Mig88

Lovely! Miguel

Great result out of that tricky kit. Miguel

Very nicely done! Miguel

Spectacular result. Beautifully finished. Miguel

Superbly finished! Miguel

Wow! Outstanding work all around. Those engines alone look fabulous. Bravo! Miguel

My thoughts exactly. Nicely done Alain. Miguel

Thank you very much. As has been commented above, it appears the matter of the positioning of the insignia is open to debate and I have fully accepted the situation and moved on. Miguel

Outstanding work on that old kit! Very nicely done and finished. Miguel

Fantastic! Superbly finished! Miguel

Simply superb!!! Miguel

Lovely! Miguel

Very nice! Miguel

A big WOOOW ! Impressive and outstanding work all around. Bravo! Miguel

Beautiful!! Very nicely finished indeed! Miguel

Despite all the issues, it looks really good. Well done! Miguel

A big thank you to all for your comments and information. I have been following the posts (and no I don't mind the hijacking!) but it has been a busy week I and just didn't have a time to reply properly. As a result, rather than replying case by case, I'll make all my replies here. Colin (@Philly1860). Thank you very much for your offer but I'll decline. Once I call a kit finished, it's done. The few times I've decided to fix something in the paintwork, etc, I almost regretted it as I almost created more problems and besides once you start looking you find more things to fix! @jrfischer317. For the exterior, I used the same paint as the interior! I used Humbrol 78 Cockpit Grey Green. It was a fresh tin and it was very slightly more blue in hue compared to the previous tin I had (lasted for years!), but without anything better at hand I went with it and it came out quite decently. The spelling of the base was taken from the kit's box. Next time I'll know to check up on this to verify on possible errors 😜! @georgeusa. Gladly! I think it's important to share any problems a kit may have precisely to help others from finding out the hard way! Once again, thank you very much to all! Miguel

Thank you very much Miguel

That's interesting. I may have had a bad issue but as I said, I've read the one-seater goes well but the only two comments/builds on this kit I found were on the negative side. Only one was completed. The other gave up! True. The sense of accomplishment after a difficult build is greater and I think that's why, despite the decal let-down, I'm pleased with my kit. Thanks for the info and "consolation". 😄 I've managed to put that matter very much behind and appreciate what I've achieved. Thank you very much to all for your praise and comments. My kit was AZ 7480 with two Irish options and, as far as I can tell, the decals for the second Irish option (in silver), with the later insignia, are correct. Miguel

Hello everyone! Here is my first kit of the year which I finished last weekend. It is AZ Model's Supermarine Spitfire Tr.9 representing 162 of A Flight, No 1 Squadron, Irish Air Corps, at Gormaston, Ireland, in 1951. Before anyone says anything, yes the port wing insignia and the starboard side insignia are wrong. Sadly, I know. Read on to know why... This kit has been a struggle almost all the way. AZ Model kits are short-run and so inherently involve extra work but this one more so. I have read favourable comments about AZ Model's Spitfire IX/XVI kits (and I hope so as I have a couple in my stash) but negative comments about the two-seater. I just about managed to overcome all the problems but it got tiresome. Apart from the usual fit issues and mismatched parts that you get with these kinds of kits here some of the low lights: - Cockpit troubles: the rear cockpit was made almost like the front one but I believe it should have been shorter. The instructions have you put the oxygen bottles on one fuselage side as per a single-seater but, thankfully, they were placed horizontally behind the front cockpit. It's impossible to fit the rear cockpit if one doesn't do this. Because of the length of the rear cockpit and the position of the control yoke, I had to move the instrument dial forward. It's not correct but I had no choice by then. Getting the cockpit parts in place was fiddly due to the poor minimal mating surfaces but somehow I managed. As a note, I used the decals for the instruments and the harnesses. The latter aren't bad but in retrospect I should have removed more of the film. - Main wings: some of the parts work best interchanged! I swapped the wheel bay cover parts and the wing tips. I was a bit confused with the instructions as to the gun arrangements, initially leaving only the outer machine guns but later restoring the other ones after reading about the type and other kit builds of Irish two-seaters. I used bits of sprue to help fill the cannon holes. - Wing to fuselage assembly: with some trimming and checking, I just about managed a reasonable join along the bottom with the fuselage and cleaning it up wasn't too bad. The upper wing roots however were another matter with large mismatched trenches of varying width. Plenty of filling and sanding here. - Canopies: the front one needed some trimming and I had a problem because the front cockpit was a little twisted and I had to sand it a bit to stop fouling the canopy. The rear one was another story... It was too narrow lengthwise and too wide at the front. I managed to thin it along the bottom and the top of the front end enough to make it almost all the way down. I glued it in place with Kristal Klear but forcing it down with tape. It held and I then filled the remaining gaps a long the bottom and the cavity in the front also with Kristal Klear and then paint. - Other bits: the oil cooler intake was a terrible fit. I didn't try to improve it, glued it as it was and filled the gaps with CA glue and finally blending the part to the underside. I had to cut away a bit of the wheel bay lips to be able to insert the legs in the proper angles. The exhaust parts had to be thinned considerably in the inserting blocks to be able fit in the corresponding holes (on a positive note, the kit comes with inner blanking plates). Once I made it through all this and painted the kit, it was looking good and I was thinking that despite it all, it was going to come out nicely. And then came the decals... These went on well and required plenty of Micro Sol to settle properly. I had some trouble with the underwing flags which ended up cracking (my fault) and I had to fix cutting bits from the markings for option 2 (to match the colours) to "fix" them. The big BUT were the insignia decals. The instructions have them shown correctly but the sheet was printed wrongly. They are supposed to be handed with the green half forwards on the sides and inwards on the wings. I tried finding replacements (no luck) and considered repainting them but matching the colours and getting the patterns right was too daunting. It was a real let down and I was unhappy for a couple of days about the kit but I decided to press on, as I just wanted to finish the kit, and use the decals as they came. My apologies to any Irish readers. As usual, the kit was painted and varnished by brush. I weathered it just enough to break the uniform scheme but didn't overdo it as these machines seemed to be quite well-kept. In the end, despite everything and the decals, I'm pleased with how it came out. Sadly, there aren't many kits of Spitfire two-seaters but this one is really only for experienced modellers and masochists. AZ Model covered all of the two-seater options and I have their kit of the Soviet home-made two-seater version in my stash. I have been warned! Thanks for looking and all comments are welcome. Miguel

Lovely work as usual Roman. Well done and finished despite the issues. It's nice to make one of these kinds of utility military aircraft every now and then. I've taken a liking to them and have accumulated several in my stash, all of which I suspect won't be easy builds 😜! Miguel

Superbly finished indeed! No AZ Modles kits are not "shake and bake" kits but a bit of perserverence pays off. Miguel

Lovely work and beautifully finished ! Miguel

Lovely!! Miguel

Very nicely done! Miguel