Fatcawthorne

Dornier Do-17Z 8./KG76 (F1+FS) Heitsch crew made a forced landing near Castle Farm, Shoreham, England Battle of Britain 15th September 1940 after a low level chase by two Spitfires from No.609 Squadron, Flight Lieutenant Dundas and Pilot Officer Tobin. The tremendous air battle fought between Fighter Command and the Luftwaffe on 15th September 1940 represented the climax of the Battle of Britain, and it has been celebrated as Battle of Britain Day ever since. The 8/KG 76 Dornier 17Z piloted by Feldwebel Heitsch was part of a force of about 100 German bombers which approached London over North Kent shortly before noon. The formation was intercepted simultaneously by nine RAF Squadrons. The battle developed into a series of individual fights. During one of these encounters, Heitsch's Dornier was attacked by Flight Lieutenant Dundas and Pilot Officer Tobin of 609 Squadron. After a low-level chase, Heitsch was forced to bring his machine down in a field at Castle Farm, Shoreham, narrowly missing the high tension cables that ran over the field. The Dornier's crew were taken prisoner by the local Home Guard. Heitsch and Feldwebel Pfeiffer, the observer, were uninjured. Feldwebel Sauter, the gunner, had been wounded in the ankle and was taken to Maidstone Hospital. Feldwebel Stephan Schmidt, the wireless operator, died of a chest wound before reaching hospital. One other casualty was a hop picker who had been shot in the leg by a bullet from one of the two low-flying Spitfires. Flight Lieutenant Dundas went on to shoot down the German ace Major Helmut Wick on 28th November 1940. Dundas was then immediately shot down and killed by Wick's wingman. Extract taken from http://www.asisbiz.com/il2/Do-17/Do-17-KG76.8-(F1+FS).html My original long-planned-for entry for this GB was to build the vanquished from this skirmish, having prepared by building up a comprehensive library of reference books and much aftermarket to adorn my ICM Do 17-Z2. What could be the flaw in this plan then I hear you ask? Well Eduard decided to throw a proper pointy stick into the spokes of the wheels on my modelling bicycle by issuing their 1/48 Sptfire Mk 1, that's what!!! As over 75% of my past two or three years output has been from the Supermarine stable, this release was like cat-nip for a Spitfire nerd like me! I had to have it and build it immediately! So that's where we are, building yet another Spitfire. Ho hum! The research for the Dornier had identified it's assailants as a pair of 609 Sqn Spits, so I chose the mount of Flt Lt John Dundas, Spitfire Mk 1 R6922. Now I did a quick and dirty Google search for this airframe (if at least 5 hours of trawling can be described as 'quick'!) but could find no pictures of R6922. Now I found other people's research pointing to the codes being PR-T but that was about it. But I had decided that this was the airframe I wanted to build, and stubboness had well and truly set in, so I put out a request for info in the WWII section. Now @NG899 has given me a fantastic, comprehensive chapter & verse response, so I'm happy with how I'm going with this now. He advised me that the Nov 82 edition of SAM had some information, and having seen an advert in the Free to Good Homes section, @Kes has been an absolute gentleman by sending me this issue. A massive "Thank you" to you both. https://www.facebook.com/royalairforce/videos/2718820308387268/ Well let's have a look at the kit. OK everyone who is anyone has commented on the Rumourmonger thread about just how spectacular the surface detail of this kit is, and my first impressions back this up to the hilt. OK this has been done to death elsewhere but it's obligatory I suppose! So out came the TET, parts were separated from the trees and some sub-assemblies were sub-assembled! The seat frame had the lightening holes drilled out and the PE head armour added. This all got a shot of Halfords Grey Primer............... And then some home-brewed interior grey-green, made from mixing Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green with XF-21 Sky in a 70-30ish ratio mix. I'm thinking Supermarine used a lighter shade of IG, and although it's a restoration I think my mix is a reasonable stab to match this: http://spitfiresite.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/04n_15_023-640x480.jpg http://spitfiresite.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-spitfire-cockpit.html/04n_15_023 Then the seat got a coat of Tamiya Hull Red, now I do realise I've boobed here as I think I've built the metal seat rather than the Bakerlite one, so I've found the right one and will re-spray this one in IG for another build, on another day. Luckilly Eduard stuck two kits in my box just like Airfix did with their Buccaneers - yeah right! The wing spar and undercarriage wells (perhaps a little over-engineered but very nicely detailed!) were built up.............. Whilst assembling the tail feathers I found the right seat for this one. The side lever came from the spares box. OK, that'll do for now. There's 6 weeks or so to go, we've got a full pot of TET, some Xtradecals MSG code letters, it's dark and we're wearing Sunglasses - hit it!!!! Stay safe out there! Chris

Nick, thank you so so much for such a comprehensive, well researched response. Also @Kes has been an absolute gentleman and has posted me the Nov 82 SAM so I'll be cooking with gas when it arrives. What a great place this truly is! I paused the YouTube versions of the IWM films so many times to read the serial number on the fin but still got it wrong!!!! If I had a brain I'd be dangerous! Now I've got no excuses for starting that GB thread. Normal service will therefore resume over on the other channel!

