Subject: Re: My 1st submission, I hope I did everything right.
From: "Submissions for ARC" <[email-masked]>
To: "Vidal Costa" <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2007 14:37:30 -0800

Hi,
I just wanted to let you know your article went on ARC today.  Thanks again for sending it in.

Steve Bamford
Aircraft Resource Center
http://www.aircraftresourcecenter.com

Live like there is no tomorrow;
Love like you've never been hurt.
Work like you don't need the money.
Dance like nobody's watching.
Sing like nobody's listening.
Live like it's Heaven on Earth.

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Vidal Costa 
  To: [email-masked] 
  Sent: Thursday, November 22, 2007 2:42 AM
  Subject: My 1st submission, I hope I did everything right.

  Gallery Template #04

  "1/72 Revell Spitfire MkVb TROP" 

  by "Vidal Antonio de Azevedo Costa"
  --------------------

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 01.jpg here  

  This is one of those models that struggled with me to the very end. It is actually a kind of a kitbash... originally I started with the Revell kit, but eventually I changed my mind regarding the version I would make and ended up using parts of the Italeri kit to build a Trop version. Why didn't I use the Italeri kit instead? Well... the Revell kit has much better surface details, so I decided to mix them both in order to get the version I wanted.

  But strange things kept happening all along... from perfectly good decals dissolving as if they were ancient to a fateful crash right in the end... this last bit made me christen this baby "Espatifire" - from the Portuguese verb espatifar, which means "to smash" or "to be break into pieces". 

  I hope you forgive my play upon words, but I had to laugh at the whole thing to avoid giving up... which I was about to do when a friend of mine helped me to reconsider. 

  Click on images below to see larger images

         Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 03.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 03.jpg   Steve Bamford will insert a click-able smaller version of photo 04.jpg here.  Clicking on that photo will bring up the full sized version of photo 04.jpg  

  I finish the model the night before our local IPMS contest and it received a gold medal... a happy end, isn't it?

        Steve Bamford will insert full sized version of photo 02.jpg here  

  Photos and text © by "Vidal Antonio de Azevedo Costa"