man, that first (finished) shot looks like a kid's attempt to draw a Mustang (meaning P-51D, of course). I would have said "my attempt", but it wouldn't have come out as well as that. And it looks like somebody stuck a Bearcat vertical on it! Congratulations for exorcising that demon.