Thank you for your input R-R, found a link to the sample pages for this publication: https://uploads-ssl.webflow.com/5a3134b40672a700015a5d31/5ea6cf979a5ca9e4fe65a619_Spitfire Bookbrochure.pdf There's some great refernce shots there and once the world (and my business' cashflow) is restored to normal I think I will be investing in the real thing! The comparison shows IFF cheesecutters but dates them as a late-September 1940 mod, so I think that as the action I wish to model was on 15 Sep then I can safely leave them off R6922. One tick off the list!!! I've just found the aircraft's history to be (from the allspitfirepilots.org site): FF 12-7-40 6MU 13-7-40 609S 15-8-40 FAC2 15-9-40 AST 92S 15-10-40 crashed nr Smarden Sgt Alton killed 19-10-40 This youtube video shows the powered selector at 6.44 and the airframe R6693 was FF 4-6-40 so this predates R6922. I'm going to stick my neck out for powered undercarriage, so will need to source these parts from a huge spares pile in my man-cave, or make a home-brewed resin copy. Two ticks!!!!

I am planning to build this Spitfire (and then hopefully the Do17 F1+FS that it had a hand in downing) as part of the 80th Anniversary BoB GB. Now I've done a good 5 or 6 hours at least of Google searching for any photos of this machine (and it's doing Mrs FC's nut in as I've been like a dog with a bone over it!), but I can find nothing of absolute help. I have found websites that state the code letters of R6922 to be PR-T, but can find nothing to concretely back that up. Where do you much more learn'd folk go looking for such facts? Does anyone know of any photos of this airframe in any publications that I could try to track down (or links to websites that Google's SEO doesn't find!). This pairing was beautifully built in 1/72 during the 75th GB but my plans are to use the new Eduard Mk1 and the ICM Do17 both in 1/48. I have started the Eduard Spit and am blown away with the surface detail for starters, and will start a GB thread once I've confirmed in my own tiny mind that this machine is reasonably accurately buildable! Does anyone know any pitfalls regarding markings or modificatons that I should be aware of, especially before I dive into a bog standard build of R6922 using Scheme A camoflague (as it's an even serialled Spit), Sept 1940 markings with sky undersides and underwing roundels and Xtradecal MSG code letters and 8" black serials. I'm hazarding an educated guess that this airframe would have the radio aerial to the tail, no cheesecutter IFF wires (and therefore no associated panel in the cockpit) and hydraulic landing gear selector. Anyone disagree? Thanks for any help, all gratefully received. Stay safe you all!

Well as a mojo-sapping trial this kit was scoring very high on the whydon'tIjustchuckyouinthebinO'Meter, I had originally planned it as a nice shiny NMF Tengah example. Unfortunately my lack of experience and ham-fistedness with Vallejo and AK metallics caused such a mess that I needed a complete re-strip. Unfortunately the paint-stripper as well as removing the errant paintwork also ate the home-brewed resin cockpit, wheel wells and most of the nose cone in the process. The paint-stripper also made the plastic very brittle, and left a few breaks and cracks on the wings and forward fuselage, especially where the Dali-esque old wheelwells were removed and new ones slotted in through those cracks. Now why did I carry on you may ask? Stubboness and stupidity is all I can offer!! Anyways, the cockpit, wheel wells and nosecone were all inserted into an otherwise complete airframe (it's so much easier if you insert them when the wings and fuselages are in at least 2 pieces I can tell you!), the cracks and breaks were healed as well as I could with gloop and PPP filler, but like even the best of surgeons we did leave a few scars for us to tell tall tales of our war wounds at parties! Now there was no way that I could get the airframe pristine enough for a re-run of the NMF, so I chose to fight another day by going with a final air superiority grey scheme, and chose a 5 Sqn F.6, XS933 from an Xtradecal sheet. Having looked at many many photos of this airframe online, I could see that the finish was looking a little tired without needing to be over-weathered, and there was a variation in panel colours of the supposed same colour, the cockpit canopy was from a previous scheme and there we replacement panels in both NMF and black primer to add visual interest. These photos taken from public images shared on Flikr, to show what I mean. I have attached the links as well as they are not my photos so credit to Phil Bradshaw! https://flic.kr/p/nBm5LN https://flic.kr/p/nG17iV Anyways as I've said, this kit has been through the mill good and proper, and I am just happy to see it out of the other side looking as much like a lightning as it does! Now bearing in mind that this kit was a real save, and it doesn't come up too high on my top 10 list, it does however serve to highlight the improvement in skills that I have gained since discovering first Brett Green and the Brit Modeller. I'm sure like so many good folk of this Parish, many moons ago I made my kits with solid colours, no pre-or post shading, no washes, no AM parts or decals and less technique and products to deal with seam joins, so as a compare and contrast, here is my previous 5 Sqn F.6 from pre-BM days. It's still good enough to sit on the shelf, but I'm pleased with the progress I have made over the intervening years! Anyways stay safe out there!

