Score one for the 21st century and modern technology.
But in one regard real-world shopping scores over web commerce. That's when you wander into a shop with money in your pocket and see what catches your eye. Which leads me neatly into what I picked up the last time I stuck my nose into Waterlooville Models (Actually in Portsmouth. Don't ask.)
AZ MODELS JOY PACK: SPITFIRE 1B, SPITFIRE IIB, SPITFIRE VB, SPITFIRE VI
I've been on a Spitfire building kick of late and here was a chance to build some rare versions.
The Mk VB has a lot of kits available but I didn't even know the IB and the IIB were out in kit form.
The IB briefly saw service during the Battle Of Britain as an abortive early attempt to give the Spit more firepower. Sadly the 20mm cannon installation was not a success and they were quickly replaced by standard MkIAs. When the MKII was introduced in late 1940, most were armed with machineguns but in the IIB Supermarine had another go at fitting cannon and with a few tweaks, this time it worked.
The MKVI was a high-altitude version with extended wingtips and a pressurised cockpit. It also introduced the 4 bladed propellor which later became standard.
For your money you get three separate kits and the option to choose what you build.
The one minor flaw is that you don't get any decals so I did have to resort to trawling the web. Which is where I found these:
Found on https://www.hannants.co.uk/
So when it came right down to it, I ended up making something completely different from planned. What the hell, I didn't have a PR Mk IV and I did want a Spitfire in Soviet markings.
Building the kit.
I don't think I would recommend this kit for the neophyte modelmaker as there are some minor things to watch out for.
1. There are no pin/hole fittings to make assembly easier. The inner surfaces are completely blank and this means you have to do some fiddling to make sure everything is in teh right place.
2. For some strange reason, all the kits in this pack come as default Mk IIs. So if you want to build, say, a PR MKIV, the first thing you need to do is file off the blisters the MKII had on the cowling.
Personally I'd have left those off the basic kit and given the modelmaker to add them if require. Whatever.
3. For the most part the bits come together with minimal fuss but when I came to mate the fuselage with the wing assembly I had real problems getting them to match up properly. In the end a bit of putty was required to close up the gaping spaces.
Incidentally this is how I made sure the tailplanes stayed level.
Low-tech but it worked.
4. I also found getting the wheels onto the oleo legs required some work with the Stanley knife.
5. No radio mast was provided. Why? No idea. Maybe AZ ran out of space on the sprues. I ended up filing down a spare bit of plastic from another kit and hoping nobody would ask why it's a weird shape.
All in all, this was a nice little kit to put together and I am quite pleased with the finished result.
Soviet Spitfire in PRU Blue.
Cool, hey?
That's all folks.
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