Matchbox 1/32 Spitfire Mark 22/24

The engine is basic and lacks the Rolls Royce logo.    

That wasn't too bad a kit for its time.

One minor issue that comes to mind. The guns/ammo access panels on the wings can be removed to show the internals. If you wish to display them open, you may wish to extend the ammo belts somehow, so that they actually reach the guns.

Thanks for the heads up!any other suggestions .comments welcome!

Painted the engine.Kind of looks like a Griffon engine.   

I forgot to mention something rather odd about this kit.;The sprues are molded in light gray,dark gray and black!    

Yep. Matchbox always moulded their kits in 2-3 colours to add interest for kids who didn't want to paint their models.

I just remembered something else about this kit -  the upper wing root area has insert pieces to form the curvature between the fuselage and wings. Take a little time there to make sure the alignment is right.

Yes!might save a bit of body work!

The inclusion of the fuel and oil tanks is a nice touch,but will be hidden when I join the fuselage halves.Fit is again quite nice.     

Put the fuselage halves together.Fit was good but some filler may be necessary.    

Put together and installed the vertical and Horizontal stabilizers. That is one tall tail!  

Looks like she's coming together nicely.

Yes!Just some minor seam work that i usually have to do with all of my aircraft builds.The Williams Red Lion needed much more!

I like the 3 piece design of the lower wing sections.Much more thought was given to the design and much better than the usual stick the wings into the side of the fuselage routine.Pretty advanced feature at the time this kit was tooled.     

Joined up the wings to the fuselage.In nearly 40 years of scale modeling,I have never seen anything quite like this wing structure.I really like it! Talk about thinking outside the box!    

The wing fillets fit quite well!     

fit was ok  but not perfect.Some filler will be necessary.       

The cowl fits fairly well,but not perfectly.     

Laid down the Ocean gray and dark green cammo.       

I painted the spinner by first primering and then airbrushing the blue.I waited an hour and put the spinner nose down in a circle template and airbrushed Tamiya Flat White.  

Peeled the masking tape from the canopy and re rusted the exhaust headers using Testor's Rust followed by Burnt Metalizer.    

I found a major design flaw /weakness in how the prop blades are supposed to be attached to the backing plate.The glued butt joint will never cut it!i drilled a hole in each propeller blade and drilled 5 holes in the backing plate.I epoxied a short length of copper wire into each hole in the backing plate.When the epoxy cures the blades will then be attached.          

Looking good!

Mike

Thanks!

Mounted up the blades and spinner.The modification was well worth the effort.!        

I am really impressed with the decals.For 30 year old,unbagged markings they went down very well and seemed to respond to Microset.    They did take a long time to release from the backing paper.