Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk.I

Airfix came in 1955 with their first 1/72 Spitfire which itself looked like a pantographed version of the 1954 Aurora “British Spitfire”. That Airfix offering was molded in a lovely blue plastic and sold in a bag. The company decided to recreate it in 2003, by molding its 1979 Spitfire Mk1a in the same color blue styrene and using the same packing (in a bag, with the header having the instructions printed overleaf). Though to my understanding, it was also sold separately, this subject kit of this preview was part of the Airfix “100 Years of Flight Centenary Gift Set” that contained six planes. This set was bought second hand in 2019 for a mere $30.

Upon opening the Spitfire kit bag, I was greeted with just 26 styrene parts arranged in two sprues and molded in the same lovely blue color of the initial edition. The age of the 1979 tooling is clearly evident with soft details, a few sink marks and some roughness on some mating areas. Interestingly, not that much flash is present. Panel lines are a mixture of raised and recessed.

Cockpit is spartanic, only containing a seat, a pilot with a hole in his stomach and a gunsight which is molded in non-transparent styrene. Landing gear is sufficient and the same can be said for the exhausts, prop and radiator and oil cooler. I liked that half wheels are provided in case you want to build a wheels-up version and last, but certainly not least, a very nice base is included with the Airfix logo imprinted on it.

The canopy is clear but thick, the latter being more of a blessing than a curse, as it may efficiently distort the cockpit’s sparsity. Instructions are printed inside the bag  header and are nice and clear. No color callouts are provided throughout, so you have to resort to the net.

Only one scheme is provided, of the fictitious RG904 machine carrying the equally fictitious BT-K coding . No painting instructions are provided, but if you do some net research, you can get your hands on the second (1956) or a follow-on Airfix edition instructions that contain some interesting “painting instructions” of dark green and khaki over sky. Equally interestingly, an 1/1 quite accurate static replica was built in 2009 and accordingly painted! This replica is currently on display at the RAF Museum Cosford, Shropshire, UK and can be used for reference. Decals are slightly off registered, but are otherwise usable.

Instructions want you to first attach the seat with the pilot to the cockpit floor and, together with the prop, trap them between the fuselage halves. The wings and tailplanes are next, followed by the landing gear, the radiator and the oil cooler, ending a simple, uncomplex build.

Judged by modern standards, the kit lacks, as the molds date back to 1979, and the off registered decal sheet caters for a single, fictitious scheme. Clearly the kit has been vastly superseded by many others, not to mention the newer tool Airfix one.

However, if seen as a walk down memory lane, this is a quite effective and definitely worth tackling recreation of the original 1955 kit (even if it utilizes the “newer” 1978 molds, a reminder of the past where, as kids, we would gaze at all those bagged kits with the colorful styrene, saving for them and impatiently putting them together in an afternoon, with (whatever) painting being optional!

Happy Modeling!

Spiros Pendedekas

October 2024

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