Building a Mk. I Spitfire in 1/32nd and have three seat alternatives:

1.) The kit
2.) Eduard PE for Mark V
3.) resin by Vasko Barbic that frankly looks 1/48th scale.

The Eduard and kit seats look too big, the resin AM seat too small. Anyone know the dimensions of a Mk I seat?

Without allowing for the kink, in the port sidewall, the main external measurement is 17" = 13.5mm in 1/32.
Edgar

Thanks, Edgar.

Seats I've seen photos of show an extension where the pilot's knees would be that looks like a long cupholder. But no AM resin seat maker shows it. Why is that? The Eduard PE set has a simplified version.

This site offers a 1-1 replica showing the "cup holder." The seat is supposedly from the pre-war Spits, but presumably some Battle of Britain Spitfires would've had them.

Those holes are for Verey pistol cartridges, which were rarely needed in Spitfires, since they had the "automatic recognition device" fitted from the middle of June, 1940. That's the hole that you often see halfway along the spine of a Spitfire, though, until April, 1941, the hole was underneath, just in front of the tailwheel. I bet farmers loved that, if the cartridge was fired into standing crops, as the aircraft came in to land. The Verey pistol was deleted in September 1937, but reinstated for Seafire seats, and, also, on some P.R. aircraft.
Edgar

Thanks, Edgar. So the Very pistol holder would NOT be present on the average Battle of Britain Spitfire?

If you think the flare was a bougher, imagine one of the MG spent cartridges hitting you on the head from 20,000 feet.