Hi guys
Thanks to a friend of mine having a stash clearout, I've found myself the new owner of a Matchbox 1:72 Spitfire Mk.IX kit. Very nice, and waaaaaaaaaaay better than the Airfix IX which has been around for donkey's years (but is soon to be replaced). It also comes with the later-style pointed fin (as seen on the AFC XVI TB863/FU-P)......fantastic for modelling one of NZ's two airworthy Spits.
Except that Doug Brooker's lovely machine has TWO COCKPITS, as you can see here.
This will be a challenge, but already I've been comparing the kit to Gavin Conroy's shots in Classic Wings 66 in preparation. Thankfully Paul was kind enough to include two canopies - thanks mate! - and I have a spares box full of surplus bits to kit out the cockpit a little.
Besides the filling of the entry door lines, another prominent change I had to make was the cannon. As boxed, the kit has a C wing (cannon inboard), whereas MH367/ZK-WDQ looks to have an E wing (cannon outboard). This was done by very, very careful removal and relocation of the two outboard stubs, and carving new mounting holes for the cannon.
As you can see, I'm well into cutting away the cockpit area and allowing for the two canopy setup. I'm very pleased with work thus far. The clear parts are very thick, so I can get away with not doing a detailed interior. Instead I'm just going to paint some sidewall detail and that's it.
The above is a dry-fit for illustration purposes only. Went into town to get some browns for the camo, all very exciting
. Got a ton of stencils from Italeri and Airfix Spits so the model will be a bit more detailed on the outside.
All done, apart from an appropriate sized "3" for the serial. Added a few stencils, scrounged around in the spares box for the necessary codes etc, and decided to just stick with the original intake. Can be changed if I ever get my hands on another one from the Matchbox IX/XVI kit. Fun build regardless, and I'm quite proud of how I handled the Grace-Melton conversion. May not be perfect, but I'm more than satisfied with the result
Now onto the other three 1:72 Spits on my bench....as well as the 1:32 IXc....