Hobbyman

I think I've found the photo you mean, Will. On enlargement, there doesn't seem to be any pilot armour fitted, which also matches the new Tamiya kit. Thanks for the heads-up - K9966 will be the one I'll be building when mine arrives.

Also check out the presence of head and back armour in the photo, which is missing from the kit. (It is missing from their current Mk.I tooling too despite the markings being for a Battle of Britain era aircraft, by which time such armour had been fitted to all Spitfires). It shouldn't be too difficult to replicate it, but having to do so is annoying for such a widely documented aircraft. As far as I can see, The kit includes decals for an early version, sans head and seat armour (correct), no protruding machine gun barrels (wrong), and 3-bladed prop (wrong?), and for a later, Battle of Britain version, with no pilot armour (wrong). Still, if the outline is accurate, then I can live with having to correct some of those annoying but relatively trivial inaccuracies, and maybe someone will come along with an aftermarket 2-bladed prop so I can eventually do both versions. All in all, it seems good news, and I've pre-ordered one from Hobby Easy. .