geedubelyer

I have just caught up with your adventures and admire your intentions to rivet the fuselage. Your quest for absolute accuracy is commendable and you clearly have a great deal more patience than I can muster. I'm not sure it helps but I've just completed this kit and the rivet detail is not hugely noticable once the paint, markings and some weathering are applied. I did apply raised rivets using aftermarket decals of resin dots to the aft fuselage of a 1/32nd Revell IIa but once again they are not obvious unless viewed from very close up. This is becoming one of the neatest and most accurate looking Airfix Spitfires that I can remember seeing soI look forward to seeing how you resolve your conundrum Cheers

Hi @kelly9mm I agree with you. The combination of Airfix and Airscale is excellent and 1/24th gives plenty of scope for additional little details. Thanks for the kind words. Much appreciated. Hello @Pig of the Week. Glad you like the aged images. I'd love to recreate an image that looks real. @HL-10 many thanks. Glad you enjoyed it. @Bell209. I appreciate the kind words, thank you. @Keeff. Thanks Keith. Airfix knocked this one out of the park didn't they? I confess I enjoyed adding some wear and tear. It was alot of fun @ColinChipmunkfan. Thrilled that you enjoyed those aged photos @tomkil 😁. You are very kind. Thank you greatly. I appreciate everyone's encouragement and generous comments, thank you all.

Hello fine people of Britmodellerland, Please forgive me for sharing yet another rendition of this popular Airfix offering. There are many wonderful creations of this fine model here on Britmodeller and beyond but with good reason. Airfix are to be commended for bringing kit assemblers like myself a model that builds easily and looks about right (to my untrained eye). It's not without it's faults but these are generally minor and easily corrected by the use of the myriad aftermarket sets available. Indeed, I opted for a number of embellishments to get the best I could from this model. One set that gives plenty of bang per buck is by Airscale and upgrades the already passable Airfix cockpit. The etched IP takes it to another level though. Add in a bit of fettling and some scratch building and it's possible to arrive at a nice, busy looking office. The model pretty much fell together thanks to clever design by the Airfix team. I believe it's been well documented elsewhere so I won't go into it in too much depth here. I chose to close everything up except for the cockpit door. There is a nicely rendered Merlin provided in the box but having gone to town on the Tamiya Mk XVIe (and having never removed the panels after the initial batch of photos) I wanted to keep the lines of the aircraft intact. This airframe is depicted as a 412 sqdn RCAF. I discovered that this squadron started life at RAF Digby in Lincolnshire, a stone's throw from where I live. This gave me a tenuous connection and the excuse to build something other than the kit supplied versions. The masks were created by a member of the LSP forum community and worked beautifully. I used those markings in conjunction with the 1ManArmy stencil and data masks plus the ArtScaleKit canopy masks that all worked perfectly. It's tough to beat painted on markings. In addition to the masks I also used Eduard Brassin wheels and exhaust stubs After all of that, here are a few pics of the finished article. Then some using photo manipulation software to create an older picture. I hope you got as much enjoyment from seeing this as I did from building it. If anyone is on the fence over whether to treat themselves or not I can heartily recommend the model. Well done Airfix. Now, if you could just give us a nice late, Griffin powered version please? A Spitfire Mk24 or Seafire FR47 would do very nicely. 😄

Hi Mark, thanks for the info. Yes, I think there may be an Su-22 wrapped up.

Hi gang. Has anyone got any info on the aircraft in plastic wrap at the northern end of Scampton's runway please? One might be a Phantom and another possibly a Hunter? Thanks for any info. Cheers

Absolutely beautiful. ❤️ (Neat base too).

More super shots. Thank you again for sharing these.

Always enjoy seeing pics of "Miss Helen" in full song after having built my Tamiya kit as her. Smashing images once again. Cheers

Superb images. The light can be a big challenge at Duxford but you've nailed it. Brilliant.

Wonderful.

You've really captured the graceful lines of the Spitfire in this photo essay Ian. Who would have imagined the Prefect T1 could look so magnificent. The manufacturer would be proud of that capture. Fine job. 👍

Cracking photos. There are a couple there that are reminiscent of a Gerald Coulson painting with the way you've captured the light. Great stuff, thanks for sharing. Cheers.

Lovely pics. Really like the b+w images. Thanks for sharing them.

I like that. Nice job 👌

That's lovely.

Most.....what's the word?......."atmospheric" Good job given the abysmal British summer weather. I can empathise having had soggy everything at Fairford in the past (even down to the F-16 taxi) so appreciate you sharing these. That first shot of Blackjack is my favourite. At least the grey of the weather shows off those afterburner cones to perfection. Cheers

Wonderful collection of images. Makes me wish I was going. (*see the edit) Is the event still going ahead? I know from personal experience that adverse weather can mean it gets cancelled. Hope it isn't affected by the forecast high winds in the south. Love the colour of that Chinook. Is it Dutch? I imagine it's meant to be that shade and isn't faded olive drab? I like the way the low viz roundel is made up of shades of the same colour. Thanks for sharing and enjoy the show. Cheers Edit* I can see that it is taking place as there is a livestream being shown on YouTube 🙂👍

What a marvellous collection of images each one a gem in its own right. Extremely tough to choose a favourite but if I had to it would be the evocative capture of the tractor towing G-ACSS surrounded by white overalled ground crew. If that pic was b+w or sepia it would look period. Great stuff.

The Saudi Hawks flew with the Reds today. I spotted both teams together in formation over Lincoln then red white and green smoke as the Saudis performed their display. I feel very priviledged.

A thing of beauty. Magnificent. Thanks for sharing the journey.

Gawd! This is lovely 😍

Crikey! 😲

Thanks for the responses guys. I apologise, I should have explained that I am currently modelling a Mk IX and wondering whether I need to add any extra detailling in the opening. From what you've suggested it sounds as though the flaps are likely to be closed on a parked aircraft although it's at least feasible that they could be down in certain circumstances. I appreciate your help, thanks.

Hi folk, A quick question for Spitfire cognoscenti. When parked with the engine off, are the radiator flaps open, closed or depends where they were left when the pilot dismounted? It's tough to tell in many pics of parked birds. Thanks.

The Lanc has just flown over Lincoln to commemorate that event. Epic. As is your engine Craig. What a delight to see. So much hard work but it looks spectacular. Well done. Very eager to see what you do with the Eduard exhaust stubs. I shall be taking notes. I tend to agree with you on the rib tapes. It's very easy to overdo them in scale. Remember, they are all but invisible from even a few feet away on the full sized aircraft. Good luck in figuring out a suitable solution for that conundrum. Cheers.