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Just seen from Airfix a 1:24 New Tool will be announced 07.11.2025..... Background shows some lightning so could it be a Lightning variant or is it merely something to throw us off the scent.... Exciting times.....!

Here’s my entry for this group build. Airfix’s 1/48 De Havilland Vampire FB.9 I’ll be doing the box art scheme of WR128 from No.502 (Ulster) Squadron. Aftermarket wise I have a brassin seat, wheels and a Löök instrument panel all from Eduard. Will hope to get started on this once my Phantom is wrapped up.

Like many others, I'll be contributing one of these to this particular party : The Phantom has to one of the meanest looking beasts of a cold-war jet, so I've been wanting to build one for quite a while now. To my mind, the British Phantom looks best in RAF grey & green camouflage when it was in front line service in the 1970's, so that's going to be my choice of colour scheme for this build. Specifically as XV406 whilst in service with Squadron 111 (the treble-ones), inspired in large part by the fantastic repaint job in progress on the original over at the Solway Aviation Museum. I was over there earlier today to collect a load of detail photos and be generally inspired. They are still in the process of completing the unit markings and have yet to get onto the stencilling ! 😁 The plane now supports the RWR box on top of the tail, which it acquired in the 1980's. Fortunately Airfix have supplied both tails in the box, so my build will be without it. Of course Phantom's look meanest when fully loaded, so I'll be adding as much as I can get on. To that end I've already bought a bunch of aftermarket goodies with that aim in mind. Not sure how much is going to be appropriate for this rendition, but will look for as many excuses as I can for a fully loaded Phantom. The Xtradecal set has markings for a 1970's Sqn.111 Phantom - admittedly another plane (actually an FG.1), but I can use the Squadron markings from the set and a little bit of surgery on the numbers will yield the registration XV406 without too much difficulty. The only obvious missing items are the 'D' code in yellow/tan for the tail. Marching up to the starting line and waiting impatiently for the gun now. Andy

Hi All, My latest completion is Airfix' lovely little Mossie, finished as a PR.XVI RG140, which was part of 684 Sqn based at RAF Dum Dum, (yes, really) in what was West Bengal, India in 1944. Here's a photo of the aircraft: The aircraft is finished in Aluminium on the upper surfaces, and PRU Blue on the undersides. I decided to make some 'improvements' to the kit, and during research came up with this rather nice photo showing the cameras carried by these aircraft: It is captioned "Photographers at RAF Benson testing cameras before installing them in a PR Mosquito: (left to right) two F24 14-inch lens vertical cameras, one F24 14-inch lens oblique camera, two F52 vertical cameras with 20-inch lenses". In terms of improvements to the kit, I designed and 3D printed a number of new components: - A pair of F24 cameras and mounting frame, to be mounted in the bomb bay - Bomb bay fuel tanks which were not provided with the kit - Main undercarriage to correct the skinny kit wheels - Tail wheel & oleo - New bomb bay doors - A drift sight to replace the kit bomb sight - Landing lights for the starboard wing Here's a few pics of the components - F24 camera: The pair in their mounting frame: Fuel tanks: Main undercarriage: The main undercarriage is designed such that it can be added following painting, and maintains the correct width of the wheel and oleo for the visible portion: Tail wheel & oleo: Bomb bay doors: Drift sight (carried over from my recent Fortress III project): Landing lights: Here's the WIP if anybody is interested: And on with the photos: Here's a couple of final shots with the same kit built as a B Mk.XVI, which I built last year: Hopefully that shows the difference from the kit undercarriage, which is shown on the left. I've very much enjoyed this project, and thanks to all those who have contributed with information, encouragement and kind words - it has been much appreciated! I may choose to offer this as an improvement set for the Airfix kit, including a canopy mask and stencils for a couple of airframes - watch this space! Thanks for looking, Roger

Joining you with this kit. Bought during an Airfix sale during 2024. Offering this RAF option. 601 Squadron. This RCAF option, 422 City of Vancouver - which is my favoured choice. There's also a Norwegian option. And my reference, I found this in a charity shop recently. The Shepherd by Frederick Forsythe. Himself an RAF pilot during his teens - training on Vampires. On leaving the RAF, he became a journalist, war correspondent, and then a novelist. I've just completed reading his autobiography - his was not a straightforward life.

