- The Airfix Tribute Forum -

johnwalker

Right, I was pleasantly surprised by the postie delivering one of these this morning and as a result everything else is now on hold while I delve into the box. First impressions – very nice indeed!

The box itself is the first one I’ve seen that begins to stamp something of Hornby’s mark on the Airfix brand. Not only does it have the Hornby logo but it also features a sticker assuring us that it was “Packed in the UK” and a new style of Flying Hours token.

The instructions follow the well established house style and have a separate, nicely printed colour camouflage and markings guide.

The new fuselage parts are nicely tooled and are obviously based on the old MkVb parts, but they’re not exactly the same. There’s less interior detail moulded on the cockpit sides and the locating pins are in slightly different locations. Interestingly the fuselage has the cutting guides for the arrestor hook panel moulded in – I wonder if this means the new fuselage moulding will replace the older Vb moulding in the Seafire III/Spitfire Vc kit?

The new wings feature very fine engraved detail and separate flaps. I’ve never been convinced of the benefit of this in Spitfire kits but its there if that’s what’s important to you.

Minor parts are obviously influenced by the older kits, especially the interior which can trace its origins back to the Vb kit. There are both MkI/II and V oil coolers, so from the box I reckon you can build a I, II, Va or XIII.

Decals are well printed and in register. I’ve had my trusty magnifier on them and they seem to be a bit different from the usual Airfix practice in that they seem to me to be half-tone litho printed, rather than screen printed. When I first looked at the kit this morning I thought the codes and fuselage band for the 118 Sqdn MkII had been printed in the same colour but on careful examination the bank looks to be a light blue, so a good match for BS381:1930 Sky Blue.

There are 2 clear sprues in the kit, which I haven’t opened yet, but one contains a delightful teardrop canopy!

I’ll do some comparisons with the Tamiya MkI as the build progresses but first impressions are very good indeed.

John

peebeep · Guest

John, the tail band matches my sky blue chip almost perfectly. I thought the yellow was a bit greenish but it matches Hu24. The decals in this kit strike me as being very good indeed.

Somebody on another forum pointed out that the fin shape seems to be a bit out and with comparison to plans and photos this would seem to be the case. Also I feel that the upper cowling profile should slope down a bit towards the spinner, but really these are both very minor gripes. I will await your build report with interest, otherwise I think this kit is very nice indeed and bodes well for the future of Airfix.

peebeep

Flash Flash · Silver Star Joined: 16 May 2006 Posts: 2920

Ity also says Airfix Club

. I like the style of flying hour though

_________________
Does this count as a new signature?

johnwalker · Posted: Mon 09 Jul 2007 18:12 pm Post subject:

OK, I’ve had a chance for a much better look and I’ve started preparing the parts, so a few observations are in order:

The cockpit : The suggested overall colour for the interior is 78 Cockpit Green. That’s good for the MkII but the early MkIs were painted a lighter green, maybe something like 90 Sky and a touch of yellow. The colour you are looking for is the famous Eau-de-Nil. Also pre-war Spitfires don’t need the armour plate (part 50 but BoB and later will. The seat itself has the correct style of padding coming only half way down the back should you not wish to install the rather nice 3-part pilot. The suggested colour for the seat is black, but again early ones should be light green. The throttle quadrant, air tanks and appropriate undercarriage lever are separate components.

Wings : The instructions suggest painting the interior of the wheel wells 78. I’d be happier using whatever your undersurface colour will be.

Wheels : As has been mentioned the undercarriage doors are much better – they’re flat! There are 4 and 5-spoke wheel styles included.

Other bits : There are 2 styles of exhaust, with and without fishtails. There are also 2 styles of aerial mast, straight and tapered. There’s only one, later, style of pitot however. There are 3 props included, which are the early 2-blader, a DeH Metal and Rotol wood 3-blader. There’s only one 3 blade spinner though.

John

johnwalker · Posted: Mon 09 Jul 2007 20:20 pm Post subject:

A quick trip out to the garage recovered my Tamiya Spitfire MkI from deep storage and allowed a quick comparison of the two kits. I’m afraid my camera isn’t up to this sort of close work but the differences in the colours of the plastic should get the point across.

First of all, in fuselage length, with the halves lined up at the rear of the cockpit opening, the Airfix is longer in the nose by about the thickness of the plastic. The Tamiya cockpit opening is also slightly shorter than the Airfix, and it’s fuel filler is about half a diameter further back.

From the cockpit backwards they are about the same.

The undersurface wing-to-fuselage join has always been wider on the Tamiya kit than the Airfix MkVb, and that is again the case with the new Spitfire kit. Lined up at the leading edge the rear of the Airfix wing will fit inside the Tamiya fuselage.

In summary the Airfix Spitfire is slightly longer in the fuselage but slimmer in the beam than the Tamiya kit.

johnwalker · Posted: Tue 10 Jul 2007 11:01 am Post subject:

Ok, I've decided on a subject for this build - it will be Pat Gifford's XT-A L1070 as it appeared on 16th October 1939 when it became the first Spitfire to bring down an enemy in combat, a Ju88A-1 of KG30.

Henry Buxton's book "The Birth of the Few" has a photo of Gifford standing beside this aircraft, reputedly on 16/10/39. There are a few details that can be discerned for this:

1. No crowbar inside the access door, but a couple of information placards can be seen. The access door colour is very light against the camouflage.

2. The aircraft doesn't seem to feature the name "Stickeback" on the port side fuel tank cover, as is often illustrated.

3. It has black/white undersurfaces but the lower part of the nose seems to be a lighter colour also, suggesting that this is one of the early Spitfires which retained aluminium under the nose and rear fuselage but had the wings repainted black and white. I wonder about the tailplanes though?

4. Early unarmoured windscreen

5. Gifford himself appears to be wearng a Sidcot flying suit rather than a pre-war white cotton one, with Mae West and parachute. He is, of course, still wearing his shirt and tie!

John

peebeep · Guest

johnwalker · Posted: Tue 10 Jul 2007 14:26 pm Post subject:

peebeep · Guest

johnwalker · Posted: Tue 10 Jul 2007 21:52 pm Post subject:

I agree but I think this is one of those anomalous aircraft. The photo shows the underside of the engine cowling lighter than the black wing, which suggests a field repaint of an originally silver undersurface. If that is the case I don't think the control surfaces were repainted "on station" because of balance issues.

John

johnwalker · Posted: Sun 15 Jul 2007 12:54 pm Post subject:

OK, finally got the thing out of its box and started building. I'll be doing it with the canopy closed so I'm not too bothered about detailing the interior, but I did mix the early internal colour, based on Edgar's post in this thread over at BritModeller:

http://www.britmodeler.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=2671 thread.

http://i28.photobucket.com/albums/c202/falkirk1298/PICT0018.jpg

It looks greyer on my monitor than it does in reality, being a bright apple green, similar to the pre-war LNER colour. My formula was Games Workshop Snot Green (really!) and Skull White mixed about 60/40. Snot Green is about the same colour as Humbrol 131 Mid Green or 3 Brunswick Green. I'm also planning on installing the pilot, so he's getting undercoated at the moment as well. The u/c interiors will be aluminium.

John

Tripehound · Yellow Star Joined: 19 Jul 2006 Posts: 140

Just going back to the start of the thread for a minute johnwalker, it looks like the side of the box with the profiles and flying hours is printed upside down (i.e. the other way up compared with the the other side & ends) - as was the one I bought at RIAT this weekend. Are they all like this?

peebeep · Guest

Mine is.

peebeep

johnwalker · Posted: Mon 16 Jul 2007 11:13 am Post subject: