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Hi everybody, my latest completion: a Spitfire VIII, 417 Sqn RCAF in Italy. The kit is the Eduard Weekend-edition (although it took me much longer than a weekend). The kit is gorgeous and a pleasure to build, but I guess you know this already. There are not even expensive nowadays (in Euro at least). The decals are from various Xtradecal sheets. I had wanted to built AN-M ever since I first saw a picture of it literally decades ago in "Spitfire at War". The gun barrels are after-market brass items, but I don't think they make a big difference. The plastic parts from the kit are probably just as good. Thanks for looking!

In a fit of misguided Spitfire enthusiasm I bought the Special Hobby Mk.XII with V1. It's a bit late for me to start in this GB, and I've never made a 1/48 Spitfire. But I really fancy a wheels up Spitfire and V1 combination and I was impressed with the pilot! AFAIK this isn't a new tool and has a few accuracy issues. So I checked the fuselage against the 1/48 plan in the Valiant Wings book Part 2 - Griffon engined Spitfires. The kit fuselage was 8mm too long ! Then I checked the scale of the plan - which is 1:50 . Compared against the Scale Planes drawing by Fred Spring, which looks excellent but I have no real idea of how accurate it is, the kit is short in the fuselage by 1mm and the shape conforms quite well, certainly better than the Airfix Mk.XII. Panel lines are more restrained than Airfix with some interesting raised panels on the rear fuselage, maybe this is right? So, this will hopefully be a fairly rapid OOB build. Any comments, tips etc - most welcome! Cheers,

Hi Folks, I’ve been working my way through the new Tamiya Spitfire MkI and using top notch masks I planned to do Spitfire X4330 QJ-G. Believing this to be one of Geoffrey Wellums I have subsequently found that it is a 616 Sqn a/c. The other option in the mask set is K9998 ‘K’ which is believed to be Geoffreys first spitfire. My questions is by the time Geoffrey was flying it in September 1940 how much would K9998 look like a later Spitfire MkI with: armoured windscreen streamlined aerial mast voltage regulator behind pilots head armoured panel on fuel tank rear view mirror bent landing gear handle removed etc etc? I have found some comments online of someone asking what variant of spitfire he flew and he describes it has having the pole type aerial mast and no IFF but at what point would these mods occur on K9998 (if they did at all). Presumably he would have the armoured windscreen by Sep. I ask as the cockpit of the Tamiya kit I have made, I have left out the older style landing gear pumping handle and I have the voltage reg behind the pilots head. thanks Nick

I have found an old thread here on the forums discussing the walk way lines. From what I understand in post #8, you should find mirror images of the walk way lines on Spits with 2 radiators. I see this pattern on MK V Spits all the time in online searches. From what I understand, they are incorrect? (the MK Vs only have 1 radiator)?

North American F-51D Mustang Korean War 1/48 Special Hobby 48102 Supermarine Seafire Mk.II Torch & Avalanche 1/48

I have been slowly working on a collection of different Spitfire Marks. I have been ignoring the "lesser Marks" (e.g., VI, VII, XII) because kits don't seem to be readily available. Well, I found the italeri Mk. VI and learned how to make a VII using the Quickboost conversion set. Which brings me to the XII, which is one of my favorite marks and (except for a Czech resin kit, and an old xtrakit release) seems to have no 1/72 kits of it. I read someone had kitbashed a 1/48 scale Mk. XII (maybe before the Airfix or Special Hobby kits were available), by using a Mk. V with a Mk. XIV cowl (shortened). But reading about the various spitfire kits out there, I realize that fuselage diameters can vary, which makes mating the two fuselage parts problematic. so, a couple questions: Has anyone kitbashed a Mk. XII in 1/72 before? If yes, what are the brands of kits you recommend? There is a blister on top of the cowl just behind the propeller, any suggestions how to make it? If I could find some scale drawings I could probably make it from epoxy putty. I know there were some conversion kits (Brigade and Paragon) that I look for on flea bay whenever I remember, but I've never seen them available. Hyperscale had an article from 2007 about a kitbashed 1/72 Mk. XII and the author detailed what kits he used, but I'm not sure they're all still available and he left out some important details! Any ideas are welcome!

Dear Fellow Modellers The cut down later Spitfires with bubble canopies have a potent and beautiful look all of their own. This is Eduard's elegant post-war MkXVI with their markings for 501 Squadron at Filton (Bristol). Nice that they somehow held onto their sky European theatre band! I opted for the easy life with their one piece resin cowling and Barracuda resin pilot door. I think being based at Filton does qualify for it being placed in my usual hanger setting! Figures are from Gunthwaite if I remember correctly Hope you like it? Regards Andrew

Just curious.. While working on 4 Spits at the same time, and checking the DFS camouflage pattern, I noticed that the DG patch on the starboard side beneath the cockpit appears to change. Most profiles end up with an almost horizontal demarcation on the 'lobe' between DG & OG like this: In fact, many pictures show that as well: But there is also this type, which you almost never see on any paint instruction or mask set: (CBAF apron, ready for delivery - 1944 thereabouts from the Nx*** & Px*** serials) Is this the 'freehand' option from a slip of the masking mats or an AP we missed?

