For some reason I missed
out on Revell's Dave Deal kits when I was a kid, which
is a pity because they're pretty darn cool. They've had
very few re-releases since they were initially produced
in the early '70s (I think) so I made sure I picked up
the latest incarnations before they disappeared.
Naturally I attempted to gather as much reference material
as I could before beginning construction, though for such
a widely used aircraft the choices were surprisingly few.
I settled on the biggest book I could find, appropriately
titled "Honest Bob's Big Book of Spitsfire Faks &
Spiffy Pitchers". Honest Bob's atrocious spelling
should have been my first clue.
Trusty scale yardstick in hand, I scanned the pages and
measured the kit parts for accuracy. According to Bob's
Big Book, the Spitsfire had a wingspan of 138 feet 4 inches,
a length of 27 feet 2 inches and had a top speed of Mach
7 at sea level. Bob goes on to say that the bombload was
"in excess of 4 or 5 pounds" and the maximum
range on internal fuel was "quite far, all things
considered". The Spitsfire was equipped with two
"17 millilitre Blunderbuzz canyons, a microwave oven
and a small bowl of peanuts for use as anti-personnel
weapons". I checked the copyright date: "1969,
groovy man". This explained a lot. Bob's Big Pitcher
Book went straight into Andy's Big Rubbish Bin. I was
on my own.
Revell's kit looks to be pretty accurate compared to the
pictures I found in a secret Air Ministry file wedged
under the drinks machine at my local public library. Construction
was problem free, and I was soon extracting ol' "Riffy"
from the officer's mess, where he was fishing a lemon
pip out of his third cocktail of the day, and pouring
him kicking and screaming into his trusty steed. It was
at this point I thought it appropriate to convert Rif
Raf's peace sign as supplied in the kit to a v-sign. No
self respecting Spitsfire pilot would be flashing Jerry
a peace sign, fer cryin' out loud.
I went with the late war scheme of grey & dark green
as befitting a cannon (or canyon, if you're feelin' groovy)
equipped Spitsfire. Paint is Polyscale for the camouflage
and Humbrol for everything else. The only thing missing
from the kit are the darts, essential for relaxing between
sorties. These were made from plastic rod with the fins
from .005" sheet.
And there you have it, the finest Spitsfire kit ever marketed
in genuine 100% plastic. Don't be fooled into thinking
that horrible new Tamiya Spitfire comes even close to
equalling this; there's just no comparison.
No aftermarket products were harmed in the making of this
model.
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