Martin's Christmas Cracker(s)

[Martin R]

Hi folks,

I received one rather large, deep box from my Secret Santa and it has sat under the tree unmolested except for the odd shake. Unfortunately, this didn't actually help me divine what was in it. But now that Christmas is here, I know! It actually contains 2 lovely wee kits. Apologies for the lack of pics but it's that time of year . . .

Kit #1 is the old-tool Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb in the new red box. Fantastic! Now I have to work out what I'm going to do with it. Malta Spitfire? D-Day striped Royal Navy artillery spotter? Stay tuned as I ponder further over the eggnog!



Kit #2 is the rather splendid new tool Airfix Hurricane I 'fabric wing'. This looks a lovely kit, well-detailed and engineered and I'm looking forward to starting it. However, I must admit that the kit decal choices don't really do it for me; instead I fancy a 3-blader Battle of France example, so I'll have to source the decals separately.



I'm looking forward to starting both of these. Many thanks to my Secret Santa who obviously spotted my liking for Airfix WWII fighter subjects. I hope you also got what you were hoping for!

A very Happy Christmas to all UAMFers!

regards,

Martin

***Edited with photos***

[PaulBradley]

Nice! You know those artillery spotters flew from Lee? An appropriately local choice, I feel!

[Martin R]

Nice! You know those artillery spotters flew from Lee? An appropriately local choice, I feel!

Yep, that's a draw. Also the fact that some Spitfires flew with the FAA. And there's a nice profile of one of these machines in the "Operation Overlord" book. For that option, I would need to source an alternate canopy with the internal armoured windscreen and some multi-ejector exhaust stacks, but that should all be do-able.

The Malta Spit could be a Mk Vb, but there are more options for MkVcs and I already have one of those on display . . .

regards,

Martin (who's uncomfortably full of turkey and Christmas pudding)

[Chris]

A very fighter command Christmas for you Martin!

[ShaunW]

Unlike turkey and mince pies, there can never be too many Spits or Hurris at Christmas

[Martin R]

A very fighter command Christmas for you Martin!

Absolutely, old chap!

Toodle pip,

Martin

[Martin R]

Unlike turkey and mince pies, there can never be too many Spits or Hurris at Christmas

Remember: Spits and Hurris aren't just for Christmas . . . .

regards,

Martin

[Narayan]

Nice. Is that the Hurricane with the Irish Air Corps option of decals?

_________________
Narayan

Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out that he'd melt my brain.

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[Gregers]

I'm thinking of getting myself the Hurricane 1 kit. Will be watching with interest. If you want reference on interesting markings for the Spit V Flypast mag has a good article on Soviet Spitfires this month.

All the best.

Greg

[AndrewR]

Unlike turkey and mince pies, there can never be too many Spits or Hurris at Christmas

"Starlight Control to Dogtail. Watch for friendly mince pies joining you on your port side"

"I see 'em, I see 'em. Bloody marvellous".

[ShaunW]

Unlike turkey and mince pies, there can never be too many Spits or Hurris at Christmas

"Starlight Control to Dogtail. Watch for friendly mince pies joining you on your port side"

"I see 'em, I see 'em. Bloody marvellous".

"Hey you lot, don't eat all the pies!..... in Polish!!"

[Martin R]

Unlike turkey and mince pies, there can never be too many Spits or Hurris at Christmas

"Starlight Control to Dogtail. Watch for friendly mince pies joining you on your port side"

"I see 'em, I see 'em. Bloody marvellous".

"Hey you lot, don't eat all the pies!..... in Polish!!"

I am heavier than I was at the start of the holidays. I think Global Warming is affecting the gravitational field locally

Sad to say, I've made no progress on the kits thus far, although I did deign to wash the sprues in hot soapy water last night. We are going away to celebrate the New Year with family tonight, so again nothing will get done. However, I am predicting an early January start - headache notwithstanding!

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

So, I did start this evening, although I still haven't any photos to show. Sorry!

Hurricane: undercarriage sidewall and structure added to the lower wing piece. For some reason I found this really fiddly. I think I didn't clean up the mould lines sufficiently, and things didn't quite click into place - unlike my previous Typhoon build. However, I got it all fitting approximately where it should by the end of things, so hopefully no harm done. I also managed to snip appropriate pieces off the sprues and spray them with a rattle can of Aluminium, but I'm thinking of going for a slightly later model Hurri (the one on the box art for the next boxing of this kit) so I'm trying to work out which of the alternative pieces I actually need. Tomorrow will hopefully include detail painting of the cockpit and maybe getting the wings attached. Oh, and I also drilled out the gun barrels.

Spitfire - I cleaned up the main airframe bits (there was quite a lot of flash and some mould damage on eg the wingtips), cut off the rivets on the nose panels, then used a twist drill to re-instate them. Some of them were even in the right places. I think I'll need to go the vacform canopy route for this one (the later MkVb I wish to model I think had the internally armoured windscreen unlike the externally armoured one that comes with the kit). If I do that, I'll need to tart up the cockpit. I need to think what I can actually do here.

Anyway, I'll try to get some pics up tomorrow.

regards,

Martin

[Martin R]

With a couple of photos to show the limited progress:

Top wing piece (including the cockpit floor on the top side). The two white circles are ejection marks, quite visible through the wheel well. Milliput has been applied, allowed to semi-harden, then rubbed smooth with a damp fingertip.



Wing bottom piece, with undercarriage well walls attached and sprayed with a metalcote rattle can. The trailing edges have also been thinned slightly.



I haven't been at the bench tonight, but hopefully more to come tomorrow.

regards,

Martin

[ara398]

Nice progress Martin!

Will be interested to see how the new Hurricane builds up (because here in the colonies, we won't see it this side of Easter! ).

Adrian