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Supermarine Spitfire F Mk.22 | Revell ex Matchbox 1:32


Kendzior

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The Tamiya XVI canopy is too narrow to fit on the Matchbox fuselage. I tried they one I have and the contours just didn't work.

 

Carl

 

Exactly. Almost have bought a vac-formed canopy on ebay, but fortunately in time I realized that it would be necessary to reduce the fuselage girth/width, for which it was too late. Well, maybe next time (now I see, that a lot of things could have been done better in this kit, so actually I'm thinking about buying and starting another one).

 

Thanks for all your nice comments :)

 

Best regards

Hubert

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I thought grey Matter did a vac canopy specifically for this kit...?

 

Matt

 

Yes, it was a part of their GMAA3209 Correction Set ... but I think it would be replacing one bug into another for $50 ...

 

Best regards

Hubert

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I thought grey Matter did a vac canopy specifically for this kit...?

 

Matt

I used it on my build, and unless I purchased the wrong one, it's also too small. The Matchbox part is very much oversized and misshapen, whereas the GMF part is much more accurate in shape and size, and it barely spans the cockpit opening on the kit, unfortunately.

 

Kev

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I have a friend who builds models OOB, and is perfectly happy doing so.

 

When queried about accuracy, he will sincerely state that this is a perfectly accurate model of an Airfix/Revell/FROG/Academy Typhoon (or whatever). And he's not wrong. But while I admire his rate of output, that's not what models are about for me. 

 

Despite having great faith and investing in the Matchbox kit back in the '80s (well pre-internet) I soon discovered the distinctive Griffon rocker covers and gull-wing interpretation were, to say the least, cartoonish in execution. At the time (late '80s) my Spitfire fixation was grounded in 1/48th scale, with the Airfix Spitfire Vb bearing the brunt of providing the common bare bones for every iteration thereof.

 

These days as age and eyesight take their toll and 1/32 scale has become my preferred modus operandi, my Spitfire base kit (the fascination has existed since being given am Airfix 1/72nd one as a Christmas present 58 years ago) has now become the Tamiya Spitfire VIII/ IX, depending on requirements. With the RB productions versions of the Warbird conversions providing the Griffon engine conversions and helpfully not making the PCM Spitfire XIV look odd in a line up.

 

So after a stupendously long meandering ramble, I'll summarise by saying that Hubert has produced a really nice result from the Matchbox/Revell kit of the Matchbox/Revell only mainstream Griffon Spitfire kit. But that nose would still stand out as a travesty among a line-up of Griffon engined Spitfire models.

 

But then, if you don't have a flight line of Griffon Spitfires for reference, who, out of all the likely audience, is gonna know?,

Edited by Chek
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Yes, it was a part of their GMAA3209 Correction Set ... but I think it would be replacing one bug into another for $50 ...

 

Best regards

Hubert

 

I noted that they seem to sell it on eBay on its own, cannot recall how much for......

 

I used it on my build, and unless I purchased the wrong one, it's also too small. The Matchbox part is very much oversized and misshapen, whereas the GMF part is much more accurate in shape and size, and it barely spans the cockpit opening on the kit, unfortunately.

 

Kev

 

However this makes the above academic  suppose.

 

Maybe Iconicair will release a whole kit in the future...?

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[...]

Maybe Iconicair will release a whole kit in the future...?

 

And Mk.21 and Seafire FR.47, please :)

 

 

[...]

But then, if you don't have a flight line of Griffon Spitfires for reference, who, out of all the likely audience, is gonna know?,

 

Frankly speaking, the wrong shapes of this kit are so obvious, that I think there is nothing to cheat...

As I mentioned in one of my first posts in this thread, making a fully accurate Mk. 22 out of this kit was not my goal - it's still rather an exercise, test-bed for some new (for me) techniques, like rescribing, riveting, scratch-building.

 

But ... you know, I'm going to take the gallery photos from 1 m distance, which makes 32 m in reality - so maybe at least from some angles it will do look like a Griffon Spit ;)

 

Best regards

Hubert

Edited by Kendzior
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