Search the Community

My next build will be the Tamiya Spitfire MkXVIe, which I plane to paint in the markings of SL721 which was the personal hack of Air Marshall Sir James Robb. I have also purchased some Eduard photo etch to help me improve this, but as I've thought about it, I have 2 other Tamiya Spitfires in my stash and if I built them all from kit supplied markings, they would all look the same on the shelf. I had made a tiny start on this plane before I started my Typhoon, but at the time, it really didn't float my boat, so back in the stash it went. I previously decided that this would be my first attempt at one of these Tamiya kits, based purely on the thought that if I mucked it up, at least it would be a learning curve for the other 2, as I much prefer my Spitfires not to have bubble canopies. However, the announcement of this group build gave me some better impetus to get started, and also to think outside the box (yes, I did say that ) and do some research into MkXVI's. Digging through my books on the Spitfire I came across this plane, which still exists. The picture I've shown is as it was in 1999 following restoration by Chris Woods in Canada, being repainted in it's original paint scheme. And this is how I shall be doing it and since I'm presenting it here, I hope I don't make a mess of it. The MkIX and MkVIII will be built later, but I've ordered some new markings for the MkIX and may well do so again for the MKVIII so that they all look different once built. I've also ordered the correct marking for this kit in my desired paint scheme, together with a couple more small bits to further enhance it. I've been at it with the rattle can silver today, them masking up for the interior green. I've also drilled out the lightening holes in the fuselage frames. More later. Cheers, Michael

Here's my entry in the GB. It's the Tamiya low back XVI kit. I'll be using Life Like decals to do TD248. I have a bit of AM to add to the build but it'll be mostly OOB. This means I'll have two different Spitfires on separate group builds at the same time. Carl