Olmec Head

Just a quick hint, the exhaust lugs don't fit. Foolishly I thought the would. They are better cut off and the ehausts just then fit in nicely. Unlike most new Airfix Spitfire exhausts that need wrestling in (or is it just me?).

Very impressive build, I always wanted one back in the 70s, but i was told it was too expensive. The box art was superb and said buy me! From your comparison picture, the Vigilante must have been an 'interesting' aircraft to land on deck.

Now Paint On I gave the lower joint a good sanding and refill and resand. It is not perfect, despite having as much work on the bottom as Kim Kardashian (alledgedly). I should have tried to rescribe it, but decided not to push my luck. The underneath is a sky blue as the aircaft to be represented had a sky blue rather than sky finish. I know that the use of non standard RAF Sky is debateable, but I am going for it. The next was to do the Dark Earth: The kit will be either of these two aircraft, probably ZP-A, flown by Sailor Malan. Next up Dark Green.

I had a nightmare trying to get the lower wing bit to fit, so much so I had to break it open and reclamp madly for passable 2nd attempt. (And that was after rescuing it from the bin!). As you say all the extra lugs and ledges for a helpful snap fit - don't help. You seem to be getting a better result than I am.

Those of a nervous disposition - look away now. I could not get the lower wing to fuselage bit to fit well. Spitfire modellers know what I mean. So I tried to remove the lower wing and: I am thinking of anger management sessions! I then fished out of the bin and tried to stick it together. Airfix Spitfires are quite rare on this GB, so I wanted to get this one done. So back to the tape bandages to repair the kit. Cat 2 repair?

Thanks for the comments. The Revell MiG is certainly better than the Revell Spitfire Vb and IIa in 1/72, they seemed to be a step back in time.

With Johnson Coming Up the Inside As @Johnson has stripped down and paint cleaned his Spitfire Ia in short order, I thought I should glue mine together in equally short order. I used the raised panel lines as a guide to rescribe the detail, learning that I don't really enjoy rescribing. For the lower wing, I removed the oil cooler that was integrally molded and used an old AZ intake. I was going to use the kit radiator , but it is oddly made so that it is parallel to the ground and not to the wing (with one side deeper than the other, a photo would have been better). So I then used another AZ spare. The air intake was a Pavla resin part that was hanging around and never used. The wheel wells were blocked in. No I didn't open up the cartridge slots, I tried that once before and decided never to do so again. The snap kit locating lugs did give it a very solid fit after being hammered together. I then put in some simple cockpit detail, very basic new seat and armour as the cockpit will be closed and little to nothing will be seen through the scale 6 inch plexi glass. The difference between the old and new Airfix canopies is marked: Probably one is too narrow and the other is too wide, but I don;t have the wherewithall to judge accurately against scale plans. The old kit external armour does look overly narrow. I added some plastic card around the wing joints and then glued it together with some strong tape bandages hopefully to hold it. Some stretched sprue aileron ribbing was also added. A spitfire in bandages.

Ah, now the huge lugs, pins and holes make sense. At least when the are closed, they stay closed, which makes dry fitting difficult.

I have a couple of these in the 'stash', mainly due to hoping that Airfix would do a new tool, perhaps in the next 50 years of Puma ops. So I am watching this for some good hints and tips for RAF Pumas. And if you build a sand filter version even better (hint).

looks good, I had better get going on mine. You have fully field stripped and cleaned the kit whilst I have been just looking at the box!

'Anyway the world has waited decades for a good 1:72 scale Battle, it is just a shame due to politics not everyone will have ready access to it.' The above sentence has to be the most fatuous post that I have ever read on Britmodeller.

Douglas Skyray F4D-1 – Tamiya 1/72 Kit USMC VMF (AW) -114 Although this kit is meant to fall together, I managed to cause myself difficulties throughout the project. It was going to be to be the shiny blue tailed VF (AW) – 3 version on the kit box, but ended up as this Gyrine aircraft. So here is my ‘Fix Or Repair Daily’: And with a possible adversary if the Cuban Missile Crisis had gone 'hot' a Russian operated MiG 21 in Cuban Markings that I did for The South of The Rio Grande GB. Thanks to the Mods for a interesting group build, I learnt a lot about Light Gull Gray!

Now Finished I have stuck on the underwing stores and I am now calling this FORD completed., albeit as a USMC aircraft, not USN as planned. Thanks to @Corsairfoxfouruncle for the advice on an aircraft that I knew little about, other than my father making the Airfix version back in the the 1970s.

The build staggers on Looking through the intranet I found a mix for Light Gull Gray for Tamiya and adapted for what I had in the paint stock and matching it to the Mr Color Lacquer. So far so good. The mix is 2 x XF 2 (white), 2 x XF19 Sky Grey, 1 x XF57 Buff 2 x XF80 Royal Light Grey for reference. This went on OK and stuck on without wringling or sand blasted effect - which was an improvement on my previous work, I also re-did the white underneath. I sprayed the walkway as the Tamiya decals looked a bit off, the other detail bits got done with the silver wing edging which I now know to be Coroguard thanks to @Corsairfoxfouruncle. Ready for the VF AW 3 markings. But, the decals were not ideal and the spine markings tore badly. The next problem was the intake markings which I could not get to work and had to eventually do by hand. I then went with a Marine version and redid the tail in grey, I won't mention the paint lifts for each bit of masking off. I got used to those but may need to change my undercoat spray type. (I use car plastic primer) So it was sort of rescued, but I seemed to have made a sow's ear out of silk purse from what should be a shake and bake kit. l'll give it a final varnish and stick the last bits on. All photos will then be taken with filters and some editing. But at least it is done, rather than being binned, which has been close several times.