Well if I don't get a like from @Procopius for this one then I'm giving up and going home!!! I had a custard yellow one of these as a temporary vehicle after my normal car got stolen some 30 odd years ago but my love for that was far less than for my work next-door neighbour's son's Ford Fiesta. Can you guess why PC might like it?

Thanks Matt, Go on, go on, go on you know you want a nice grey/green Spit!!!!! Thanks Charlie and thanks too @Troy Smith @malpaso & @Graham Boak for your inputs as well. I was aware of the Airfix shape flaws and that they were worse than the SH ones, but didn't have the patience or spare time to really do it justice this time around (as in my thread intro I'd just copied JKT's Trumpy Vampire mods in my last build and just wanted a lovely relaxing Sunday afternoon pootle around Airfixshire). I don't consider my thread hi-jacked at all, feel free to fill your boots with trying to fill my little head with lovely facts and tips as this is how we all learn and improve. Some great shots from all of you which unfortunately for me probably means having another go at this! Fortunately I do have more in the stash and as I've just re-joined the Airfix Club those red boxes need opening so as I can purloin their Flying Hours to further increase an unbuildable stash even further!! Anyways the N&W Galleria Matt dried a treat. Troy, point noted for shiny oil stains for next time and to make then a little more streaky rather than just airbrushed on. I'm calling her done! Thanking you all kindly for holding my hand and walking/talking me through what was an enjoyable build experience. I will shortly be switching channels to build most likely another Spit in the BoB GB, see you there!

Thanks for the kind words Charlie. I wrestled a couple of semi-distant relative Seafire XV's from SH in a two pin-falls or a submission contest a while back, and I just about stayed in the ring to the final bell. Yes they needed modelling skill and had some shape flaws but overall I enjoyed them, so I hope you're getting the same from your XII! I will drop in and take a gander at your handiwork at some point. "Squadrons!"? Well I think t'internet will supply all (and more) of its aircraft photos on a very basic "Spitfire Mk XII" Google Image search, and the print quality isn't that high, so scores low for me there, but the info contained is very comprehensive (e.g. the register of all 100 airframes gives the serials and Code letters), and more than pushes this into a good 4 stars out of five rating for me. Drop me a PM with your email address and I'll take my copy to work tomorrow and will try very hard not to drop it into my .pdf making scanner!