This is my second finish in about 20 years. It’s the nice little Airfix Spitfire Ia starter set A68206 made as DW-K. My eyesight sure has deteriorated in that time! The Fundecals website has some info about DW-K and inspired some interesting variances from the Airfix instructions and decals. Cutting the kit decals to size and researching Sky Blue No.1 for the underside made things a bit more interesting. Whether my interpretation is accurate is debatable, but I really enjoyed researching and making the model after a long abscence from building. Of course I’ve bought dozens of kits in those years! This is my first attempt at weathering using black-basing and oil dot filters. I used the double action on my airbrush for the first time to try the black-basing and a bit of post-shading. It sort of worked but I’ve got a lot to learn. I take my hat off to those who can do mottling at 1/72 scale. My cockpit was a bit crude, but you can’t see much through the six inch thick canopy. The canopy fit wasn’t great and I bodged it as best I could but its still a bit too wide. Even the paint thickness makes a difference to the fit. Despite not using superglue anywhere near the canopy it still fogged somehow. The main flaw in the kit as far as I can tell is that it is lacking in dihedral. My solution was to narrow the cockpit frames and file the fuselage wing root down a bit. I used a lego jig to hold the wings in place while the glue dried and more by luck than good judgement it came out just right. Camo on:- Decals on:- Some more pics of the completed model:- The starter kit doesn’t have walkway or stencil decals so I scanned those from my Airfix Mk.I/IIa and printed them on clear decal film. It worked OK but my printer is low resolution and they came out a bit too thick and dark to my eyes. Some of them got damaged by my oil wash. I think that may be that I didn’t leave enough time for the Tamiya X-22 to dry. I reduced the diameter of the fuselage roundels and the height of the fuselage codes on the basis of what Fundekals say and the evidence of photos of that particular aircraft. One thing I failed to do was create a breakout panel for the canopy. I just couldn’t think of a way of doing it. Any ideas Britmodellers? My printer is too low resolution to create a decal for it. I used Uschi superfine thread for the aerial wire. Paints were Mr Color Aqueous for the underside, Tamiya and MRP for the upper surface camo, and Tamiya acrylic varnishes. Here it is next to my previous build; Heller’s XVI built as a SAAF Mk.IX. I’ve another three of these kits to make so please feel free to comment and criticise I’ve a lot to learn! Happy modelling, regards, Keith.

Here are some images for the kit and scheme I’ll be building. This will straight from the box and I’ll be finishing it in the markings of 443 Squadron RCAF. This is the machine on the box art and I’m looking forwards to getting started Steve

Hi guys, kinda new to britmodeller and I thought I’d give it a go. Here’s my last finished build of a Spitfire in 1/72. It’s a really nice kit and only took me about a weekend to complete. The kit was brush painted with revell aqua and was weathered with an Ammo by mig aircraft wash. The display base is made by Coastal kits.

I just now found some film footage I think many of you will like. Scenes of Spitfires being uncrated and erected on Gibraltar, and very interesting North African footage of Hurricane Mk IId's, I think from No. 6 Squadron, as well as what looks like Spitfire Vc's from No, 2 Squadron, SAAF, plus some good FAA footage. Too bad a lot of the serials on the Spitfires were not visible! Mike

It is with some trepidation that I enter with my first build on Britmodeller. I have viewed the site content for several years and done some posts, but I have not been bold enough to try to build something. I have built a lot of 1/72 Airfix Spitfire 1s over the last few years and so this might be a goer. Not like my recent Airfix Lancaster build which was not ideal (actually very frustrating) and which I am happily donating to the small children next door. They will wreak suitable vengeance. So everything starts with the box and sprues… And the bits of some aftermarket (I don’t think I will use the vacform canopy, that way madness lies, for me at least). Every time I have tried to use a Vacform it hasn’t worked, at all. I have always liked the look of the first Spitfires with 19 Squadron in 1938 and I will do the flat canopy closed as that highlights it ‘pre war ness’. It also means you cannot see the cockpit detail and I don’t have to use the vacform (which is all good). An open flat canopy model would just look like a usual Spitfire model, I want the flatness to be there. I will use the old ILIAD Design decals or transfers. The a/c is also featured on pages 7 and 8 of the new Supermarine Spitfire Mk 1 in RAF Service by Wingleader books. As an aside it looks a good reference book and has joined my other Spitfire reference books (I only have around 15 Spitfire reference books which is not up there really in Britmodeller terms. Well that is the easy stuff. Now to actually do something...

