Andrew's Tea Tray

[Stuart]

Great progress on that T.2 Andrew and what an excellent collection of work for 2022!

I hope you and yours had a great Christmas and all the best for the new year!

[AndrewR]

The T.2 needs some primer on the seams, which means airbrush time! I'm looking after David this afternoon, which means I can't get to the Basement Lab.

So, what do we do? What any sensible modeller would: start a Spitfire build.



This boxing of the 1979 Spitfire Mk I has unfortunately had the tooling tweaked to make it a "snap fit" kit, and it certainly isn't as crisp as the original - there's a bit of flash!






As usual, we have the traditional decal sheet for the 234 Squadron machine. Yawn.



A rummage through the decal collection turned up some Xtradecals for S/L Brian Lane's machine while he was OC 19 Squadron, with a rather fetching yellow spinner.


The poor old pilot has been made "snap fit" by having a big peg stuck on his backside with a corresponding hole in the seat. I'll plug the seat hole and save the pilot (after a pegectomy) for another build.



Here we are with some primer and interior green-grey in appropriate places. It's Vallejo Air on top of Vallejo Bronze Green primer, brush painted. The plastic was a bit greasy, even after a wash in soapy water.

[AndrewR]

Great progress on that T.2 Andrew and what an excellent collection of work for 2022!

I hope you and yours had a great Christmas and all the best for the new year!

Thanks Stuart, we had a good time, and we are looking forward to the New Year.

[Stuart]

Great progress on that T.2 Andrew and what an excellent collection of work for 2022!

I hope you and yours had a great Christmas and all the best for the new year!

Thanks Stuart, we had a good time, and we are looking forward to the New Year.

Glad to hear it!

[AndrewR]

If you do get one of these snap-fit kits, remove all of the snap-fit fittings immediately, as they make the kit snap-ill-fitting.




Also, there are sink marks on the cowling which weren't there before!

[Stuart]

Yay! Sounds like fun. I do recall the Aifix Lightning F.3 kit I vuilt being the same - that had been snapified at somepoint too.

[ShaunW]

I've yet to have the pleasure of building on of these modified snap fit affairs and it's a bit of a shame Airfix messed about with that '79 Spit as it is something of a classic. I'm no expert on the subject of plastic moulding but perhaps the sink marks are a sign of the moulds wearing? or was someone at the factory a bit ham fisted taking the parts out of the mould? Ho hum, at least you are besting it. Wishing you and the family all the best for the New Year.

[AndrewR]

I've yet to have the pleasure of building on of these modified snap fit affairs and it's a bit of a shame Airfix messed about with that '79 Spit as it is something of a classic. I'm no expert on the subject of plastic moulding but perhaps the sink marks are a sign of the moulds wearing? or was someone at the factory a bit ham fisted taking the parts out of the mould? Ho hum, at least you are besting it. Wishing you and the family all the best for the New Year.

The moulds are certainly not as good as they were for the original blister-packed kits. Nothing terrible, but noticeable.