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Greetings fellow modelers: This was one of the most enjoyable projects I've done. The Kotare Spitfire Mk.Ia "Brian Lane" kit is fantastic. The Kotare team certainly put a lot of effort into creating a wonderful build experience for the modeler. And they pulled it off. In this brief, ready-for-inspection summary I'll share my build overview, my thoughts on the kit and some recommendations for future kit builders as I go through the photos. Here's a link to the build: Ok, here's my rendition of QV-K P9386 from September 1940. The quality of the molding, engineering, decals, and thoroughness and thoughtfulness of the 24-page instruction book really made this project a pleasure. I built the kit completely out of the box with the exception of Eduard masks for the canopy. Kotare's design philosophy made for a superb assembly process. Each main engine panel was molded as an individual part -- no seam lines or glue clean up. The fuselage aft section parts all intersect at panel line joins. The wing fairings are each single molded parts that fit perfectly. It's designed so that one can assemble the entire plane almost without a single seam line that intersects a rivet line or panel line. What a pleasure. The only area where this occurs is underneath the aft section of the fuselage -- conveniently away from normal viewing. I can't think of a single situation where the fit was not PERFECT. For example, there is only one way to install the landing gear struts. Full stop. There's no play, no wiggle, no uncertainty. One of the best designs I've seen. The horizontal stabilizers are one piece and there's only one way to install it for a nice, tight fit in perfect alignment. The prop assembly installs by literally fitting a square peg in a round hole for a perfect fit. Another nice treat is that the rudder and elevators are positioned off-center and match the positions of the control stick and rudder pedals in the cockpit. I haven't seen that before. That's just one of the many nice details and surprises discovered as one works through the build. Even the trim tabs are offset slightly. As for painting, the instructions provide extremely helpful guides for painting the cockpit as well as the exterior. For the cockpit, painting call outs are provided during the build steps and there are also summary diagrams with multiple views in full color. For the exterior, four full color views are provided for the aircraft with color call outs and key points. I used Mr. Color lacquers for the main camo colors (C361 for Dark Green and C369 for Dark Earth) and MRP Marking Yellow for the spinner. I mixed by own version of Sky Blue for the underside using Mr Color White, RLM 76 and Sky Blue. Since I wanted to emphasize color variation across the different subassemblies as the instructions pointed out, I painted some of the panels a little darker or lighter or a slightly different shade of green or brown. For example the fabric covered sections are a little more faded than the metal sections. I used the kit decals by Cartograf, which were fabulous -- perfect color, perfect register, nice and thin, no excess carrier film. All good. The main challenge with the decals was getting them to settle over the raised rivet areas on the aft part of the fuselage. It took several days of bubble popping and decal solution application to get them to finally behave around the rivets but they got there. I planned out the weathering process at the start of the project. My goal was to reflect what I saw in the reference photos -- and there are multiple clear photos of P9386 as well as several other Spitfires that are very helpful. One of the photos of a real spitfire elevator section has a humorous caption highlighting that there's no evidence of preshading on the fabric area. After priming with Mr Finishing Surfacer 1500, I painted the wing roots MC201 Super Fine Silver, then applied AK worn effects fluid over the silver areas. I pre-shaded the panel lines in black and then applied heavy marbling using spatter templates and random airbrush patterns to break up the solid panel colors. After the main camo painting, I dabbed the wing root areas with a wet brush to get the chipping effect I was after. Next was a gloss coat to seal in the chipping and prep for decals. After the decals and flat coat, I augmented the chipped wing roots with a sharp silver Prismacolor pencil to add some scratches and make some of the chipped areas "less round" and more random looking. The exhausts each are molded in top and bottom halves. There's a nice close up photo in the instructions showing the weld seams that can be replicated when you glue the exhausts together and let some glue squeeze out of the seams. I needed to add a little material to the tips of the exhausts to get the proper shape and I used my motor tool to drill out the exhaust interiors. I used reference photos for guidance on painting the exhausts. I started with gloss black and then applied a 1:1 mix of Mr Color Metallic Black and Super Stainless. After the decals were applied on the lower side of the manifolds, I used Tamiya acrylics to achieve the exhaust gas/heat color pattern. Black, purple, brown, orange, and deck tan were used. The cockpit detail that comes with the kit is astounding in my view. The instrument panel dials all have individual decals and there are placards all over the place - sidewalls, compass, gunsight, etc. Also, in the photo above, the molded seatbelt harness is visible, which I think looks pretty good. The figure of Brian Lane was a nice bonus and here's my attempt at painting him. There's a nice painting guide in the instructions. Overall Summary of the kit: Highlights Clear, detailed, comprehensive instructions. I may keep the book as a reference for other builds. Excellent. Design and fit for easy assembly and minimal clean up. Decals by Cartograf - cockpit decals and placards as well as the main markings and stencils Brian Lane figure - Colorful RAF pilot uniforms are great subjects. Aircraft interior and exterior color profiles in the instructions Surface detail - stressed skin effect around some fasteners, rivets, panel fasteners, hinges -- all good. Fine and consistent panel lines Landing gear design - "weighted" wheels with flat spots and slight bulges. Things to look out for (for future builders) My copy had some very slight molding sink marks on the tops of the wings above the wheel wells. Easy clean up. The exhaust manifold tips needed some extra filler material (CA glue). Again, easy clean up. The molded seatbelt harness is fairly thick in the section between the seat top and the armor plate slot. I thinned the seatbelt quite a bit by scraping underneath and cleaning up. Another option is an aftermarket seatbelt as the kit provides a seat without the molded seatbelt. Some of the molded detail needed a little sprucing up. Nothing major. Thanks for looking. Needless to say, I highly recommend this kit. Comments and critiques are more than welcome. - Jim Jenson

