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Current state of play is... After inspection of the parts it appears there is very little actual damage. The tip of the tail broke off as did one of the exhausts but that is about all. More parts separated themselves from their neighbours, especially around the wheel wells. I managed to get most of the paint off and with a newly purchased bottle of EMA Plastic Weld I started putting it back together. The fuselage has gone together well, in fact it seems better than before and I'm now working on the cockpit.I had some fancy ideas about repainting it all from scratch again but I've decided against that. I'm also unsure about whether to stay with the same scheme or not. My thinking is this. I bought a couple of am bits and don't want to use them on something not as good as it should have been. l might just use the kit decals and save the am bits for another attempt. Here is the fuselage as it is now.

That's a fine job you've done there. The lowback XVI is rapidly going up my list of kits to get.

Very nice. What was the kit like to build?

Oh, I've just noticed the elevators were on upside down as well which explains why I couldn't get them to go back together. This is starting to feel slightly humiliating.

Cheers, some useful tips there.

I just got myself a bottle of EMA Plastic weld. It says to apply with a small brush. Any ideas about cleaning the brush afterwards? What's best?

At first I thought this was a disaster of terminal proportions. Now I realise I get to build the same kit twice. How often does that happen?

Just to show I can build something that doesn't fall to pieces! Some good ideas here so thanks all. I have some EMA plastic weld on its way so I'll give it a try. As for the Mr Muscle is this the stuff? http://www.mrmuscleclean.com/en-gb/products/kitchen/mr-muscle-oven-cleaner If so, I'll get some of that too. As for the wings, I'm stuck with these ones as they were the only ones supplied. However, when Eduard sent me the new compass they sent me the whole sprue so I have plenty of spares I can use, especially cockpit parts. I'll probably leave it on the shelf for a little while and finish off a couple of little Spits that have been hanging around for an embarassingly long time then have another look. Cheers all.

Some plastic weld and a bit of filler and she'll be right as rain again, is that everyone's opinion?

It's a beauty, isn't it? I know it looks like I might have stuck it together with wallpaper paste, I actually used Humbrol Precision Poly Cement and Zap-A-Gap Medium CA+.

Some time ago my father bought me this Eduard 1/48 Spitfire Mk IXc and I have been working on it on and off for some time. It's a great kit but I have never had so much trouble as this before (at this point it is only fair to admit all problems have been entirely of my own making.) While building the cockpit I lost the compass. Not a major deal and Eduard were kind enough to send me a replacement. I carried on. Next I ruined the cables connecting the harness to the frame so I replaced them with some cunningly trimmed lengths of thin wire and continued with the build. Before building the wings I painted the wheel wells with the appropriate colour only to find the paint would not dry so I had to remove it and start again. Eventually I got the wings and fuselage together and all was looking good. At this point I broke off one of the cannon so I stuck it back on. Broke it off again. This time I drilled it all out and strengthened it with a length of perfectly fitting guitar string. Broke it off again. This time I drilled it all out and strengthened it with a length of perfectly fitting stronger wire. Stayed on so far. Now I was happy. Wings and fuselage together. Cannon repaired. Markings with D Day stripes selected. Everything primed and preshading done. So far it looked a bit like this. That's when I put the thing down on top of some wet glue and melted the bottom wing just where the stripes would finish. At this point I was about to give up but no, I thought, change the markings to something else. I looked on the sheet of decals and on the internet for something suitable. An online photo of one of the options on the decal sheet showed a 90 gallon slipper tank attached. Excellent! Put one of these on and it will distract the eye away from the damage on the wing. So onto Ebay I went and ordered one. It arrived very quickly and with a little glueing and bending of tiny pieces of etch, it was done. Meanwhile, the propellor had already been painted black so I thought I'd have a go at spraying some yellow tips on which didn't go as well as I'd hoped and I ended up stripping the whole thing and repriming. It's fine now. Then I ran out of Sky paint so I went out and bought a new pot of trusty Humbrol 90 and painted the fuselage band and spinner without any problem. So at this point I am confident my troubles are behind me and this morning's little task was to paint the undersurfaces in Medium Sea Grey. As this model has been hanging around for some time and been handled rather a lot (ok, flown around the room with accompanying engine and machine gun noises) I gave it a wipe down to remove any dirt and grease and started spraying. As the paint went on I noticed what appeared to be tiny specks of lint in the finish. No problem I thought I'll just wipe that off and keep going. But the problem just got worse. It wasn't the paint as other parts were fine and all it needed was a little wipe with some white spirit to clean it up. So I gave it a little wipe, rinsed it under the tap and left it to dry. When I came back to it a few hours later I noticed one of the wing tips had come loose. Odd, I thought and checked the other side. That, too, was loose and so was the wing joint along the leading edge. Not only that but one of the exhaust stacks almost fell into the fuselage when I touched it. And then the wing root popped open. Within moments my Spitfire looked like this... WARNING. THE FOLLOWING IMAGE MAY BE DISTRESSING. IF YOU HAVE A WEAK HEART OR ARE OF A NERVOUS DISPOSITION STOP HERE. DO NOT SCROLL DOWN. The whole thing just fell apart. Never have I had anything like this amount of trouble with a kit or come so close to chucking it in the bin. Right now the parts are bagged and boxed up while I decide their fate. So what to do? I have tried telling myself this is really a good thing as I can fix a couple of things that weren't quite right when I put it all back together. Or I could concede defeat and put it out of its misery. Time will tell. What to do?

