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Silver Spitfire I, 1 Sqn., Templehof September 1939.FINISHED


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During the Nazi Party rally in Nuremburg in 1937 it was rather unfortunate (for those present) that whilst Hitler was in full flow about how beastly everyone was to Germans that a meteorite went slam into the middle of the arena.

It was just like Tunguska again, only this time in a populated area. Where once the stadium stood was a smoking great hole eerily just wiping out the stadium and the immediate surrounding area.

No Nazis, no war in Europe in September 1939. This left the UK with huge orders for war materiel that wasn't necessary. Amongst this was the Spitfire. The RAF kept 100 and the rest went to Empire nations and France, Turkey and Lithuania. Supermarine did very nicely in exports nudging the Hurricane out of the market.

1 Sqn took its highly polished Spits to Berlin in September 1939 on a goodwill visit, recreating spectacular looping manoeuvres of the Empire Air Days in Hendon.

Of course everyone was still totally unprepared for 7 December 1941...........

Pix to follow.

Trevor

Edited by Max Headroom
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The obligatory box shot......

8845C243-64D1-4A98-830D-812E8A7F758C-597-00000078A3D4C6DF.jpg

No great shock that I'm using Airfix's latest for this build.

Sprue shot

0167ADCE-ABD1-4EF8-9BB6-F60290E0CD17-597-00000078A837D9C8.jpg

Missing from this shot is the sprue for the canopy. At this point I'm undecided whether to use the original flat top or the more familiar bulged version. I can decide near the end.

91558C99-3391-47C4-9950-673E4C5D7212-597-00000078AC64155D.jpg

As this is going to be an overall natural metal 'pre-war' inspired scheme of the Fury I and II's, I need the appropriate pre war type serials (Modeldecal) and roundels (Xtradecal). Also included in the shot is the decal sheet from the Revell reissued Hawker Fury I. At this point I'm not sure whether I can use any of it, or just have it as inspiration for the build.

As if a natural metal scheme isn't colourful enough, I'll try and add some splashes of colour. Maybe a red or yellow tail and spinner - who knows.

Build wise, it'll be virtually straight out of the box. I don't have the talent or the modelling time to get creative with extensive modding of the base kit. The only mod may be the wing mounted camera that was installed on the (port?) upper wingprovided I can find details.

Chomping at the bit..............

Trevor

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What a brilliant back story and I'm really looking forward to seeing a colourful Spitfire!!

David

PS - FWIW, I vote for the later canopy. The flat one always looks wrong to me.

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This is sort of thing I'm aiming for

http://www.military-collections.com/BRITAIRFIELDSPHOTOS/DSC_0313.jpg

Obviously there is a lot more aluminium to polish on a Spitfire. I need to find a decent brushable shiny silver paint. Any hints?

Trevor

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whilst Hitler was in full flow about how beastly everyone was to Germans that a meteorite went slam into the middle of the arena.

It was just like Tunguska again, only this time in a populated area. Where once the stadium stood was a smoking great hole eerily just wiping out the stadium and the immediate surrounding area.

Trevor

Don't ya just love the Whif principle? :thumbsup: Great back-story and ace concept

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Don't ya just love the Whif principle? :thumbsup: Great back-story and ace concept

I had loads more to the back story including lederhosen, talcum powder and practising dramatic hand gestures in front of the wardrobe mirror. However I was wary of issues of taste and also I rattled the above off on the bus home last night!

Trevor

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I had loads more to the back story including lederhosen, talcum powder and practising dramatic hand gestures in front of the wardrobe mirror.

Too much information, methinks :yikes:

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For silver paint I just use Humbrol 11, or 191. Put on carefully it does a fine job.

For the gun camera; have a look at 'C' in the photo on this thread: http://www.britmodel...ic=234927017 you can see the camera on the starboard wing.

I would use the flat canopy: to me its right for the period plus the bulged came about because of the war.

You could use the decal for the Fury top wing on the under of the Spitfire wing, by cutting it in half and placing them out from the radiator & oil cooler.

F.

