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Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb, EP829 T-N, 249 Squadron, Qrendi, Malta, April to May 1943. Sqn Ldr John J Lynch. Malta's 1000th victory Subject; Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb, non-tropicalised, clipped wings, x2 Hispano Suiza 20mm cannons and x4 Browning .303's Manufacturer; Tamiya Scale; 1/48 Kit number; 61033 Aftermarket; Eduard Zoom P.E set. Eduard decals. Paints; Exterior upper, AK Real Colour RAF Middle Stone and Dark Earth overpainted with custom mix of RAF Extra Dark Sea Grey and XF8 Flat Blue. Lower, mix of XF23 Light Blue, XF19 Sky Grey and XF2 Flat White for the AM Sky. Interior; AK Real Colour RAF Interior Grey Green and Xtreme Metal Matt Aluminium. X7 for the wing tips. Various Tamiya X, XF and LP and Posca pens for detailing. Primer; Mr Surfacer 1200 Varnish; AK Gauzy Shine Agent and Tamiya X35 Semi-Gloss. Weathering; Flory Dark Dirt and Grime wash, Abteilung oils, Ammo North Africa pigment and Tamiya weathering palettes. Extras; Prym Knitting Elastic for the antenna wires.

Hello everybody... Id like to present my KP Spitfire Mk.Vb in the Markings of R.S.Tuck. The kit was a gift from @Procopius awhile back and was saved for the Spitfire Group build. This is the first of four Spitfires I am building for the build. It represents his plane on or about the day of Tuck’s last mission. A quote from Wiki about that. “Tuck's last mission of the war occurred. On 28 January 1942, while on a low-level fighter sweep "Rhubarb" mission[23] over northern France, his Spitfire was hit by enemy ground-based flak near Boulogne and he was forced to crash land.” I do hope it meets with your approval. A link to the build if you are curious and interested. A picture with his squadron mates, The Dicer is an Eduard Mk.IXc late kit and is also finished. I shall have an RFI shortly for it. The other two are Eduard Mk.VIII’s all of course are 1/72. Please feel free to ask questions, post comments, and or add thoughts. Dennis

Hello Britmodellers, something rolled out the production line. Number three for this year, after two Fw 190, its the Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb in 1:48 scale. The build was done with the addition of a PE set from Eduard for the Cockpit and decals from Eagle Strike for a quite coloful aircraft, EN570, 4 F.S. flown by the unit commander Major Levine in the MTO, June 1943. Some sources said it was a Vc some its a Vb, so mine is a b version. The build started a couple of month before and it has seen some more or lesser progress since the start. Its a very nice build, the only complains are a relative weak undercarriage and quite thick clear parts. Some pictures from the build: Some pictures from the paint work. Colors are from Humbrol, Model Master and Revell. Pictures from the decal session. Markings from Eagle Strike, stencils from the kit. And the rest of the RFI Pix. Hope you like it. Bernd

Airfix 1/48 Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb "Build Introduction" (4.1.16) Hello Chaps, In 3 weeks time, my wife and I will be moving to our new home, so, I'm not going to start another large scale plane build until we are settled in. But, that said, I feel I might be able to grab a few hours here and there, in between packing, to build a smaller quicker build kit. Therefore, I've chosen this kit, which was one of five kits that my wife bought me for Christmas from the Airfix "Black Friday" sale. I have made a start on her this week, but haven't found the time to start a WIP on here until now. So, without further ado, here goes..... The box is a typical Airfix two-piece construction- Lid and Base, which I much prefer compared to the end opening single units offered by Revell. The box art on the lid shows a Mk.Vb chasing and shooting down an enemy aircraft over the Mediterranean waters and is shown in the first of two color scheme/markings that are offered with this kit. The color scheme and markings are for the aircraft flown by Pilot Officer Robert Wendell "Buck" McNair D.F.C (Royal Canadian Air Force), No.249 (Gold Coast) Squadron, Royal Air Force, Operation "Spotter", Ta'Qali (Ta Kali), Malta, March 1942. This is the version that I will be modeling. On the sides of the box there are 5 CAD generated images showing some of the details included with this kit and the two options of color scheme and marking... Inside the box there is a large clear polythene bag containing 5 grey sprues and a smaller clear bag containing a single clear sprue. There is a 16 page Assembly/Instruction booklet and one sheet of decals... The decals are typical AIrfix, which I personally think are some of the best decals on the market, they are nicely printed, with roundels in register, minimal carrier film and the decals are nice and thin and have a matt/satin finish.... The 16 page booklet is printed in black, white, red and yellow and the last two pages showing the painting and decal instructions offering two options of color schemes and markings, are in full color. There are 46 assembly stages which are very clear with CAD generated images, clearly marked part numbers and color call outs. All colors are for Humbrol paints only will require converting should you choose other brand paints. The five grey sprues are very well molded, with nice crisp clean parts that have zero to minimal flash, if any. There is no warp, distortion, stress marks and sink to be seen and ejector pin witness marks are only visible on the inside of some parts. Other parts are ejected via "ejector slugs" that exist outside of the part geometry which eliminates any ejector pin witness marks on the parts. Sprue "A" Sprue "B" Sprue "C" Sprue "D" Sprue "E" Clear Sprue "F" includes options for open or closed canopies with three styles of hood available. All parts are nicely molded and very clear. Well, that's it for the introduction, so I'll see you guys when I have a "Build Update" ready to report. In the meantime, if you'd like to watch my YouTube Channel "Build Introduction" video for this kit, then here is the link to that: Thanks in advance for taking a look at this WIP, watching the video and leaving any comments, should you do so, much appreciated! Happy modeling and have fun! Cheers, ​ Martin