Well I am back....after nearly 2 years away from the bench, given the current situation I have a bit more time on my hands.... Where did I go? Well its a bit of a story, a combination of things...my last GB was the Hawker Siddeley in June 2018 - I didn't complete my 2 x 1/32 hawks as I went off to Russia 18 world Cup with work. On my return and after some leave, my boss and Head of the team told me he was moving on to News UK, leaving me to step up as acting Head. My younger son, then playing grass roots football in goal was also asked to go to Ipswich Town for some training, ending up at the centre of excellence, playing on goal, a year up at U14. So a new busy job plus 3 nights at footie training plus games at the weekend left little time and I drifted away from the hobby.... I applied for the position and with luckily got the job...football continues at a pace, as does work, time away, family life etc ...then COVID 19 has struck us all....leaving e working from home rather than a 2hr each way commute to London, all football off until at least early July, strange work tempo...what to do? All the 'Man Jobs' quickly completed, including the garage where my work bench area was...... So here I am, I will need to remember and brush up on a lot of skills, check my kit, paints, filler etc.... Now the time has come! I had this little 1/72 Spit in the stash, thought it worth being a bit of a mule to recover my skills on, I am normally a 1/48 or 1/32 builder, so will be a bit fiddly, but hopefully straightforward... Standard pre build pics.... UK or Swedish.....will have to choose....

Another 'wif' assembled in the middle of other builds. I was inspired by an artist's picture of a lend-lease Spitfire which I mistakenly thought had a top coat of white and Russian green (black paint on top of green paint). Halfway through the top coat, I sort of changed my mind and tried to darken the grey. The decals were gifted to me by a fellow builder here Reini78 - thank you once again!

Dear All, In the process of building the Airfix MK1a Spitfire and Arma Hurricane Mk1 in 72nd scale as part of my Battle of Britain project but as usual my biggest problem will be obtaining a realistic finish to the exhaust manifolds. I'm not after any trade secrets but just a good method to avoid them simply looking obviously just gun metal or brick red! Kind Regards Colin. Ps. any ideas on when the much anticipated Revell Ju88A-1 will be issued?

Hi folks, Patrice has kindly let me join with this beast (apols for the odd orientation; haven't downloaded a photo alteration app to my phone): Yep it's the old Otaki boxing, originally from the '70s. Simple kits and some of the detail is a bit rudimentary, but generally acknowledged to be pretty accurate in outline. Here's (sort of) what you get in the kit: Nice plastic with good fit and -amazingly for the '70s - very fine recessed panel lines. This will be an 'improvement' build, making use of Eduard spares, some AM goodies and scratch building. Why not build an Eduard Spit instead and save myself the trouble? No idea; just 'ornery, I suppose. Here's the AM: . . . and here are some Eduard spares I'd forgotten I could use before buying the AM <sigh>. Some of you may have noted that I'd already started. More on that soon - plus a discussion on what Mark this kit actually represents Rgds Martin

Hi, During lockdown, like most of us, I have made a few models, this gave me a change to hone my modelling skills and try my hand at modeling aircraft. Not my normal genre of model making, usual make restoration dioramas, figures & rust vehicles. I have put them all here, to save starting three individual threads. So here they are my three 1/32 Spitfires. Tamiya Revell - "Aces High" Revell MK. IXc clipped wing Stay safe Richard

Hooray - I can open the kit at last! I bought the kit in 2006 when it came out. It looks really nice. Good panel lines, lovely gull wing profile and the wings look great with very good detail in the wheel wells. But as you may be able to see, the canopy hasn't aged very well - bright yellow! So I invested in the Falcon Spitfire canopy set (No. 41) which has a prototype canopy - but only one, so I'd better be careful cutting it out! The kit decals weren't quite in register, so I got the Xtradecal set 075 which covers the prototype... which also aren't in perfect register . OK, better get started!

Hi, I am new to the scale modeling. Currently I am working on three different projects (2 1/72 Eduard RAF Spitfires and a 1/48 Kinetic HAF F 16). I am pretty familiar with modern jets (camo and variants), but I have almost no idea on WWII airplanes. So, as the theme says, I would like to ask what finish did the RAF Spitfires have MATT or Gloss? I am building two Mk XVIs one with PRU scheme and one on standard day fighter scheme. As you can see I am trying to paint the airplanes with different wear grades. The day fighter was in service for more time.