Edited by Black Knight
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Hi Trevor,

I know it's a 'what if' but a heads up about the markings for the Fury; Revell managed to royally stuff this up - they're actually for 1 Squadron! :banghead: Quite how they confused black & white checks with a set of red outlines we'll never know, but if you want to do 43 Sqn you might want to try and track down a set from the Matchbox kit. Alternatively you could adapt the Siskin markings in Modeldecal set 31A which also has a pair of fin badges for one of 43 Sqn's Munich Crisis Fury which would look good on the Spitfire.

Going to keep an eye on this :thumbsup2:

Jonathan

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Thanks for the tips on silver paint. I have in my stash a Humbrol 56 and a Revell aluminium 36199.

I think I used the Humbrol on this semi complete Revell Hunter (my take on High Speed Aluminium). I'll see if it buffs up!

8129A5C6-F32A-4C34-A19B-761E675BE4D2-712-0000007BC1726596.jpg

Trevor on the verge of cutting plastic

Edited by Max Headroom
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Right I've done a bit of preliminary fettling.

As is customary with aircraft builds the cockpit is the first area to be tackled. So here are the wings.....

19102D1E-8F0E-4CBA-9890-1BEA0036C14A-407-0000004B4B8B0D24.jpg

They seem to just snap together with little effort. I'm very impressed with the wheel well detail and the little lumps and bumps. Overall the depth of the panel lines whilst not quite Hasegawa et al, is not as bad as I was lead to believe.

Ok, the cockpit

D771BEF8-2973-440A-9DD7-0586763955A5-407-0000004B53514271.jpg

753311FB-B7DB-4B80-871E-8E8F942615D0-407-0000004B4F94DC5D.jpg

Detail is nice for the price. Chunkier than the Italeri offering, Airfix scores though with detailed cockpit walls. A bit of dry brushing over the cockpit colour ( I'm going apple green here!) should make this look ok.

It took a while for me to line everything up. So as to make sure it was ok I temporarily dry fixed it into position in the fuselage halves to let it set thoroughly. I couldn't resist dry fitting the wings and the Watts two-blade prop.

5D27E7DA-C3DD-4D5F-AB2A-9A1DE739C21A-407-0000004B5F2ECA1A.jpg

21789C11-C4CD-4B88-B45F-01DD22488A0E-407-0000004B57C89CAA.jpg

I can't see that much filler will be needed here. The top is a snug fit and underneath just needs some careful positioning.

Just realised I was doing this whilst watching the film Battle of Britain on Channel 5!

More tomorrow hopefully.

Trevor

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Shame you had to halt production as she seemed to be flowing together well. Did you have to do any work on the wing parts to improve the fit?

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I didn't have any particular problems. As posted above it was the opposite. Dry fitting to the fuselage shows it to be a snug fit on the upper side with the underside just needing some careful alignment.

Trevor the stalled

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Work has halted for a few days as the production line aka the living room is being refitted, sorry, redecorated!

More soon...........

Teevor

Seems to be the time for production line refurbishment, will be doing mine (spare room) this weekend. Great work so far...

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I didn't have any particular problems. As posted above it was the opposite. Dry fitting to the fuselage shows it to be a snug fit on the upper side with the underside just needing some careful alignment.

Trevor the stalled

Airfix must be getting better with each Spitfire mark they tool up. The twos XIXs & current IX I'm working on all had the same issue but if the Mk.1 does not hopefully the new 22 will be fine as well. Hope you get back to this one soon.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Right then. I'm back with my entry.

Production line refurbed (beigy magnolia thanks for asking) I thought I would do some slopping on of paint to the interior to get back into the groove.

Here are the results........

The cockpit interior

A5DED784-058D-4A09-A8AF-991025EDAEAE-315-00000050CC0A4EA8.jpg

Fuselage halves

4D86C198-93C8-4A0E-933E-390625543126-315-00000050C86C3A26.jpg

wheel wells

11897F76-319B-40CC-B0CA-539B6F9008B8-315-00000050D06A2FCC.jpg

Not much as you can see but I'm moving in the right direction.

The aluminium interior is the Revell acrylic colour and I'm impressed with it. I remember now that this is what I used on the underside of the Hunter (see pic above) and it looks rather shiny. I may use this for some of the exterior.

I'm still toying with ideas for the red striping but I do know that I want to be different to the post war mk.21 and the faux scheme on the warbird mk XVI.

Plenty of time to decide

:work:

Trevor

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