Nigel Bunker

I have just made two of these and I have a question. Should the windscreen section sidepanels be deeper than the sliding section on the canopy? Airfix have made it so, and it looks wrong to me. So if any of you Spitfire experts have built this kit, what do you think?

Though of checking out the model railway boys? I bet somebody makes seats for carriages. Failing that, try e-bay or the local boot sales for an old carriage you could strip down.

I don't know how accurate, but I used some spare B-25 cowlings from an Italeri kt on my Matchbox A-20 and thinned down the nacelles. Not perfect but does improve it.

"No longer in production" - well generally kits do not stay in production - they are produced in batches in order to amortise the cost of setting up the machines each time. Herr RoG talks to his sales and marketing departments who tell him they envisage selling say 10000 of a kit type, then he talks to his financial people (who hate having money tied up in stock in the warehouse that doesn't move) and they will probably end up making say 8000. The moulds are fitted to the machine and 8000 kits are made. The mould is then put away until the company decides to make another run. Now let us say of that 8000 that 5000 go out to wholesalers and shops at £6.00 each. 3000 sit in the warehouse, and if they are lucky, another 1000 go out as further orders. that leaves 2000 in the warehouse, and after a while the beancounters go to Herr RoG and say "do you realise that in ?? months it will have cost us more to store those kits than they are worth?". Herr RoG calls in his sales manager, tells him that the kits cost say £2.00 each and to get the rest sold PDQ for as much as he can. The sales manager rings his contacts in the chains and big shops and sells them for say £4.00 each. These shops then knock the kits out at a reduced rate to get rid of them quickly. Stock in warehouses costs money to keep. So Herr RoG has no more in stock and will not make more until either somebody wants to buy a quantity (in the thousands), either under RoG's ortheir own label or alternatively the marketing department judges there is a demand for another run. And Herr RoG does not care if that kit is a hawker Hunter or an F1 car 0r a ship - his job is to make and sell kits and make a return for his shareholders. The idea of regularly wheeling out the moulds and making hundreds kits every few months died a long while ago, that is if it ever existed.

Interior fitted, wings fitted, new resin wing bulges and intake fitted. Just need to add some Aeroclub exhausts and fit the wheels.

Well I received my set from Freightdog this morning (excellent service by the way - 3 days from placing order) and I was about to set the razorsaw loose on the kit when I had an idea. Now let me say at the start that this is a really nice moulding - not an air bubble to be seen. Certain other manufacturers please take note - how come some can make a really good job of moulding whilst others cannot? Now I'm guessing that a lot of us have the unbuilt Italeri Spitfire IX in the stash, due to it's awful nose section, but from the firewall back it's not too bad, and it has a nicely detailed cockpit (Airfix take note) so I took a razor saw to the wing roots. I then glued the rear fuselage together (from behind the cockpit to where it meets the wings under the fuselage. Then I gave the nose a scrub in hot water with detergent to remove any release agent and soperglued the nose to the fuselage. It fits well (the plastic wall thickness of the kit seems OK and there is a triangular shaped aperture from the front odf the cockpit to the engine ( grows to about 1.0 mm which I filled from behind with superglue and accelerator. I glued the wings together and apart from a little fettling under the new nose, they fit fine - nice and tight. I have not glued them in place yet as I have to make and fit the cockpit. Too dark to take pictures now, but I'll take some tomorrow morning and post them here. New nose on fuselage Wings with blisters removed Wings and fuselage clipped together

Oh that they were in 72 scale.

Thanks Steve - i didn't know about the French base.

Oh well, if it's on the interweb, it must be right - Wikipedia says so.

I have just finished reading "Last of the Ten Fighter Boys" by Jimmy Corbin (£2.99 from The Works). When he was with 66 Sqn, the fine for leaving flaps down was 5s (25p), which may not seem a lot but Sergeant Pilots were paid 13s 6d (67.5p) a day, so they couldn't afford t do it very often, if at all. I think most squadrons had a fine system of some sort if flaps were left down, so bear this in mind when building RAF Spitfires.

