sroubos Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 (edited) I managed to complete my Christmas holiday Spitfire double build inside the two-week period I allocated to it! I started this build as distraction from a difficult kit I've been working on for over a year, and as such I wanted an easy kit. I made it a double build when I realized I couldn't pick which kit to do, and as I expected them to be pretty much shake'n bake. I was also quite interested to see which one would be my favourite. The Airfix kit is built as the early Mk.I that's included in the box, I just love the white/black wing scheme. This also allowed me to do a tiny bit of a conversion on the Tamiya and build it as a MkIIa, using the spares from the Airfix kit: Coffman starter, Rotol prop and fishtail exhausts. This MkIIa was the personal plane of Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands, husband to Crown Princess Juliana. When Holland was occupied by the Germans in May 1940, the royal family fled to Britain, where both Juliana and Bernhard, as well as Queen Wilhelmina, worked tirelessly to support the war effort against the Axis. Bernhard took a great interest in military matters and involved himself with soldiers and pilots that had fled to Britain as well, and he played a large part in creating the 322 (Dutch) squadron. He also had a reputation for being a playboy and he enjoyed driving sports cars and flying aeroplanes. As for my verdict on the kits: Very, very difficult to pick a favorite. The Tamiya has the best surface detail, the Airfix is (apparently) more accurate, Tamiya has slightly better fit, Airfix is considerably cheaper and in the series 2 boxing gives you lots of useful spares. Bottom line, it depends on what you value most. For me, the Tamiya's better surface detail puts it slightly ahead of the Airfix. Apologies for the quality of the pictures, there wasn't as much light as I really needed. Edited January 4, 2015 by sroubos 24 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rivers3162 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Super job on both of them! Lovely work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hans2000 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Nice builds. Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands was not the husband of Queen Wilhelmina. By the time war came to our country her husband, Prince Hendrik, had been dead for six years. Prince Bernhard was married to Princes Juliana her daughter our later Queen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alexis Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnd Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 For me, accuracy of outline trumps the fineness of the surface detail, so the Airfix one wins hands down. They're both cracking builds though. John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 4, 2015 Author Share Posted January 4, 2015 Doh I meant Juliana... that's a terrible blunder. (triple minus points for being Dutch myself ) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevej60 Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Very nice pair,great builds! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stesca Posted January 4, 2015 Share Posted January 4, 2015 Beautiful pair of Spitfires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempestwulf Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Superb work on excellent kits. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
batcode Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 great looking pair, nice work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 An excellent double! I really enjoyed the WIP for these as well - thanks Sroubos. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelglue Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 I'll have to do the same and get purchasing these two kits to emulate what you have done here. Nice work! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Lovely pair of Spits Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 They both look splendid. I too enjoyed the WIP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billydick Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Excellent !!!! BillyD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wellsprop Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 You've done a fantastic job on both those models, especially good with the way you dealt with the panel lines on Airfix's kit, they look fine and crisp Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theanorak73 Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 very nice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 A lovely pair of Spitfires. Excellent. Well done. Enjoyed your build thread too - it's interesting to see different manufacturers versions of the same aircraft. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
modelling minion Posted January 5, 2015 Share Posted January 5, 2015 Very, very nice both of them. And a great choice of colour schemes. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted January 5, 2015 Author Share Posted January 5, 2015 Thanks for compliments all You've done a fantastic job on both those models, especially good with the way you dealt with the panel lines on Airfix's kit, they look fine and crisp Ben The only thing I did was to apply preshading. I decided not to do a full panel line wash like I did on the Tamiya as I feared it would be too heavy, and I think it was the right choice: I limited it to the moving surfaces and even there I feel it is slightly overemphasizing them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homerlovesbeer Posted May 12, 2015 Share Posted May 12, 2015 Wow these look great! Fantastic job, you'd swear they were larger than 1:72 I'm really impressed, great job my friend! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homerlovesbeer Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Hey a quick question.....is the prop in the Airfix kit correct? The kit has a 3 blade prop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Leonl Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Very nice.... great looking pair! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted May 22, 2015 Share Posted May 22, 2015 Hey a quick question.....is the prop in the Airfix kit correct? The kit has a 3 blade prop. The smart-alec answer is "it depends which aircraft you're making and which boxing you've got". My answer is, I think the Series 1 boxing has a DH prop which were common on Mk1s. I think the boxing which has an early Mk1 or a MkII, has a Rotol prop which was common on a MkII. The proper answer is, it's probably best to ask your question in the WW2 forum as that's where the experts tend to hang out. The one thing I know for sure is that nothing is ever straightforward with Spitfires. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sroubos Posted May 22, 2015 Author Share Posted May 22, 2015 The series one kit only has a DH prop, the series 2 kit has a DH, Rotol and the two-bladed wooden prop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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