Hi all
A small background history, back in 2006 i went to a Duxford air day with my Father-in-law, Tom Brannen. It was a glorious display as it always is at Duxford. We managed to get there early and paid for access to the flight line so that i could take some up close and personal pictures of the aircraft there. As i was snapping away Tom commented "look there's my aircraft, its got my initials on it !", it was a Mk V Spitfire in a rather fetching desert camouflage with a Squadron Serial of T-B I took a few snaps and we carried on. That comment lodged in my brain to this day.
We were very close Tom and I, He was my adopted father after I lost my own father to cancer, and i was the son he never had because he had four daughters (I married the oldest, the best decision I have ever made in my life!). We did an awful lot together so it came as a huge blow when i lost him to an aortic aneurysm a couple of years ago.
Of the stuff I inherited from him were a number of plastic kits, one of which was a Mk V Spitfire. In his memory i decided to build this kit as that desert Spitfire T-B.
Initially the kit went together fine, for its age there was very little filling but from that point on it seemed to fight me all the way, the fault is entirely mine but its one of those Reverse King Midas builds where everything you touch turns to krap.
I think part of the problem was i took my eye off the ball, i got involved with group builds and was constantly putting this one aside to meet deadlines so continuity was lost.
The first coat of paint went on perfectly, the second not quite so when i realised the first coat was the totally wrong shade of sand. Out with the Tamiya thinners and took as much of the paint off as possible, it looked a right mess. It was then after a bit more in depth research (i.e. Looking at the pictures properly) i discovered T-B is a a mk Vc not the Vb out of the box, this meant that the lumps and bumps were in different places and it also sported four 20mm cannon rather than the normal two.
Much cursing, followed by a deep breath and the purchase of a resin upgrade kit it is as you see below.

by
Robomog, on Flickr

by
Robomog, on Flickr
The paint is back on track but it has got badly marked sitting in the Pending Drawer so it is going to need some careful patching before i give it a coat of Alt Klear to protect it, a lesson learned, should have given it a coat of varnish much earlier.
Determined to do Tom proud on this one, whatever it takes, so entering it here should give me some better focus.
More when it happens........
Thanks for Looking.
Mog
>^-.-^<