I have the Aeromaster decal sheet for Spitfire Vc Trop. WZ-B of 309th FS, 31st FG, and also the Ventura book 'American Spitfire Camouflage & Markings', both of which say the aircraft was finished in "green and brown with blue undersides". Now these were delivered in Mid Stone/Dark Earth/Azure Blue camouflage, I believe, so I am supposing that the Mid Stone was overpainted by Olive Drab (assuming USAAF used US paints, rather than British) when they moved to Sicily/Italy. Before I commit paint to model, does any body know if this is a correct guess, or do they have any further information?

Well I have my copies of SAM in binders and indexed on the PC largely because of Aircraft in Profile. In the Alan Hall days, this was the meat of the magazine, 8-10 pages of text followed by 8-10 pages of the excellent Mike Keep's artwork. They provide a quick and easy source of colour schemes for kits, covering a broad range of subjects, most of which I have no other reference for. I am just completing an Airfix Sunderland and the old SAM provided details for a fully camouflaged example, which I wanted in preference to the white fuselaged examples. Yes, I know I could have bought "Warpaint" or the Osprey book on the Sunderland, but there seems something perverse in spending more on the reference material than on the kit - after all, I am hardly likely to build a shelf full of Sunderlands. I just cannot see myself referring back in 20 years to the current issue of SAM. SAM thesedays seems to appeal to the assemblers of kits (those who buy the kit, resin accessories and aftermarket decals) rather than the modellers (who take a kit and improve it using raw materials such as Mike Grant does in SAMI). Hooray - I have become a Grumpy Old Man, but I am in good company.

Well I picked up my copy today and I fear it has hit an all time low. No 'Aircraft in Profile' for the first time in 32 years. The content consists mainy of "Compact Build Reviews", which to my mind are not reviews but quick ( and largely uncritical) builds. Apparently Revell (of Germany), Trumpeter, Hasegawa, Academy, Airfix and Tamiya are available from Hannants/SBX or Hannants - now I would have thought that Revell (of Germany), Trumpeter, Hasegawa, Academy, Airfix or Tamiya distributors would be a better description, and do justice to the hobby shops across the country who stock these brands for us modellers. Book reviews are split into "what they say" and "what we say" - the first appears to be lifted from the dust jackets and the latter says very little due to the short space allowed. The idea of a book review is for a non-partisan view of what the book is like, not to reiterate publishers blurb. Personally, I like the style of reviews in the Aeroplane, which are far better done. Well if I was marking this magazine , it would be marked 'D - see me'. Rant over.

Personally, I never trust the way that colours are represented on a computer screen. I treat them as a guide only.

Surely vice versa? red/white/blue roundels, fifties and sixties - High Speed Silver red/blue roundels , seventies and onwards - Light Aircraft Grey

