From France's leading WWII ace to France's second WWII ace Jean Demozay...well not quite, but I fully intend to complete the new Airfix Spit XII in the kit scheme, 91 Squadron during 1943. Demozay was CO of 91 Squadron through 1942 - the first French pilot to command an RAF squadron, as opposed to a Free French one - but he might just have left the unit by the time the Spitfire XII arrived. The Spitfire XII was the first Griffon engined variant to see operational service with the RAF. Only around 100 were built and only three squadrons used it, including and probably most famously, 91 (Nigeria) Squadron who were based in Hawkinge, just a stone's throw up the road from here.
Spent the afternoon in the garden in the sunshine and made a start on the cockpit. The kit comes with plenty of interior detail moulded into the fuselage halves. I've used .015" plastic sheet to overlay and 'beef up' the moulded detail, scratched a throttle quadrant, cut out the door and added the canopy rail so that I can use the neat 'open-canopy' option.
A relatively straight forward enhancement is to drill out the lightening holes of the internal structure. Note how thin the plastic is in the cockpit area (the sun shining through it in the pics below!). This is Tamigawa quality.
A nice looking kit. If i ever built a spit then I would go for an Airfix kit...iconic somehow.
ReplyDeleteCheers
Paul
Looking good. You should check out Tamiya's 1/32 scale Spitfire MK IX. That kit is a work of art.
ReplyDeleteWrong scale for me mate. But looking forward to your build as it will be a Kent based Spit.
ReplyDeletethanks guys!..
ReplyDeleteDaz, the 91 Squadron Hawkinge machine offered in the kit also brought down two Focke Wulf 190s in one sortie off Folkestone during June 1943..