Off we go with a quick assembly of parts that also gives you a bit of an idea of the engineering of this kit. First, the seat comes in three parts: the back rest with moulded cushion and belts, the seat bucket, and the side braces which also have the lap belts moulded onto them. This assembly is glued to the back armour and, in the below pic, rests without glue in the substantial fuselage interior mould that contains the radiator and tail wheel bay. I would admit that the side braces on the seat are a bit clunky and I'll probably thin these somewhat.
The radio comes mounted to the frame but one needs to add the battery. There are no wires to the radio terminals and battery so I'll add those.
The tail wheel bay has one of the nicely detailed walls attached. The door is part of the wall mould so there's little chance of getting the angle wrong or breaking this off. I'll need to paint this area before going further as things will get pretty congested otherwise.
The radiator exit duct and grilles come in 4 pieces and insert into the interior mould. Fit is decent but not Tamiya-precise as we can see a bit of a gap. Also note the ejector pin marks on the wall which I didn't bother filling. These will hardly be visible once the exit louvre is added.
Here's the intake side of the same part with a big seam visible and more pin marks.
However, once the oil cooler is added (loosely in the below pic), things become less obvious, though I think I'll still do something about that seam.
The cockpit sidewalls have been glued into the recesses in the fuselage sides. Detail is nice with the trim wheel and throttle box being separate parts. The ejector pin mark in front of the map case is out in the open and has no hope of being cleanly filled and so will be left as is. The one behind the map case will be completely hidden by the fuel tank.
Here's the other side. A nice touch by Airfix is to provide the oxygen hose, something too often omitted by kit manufacturers. The pin mark just aft of the rear part of the hose is beside the seat and so won't be too obvious. the one behind that is, again, obscured by the fuel tank.
Below is a sense of the surface detail. To my eye, it's nice and crisp but a bit overdone, an Airfix trademark in their newer kits in my opinion.
That's all for now.
I did a bit more reading on the colours of the canopy frame and anti-glare panel border. Though blue seems logical, it's stated that the yellow was reported by ground crews.
OK, just received the new Kits at War decal sheet, featuring lots of Spit IXs, but also the "famous" 'Dooleybird.' Now, I've seen this aircraft depicted in a variety of trim colours - blue, red or yellow. I see that the decal sheet also calls for an OD anti-glare panel on the nose. The sheet also...
I really expected that someone else would have entered this one by now I bought this one just the other day specifically to fill the gap If I remember correctly after all so many years this is possibly the first Matchbox kit I built when Matchbox first got plastic models into the shops Back then ...