Hello, First balsa kit Spitfire

[Sparky]

Hey there I am new to this forum! I just finished my first balsa kit, at the age of 59...a Spitfire! I’ve been building mostly 1/48 scale plastic kits for the past 20 years, but I’ve always wanted to try my hand at balsa kits after seeing some awesome videos on YouTube. I absolutely loved the process of building in balsa, and it was so much fun to just let my creativity flow and do whatever felt natural to me.

I found the kit at Goodwill Auctions. I used colored tissue paper to decorate the exterior, and I only painted the prop, cowls, cockpit, and struts. I had been searching for replica pilots for ages, and I was almost going to use a 32nd scale pilot and interior, but I decided to just leave it plain.

The roundel decals weren’t great, so I recreated them in Illustrator and had a sign shop print and cut contour them out. I also used the vinyl adhesive strips to decorate the canopy and elevators. The wheel bays are also made in the same way. The propellers were made out of popsicle sticks. Only because I had it on hand, I used water based concrete sealer to coat and seal it too. It worked great.

Lastly, the tail wheel is a button!

I mostly did this for fun, and it’s definitely not a museum piece. Haha! I plan on working up to flying one by summer.

Let me know what you think!

[lawlor6494]

That looks pretty good. Where did you source the 3 blade prop?

I've just finished the port side fuselage on my Spitfire. I bought the kit in 1996 and jut=st got around to starting it due to the urging of my wife. I have not built a model since around 1953 so I'm very rusty. In those days I built my planes quick and dirty so I could fly them U-Control. This project will be a static display. I may not paint it. My next step is to finish the fuselage and get started on the tail followed by the wing.

I would like to build one of the laser cut models.

[Ray Klein]

Good job! Now build a flying version !

[Auger]

that is a very nice result - Beauty