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Hello all, After my bit of silliness with the Mustang, I'm back to a serious build again. I was recently asked if I would build a replica of the two seat Spitfire T.9 named Elizabeth, which can often be seen in the summer months fulfilling peoples' bucket list ambitions by getting them in the air in a Spit, flying from Headcorn or Sywell. Here she is, photographed by the talented Ian Amis: Ultimately this model will end up in the hands of Keith Perkins, the owner of Elizabeth, so I'd better make a good job of it! I used the AZ Models T.8/9 kit in 1/72, which is pretty much the only game in town for two seaters unless you have the 1/48 Brigade Models conversion set (I have 🙂) or are willing to do a LOT of scratchbuilding in 1/32 and convert a single seater yourself (I did 🙂). It's a short run kit with all the shortcomings that that implies - dubious fit, no locating pins or tabs and numerous moulding flaws such as an ejector post mark right on the fuselage behind the rear canopy. The boxing I had also only came with Dutch or Irish markings, so I had to buy an aftermarket set of decals for a Mk.IX Spitfire to get the right stencils and roundels for an RAF machine. Typically, the day after I'd bought these, AZ brought out a new boxing of the kit, with markings for several of the currently airworthy warbirds! At Telford, I also bought a set of resin wheels of the three spoke variety, as most modern warbirds use these post war wheels these days...not Elizabeth though, oh no! She's still wearing her four spokers, which are provided in the kit anyway. Should have checked, really... Also, having checked my decal stash, none of the RAF fonts used for squadron codes matched the decidedly non standard font used on Elizabeth, so working from photos, a friend of mine was good enough to use his profile cutter to custom cut some masks for the RB*E for me - thanks Nige! The canopies on this kit are pretty thick and there is no option for posing them open, so although there is a fair bit of detail in the cockpit virtually none of it will be visible after the lids go on. I kept the interior detailing basic, using the kit decals for the instrument panels, and confining the painting to some black details and a dark wash, although I did add some seatbelts from masking tape: The airframe goes together pretty quickly, but as the kit this was based on was a clipped wing Spit, the kit's wingtips have to be carefully removed and the elliptical wingtips glued on. As mentioned before, this short run kit has no tabs or pins, and the wingtips are a straight butt joint onto the wing. There's hardly any land for them to attach to, and as a result this will be a weak point on the model. I'll have to inform the owner not to pick it up by the wingtip, or he'll be looking at a pile of wreckage with a chagrined expression on his face - not for the first time either! The most laborious bit of the build is the filling and sanding specified in the instructions...the cartridge ejection chutes under the wings have to be filled and sanded flush without losing the surrounding detail, the cannon and machine gun ports have to be filled (I used plastic rod glued into the holes and sanded flush) the two halves of the carburettor air intake scoop are a terrible fit needing putty right down the middle, the rear glazed portion of the front canopy isn't deep enough, so I had to build up the fuselage it attaches to with plastic strip, and the rear windscreen stands so wildly proud of the fuselage it almost seems to be a different scale! The rear canopy is a pretty abysmal fit all round really, and a lot of scraping down, carving to fit and puttying was used to get it anywhere near fitting. Still, mustn't grumble... 😉 Once the inevitable rounds of putty-sand-repeat had been dealt with, a primer coat was used to detect any further surface blemishes - and there were a few! Then it was time for a bit of head scratching - Elizabeth proudly bears her name in curly cursive script on the side of the port cowling, in white - trying to do white decals is the bane of a modeller's life, as you can't print white on a printer. I considered using white decal film, but experiences with this in the past have showed that the stuff is so thick it'd look like the name had been riveted onto the airframe attached to a steel plate! My solution was to take a photograph of the name, reduce it to the right size by trial and error, and then print it on clear decal film. The appropriate spot on the model could then be painted white, the decal attached to allow the white to show through as the lettering, and then the non white bits touched up with the right camo colour. Sounds complicated, but it worked ok. I also did the same for the squadron crest and the two kill markings below the windscreen: You can also see in the above photo the masks on the fuselage sides - I painted the area Sky for the theatre band and the letters, applied the masks, and then applied the camo on top. Again, the camo had to be patterned as best I could from reference photos, as no two modern restorations are the same, and differ from standard wartime plans. I was trying to get the demarcations to pass over the canopies in the right places, through the squadron codes in the right places, and so on. Easier said than done, but the little details matter. All in all, when the masking came off, I was satisfied enough, with just one or two areas needing touch ups: Then, just as the last touch ups had been done to my satisfaction, the wingtip fell off. It was bound to happen sooner or later, and it did. Ooh, such expletives. It's a good job I live alone, as the the sort of language emanating from my workroom would frighten children and animals, tarnish silver and bruise fruit. ^+^£%$%* butt joints! One invisible repair and respray later, and the airframe was ready for a gloss coat ready for decals. That's how it stands at the moment, all shiny: More when it happens, Dean