OTDAEABT Contest - Maly Modelarz Spitfire MK VIII

[ashevilleangler]

More photos! This bird is coming very close to completion. Just a few tiny bits on the fuselage and wings and the radio mast and wire to finish her up. And maybe a bit of touchup here and there.

Decided to include a pic of the wheel build. Pretty simple if you've got toothpics and a Dremel tool. While I had the paints out for the wheels I decided to give the propeller blades a quick coat with black and yellow. The printed parts seemed to be fading just from handling.

And finally a photo of a plastic build of this kit for reference. The plastic build put an "extra" panther on the starboard side of the plane. I'm not quite sure about the placement of the white stripes. The plastic kit seems to have them placed a bit farther out on the wings and on the rudder and tail the stripes stop halfway. Even with that the MM kit seems fairly accurate.

Next post will most likely be the final pic and some detail photos. And a summary of my impressions of this kit. Though I must say already that my experience has been far more positive than negative.

Till then,

Cecil

[cjwalas]

Hey! I like this one! It looks like it builds up to a pretty decent model. Nice work!
Chris

[Clashster]

Great job, Cecil! I like this one!

[milenio3]

Cecil... he mail is... on the mail...

Very nice Spitfire. You surely managed well the model.

[ashevilleangler]

Thanks to all for your kind words. I guess this model is finally finished.

I added the radio antenna wire, some small bits to the fuselage and pitot tube.

Thanks to Ron for making these models available and for the contest thread!

My final impressions of this model are:

Fit ...... Much better than expected.

Colors ........ About what one would expect with the exception of the miss-registered yellow and blue. And the black was washed out on some things like the panther and propeller blades.

Historical accuracy ...... Close but no cigar! The yellow wing leading edges were the worst mistake.

Minimal detail for a model this large especially in the cockpit.

I think with a minimal re-color and some additional scratch-built details this could make a pretty nice model. If I had to rate it on the proverbial 1 to 10 scale I 'd give it a 6.5, mostly for the coloring and minimal details.

Even with that I must say that this was one of the quickest and most fun builds that I've done in awhile.

So I guess it's time to say adios to this build thread unless .............

[dansls1]

Nice build!

[ashevilleangler]

Taxiing into take off position and ........ Tally Ho! The twelve cylinder Rolls Royce engine roars to life and I duck as the Spitfire soars over my head on it's way to hunt for Japanese raiders.

Now that it's really flown away from the roll top desk, perhaps it will take up a top cover postion over my office workstation.:D

Cecil

[Don Boose]

Well done, Cecil!

[GreMir]

Great job!
Spitfire is a fine looking bird but whoever come up with the idea of an auxiliary tank looking like THAT should be ashamed of themselves.....

[cjwalas]

Congratulations on finishing a very nice build! Well done!
Chris