Revell Monogram RVM5239 Revell Spitfire MkII, Multi Colour, One Size

Straightforward

Absolute junk compared to another model of the Spitfire I have purchased for my son. There are no stickers to use to make it look as real as possible. Just a whole lot of green plastic pieces. Very annoyed as this was his Christmas present he was looking forward to.

I am currently working on one of these 1:48 MK II kits. It has many things in common with the early 1:72 Airfix Spitfire in terms of parts fit and having to add detail to bring it up to modern standards.I'm not sure on the age of history of this kit, but it must be an old moulding as suffers from a "bulky" castings and there are not many parts either compared to modern kits. So far I have removed the dreaded raised panel lines that are quite prominent, although they are well placed and no major detail has been missed. The surface texture is quite rough but after the lines have been scribed, I sand the whole surface smooth anyway.The fit of the fuselage in test fittings has not been too bad, and fitting of the wings has shown gaps along the wing roots, but just about all spitfire kits suffer this in one way or another. I may try fitting the bottom of the wing assembly, the offer up the two top halves to see if the wing root fitting will be better. Either way, filler will be needed, but then, if everything fit perfectly, where is the fun in model building?The cockpit detail is so so. You get a dash frame with instruments already moulded on that may need a little help fitting into the fuselage, a small and inaccurate horizontal frame that sits on the bottom of the dash frame that is meant to represent the pipe work for the foot pedals, and two foot pedals that are totally the wrong shape. Fitting into the end of this frame work is the control stick which has good detailing, the ring, fire stud and air pipe lines are in place but I intend to replace the moulded on pipes. There is no other floor detail except the bottom of the kit. The pilot seat is not too bad, but is missing the padded back rest and any form of harness. The rear frame work is not accurate in the least and looks to be a bad fit that will need shaping. Behind that fits a small piece of plastic that is said to be the radio. The detail level on the cockpit walls is near non existent with some vague moulded on shapes that present some of the equipment found there. I am currently scratch building the detail in from the spares box as in this scale it will be obvious that parts are missing. The canopy is actually very nice and will come up lovely a dip in Klear varnish.The decal schemes are two in total, the set in the pictures of the product here and the second set is one of the best things about this decal sheet. You get markings to create the the MK II that was flown by Douglas Bader, which is the one I am building at the minute.Don't get me wrong if it seems I am doing this down, it can be made into a really impressive 1:48 model kit, but it will take time, effort and work that any new model maker will not be able to manage, this is more the kit for a more seasoned and knowledgeable model builder. I have two of these kits, both bought from Ebay for a few pounds and not the RRP so for the money, it would be a better idea to invest in a 1:48 Spitfire by "Eduard" if your not looking for this particular marque as their models are second to non and not expensive.