That looks pretty sweet… And love that wiring as well…
I have done more on this but there is a lot of detail painting and where I would normally hand paint I am actually masking and painting using my airbrush for many of the parts so it is a relatively slow process. I have painted the main cockpit colour, RAF interior grey green, and the seat is painted, ready for the HGW seat harness. I’ve been adding a little bit more detail to the engine but I’m still unable to find a good photo that shows the pipework on the firewall. I’m procrastinating over the decals for the instrument panel but I’ll get over that. I have been building other models at the same time, one of which is a 1/35 AirfixT34-85! and I built a 1/72 Airfix Cromwell. I don’t do armour but I’ve enjoyed building those.
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Lovely update Mal 
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Being a fan of the larger aircraft Mal, have you ever dabbled with Revell 1/32 kits ? I was looking on Azn, and they have a few like Harrier, 109 & Spits for £24 - £29. I know they will probably have a few issues and not be right for everyone, but for a general build OOB of a large scale kit, how would you rate them … if you have ever touched one ?
I do have some of the Revell 1/32 scale kits. The JU88,and Heinkel He 111 look like nice kits and the Arado Ar-196 is definitely a lovely kit. I have built their Spitfire Mk II and that has issues, some really lazy research went on there! I had 2 of their Spitfire Mk IXs but got rid and bought another Tamiya 1/32 Mk IX because they have the same sort of issues as the Mk II. I do have a second Mk II which I had intended to put a Brassin cockpit in but with the new Kotare Spitfire Mk I that ain’t ever going to happen. I do have a couple of Bf-109 kits and I have built their He 162, which is OK. And I recently bought their Hurricane IIB, which looks like a nice kit. But why do they choose the slightly more obscure Mks, the Spitfire Mk II rather than a Mk I (I back-dated mine), and why not the Hurricane Mk I. The others on the market, Fly and Pacific Coast are not the best. I have built a Fly Mk IIc and although the detail is nice the parts don’t have any positive fixing points and the instructions are pants. The PC kit has had me cursing too. I won’t be building either one again and I’m hoping that Kotare step into the gap with a state-of-the-art Hurri? I’m also hoping that they produce a Spitfire Mk XIV, which is what I think will be on Airfix’s radar, after a Mk VIII. 
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Hows progress on the Spitfire coming ? Have been following close and admire the extra detail . I pulled the trigger and ordered one as well as the Airscale Cockpit upgrade and the Airscale Sutton QK seatbelt harness .
@Phantom13
I’ve been spending a lot of time with detail painting and adding washes. I had gotten to the point where I wanted to start adding the decals and decided to test the Airscale ones by using the compass one first as there is always the fallback to the Airfix one. That’s when I found out that I had lost the compass! After 3 days of searching, I decided to scratch-build it and the bracket that it is fixed to. That is going quite well but it took some time to find appropriately sized tube and rod. I’m nearly done with that and I have started on the seat belts, see below.
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Those straps really look good … so much more realistic
@Johnnych01
Yes, I always use an HGW harness, like you say it looks more realistic. It’s nice that Airfix included belts as you very rarely see that in a kit but they aren’t as good as these, nor could they be.
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Hey Mal,
There’s some lovely progress. I hope it is as much fun as it looks. Is the scale presenting any problems or opportunities?
Keep up the good work,
Steve.
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@steveandrews,
Thanks, yes, I’m having fun. No problems regarding the scale, I’m looking forward to the painting. There is an opportunity to go all out on detail but, apart from scratch building a compass and its bracket I’ve just added a few more pipes to the engine and I’m looking to do a bit more on that and the firewall. I’m very happy with the detail that Airfix has provided.
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The seat and harness look good Mal , really like the looks of the harness . I hope the Airscale harness I got for mine looks as good .
You said you need to weather the harness , since it is fabric what process do you use to do this ?
@Phantom13
I didn’t know that Airscale did a harness.
I use AK watercolour pencils for the weathering. I just add some dirt to where the harness would be handled. That’s what I used to colour the white inside of the secondary straps.
Thanks Mal .
Nice !
Hey Mal have you built the Airfix 1:24 Hawker Hurricane MkI ?
If so , was it a nice kit ?
I got my Spitfire and Airscale Instrument Panel and Harness upgrades today !
This is a Awesome Kit with so much detail ! It’s gonna be fun building it .
Like you said Mal Airfix has been slammed on for so long , but this kit really shows that they are back in the game .
I’m going to be using Model Air and Mig paint on this build .
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@Phantom13
I have actually started the Hurricane but, like many models, it was shelved in favour of something else. It seems like a nice kit and I have read several times that it is the best of the early 1/24 kits. I have also started the Stuka.
I have finally managed to scratch-build the compass and bracket that I lost! If I were to use the Airscale set again. Probably not though, I would use the bracket from the Airscale set and remove the plastic one around the kit compass and then add it to the bracket.
I’ll be using MR.P and I’m thinking that I will finish mine in the lesser known of Johnny Johnson’s Mk IXs, as the JE-J codes are more interesting. But I haven’t finally decided, my other option at the moment is the Kit JE-J scheme but after the unit moved to France and the upper parts of the D-Day stripes were removed which will make for some interesting weathering.
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