Looking for Aftermarket for the OLD Revell Spitfire/Seafire

[Aptivaboy]

HI all, 

 

I'm looking at my old classic Revell Seafire and getting the hankering to finally build it. It's essentially the old 1/32nd Revell Spitfire dating from the 1970s with a Volkes filter. So... Is there anything specifically for it? I'll likely scribe the wings and fuselage and attempt to make it looks a tad more modern.  

 

Many thanks!

 

Bob

 

PS: It's this fellow:  Revell Supermarine Seafire Ib | Large Scale Planes

[LSP_Ray]

There was stuff made for it, but I believe it is all OOP. You should be able to use some of the modern AM for it, I would think, even though you might have to modify some things to make it work.

BTW, I thought the original Revell Spit/Seafire had recessed panel lines? Or was that one from before the 70's?

[Aptivaboy]

Mostly raised panel lines. They're actually not horrible. Revell did great work for the era.

 

I should add that the Seafire Ib was essentially a navalized Spitfire Vb, though as Revell reboxed this 1969-ish mold many times, I'm not sure that that point matters a great deal. Revell likely boxed it as whatever it wanted to box it as!

Edited April 1 by Aptivaboy

[thierry laurent]

Hi,

 

Good news for you: most of the aftermarket sets dedicated for later kits can be shoehorned in that model with a little bit of effort. I used a Brassin pit in my Mk.I. Any exhaust will ask for correction of the too large fuselage slots. To me the main issue was the spinner as the nose of that kit is slimmer. So if you want to replace the kit one you will need to shim the space between both fuselage fronts with a thin triangle of plastic. Any aftermarket wheel can be used if you modify the legs appropriately and I also used and modified LG resin bays originally intended for the Mk.IX. The main issue will be the canopy. However, people having built Kotare Spits can possibly help you as you get various options in such kits. I'm guessing you can also use the Barracuda radiator. I did not as it was not available for short nose Merlin Spit when I corrected my kit.

 

HTH

 

Thierry 

[thierry laurent]

Btw, the kit has fully recessed panel lines. So you will just have to modify the wing weapon panels and the bottom of the rear fuselage.

[Aptivaboy]

Thank you for all of the info!

 

I do have some Fotokit cockpit details so I may be able to simply dress up the existing rather sparse cockpit. We'll see. I also have a lower fuselage correction from (I think) Airwaves. The prop, hear and gear bays, and radiators are going to be the real problem areas.

 

EDIT: I rechecked the plastic and its an odd mix of styles. The wings feature engraved panel lines and rivets, the latter of which are rather deep and overdone, but some paint will cover up the worst of it. The fuselage, however, has a lot of raised details, including some very overdone rivets and some rather petite raised panel lines - thin but they're there. Its an off mix! This is also an early Revell Spit, as the instructions include an insert about the Apollo moon landings and building models of them, so this was likely an early 1970s molding. 

 

 

Edited April 1 by Aptivaboy

[thierry laurent]

5 hours ago, Aptivaboy said:

This is also an early Revell Spit, as the instructions include an insert about the Apollo moon landings and building models of them, so this was likely an early 1970s molding. 

 

 

1967! By the way the Greymatter belly correction part is awful and close to useless (this is actually a scribed copy of the same section of an Hasegawa kit). Forget it! It is easier to use it as a model to sand the offending areas in order to restore the missing gull wing shape.

[LSP_Kevin]

51 minutes ago, thierry laurent said:

1967! By the way the Greymatter belly correction part is awful and close to useless (this is actually a scribed copy of the same section of an Hasegawa kit). Forget it! It is easier to use it as a model to sand the offending areas in order to restore the missing full wing shape.

 

That's interesting, Thierry, as I have that correction part somewhere, but never really took a good look at it.

 

Kev

[D Bellis]

5 hours ago, Aptivaboy said:

The fuselage, however, has a lot of raised details...

Which is correct since the real Spitfire had raised rivets aft of the cockpit and flush fasteners (represented as recessed details) on the forward fuselage. I believe that kit was the first (only?) Spitfire kit to accurately represent those surface features. 

 

HTH,

D

[LSP_Ray]

6 hours ago, Aptivaboy said:

Thank you for all of the info!

 

I do have some Fotokit cockpit details so I may be able to simply dress up the existing rather sparse cockpit. We'll see. I also have a lower fuselage correction from (I think) Airwaves. The prop, hear and gear bays, and radiators are going to be the real problem areas.

 

EDIT: I rechecked the plastic and its an odd mix of styles. The wings feature engraved panel lines and rivets, the latter of which are rather deep and overdone, but some paint will cover up the worst of it. The fuselage, however, has a lot of raised details, including some very overdone rivets and some rather petite raised panel lines - thin but they're there. Its an off mix! This is also an early Revell Spit, as the instructions include an insert about the Apollo moon landings and building models of them, so this was likely an early 1970s molding. 

 

 

You might want to take a closer look. Like Thierry says the original 1967 kit had recessed lines, though I am not sure about the fuselage. However, later on (90's?) Revell released a Spit I/II from Hasegawa's 1970's fuselage from their Spit V along with new-tooled wings that did have recessed panel lines. That kit, all the aftermarket should work well with.

Original (in Seafire boxing):

 

Hasegawa/Revell mix:

 

You can look at the whole family, as well as many of the am products, on Scalemates.

[Aptivaboy]

Its definitely the original 1969 mold, retractable landing gear and everything! She'll definitely need some new decals, though. The originals are in good shape, but man... 1971... Part of me wants to try them just to try them! 

[Pete Roberts]

This kit is best completed as a Mk I. The surface detail is some of the best you I will find for a Spitfire Mk I. Unfortunately, several issues. Lack of contour in the belly to rear main wing join, exhaust slots are too large and in the wrong place, the cowl panels finish short of the nose, the wing is a little short in span and too wide in chord, and the control surfaces have fictitious detail to allow them to be operable. There are no walls to the wheel wells and the interior of the radiators lack detail. The cockpit should not have a floor, and also lacks a lot of detail. The sliding canopy has a clumsy over scale slide attachment, and the groove along which it is supposed to slide is over scale. To name just a few…..

 

However, if you want a cheap Spitfire Mk I to build and just sit it on a shelf to admire, this is a pretty good candidate - IMHO, it looks the goods to the casual observer. Personally, I’m not a fan of the later Hasegawa or Revell 1/32 early Spitfires.

 

I am not sure why you would want to be scribing panel lines as this kit already has engraved panel lines. I’m not aware of any AM specifically for this kit, but as others have said above, most of the 1/32 AM for early Spitfires should fit, or be capable of wrangling to fit.

 

I built this kit not long after it was released, thanks to a very generous uncle and Christmas, and recall it was a very pleasant build, but you know what they say about memory…. 

Edited April 2 by Pete Roberts

[LSP_Kevin]

37 minutes ago, Pete Roberts said:

[...] but you know what they say about memory…. 

 

I used to. But I don't remember any more.

 

Kev