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My sister's birthday is in 10 days, what to buy for her? I have an idea, make her a model kit, the 1/48th Airfix Spitfire F.22/24. You will probably think I have lost my marbles however there is method in this madness (I hope). Starting with the box art, this kit was originally released in 1996 and this looks like the 2004 'rebox': Spit22004 by Ghostbase, on Flickr The obligatory sprue shots, this was just prior to an application of Halfords grey primer: Spit22001 by Ghostbase, on Flickr The kit has three decal versions available, I could adapt two of these depending which colour scheme I decide to finish the Spitfire in: Spit22003 by Ghostbase, on Flickr So have started to detach the main parts from the sprues and cleaned them up, a few dry fits and this feels like a nice kit to build so far, have started to cement a few parts: Spit22002 by Ghostbase, on Flickr Why build a kit for my sister? This is the reason why: Spitfire22PK328NLuffenham51DWB by Ghostbase, on Flickr My father flew Hawker Tempests with 16 Squadron out of Fassberg in Germany 1946/47 then he went into the Royal Auxiliary Air Force when he demobbed and happily puttered about in Tiger Moths out of Rochester for a few years. By 1951 the Korean War was getting serious and the government decided to upgrade the piston engine pilots to jets and my father found himself at RAF North Luffenham with 102 FRS (Flying Refresher School) in September 1951. After an introduction on Harvards he found himself flying the Spitfire F.22 and I think the photo above shows how thrilled he was to finally fly the Spitfire. She is PK328 but I don't know her code. I do know that he flew PK431 coded M-41 which was in an aluminium finish and I hope to finish the kit in these markings. My sister has a small display case dedicated to her dad and it already contains a Trumpeter De Havilland Vampire FB.5 which I built for her a few years ago and I think she will like a Spitfire F.22 too. I have four days to build this kit! Michael

This is the Airfix Spitfire F22 in my local squadron's markings, courtesy of Xtradecal. I also used Eduard seat belts on it. A nice kit, the only problem is the canopy doesn't sit correctly when open. I've kept the weathering to a minimum as I assume they would have been kept reasonably clean. 618 Sqn was part of the Royal Auxiliary Air Force & was formed in 1939. It was an Army Cooperation squadron & went to war equipped with Hawker Hectors & Westland Lysanders. The Hectors & Lysanders were used to bomb German positions & drop supplies to the BEF in the retreat to Dunkirk, this must have been absolutely terrifying. They were re-equipped with the Curtis Tomahawk then the Mustang I for the low level reconnaissance role. In October '43 they were given Mosquitos & flew night intrusion sorties & precision strike operations, including a raid on the Gestapo records office in The Hague. After the war they flew Spitfires then Vampires before the RAuxAF was disbanded in 1957. Unfortunately this was before I was able to pedal to Ringway on my bike to see them. Enough waffle. Any comments, observations & criticisms welcome as always. Pete Thanks for looking.

I am slowly working through my shelf of doom, finishing some kits that should have been binned. This was originaly built in the 70’s by my brother. I got it when he was going to throw it out. It had a fuselage, wings, and a propless spinner, only slightly less than the kit originaly had..... Over the years, I opened up the undercarriage bays, gave it an Aeroclub prop, vacuform canopy of unknown provenance, undercarriage, tailplanes and enlarged radiators from the Spitfire spares box. Highly inaccurate cannon barrels are turned brass by me. Now, if you wanted to do PK312 as it was originaly built, it would be far easier to start with a later F22 kit and swap an earlier tail on it. I have finished it and posted it because, well, not a kit many people are dumb enough to build, and I never give up on anything.....

Now that RAF100 has died down a bit and my involvement has just about come to an end, I have a bit of time to do some modelling. I had hoped to do a 1/48 Mossie in overseas colours, but I don’t think I have the time, so instead a Spitfire (or 2). So my my plan is to start with an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire F 22 and use the decals from an AZ Models F 22 to make a Syrian Arab Air Force Spitfire. If time permits I will then do the AZ Models F 22 in the colours of the South Rhodesian Air Force. Just to compare the 2 kits, this is the Airfix version: and this the AZ Models version: Wish me luck!!

My first go at posting a work in in progess. Managed to make a start on my Airfix Spitfire F22, forgot to take pictures of the box and sprue but I guess most have seen them already . It actually went together really quickly. Just a couple of days work and its ready for the paint shop! I am going to do the markings for the Cooper Air Race (there seems to be a lot of HSS Spits already done!). Apologies for the quality of the images, found it not so easy to take pictures of an incomplete model! Thanks for looking,