Hi All, My next project is another Airfix kit (3 in a row!), their lovely new-tool Mossie. I built the B Mk.XVI a while back, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. This time I'm going for this boxing: I'm going to model RG140, which was part of 684 Sqn based at RAF Dum Dum, (yes, really) in what was West Bengal, India in 1944. Here's a photo of the aircraft: The aircraft is finished with aluminium upper surfaces, and PRU Blue below. In addition it carries SEAC national markings, and deep blue SEAC identification stripes - a most interesting scheme! Whilst researching the PR Mosquitos I came across this photo (copyright IWM - image for discussion only and will be removed on request) It is captioned "Photographers at RAF Benson testing cameras before installing them in a PR Mosquito: (left to right) two F24 14-inch lens vertical cameras, one F24 14-inch lens oblique camera, two F52 vertical cameras with 20-inch lenses" I also questioned the hive mind on the camera setup - there are a few nuggets here: I also received sufficient 'private' information to design the necessary components. My plan is to model the bomb bay doors open, in order to display the F24 cameras in situ. I have commenced the design process - here's the F24 camera: With its bay-mate on a mounting frame: This version is not supplied with fuel tanks, so here's the slot-in replacement: New bomb bay doors (the kit ones are over-thick to be displayed open): Whilst I was on a roll I thought I'd improve on the mud guards: Here's the first test prints: And displayed in position in the bomb bay: This should be fun! Thanks for looking, Roger

So in lieu of seeing the brilliant effort @TeeELL made of his Javelin in the flesh at Telford, I threw out all my grand plans to finish what was currently on the desk (Lightning F.53 is looking at me with undisguised menace as I type this) and have started the Airfix FAW.9 kit that's been eyeballing me from under the desk for ages. Obviously, being averse to anything silly I've decided there are too many FAW.9 builds out there, and combined with a large sheet of 3 Sqn decals that also keep eyeballing me, I'm going to make a FAW.4.... I mean, how hard can it be?.. Obligatory box shot courtesy of Scalemates... I previously bought a raft of 3d printed stuff from TeeELL because I had the intention of doing a FAW.9, but, well, I plan to do a full 3d printed Thin Wing Javelin proposal in the coming months, so having an early guns-only variant would contrast nicely. Nevertheless, of all the 3d bits Tony provided its only the jetpipes I can't use, having to change to the early pen-nib type instead. There's also some Airwaves etch, and a Master pitot probe ready. I've already made some headway. The first task was to remove all of the raised panel detail ahead of scribing the correct panel lines. Also attacking the wings (and my fingers) with various sharp objects has yielded many holes. Rather than the "drill many holes" approach I simply cut many straight lines for ease of cleanup, and which are relatively easy to glue back together. Here we're looking at the underside of the fuselage ready for the 3d printed airbrakes and drooped flaps. Note that the insert tabs for the wingtips also needs cutting to allow the drooped flap pieces to sit into the wing. With the upper wing also chopped up, we have the same. I just need to remove the "airbrakes" from the cut-offs and glue them back to the wing. With both halves of the fuselage offered up together I found I needed some padding underneath (on top of?) the drooped flaps to allow them to sit correctly in the lower wing surface, so I found a sheet of styrene in appropriate thickness and glued it in place. As you can see, I've also knocked up a Sapphire-equipped pen-nib styled tail. Version 3 is currently printing with jetpipes that insert from the rear for ease of assembly and painting. I'm not going to lie, it was an awkward shape to get right. Next job is to get scribing. I found the drawing below for a FAW.1, and on the basis the FAW.4 is the FAW.1 with a movable tail-plane and vortex generators I think these will do for the purposes of accuracy. Which reminds me, I also need to remove the middle row of vortex generators from the wings.

These will be my final two Hawker Hurricanes from my "Hawker Hurricanes around the world" project, two Airfix Mk Is dressed up in Romanian and Italian liveries after they were captured from Yugoslavia in 1941. The Italian one is fairly well photographed (I believe even videoed). This is the only photo I know of of any of the Romanian ones (there were three, numbered 13, 14, 15).

