Seafire 1b Kit Advice

[72modeler]

@Neil

 

So sorry for the misinformation! I can certainly understand the reasoning behind your "retirement," but as has been stated, there are many of us that  have several of the Paragon resin sets, as well as many new to the hobby that would love to have them, if they were made available again. Granted, as you said, many of the sets might have been superseded by newer/better kits, but that hasn't always been the case; I think I can speak for many of my fellow modeling maniacs when I say the Paragon range has always been of the highest quality, accuracy, and fit, when compared to your competitors. Not that you would want to jump right back into the rat race, but if you do give any thought to re-releasing  existing sets or  updating them, might I suggest you consider bringing back  the 1/72 Spitfire prototype, Spitfire XII, B-26K, Mosquito XVIII, and Spitfire PR XI? I don't recall your doing a Seafire 1b or Seafire II/III set, but I think they would be well received.  Thank you for your post as well as for all the outstanding detail/conversion sets you have given us over the years.

Mike

[Neil]

1 hour ago, 72modeler said:

@Neil

 

So sorry for the misinformation! 

Mike

 

No problem. Believe me, Mike, there is absolutely no apology needed!  I have been 'out of the loop' as it were, as a manufacturer, since 2011 (blimey, that long ago??) so there is bound to be a certain degree of misinformation here and there .... .  Understandable to a large degree. 

 

 

[fishplanebeer]

Getting back to my original question the Freightdog Seafire 1b (now arrived) looks very good and I'm glad I eventually took this route. Being based upon the KP version of the Vb plus the resin inserts for the exhausts and underside hook modification all should go well and not be too difficult even with my modest skills.

 

Just looking at the scale plans for the 1b and the resin insert for the underside hook it would also be quite straightforward to build it from a standard Spit Vb as it just requires a wee bit of scribing to highlight the hook A-frame and tiny piece of thin plastic to represent the hook itself.

 

Regarding the MKXII a couple of other Spitfire variants would make interesting subjects possibly, the prototype Mk III N3297 with either the Merlin XX or 61,  or DP851 which started life as the second prototype Mk XII but later became the Mk 21 prototype fitted with the Griffon II but retaining the original wing plan.

 

Regards

Colin. 

[72modeler]

@Neil

 

So sorry for the misinformation! I can certainly understand the reasoning behind your "retirement," but as has been stated, there are many of us that  have several of the Paragon resin sets, as well as many new to the hobby that would love to have them, if they were made available again. Granted, as you said, many of the sets might have been superseded by newer/better kits, but that hasn't always been the case; I think I can speak for many of my fellow modeling maniacs when I say the Paragon range has always been of the highest quality, accuracy, and fit, when compared to your competitors. Not that you would want to jump right back into the rat race, but if you do give any thought to re-releasing  existing sets or  updating them, might I suggest you consider bringing back  the 1/72 Spitfire prototype, Spitfire XII, B-26K, Mosquito XVIII, and Spitfire PR XI? I don't recall your doing a Seafire 1b or Seafire II/III set, but I think they would be well received.  Thank you for your post as well as for all the outstanding detail/conversion sets you have given us over the years.

Mike

[72modeler]

@fishplanebeer

Colin,

 

Not that you need it at this point, having the Freightdog Seafire 1b in your hot little hands, but others might be interested in the Airwaves resin Seafire Mk 1b conversion, SC72109, that had a resin oil cooler, lower fuselage section with arrestor hook, and a vacform canopy; Airwaves also had an etched set AC7217 for early Spitfires/Seafires, that had etched parts, but did not include the reinforcement straps for the longerons and  radio hatch, nor catapault spools, so really not very useful.

Mike

[Giorgio N]

13 hours ago, fishplanebeer said:

Getting back to my original question the Freightdog Seafire 1b (now arrived) looks very good and I'm glad I eventually took this route. Being based upon the KP version of the Vb plus the resin inserts for the exhausts and underside hook modification all should go well and not be too difficult even with my modest skills.

 

Just looking at the scale plans for the 1b and the resin insert for the underside hook it would also be quite straightforward to build it from a standard Spit Vb as it just requires a wee bit of scribing to highlight the hook A-frame and tiny piece of thin plastic to represent the hook itself.

 

Regarding the MKXII a couple of other Spitfire variants would make interesting subjects possibly, the prototype Mk III N3297 with either the Merlin XX or 61,  or DP851 which started life as the second prototype Mk XII but later became the Mk 21 prototype fitted with the Griffon II but retaining the original wing plan.

 

Regards

Colin. 

 

I made a similar comment in the thread you opened about the Admiral kit, where I wrote "A general thought: IMHO a Seafire Ib can be built quite easily from a Spit Vb kit. The problem is that most VB kits do not offer the windscreen with the internal armour and of course do not include decals for a Seafire."

The A-frame hook is very simple to reproduce if closed, as only the very end of the hook is visible, the rest is just a matter of a few scribed lines.

The Seafire Ib also has the advantage, when compared to other Vb bases Seafires, of lacking the various reinforcement plates, so avoiding the modeller a relatively easy but boring job. Same for the catapult spools, there's none on the Ib so another job avoided.

 

On the Mk.XII, I believe that this variant makes for an ideal first conversion or cross-kitting exercise. Maybe because it was my first Spitfire conversion many years ago (and thinking of this, I should make another one at some point).

As you've seen there are several ways to achieve the result, be it by crosskitting a Seafire XV with a Mk.Vc or adding a short Griffon nose to a Mk.V or even a IX. The way the Spitfire evolved means that it's possible to build models of lesser known variants easily enough by mixing together kits and adding bits and pieces. It's a fascinating aspect of the Spitfire but I undersrtand that many modellers would prefer to have a complete kit of their favourite variants without having to resort to this

 

[fishplanebeer]

Luckily the Freightdog kit comes with the internal armour windscreen but I've also seen pics of some 1b's with the external armour fitted so I've asked KP to send me the latter in case I decided to go this route instead.

 

I do have the Xtradecal Seafire sheet so I should have plenty of options in conjunction with the kit decals and my decal spares as well.

 

Regards

Colin.