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Merry Christmas! After the headlong rush of the run-up to Christmas, now for my favourite but...relaxing in front of the fire with a new project. I recently came across this for £12 in the model shop in the Victorian Arcade in Norwich. There were quite a few vintage boxes there- perhaps a brother modeller has gone to the great modelling bench in the sky? Complete minus a couple of the decals, it even still has the wax paper for the decal sheet and Airfix club flyer. Buster? Valiant? Echoes of nearly 45 years ago... Now, the Whirlwind is a seriously interesting plane, and I've built this kit twice, once in the early 80s aged about 11, and once more recently. It was the box that jumped off at me; I can well remember it in the model shop in Whitley Bay when I used to visit my grand parents, and I just had to have it. It's badged as new, and given this toolng emerged in 1978 that makes it only 7 years younger than me. I have a real thing for these Airfix boxes; my favourite -and now framed- is the 1/72 Spitfire mk1 from I think the same year. The older I get, the more evocative these unassuming objects become, and it's not just a kit but a moment back to the past. This is even more apparent when looking st the one page instruction sheet. Remembering those M numbered paint references! The kit itself is classic late 70s...simple and clean. Given that this a first pressing, there is not a speak of flash or mould damage. I have read some negative comments about the accuracy of this kit, and also comments made about the Special Hobby kit, but the latter runs at about £25 on certain auction websites, and there seems to be some rather exaggerated detail on the wings. Comparing the Airfix kit against the Mike Keep plans in the Warpaint special (I've no idea how accurate these actually are and given that there's not an airframe left it will be difficult to check) but I will say this; the parts line up very well against the plans perhaps a mm short in terms of the fuselage but generally very pleasing. I like this kit for the same reason I still like the old tool Airfix Spitfire Mk1...pleasing accurate in mould line in a way that captured the spirit of the real thing very well, and without a million parts to slow things up. That said I do intend to do some scratch building to dress things up a little, mainly in the cockpit; I will also add Barracuda wheels and a Falcon vac canopy because I want to pose it open. I am also going to add a Flightpath trolley acc and a CMK resin figure to make a vignette inspired by this very evocative picture. I love the combination of the sandbag revetment among the trees, but that is rather beyond me! I may even scratch build a couple of bomb racks if I can find some appropriate bombs in the spares box. I haven't yet decided on the paint scheme or squadron(either of them!)...decals will be from the spares box and Xtradecal codes and serials. The Warpaint will be my reference for all this. Time to have some fun!

This is the old Hobbycraft kit with a lot of surgery to rectify the many mistakes in shape and detail of this now old buddy. I did follow the great article of my now deceased friend Joël Ducasse, a master Modeller. The plane belongs to one of the best French Ace of the Battle of France, Camille Plubeau from the GC II/4, "Les petits Poucets" he is credited with 13 tallies. Certainly one of the best Armée de l'Air pilot. 43A6D012-05EF-468E-9D05-747EB3BD06F2_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 432119A4-2C96-408D-8EB9-43DD2DBC459A_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 83615DA1-8F06-4F7B-B8AA-723EF8D89E47_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr D26CF591-C3E0-42CB-90B0-193227DAAC1F_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr C8E693D8-5422-46C4-9651-B4F1F12D6A33_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 7C684BA9-F403-4FC4-AADA-0394AC642288_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr DF0CAE4E-08C7-4A94-ABA7-A61E24229027_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 5DDED52E-064E-4989-8E2F-4760041C6781_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 4AE40519-2B93-4519-8441-DD666F114ACD_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr 54FF8FFE-388B-4810-8C84-4B26B84D7D62_1_201_a by jean Barby, sur Flickr

