Bedders

I agree it's one of the tastiest-looking Spitfires flying right now - though I do wish it had the correct PR windscreen and not the fighter type. I think I saw somewhere that the restoration of PL983 is making progress, with correct windscreen installed. Justin

"Imagine your grandfather with, than without, his false teeth in, and that's the look of the KP to the real thing." After some thought I am beginning to recall that quite well and I see what you mean. I wonder if there will be a way of inserting some dentures in the correct area - I'll have a go and will report back!

Thanks for this Chuck - I think I'll have a go at one as I used to live near Debden and not having a 4th FG Mustang on my shelf at this stage is becoming an embarrassing omission. Justin

What's the verdict on the KP B/C models? They look pretty good to me but I'm no expert. I'm more interested in shape than surface detail, so any tips welcome. Justin

Whack up some pics when you've done it Sten; I'd like to see how it looks. Justin

In Russian. The irony.

Very nice Adrian. The XIX looks good whatever the livery, but I'm tempted to think that the original is still the best. Nice idea to tone down the panel lines; it's worked well here. Justin

Beautiful formation of rivets - and lovely finish too. Well done and marry Christmas. Justin

What a great way to end a modelling year, and you've done it in style with this beautiful Spitfire. Quite like those massive roundels on the wings. Might need to do that scheme too! Merry Christmas. Justin

Thanks folks for all your kind comments - and merry Christmas to BMers wherever you are! Justin

Lovely - a really neat job and as others have said, well worth the slow-cook approach. The invasion stripes look brilliant to my eye. Justin

I'm happy to be corrected, but I thought C/C1 roundels arrived only in July 1942, some six months after the Channel Dash. This would lead me to treat the Tamiya drawing with some caution. Justin

Will, I bought the SH 21 a while back and at least used the broad-chord rudder for the Mark 18. And I like the decal options too. Another potential way of skinning the 21 cat is to put the Airfix 22 wings onto the XIX fuselage, but I decided against this as the XIX fuselage is too short in the area around the cockpit. I've been playing around with one of these kits to see how it might be corrected, with a view to making a XIV: But this project might not get too far. I have a feeling that the forthcoming Eduard Mark IX kits will cause a revolution in 1/72 Spitfire-building, and the best way to do a well-proportioned XIV might be to put an Airfix 22 nose and XIX tail onto an Eduard IX. Justin

Hi All, Can't believe it's been three months since I did an update on this, but I've made a bit of progress on the Mark 21, such that it now has its main colour scheme applied. Paint is Xtracolour enamel, airbrushed and thinned with cellulose thinner which speeds up drying times significantly from a couple of days to a couple of hours (I picked up this life-saving tip on Britmodeller and boy am I grateful). Anyway the paint went on OK: I did the sky band and yellow leading edges first, then the Medium Sea Grey unders, then the Ocean Grey and finally the Dark Green. The leading edges need a touch-up as the masks didn't adhere too well. The camo masks were hand-cut from Tamiya tape, which left rather hard edges (I couldn't lay my hands on enough blu-tack to do the sausages method so went with the tape instead). Anyway I've blended the edges in slightly by hand-painting a thin line of 50/50 OG/DG along the demarcation lines, and I'm reasonably happy with the result. In the meantime I've been making headway with my Mark XVIII, which is also starting to look like a model aeroplane finally. This is something of a Franken-Spit, with mostly Airfix roots. The fuselage is Airfix 22, the fin/tailplanes Airfix XIX, the wings Airfix IX, the rudder Special Hobby reshaped a touch and the radiators Fujimi, also tinkered with. The paint you can see is a couple of thin coats of Humbrol 78 brushed on as I don't have access to the airbrush for a good deal of my time, and I was getting impatient. The wing roots were finessed a bit because the IX wings are broader in chord than the 22 wing-root fillets. I think both are slightly off, and I've tried to get it as close to the correct measurement of 3.54 cm in 1/72. I think this will be finished in the "desert" scheme of 208 Squadron in Egypt in 1948-9. But with the slow pace of my work, and Christmas cooking duties looming, there's a way to go yet I fear... Justin

An excellent reference for this scheme is here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/64209520@N05/8054042898/ Justin

Lovely job - the two-seater is really growing on me. I wonder what those two are saying: "bit cosy in here, innit"? Justin

Very nice, and I like the silver paintwork. Did 500 Sqn have Meteors at this time? The pair would look good together. Justin

Biplanes are, I fear, beyond the scope of my skills and patience. But they don't half look good when they're put together as nicely as this. Really impressive. Justin

Looking great Steve. Those cockpit tubs are superb. Every now and agian I look at an Airfix Hawk on the shelves somewhere and think shall I, shant I? Though I fear my patience would soon be exhausted. Still, just as much fun to watch yours progress! Justin

This is an interesting thread and I've never seen the pictures before. Looking at the top left one of the four together, I think I can see a contrast between the topsides and the undersides, both on the nose and the rear fuselage. I think I can also see a camouflage-like wavy line just in front of the exhaust stacks. As to colours, my guess is as good as anyone else's, but it could be two relatively similar tones of green with PRU blue undersides? Justin

That's come out really nice Alan. Lovely nightfighter paint-job, and as others have said, the greenhouse framework looks excellent. Justin

Heel mooi! I'm no expert on Sabres (all those variations of wings, slats etc) but this looks very nice to my eye. Justin

Wolfgang, Very interesting subject and a lovely model of it. I really like the effect you've achieved with the puttied areas. Justin

I'd be in. Got to be something from 41 Squadron really: EB-... Justin

Really interesting subject and a very pretty model. Beautiful finish too. Quite tempted to have a go at one of these myself! Justin