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Hi All; Here's my recently completed Airfix Spitfire, built as a 152S aircraft which was lost on 25 September, 1940. The pilot was 20yr old Sgt. Kenneth Holland from Sydney, Australia. The WIP thread can be found here: I thoroughly enjoyed building this little Spitfire. Airfix's kit is a very simple, straightforward rendition of the most beautiful monoplane ever designed and its engineering and design makes the kit a pleasure to build. I tried a few new things on this one too; it's the first time I've painted a pilot since I was a kid, I tried a filter with mixed results, used bare metal foil for the wing root chipping, I added some vegetable oil to my bag of weathering tricks and furthered my mixology of craft acrylic paints to match RAF colours, I tried a new way to add the iconic Spitfire oil staining, and I even built a display stand out of a piece of oak and a thermocouple. The final result is not far off my best but there are a few things I'd differently on the next model; I'm most annoyed about the paint ridge line on the port wing roundel most of all (caused by the only part of the camo masking that was tape and not blutack), but also that I think I slightly over-chipped the port wing root and I don't think I got the elevators just right. I'm being picky, but we see the worst in our our own work, right? Some decisions made during the build which drove how I finished it; The radio was replaced during its time at the maintenance unit in mid-September 1940, hence the tapered post but no wire. IFF wasn't installed until late September at the earliest and this aircraft was active then until being lost on the 25th. Notice that the letter codes on the port wing root are painted over the paint chipping - my supposition being that the aircraft was not repainted at the maintenance unit and the new code letters were simply painted on at squadron level (and the old over-painted) I didn't weather the prop at all - my supposition being that this would be one component that was meticulously maintained, perhaps even replaced in maintenance I base the overall look and weathering on an airframe that was well used, and thrown back into the front line with the minimum of cosmetic work during its time at the maintenance unit Lastly, I am indebted to the collective here at BM for the encouragement and feedback as always, many thanks to everyone that looked in, liked or commented. I couldn't resits playing around with photoshop to come up with some in-flight pics... Thanks for looking! Cheers.

"FIRST LIGHT" Flying Officer Geoffrey Wellum DFC. Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Ia. 92 Squadron, ROYAL AIR FORCE. Summer 1940. This model is my tribute to Geoffrey Wellum and "The Few" The kit is the Revell 1/32 MK.II Spitfire backdated to a Mk.Ia. I used Eduard P/E and Barracuda Resin on the Spitfire's cockpit. The figures are from Wings Cockpit figures. ​Geoffrey Wellum was the youngest RAF pilot during the Battle of Britain. His book, "First Light" was his memoir of his experiences as a Fighter Pilot in 92 Squadron during WWII and is now recognised as one of the most definitive first hand accounts of the Battle of Britain. Wellum went on to win the DFC and 92 Sqn. went on to be the highest scoring squadron of the Battle of Britain. Geoffrey Wellum (right) and Brian Kingcombe 1940. 92 Squadron RAF, 1940 92 Squadron Spitfire's

This is Tamiya's 72nd scale kit, with prop and wheels replaced from an Airfix boxing of the early Spitfire. Exhausts are a resin product form SBS Model. Spitfire L1090 was part of the first batch ordered in 1936 (serial range K9787-L1096), and by the spring of 1940, had found its way to Canada. At an RCAF testing center, performance was tested against the P-40, and it was concluded that the Spitfire came out on top. Also, L1090 was involved with testing a newly designed anti-gravity suit by a Toronto doctor, Wilbur R. Franks. It is believed fives times as many allied airmen survived the war due to this invention, and would go on to be the forerunner of G-suits for future air force pilots as well as astronauts across the globe. regards, Jack