Having had such a long time away from aircraft modelling I'd forgotten just how addictive it can become. Since I last posted here in late 2021 I've moved the small on-line fishing tackle company I own to new premises and, as a result, now have a large loft space available to keep everything away from family life (aside from the display shelves).........I even have a beer fridge up here.....🤣. Anyway, I've got rather unhealthily obsessed with building various models of Spitfire, having started off helping my eldest grandson Logan build one this time last year. I've also become (equally) unhealthily obsessed with eBay, which is where I picked up the first of these examples, an Airfix 1:72 Spitfire PR.19. I built it out of the box and wasn't too concerned with what appear to be slightly oversized fuselage roundels or the rather sparse cockpit and wheel well interiors. For the record it assembled quickly although it needed some plastic card shims at the wing roots, and got sprayed with an acrylic coat of Vallejo Grey surface primer followed by Tamiya XF-83 Grey on the topside and Vallejo 71.109 Faded PRU Blue everywhere else. My customary coat of Pledge Multisurface Polish (now applied with a broad brush) gave a good surface for the final stages. Not being too unkind here, the kit decals were an utter pig to apply and required copious amounts, and repeated applications, of MicroSol to get them conforming. A little Flory Dark Dirt wash to pick up the panel lines and a final sprayed coat of Vallejo Acrylic Matt Varnish applied very thin to give a sort of satin finish and that was that. Second up is slightly more adventurous (for me this time round anyway), being an Airfix 1:72 Spifire Mk.Ia (picked up for a fiver at Aldi before Christmas) and converted into a PR Mk.Ig. The main reason for this was (to me) the stunning pink colour scheme which I though looked rather good. I was also intrigued by the odd placement of the wing roundels. 😀 Anyway, I quickly realised the canopy as it stood would be entirely wrong so spent twice what the kit cost buying a Falcon vac-form Spitfire canopy set to get the PR hood with side blisters. I've consoled myself that eventually, a good many of these canopies will get used so it's an investment......if I say it loud enough. I've had a bit of prior experience with vacformed aircraft but usually in a larger scale so I found the canopy a bit of a fiddle. I ended up just using the middle section and aside from a couple of niggling errors, I'm happy with it now. I drilled out three camera ports, one on the port rear fuselage and two on the underside wing rear section and backed them with plastic card. These ports were sprayed black. The rest of the build was largely uneventful. For some reason I didn't bother with a primer but gave the airframe a couple of thin coats of Vallejo 71.408 PRU Pink followed by Pledge and decals from the AIMS range. Agsin, the usual Flory panel wash and Vallejo Matt Varnish to finish.....oh and some Micro Kristal Klear applied to the camera ports to give the impression of glass. I'll be doing another coat of that at some point I think. All in all, I'm pleased with what I've done with both of them although well aware that the canopy work still needs improvement. Thanks to involving myself actively with you b******* I appear to have developed a significant 'stash' so thanks a bundle for that 🤣, and amongst it all are two Xtrakit Spitfire F.22/F24s to be shortly joined by AZ Models FR Mk.IXc and Mk.VII. I've an eye on a Mk.XVIe (bubble canopy type), a Mk.VIII and a couple of Mk.XIVs, all of which seem likely to be AZ as well. If anybody has a Pegasus Spiteful going begging, please feel free to get in touch! 🤣 Then there's Seafires..........hmmmmmm.....🤨

Good day all! Another one from the past when GWH kit did not exist and Monogram was the only game in town. Rescribing panel lines, a Falcon canopy and the Eduard photo etch did help to up grade the kit. A plane from the VT-6 from the Enterprise equipped with two eggs for the raid on Wake on the 24 Feb 42. Best regards. C49EA80D-D153-49EC-928F-50F14787F8AB by jean Barby, sur Flickr DD4B8E8A-458E-428A-BA48-0A5812390FFA by jean Barby, sur Flickr 0F8E0CC3-D85C-49AA-AE01-6702C89EF7A5 by jean Barby, sur Flickr BE1DA953-137E-4560-A533-A98C017F6685 by jean Barby, sur Flickr 1DAD6DB2-8549-439F-B180-BA84974E5D28 by jean Barby, sur Flickr