Thank you for the replies, it strengthens my original suspicion that Spitfire Vc s were in short supply over Normandy and that I should be looking at building a Vb in invasion stripes.

And now a set-back I bought a pot of Mr Color light grey paint which was close to USN light gull gray. It went on somewhat roughly and I though a quick sand down and then thin it. I looked on Britmodeller about thining and realised Mr Color is laquer and Mr Hobby (which I confused it with) is acrylic. I rushed to my nearest DIY and bought some laquer cellulose thinner to clean out the airbrush. Annoyingly I rcently thrown out a bottle of cellulose thinners as it had destroyed an airbrush seal). I then thought as I have the paint and the thinner I will try again. Again I got a very lumpy grainy sand effect from the paint and it also wrinkled the underneath white acrylic coat. So, the model now looks like a 'boneyard 'frame'; I have sanded down the sandblast effect upper coat and the wrinkled lower white where the acrylic has lifted, so that has been sanded back and everything washed. It may be given a week before I look at it again. On the plus point, the fuel tanks are OK.

There was a forum post chain this time last year around Spitfire Vs operating during OVERLORD. Having looked at it again and at at various books and websites,all the imagery of Spitfire Vs used seem to be Vb s. The only Spitfire Vc imagery that I can find is Checkett's aircraft in its D Day markings. I am looking doing a Vc in D Day marking so any pointers would be very welcome.

Yes I know that @PhantomBigStu has got there well before me, but I thought that I would have a go with the same 1979 (?) 1/72 Spitfire kit. It was five quid from the Hinckley Model show back in 2023 and has both markings and clear parts as the box states. I put the canopy away for safe keeping, but have now found it! I understand that the kit is considered to be an accurate version and has a visibly narrower uoper cowl than the current Aitfix Mk1a and very similar to the newish Airfix Spitfire Vc. I will have to think about whether I attempt to rescribe or keep the raised detail.

First Stab at Painting I did some pre panel painting and then put on some sky and tan blobs to try to make a more subtle white underneath. This was only partially successful and needed a lot of Tamiya white to cover it! In the end I had to sand it back somewhat and used Vallejo white with some differentiation for the undersides. The attempted technique might work for the uppersides, there is nothing like repeating the same mistake twice!

Looks very good, I am still painting mine. I have not fitted the cockpit , but it seems to need a bit of adjusting, did you find that please? Also I test fitted the main undercart which seemed fine and then tried again, it seemed to have gone strangely very wrong in the interim and took some bodging. I only mention it as a possible heads up for you. Also as a FORD expert, do you know why the wing leading was the silver grey please? Its just another thing to paint and mask!

Thanks for the kind comments Thank you for your kind comments. And again thank you for your kind comments.

A Cuban Missile Crisis MiG 21 F13 Operated by Soviet 213th Fighter Squadron As part of Khrushchev’s ill-judged Operation Anadyr, the Soviet 32nd Guards Fighter Regiment deployed to Cuba with 40 Mig 21s (becoming the 213th Fighter Squadron). These had their Soviet red stars painted out with white and flew from Santa Clara airbase. After 4 October 1962, the aircraft were re-painted with Cuban markings when an 'unidentified' MiG was reported as having made an attempted or 'practice' intercept on two USAF F101s over Cuba. The kit is the 1/72 Revell model pretty much OOB with overall Tamiya Flat Aluminium, and Vallejo Steel and Silver for the panels. The markings were by Begemot, which were well registered and bedded down well. I used the Revell stencils for the airframe which went on equally well. I did not do much weathering at all as the aircraft were only 2 years or so old and I felt that they would have been well looked after by the Russians in Cuba. I used the missile pods as the kit had no Atolls and a website reference mentioned a rocket being fired off accidently from a pod whilst parked up. And a picture of the original aircraft in Cuba. The Cuban Missile Crisis was a dangerous period when nuclear war could have been a reality. I also did the kit as I went to Cuba on holiday earlier in February 24 and throughly enjoyed the country. Thanks to the organisers for a excellent group build.

Now Finished The Begemot Decals were applied and went on well, being bedded down with a Future equivalent and some microsol. Markings on shiny silver paint are not too bad to do! I even used the Revell stenciling as well. The final finishing was more tedious. The main undercarriage was iffy and needed adjustment as well as the main wheel covers being too long and required some cutting down. The front undercart covers also needed some careful fitting. But after some cursing and regluing and repainting it came together:

Ready for Painting The nose section was glued as were the intakes and the small gaps filled with plastic putty. One intake needed some moderate sanding to meet the fuselage contours. The underwing pylons were added and the small wing gaps where they met filled. The tail is lose so that I can do the jet engine metalwork after the inital primer coat. I also forgot to weight the nose, so I hope that the 'bumper wheel'at the back works! I put in some plastic sheet in the intake side where the kit had a obvious seam, but it does not really add much. Other than that it is all OOB. The front wing fences- does anyone know please if these were silver finish as the leading edges were? I may not put the outer rocket pods on as the kit type was not carried by VF 3, so I will have to snip off the little palstic lugs. Or is it more complicated than that?

Cockpit On - Ready for Decaling The kit has a problem that the cockpit does not fit well when closed up, there is a small gap between the fusleage and the cockpit. The obvious solution is to have the canopy open but I the aircraft looks sleeker and sharklike with the canopy closed. After some filling and respraying, I got an adequate result, but not ideal: The aircraft will be then finished as the above airframe in the Cuban 'handover' markings, the original Russian red stars were apparently covered over by white circles although still flown and operated by the Russian squadron personnel.