Thanks Bill, despite the lockdown I've perversely found myself with less time for modelling and even less for updating, however I'm only a knicky-whisker away from finishing after many short stints so I thought I'd better not indulge in some jolly bad form and actually update before I RFI. So it'll be another big one as the actress said to the bishop! Yes I'm pleased I re-worked this one, I would have always been looking at this in a soft-focus squint if I hadn't, less it wound me up! And yes it does look fast doesn't it, in that brutish sort of way that early Spits were far too elegant and graceful for. I've got a good few hours in my log book from the pre self-employed days when I could afford the lessons, and every time I went up you know what I was dreaming I was flying don't you!! Thanks Dennis and your entries in this GB haven't been half bad either so I'll take that as a great compliment. It is pretty, very very pretty. I think normal wingtips would just make it unobtainium pretty in the way 12 pints of beer worked on the 2am Princesses from my pre-marriage clubbing days! Anyways let's get this show on the road. I sorted out the ID band and the LE stripes which also were bugging me. And now pretty much the same set of images with some shiny shiny added as we got ready for some stickers. The shiny shiny was the latest incarnation of Klear, Pledge Floor Care, which in my opinion is a shoe-in replacement for the old stuff. Woo, just jumped up from the sofa to see an RAF Chinook trolling along at treetop height just behind Castle FC on the outskirts of Colly, unfortunately it disappeared behind the treeline just as the camera's autofocus decided it wanted to earn it's corn so no piccys - soz! The windscreen was attached using Araldite Crystal Clear, and we then decamped from the Man-Cave to the kitchen, the only place to be seen at my decalling parties. So the first few stickers went on OK, the kit decals were used for the generic markings and the serials were from the 8" Xtradecal RAF Serials sheet. The B for me seems too wide for the M (or is it the M's too narrow) but the kits serials and the Xtradecal version were noticeably different in size so mixing and matching wasn't an option.. As you may notice Son #2 had dropped his protein shake bottle on my Spit whilst I'd left it on the kitchen side, breaking off the aerial and rearview mirror. We'll have to go back and repair them before the end of this build, and unfortunately the carpet monster didn't relinquish these from its vice-like grip. We do have a comprehensive spares box fortunately. The kit decals went on well with Microsol and Set solutions. The Squadron codes came from the kit's decal sheet and the H (fuselage and under the nose) was made from cutting up the kits B and from the other kit's second option letters. Well the rear canopy and some "legs" were added and a further coat of Pledge slathered on to seal in the stickers. This was allowed to properly dry to avoid the "Fledge" tradegy that befell my Blenheim a while back (Flory and not quite dry Pledge really messes up your good work!). Then it was back to the Man-Cave for some Flory Grime. I hate this stage as I always think it's never going to look pristine ever again!!! Aerial and Mirror have had a visit to the bodyshop! Before the Flory I'd also added some smoke and oil streaks plus some exhaust stains. What was I worrying about, a good rub down with some damp kitchen roll later (some of it on the model too!) and here we are. Since then I have added the main wheels and have just shot a first coat of W&N Matt Acrylic Varnish, which I'll grab some photos of in a bit. As I said earlier the finish line is in touching distance and I look forward to getting this safely ensconced in the Gallery before the end of the week. Stay well out there, I'm sorry to hear of the extra lockdowns on the opposite sides of our ever-shrinking world; I hope you can all use the time positively and constructively by making more Spitfires!!! Until Gallery time, bon chance mes braves............. Chris

It’s still really clear in Colly Trevor, so not sure there. Not like in Manchester for the footy at the moment! The closure is just north of the airport so probably not linked. https://www.hertfordshiremercury.co.uk/news/hertfordshire-news/m11-shut-police-incident-4237644 Do you still work at Stanstead @Alpha Delta 210?

They’re pretty much the options that went through my head too Dennis, so great minds think alike!! I just wondered if anyone was in the know out there in BM world to confirm our suspicions. My son has now pointed out that the Motorway (M11) next to Stanstead Airport was closed due to a police incident. I also am wondering if that is related. It was good to see some heavy metal over Colly at 10,000 odd feet though.

Had a FedEx MD-11 fly lowish over Colchester in a far from usual flight path, an hour or so ago. I looked it up on Flightradar24 and it was making a spiders web all over Essex. Typically our Virgin Broadband went down for 40 minutes as I started typing this (par for the course!). Anyone got any ideas what could be behind this in an otherwise near empty sky (the plane near Kelvedon was an RAF Voyager BTW)? it appeared to land safely after this.

I've used this conversion and can give it a big fat +1.

Thanks Bill and I'm glad you endorse the stripback!! It does look every inch a racing snake doesn't it?!! Sorry for the radio silence, life really has an annoying habit of just getting in the way. Anyways we got another couple of coats of Ocean Grey (Tamiya again) and some lightened OG back on the airframe, so Take 2 ......... Much much much happier this time around. Some wiggly worms made out of blutac and plenty of Tamiya tape (and its cheapo substitute I got from the Bay) later and we get to this....... Then a first coat of Tamiya RAF Dark Green........ The cockpit glass got some Dark Green too........ Then it was another coat of Dark Green then some modulation splodges using the DG lightened with a few drops of MSG........... Then we whipped her drawers off to get the full naked beauty of the paintjob....... Again a few flaws to fix, the yellow LE stripes need a bit of tidying as does the sky band as it looks a bit anorexic on one side compared to the other. Although I've measured and measured and measured it at 9mm, it looks a touch skinny (even on its fat side) to the Mk1 eyeball. Have I got my sums wrong with a 9mm band in 1/48??? In my never-ending quest to knock off every breakable bit from any kit I ever build, I knocked off the underwing pitots and IFF aerial. Perhaps I should look at things glass half-full as so far I've not knocked off the radio mast!!! The blutac has left a bit of oily residue having been left on a bit too long, but I've given it all a sponge bath with some washing -up liquid and got rid of a fair bit, but after it's dried I think I'll give it another going over to see if I can shift the last of it. Well that's all for tonight, hope you all enjoyed queuing at Primark today and that you all look extremely smart in your new skiddies!!! Stay safe still. Chris

Who doesn't love a Maiden Spitfire!!!!!!! Great build. And just to upset you..........................

