1/72 Supermarine Crossfire MkI

Gallery Article by Presto on Jan 9 2011

Silly Week 2011

 

Never heard of the Supermarine Crossfire? Well – it is a very important subject! It was built as a mix of several available aircraft subassemblies. The Fuselage is from a Spitfire with a fully reconstructed nose – including nose wheel well and a canon. The tail received a fillet for added stability. Most noticeably two german turbos (don’t ask…) were installed to this new generation fighter – attached to wings which have a strong resemblance to those of an A-20 Boston - probably because of the high speed capabilities of this medium bomber…

Click on images below to see larger images

  

So why is it important you ask? Because I build this kit about 20 years ago within a couple of days from Airfix leftovers, balsa wood, Presto car body filler, hypodermic needles and my first DIY vac canopy. Colours are brush painted, are anything but BS-colours and decals came straight from the Spitfire donor kit. These facts appear almost as impossible to me today as the subject itself. Nowadays I “build” around 23421 models at once and manage to finish one of these in about a year.

When I thought about a funny story for this submission I realized that the funny thing about this model is how little I was once concerned about accuracy and aftermarket stuff and yet I was able to make a model which makes me smile even today – so many years after I completed it!

I think AMS started in my case some years after when I set off to build a Hasegawa 1-48 scale Mustang with lots of resin bits. Needless to say that it is not finished yet ;-)

Presto

Photos and text © by Presto