David66

Great, I can see where some of the funds from my latest commission will be going ! Tonight I caved in and started cutting bits from the frames on my Mk.V, joined the nose sections to their respective fuselage halves, needed just a small amount of fettling around the top of the cowl to get them to fit seamlessly.......

Agree with you completely, A Tamiya P-38 would be wonderful, preferably a P-38 G/H followed by a P-38 J/L.....

I have the Hi-Tech Tempest Mk.V, it's stunning, I have to fight the tempest-ation to just clear the bench and crack on with it. The surface detail is lovely, very crisp and refined and the interior is a work of art, Best of all, it looks like it will fit together beautifully, no visible flash or mould defects. Definitely going to be getting one of the Mk.II kits when it's released and am also wondering if they couldn't squeeze a Sea Fury out of it..........

This is just stunning! I am actually completely lost for words having taken several days to read through this thread, I even showed this to a couple of friends who have absolutely zero interest in models or aeroplanes and they were equally gob-smacked. I swear in some of the pictures, especially those of the cockpit details, seat, frame, etc, that if I didn't know this was a model, I'd assume you were making/renovating a real, full sized Spitfire. It's a truly inspiring build and thread, got me thinking about getting hold of some of that litho plate and playing around with it....... Can't wait to see this finished and will certainly go and look for your F7F Tigercat build. Thanks so much for the inspiration and for sharing your amazing work here.

Bagged myself the Special Hobby 1/32nd scale Tempest Mk.V 'Hi-Tech' kit at Duxford on Sunday. What a fantastic kit ! Also found a rather lovely 1/48th F-20 tigershark by a company called Freedom Models, looks like it's based on the AFV Club F-5 series. Not sure what they're supposed to go for but I paid £20 for mine. The two together pretty much wiped out my modelling budget but totally worth it!

Wow! Just read through this entire thread, those are some beautiful models of beautiful aircraft, you've certainly got some skills, I can't wait to see the P-26 finished. Think I'll have to dig out my old Squadron/Signal In-Action books on these and the Curtiss aircraft. I am soooo tempted to go looking for some of those Hasegawa kits....... !

Good call on the centre section Tim and thanks for posting such a great pic of the Spitfire. I forgot to mention the lack of gull wing section on my original kit and, yes, I have got the Grey Matter resin part to correct this. I've actually been tinkering with the kit and all the resin goodies on and off for the past week or so. Got the resin centre section cut out and attached and I've started to build up the cut out area on the fuselage so it will all have a firm base to mount to when I eventually get to fitting the wings. I glued the cowl panels in place and have marked out the cut lines for the Barracuda bits. I might use the kit ailerons as they look pretty good with a very subtle fabric effect. I've also done some prep work on the Brassin cockpit parts and it looks like they fit the older kit perfectly. I'm going to be using the Eduard exterior set and a few bits from the recent Revell kit, mostly for the U/C doors, legs and U/C bay interior, hopefully they'll save me a load of scratch-building (although I'm still hoping G-Factor produces a set of Spitfire Mk.I U/C legs !) I have the Pacific Coast Hurricane kits which I might raid for exhausts and, possibly propellors/spinners, need to do a bit more research on whether that's feasible and also need to firm up which of the several decal sets I have to use, I could be tempted to do a really early Spitfire with the pole antenna, twin blade Watts propellor and hand-pumped U/C but that's something I really need to look into before I go hacking the Brassin set around...... Anyway, time to do the sleeping thing. P.S How's that Tornado F-3 conversion set coming along ? P.P.S Many apologies for the blatant thread hijack!

That rc Yak-130 is amazing and, while I'd still prefer an F-16XL, I could definitely go for a 1/32nd scale Yak-130.

Yes, the Barracuda resin set is fantastic. I have one that I'll be using to tart up my ancient Revell Spitfire Mk.I kit. If you want to go even further, I can highly recommend the Eduard Brassin wheels and their Brassin cockpit set, (way, way better than the cockpit in the new Revell kit and light years beyond what was supplied in my original issue kit.) Having said that, the surface detail on the Original issue Spitfire is stunning compared to the newer kit: very fine recessed panel lines, proper circular lines to represent fasteners and rives and very nicely done raised rivets in the appropriate areas.

Damn! I didn't know they'd switched from instrument faces printed onto the clear I.P parts to decals. That must be on the re-issued kit, we had a couple in the shop but I never had a chance to look at one. Up until about a week ago I had one of the original, printed I.P, parts from the first kit. Guess that's neither here nor there now, however I would strongly recommend the Airscale 1/24th scale Mosquito I.P set. The Airfix parts were nice but the Airscale stuff is phenomenal !

Yes, the instrument faces were printed on the rear face of the dials. The whole cockpit is very nicely detailed and the rest of the kit fits beautifully. There are a few upgrades available to give it a bit of a boost, I'd certainly recommend the Airscale cockpit set, Master .303 MG barrels and a set of seat belts would also be a good idea...... As for your sanity, I really couldn't say, the small purple mouse that lives in my belly-button keeps telling me that everyone else is either a figment of my imagination or the earthly projections of a race of pan-dimensional super-beings......... I really should stop eating those dodgy looking 'shrooms !