Well, I'm back to 1/32 after a few armor projects and several 1/48 kits. I picked this kit up this summer and am really looking forward to the build. The plan is to build it completely out of the box with no aftermarket and I think the kit has all the detail needed for an excellent rendition of this bird. This is the one marking option, but the subject is very well researched. The instructions are very detailed with photos and historical tidbits. A fun build experience so far. I just got started on the cockpit and will post updates along the way.

As some will know, when I make a model I like to have a connection of some sort with the subject, and as some will also know I had the pleasure of flying in a two-seat Hurricane earlier this year. So whilst I'm still building a Hurricane Mk I at the moment, I also have Revell's new tool Mk IIB waiting in the wings. Francis K Mason's book lists the serial numbers of most Hurricanes and their brief history, so I looked up BE505 (the Hurricane I flew in) as a possible subject, but what took my eye was a closely related Hurricane, BE503 of 175 Squadron which was based at Warmwell, a village in my home county of Dorset and close to where I used to live (Warmwell is best known as the base for Westland Whirlwinds). There is a beautiful little church in the village which has 22 graves of servicemen tended by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. I searched the CWGC site to see if any airmen from the airbase were buried there (there aren't) but the name of Jaroslav Hlavac stood out.....more investigation! Jaro's rather sad story is worth reading: "Jaroslav Hlaváč was born 11 October 1914 at Petřvald, a village, about 10 km east of Ostrava, in the Moravia region of Czechoslovakia. He attended the local school until he reached the 4th grade and then he moved on to the secondary school at Jistebník, about 30 km away. On completion of his education, he trained as a metal turner at Vítkovice, about 9 km from his village. In 1933, aged 19, Jaroslav commenced his compulsory military service and was selected for the Czechoslovak Air Force. He attended the Military Aviation School at Prostějov between 1934 and 1936, from where he graduated as a fighter pilot. His first posting, at the rank of sergeant, was to the 7th Squadron of the 2nd Air Regiment based at Vyškov as an operational pilot in Letov Š-328 biplane reconnaissance aircraft. He later returned to Prostějov where he attended a fighter pilot training course, graduating in 1938. Jaroslav was then posted to the 35th Squadron of the 2nd Air Regiment based at Olomouc airbase which was equipped with Avia B-534 biplane fighter aircraft. He remained there until the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, by which time he had achieved 295 flying hours. After the German occupation of Czechoslovakia on 15 March 1939, the Czechoslovak Air Force was quickly disbanded by the Germans and all personnel dismissed. The same fate befell most of those serving in the Czechoslovak Army. For the military personnel and many patriotic Czech citizens, this was a degrading period. Many sought to re-dress this shame and humiliation and sought the liberation of their homeland. Germanisation of Bohemia and Moravia began immediately, but by 19 March 1939 former senior officers of the now disbanded Czechoslovak military had started to form an underground army, known as Obrana Národa [Defence of the Nation]. One of their objectives was to assist as many airmen and soldiers as possible to get to neighbouring Poland where Ludvík Svoboda, a former distinguished Czechoslovak Legionnaire from WW1, was planning the formation of Czechoslovak military units to fight for the liberation of their homeland. Within Czechoslovakia, former military personnel and civilian patriots covertly started to arrange for former Air Force and Army personnel to be smuggled over the border into Poland to join these newly formed Czechoslovak units. Obrana Národa also worked in co-operation with Svaz Letců, the Airman Association of the Czechoslovak Republic. These two organisations provided money, courier and other assistance to enable airmen to escape to Poland. Usually, this was by crossing the border from the Ostrava region into neighbouring Poland. News soon began to be covertly spread amongst the former Czechoslovak airmen and soldiers and many voluntarily made their personal decision to go to Poland. Jaroslav was one of those who decided to escape and enlist in one of those units. In early May 1939, he successfully managed to cross the border to Poland and reported for duty at the Czechoslovak Consulate at Kraków. Once in Poland the Czechoslovak escapees were to find that Poland was not permitting the formation of foreign military units on its territory. However Czechoslovak officials had been in negotiations with France, a country with which Czechoslovakia had an Alliance Treaty. Under French law, foreign military units could not be formed on its soil during peacetime. The Czechoslovak escapees could only be accepted into the French Foreign Legion with the agreement that should war be declared they would be transferred to French military units. The Czechoslovaks would have to enlist with the French Foreign Legion for a five-year term. The alternative was to be returned to occupied Czechoslovakia and face German punishment for escaping – usually imprisonment or execution with further retribution