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The love of my life made a Christmas donation to Oxfam last December which allowed her to choose something from their second hand shop stock. She selected a Revell 1/72 scale Spitfire Mk Vb as a stocking filler for me. I think she thought it would languish unloved in my stash because my preference is for larger scale kits, but I took a shine to it and so it kept me busy from Boxing day into the New Year. I was intrigued by one of the kit decal options, which combined the earlier Type A roundels with the later Ocean Grey/Dark Green/Light Grey European day fighter camouflage scheme introduced in 1942 for over water flying to Europe and decided to complete this version out of the box - overscale trestle point placard decals and all. Googlewhacking the serial number BL924 informed me that this specific aircraft was one of three presentation Spits supplied to 234 Sqn RAF and funded through Danish contribution, all of which carried the monikers of medieval Danish kings. BL924 carried the name “Valdemar Atterdag” and was also flown by the Danish PO Aksel Svendsen, who had logged 30 sorties before he was shot down and killed over northern France during Circus 133 on the 24th April 1942. He died just 3 days short of his 20th birthday! This got me thinking that the RAFs and Britain’s efforts in WWII were supplemented enormously by serving personnel from all over the World and not just those from the then British Empire. There were Poles, Czechs, Slovaks and other what would be now-EU Citizens like Aksel who laid down their lives in the defence of freedom when Britain alone stood against fascism in the West. Let’s never forget that Britain’s survival back then relied on the support of close allies and friends against a common foe. It is therefore only fitting that this small tribute to Aksel Svendsen is displayed flying over the Danish Rigets flag, the oldest national flag in the World. To me the general shape and proportions of the assembled kit looked about right and the only required reworking involved paring back excess plastic on the oversized spinner to get an acceptable profile. I used Ammo by Mig RAF camo acrylics and Mig rigging thread for the IFF aerials. Although I opted to display it in flight supported by a short piece of clear styrene sprue, there is unfortunately no pilot figure in the cockpit. :-¦ To be honest it was intended to be more of a mantlepiece display item than a fully accurate, detailed and weathered model, but for me this pose does seem to catch the essence of a Spit in flight.

Number 3 for July and 13 done for 2019, our Russian Tank Factory is humming along nicely : Ghastly abomination of a new tool kit from Revell AG, the RFI will show more but truly awful release and vastly inferior to their not so great 1996 effort. That said it looks pretty, even with the wrong markings for a clip tip but necessary as the right ones had opaque carrier film, As usual my integrated Surfacer 1500/Mr Color/Mr Super UV Cut III all thinned with Mr Leveling , system was employed. No drama in this quick build, As its headed out for auction no aerial wire and pre attached pitot of course. That said if you're looking for an accurate MKVb, then keep looking, Buy this and you will regret it the minute you open the box. But awful kits don't really bother me as long as the basic shapes are right so more than adequate for me but YMMV. WIP Beauty shots Mazeltov! Anil