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Flt. Lft. RIF RAF & his SPITSFIRE


I will never buy a 1/48 plane after this stupid kit.
(Model finished 2008)




In 2008 I found a new Spitfire kit at my hobby store and being one of my favourite planes I thought that I would try something else rather than my usual 1/72 scale.
What a mistake. This Revell kit was about 1/48 in length but around 1/56 in span.
I thought for a while that I should try to correct it but gave up on that thought and built it out of the box.




Well not entirely. I wanted it in desert colour, so I built a Vokes filter under the nose.
I was really disappointed with the level of details in the kit. Being that large one could expect some cockpit details but there was only a pilot head in some gigantic scale closer to 1/10 than 1/48.
I will never try 1/48 again.




But to be a little serious, I am happy that Revell rereleased the Flt. Lft. RIF RAF & his Spitsfire again.
I built the Baron's Fokker as a kid and once more a couple of years ago when I found an old kit at a good price, but I never found the others in the series.


Weiner Möldy's Messa-Schnitzel 109


When I built the RIF-RAF's Spitsfire I hoped that Revell would rerelease the Messa-Schnitzel as well. Well they did and 2010 I got one and started on it, but the build stalled eventually.
(Model finished 2018)



The problem started from the beginning. I didn't get any "109 vibes" of it.



Here is the problem. It shares the fuselage with RIF-RAF's Spitsfire. The curvy nose destroys everything for me.



But why should I care, I have a saw.



But I wasn't completely satisfied. Something still felt wrong.



I extended the nose and got the "step" that to me is a Bf109. This is how far I reached before the build stalled.



It laid idle until 2018 before I restarted on it. By then I had made new exhaust pipes for it.



When that I finally got the build going again I could not find the propeller. I had an old 1/32 propeller and picked up the sad remains of the spinner that I used parts from for my P-51.



Unfortunately, the propeller was a bit small so small bits of plastic tube was glued to a bit of plastic tube.



The propeller blades were extended with the tubes and the spinner was rebuilt with Magic Sculp.



This is the end result.



Another item I think belongs to a 109 is the small triangle-shaped window at the front of the canopy so I made them.



Let’s call it finished. Weiner Möldy's Messa-Schnitzel 109.



It wasn't the quick out of the box build that I thought it would be.



But I wanted it to look less "Spitfire-ish" and that almost killed this project.


The Musstangg


I ended up buying not only one but two Messa-Schnitzels and another Spitsfire back in 2010. I had seen a nice build by Bryan B's over at Modeling Madness and I wanted to something similar. I had good help of his building notes but didn't copy them down to the last letter so there are differences.
(Model finished 2012)



The yellow parts come from the Messaschnitzel and the green parts from the Spitsfire. Add to this some plastic card and the Spitsfire canopy. The pilot got the face from the Messaschnitzel kit and the leather helmet from the Spitsfire. I remoulded the chin and added a cigar.




The propeller had to be converted from three to four blades using parts from both kits.
Then the spinner had to be hacked up and put together.




Some plastic chevrons were added to the wings to alter the sweep of them.




The tail was rebuilt with parts from both kits and some plastic card.




Coming this far I could see how it would look like and that is the point when my projects tend to go to sleep.




All the puttying and sanding needed did almost kill the project. But I finally managed to finish it.





But I'm glad that I managed to see it through. It makes a nice companion to the Messerschmitt and the Spitfire.





I tried to find a catching name and nose art for it and then remembered the old comics figure Horace Horsecollar and decided to make a decal with him.



Here are all three planes together.







Stockholm December 28, 2013 Updated July 17, 2018
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