Next large(ish) kit on the bench is one the wife gave me for last Christmas, the Airfix Chinnok HC1. I was planning to build this using the Xtradecal sheet Chinook's in World Wide Service that has been on the Hannant's website since Dec last year but it still not been released yet so I probably go for the standard grey/green scheme. This is the second Airfix kit of the new type plastic, first was a Vampire and I think its an improvement over the softer plastic they used before. Started by painting the floor and fuselage section with Tamiya XF24 and XF66 respectively and then masked the floor for the non-slip area. This is were I left it last night.

Once I get my Hurricane and Churchill completed I'm making a start on this: It's been swamped by the excitement around the new Bf109G but for me this is one of the releases of the year. The T9 wasn't really something that excited me - but it still might - but I do like the late Merlin fighters. This is Airfix's second go at a 1/48th scale "e"-wing, the first being based on their late Humbrol-era mould. Chunky, but it could be build into a nice replica: This one will be OOB using the supplied 43 Squadron markings. Next year is the 110th anniversary of 43 Squadron being formed just up the road. More shortly. John

Hello, Here's my next project, a dual build which will carry me through most of the year. I'm continuing the trend of building my oldest kits first, in case I can still use the decals 🙂. One of the kits is a newer repop I purchased in 2019 in Airfix's soft light grey plastic. The other was purchased in 2004, and it's the harder dark grey plastic. They will be a Seafire FR.47 and a Seafire F.46 respectively. I've seen build reports outlining fit issues with the FR.47 and I know the soft plastic works well with TET and may make the build easier. I'll also use a bunch of goodies, like the Barracuda propeller blades and the requisite Rob Taurus canopies. I also got miscellaneous bits (flying surfaces, exhausts, wheels, cockpit bits) from Hi-Tech which I'll put to use on one of them, likely the F.46. I'll have to check my "Spitfire Goodies" box as well to see if there is anything else there worth using. Here is the start. The newer decal sheet is much crisper in printing though I'm not sure if there will be a difference in behaviour. And the first challenge has raised its head: the instrument panel. It's molded in three levels, and I doubt any decal sheet would conform to all of them. The panel in the older sheet is also useless. IMG_5089 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr Unfortunately Airfix moulded all but one instrument face as flat discs, so my usual method of painting white first, then flat black and scratching the instrument details won't work here. I thought of punching out the individual instruments from the decal sheet, yet with only one usable sheet that's not a good plan. I've painted the panels with Tamiya LP-2 White for now while I figure something out. The other challenge is the control column with a solid spade grip. What was Airfix thinking? I'll scratch build the grips as the Mk 47 has a differently shaped grip. IMG_5090 by Wlad Franco-Valias, on Flickr While the kit is good, there are many things to correct and enhance which can make the build interesting. I've just completed a shake and bake kit, now it's time to get creative again. This may be it for a while. Cheers, Wlad PS - I recognize beauty is in the eye of the beholder, so please don't be offended if you prefer the Mk.47 over the Mk.46. 🙂

So this is my next build and needs to get done for before Christmas as it will be a present for my dad. He knew I had the kit but has stopped pestering me to build it. He already has the Mogul and a KeilKraft bus. The 'Evening Star' was the last steam engine built by British Railways, a slightly modified Class 9F, it wears the BR Green rather than the usual black. Preserved at York's National Railway Museum. The kit was originates from Rosebud KitMaster and even though this boxing is quite old there are signs of mould wear, flash and surface marks. Contemporary exploded diagram and wordage. Most of it is straight forward but close attention needs to be paid to the running gear. I was going to just replace the handrails, as I had on the Mogul, but there is A LOT of pipework on display and it's all copper. Rather having to do a lot of tricky painting I've decided to replace it all with copper wire. Snips were used to removed the bulk then scalpels to scrape away the remainder of the raised detail. Files and sanding sticks got us down to a bare tank.