Well I haven't done much updating as there hasn't been that much benchtime this week. Whoever knew you could do so much during lockdown, I must be the Airfix sponsored Dominic Cummings of this parish!!! The shop refurb is coming on well. In normal times getting the best part of 3 months off with no customers would be an impossibility, and having lost my best buddy of 30+ years to this swine of a disease I'm not being trite about folk's and their businesses suffering, but for me I'm working longer hours than if I was up to my eyeballs in work and building a far more organised business for the years to come. Now, with seams seemingly dealt with a coat of Halfords grey primer was in order. Well, not having looked at these photos zoomed in (a lesson for us all perhaps) I hadn't noticed some far from perfect seams that my middle-aged, reading-glasses needing, eyesight passed off with a big QA tick, which will come back to haunt us later!! Anyways that led to the dreaded pre-shade using Tamiya Rubber Black. Some Flat Yellow leading edge ID stripes............... ... ooh and a Sky tail band (also Tamiya acrylic). Mask off the LE and band (after a further coat of Yellow and Sky respectively to seal the masking to help get some dead straight lines and no bleed, hopefully!) and the first painting by numbers session can begin. Luckily all the underneath sections were Tamiya XF-83 MSG so that got a first coat. ...............and a second coat and some panel lightening with Flat White added to the MSG..... ..... and then we can mask her bottom, flip her up the right way round and start the XF-82 Ocean Grey coats..... Now this is where I started picking up tiny little flaws that I wasn't happy with. I'm not the world's best modeller so most things I can let go, but some I can't. After the second coat of OG, I could see (and unfortunately not unsee) a seam on the spine, one on the engine nacelle (and I wasn't happy with how the fuel tank filler was represented by Airfix), plus lots of slips and nicks in the wingroots etc where I had tried to reinstate panel lines after an enthusiastic sanding session or two. Also the OG had dried with a bit of a texture, a change of pressures and thinning ratios to be considered methinks! I had to go back to square one with the topside else I would always be unhappy with this build. I rubbed the finish smoothish, squeezed out some blobs of PPP and using my dental tools proceeded to fill all the shadowed panel lines and nicks and scratches that I could find. When happy (after about the fifth attempt) a new squirting of Halfords grey primer was in order, followed by another pre-shading. Hopefully now those remedial works will pass a proper QA inspection! Much better!! Mrs FC is volunteering at our local Food Bank tomorrow which is 3 doors down from my shop, so I feel another re-furb day coming on for the Bank Holiday rather than a restful Spitfire day! So in the immortal works of Porky Pig, "Th-th-th-that's all folks!" Stay safe out there and remember to stay within 260 miles of your house please! Chris

Well what's not to like about a well-presented pink one then eh!? Great effort Dennis. Did you say you used Hataka Lacquer paint? I used their acrylic on my PR1G (I think, I can't remember my own name sometimes) that I did a year or so ago and that came out much less pink (and also dried on the AB tip like a cow too!). Is the lacquer marked up as for later PRU Pink or did you strike lucky with a different colour formulation as it looks pretty good to me? Stay safe Bob, Jon, Fred Chris

