Matchbox Spitfire XVI (OOB) - British Classic in every sense of the word!

[Faust]

Obviously, the Spitfire is a plane that needs no introduction. It was in production before WWII and continued in production even after the War. It was produced in a staggering variety of variants for a number of roles, and has long been a darling of model kit makers and model builders.

Of course, even I have a couple of Spits in the stash, but I’m a particular fan of the bubbletops, and I prefer building them to the more “normal” Malcom-hooded variety of Spit. Now, I also love Matchboxes, so when I got the chance to get my mitts on a Matchbox bubbletop, you KNOW I was all in!

Check out this interesting late-life remould, the Matchbox Spitfire XVI, out of box at the link below. Don’t tell me a clipped wing bubbletop isn’t cool, even if this might not be the best kit of it!

https://adamrehorn.wordpress.com/matchbox-1-72-spitfire-mk-ix-xvi-oob/

 

[64Comet404]

These Matchbox WWII fighters are the type of kits I like giving to my students. The detail may not be the best, and the moulded colours are iffy at best, but they generally don't take a lot of work to make into a finished model. Love these reviews!

[Snake45]

14 hours ago, Faust said:

I’m a particular fan of the bubbletops

I feel ya, my brotha!  I love all the bubbletops from the XVI right up to the Seafire 47. 

The Matchbox kit was, like their P-51D, one of their very first and not very good. Still, it has a certain appeal for some of us, as you well know. 

Here's the first one I built, back in the '70s or '80s, converted to a PR XI of the 7th Photo Group, 8AF. 

 

Years later I decided I needed a bubbletop, too, and procured a second kit. I also found the leftover bubbletop parts from my XI and decided to use them to convert a highback Frog XIV. I got this far with the pair. I need to dig these out and finish them sometime. 

 

Heller released a nice little bubbletop XVI back in the '70s, and I built this one OOB. Only problem I had with it was one of the wing roundel decals wrinkled horribly. 

 

Another cool little bubbletop Spit model is the old Hawk Mark 22, which originally sold for IIRC 39 cents. I think I've read that this line (no landing gear) was originally engineered to be a cereal box toy; dunno if that ever happened or not. I built this one in high school. The plastic is SubLime Green!  I dug it out and cleaned it up and did some minor touchup a few years ago. 

 

I had such fun with it that I got another one and finished it in overall NMF (Floquil Platinum Mist IIRC) just to show off the 22's sleek lines. I have another one somewhere and I think I'm gonna try to scrounge up some landing gear and maybe even a rudimentary cockpit for that one. I think this one was molded in gray; I have another one molded in burgundy and one in bright day-glo orange! 

 

 

[Faust]

Man, Snake, that's a good collection of bubbletops! They look great!

I have a Fujimi Bubbletop too, somewhere. Looks like a stunning, if not fiddly, little kit.

I adore Seafire F.47s, so much so that I bought the 1/48 Airfix. A bubble top, with full wings, AND it has a contra-prop? Sign me up!!

You're right, too, Ken, about these being good trainers. I like them because they're good for keeping the basics in tune, and I love that people are like "Why did you spend so much time on a Matchbox?". My answer is always "That. Right there." Sometimes, they don't realize that I do it to generate a bemused or incredulous reaction!

[64Comet404]

On 8/6/2021 at 6:38 PM, Faust said:

I adore Seafire F.47s, so much so that I bought the 1/48 Airfix. A bubble top, with full wings, AND it has a contra-prop? Sign me up!!

I have the 1:72 Airfix F.22/24 in the collection, just for that reason. I have limited my 1:48 stash of Spits to the First and Last of the breed: a pre-war, flat canopy Mark I and a meteorological flight PR XIX from the mid-1950s. I used to have all the Marks in 1:48, but realized I didn't have the room to display everything!

On 8/6/2021 at 6:38 PM, Faust said:

You're right, too, Ken, about these being good trainers. I like them because they're good for keeping the basics in tune, and I love that people are like "Why did you spend so much time on a Matchbox?". My answer is always "That. Right there." Sometimes, they don't realize that I do it to generate a bemused or incredulous reaction!

Matchbox, FROG, and Airfix always liked to do the unique British subjects, but also made them buildable by your average 10 year old. I make sure to weed out any Heller or Esci kits from my student build pile, because they come closer to short-run territory than other kits (contrary to Heller's opinion, locating pins are useful things to have on a model...)

Edited August 10, 2021 by 64Comet404
forgot to add a description

[Faust]

Heller made some amazing kits, but yes, they are very short run in a lot of ways. Imagine if all that detail was recessed instead of raised, though. They'd rival Hasegawa on some kits!

[Snake45]

13 hours ago, Faust said:

Heller made some amazing kits, but yes, they are very short run in a lot of ways. Imagine if all that detail was recessed instead of raised, though. They'd rival Hasegawa on some kits!

I don't have that many Heller kits, just a few. I built their first-gen 1/72 P-51D and P-47N, both of which were basically garbage. Their second-gen 1/72 P-39 and Spit XVI (as seen above) were darn nice little kits. I have their 1/48 F-84F and RF-84F, which seem pretty nice, and their 1/50 Cessna O-2, which is a bit of a mess. (Haven't actually built any of those yet.) I did build their 1/48 F4U-4 Corsair, which was basically a Hasagawa F4U-4 simplified to snapper specs, and their AU-1 and -7 Corsairs, which were okay, not great, but fun to build and look good on my shelf. 

[Faust]

I've built their Mirage IV and Lansen (on my site) and have a bunch more,  like their Tunan, a couple WWII French Bombers I've not put up yet, and their Javelin T.3. All seem good for detail, but it's all raised. They're simple on internal detail and all need work, but I think they're definitely competent when it comes to being a decent representation of something unusual. 

Their 1/400 Admiral Scheer was okay, too. My brother built it for my dad, since our Grandfather was on that ship when it crossed the Equator during WWII.