Nwanda

What a beautiful job! Well done. Two comments, on the use of the Sidewinder, the Rhodesians did have and carry them, both in South Africa for training, and in Rhodesia itself as a war load. There are photos on the interweb. As regards the lack of national markings, the camouflaged hunters carried the Dog and Bone Roundel for a while, and then for "plausible Deniability" these were removed for external raids. One wonders where the deniability was, as no one else in Southern Africa used Hunters..... Again, congratulations on a great build

Thanks guys for the comments - Jon, I intend to stick to 24th - easier on the eyes LOL

Jon - any comments more than welcome - the aerolons should probably be in the neutral position, but they are now firmly stuck as is, next one will be more accurate - and there will be a next one For the record, the joystick - which had to be cut down, I dont know what Trumpeter were thinking - is set to one side and the rudder pedals set to acoount for the rudder. Must admit that after years in the airforce where everything is hydraulic and droops to a greater or lesser degree, the thought of controls powered by a mark 1 human didnt cross my mind

So Ladies and Gents, for your consideration and gentle criticism, an allmost complete Spitfire - by me! It's a miracle! The dog is not by me ...................

After having un-lurked myself, this is my second post after 9 years of lurking! There has to be some sort of record in that The subject of this post is the excellent (largely) Spitfire 1/24 Spitfire. As I mentioned in post number one, I usually built glacially slowly, and tend to neglect finishing ..... With this build, I decided that I should remember why I do this, and build the aeroplane I want, for me. No frilsl or phaffing about, worrying about strict accuracy. I decided to strive for a representational build, to have fun and actually complete the thing! I deviated only slightly from this - I bought AM seatbelts (The mind boggles that a kit of this size and complexity doesn't include belts) and a set of etched flaps. Having read every review of this kit, I looked to deal with some of the problems. Firstly the ridiculous African long drop wooden seat thingy - I just left the planked bit off, and ended up with a seat that, once the belts were in, was certainly good enough for Government work. (I apologise if the images are poor, using a smartphone) As regards the ridiculous spring loaded U/C legs, apply glue and ignore. Same goes for the unnecersary and fiddly PE "hinges" for rudder etc. I added bits and pieces of decal dungeon color and interest, such as the fire wall I finished it as an aircraft of 1Squadron, South African Airforce, sometime just before or during the Korean war. The decals were the closest I could get to the smallish roundels evident in photos; the serial number is fictitious and compliments of the afore mentioned decal dungeon. I preshaded with the actual colour to try and get the look of an old and careworn airframe. Dark sea grey upper and haze grey undersides.