I'm not sure if decal news are allowed in this forum? @Homebee please delete/hide if unwanted 🙂. Anyway, this should prove to be popular! V-P https://www.kitsworld.co.uk/index.php?GOTO=630&PICFILE=630&STKNR=630&STRH=&ORDN=&RNZ=730550&THISVIEWMODE=2&SUPPLIER=&FINDRETR=&WIDENET=&CATEGORY=5&SUB=8&VWW=1

My build will be Spitfire XXI LA200 ‘DL-E’ of 91 Squadron from the Special Hobby boxing. One of the Thoughts that has stuck with me are those that died immediately after VE or VJ Day after surviving the war, and whilst doing my research I came across the story of the death of Geoffrey Kay from 91 Squadron. My contribution will be the aircraft he flew and died in on 12 May 1945 trying to copy a manoeuvre in a Mk XXI from a display by Alex Henshaw to 91 Sqn at Ludham the Day before. Some background from this Page: https://www.edp24.co.uk/news/research-reveals-tragic-spitfire-deaths-just-days-after-war-was-over-1-3945922

This is a collection of all the small scale models myself and David (the husband) have built so far. These were all pretty hard to photograph being so small so i hope you don't mind my less than perfect photography skills (plus I should have dusted a couple first!) Lets begin with the Eduard spitfire, made by David. It was painted using alcad and tamiya acrylics. This model goes together like a dream and wing of this aircraft is phenomenally thin! Next up is the Stuka. This is the older eduard boxing with the snake (I presume the one coming out soon is the same kit just with different decals). This was also a great fit, although the photoetch and the flaps on the wings were fiddly and required a little bit of an extra file to make sure that they were staying put. The splotches on the undercarriage legs are done freehand. More to come....

As something of a Coronavirus lockdown special effort, I recently did something I’ve been thinking about attempting for months: A Mk.XIV high-back conversion kit bash. I built this Mk.XIVe high-backed Spitfire in 1/48 scale using Eduard’s Mk.VIII kit as the base fuselage, Airfix’s new FR Mk.XIV bubble-top kit for the Griffon engine, tail and radiators, and Eduard’s Mk.XVI bubble top kit for an ‘e’ wing to complete Spitfire MN-F (tail number RB169) as flown by 350 Squadron, RAF from October 1944. Decals were from Xtradecal and the Mk.VIII and Mk.XIV kits. This was a really in depth effort and I’m really not confident with filler, putty and rescribing but was surprised and delighted by how nice she looks in the end result! I’ve wanted to do a Griffon Spitfire for ages but wanted a proper wartime bird that saw large scale service and don’t really like the bubble-canopy and cut down fuselage look of Airfix’s fighter-reconaissance Mk.XIV. There are some older Mk.XIV kits out there (e.g Academy) but they are extremely inaccurate shape-wise so I didn’t want to go for any of them. The Eduard Spitfires are the best out there in terms of shape and surface detail (at least in my opinion) in 1/48 scale – hence the approach chosen here to use as much Eduard plastic as possible and take what parts I needed from the Airfix FR Mk.XIV bubble canopy kit. For those wondering about the wastefulness implied – the Mk.XVI kit comes with two different ‘e’ wing sprues representing early and late modifications so I was able to take one for this project and will still be able to build the Mk.XVI in full later on.

Hi all, Having recently joined Britmodeller I thought I'd take the plunge... When I started this it was to be an OOB/weekend build (how many times have you said that?) and of course it escalated. I wanted to do a WW2 Spitfire XIX and one from RAF Benson, the home of WW2 photographic reconnaissance, so it will be RM643/Z using the Extradecal set X72105. According to Scalemates, Airfix released the kit in 2009. It's a nice looking but simple kit. Accuracy is reputed to be good and the panel lines are OK. It got generally got good reviews and is supposed to be an easy build. The fit is generally good, but as you can see, there are a few gaps that needed filling and the wings/fuselage join needed a quite bit of work. The filler on the fuselage sides behind the cockpit isn't Airfix's fault, the fuselage needed raising slightly to model the non-pressurised canopy. As it's going to be an early unpressurised version based on the Mk.XIV, this led to an error. I'd used the Pavla cockpit (C 72085) which is well detailed (the kit's cockpit was a bit bare) but the Pavla resin cockpit isn't easy, much of the kit's cockpit detail and sidewall needs to be removed. I do like to make work for myself. But once done, the Pavla cockpit fitted surprisingly well. But it has the solid bulkhead for pressurisation behind the cockpit and I'm assuming the Mk.XIV fuselage wouldn't have had that. By the time I'd realised that, it was a bit late. The kit's wheel wells are completely bare, so I added a bit of filling and plastic card. But what colour should they be? No real concensus on Britmodeller or elsewhere. Photographers with colour film had better subjects waiting during WW2! Cheers!