Arriving late - charity shop random buy of a Mk9

[qn30jEkPz7]

Strolling to my local grocery (back when one could do such a thing) I spotted this Airfix kit in the window of a charity shop 

 

Very basic kit (from the panel line treatment and few parts I’m guessing this will be one of their older moulds but for £5 who’s complaining?) - squirrelled away waiting for a day when I felt like something straightforward.

 

Faced with my stash yesterday and in the mood for a no hassle, quiet day at the bench and remembering that this GB was still on I pulled this (& a Novo Sea Hawk) out. I figured that between them they probably had fewer parts than a modern Airfix starter kit so doing them in parallel was almost like doing one kit

 

Box innards suggest that getting two kits from the stash was a good idea. Not many parts at all 

 

 

Still, it looks vaguely Spitfirey and cost nowt 

 

As this is looking a lot like a bank holiday blitz build I felt I needed to include a snack picture so broke off for a few moments to bake some chocolate chip cookies 

 

Once the cookies were dealt with I had most of a plane with all the major bits stuck together

 

When I left it yesterday evening I had gotten as far as having the underside painted and a coat of grey on the upper 

 

[qn30jEkPz7]

Since it was going quickly I’ve battered on with it today. A bit rough at the front of the glazing but I’m not going to worry about that in the slightest

 

Some more paint gets thrown at it today

 

A break to make some jammy dodgers

 

Decals applied

 

 

A pleasant, stress-free and unfussy way to spend a couple of days. Just like modelling used to be

 

 

[qn30jEkPz7]

p.s. the Sea Hawk for good measure (decals cobbled together from spares as the kit ones had gone beyond yellow and into brown)

 

 

 

[Johnson]

Excellent!

 

Brings back many happy memories, one of the first models I ever made and certainly the first Spitfire.

 

I was hoping someone would make one, a real classic, and built in just the right way. Thanks for bringing it to the party!

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

The spitfire looks great. 👍🏻 ... I never had a major interest in the Seahawk until I saw your scheme. I really like it with the orange panels, 🤔 Hmmm now where to find a Seahawk ? 

[qn30jEkPz7]

3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

The spitfire looks great. 👍🏻 ... I never had a major interest in the Seahawk until I saw your scheme. I really like it with the orange panels, 🤔 Hmmm now where to find a Seahawk ? 

tbh I had inherited the kit and in the absence of other ideas (it is so basic and with such degraded decals didn't think selling it was realistic) so planned to chop the kit up to convert into one of the swept wing prototypes derived from the Sea Hawk.  Somewhat randomly while researching something else I came across an image of his decal sheet https://www.blackbirdmodels.co.uk/colourful-sea-hawks-72-1225-p.asp and with the dark and white body and colourful orange beak think of a puffin and made me grin so out of the stash it came. It isn't quite finished as I need to find a couple of Vs and 3s for the underwing serials but I'm sure I'll eventually be able to come up with them. If another Novo (or better) kit falls into my hands in the future I could see me adding either the green or the black to the collection

 

 

7 hours ago, Johnson said:

Brings back many happy memories, one of the first models I ever made and certainly the first Spitfire.

 Thanks Charlie and very glad to add it to the GB

Edited July 2, 2020 by LostCosmonauts

[PeterB]

Hi LC,

 

This appears to be the slightly re-tooled 1960 version of the original Mk IX released in around 1955 - the one piece wings are a give away. As mentioned on @TonyW's build, the original version had the mapler leaf in green, but that was later changed to the more common red, rightly or wrongly - apparently "J.E.J" remembered it as being green.

 

Nice quick build and coming out well.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 2, 2020 by PeterB

[Johnson]

5 hours ago, PeterB said:

This appears to be the slightly re-tooled 1960 version of the original Mk IX released in around 1955 - the one piece wings are a give away. As mentioned on @TonyW's build, the original version had the mapler leaf in green, but that was later changed to the more common red, rightly or wrongly - apparently "J.E.J" remembered it as being green.

Hi Pete,

 

Not sure that the revised decal version came out as early as 1960.

 

I remember (well, I think I do ) making the same kit with a green maple leaf but it would have been after 1960, more like 1962/3.

 

Cheers,

[Bill Livingston]

Certainly later. I remember the green maple leaf when I built my first one... and that was as late as 1968.

 

(Cos' I'm only young!)

Edited July 2, 2020 by Bill Livingston

[PeterB]

Hi Charlie,

 

There does indeed seem to be some confusion over the Mk IX. Arthur Ward in his book on 50 years of Airfix says that the original Mk IX was released in 1955, a couple of years after the supposed Mk 1 BT*K, and that it was re-moulded in 1960. I have to agree that I thought it was a bit later. Scalemates suggest that the first release was in fact 1959 and that some parts were changed in 1967. The next mould was in 2009 though I do seem to remember hearing that another is on the way!. This boxing was originally released in 1998 according to Scalemates, by which time a much better looking set of decals was included - Airfix got good value out of the mould as it was reboxed several times.

 

Interestingly, Scalemates show the BT*K kit as new in 1955 not 1953, and says that the parts were changed twice in that year as well, which seems a bit odd so I suspect they may be wrong - Ward definitely says that the original Spit was released in 1953 as the 3rd kit Airfix produced after the Ferguson Tractor and the Golden Hind. There is a definite suggestion in the book that Airfix copied the 1/48 Aurora Spit right down to the apparently spurious markings - either with or without a licence. However the pic of the Aurora kit shows what appears to be a Green/Brown Mk V or IX complete with cannon - Airfix did not say what Mark theirs was and as I have never built one I cannot say for certain - maybe it was a hybrid! Ward also says that it had a solid cockpit with pilot head as did the Aurora one according to him, so the 1st Mk IX was clearly not a simple re-working of it.

 

So, as I said, a bit of a confused history.

 

Incidentally, what do you think of Robertson's book? Bit of a mixed bag I thought. The lists are useful but some of the detail on colours seems out of date, perhaps not surprisingly. Oh well, only cost me the equivalent of 1 oz of pipe tobacco including postage.

 

Cheers

 

Pete

Edited July 3, 2020 by PeterB

[Johnson]

Hi Pete,

 

I don't have Ward's book so I'm relying on a dodgy 64 year old memory. But looking at LC's sprues and finished model I don't think anything but the decals have changed since I made it in the early 1960s. No paint for me in those days, glue everywhere - especially the canopy and my fingers - and just stuck the decals on.

 

I liked Robertson's book, but it's a product of the time and a bit ambitious in it's scope really. These days such a book would need to be 10 times as large. A useful reference and a nice addition to the shelf . As you say, it wasn't expensive.

Cheers,

 

(apologies  to LC for the slight thread hi-jack!)

[qn30jEkPz7]

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

(apologies  to LC for the slight thread hi-jack!)

No apology needed, very interested in the discussion of the history of the kit (and tbh calling my 2 posts for a whole build a thread is giving much more credit than is due)

[PeterB]

Final comment,

 

Ward says in his book that after Airfix released their first Spit, they got a lot of adverse comment, particularly from ex RAF fitters who had worked on Spits not that many years previously. One critic apparently was a chap called John Edwards, who told Airfix he was certain he could design a much more accurate Spit, so they took him on as Chief Designer, and the 1955 Mk IX was down to him - Ward calls it " the first true Airfix Spitfire" and says that Edwards was the moving force behind internal detail in cockpits and vehicle crew compartments - his words.

 

Cheers, and back to you LC

 

Pete

Edited July 3, 2020 by PeterB