Thanks Matt, and have had a peek at the ongoing Seafire and it's looking pretty neat. Yes the garden has done it's absolute to keep me occupied, together with refurbishing my shop whilst it's closed, so updates have been at a premium this week. Plenty has been going on behind the scenes though. We got the fuselage buttoned up (obviously ensuring the big fan thing at the front can spin round all proper!), Plenty of clamp action too going on as I went a bit mad on eBay a few weeks back and spent the best part of a bullseye, possibly more, on some decent ones (thankfully Mrs FC won't be reading this drivel so I might just have got away with that one!). Some more work on the canopy so that the Aluminium will show on the rear cockpit sides and the interior green where that should be. Set about tidying up the fuselage seams and then using my preferred method of avoiding a step at a Spitfire's wing root added the top half of the wings to the fuselage. This way you can manipulate what I think is the most visible joint on any Spit kit from both sides whilst the TET is curing. You can possibly just see that although the wings were caressed into the least noticeable join on top, the leading edge of the wing sits perhaps half a mil forward of the fuselage fillet. The lower half of the wing was then attached and again a "clamp-porn" fest was had by all! With the wings sitting that fraction forward a plasticard shim was used to make good the gap in the rear wing to fuselage join. The cannon barrels were drilled and brass tube added to simulate the muzzle openings before those and the stubs being fitted............ .................................together with the chin fairing, aerial post, tail feathers and carb intake. The radiator and oil cooler housings were next in line for treatment and the Rebecca aerial got cut off and replaced by a bit of thin-gauge guitar string. For me tinkering with seams is an ongoing issue and rarely do I ever get to being 100% satisfied, but being pretty close this time (with a few swabs of PPP in strategic places for good measure) it was time to add the last breakable bit, the pitot, and mask up and prepare for a coat of primer. Well Squadrons! No.5 arrived this morning and I think I have firmed up on choosing my victim of this build, 41 Sqn's MB794, EB-H, which in the photo has the fixed tailwheel and I'm going to have to take a punt it had 5 spoke mainwheel hubs. The only real difference from my build that I can see is that this airframe has the round rearview mirror in the photo, so the square one got removed and replaced by the round kit part. Well, I've put the first pass of primer on the upper wings and top of the nose and will report back when the whole frame is primered and probably a fair bit further along. Stay safe all you out there and speak soon. Chris

Looking good Matt, I understand the nerve-rackingness of drilling exhausts and have messed up plenty along the way. The success rate has improved exponentially since I started using the tip of a 10a scalpel swizzled about to make a pilot hole to start the drill in the right place. Hope this helps the nerves on future builds and keep up the good work.

Good on you Matt, hope I can come up with the goods for you. Well with today usually being the start of a Bank Holiday weekend (as if you'd notice eh?!) in the UK, except that to mark VE day it's been moved to Friday 8th this year, a man's thoughts turn to gardening. Ah there's nothing quite like the dawn chorus of lawnmowers, strimmers and hedge trimmers to wake you gently from your slumbers on your days off!!! In my case however, I suffer from a garden that is overrun by a horrible pernicious weed called Mare's Tail: Now I'm not much of a flower gardener but many years back when I worked in the City I did love growing my own veg to help deal with the stresses of the business world. My house for its sins is on 3 levels, with a quaint feature that the street level entrance is on the middle level as we're on a bit of a slope. This means that to have a level garden a great chunk of the decent soil was removed during the construction process leaving a tiny amount of top soil sprinkled back onto the very clayey sub-soil. Now to get around this I got a load of railway sleepers and constructed raised beds to grow my veg in, bringing in tons and tons of top soil to fill them. However despite being covered for a few years now whilst in disuse, they are still infested with that rotten Mare's Tail!! It had to go! So during lockdown I have chosen the most sunny bed and have decided to recommission it by: 1) Digging out a couple of foot of soil 2) Manually sifting out all the Mare's Tail root that is humanly possible to do so 3) Sieving the de-rooted soil to remove the stones to gives as friable soil as possible to grow the best carrots and beetroots that I possibly can. I split the bed into quarters, and have already sorted three of them over previous weekends but over-cooked it on the third and ended up with a bit of tennis elbow, (this getting old business is shabby, although preferable to any of the alternatives!), so today's work was taken a little more leisurely. Now having been an Infanteer for a dozen or so years, digging was not new to me, so here are the results of today's labours. I present to you my Shell Scrape, propogation of vegitation edible for the use of, Mark IV!!! Now obviously if I am updating my Spitfire blog then yes I must've been up to something in the Man Cave too and you'd be bang on if that was your first thought! Loads of little bits and pieces are coming together nicely now. Propeller and spinner have been assembled, painted and Futured ready for a handful of stencil decals.... I've masked the windshield and canopy clear parts, redipped them in Future to give the cleanest lines possible, and given the open canopy part it's first coat of Tamiya RAF Dark Green. Despite Squadrons! No.5 still not having arrived from France yet, I have made the executive decision that my Mk XII will be from the earlier Mk V derived batch, so will have the uncovered wheel hubs, fixed tailwheel and the squarer rear view mirror...... Now because I am going for a Mk V derived version this time it means my other Mk XII in the stash will be a Mk VIII derived one. Now my limited knowledge of these beautiful machines tells me that Mk VIII's had shorter ailerons. Would this follow through with the ones converted to Mk XII? Might have to post that in the the All Your Spitfire Questions thread then! The exhausts had their base coat of Tamiya Flat Aluminium progressively drybrushed with Gunmetal, Dark Iron and then a touch of Hull Red...... The ID light got glued into the lower fuselage and this area heavily Future washed to give it a shadowed effect..... I'm calling the cockpit done on this one, I have found the Eduard etch set which I'll now use for the later version build as it was on the missing list when I started this build, but I had a few bits left on an old Mk I or V fret that I had lying around that allowed me to pinch the seat belts from. Now when I first attached the rear cockpit to the starboard side I stupidly lined the rearmost frame up with the rear of the cut out, forgetting that I'd cut a bit more out to allow for the open cockpit parts. This did mean removing and reattaching this sub-assembly and a half-hearted clean up of the mess that made. Luckily the manky bits will not be visible once buttoned up and nobody's going near this one with an endoscope!!! Lastly the cockpit door had its horribly placed ejector pins removed and was painted up and Future washed ready for later use. Well I think I can get this buttoned up now. However that won't be tonight as I'm just about to connect my Laptop up to it's docking station and connect it to my TV and Hi-fi as one of my buddies is putting on a Facebook Live performance this evening. Now Steve usually fronts a local pub band called Stiff in the Morning who put on one of the most entertaining sets I've seen at this level (obviously I'm biased), so if any of you are at a loose end, and most importantly are not too easily offended as Steve can be a bit lavatorial and potty mouth at times, then it's well worth a watch. https://www.facebook.com/stiffinthemorning/ Anyways, until the next thrilling installment, stay safe out there. Chris

