matto21

I think this kit was released in 1994. Thing with highly detailed cockpits in 1/48 scale is little can be seen anyway, especially in a Spitfire so I don't think the simpler cockpit is a big deal. And your right, the Trop filter is a bit special! Matt

I've got this kit in my stash, and I've also just recently finished the Airfix Vb. Despite its age, I think this is the easier kit to build. You can't go wrong with a trop filtered Spit anyway! Matt

Thank you @Nikolay Polyakov. Some more progress, which may just show the amount of filling required to fair in the engines (not finished yet) Matt

Still plodding on with this, although the main activity each night seems to be filling and sanding at the moment. I actually consider filling, sanding and rescribing to be 3 of the modelling tasks I'm worst at. I'm getting plenty of practice at all three at the moment! As you'd probably predict, the fit between engine and wing isn't great, and it's taken me the best part of 3 evenings to fit one reasonably well. Happy days! Matt

Thank you @Dansk, fingers crossed it'll turn out OK!

Finally a bit of progress - I keep getting distracted by the Kikka. I've painted the camo on the fuselage sides, sprayed freehand. The Dark Slate Grey is from Vallejo, and the EDSG from Mr Hobby Aqueous. I've also tried to suggest some subtle shading and fading to both colours without going OTT. I'll undoubtedly return to this again once the wings are done. I find it much easier to paint in blocks like this, rather than trying to do it all in one session. The camo at the rear of the fuselage, around the tail, will need tidying up too. Matt

Excellent! It looks brilliant! I have the French version of this kit but keep putting off building it.

Bit more progress tonight. To be fair, everything has gone together reasonably well so far. The fuselage fitted together OK, but there were a couple of sink marks that needed filling. A bit of plastic strip was needed to close up the gap at the wingroot on one side, but nothing too drastic. The panel lines and recessed detail are very shallow though, and the plastic is a bit soft. This means that any sanding at all almost obliterates the detail, so you have to be careful, especially if, like me, you're not very good at rescribing. Next up is to sort the seam on the nose and them tidy up the underside wing to fuselage joint. Matt

Hello, Bit of Kikka progress in that the cockpit parts have now been painted. Given its role, you could argue that the cockpit, or actually the entire aircraft, wouldn't get weathered. But where's the fun in that? As mentioned previously, not much will be visible through the closed canopy anyway. Matt

Bit of a start on the cockpit. The rear bulkhead is made up of three, increasingly fragile parts. Belts are homemade by my usual method - they're not accurate, but they look better to my eye than the overly flat appearance of etched ones. The cockpit opening is small and the canopy is moulded closed so not much will be visible anyway! Matt

Thanks Col, bit boring right now but hopefully the topsides will bring it to life!

@djos actually a very good call. Meant to do it, but forgot. All acrylic paint. Topsides using Mr Hobby and undersides using Vallejo Model Air. Matt

Found one more pic @Peter W Matt

Hi all, I recently picked up this kit from Fine Molds (Finemolds? FineMolds?). Not an aircraft I'm really familiar with, and not a kit I've seen built too often either. Also, I've never built a FM kit before either. Inside the box, the sprues are surprisingly small. All the pieces have finely moulded (hoho) recessed detail but there's also a lot of flash present on some parts, especially the wings. It's a pretty simple kit, but I fancied a change and hopefully it'll build up into something a bit different. Matt

Here's progress so far. Despite being impressed with the AK paint (and I still am) I decided to liven it up with a bit of mottling and shading. I mixed in some white from Ammo, and things went badly! Wouldn't spray and kept clogging up the airbrush. So, the next day I roughly oversprayed everything using Mr Hobby Light Aircraft Gray, and then lightened this with Mr Hobby White for some highlights, and things went much better. It's really difficult photographing light grey! Matt

Thanks @Homer, @F-32 and @PhantomLover Very kind of you to take the time to comment! Matt

Once again, thank you for your comments!

Thank you all for the likes and comments - it is much appreciated! Sorry Pete, these are all the photos I currently have! Matt

Hi all, Here's my completed Spitfire Mk Vb. Only took me around 9 months to finish! It's an OOTB build, but I used AM decals as I didn't like either option offered by Airfix. Fiddly kit to build, and I'm glad it's finally finished to be honest! Thanks for looking Matt

Well I've managed to make a start on the painting for the 880 NAS machine. Sky grey is almost exactly the same colour as the kit plastic, so I won't bore anyone with a photo of what looks like unpainted plastic! At least not until I've done a bit of shading to liven it up. My preferred paint - Mr Hobby Aqueous - don't do Sky Grey, so as an experiment I decided to use AK 3rd Generation paint. I'd watched some videos and read reviews and I have to admit that I was a bit sceptical as to how good they'd be. Well, having completed the initial coat of grey, I have to say I'm really impressed. They spray really well! When I originally started this kit 4 - 5 years ago, I'd painted the wheel wells using Ammo's Metal range. I've used this paint since, and always found it sprayed poorly (for me), with numerous issues like clogging and spitting, irrespective of pressure and thinning ratios. As I'd forgotten to paint the rear of the undercarriage doors, in another first for me, I used Vallejo Acrylic Metal Colours. I'm really impressed with this too, and I'll definitely use this again in the future. This isn't meant to sound like an advert! Matt

Lovely Spitfire! The weathered undersides are particularly impressive!

Getting ever closer to the finish line now. It was pointed out to me that the rear of the prop would be scuffed and scratched because of the rough conditions. I've never had much luck with chipping fluid etc but thought I'd give it another go. As it was I wasn't totally happy with the result so had to tweak it with a sponge and black paint. Matt

Then for you @Col., 880 NAS it is!

I used DK Decals on my last build - they're superb quality.

Hi all, The Model Alliance decals have arrived today... As tempting as it is to do the Radar Calibration Squadron red/orange aircraft, its not an interceptor. I'm therefore leaning towards P314 of 880 NAS. As relatively drab as this scheme is, I haven't seen loads of models done like this, and the big blue "M" seems like too good an opportunity to miss. I also like the 11 Group aircraft which has the brown/green camo offset by the yellow undersides but again, not sure its classed as an interceptor. Matt