Here's the last of my four builds in the excellent Airfix group build - the Bristol 192 Belvedere. Not one of those classic Airfix kits that stands the test of time - a pretty crude kit, doesn't fit together well, covered in rivets, has an annoying seam down the middle of the glazed nose and represents a prototype rather than the production version. I'd love a new Belvedere kit! I've made most of the modifications needed to turn it into a production Belvedere HC.1 but won't pretend it's accurate - looks more like a production Belvedere than the kit does though! All the mods are in my build thread here I've finished it in 72 Sqn markings - 72 Sqn used Belvederes very briefly in the early 60s, replacing them pretty quickly with the Wessex. Decals are a mix of Modeldecal and Xtradecal. thanks for looking Z

Borrowed the title from the build I did of the Airfix Cessna 0-1 Bird Dog in the Scouting and Reconnaissance GB a couple of years ago, as the Cessna O-2 is pretty much a Bird Dog on steroids, and is another example of a pretty small aircraft that was able to bring down all kinds of weaponry to obliterate a target (and unlike the O-1, was able to take on some targets itself). Its unusual push/pull configuration allowed it to have the extra power of a second engine (being almost 100mph faster than the Bird Dog) and also a high wing, essential for spotting targets in the jungle. Entering service with the USAF in 1967, it was actually in US military service until 2010 when 2 were retired from the US Army where they had been used at Yuma Proving Ground. Replaced for FAC duties by the OV-10 Bronco, the O-2 would also be used for psychological warfare duties in Vietnam equipped with loudspeakers and leaflet dispensers. A total of 178 USAF Skymasters were lost in South East Asia. I'm aware of the issues with this kit, but must admit I hadn't seen this particular boxing before; Not too many parts, but quite thick transparencies; One page of instructions and one option; Decals look OK, but then I thought that about the ones for the Bird Dog which then disintegrated in water so we'll see!

Well 2025 has been a bit of a rollercoaster year for me started up Resolution Hobbies ( Colourcoats enamel paints)in January 7th had a Stroke 10th January. Physio and help started the business up again in March all going well slow progress getting my left side back in use. Then in August lost my mother after her long battle with Dementia and COPD then had to sort out all the mess that was left. Then two weeks ago became a Grandparent for the first time so now trying to get back at the bench and do some builds. Got this little boat while on a family break recently goes together great even with only having one good hand but it is slow going and can be quite frustrating at times so work so far all paints are Colourcoats of course just love the Day glow Orange. Still work to do on the base but hope to get it done soon. Stay Safe Keith

I have never built a Liberator before! Time to put that right. This is the Airfix B-24D kit which will be built as an RAF Coastal Command Liberator Mk.III. There is a review of the Airfix B-24H on Britmodeller, from which these sprue photos are takem. The nose section is provided on a different sprue. The transparencies are provided on two sprues. Sprue Y provides parts for the B-24D. I haven't taken photos of this but will attempt to later on. I don't usually build models as large as this, but the kit looks lovely so it seemed like a shame to waste the opportunity. It's quite exciting!

https://uk.airfix.com/products/westland-navy-lynx-mk88ahma8mk90b-a10107a V.P.

Completed Model Post. Here are some pictures of my model of HMS Phoebe, a Towed Array Leander class frigate as she was in 1989 when I served on board her for my Apprentice sea time. The model is a conversion of the 1:600 Airfix kit with White Ensign Photo Etch detailing and some scratch built enhancements. A detailed build log can be found here: http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234976345-hms-phoebe-f42/ Enjoy.

Seeing as far and away the majority of Hurricanes being built for the GB are from the Commonwealth and the Hurricane had good export success before, during and after WWII I though that I should show one from a foreign operator to highlight this fact. One of the other facts about some of the exported Hurricanes is that they ended up being actively use against the Allied cause with Finland being the most well known example of this and another being their use by Romania, and that is the operator that I am going to represent, hence the word Uragan in the title as it is Romanian for Hurricane. My weapon of choice is the Airfix 1/48 Mk.I (the more modern tooling) that I have built once before, 10 years ago for Battle of Britain III GB, and while the kit does have its slight accuracy issues it builds up well and is accurate enough for me. Another factor in choosing it is that I actually have one in the stash! My kit is without a box but other than some interior green having been sprayed onto the insides of the cockpit some years ago no assembly has taken place, here she is; I might have some aftermarket goodies to throw at it somewhere, almost certainly some seatbelts. The other aftermarket being used is a very nice looking set of decals by RB Productions for Romanian Hurricanes which I have had for a few years; There's some nice markings on there including an aircraft in the early markings from before Romania joined the Axis powers and the two bottom aircraft which are from the 3 aircraft supplied by Germany from aircraft captured during their invasion of Yugoslavia, as much as I would like to build one of there (and one in Yugoslav markings) I can't from this kit as they are rag-winged aircraft as opposed to the tin-winged Mk.I supplied by Airfix. I shall probably go for one of the two aircraft shown below; I am unsure whether to build one in the early markings following the start of Barbarossa or the later one with less yellow on the nose and some quite weathered markings, we shall see. I would very much like to be building more for this GB as the Hurricane is a firm favourite of mine but I may have over-committed already as I shall be busy co-hosting and building for Post War twins as well as fitting in work and working on the house, wish me luck! Thanks for looking in and as usual all comments and criticisms are gratefully received. Craig.

