Brad

I'm all for helping Airfix. My advice would be; produce better models or die. If they just keep pumping out the old kits that by todays standards are, well lets face it, beyond their use by date, they will fall over....again.

I think this was a fantastic thread, some good info and banter along with differing points of view make for an interestind discussion. That all makes for an interesting forum and isn't that what we want? If we all thought the same, what a boring place it would be.

ALL OF THEM as the old Airfix models should be consigned to the recycling bin.

Yep just like that Jonathan! If I left that little clean patch in the middle and entered a kit like that, an IPMS judge would probably ping me for having inconsistant weathering...wait a minute, I'm an IPMS member....oh god, it's happening, I'm becoming a self hating IPMS member.......AARRRRRGGGHHHHH

That looks really nice. I was contemplating getting the Tamiya one, which were going for about 150 - 180 bucks here in Australia....but for $80 USD with our dollar almost at parody, even if postage stings me a bit, I will still be the better buy.

With regards to gun stains, there are some really good plctures in Alfred Prices 'Spitfire; A complete fighting history' which show some really grubby gun staining on the leading edge. I do like the look of an aircraft that has been ridden hard and put away wet. While we are talking Spitfire weathering, I've noticed that they tend to spew oil and crap from the oil cooler right back to the tail wheel.

Airfix is vauge because they have no idea either lol. It could have been RLM 65 blue, or 02 grey or yellow, or they might no thave bothered to mask them off when spraying the yellow. They would be the logical guesses, but unless someone comes up with a colour picture of the wheel wells, pick which one you like the best, that's the best advice I can give you

That's really nice mate. Isreali aircraft are cool!

Nice build. Norm got a '109 in Europe while serving with an RAF Squadron, he also told the story of train busting over France when him and his mate got badly shot up by a flak car which resulted in his spitfire getting belly flopped on the first piece of flat land he saw coming back over the channel. I believe he passed away not all that long ago.

This aircraft was flown by Theis while he was with 6/JG300 in late 1944. I added seatbelts, but otherwise it's straight out of the box. These kits are little gems to build and I nailed this together in 6 days.

Very nice, I plan to build one of these some day too. If anyone is interested, below are links to youtube which have colour film of captured T-bolts...and a Junkers 88.

Fit of the wings to fuselage is excellent requiring no filler at all yet the wingtips are too thick and the landing lights suck. Engine nacelles are pretty bad, but eat the gap on the undersurface as it's more easy to fix. Also prepare for some sanding inside the wheel wells. Fuselage fits ok, same with the nose, but the antenna have stubs on them which don't fit the slots. The angle of the undercarriage is disgraceful and I'm not sure how they got it so wrong. It requires some cutting to get it to fit cloes to right. The one saving thing is the plastic is pretty soft and sands easy. The inside of the radiator covers is bad. I blanked the sides off with plastic card and sanded down the radiator inside to fit. I've heard that the Eduard one isn't perfect either, but it's more than likely easier to build than this.

Sweet mate, I like it alot.

I first started this model about 3 years ago. It was my second attempt that the kit, my first when I was about 15 failed. Starting a second one, I remembered why I failed the first time. Some great fit followed by some shocking fit of the engine nacelles, radiators and the undercarriage gear legs. I got most of the hard work done, then the cat broke one of the radars and I lost enthusiasm for it and put it back in the model cupboard. About 2 and a half weeks ago I was having a clean out and decided If I couldn't finish the thing by the end of May I might as well chuck it. I found a pic of the Russian Me 110 about a year ago which was perfect as it was missing the lower radar. Unfortunantly I didn't have an extra set of exhausts, so I just used the kit flame dampners (they look cooler anyway). I figure that the machine would have had them and it's entirely possible they were removed at some stage, just like the antennas. I drilled out nose mounted weapons, added seatbelts and left out the rear MG. Decals came from an ICM Yak 9.

Not an aircraft you see often, nice work.

Sweet man, I like captured aircraft too. I built OOL not so long ago, had to piece the decals together from different sheets and after finishing it I found out these guys made decals for it!!!

Sweet, this one is sitting in my stash to build too. It sure looks a lot better than the old airfix kit, which I built a few years ago. Now, if I just had the room for the 1/48 MPM kit.....

I might have to get one of these as I keep saying I'm going to build a thunderbolt, I then pull out my Hasegawa razer back and put it straight back in the stash when I look at the wing to fuselage joint haha.

Very nice mate. I just finished their Mk II last week. I've heard people describle the stringbag as ugly, but I think it's a rather good looking plane.

Usual Tamiya quality and good to start with if you haven't built a biplane like myself. I also used the Tamiya etch set, which is alright, but I'm not sure I'd use it again. It's easier to put the rigging on before attaching the wings, but if you do that you run the real risk if having the rigging wires distort once you slot the wings on. That said, I think they look pretty good, but are fairly fragile.

Any ideas on the colour of the warhead? TIA

It's not a bat kit, but it does have some problems, mainly the poor moulding of some smaller parts. Fit is reasonable, if not a little tricky as the hull comes in about 10 pieces. Don't screw up the alignment or you will put the whole kit out. Track needs to be clipped off the sprue from 3 attachment points and they are left and right handed track. Not eaxctly magic track, but at least I'll find it easier when I build my Dragon Tiger II.

I like the Syrian Spit. I built one in 1/32 years ago from this pic. It's the only one I've ever seen of these machines. Have also built an Eqyptian aircraft using the Tamiya kit. It's sits next to my Eqyptian Macchi 205

Cool, looks like it's just been winched off the carrier deck!