KeithBurrage

Hi Guys, I started building Airfix series 1 kits as a child of six or seven in East Africa during the nineteen fifties where my father worked as an engineer (Those of a similar vintage to me will remember the little plastic bag containing a couple of sprues and closed with the instructions stapled over the top). If memory serves correctly my first attempt was a Supermarine S6b. I wasn't allowed to paint them cos' I got the paint everywhere! I was only six or seven. I kept on modelling until marriage and kids interfered with the master plan.

I built pretty much everything Airfix released until graduating to more expensive stuff as I got older. In deference to my love of F1 ( I worked for Goodyear's F1 team for a while after leaving the Navy in the seventies) I built all the 1/12 Tamiya F1 cars and several of the 1/20th scale cars as well and then packed in as kids started arriving (never did figure out what caused them!).

The kids have all buggered off now and I have had the locks changed to keep 'em out. Because life had gone all quiet I decided to revisit modelling and bought the Airfix Spitfire MkXII to see if I could still do it. I thought 1/72 might be a bit too fiddly for the fading eyesight! What a lovely kit. Airfix have come on a bit since I last built one (1/72 B29 if memory serves) haven't they?

I really want to collect anything that flew off a Royal Navy carrier deck (Trumpeter Seahawk in the stash and Wyvern S4 and Sea Fury on the approach radar). However I do tend to get my head turned by a pretty Spit! A MkXVIe from Airfix caught my eye and jumped in front of the Seahawk in the 'must build' queue only yesterday.