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Scott Nelson
124 articles

A Heller of a Spitfire

October 22, 2019 · in Aviation · · 11 · 2K

Here's my old school version of the old school I. I bought this kit for a buck at a contest last summer and since it wasn't even close to modern kit standards, I decided to build it like I did when I was a kid: out of the box and hand painted with a brush. The decals were no good and I didn't want to spend any money for decals for this one so I cobbled together various codes, serial numbers, and roundels to fake it. Really, it was a fun build, but one I'll keep in the back of the Spitfire collection.

Reader reactions:
8  Awesome

4 additional images. Click to enlarge.


11 responses

  1. Hard to believe that model was oh so cool back in the day.

  2. Cool!
    I build this one back in the seventies when I was less than 10.
    The model kits today have usually the warning "This is not a toy" or "Not suitable for children under 14 (sic!)" on the box, but back then model kits WERE toys, and what a fun it was (and it still is) to build them!

  3. How true. It was so much fun.

  4. The shapes actually look pretty darn right to me. Nice job.

  5. Looks pretty nice to me, I kinda like old kits.

  6. Nothing wrong with building old school. I like your Heller Spitfire and build as it was once the way we all did or at least started at some point. The old Heller boxes with the lovely box art and black covers. You can find them for real bargains at events just like yours. I like it a lot.

  7. I'm a fan of old-school kits! No pressure, and typically it can only go up from where it started! Your Spit looks good as is. My one suggestion for getting the most out of an old school kit is to add some weathering and dirty it up a bit - helps hide or disguise what's underneath! Though it sometimes doesn't seem "worth it" to secure a new set of decals, that helps also - especially if you can add some stenciling and other small details with decals.

  8. Very cool. Congratulation.
    I’m a fan of old-school models too. I'm 61 old now and I'm a little nostalgic too. Today I'm rebuilding a Revell Tradewind, and this is really so fun ...

    1 attached image. Click to enlarge.

  9. Well done Scott, looks good.

  10. Nicely done! Speaking of Heller, I recently saw a couple of their kits on the shelf of one of the few hobby stores in my area, thought they were out of business, owner said that there's only one distributor for Heller in our area.

  11. I know it’s a bit late to comment on this, but, I think it looks great. Masterful brush painting job. If I’d done it, it’d look like I used a tooth brush.

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