Well I was going to post an update at the weekend, but my computer has a complete hissy-fit over the certificate problems on the site, (well done to Mike and the Mods for sorting that on a weekend BTW!), so I've saved you up a double-helping - don't say I never give you anything!! Part One, lets imagine it's Sunday morning, Wrighty's been on the radio belting out his Love Songs, and no despite constant badgering I still haven't written in for a request for Mrs FC, Michael Ball is now belting out You'll Never Walk Alone with Captain Tom, and having already gone and picked up a couple of pieces of office furniture (in a socially distant manner) for work early doors it was time to crack on at the bench. Now I usually use Tamiya IJN Cockpit Green as a close substitute for RAF Interior Green, however I'm pretty sure that Supermarine cockpits were a touch lighter than the usual shade so I mixed a 50:50 mix of Sky and Cockpit Green for this build. Now I usually use Roy Sutherland's Future Wash technique, so this darkens the finish anyways. My Squadrons! No.5 hasn't arrived yet but having had a really close up look at some of the very well known photos of EG-B on the net and I'm positive that the fuselage behind the seat is painted silver, so for this I used Tamiya Flat Aluminium. The control Panel was a mix of Tamiya Semi-Gloss Black for the central panel and the outer panel was Nato Black to make some contrast. The silver parts got a Future Wash.... The wheel wells were pre-shaded and then got painted the exterior colour (MSG in this case) having painted and masked the inner well Flat Aluminium. And as the sun is shining, and it's most definitely over the Yardarm time for a lie down in the garden with a very fitting companion! Part Deux - OK 4 or so bottles later and I had got sunburnt (again), so no more happened on the Sunday, however Monday and tonight saw a tiny bit more progress. The detail painting and a dry-brushing in Sky (bearing in mind I was trying not to go too far away from an OOB build) continued and I then added a good dollop of Future Wash on the main parts. I'm not 100% happy with the instrument panel. I think I'm going to sort some of the dials from these two sheets to give it a bit more life. I tried a dry fit of the wings, just to make sure I'd masked in the right places. .... and thankfully I had! And that's where we are for now. Looking forward to buttoning up the fuselage halves in the very near future. Until the next thrilling installment, stay safe you all. Chris

