Chocks away! Airfix’s Spitfire takes to the skies again.

[BEagle]

Ah yes, 'The Potter's Wheel'! Happy memories of those '50s BBC TV Interlude films:

You Tube

405-line B&W - and only 2 channels!

[DHfan]

2 channels? Only one until 1955/56 or so.
We had a strange valve gizmo to pick up ITV sat on top of our massive TV with a minute screen.

[BEagle]

You're quite correct. ITV started in 1955, but down Zum'zett way it didn't come on air until 1958 when TWW started. Our old 9" Bush was Band 1 fixed frequency, without the 'Band Converter' which facilitated ITV reception on Band 3. So my father upgraded to a secondhand Peto-Scott. BBC1 on Channel 5 and TWW on Channel 10. Then in 1961 came Westward TV on Channel 9, but the chap who came to fit the crystals put the wrong one in, so we briefly had Westward picture and TWW sound!

It all seems so dreadfully primitive now - the attractions of Airfix, Frog, Revell, Aurora and Lindberg were much more interesting!!

[bafanguy]

I was watching the BBC news this morning. They had a segment on Airfix and the model mentioned in the original post in this thread. I was a bit surprised that model making got attention in such an august news venue. Kinda nice.

[tdracer]

Well, I just broke down and ordered one today. Wanted to get it from a local hobby shop (handy to have them stay in business - my favorite closed right before the pandemic - allegedly because they 'lost their lease' - need to keep this place going so I have somewhere to get things on short notice), but they didn't know if or when they'd ever get one in stock.

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by tdracer

Well, I just broke down and ordered one today. Wanted to get it from a local hobby shop (handy to have them stay in business - my favorite closed right before the pandemic - allegedly because they 'lost their lease' - need to keep this place going so I have somewhere to get things on short notice), but they didn't know if or when they'd ever get one in stock.

Yea! It showed up yesterday. Opened up the box and took a quick look - appears to be very good quality parts, and it includes a full color panel showing the exterior paint scheme, decal placement, etc. Nice touch.
However it seems to have a highly detailed cockpit and engine (I'm assuming access panels to show the engine are readily removable) - but zero information on what the original looked like. I'm pretty anal about getting scale details correct - particularly paint (a few years ago, when Estes Industries was getting their 50 Anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing Saturn V kit ready, they actually came to me to ask some questions about the exterior features of the second stage - which I readily knew ).
Anyway, anyone know a good resource for color pictures of the Spitfire cockpit and Rolls engine that I can reference?

[Brewster Buffalo]

This might help - saw it for sale in WH Smiths today.

Building the Airfix Spitfire

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by Brewster Buffalo

This might help - saw it for sale in WH Smiths today.

Building the Airfix Spitfire

Thanks Brewster - I just ordered it.
Granted, I'm paying nearly as much shipping as for the magazine, but what the heck I'm never sure if this anal obsession with proper scale details on my models is a blessing or a curse. On the plus side it helped me meet a number of astronauts and space dignitaries - like this guy:

[tdracer]

Originally Posted by Brewster Buffalo

This might help - saw it for sale in WH Smiths today.

Building the Airfix Spitfire

OK, this sucks. I ordered a copy off that website - but they sent me the wrong issue and have not responded to emails asking for them to correct that (anyone interested in how to build dioramas?).