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After more than 25 years, and more moves than i can count, Tamiya Spitfire P9546 is finished. This kit is, and please excuse the Fried Chicken reference, the "Original Recipe", 1993 vintage Tamiya Mk I Spitfire. Finished in the markings of George "Grumpy" Unwin's Spitfire while assigned to 19 Squadron in the late Summer/ Early Fall of 1940. I tinkered on and off with this model over many years, but i could not really get excited about the Mk. I. It just languished on the shelf of doom, not getting finished while not getting binned either, because there really was nothing wrong with the build. With the recent releases by Airfix, Tamiya, and Eduard of more modern offerings of the Mk. I , i thought it best to finish this one off before it faded into obsolescence. To be honest i'm glad i finished it. This model served as a test bed for many new modeling techniques. But first, let me give you the executive summary. Kit: Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I, kit no. 61032 Scale: 1/48th It's British, yeah but...it's Tamiya! Aftermarket Products Used: Ultracast resin exhausts, part no. 08040; Ultracast resin seat, part no. 48020. Cockpit door (without the dreaded crowbar) on order. Decals: Select stencils taken from the new, "Extra Crispy" Tamiya Mk. I Spitfire, kit no. 60119. Insignia, Squadron Codes and Serial masked and painted. Paints: Interior: Model Master Enamels. Exterior: Tamiya acrylics, mixed by hand according to colour guidance provided by Martin Sanford, and thinned into oblivion with Mr Leveling Thinner. Mr Color GX114 Super Smooth Flat Clear used as a final finish coat. I mentioned that this project was a testbed for several new modeling techniques. So, in no particular order here they are... First test and application of mixed Tamiya Acrylic and Tamiya White Liquid Primer to create a zinc chromate type model primer First use of resin exhaust stacks (Ultracast) First use of resin cockpit seat (Ultracast) First effort at mixing almost all colours from scratch (Tamiya Acrylic) per tribal knowledge First use of Elmer's Adhesive Tack for masking Spitfire camouflage pattern First effort at painting RAF insignia using Oramask and Tamiya Masking Sheet media First use of Tamiya Masking sheet to paint squadron codes and serials First use of GSI Creos GX114 Super Smooth Flat Clear First time re positioning of Spitfire empennage control surfaces I have a saying: 95% of all model making mistakes happen in the last 5% of the build process. This would be an example of that. First off, my idea of leaving the gear legs pressed into their sockets and applying the future/water/tamiya wash in situ, led to the legs being effectively glued in place a lot earlier in the build process than i wanted. The gear leg alignment as it set up was pretty good, but not perfect. I thought it was not worth snapping the struts off in an effort to get the alignment perfect. I thought that i was doing the right thing, by installing all the clear parts in place before painting the model. This led to a foggy dust overspray getting into the aft fuselage transparency and it's proved to be impossible to remove. The good news is, the slid back cockpit hood at least distracts the eye from it somewhat. In the process of going back and touching up paint problems, i ripped up several small stencils that had to be replaced and re-finished. In the process of attaching the antenna wire to the mast, the wire, with C/A on it, landed on the aft fuselage transparency, making a bad situation worse. Finally, in an effort to attach the canopy to the fuselage with a non-fogging type glue, the excess MiG Ammo white acrylic glue that oozed out from under proved impossible to remove. So, in the end a lot of things conspired to make it sort of a S#%^show. Now, having said all of that, this kit is actually very nice. I'm by no means an expert on all of the subtle shape nuances of the Spitfire, but the kit has a relatively low parts count and excellent fit. Why Tamiya neglected to include a decal for the instrument panel is one of those "WTF?" moments in plastic modeling history. However, the kit really does not need all that much in terms of aftermarket to get it very close to contemporary standards. I would recommend this kit as an excellent beginners model. Had i said this in 1993, it would be seen as heresy. However, in light of the much better offerings now available, i strongly recommend the Spitfire newbie cut their teeth on this Mk. I before taking on the more sophisticated and complex Tamiya "Extra Crispy" and Eduard offerings. I don't have the most recent Airfix Mk I offering, so for now i'll withhold comment. The dreaded cockpit door with the crowbar you see here is strictly a placeholder, pending arrival of a replacement from Ultracast. And for my next Shelf of Doom rescue, there's this beauty which has been completely ignored since 2013... So, that is all for now. Keep your knots up, and your powder dry.

Morning Chaps I had an urge to kick off some of the inhabitants of the shelf of doom over the Christmas break, and actually managed to make some progress... AIRFIX MINI COUNTRYMAN 32nd Scale. I love these Airfix 32nd scale kits. This one is quite a challenge with all the masking and that's where it stalled on the shelf. Really the only thing wrong with the kit is the horrible tyres, but at least with this one you are able to drill out the suspension to make the front wheels positionable. Add a good dollop of mud and weh hey Was very peeved to notice that the decal around the front headlight had moved... Ill sort it out at some point... AIRFIX JAGUAR XKR GT3 - 32nd Scale Another in this lovely series. This builds up really nicely, until you get to the decals. To say they put up a fight is an understatement and the ones on the rear panels being the toughest to get to behave. One tip I picked up, cut the roof decals into three (windscreen, roof, rear window) so that you can get all the decalling done on the body and sealed before you put the windows in. I added a little bit of CF decals here and there on this one. AIRFIX MASERATI MERAK 24th Scale The Zimmer frame really came out for this one as it has been lounging around on the shelf forever. This was originally a Gunze Sangyo kit and it still says so on the sprues and decals. It doesn't go together too badly, certainly shows its age in the interior (still tooled for motorised) but its just about the only Merak there is. The one big thing with this kit is that the wheels are just too small and make it look a bit silly and the decals exploded when they hit the water. Still, I'm happy with it. ITALERI VOLVO FH16XL & 20foot CONTAINER TRAILER I'm getting back into building trucks (woohoo) and decided it has been faaaar too long since I built a Trailer. Truck is painted in Tamiya Coral Blue with half of the kit suppled decals added. some small additions added to the cab,couple of newspapers and a coffee cup. Trailer is built OOB, with the frame being painted Semi Gloss Black and the container Flat red with some weathering in strategic places. Ok well thanks for looking... This clears most of the shelf of doom for now... There's still one or two lurkers, but they are getting sorted out tout suite Mad Steve.