to their families. The Czechoslovak escapees were initially billeted at Małe Bronowice, a former Polish army camp on the outskirts of Kraków whilst arrangements were made for their departure to France. When those arrangements were completed, Jaroslav, with other escaped Czechoslovak airmen, travelled by train to Gdynia, Poland, where, they boarded a ship which took them to Calais, arriving on 31 July. On arrival in France, the Czechoslovak airmen were taken to the Foreign Legion’s recruitment barracks at Place Balard in the south west of Paris for medical examination and recruitment documentation to be completed. This time was to serve as a familiarisation period to learn the ways of the Legion and to study, which continued after their acceptance whilst they waited for transfer to Sidi-bel-Abbis, the Legion’s training camp in Algeria. But before that process could be completed, war was declared on 3 September 1939 and instead the airmen were transferred to l’ Armée d’Air recruitment centre at Dugny, near Paris. Upon acceptance by the l’ Armée d’Air, Jaroslav was transferred to their training base at Centre d’Instruction de Chasse at Chartres about 75 km west of Paris, for conversion onto French aircraft. Jaroslav arrived there on 11 September 1939 and completed his training on 8 March 1940. He was then posted, as an operational pilot with the rank of Caporal Chef (Sgt) to GC III/7, based at Vitry le François near the Swiss-German border and equipped with MS-406 fighter aircraft. When the Germans invaded France, the rapidity of their Blitzkreig – lightning war – caused GC III/7 to have to change their airfields frequently as they retreated westward. On 17 June 1940 Jaroslav and other Czechoslovak airmen were transferred to GC I/6 based at Ussel which was also equipped with MS-406 fighter aircraft. Three days later, France capitulated. GC I/6 was now at Clermont-Ferand airbase, and its Czechoslovak airmen were released from Armée de l’Air service; Jaroslav had flown 68 operational hours in that service. They made their way to Port Vendres and on 24 June boarded the ‘General Chanzy’ which took them to Oran, Algeria. They then travelled for four days by train to Casablanca, Morocco, where they boarded a ship which took them to Gibraltar, where they transferred to a ship which brought them to England. Shortly after arrival to England, he was accepted into the RAF VR and on 12 July was posted to the newly formed 310 (Czechoslovak) Squadron at Duxford near Cambridge, where he was assigned to the squadron’s reserve pool of pilots who were awaiting conversion training on Hurricanes. When 310 Squadron became operational on 17 August 1940, it was no longer possible for training to be undertaken within the squadron due to shortages of aircraft and instructors so the reserve-pool pilots were assigned to 6 OTU at Sutton Bridge near Spalding, Lincolnshire on 17 August. Jaroslav completed this on 10 September and the following day he was posted to 79 Squadron (Madras Presidency) which was equipped with Hurricane Mk Is based at Pembrey, South Wales. Whilst there he made only a few training flights. On 8 October, Jaroslav was posted to 56 Squadron (Punjab) based at Boscombe Down near Salisbury, also equipped with Hurricane Mk Is. On 10 October, Jaroslav made his first operational patrol when six Hurricanes took-off at 09:20 for a patrol over Warmwell, Dorset, returning at 09:40. Later that morning at 11:55, six of the squadron’s Hurricanes were scrambled to intercept a Luftwaffe formation of 30 Bf110s escorted by 30 Bf109s approaching the Portland Naval Base. Jaroslav was flying Hurricane P3421. Jaroslav was killed in action when he was shot down by a Bf109 flown by Oberleutnant Julius Meimburg of 4/JG2 west of Wareham; his Hurricane crashed at Manor Farm Worgret. He was 26 years old and had become the fifth Czechoslovak pilot to be killed in the Battle of Britain." How very sad that after all his training, his travels and his determination to fight he was killed on his second day with his new Squadron, and on his first engagement with the Luftwaffe. An extract from the Squadron ORB for the day: ...and what a coincidence that on both ops. F/Lt Brooker accompanied Hlavac. What a coincidence, Brooker and his Hurricane are the subject of my current Hurricane build in the "Aces High GB": This is Jaro's resting place: and his headstone: The context for the battle; the attack was on Portland Harbour which was an important base for the Naval Fleet (what a coincidence, I lived on Portland for 30 years and had to be evacuated at one point for two days because an unexploded German bomb had been found in a quarry!), Warmwell to the north and Hlavac's Hurricane crashed at Worgret, west of Wareham (what a coincidence....I used to teach in Wareham and rode past the crash site very day without knowing it): So I've started a bit of research into 175 Squadron at Warmwell with their Hurribombers. Most of the time I think they were bored stiff with very little happening except for training exercises, beating up Portland Bill and the aerodrome and most went one or two at a time to Boscombe to look at some captured Luftwaffe aircraft being evaluated there, but they had their moments of excitement: attacking gun positions on the French coastline, and: So a future project: and in the name of research only (how serendipitous): Cheers ....and a Happy Christmas followed by the Healthy New Year!