Thanks for the welcome fellas, looking forward to doing you proud and hopefully having the odd giggle or two along the way. Just a quick update, here's the parts that have been prepped for some primer. I've drilled out the lightening holes in the seat frames and the IP frame and may consider adding a few scratched details and pipework before priming the fuselage halves, but by remembering the rest of this year's modelling it may be a step too far, especially considering the decent level of detail already supplied by Mr Airfix. The radiator flap had its ejector pin filled and there were two tiny holes on the join of the oil cooler housing which took a dab of PPP too. Still not sure if it's going to be an early or late version so both wheel hubs will be prepared, however it may be a push towards the early as the hub cover parts didn't fare too well in the clean up, one ending up quite oval in shape. As I plan to model this with the canopy and pilot's door open I have cut out the parts of the fuselage to accommodate the combined sliding and fixed canopy part. Here are the parts that got an early coat of primer yesterday. After sanding the spinner and backplate profile to match, the panel line got restored. Well in the real world I am trying to refurbish my workshop and showroom in my trophy shop as nobody will be buying sports trophies for the foreseeable. Therefore I may get some progress done on this over the weekend, between building flat pack furniture and filling a skip that is!!! Pretty pleased with this so far, so until later..... Chris

As the title alludes to the limited number built, my offering for this GB is the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire XII. It seems this mark is a favourite of many of you out there in BM World, so I hope I can do her some justice. Now I've not finished a kit since New Year's Eve, but that doesn't mean I have been away from the workbench. I have had trials and tribulations with a few kits that have had the unfortunate pleasure of crossing my path lately. I was working on a 1/48 Lightning F6 that I was hoping to build as a "wooooooooo shiny" NMF 74 Sqn Tengah version but I foolishly used Vallejo Metallics for the airframe and it looked like a bag of nails. I therefore bit the bullet and tried to strip it back to bare plastic which was a real trial by itself, that in the process melted the cockpit and undercarriage bay resin that I had painstakingly added. This led to the mojo taking a good shoeing!! I set the Frightning aside and thought, "how about a lovely simple build, what about a Trumpeter Vampire?" Well that was all a good idea until I fell upon @Jon Kunac-Tabinor's build which showed what a PoS that kit was and although I only followed 80-90% of Jon's refinements it could hardly be described as a nice easy build. This has been progressed to the stickering stage which as the mojo was still on the lowish side got set aside and the Frightning picked up again. New undercarriage and cockpit were fitted to the already complete but now fully stripped back airframe, and trust me this is not the order you want to be constructing this in!!! To add to the woes the paint stripper used (BioStrip 20) whilst it was effective in stripping everything back, made the kit plastic very brittle so flaps and trailing edges cracked and shattered and had to be rebuilt using gloop and PPP. OK, a weaker person may have buckled and hurled this pig of an abomination squarely at the nearest wall, but I'm stubborn (not always in the good way!) and wasn't prepared to lose out to an inanimate object!!! I think I have done a passable job of the repairs (bar one tiny crack in the port wing trailing edge), and this too is stalled at the stickering stage. This is a quick insight as to where they stand: So here I stand, pretty much fed up to the back teeth with kits that fight back so really really need a good palate cleanser, a sorbet to refresh between such overpowering courses, a kit that will build up well OOB (less seatbelts and stickers), so here I present my entry into this GB. Some sprue shots to keep us legal and decent....... Well not quite 100% legal and decent as I had also managed to pick up an unboxed version of this kit with no instructions or decals, Airfix Overtrees if you like, that may or may not get built alongside this kit. My thinking is that the early XII's that were based on Mk.V airframes subtly differ from the later Mk.VIII based ones so once I select some not in the box markings options (Squadrons! No.5 is winging it's way to me from La Belle France as I type to help me choose), I may be drawn into building one of each. This is the unboxed plastic, which seems to be of a slightly different consistency and colour to the one in the box. I've nipped the cockpit parts off the runners, knocked up a couple of sub-assemblies, primed the propeller and spinner which I'll photograph later as the battery on my DSLR has given up the ghost! I did managed to get a shot of the hollowing out of the exhaust stacks before it bought the farm. Comparison shot of the first side done vs the kit parts. Two holes drilled in each stack and then joined by a sharp 10A SM scalpel. A dab of Tet was dolloped in to clean up the rough edges. 5 minutes charging gave us enough juice to upload these pics to the PC/Flikr but I'll leave it on an overnight charge so I won't have to worry about it for the rest of the build. Anyways so far so good. No meltdowns (physical or mental) like the previous builds so far is a good sign I'm sure. Best wishes to all you out there in Lockdown; stay safe and stay well. Speak soon, Chris

Thank you all, the kind words are much appreciated. Thank you too. Ah yes the turret. That was my only sticking point during the final final assembly stage. I hadn't noticed that the destructions have you fit the turret before the rear decking, so that lead to a good half an hour of good old-fashioned swearing whilst I took the glass off it, wiggled the turret ring past the decking and the lip on the rear of the canopy and then squeezed the glass back on past a little protusion on the clear part. Wish I'd just followed them to a tee!