Yes and Yes from me, even though I already have the Trumpeter F-14D, Zacto intakes, Zotz VF-2 decals and Aires exhausts. I think the Tomcat has got to be be of the best looking US Navy jets ever, even in drab, lo-vis colours, it still manages to look beautiful. And as for all those hi-vis colourful versions..... I'd love to do a full colour VF-1 Wolfpack F-14A. On the other hand, an F6F Hellcat to the same standard as their F4U Corsair would be wonderful, Oh, and I completely agree with everyone that says they should have released other versions of the F-16, F-4, Mosquito and Spitfire.

I really hope Pauls F-16XL kit goes into production, yes, $300 (plus shipping, import fees) is a lot but I would be prepared to save up and go for it, I nearly bought the Wild Hare conversion from a mate a few years ago but was put off when I actually saw it. As for colour schemes, well, there's a whole world of what-if markings, basically, pretty much any country that uses the 'standard' F-16 would be fair game, personally, I can see it in Lo-Vis Euro-one camo with a sharkmouth (23rd TFW I think) and armed to the teeth....... Oh, and just to back up a couple of other suggestions, Yes please to a Buccaneer, A/T-37, SAAB Draken, Harrier GR.1/3, SR-71........ Right, time to do the sleeping thing, tomorrow I shall buy a new piggy bank and start saving for a Firefly, F7U Cutlass and F-4D Skyray.....

They're all waiting for me to start scratch building one, then you wont be able to move for the damned things !

Very Nice Eli! I have one of these, plus the Zactoman resin intakes and some other bits, including your wonderful VF-2 Bounty Hunters decals so I'll be watching this for sure. Hell, I may even get around to building the thing one day !

Yes, I too think it's strange that there isn't an A-37 in 1/32nd! Funny thing is that I was doing some research and talking to a guy about the possibility of a resin/mixed media kit a while ago. It's all gone a bit quiet now, I'll drop him a line and see if he's still considering it. I feel like I should have been more on the ball with it but I've been busy with a few commissions, looking for a new, hopefully better paid, job and my own 1/32nd scratch-build, pet project that I've only just realised that it's a few months since I heard from him! I almost considered scratch building one myself but think it might be a bit more than I can handle at the moment, lot's of subtle and complex curves on the real aircraft and getting decent drawings and referencesis proving to be a lot harder than I thought

Yep, looking forward to both of these. would make a fantastic Vietnam FAC pair to go with the OV-10, now all we need is and OV-1....... and an A-37/T-37 of course.

F-106? F-102? 1/32nd scale? Yes please! I'll take at least one of each, and would definitely be up for twin seat versions of both. As for colours and markings, well, I've always had a soft spot for the lovely Michigan ANG birds, ADC Grey with lots of yellow and black trim I coud even be tempted into getting a Tamiya F-4C/D and making a pair of Mich.ANG birds.........

Very nice, well done Cameron! Now all you need is a couple of T.I.E fighters to chase it.....

If there are resin seamless intakes available, just get them, the ones in the kit are a ***** and a half to put together. I made the Trumpy F-18E for a friend a few months ago and those intakes had me inventing new and colourful language !

I think I might have a spare F4E/F radome from the Revell kit if you need one. Let me know and I'll check over the weekend.

Yes, very similar but a slightly lighter shade of gold. Nice F-22 by the way !

1/32nd or 1/35th, either would be nice although I think I'd lean slightly more to 1/32nd if pushed ! If it was ever to happen, I just hope that the kit would be festooned with loads of raised rivets, just like the real thing. Oh, and I would be all over a USN version in the White/Gull Grey scheme with Hi-Vis markings.

Yes, I was distinctly underwhelmed by the new kit, the same thing happened when I saw the Dragon 1/32nd P-51D kit. As to how old the Revell Spitfire kit is, I honestly don't know but I must have got lucky and scored one of the very early editions, almost no flash, very crisp surface detail and, get this, it even had the old style instructions with written captions ! The decals were knackered but I found a couple of sets at Southern Expo in March so now all I have to do is decide which one I want to make......

I'm definitely in favour of raised rivets and details where appropriate. I was all excited about the new Revell Spitfire Mk.II but, once I opened one at work and saw all those divots covering every inch of the thing my enthusiasm died completely, so much so that I went and hunted down the very old Revell kit, sure the cockpit and wheel wells are a bit dire, and the lack of a gull-wing section is a right bugger, but I can easily fix those issues with a bit of scratch-building and some A.M goodies. The surface detail is cracking, the other thing I noticed was the incredibly close fit of the cowl panels. I also splurged a bit a few months ago and finally got a couple of sheets of Micro-Mark resin/decal rivet sheets and I'm now looking into getting a set of beading tools.