stever219

Do you have a view too? When I was in Royal Papworth 20-odd months ago I had a near-panoramic 5th floor view of the new bus/rail station out to Cambridge city centre and the Cathedral. @Enzo the Magnificentyou are really being put through the wringer lately but you've always put a positive spin on your accounts of your trials and tribulations. Maybe you should change your handle to Job the Magnificent?

Scale Aircraft Conversions make a set for this kit which appears to include radio antenna mast and pitot probe aa well as one-pice legs (sorry @Flying Badger, a bit too late for you on this one). However, after my experience with their set for the 1/48th Javelin where they proved to be flimsier than the original plastic parts, I would hesitate to wholeheartedly recommend them. PS: Please could you PM me regarding the size, colour and style of squadron codes that you need? I might have some in the stash that you could have.

I think I have some [not very good] photos of this jet at one of the last(?) Fighter Meet airshows at North Weald. Happy memories, especially of lots of car alarms being set off by low, fast, re-heat passes. Happy days!

It should be RAF Blue-Grey (available from Resolution Hobbies' Colourcoats range in enamel) but as you can't actually build the airframe depicted from the parts in the kit it's a bit of a moot point...)

Do you mind?!? I resemble that remark!

The Royal Saudi Air Force operated a small number of F. Mk. 52s, equivalent to the RAF F. Mk. 2, and F. Mk. 53s, F. Mi. equivalent. @dragan_mig31 seems to have an F. 52.5 (big fin but early bits everywhere else) which, with that colour scheme, makes for a fun talking point at least.

What did you use for the rigging please? I have a Stranraer and Heyford that I'd like to use this method on, but I am hopeless at sprue stretching.

It's actually the bomb sight [course setting bomb sight to give it it's full name, if I remember correctly, but I stand to be erected....].

As far as I'm concerned the Mks. VIII and XVI were the best looking Merlin-engined Spitfires. The wings in your image look like they've go MK. IX/XVI ailerons but the fuselage has a cut-out for the Mk VIII retractable tail wheel. Which ever version you choose I hope you enjoy building it.

You'll be slightly more than extremely lucky to get an exact match for the spinner colour as it was probably mixed at unit level and the probabilities of a sample or a credible colour image existing are lower than mine of being the next Prime Minister. That said, if you can mix up a very slightly blue white (maybe use something close to the blue of the national markings rather than PRU Blue) you should be somewhere close. I wouldn't recommend the colour guide on the decal instruction sheet as a guide, sometimes they can be hideously inaccurate.

Maybe they knew of some of the issues that the RAF had had when operating Lancasters in India. Despite being to FE spec with larger radiators it was found that taxi and take off clearance had to be sought from ATC before engine start as doing it the other way round would lead to engine overheating before the aircraft reached the active runway.

O have three of the original issue and none of them have had these problems. As the kit is currently available Airfix may have spare parts in stock: contact them as per the guidance on their website. They may not be the fastest kids on the block for enquiries turnarounds but they usually come up trumps.

I'd love to hope that, but I suspect that the tools are already well-advanced and that it'd be too costly to redesign them to meet your, and my, wishes in that respect.

If you can get hold of a copy the (now ancient) "Warpaint" drawings from Aviation News appear to be quite credible, but don't cover the PR.9-specific reinforcement plates. I scaled from these for my 1/72th and 1/48th Airfix kits and I'll do the same for the Novo B(I)8 that I recently rediscovered in the Loft of Doom.

It's great to see this classic reissued; I have the remains of an early issue example in The Loft of Doom so I might drop a hint to the birthday and Christmas fairies for next December. The kit represents the 'craft in their "as delivered" configuration so anyone wanting to do a leter iteration has their work cut out. Main changes on the Mk. IIs was the elimination of the car deck level cabins with the side cabins being extended inboard: not for nothing did the early version acquire the dubious soubriquet of "Vomit Comet", in those inner cabins with no external visual references and a ride quality that varied from "interesting" to downright "what the v#"£<d was that?"the outcome should have been predictable. For those desperate to build a Mk. III (GH-2006 and GH-2007) you are going to need 2 kits to splice in a scale 55 (IIRC) foot long section amidships, increase the propellor diameters by 1/6 inch and increase the chord by about the same amount at half-span. The skirt's different too; the top line doesn't sweep down from the bow but follows a straight line all the way back just below the side deck level. At some point the rudders wrre removed, leaving just the pivoting fins and prop pylons for directional control.