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Hello fellow LSP-people! This is my first build on LSP and if I'm honest, I'm a little nervous. The standard of work on the forum is amazing, and I would on the best of days consider myself a mediocre modeller so my participation may bring the standard down a little Any feedback and/or advice is welcome. Now onto the subject ... I will be attempting the new 1/24 Airfix Spitfire Mk.IXc and the particular build will be version "A" in the kit which was flown by Squadron Leader Johnny Plagis, No. 126 (Persian Gulf) Squadron. This aircraft was based in Harrowbeer, Devon, which is just up the road (9 miles) from Plymouth where I was born. I recall playing on the disused airfield as a child whenever my parents took my two brothers and I to Yelverton Rock. I will be using some AM for this build. Airscale cockpit upgrade set Eduard wheels 5 spoke wheels - I was sent the 1/48 scale wheels in error and no amount of work is going to get those to fit. Fortunately there is no rush for the replacement. Eduard exhaust (on backorder) HGW harness (on backorder) Airscale harness ordered Thanks for looking! Jeremy

We take a look at a 3D Colour Printed cockpit set for the Airfix 1:24 Spitfire Mk.IXc from @Quinta Studio - I have a few of these sets now and I'm hugely impressed by the results achieved. Blue Skies, Iain

Same question as about the Bearcat in Indochina: I know there were Spitfire IXs serving in French Indochina from 1945-1950. Which variant? TIA.

Right then, let's get stuck into this little beastie (anything's little after 6 months on the Lancaster First up.. an admission of defeat. I'm not going to be able to build it as a true representation of MK356 of BBMF simply because she's an E- wing and the MKIXc is, well,a C wing. There's no difference in shape at all, the big difference is that on the E wing the outer gun bays were moved inboard of the cannon to give a more stable firing platform. While the empty outboard bays were left alone, there's no one doing the new gun bay covers for the in board gun bays so, I'll build it as a C wing but mark it up MK356 in J Plagis colours. So with that admission of failure out of the way, I mentioned earlier I took some parts off of the sprues. The fits aren't great but the detail is really good. An example here: All that has to be carved away to get a good fit. The magneto heads are nice but the shafts and the crappy palstic spark plug connectors are awful. They'll all be coming off and metal bar used for the fitting and silver 0.6 mm braided lead for the spark plug leads fitting into miniature spark plugs from Hiroboy. By far the biggest problem though is with the cylinder blocks. When you fit them flush to the crankcase ( as of course they should be) then the parts that make up the top spark plug assembly should fit neatly into the V groove created by the cylinder blocks as the instructions show: The problem is that the V is too wide leaving either a gap either side or a huge gap at one side or the other The only cures, unless I've got a dodgy kit or my skills have deserted me, is to narrow the angle formed by the cylinder blocks and fill the resultant gap at the bottom or fill the gap at the top which I did with thin card and liquid putty. That done, the rest of the engine is a doddle to put together. Be careful how far you build it so you can not only get in and paint it evenly but get in to dot the hundreds of silver bolt heads. So, for me, I built the crankcase, added the cylinders and upper spark plug assembly and the front part of the supercharger but I didn't glue on the reduction gear as in step 150, I just dry fitted it then stopped. Separately, I built the intercooler and the supercharger front part then sprayed all these separately. Colour wise you can go with black or grey, Merlins came in both flavours. That done, I picked out all the bolt heads in silver then, I fixed the intercooler to the main engine block and the reduction gear onto the front of the engine, NOT forgetting the prop shaft before you glue it into place (I didn't honest!) As you can see, I also add chipping at this stage. The "ROLLS ROYCE" logos are far too shallow to fill nicely in red or white but many weren't anyway. I've rubbed and faded the edges then dry brushed in silver to give a bit of pop. Looking a bit deeper at references it's clear Airfix haven't added any of the detail of control rods and pipework at the rear of the engine where it sits next to the firewall or a lot of the pipework for the supercharger and intercooler assembly. That will have to be added if I think the detail level of the base engine merits it after a good weather. Otherwise I'll build covers on, which I hate to do but if the detail isn't good enough I won't show it. Finally a good two coats of Aqua gloss to get it ready for weathering when it's all joined together. That's it on the engine for now. I'm all over sections at the minute so had a look at the wings as well. The fit doesn't look bad but there are ejector pin marks all along where open flaps will sit Also there are three to fill if you intend having open gun bays: Lastly, when you take the lower wings off of the sprues for heaven's sake mark where the tabs to remove are before you do it. There are two little nubbins, one on each wing that look for all the world like tabs you've just snipped. It was only a serendipitous yell of "want a cuppa?" from the wife that refocused my attention and saved a disaster. I knew I married her for some reason or other. Thanks for looking. More engine next and awaiting the Airscale IP with bated breath

With kind assistance from Carl (BloorwestSiR), I'm going to join this build with a 2nd TAF Spitfire. He kindly sent me the wing bomb carriers, 250 lb. RAF bombs, and 30 gallon slipper tanks from the Tamiya kit. I'm going to add these to a PCM Spitfire IX kit. I realize now that my 1/24 Airfix RCAF Mustang is going to be a longer term project, and for now I just want to build something out of the box...something simpler (haha!). I know the PCM kit requires care, but it's on my shelf and I think I'll just do it. The group builds give me a reason to keep at it, hopefully to completion this time. I'm still trying to decide which aircraft to do. I like the 308 Squadron aircraft of Squadron Leader W. Retinger, with the "Lala" inscription and the bomb record on the cowling. It apparently survived until the January 1st "Operation Bodenplate" attack, where it was destroyed. On the other hand, I'd also like to do a familiar 302 Squadron aircraft, "Pat", flown by W/O Henryk Dygala. It had the broad-chord rudder which I was kind of hoping to use too. Either way, I'll start this one on it's way. I can decide on markings later. Any thoughts or preferences? Richard

I did a search on Google under various keywords, but came up with nothing currently available. Does anyone produce an after-market set of late war bomb carriers for Spitfire IX/XVIs? I think they are included in the new Revell Spitfire IX kit, but I have a PCM Spitfire I'd like to try. Richard