...lots of fine surface detailing

It does look very good. I'm seriously tempted.

I hope this is pointing at Revell adding more Spitfires to their range. I need more Spitfires because as everyone knows, "You just can't have too many Spitfires" I hope that they learned from the mistakes with the MkII and that we can look forward to a Mk XIV. This can't be as good as the Tamiya kit but the price is very much less, what is the price? I'm assuming there but Revell kits usually have a good price. I will be able to buy hundreds, there are many schemes to do

Could be good for those who can't afford the Tamiya.

.. I think there is a difference between 'afford' and 'justify' when it comes to the Tamiya kits. But to answer Mal's query my (first) Revell IX cost just £19 from my local aircraft museum shop. (RRP around £25 IIRC, ie about a quarter the price of a Tamiya 32nd scale kit) I don't know about the 'errors' in the Mk II that Mal refers too either - I didn't read any reviews - but the Mk IX went together without too much hassle and looks the part to me. You get an enormous amount of plastic for the price. Probably lacks a little detail - the cockpit looks less 'busy' than some 48th scale Spits. My only other reservation is the wing dihedral. My kit was built to represent Brendon Deere's PV 270 restoration - although I'd already sanded off some of the uppersurface 'bulges' by the time I had settled on a finish. I should perhaps have painted the crowbar red to reinforce the point!

I picked up one of these last week and I have a second on order, as I have also bought a MkXIV upgrade for it overall this is better than their "MkII" which has some very odd mistakes. One of those has been carried over to this Mk and that is the seat! The back rest bares no resemblance to any Spitfire seat and it shouldn't have the flare rack. One other thing that is carried over from the MkII but it isn't wrong for that mk is the head rest, which was deleted sometime in the MkV production run. I haven't checked everything but those are the stand out issues that immediately jump out at me. Also take care when you look at the built up model on the back of the box and on the front page of the instructions, and accompanying the news article, regarding the antenna and the wire. It has been built with the antenna back to front and there should be no wire! The instructions show it the correct way round and without any wire, but the basic shape is wrong. It does have a representation of the fitting for the pully wheel, which is correct but it has straight taper, on both sides, when in reality it only tapers from the rear an is straight at the rear for a small portion of its height! The elevators are fabric covered (or appear to be?) and I think that they should be alloy covered? I can't tell if you have lowered the flaps? You have the flap hinge door open, so I guess that you have. It was very rear to see lowered flaps on Spitfires on the ground. They were only used for landing and should be raised as soon as possible, to prevent any damage (apparently pilots would be fined if they didn't!) If the flaps are not lowered then these doors should not be open.

thanks Mal. Yes, got all of those points. There is no seat armour either. Easy enough to replicate. I kept the head-rest in the end. If you know PV 270 you will know that it was restored with this in place. The box build pic showing an antenna wire (!) is not the fault of the kit though. I did deploy the flaps down, hence the upper surface indicators (scratched). The Spit in my local museum (Manston) is on display in this configuration.

Hi Neil Great build - and beautifully stated. Revell definitely do suffer in the snobbery stakes - perhaps that goes with having been around so long and having a back-catalogue that includes classic kits that arguably should have been retired? - but when they get it right with their new-tool offerings, they can compete with the best in the business and offer great value for money. All the best Rowan

It seems that Revell seem to "faithfully" reproduce museum examples, which was the real problem with The MkII kit! So lack of Armour and the head rest suggest this too for this kit. I think that they have just taken the MkII seat that they produced and put it in this kit! What I haven't said though is this, like the MkII, looks like a Spitfire. There are things that need sorting but you have show very well that, OOB it looks very good. And yep, the antenna wire on the built up model is not down to Revell but you can bet that it will be replicated because it is there. The builder should really have done some research and Revell really ought to have known! You mention removing bumps on the wings? I haven't looked at those yet and that in itself can prove to be a complicated subject! I may actually wait for Eduard to bring out a Brassin Cockpit. I have one for the Mk II and it is superb. I am back dating it to early MkI standard for my second build of that kit I just want to go on record here by saying that I love these Revell kits. For their faults they do build up in to exceptable replicas and the price means that you can afford any necessary updates for them. It is annoying that they only seem to use flawed museum exhibits for there "research" but the price, sort of, makes up for that? I was contacted yesterday, my second kit has arrived