wellsprop

Thats looking excellent!

Hi all, Having just completed my 1/48 Spitfire collection, I have begun work on my next collection(s), this is the second in my twin engine collection and the first in my DeHavilland collection! When I first discovered the DH Hornet, I thought it was "what-if" aircraft, such a fantastic looking aircraft, sleek and clean - Eric "Winkle" Brown said about the Hornet; "For aerobatics the Sea Hornet was absolute bliss. The excess of power was such that manoeuvres in the vertical plane can only be described as rocket-like. Even with one propeller feathered the Hornet could loop with the best single-engine fighter, and its aerodynamic cleanliness was such that I delighted in its demonstration by diving with both engines at full bore and feathering both propellers before pulling up into a loop!" I fell for the secondary scheme in the kit, with the striking red arrows on the wings and fuselage, subsequently I discovered the spinners were silver (not the striking red) and, interestingly, the fin flash was likely of the C type. The kit was very straight forward and fun to build, it took no longer than 4 days to build from start to finish. I'm aware there are a few inaccuracies, but I'm not worried, I think it looks fantastic, a truly striking aircraft. Thanks for looking, I've already started my 1/48 Tamiya Mosquito which is coming along well! Cheers, Ben

Thanks for all the generous comments everyone I really enjoyed building these and I've somewhat rediscovered my love of modelling, having only built on average a couple a year for the past few years. Oooh, good question. My favourite build was the Airfix Mk XIV, I wasn't happy with my first build but I was delighted this second attempt, it's my favourite mark of Spitfire and I had been waiting ages for a decent kit! I really do like the newer Airfix kits, I find they are simple to build, with a good level of detail and I think they look great The stand out build was the Tamiya Mk I, I cut the parts off the sprues and it was practically press-fit from there on. I used one very small smudge of filler, that was all. Great kit, highly recommended! I've also bought a Tamiya 1/48 Mosquito and Beaufighter based on how much I enjoyed this kit! I really enjoyed the Eduard kit too, beautifully detailed, possibly a little over-engineered. I will, however, stay away from ICM!

Love it! Great looking little Tiggie

Hi All, A few months ago, I made the brave step to switch to 1/48 models and I sold off a huge amount of 1/72 models I have built over the years (I kept a few of the really nice ones). Only in the last year have a made I return to modelling, having finished university and settled down in my first home (with enough rooms to have a few shelves up for models, oh the look on my girlfriends face when I told her of my plans!). A few of you may remember that about 5 years ago I had built up a fairly large Spitfire collection, I decided to do something similar in 1/48. I've aimed to cover most major variants of the Spitfire, as well as a few theatres of operation. There was one main criteria for the builds, that is, all the Spitfires were to have the original wing (i.e. not the later laminar flow version), I also decided I wanted to model full span versions across all the builds to show how it was the one constant among all the marks. I'm really pleased with how they've all turned out, I also now have a 1.2 metre shelf with 8 Spitfires (3 flights, nearly a whole squadron!) sat wingtip-to-fuselage on it Spitfire Mk Ia N3200 - Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire Mk.Ia N3200/QV flown by Sqn. Ldr. Geoffrey Stephenson, No. 19 Squadron RAF, Duxford, England, 1940. Seafire Mk III NN452 - 1/48 Airfix Kit Bash Seafire Mk.III NN452 S/141, flown by Lt. Cdr. N. G. "Buster" Hallet of 24 Naval Fighter Wing FAA, HMS Indefatigable, British Pacific Fleet, 1945. Spitfire Vb AB264 GN-H - Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk.Vb AB264 GN-H flown by Pilot Officer R.W. "Buck" McNair D.F.C. RCAF, No. 249 Squadron RAF, Ta' Qali, Malta, March 1942. Spitfire VIII A58-300 DL-R - ICM 1/48 Spitfire Mk.VIII A58-300/DL-R, No. 54 Squadron RAAF, Darwin, Australia, 1944 Spitfire IX ML135 YO-D - Eduard 1/48 Spitfire Mk.IX ML135/YO-D flown by Flying Officer J. Billing, No. 401 Squadron RCAF, B4 Beny-sur-Mer, France, June 1944. Spitfire XIV MV264 EB-Q - Airfix 1/48 (Second Attempt!) Spitfire Mk.XIV MV264/EB-Q flown by Flying Officer E. Gray, No. 41 Squadron RAF, B118 Celle, Germany, April/May 1945. 1/48 Airfix Seafire XVII - RNAS Yeovilton 1950 Seafire XVIII, SX156, of 767 NAS,Deck Landing Control Officer Training Unit, RNAS Yeovilton, 1950. Spitfire XIX PS852 - Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk.XIX PS852, No. 81 Squadron RAF, Kai Tak, Hong Kong, January 1951. That's them all! I must get a photo of the collection together when the weather is ideal for photography Cheers, Ben

Cheers Dave I think I saw this mentioned quite a while ago, I reckon it'll be a bit on the steep side for me I'm realising that I might just have to get some normal round tube and squish it between some scrap metal with my workbench!

Hi all, Just completed this one as the final Spitfire to join my Spitfire collection. I enjoyed this build, but it has a few silly quirks, mainly the oil tank cover being a separate part and the undercarriage legs connect in the silliest way possible (gluing the legs to some "stubs", rather than into secure connecting holes). I decided to overpaint the stencils (I don't know if this is correct) and add IFF wires (again, I don't know if this iarcraft had IFF) and weathered with acrylic washes. Spitfire Mk.Vb AB264 GN-H flown by Pilot Officer R.W. "Buck" McNair D.F.C. RCAF, No. 249 Squadron RAF, Ta' Qali, Malta, March 1942. Thanks for looking Ben

Hi all, I need to scratch build some lift struts for a 1/48 Piper L4, but I am really struggling to find any oval/elliptical tube/rod, preferably brass tube. I need some elliptical tube about 1mm semi-major axis, I did think about getting some 0.75mm round tube and squishing it oval, but I haven't got any way of doing that. Does anyone know where I could get oval/elliptical tube? Cheers!

Not wishing to divert the topic onto a different subject, but... I thought I was familiar with most of the period images of Spitfire XIVs (bubbletop), but this one is new to me. Not only does it show an XIV with a mirror (I didn't think this was common on bubbletop XIVs), it also shows bomb racks, again not common on the XIV! Thanks for posting I must find out some more.

Excellent, great finish on these

Absolutely stunning, excellent weathering!

Wow! These are beautiful

I suggested (totally incorrectly I might add!) that they were repainted, in my post #3. For some reason it didn't occur to me that they were delivered in those colours at the factory (due to being manufactured after the order was given not to paint camo). My next question, would 43-5344 have had full D-Day stripes, seeing as it crashed in early July? My assumption, is that (just like Spitfires) they had full D-Day stripes until (August September 44ish?) from wiki "One month after D-Day, the stripes were ordered removed from planes' upper surfaces to make them more difficult to spot on the ground at forward bases in France. They were completely removed by the end of 1944 after achieving total air supremacy over France." Just seen the info and linked pictures about Norsemans in the delivery batch that 43-5344 was in, it seems Olive Drab over grey is the colours it wore, leaving only the questions of to what extent the stripes were likely to have been.

Oh my gosh, thanks for all the replies everyone! I intend to do the 1/48 version (having recently switched to 48th scale)! Seems like I'll be painting it in silver dope

Hi Mattlow, This may be of some use to you https://outerzone.co.uk/plan_details.asp?ID=5423 It's for a larger scale RC, but it gives you the cross sections required. Outerzone is very good for plans. Please, please do a WiP too, I'd love to see this in 48th