lasermonkey

Looking good, Rowan! I toyed with the idea of sanding off some wingroot to get the dihedral, but in the end I did the same as with the old Airfix Mk I, which is somewhat convoluted! I cut the lower wing into three parts (I know!), glueing the centre-section to the fuselage first. I then attach the upper wings to the fuselage, getting the required dihedral and then, once dry, attach the lower wings. I've done it so many times now it's second nature. It does involve some filling and sanding, but I'm happy with the outcome. One of my new Mk Is is ready for the upper surface colours now, having painted the undersides Sky Blue. This one is going to be K9953/ZP*A of No 74 Sqn.. The others are just about ready to have their wings fitted. These will be P9323/ZD*F of No 222 Sqn, R6626/XT*Y of No 603 Sqn and good ol' P9495/DW*K from No 610 Sqn, although I'll be using Modeldecals for the codes as I'm not happy with the Airfix ones. I'm still trying to complete all nineteen for the end of October. We'll see!!! Cheers, Mark.

*cheers and whistles* Lovely job there! Cheers, Mark.

As far as I know, there aren't any "off the shelf" decals for No 66 Sqn aircraft, so you'll have to resort to generic markings from Modeldecal, Xtradecal et al. I'm doing R6800/LZ*N (amongst many) at the moment. Interestingly, No 66 used Medium Sea Grey serials during 1940 (and possibly earlier) and at some point during the BoB switched to red spinners. I used 30" codes from the Tally Ho RAF codes set, as these seem to match the photo I've seen of R6800 best, even though I suspect the codes were closer to 28". The Modeldecal 30" codes are a bit too "thick", if that makes sense. I used Ventura's light grey serials. The fuselage roundel would have been 35" and probably with a 7" red centre. It would appear that the red centre on the 50" underwing roundels was larger than standard. The undersurface colour is open to question, but IMHO could well have been Sky Blue No 1 or possibly Sky. Here's a couple of links to Mark Styling's profile pages which may be of some use. Please note that the yellow leading edges should be ignored, as should the black serial numbers. R6800 had the pilot's headrest deleted. http://www.markstyling.com/spitfiresmkl_ll_2.htm http://www.markstyling.com/spitfiresmkl_ll_3.htm Hope this helps, Mark.

In case it's of any interest, here's the link to a review I did of the ICM kit some five years ago. Blimey, I feel old! I built up the Tamiya kit at the same time as a comparison. Linky Cheers, Mark.

Having seen a video of the respray last week, it's a "Candy Apple Red", a' la Fender guitars. It's basically a clear, red lacquer over gold or silver paint. It's really quite lovely!

Ah, so that's what it looks like close-up! I see him practicing pretty much every weekend from my front door, which points in a Gransden-ish direction. Great photo!

Hi Steve, I think it's the Matchbox kit which is a Mk II, with the Airfix kit being a Mk I/III. That said, I prefer the Matchbox kit and bought a Mercury engine/cowl from Aeroclub to convert it. Cheers, Mark.

Just had a Spitfire fly over, looked like a Mk IX to me.

Another Lifecolour fan here. I still haven't found anything that gives a smoother finish and although it does have its idiocyncracies, once you've got those sorted, it is great. For spraying I thin with water to the consistency of semi-skimmed milk and add a couple of drops of Liquitex Slo-Dry. For brush-painting, which is all I can do at the moment, I thin to the same consistency, but add a drop or two of washing-up liquid. This seems to break down the surface tension and makes it far easier to apply.

a "big-up" here for those IPMS Hornchurch decals. Well worth having!

Basically what Chuck said! Cheers, Mark.

I watched a very interesting programme about the BoB some time ago. In it, Bungay (at least I'm sure it was him) challenged the generally accepted view that it was only the switch from bombing Fighter Command airfields to bombing London which save the RAF from defeat. Using computer modelling alongside known tactics, weather conditions, loss-rates, etc, it showed the Luftwaffe running out of aircraft within weeks, whereas the RAF could sustain aircraft and pilot losses indefinitely. I can't remember all the detail unfortunately, but it was certainly food for thought. Did anyone else see that programme and have any views on it? I think I will have to get hold of that Bungay book, it sounds fascinating.

Kits At War did a sheet in 1/72 that featured this aircraft, though I think it's out of print now. Cheers, Mark.

