Amazing 1/5 Scale model Spitfire

[White Bear]

I hope this has not been posted before, but at http://www.hsfeatures.com/features04/spitfiremkidg_1.htm
you will find an amazing 1/5 scale model Spitfire, certainly one of the finest ever made.
Regards,
White Bear.:ok:

[jeppsbore]

Absolutely, marvelous.

A tribute to and by a master craftsmen.

Congratulations on a great achievment.

JB

[PPRuNe Pop]

What a pleasure to see the work of a man so obviously supremely talented and who spent so many years in making this beautiful model of the Mk1 Spitfire.

That it is going on display at the Royal Air Force museum is testimonial enough that it is a model of absolute quality. I look forward to seeing it there.

[Saab Dastard]

Quite stunning! I hate to think of all the detail you CAN'T even see - like the engine!

SD

[Cornish Jack]

SD
Re. the engine, some years ago I visited the Model Engineer Exhibition and watched one of the exhibitors carrying out some milling operations on a largish lump of aluminium. He explained that he was making a 1/5th scale Merlin!!! I think it must have been 5 or 6 years later on another visit that the completed engine was being demo run on an accurately modelled engine test stand, fitted with an equally accurately modelled constant speed prop!! Barry Hares, the modeller, unsurprisingly, won the top award for his efforts. Apart from the mind-boggling challenge such a design entailed (no castings, everything made from scratch), the degree of fidelity was, again, astonishing. Part of the display stand was a selection of rejected parts which weren't up to spec, including the first batch of valve stem collets (96 in total!!) rather smaller than your average nail clipping. Truly, we have some marvellously talented craftsmen, for the most part, unfortunately, unheralded.