Revell Spitsfire

Gallery Article by Andy Bannister on Jan 6 2010

Silly Week 2010

 

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....

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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.

Andy Bannister

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Photos and text © by Andy Bannister