Well this was the kit that kicked off this nonsense and it's the one I'll be building for the GB, markings TBC once I get back from holiday.

To while away the hours between drying oils and curing flat varnishes on my AFV club Churchill build and inspired by @AdrianMF I expended my hard-won Hobbycraft vouchers on the Airfix Vintage Churchill. I built one about 50 years ago and it's time to face down the demon at last. Tackling the kit with its fiendish suspension in the days of thick poly cement, nail clippers and Mam's nail files on a tea tray in the sitting room seem now to be an exercise in futility but then hope, eyesight and manual dexterity were boundless and the end result, whether pristine or ornamented with gluey fingerprints, was destined to meet its fate in the sights of .177 air rifle. This time, with the miracle of TET and access to the BM hive mind I have attempted to produce something worth keeping.

Starting this build for an event, so I am planning to finish it by November. I have been gathering the parts for this Doolittle raid build, PE parts, figures and flight deck. Had trawled the internet for information of plane tie down during ww2 but couldn’t get any decent pictures. Does anyone know how are the B25s tied to the carrier deck? Any pictures will be helpful for my little diorama. It looks like the B25s were tied to the deck by ropes but I can’t find pictures of the anchor point on deck and plane. This is the Airfix kit with the extras. The build starts with removing some areas for the PE parts.

My first post on here! Was a fun kit to build, I did have a bit of trouble with the decals but happy with the end result. Im just getting back into the hobby so my next build I will probably try to be more brave with my weathering.

Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IXe (A05144) 1:48 Airfix The Supermarine Spitfire was the mainstay of British Fighter Command for the majority of WWII, in conjunction with the Hurricane during the Battle of Britain, with the Mk.IX being the most popular (with many) throughout the war, seeing extended periods of production with only minor alterations for the role that it was intended to help the spotter differentiate between the sub-variants, plus of course the increase in engine output and increasing torque. Originally requested to counter the superiority of the then-new Fw.190, a two-stage supercharged Merlin designated type 61 provided performance in spades, and the fitting of twin wing-mounted cannons with accommodating blisters gave it enough punch to take down its diminutive ‘Butcher-Bird’ prey. The suffix following the mark number relates to the wings fitted to the aircraft, as they could vary. The C wing was also known as the Universal Wing, and saw extensive use because it mounted 20mm cannon in each wing on the inboard of the two possible locations, the empty outer barrel usually covered by a rubber plug. The Mk.IXe had the 20mm cannons in the outer of the two stations, adding a .50cal machine gun in the inner position, giving extra firepower without the extra bulk and weight of the larger cannon and its ammo. The two outer machine gun stations were deleted, but the access panels remained to reduce re-engineering requirements of the hard-pressed manufacturing companies. The main gear was adjusted to provide more stable landing characteristics, and bowed gear bays removed the need for blisters on the upper wing surface, helping aerodynamically, while the cannon blisters were transferred to the outer position, understandably. The gun mounts were redesigned to require smaller blisters in the wing tops to accommodate the feeder motors, and there was even more room for fuel than earlier wings. Lastly, the wings were able to have longer elliptical high-altitude, or shorter clipped tips fitted instead of the traditional tips, the resulting shorter wingspan giving the aircraft a faster roll-rate that would be especially useful in low-altitude ‘dogfight’ combat situations where a fraction of a second faster turn could mean the difference between life and death. The Kit This is a new tooling from Airfix that shares two sprues with the new TR.9 that we reviewed and I built a few months ago. It is one of the first to have the exterior fully riveted, which is bound to split opinion, as usual. The kit arrives in a top-opening red-themed box, with a painting of most of a squadron of Spits flying high over mountainous terrain, escorting a flight of American B-25 Mitchells on a mission to bomb some unfortunate enemy target. Inside the box are four large sprues in dark grey styrene, a separately bagged clear sprue, large decal sheet, and the instruction booklet that is printed in spot colour on white paper, with full colour profiles of the decal options on the rearmost pages. Detail is excellent, extending to the usual points of interest that include the cockpit, gear bays, plus other exterior features both raised and engraved. The inclusion of a fully riveted and panel lined exterior skin is a new feature for Airfix that was first seen on the TR.9, and adds to the appeal for many modellers, as above, which coupled with Airfix’s clever engineering of their kits and excellent marketing and distribution network, makes for a better product for us modellers. Construction begins with the cockpit, and the component parts will be very familiar to anyone that has built a Spitfire before, starting with the instrument panel with separate compass and decals for both. The lower cockpit sides are made from thin ribbed skins to which controls are added, bracing across the front with a portion of the spar, then inserting the instrument panel in front on the port side. The tangle of controls for the rudder has a pair of separate foot-pedals attached to pegs at the top, which is then slid into the assembly through the front via the open frame under the main panel, adding the two-part control column to the rear end, then closing the foot well off with an angled bulkhead with a pair of scalloped bulges that give the larger-footed pilot extra space. The frame behind the pilot’s seat is next, adding the voltage regulator block behind the triangular head armour, followed by building the seat from main pan with separate side panels, plus adjuster mechanism on the starboard frame, fitting it to the seat-shaped armour that has the mounting frame attached behind it. The completed seat is then mated with the frame, and is inserted into the port side toward the rear, with a scrap diagram showing its correct location and orientation. A pair of O2 tanks with stencil decals are fixed behind the seat on the port side, with another frame slotted in behind it, and braced against the seat frame with a bar between the tops. Now you can decide whether to utilise the crew figure, which made an appearance in the Tr.9 kit, and is the front figure in my build, which you can see a photo of below. He has separate arms to fit more realistically into place on the controls, which requires their addition after the figure’s main part is seated in the cockpit. If you elect not to use the pilot, you’ll need to pick up some seatbelts to make your cockpit more accurate and realistic. The front pilot in this Spitfire Tr.9 cockpit is included in this boxing, and is shown by way of an example - he's armless Before the fuselage can be closed around the cockpit, you should make the decision whether to pose the canopy open or closed, as the sills need to be removed for the closed option. Fortunately, Airfix have included two jigs for the sides that allow you to cut the necessary parts of the sills away without issue, providing you don’t forget and glue the jigs in place in a moment of insanity or memory lapse. To pose the canopy open, the access door is cut out along the thinned lines, as shown on the instructions, with a replacement part provided on the sprue, noting that during WWII, the crowbar was bare metal, and only post-WWII it became bright red, which is essential if you want to avoid risking pillory from purists. Another piece of equipment is added to the moulded-in ribbing inside the fuselage on the starboard coaming