A Guilty Pleasure: Airfix's 1/72 Spitfire Mk.1a Starter Set
To keep with the theme of things Airfix this is a recent out of box build of their Spitfire Mk1a starter set: Purchased for the princely sum of $10 a year or so ago from my local Aldi Supermarket in the Northern Suburbs of Brisbane, this kit is the perfect antidote to AMS (Advanced Modeller's Syndrome). The paints supplied are best ignored, but the kit itself is a real gem:
Markings are provided for No.92 Squadron based at Manston, Kent in December 1940.
One word of warning to those building the kit, is that Airfix somehow managed to transpose the camo colours round the wrong way: what is shown on the left handside should be on the right & vice versa. No major dramas, just something to be mindful of...
Decals are from Cartograph, which are nicely printed if a tad on the thick side.
Everything goes together with no major issues.
Also being issued early on in the Airfix Renaissance there are the dread deep panel lines to contend with.
I found that a couple of coats of Mr Surfacer 1500 helps to ameliorate the worst effects and it looks Ok from a foot away.
The interior is very nicely done, it's just a pity you see next to nothing of it once the one piece canopy is fitted.
The scheme includes the black underside wing half for Anti-Aircraft Recognition, which is a nice touch.
I used Lifecolors's Battle Of Britain acrylic colours, which doesn't look too bad at all, and the whole lot was sealed with a clear coats of Future.
Any comments more than welcome, but in the meantime thanks for looking.
Very nicely finished and presented, Marek...I like this a lot. 🙂
Thanks Craig much appreciated.
Looking really nice, good value for the money. Didn´t RAF have mirrored camouflage on like every second aircraft or so, think I´ve read something about that...could be explanation for tossed around scheme.
Quite possibly, I went by the book as it were, but I'm given to understand standards & colours were a bit fast & loose during those wartime years with the aim to just get the planes out of the factory gates & maintenance units. So the guys doing the painting may well have flipped those vinyl masks. My only other reference of the squadron aircraft is a very grainy black & white photos which to be honest shows diddly squat.
Marek, nice work on this, I had to go back and take another look at it to make sure it was 1/72 scale.
Its always nice to grab something simple sometimes, however most of us model guys usually find a way to complicate things no mater how simple they may begin. I've currently managed to turn a two week project into three months:::: so far !
Thanks Terry, guilty as charged...this was supposed to be a weekend build, but in the end took over a month to get across the line. Doesn't help when there are several other projects on the go as well. Did I say I also suffer from Modeller's Attention Deficit Disorder.
Thats a beautiful Spitfire, Marek !
Most of the new tool Airfix kits are gems like this one and fun to build !
Absolutely Bernd, who'd have thought Airfix would start making so many build-able kits over the past five years or so. There's quite a collection growing in my stash; and the next one nearing the finish line is wait...another Airfix kit. Watch this space.
Nice build Marek, I too was fooled into thinking it was 1/48 scale. Haven't built an Airfix kit yet but I do have a 1/48 Spit Mk XII in the stash. May have to jump on it soon as I'm hearing good things about their products lately.
Hi Tom, thanks for the comments. I actually used one of those MkXII Spitty's for a Seafire MK XV kitbash: The wings were the spares from Airfix's Seafire Mk XVII. The Mk. XII is an easy build, has good fit & there shouldn't be any major dramas with it. You might want to use a vac-form replacement canopy if you want to show the cockpit opened up as Airfix's "integral one piece moulding" for the opened variant is a bit quirky and "odd" looking, for my tastes at any rate.
One fine looking Spitfire sir.
Lovely Spit! Finished out nicely.
Nice job. Good look in spit.
Thanks Rob, Greg & Anthony for the kind comments, much appreciated.