According to this list, both are the old moulds. New Tool Aircraft 1:72 Scale * A01071A - Spitfire Mk1a * A03080 - Messerschmitt Bf110 C/D * A03081 - Messerschmitt Bf110 E * A03082 - North American F-86F Sabre * A03083 - North American Sabre Mk.4 Canadair * A04050 - BAe Harrier GR9 Aircraft 1:48 Scale * A05117 - Spitfire MkXII * A05120 - Messerschmitt Bf109E * A05122 - Messerschmitt Bf109E Tropical * A06102 - Seafire XVIIc * A08107 - Westland Lynx - Navy HAM8 / Super Lynx * A08108 - Westland Lynx - Army AM-7 Maritime 1:350 Scale * A03260 - Trafalgar Class Submarine Cars 1:32 Scale * A03410 - Jaguar XKRGT3 APEX Racing * A03411 - Aston Martin DBR9 Gulf Military Vehicles 1:76 Scale * A03306 - Bedford QL Trucks - QLT & QLD Figures & Dioramas 1:76 Scale * A01763 - WWII British Infantry Northern Europe (1:72 Scale) * A75001 - European Ruined Workshop * A75002 - European Ruined Cafe * A75003 - European Ruined Corner House * A75004 - European Ruined Country Cottage Limited Edition * A11001 - Vickers Valiant - 1:72 Scale New For 2010 (existing tooling) Aircraft 1:144 Scale * A04051 - Boeing 737 * A04052 - Boeing 727 Aircraft 1:72 Scale * A01001 - BTK Spitfire * A01013 - Comet Racer * A02046A - Spitfire MkVb * A02048A - Messerschmitt Bf109E * A02082A - Hawker Hurricane Mk1 * A03007 - Junkers Ju88 * A03030A - Junkers Ju87-B * A03032 - Fairey Battle * A03085 - BAe Hawk T1 * A04011 - H.P. Hampden * A05021 - Heinkel HeIII * A06010 - B-24 Liberator Aircraft 1:48 Scale * A05100 - Junkers Ju87-B Stuka * A05121 - BAe Hawk T1 Aircraft 1:24 Scale * A18003 - BAe Harrier GR3 Figures 1:72 Scale * A01747 - RAF Personnel * A01748 - USAAF Personnel * A01755 - Luftwaffe Personnel Figures 1:32 Scale * A02704 - Russian Infantry * A02709 - Australian Infantry * A02710 - British infantry Support Set * A02713 - German Mountain Troops Space 1:144 Scale * A05172 - Vostok 1 * A06172 - Saturn 1B * A11150 - Saturn V Skylab Gift Sets * A50009 - Battle Front - 1:76 Scale * A50015 - RAF Battle of Britain Airfield Set - 1:72 Scale * A50022 - Battle of Britain 70th Anniversary Set - 1:72 Scale * A50097 - Vulcan to the Sky - 1:72 Scale * A50111 - Jaguar XKRGT3 & Aston Martin DBR9 Twin Set - 1:32 Scale Large Starter Sets * A50098 - Eurofighter Typhoon - 1:72 Scale * A50109 - Jaguar XKRGT3 APEX Racing - 1:32 Scale * A50110 - Aston Martin DBR9 Gulf - 1:32 Scale * A50114 - BAe Hawk T1 - 1:72 Scale Douglas Bader's Spitfire * A50030 - Supermarine Spitfire MkVa - 1:48 Scale Royal Navy * A50021 - Trafalgar Class Submarine - 1:350 Scale * A50112 - Westland Lynx HAS.5 - 1:48 Scale * A50010 - Sea Harrier FRS1 - 1:72 Scale * A50017 - Sea Harrier FA2 - 1:72 Scale * A50113 - Sea King HAR.5 - 1:72 Scale 2009 1/48 Sea Vixen Limited Edition Kit should be out late summer 2010. 2009 announced releases which haven't reached market yet will all be released in 2010. 2009 1/350 HMS Illustrious should be out early new year 2010. Thanks to the Airfix Tribute Forum for this information.

Looks like MAW has suffered the curse of inserting the wrong image in the reviews this month. Rather frustrating as I was hoping to look at one I was interested in buying. Oh well, back to trawling the net!

My advice, for what it's worth (and as somebody who discovered a part finished kit in the loft last week but can't find the rest of the bits) is to finish the kits you have on the go first before moving on to the Mosquito. Or else another new kit will arrive and a part built Mosquito will join the pile of part built kits. Hampden canopies? Bite the bullet and get stuck in. I look forward to seeing the completed kits on the forum.

The difference is that Rafale was designed from the outset to have a Navy version and the structure is strong enough to accept this. Regrettably it is not just a matter of adding a hook - look at what MDD had to do to the Hawk to make the T-45 - it even included moving the main gear attatchment points to a location that could take the load of a carrier landing. I suspect the cost of making a few Sea Typhoons for the RN would be astronomical.

Copyright?

John I think you'll find you need Sky Codes for a late war Spitfire, Not medium Sea Grey. Heller's interpretation of Sky is interesting & unique. Send me a PM with the code letters you require and their size and I'll see if I have any suitable.

Nice model, and good pictures - but should it be in Armour/AFV section?

they look like HobbyBoss to me.

The 72 scale Airfix Vc wings are usable - just sand down the inside edges until you have the same thickness as the Vb wings, but you'll need to reduce the depth of the wheel well to match. Makes a nice model.

There are pictures of Supermarine Scimitars carrying Sidewinders - I guess B model as this was in the fifties, so it was probably more tha a trial as they were used at squadron level.