Here's the next project from the Mexican Skunk Works. I got this kit a few years back thinking I would get started on it right away, but life and work intervened. Finally cleared the bench and here she is.

This is a 1996 issue, so it's a lot newer than what I usually build. There are three sprues of gray plastic and one of clear. One sprue has the five blade prop for the Spitfire 22/24. Decals are for a Korean War aircraft and a Royal Navy Reserve machine and look pretty nice. They are in a matte finish, and the underwing serial numbers are done in sections so you don't have to cut them to fit the gear doors. There is a little flash here and there, but not much. Panel lines are recessed. The kit has a wings folded option, and underwing stores include rockets, a belly tank and a pair of slipper wing tanks. Gear can be built extended or retracted, but there's no stand.

I've started on the cockpit. It will be mainly black, which I did with acrylic black mixed with some light gray to lighten it a bit. The upper instrument panel was done in gloss black, as I plan to use the decal in that area. There's not a lot of sidewall detail, which is ok because you won't be able to see most of it anyway. I'm planning a dark gray wash to pick out some of the detail, and I drybrushed a little gloss black on the seat support as an experiment to see how it looked. It wasn't as severe as I thought, so I may continue it through the cockpit. I couldn't find anything regarding the seat color, so I made a WAG that it was bakelite as in the Spitfire. That was done in an acrylic brown. While the paint was still wet, I brushed in some red until it looked about right. The spade grip on the stick will have to be drilled out. Use care here, it's pretty flimsy. That was painted black, but I did the column in interior green just to break things up a bit. I went nuts looking for the gunsight - it's on the clear sprue.

You'll have to cut holes in the fuselage on both sides for the camera ports. One is rectangular and the other round. Their location is pretty obvious, but it's on the instructions as well. Use care and file a bit at a time until the clear pieces fit snugly. I found a resin kit that provides the cameras to go behind these, but I forgot to bookmark the site and will have to go searching for it again. That might be a worthwhile addition to this model and I'll post the site here when I find it again. I also added the rocker cover bulges to the fuselage halves now. They don't fit too well and it will be easier to fill the seams with the fuselage disassembled.

More to follow...

5 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Here are the camera inserts I mentioned:

http://barracudacals.com/proddetail.php?prod=BR48028

And an article with links to the other resin sets available for this model from the same company:

http://www.hyperscale.com/2012/reviews/accessories/barracudacast32012previewbg_3.htm

Hi Jaime, I am also working on this kit but am a little further along than you , my one is nearly ready for primer,it's up to you but I would think the cameras will only be visible if you intend to have the camera bay open.

I don't think the later Spitfires / Seafires had Bakelite seats, I went for an Aeries resin seat and painted it black but I did pick out the leather padding and head rest in a leather colour a sort of redy/ brown for a bit of colour although these may well have been black as well in reality.

As I understand it the sidewalls of the cockpit are black on the bubble canopied spitfires to cut down on sunlight glare but the floor was still in the usual green.

Looking forward to seeing it finished.

N.

Neil, I could never find anything that definitively said what kind of seat was in the late Seafires. I decided on the bakelite just to break up the black, as when I test fitted the fuselage halves, the cockpit ended up looking like a black hole, even with the drybrushing. Would you happen to know what kind of harness was fitted? I'll probably just go old school on this one and make my own.

Seamus, I'm leaning toward adding the cameras. Leaving nothing behind the camera ports or painting the back sides just wouldn't look right.

Just an aside - I was looking at the formation lights on the lower fuselage and ended up filling them in from the inside with colored Sharpies. It looks pretty good, going to see if backing that with some chrome silver will look ok.

Took the plunge and ordered the Barracuda camera set. I'll post pictures when they arrive.

I will be at Scalemodelworld at Telford on Sunday so if I think on I will keep my eyes open for Airfix Seafires and see what the concensus is.
N.

Got a little more work done this past week. The seat and its bulkhead were assembles and installed. This turned out to be a little more tricky than I expected. There is a small notch on the left side of the bulkhead, which fits over a molded frame in the fuselage side. The headrest fits into a small notch at the back end of the cockpit opening. There's no real positive locating devices, so use care to get it square when gluing this in.

The main instrument panel has very nice raised detail on it. This did pose a problem when installing the instrument decal, as every time I tried to blot the decal dry, it would pull off because it wouldn't snuggle down into the crevices between the raised sections. I finally applied the decal with lots of water, let it air dry, then hit it with Micro-Set, which made it snuggle down. Use care to align the decal with the raised detail, or it will look a little odd. The rudder pedal assembly, including the stick, are glued to the bottom of the instrument panel. As with the aft bulkhead, there's no real positive alignment pins. A small notch on the panel face slots into raised detail on the fuselage. Again, take care with alignment.

I'm still waiting for my resin cameras to arrive so I can finish the fuselage. I'll post some pics later.

Here are some photos. This is the seat and aft bulkhead assembly:

Instrument panel, stick and "floor". The decal actually came out looking pretty nice after settling into the raised detail on the panel.

The entire cockpit installed:

With the fuselage halves together, the cockpit turns into a black hole. I had considered using a photoetch cockpit set, but you wouldn't be able to see any of it. Still waiting for the resin cameras to arrive. When they do, I can assemble the fuselage.

And a sad note - my local hobby shop closed last week after 30 years in business. That puts a bit if a crimp in the modeling because no one else close by carries much in the way of plastic modeling stuff. Guess it will be off to the interweb...