Spitfire XIV - Airfix 1/48

[bryanm]

I nearly bought one of these when they were released but eventually got one from the Wonderland stall at Telford last year.  First impressions were a bit mixed, with very thick sprue gates and obstructive ejector pin towers which meant it wasn't easy to get a clean cut at them.  There was a moulding flaw on the port fuselage half which needed filling and the edges of the front fuselage halves curved inwards slightly so the joint needed filling as well.  The port upper wing half fitted almost perfectly but the starboard one........it was a choice between a good joint at the wing root and the whole panel swept back, or the panel lining up at the leading and trailing edges and a wedge shaped gap at the wing root.  Obviously I went for the latter and more filler.  I guess it was a 'Friday afternoon' moulding.  Although I've heard of them before from Airfix, this was the first one I've experienced.  The plastic was rather nasty - both soft and brittle, and I managed to break a couple of parts getting them clear of those sprue gates.  I didn't like the transparent wing tips - the fit was poor and it wasn't just clumsiness on my part removing the elliptical tips!  As with the Hunter, adhesion of the decals was very poor.  I lost one of the stencils before the matt varnish went on and a couple of others started to fall off as I was varnishing.  It must be very disappointing for a youngster to spend ages decaling and then find some of them fall off!  In the days of transfers, they stuck on so well you had to scrape them off with a fingernail.  It was all faintly disappointing after the Defiant, Walrus and Hunter, with some QC issues and some design problems. 

 

Whinge over - other than that it went together well and looks every inch a Spitfire.  It's from the box apart from the harness, is brushed with Humbrol enamels and makes a nice pair with my now-rather-ancient F22, built from an Eduard boxing of the Airfix plastic which I bought second hand from a stall at a Duxford air display.  That put up a fight as well - several of the major parts were badly warped, which is perhaps why it was on sale second hand!

 

Thick sprue gates and ejector pin towers

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Moulding flaw and filler

 

 

 

The model......

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 17, 2020 by bryanm

[fubar57]

Looks very nice

[TEXANTOMCAT]

Great stuff - sorry to hear of trouble with Airfix decals though.... in my experience nothing will make em snug down apart from the big guns (Daco Red) and I always use Mr Setter first (which I've convinced is very watered down PVA rebottled like weak beer for an exorbitant price!)

 

Lovely build!

 

TT 

[Vinnie]

Nice clean looking build, I like it.

[bryanm]

On 2/17/2020 at 4:22 PM, TEXANTOMCAT said:

Great stuff - sorry to hear of trouble with Airfix decals though.... in my experience nothing will make em snug down apart from the big guns (Daco Red) and I always use Mr Setter first (which I've convinced is very watered down PVA rebottled like weak beer for an exorbitant price!)

 

Lovely build!

 

TT 

Thanks for the comments.  I've not used decal solutions yet but may have to if Airfix decals continue as present.  Interesting re watered down PVA as I've used that to restick peeling decals on old models built before I discovered the Kleer -> decal -> varnish sequence.  A good business model - buy PVA cheap, water it down and sell it expensive!

[franky boy]

Nice work Bryan. 
 

Im tackling one of these at the moment and completely agree with your comments on the kit. Shame as it clearly builds up into a very nice model. 
 

James