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My second finish since my return from Australia, is the recent Airfix Mk Ia Spitfire. If a little tricky to get right but I really enjoyed building it. I used the amazing Fundekals Early Spitfire set to build a machine flown by Flt Sgt George Unwin on 15th September 1940.

Back in July 1968 I was in the Air Training Corps and lucky enough to spend a week ay RAG Guttersloh, Germany. There were 40 or so of us from Surry Wing squadrons. The Group photograph was taken in front of one of 19 Squadrons BAC Lightning F2As, XN789, Squadron Letter J At that time the aircraft was in overall natural metal, very clean and tidy had cannon but didn't appear to have an IFR probe. I have the 1/48th Airfix Kit and plan to make a model of 789, but because I hate natural metal finishing I would like to know if this A/C carried the dark green upper surface scheme. Indeed it would be good to know what happened to the aircraft. Does anyone know any more? I'll scan the photo and post it here...

Hey there guys. I just picked up the new 1/48 scale Spit Mk 1 kit (#61119) today and it has some very nice features for interwar years Spit birds. If you plan to do a 1938-39 model Spitfire, here are some features which I think will be a nice surprise for you.: Pre-war ring and bead gun sight- Using a combination of some styrene and included photoetch, this is the first 1/48 Spitfire I have seen which includes the ring and bead sight. When I did my Interwar 19 Squadron bird years ago, I had to cobble something together. Two pronged fork pitot tube- Again, it wasn't around when I did my build. Granted Tamiya isn't the first to do this style of tube as the Hornby Airfix 2015 Spit Mk I kit (A05126) also included it. But it is nice to see Tamiya noticed it as well. Gun heater exhaust vents in the wings- This is something I have never seen on a 1/48 Spit kit. Early Spitfires tried to use exhaust gas heating to keep the .303s from freezing in flight. Heating ducts were installed along with an exhaust port in each wing. Tamiya put those into this kit! The wing mount holes are flashed over for those who want to do BoB aircraft. But, it is nice to have that option in this kit! Unarmored glass windscreen- Tamiya did the windscreen un-armored with the simple frame. Two versions of armored glass can be installed over the top of this for WW2 birds. The shape of the windscreen looks beautiful and at a nice petite thickness for pre-war birds. The pre-war marking option is for K9906 of 65 Squadron, FZ-L from 1939. It has the later more traditional style bubble canopy and the 3 bladed Jablo prop. There is some debate about whether the Munich Crisis camoed topside aircraft had an all aluminium underside as the kit depicts of whether it had gone with the black/white wing paint (making sure to leave the control surface undersides aluminium if you go that route). Early square spine antenna- The antenna mounting for the early and late style antennas is very robust and designed to help eliminate a glue stain. The square antenna mount looks great and is less prone to flexing than the Hornby Airfix one. So, you can do the kit out of the box for a pre-war Spitfire easily. Now if you want to do one of the earliest birds, such as the 19 Squadron Duxford Spits from 38-39 you are on your own for the Watts two-bladed prop and the flat canopy. But the 2015 Airfix Spit Mk 1 and the earlier Humbrol Airfix Spit kits provide the prop to scrounge. The Hornby Airfix Mk I also includes the flat top canopy, but it is a bit too thick to use properly if you intend to pose it open. So I recommend acquiring a Falcon Spitfire vac canopy set for the sliding portion if you wish to go that route.

I was fortunate in receiving some help from Edgar when I built my Spitfire for last year's Battle of Britain GB. As a tribute to his generosity, I would like to dedicate my build of a No. 19 Squadron Spitfire from August 1938 to him. Early Spitfires from No. 19 Squadron are well documented and the model will be a great companion to my No. 111 Squadron Hurricane when I get finally back onto it. Even though in a stock standard colour scheme, the upper wing yellow roundels do give it a unique look. I haven't made up my mind to do K9797 with a red 19 Or K9794 with a yellow 19 Or K9795 with a white 19... I will build again the new tool Airfix 1/48 Spitfire Mk.I. Unfortunately the time frame for this GB is too short for me to finish this build as I like to use some additional accessories and incorporate some additional detail like RIVETS - and participating currently in another 4 GBs with 13 models doesn't help. So I will take my time for this build and keep updating the build progress from time to time. I am looking forward in getting started. Cheers, Peter

Ok so my father in law passed away a few days ago and and he was a top bloke. I therefore thought I might either or both build a Lightning and Phantom from No 19 Sqd which was his squadron for many years in the 1960 and 70's. So I need some help/advice on which aircraft and schemes would be appropriate and at 1:72 or 1:48 scale. Many thanks Chris

Hi mates, here is my latest project, the Spitfire Mk. I as seen in summer of 1938. This started out as an out-of-the-box build, but of course that didn't last long. Project: Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I Kit: Airfix Supermarine Spitfire Mk. I/IIa (kit number A02010) Scale: 1:72 (The One True Scale) Decals: From the kit, representing 19(F) Squadron at Duxford in August of 1938 Photoetch: Eduard Interior Set No. SS400 Vacuform: Falcon Spitfire Canopy Set Paint: Gunze H72 Dark Earth, H73 Dark Green, H309 FS34079, H47 Red Brown, H90 Clear Red, H91 Clear Yellow, H93 Clear Blue, H94 Clear Green; Tamiya XF-69 NATO Black; Testors 2062 RAF Interior Green,1149 Flat Black, 1168 Flat White; Alclad 101 Aluminum, 104 Pale Burnt Metal, 115 Stainless Steel, 314 Klear Kote Flat Weathering: Some post shading to simulate paint fading, but generally not much weathering as the aircraft was new during this time period. I applied a burnt umber panel line wash to the camouflaged areas, light gray to the white underside, and black to the night underside. Improvements/Corrections Applied the Eduard PE set to the cockpit. Cut open the kit canopy, and used the windscreen and rear canopy. For the sliding canopy, I used a section of a Falcon vacuform. Camouflage pattern was hand masked (not a template). Shortened the HF mast to represent correct height of 68cm. Added antenna with 0.005" diameter Nitinol wire. Build thread: Link All told, I liked this kit a lot. Only a couple of points of discussion during the build, one of course was the panel lines. I partially filled them with Alclad grey primer, and I think that helped a lot. It's not so much that they're too wide, it's that they're very deep. Which in some respects is good, as you won't lose them during sanding. The panel line wash that I applied made them stand out a bit more, but I think it adds some interest. More discussion in the build thread... The other point was the markings, specifically the wing roundels. I could find no photos that show WZ-T with the roundel placement shown by Airfix. The directive in place at that time specified upper wing roundels on both wings, and most photos (but not all) of 19 Squadron Spitfires at that time show both. I chose to model WZ-T that way, partly to be in compliance with the directive, and partly to appease my sense that Spitfires should have roundels on both wings. Again, more discussion in the build thread... So on with the pictures! EDIT - I really should have used a different seat. This one is about 5 scale inches thick! Enjoy the photos! It's a great little kit and I had a great time building it. It took longer than it should have, but the project was interrupted by my ninth back surgery. It is so much fun getting old! Cheers, Bill