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I've got @Giorgio N to blame for this really. We were discussing elsewhere on BM recently the merits of the AZ Spitfire Trainer kits and whether there are better ways to skin this particular cat. That prompted me to dig out my own attempt to produce a two-seater, using the AZ kit, but the more I looked at it, the more work it looked like it needed, and even then the result would be less than stellar. I felt I was going in the wrong direction, and began looking instead at the obvious alternative route: to combine the relevant bits of the AZ two-seater with a better base kit, namely the Eduard. As I had an Eduard Mk VIII waiting in the stash, I began marking up the potential points of surgery and with some trepidation, commenced cutting. Here's the starting point: I'd already had a go at lengthening the too-short AZ fuselage, and extending the span of the wings: And here's the surgery in progress. AZ plastic light grey, Eduard darker. I decided to reuse the Eduard panels below the windscreen, and the AZ parts from that point aft. You can see that even with my extra 2mm added to the AZ rear fuselage, it's still shorter than the Eduard: Here I've had a first go at filling and sanding the joins, and it's looking reasonably decent. I avoided cutting along the main Eduard panel lines as I didn't want to lose that fine detail and I also wanted to use them as reference points. On the wings I've sanded off the cannon bulges and filled and sanded the gun ports and ejector chutes, as well as the wingtip ID lamps. I've also started on the interior, moving the Eduard cockpit sidewalls forward and building up the sidewalls of the rear cockpit to match. A dry fit just to get the juices flowing: And this is what I'm aiming for. MT818/N32 in its original form after conversion to two seat comfiguration in 1946. It was the only one of its kind and still survives, not far from home. This is a colourised photo and I'm not relishing the prospect of spraying the yellow, but it's a beautìful aeroplane, and I simply have to have one. More soon I hope! Justin
