old thumper Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 (edited) Matchbox's Mk.IX Spitfire. This was one of the few 1-72 scale Matchbox kits that I never made as a kid. I can remember seeing kits built by friends and also looking at the sprues through the little window on the box and thinking that the Airfix Spitfire kits of the day were much better. The kit comes with the usual choice of two markings, 124 Squadron and 306 Torun Polish Squadron, decals permitting I shall be building the Polish option. I know I am cutting this fine but should be able to finish it time. Looking at the sprues I can see I was correct in preferring the old Airfix Spitfires. This is not one of Matchbox's best kits, both fuselage and wings have a mixture of raised detail and heavily etched panel lines, the plastic is also see through and of course there is no detail to the cockpit. The kit fits together ok, not as good as most Matchbox kits but ok. Humbrol filler has been applied along the fuselage and wing joints. I always choose Humbrol filler for this job as it can be easily sanded back to a very fine layer without coming off completely. The model has also been very quickly rescribed using the original raised detail as a guide. The heavy trench lines have been reduced with the aid of perfect plastic putty. The Scarlet Spitfire,to show any mistakes and to make the plastic less transparent the model has now been sprayed with Halfords red primer. Red was used because that was all I had in my shed and I was in a hurry. [ Edited May 29, 2016 by old thumper 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted May 29, 2016 Share Posted May 29, 2016 Great to see this kit in the GB, OT. It's looking very nice in its red primer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted May 29, 2016 Author Share Posted May 29, 2016 Great to see this kit in the GB, OT. It's looking very nice in its red primer. Thanks very much, I was surprised how well the red primer went on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 I like that red primer! Looks nice. Never seen this kit, it looks better than the really old airfix mk ix! Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 I remember this kit well, it was used to shoot down the Matchbox Fw190. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gingerbob Posted May 30, 2016 Share Posted May 30, 2016 Great to see another addition to the builds- and a trip in the "Wayback machine". I think mine is still buried deep in the "remote annex" (storage unit)... bob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted May 30, 2016 Author Share Posted May 30, 2016 I like that red primer! Looks nice. Never seen this kit, it looks better than the really old airfix mk ix! Rob I will be building one of those as well at some point in time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted May 31, 2016 Share Posted May 31, 2016 (edited) Glad to see you entering with this kit ! The Spitfire was indeed one of the worst kits made by Matchbox. It was also one of the very first. Even so, it's a kit I remember fondly because the later edition of this kit (the one with parts for the low back too) was the starting point for my very first Spitfire conversion (a Mk.XIV). Looking forward to more pictures ! Edited May 31, 2016 by Giorgio N 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted May 31, 2016 Author Share Posted May 31, 2016 Glad to see you entering with this kit ! The Spitfire was indeed one of the worst kits made by Matchbox. It was also one of the very first. Even so, it's a kit I remember fondly because the later edition of this kit (the one with parts for the low back too) was the starting point for my very first Spitfire conversion (a Mk.XIV). Looking forward to more pictures ! Thanks, the re-box with the low back looks like a nasty kit to build but as a Matchbox collector I need to build it at some point. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted June 4, 2016 Author Share Posted June 4, 2016 (edited) I can see that I am not going to finish this in time, but will carry on anyway. I have now sprayed the underside light grey and given the upper surface a coating of the same colour to hide the red primer. A pilot figure has been installed to hide the lack of any cockpit detail and the hole at the back of the cockpit has been filled with plastic card and glue & glaze pva filler. All I want from this is a nice cleanly built model for the Matchbox collection, at the same time I don't want to lose the original look of the kit but will add the odd improvement. Edited June 4, 2016 by old thumper 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted June 6, 2016 Share Posted June 6, 2016 Matchbox pilots were very well moulded, the pose may have been too static but they were nicely detailed. I'd say that an old style matchbox build must have a pilot in the cockpit 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted July 23, 2016 Author Share Posted July 23, 2016 (edited) Well finally here it is, it wasn't so bad at all in the end. I actually finished it along with some other old kits about six weeks ago. Edited July 23, 2016 by old thumper 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted July 23, 2016 Share Posted July 23, 2016 Great build OT! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
malpaso Posted July 24, 2016 Share Posted July 24, 2016 (edited) Old Thumper, I have the later IX / XVI Matchbox to build, but I'm planning it as a postwar 16. The kit has the same Torun decals. Your build looks nice, the codes look funny like out of register - is that the decals? I'm doing various older Spit kits, usually its red centres of the decals that are dodgy, but the Sky codes are more like deep opal or turquoise on some! Cheers Will Edited July 24, 2016 by malpaso Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
old thumper Posted July 24, 2016 Author Share Posted July 24, 2016 Great build OT! Thanks very much. Old Thumper, I have the later IX / XVI Matchbox to build, but I'm planning it as a postwar 16. The kit has the same Torun decals. Your build looks nice, the codes look funny like out of register - is that the decals? I'm doing various older Spit kits, usually its red centres of the decals that are dodgy, but the Sky codes are more like deep opal or turquoise on some! Cheers Will Yes the 3D look is the decals, Matchbox decals can be pretty dodgy but if you have a Revell era kit you may find them to be much better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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