Topsy's Spitfire kit collection

[EAF79_Topsy]

Since Max is mad on kits I thought I would add a post about my Spitfire kit collection.
I started collecting when I was 14 years old and now have 147 kits of which I have built around 30, the original idea being to give me something to do when I would have more time, like in retirement, if my eyes and hands are still up to it. The old kits that I have built are now looking a bit shabby as the decals are drying out and peeling off and the plastic is becoming brittle and small parts break easily. So I have started replacing some of the old kits with new ones.

Recently I started using some new builds to make photographic prints. I photograph the kit in front of a hand painted sky as a backdrop. I do this outside so that the light of the subject and of the background is the same. This helps to 'integrate' the aircraft kit with the background. I use a fan off camera to rotate the propellers and it is quite difficult to get the rotation speed right as I take shots with a long aperture opening in order to get the depth of field that I need. With each print I research and make short videos about the individual aircraft histories which I make available to customers who purchase my prints via my private YouTube channel.

Below is a list of the kits that I have built (coded B) and have yet to build (coded C)

Kit collection for EAF.pdf

In my search for kits of Spitfires there are still lots that I do not have, notably from Czech Master Resin, the difficulty being that many are limited edition production runs, so if any of you have some un-built boxed kits that are not in the list I would be interested to buy them.

@Max The Revell 1:48 scale MkV that you built was from a standard kit or did you adapt it from another kit ? I have not found a reference to this kit.

[EAF51_Dedalo]

Dear Topsy, I am a modelist from about 40 years and since the beginning of my passion I've always started from a basic kit, but I've never left it like the one in its box. Changes of any kind, someone meditate before its construction and others often due to the disasters I've committed during the assembly phases, so that I had to build them "ex novo". This Spitfire, an airplane I've always loved for its extraordinarily beautiful line and for its distinguishing history, is no exception. Naturally, as Italian by birth, I have a particular eye for the models that belonged to my country, but I let myself be conquered by those of other countries without problems. Lately, after my recent visits to the Museo Storico dell'Aeronautica Militare Italiana in Vigna di Valle, near Bracciano's lake, only few miles from Rome, which is also my hometown, I'm keen on a series of aircraft that even not very performing like many of the most notorious warbirds , but in any case I find them very elegant in their lines and fascinating even for their projects. However remains in my heart, in 2013, the only time I had the opportunity to go to Duxford and attend the most exciting meeting in the world where you can admire aircraft that belonged to the history of aviation, perfectly preserved and above all operational and not simple silent simulacra left to rot in a cold museum. And think that up to about 10 years ago some of them still flew, then, the lack of culture of ordinary people and the funds that were lacking to organize events has frozen them in these sad hangars destined them to a bad future. What a pity.