area, and a filler cap is inserted in front of the windscreen before the completed cockpit can then be trapped between the two fuselage halves, which is when we see a new engineering decision that will lead to a better joint on the cowling over the Merlin engine. Instead of moulding the bisected by the fuselage joint, it has been created as a separate part that is given the correct shape and form by using sliding moulds, resulting in fine seamlines that need little clean-up, and shouldn’t reappear like many Spitfire cowling seams have in the past, a hauntingly common occurrence to which many can attest. Each elevator panel is made from upper and lower skins, slotting into the tail on either side, adding a full-span flying surface across the concave trailing edge, and trapping it in position with an insert in the centre. This allows the modeller to deflect it as they wish, adding the rudder behind, which can also be deflected for a more candid look to the finished model. The lower wings are full-span out to the tip-joint frames, and have a pair of boxy radiator housings inserted after fixing the cores front and rear inside them, gluing the cooling flap to the rear, which can be set open or closed, whichever you prefer. Flipping the lower wing over, a pair of circular bay walls are added to the cut-outs, linking them with a pair of parts that perform the dual task of bay sides whilst acting as spars to keep the dihedral of the wings from sagging. A circular light is embedded in the lower wing toward the trailing edge under the fuselage, then it can be mated with the fuselage, gluing the upper wings over the top after the event, and installing the ailerons in their cut-outs near the tips. I made the mistake of joining the upper wings before installing the fuselage on my Tr.9, and made a fair amount of work for myself by doing so. Please feel free to learn from my mistake. One decal option requires the removal of the wingtips from the upper wings before mating, to be replaced by clear clipped-tips that will leave wingtip lights clear once painted. You have the option for wheels-up or down with this kit, the easiest option being in-flight, requiring the installation of the fixed tail-wheel under the rudder, and a custom set of main bay doors that have spacers moulded-in, which prevent the parts from dropping into the bays, and give enough space for the simplified wheels to attach to the integrated axles. To model the Mk.IXe on the ground, a pair of struts are made with separate scissor-links and captive bay doors, both inserting into the bays and locating securely in position with the help of some sensible engineering that makes a strong joint. The wheels are moulded as tyres that have block tread (more typical of post-war use) moulded-in along with the rear hub, adding the front hub before installing them on the stub axles at the lower end of the leg. While the model is inverted, an L-shaped pitot probe it glued under the port wing, a pair of small hooks are installed between the radiator housings, and another antenna is fitted vertically under the starboard side. Attention moves back to the fuselage, concentrating on the nose and cockpit to finish off. The six-stack fishtail exhausts are moulded on the same sprue as a set of tubular stacks, so ensure you fit the correct option before proceeding. Each set comprises two parts that hold three stacks each for extra detail, interleaving together and hiding the mating surfaces inside the cowling after they have been inserted into the slots in the sides of the nose. The four-bladed prop is moulded as a single part that is bracketed by the spinner and back-plate, which is placed against another plate that is skewered by a stepped pin that should allow the blades to spin if you are careful with the glue. The assembly is then glued into a cup that slides into an oversized hole in the front of the nose, again being careful with the glue to leave the blades mobile. As mentioned earlier, the canopy can be posed open or closed, and by now that decision should have been made to ensure the correct actions have been taken. To have the canopy open, the windscreen and fixed aft section are first glued in place, fitting the opener in the retracted position as shown on the diagrams, and fixing the new open door hinged down from the bottom on the port side of the fuselage that should have been cut out earlier. If closing the cockpit, a small section of the front cockpit sill should have been removed using the jigs supplied earlier in the build, allowing the combined opener and fixed aft section to be glued in place over the cut-out. A circular rear-view mirror is placed atop the windscreen, with an antenna post behind it to compete the model. Markings There are three decal options included on the large sheet, one in RAF markings, plus two overseas operators. From the box you can build one of the following: No.43 Sqn., (A Flight), P/O Alan G Eduards (Aus), Ravenna, Italy, March/April 1945 No.5 Eskadrille, Royal Danish Air Force, Air Base Karup, mid-Jutland, Denmark 1947 SM26 (ex-PV189), Brustem Advanced Pilot School (Ecole de Pilotage Avancée – EPA), Brustem, Belgium 1952 Decals are by Cartograf, which is a guarantee of good registration, sharpness and colour density, with a thin gloss carrier film cut close to the printed areas. Conclusion The Mark 9 is seen by many as the definitive Merlin-engined Spitfire, and it is extremely popular amongst aviation fans and modellers alike. This new tool brings the quality of Airfix’s offering up to modern standards, with plenty of detail, options, and disparate marking choices. Highly recommended. Review sample courtesy of

Rejoining the main line with this City Of Truro kit. Bought on 26 July this year, ironically at GWR's diesel gala. Cursory check of parts at the time, was followed by a full inventory when I arrived at home. 1976 boxart. City class of locomotive, built at Swindon in 1903. It served GWR until 1931, and is currently preserved at STEAM musuem in Swindon. Yes - I've been there. Instructions, with Airfix's description of this locomotive. I've recently read a magazine article about the 100mph claim. It was a debunk - this loco just isn't powerful enough. Assembly, page 1, and page 2, then final details, and colours. Parts. Hard, Airfix black plastic, so good definition of detail. This one is flash-free.