If I was looking at doing a BoB mk1 Hurricane with no real subject knowledge, which kit would you recommend: PCM or the Fly kit?. Steve.

Just finished this one. This was on the shelf of doom for quite a while. I had purchased the kit for quite cheap and, due to the shape issues of the kit, it ended up being the last Bf 109 in my kit stash, so I figured I would go ahead and build it. However, I managed to destroy the canopy/windscreen parts before completion and also started to be really annoyed by looking at the shape issues, so I just shelved it. I finally decided to use a vac canopy from my spares and modify it to fit. I also sanded down the huge sharp corners that come off the trailing edge of the wing root fairing, into the rear fuselage. The fuselage cross section still leaves a lot to be desired, but this did improve the overall look of the fuselage, even if only slightly. But, don't even get me started on shape of the nose! In any case, I was able to complete it by adding the canopy mentioned above, MM enamels, oil and pastel weathering. The main decals were from the kit, but the unit/number markings were from a few different sources in my spares and represent an aircraft flown by 1./JG 2 around the Battle of Britain. I also added a few bits from scratch in the somewhat strange looking cockpit. In my rush to finish it, I introduced plenty of problems on my own, but the goal was to just finish it and then decide what I'm going to do next. I would really like to get into the Multi-Engine GB, but not sure what I'm going to do next. Anyway, I'm calling this one done (and I'm also likely done with Trumpeter, spare a couple of kits I already own that are from their "A team", which has apparently disappeared). Thanks for looking, John

New project will be the somwhat maligned Eduard 1/32 BF 109 E-4. Haven't decided on the markings yet but it iwll be a Battle of Britian era plane. Will be building basically OOB with just what Eduard provides. Which looks like quite a lot.