Hello folks, My turn to ask the same old questions again about Spitfires. I'm looking into building a Spitfire Mk. Vb as used by No. 322 Squadron, using the Airfix kit. I have some decals for these, with a few options, but unfortunatly some of the details aren't mentioned. I did some searching, but couldn't find much. I did see some flight sim skins and profiles that suggests clipped wings on at least one of them, but I have no idea how accurate that would be. What I'm basically asking is, can I build any of the following Vb's, using what's in the Airfix kit? BM354, VL-A W3127, VL-P AB818, VL-N BM515, VL-P AA967, VL-A WW2 stuff isn't one of my stronger subjects, and I see 3 different kinds of canopies, two different kind of props, 3 different sets of exhausts, etc. It is kinda confusing sometimes. Anyway, if someone could assist me a bit on this, I would be very grateful. Thanks!

Old Airfix` 1/24 Spitfire Mk.Vb. Model made for 100th birthday anniversary of mjr. pil. Paweł Niemiec in November 2013 (Cieszyn, Poland). Spitfire JH-V AA758 "Bazyli Kwiek" was flown by Niemiec in autumn 1941, 317. (Polish) Squadron RAF. Information about this aircraft (type of propeller, canopy, painting etc.) were exclusively given to me by Mr. Wojtek Matusiak and Mr. Piotr Sikora - thanks!!! BTW - Airfix` model kit is very old and needed a lot of job, but it was a really fun for me! Made out of the box, but some self-made parts were used (for example new type of windscreen, some decals etc.). Electric engine is inside, wires go through gear legs to the battery. I had only 1 month to make this - too short to make it better...

OK, I'm calling this one done. Back in February I posted pics of my Tamiya Spitfire Mk.Vb (link), and now I've finished off it's Airfix sibling. Whereas the Tamiya kit was basically OOB with a few minor shape corrections, this one has a few additions to it (but no shape corrections): - Master brass cannon barrels - Wing trailing edges thinned and surface detail added to ailerons - Sutton harness from Tamiya tape - Added missing fasteners on the engine cowls - Added wing root fillet fastener detail - Prop, spinner and main wheels from the old Hasegawa Mk.Vb - Tail wheel from the Hasegawa Mk.IXc - Kit exhausts drilled out and detailed with weld seams - Main markings/insignia painted with home-made masks - Barracudacals airframe stencils - Added the sliding hood knockout panel cut from an old "Fast Frames" sheet Questions and constructive criticism are always welcome! The markings I chose are for a 402 Sqdn (RCAF) aircraft flown by Flight Lieutenant Henry Percy Duval of Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Quebec. F/Lt. Percy was shot down near Dunkirk in late May 1940 during the Battle of France and managed to return to fight in the Battle of Britain. Later, on 27 April 1942, he was flying AA834 on a "Rodeo" to Lille and collided with another Spitfire over Le Touquet and was KIA. F/Lt. Percy was not famous, nor was he an ace, but to me he is representative of the thousands of airmen who gave their lives. Cheers, Tony