Brengun Spitfire Mk.Vb Floatplane

The kit has a very complete set of photoetch for those who are ambitious....for me, paint is going to be good enough, because not much will be seen inside the cockpit....but, if you want to go nuts...the kitmaker is right there for you. 

...the 2020 Airfix kit is seen here...the detail is better in many ways and the panel lines easy to see...but, the Brengun kit panel lines are more authentic.... 

....fuselage and wing assembly is done...the kit needed some filler but was not a bad fit... 

.....some of the fit can be seen here (a better modeler could have cleared some of this up) but the panel lines on this kit are well done and it seemed the thing to do to continue on with the Brengun kit 

.....the cockpit area needs some filler and still looks a bit off but it was time to make masks and paint.... 

....very cool photoetch and resin set of lifts for the floats...really a nice touch from the kit maker... 

...after two coats of Mission Models Yellow.....it looked fine but later experience shows this should have been three or even better four coats to get that deep yellow... 

Complete and detailed decal package in this kit. 

.....The panel lines on this Brengun kit are quite good...and tiny....and easily filled with overcoat...and miniscule....and excellent...did i mention small?

So, the sludge method used first here and half removed to show the result, simply did not work in the subtle lines and only the bigger lines got a decent look.

....it is time to breakout the pencils and sharpener and do a couple of sessions with some #2 tools and draw the lines....the underside is almost entirely going to be penciled in...but...these lines are very good...did i mention they are small? 

The Quickboost resin 4 prop Spitfire version is better in some ways but is not a huge upgrade to the kit pieces.

You can see some of the panel lines on the wings....they really did show up well using the pencil lead method...even the most subtle lines are there...very pleased and it shows the kit's quality in that area. 

....lots of good PE in the kit but the antenna wasn't...not even close...just a flat piece of metal, so a part was stolen from an Airfix kit and the antenna wire run to the tail and body. 

...after at least a dozen attempts to get the PE piece (is that a mirror...a precursor to a modern heads up display?) attached to the canopy (once again, canopies are the weakest part of this modeler's skillset)....some styrene was cut and put in place and then I tried to get all the Superglue residue up....one day, i will get the knack of this clear plastic stuff... 

....all Done!.....complete with cool PE ladder and landing gear rollers (and, as always, complete with too many modeler's flaws to mention, so just enjoy)...Good kit from the Brengun folks (Nice PE work for sure) that can be made better easily 

The first model using the new flash setup after calibration....love the color... 

Cutting the bottom 18 inches off the background so the blue could be brought more into play is evident here and elsewhere 

.....enjoy the little ladder in the photos, folks...it got beamed up at some point...a replacement can always be fabricated. But, for now, any new photos to replace this angle from above (see later pics) won't have that beauty in them....