According to the Spitfire Camouflage 1938-1940 article in the November 1982 issue of Scale Aircraft Modelling (still a really good reference) Nos 266 and 603 Squadrons "appear to have used silver until the new paint arrived". I guess we'll never know for sure whether the colours matched by Lucas were indeed off-the-shelf paints, but having already mixed up batches of "duck egg blue", "duck egg green" and "sky blue", I'd much rather be able to buy something off the shelf myself, and the WEM paints are probably as good as anyone will be able to come up with, and they are excellent paints after all. Incidentally, we used to use BS 381c No 101 Sky Blue at work. There's an aerosol of it knocking around somewhere....... :-)

White Ensign Models does Sky Blue No 1 in their Colourcoats range of enamels (along with everything else you might need for a BoB era plane: Eau de Nil, MAP Sky Blue, Sky Grey and, of course, Sky!) A rousing Huzzah for WEM!

There goes my pay rise!

Blue Rider did the sworl fabric as part of their set BR234, which also has markings for four Austro-Hungarian Albatroses. You may get lucky and find some on eBay, but I think they're long out of production. Good luck! Mark.

Hi, I'm currently building a number of 1/72 Spitfire Mk Is, the goal being to do at least one from each squadron operating during the Battle of Britain. So far it's coming along quite nicely, but in the process of deciding exactly which aircraft od do, I came across these two pictures. First up is R6596/QJ*S from No 92 Sqn. What intrigues me is that the fin flash colours appear to be reversed: I've seen this on a No 610 Sqn Spit, so it's certainly possible. If anyone knows of any other photos of this aircraft, I'd be deeply indebted if you could share. Secondly, this No 41 Sqn Spit seems to have light coloured windscreen frames: This areas *should* be Dark Green, but it looks to be lighter than that, or for Dark Earth for that matter. I'm wondering whether it's a replacement, unpainted or primed example. I seem to remember seeing a photo of another 41 Sqn Spit which had light coloured canopy framing. If anyone has any thoughts or comments, I'd be glad to hear them. Cheers, Mark.

Wot, you mean this?

Yet another Mark chiming in! I'm currently doing R6596/QJ*S (amongst many others!) and have a few queries. Looking at the photo mentioned above in the Osprey Spitfire Mk I aces book, it would seem that the profile in the aforementioned book is incorrrect, as is that on Mark Styling's website. The fuselage roundel appears to be approximately 49" and non-standardly proportioned. Luckily, that can be sourced from the Tamiya kit. The forward demarcation line between the upper and lower surfaces looks like it follows the panel line, not the older, curved style as depicted on the Osprey profile. I can't make out the upper/lower demarcation on the rear fuselage. Both profiles show it was being a wavy line. Anyone know differently? The fin flash appears to be 3x5" and not the full height of the fin. Interestingly. in the aforementioned photo, the red and blue sections look to me like they're reversed! I've seen this on a No 610 Sqn Spit, but not elsewhere. Oh, and any ideas if underwing roundels were carried? If anyone has access to any other photos of R6596, or has any thoughts on the aforementioned photo, I'd be much obliged if you would comment. Cheers, Mark.

The LK codes are from No 87 Sqn, which used Hurricanes during the BoB (and after!) I'm afraid. Spitfire squadrons in the BoB were: No 19 (codes QV) No 41 (EB) No 54 (KL) No 64 (SH) No 65 (YT) No 66 (LZ) No 72 (RN) No 74 (ZP) No 92 (QJ) No 152 (UM) No 222 (ZD) No 234 (AZ) No 266 (UO) No 602 (LO) No 603 (XT) No 609 (PR) No 610 (DW) No 611 (FY) No 616 (also QJ!) I know that Superscale did a 1/32 sheet for P9386/QV*K of No 19 Sqn, but don't know if they're still avaliable. I think it's likely that you'll have to resort to the generic sheets of roundels and codes as done by Carpena (or whatever they're called these days!)

Hi, Modeldecal do a set of large Medium Sea Grey codes: link and Dull Red codes/serials link and link. Then there's RAFDec who do these codes: link and link. Hope this helps, Mark.

Whilst searching for info on X4036/AZ*D on No 234 Sqn, I happened upon Mark Styling's artwork/profile site. Ignoring the yellow leading edges, and black serial numbers on the 66 Sqn machines (they should be Medium Sea Grey), I'm intrigued by the inclusion of a few a/c which are depicted with "Type B" fuselage roundels, namely K9959/RN*J of No 72 Sqn (Aug 1940) link and L1000/DW*D of No 610 Sqn (July 1940) link. I haven't been able to find any photographs of these two aircraft, but wouldn't the "correct" type A1 roundels have been added by these dates? Thoughts??? Cheers, Mark.

My wife used to work there!

Thanks for posting the link, Carl! That's some nice work there. Can't wait to see it finished. I'm really glad I could help. That was the whole point of those walkarounds, and it's rather heartwarming to know they've been put to good use. Cheers, Mark.