In 1/24?

I don't know but I hope they do. I'd have them all.

The shark looks great but I think you've forgotten the hook sticking out of the jaw!

I like to paint the dials white then paint the whole panel black. Once this has dried you can use a sharp pin to scratch some of the black away. It doesn't have to be anything special as it will be hardly seen but it does make a difference I think. Once you've done that drybrush and add a drop of gloss varnish into the dial for the glass. Here's one I made earler.

Nice choice of kit, I've just started one of these as well, can't get enough Seafires. When posting an image I usually just click inside the Direct box in Photobucket. That will copy the URL for you and then just paste into Image (the green square below the smiley face) in the toolbar at the top of your post. That should insert your picture striaght into your post.

Looks very interesting. Love an FAA Corsair so I'm just off to get a beer from the fridge, will be back in a sec.

I really must get myself one of these, they look like a lot of fun and yours is coming along very nicely. What was the Sutton harness like to work with?

These have just gone to the top of my "need it want it must have it" list.

A very timely tip, I'm just about to do the undercarriage.

I love anything FAA and this one is a beauty, might have to get one myself. Very nice indeed.

Have been really looking forward to seeing this one finished. What a fantastic result, I'm seriously impressed. Well done.

Very nice and one of my favourite planes too. I have one of these started so I must get on with it.

Here is the Airfix 1/48 Seafire XVII I've been working on for ages but finally finished today. I made a couple of mods along the way, nothing fancy of course. I thinned the propellor blades a little because they looked like cricket bats otherwise and added an Eduard PE harness. Cannons were brass replacements from Master and the engine fairings were Barracuda resin. Exhaust stubs were drilled out and the little scoop on the cowl was made from a piece of plastic tube cut and shaped. After lots of sanding the fuel filler cap had virtually disappeared so I made another by punching out a suitable sized disc from an old yoghurt pot. The rockets had fuses added by drilling out the end and adding a little wire with a spot of glue on the end. Paints were mostly Humbrol 123 and 90 for the EDSG and Sky and 15 for the yellow on the spinner. Otherwise I used whatever I had in the paint box. Varnishes were Humbrol Clear and Matt Cote. Any problems in construction were entirely of my own making although it was fairly problem free generally, mainly with decals which often refused to stay put. If you look carefully you might see where the airbrush blew one away. I managed to break a few of the most delicate parts but for once didn't lose anything. I learned a few things along the way, quite a few actually and I know what I would do differently on the next one. And the next one. And the next one... Anyway, a great kit which I thoroughly enjoyed building.

Don't worry, the instructions make it quite clear.