Airfix Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IIa

N. 118 Squadron, 'The Borough of Lambeth', RAF Ibsley, May 1941

Built at the Castle Bromwich Aeroplane Factory, Spitfire Mk.IIA P8088 had its construction costs paid for by the people of Lambeth, South London, hence the name on the side of the fuselage. It quickly became the mount of well-known aviation author P/O Alec Lumsden who added the name 'Bette' to the fuselage as well as the cartoon of A.R.P. Reilly-Foull from the Mirror cartoon Just Jake.
Transferred when the Squadron re-equipped with Spitfire Mk.IIbs, the aircraft was then passed around various operational training units before being lost on the 16th September 1944 when its pilot seemingly passed out at the controls and it dived into the ground and exploded. The wreck was excavated in April 1978 and parts of it now forms a forward fuselage section, still proudly displaying the name 'The Borough of Lambeth'.

A nice Airfix new issue model, it required almost no filler and practically fell together just by shaking the box. The decals were excellent but the wing stripes need to be applied before the roundels - ask me how I know 🙂 . A sharpie marker helped fix that mistake.