Calling this one done. Eduard profipack version of Gallands machine circa 1940. i just noticed, after taking the photos that I've got the wrong spinner on> Ah well, if I get the energy I'll pull it off and replace it. Apologies to all the 109 experts out there

Evening all. Airfix's venerable 1/24 Hurricane has show up my LHS. Anyone built one recently and if so what would be ended to bring it up to modern standards, Thanks in advance Tim

So was thinking of backdated Revells 1/32 Heinkel He 111 H6 to a Batlle of Britain H4 version. I see the kit contains the sprues with the bomb bay from their P version, so that's no problem. Have ordered some decals for the H3 / H4 version so my cunning plan is looking quite viable. Any Heineken experts out there that could advise me on other changes I'll need to make. . I know there were some differences in mg armament but am struggling to find references. Many thanks in advance Tim. P.s. I meant Heinkel experts not Heineken. That's auto correct for you, though know doubt Heineken experts could also give valuable advise

Time to move on from my last build, Airfix's 1/24 Me Bf 109 E-4 http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=69743&hl= to the next of my planes from childhood, the Airfix 1/24 Hurricane Mk1. Before I start, confession time. I never actually built this in my formative years. I did the Spit, 109, Ju87 but never the Hurri. I don't know why, perhaps other things got in the way as I would have been a teenager by then. So, this is a learn as I go along thing (nothing new there then ) I picked the kit up on eBay and it a good old example contemporary with my formative years. The box art on these kits still impresses me and the little book as opposed to a sheet of instructions all added to making it feel a bit better than a normal run of the mill kit As any of you who were kind enough to look at my log for my previous build, you'll realise that David Bailey I ain't but I've looked at some of the excellent posts and articles on LSP and hopefully I've improved a bit on the pictures here. Let me know As ever for me I've started with the engine. My old photo skills are (non) evident in these early shots but they just show the first couple of stages after gluing the mighty Merlin together I'm still unashamedly an enamels man so I started with a black base coat of Humbrol mixed with a little gunmetal to try and give a metallic effect These two are thankfully the last with my old camera and the auto setting. Next came the coat of satin varnish and a dry brush with Humbrols 27001 aluminium to give a little wear then an oil wash of burnt umber with a little lamp black added to try and simulate some oily grime in the nooks and crevices. I used some reference pics of various Merlins but you have to be really careful, I've realised to get the right ones or you end up putting all manner of bits and bobs on to enhance the look that really shouldn't be there. So a couple of the reference pics have various bits not evident on the Airfix engine, although I think it's a lovely but of plastic, so much better than the one on the Spitfire but there were quite a few years between those models. I added some extra wiring and cut off the spark plug connectors on the ignition harness as they looked awful. I used the 0.8mm resin connectors from Hobby Design painted silver, drilled into the engine body with my trusty microdrills and then hooked the lot up with 0.3 mm lead wire painted a suitable colour. Fiddly but I think it looks OK Looking at these pics I can see I need to redo the coiled pipe into the supercharger. It's thin brass wire wound around a core of thicker wire but I then slid it off the core and as I've bent it into shape is parted. The core needs to go back in to give it strength, I think. Very uncertain as to how much to do to the top section. I'm no Merlin expert but there are images with extra ignition wires etc going into the top but then others with nothing. I'm presuming they're different models of engine. I don't want to **** it up by adding stuff that shouldn't be there so any advice would be most welcome Hope the pics look better than my previous efforts. I'll post updated when I've fixed the coiled pipe and hopefully got some feedback on how far to go with the top section. Thanks for taking the trouble to have a look.