Spitfire Complete Vintage Model Rubber-Powered balsa Wood Aircraft kit That Really Flies!

Extremely frustrating product, flimsy to the extreme that you can barely put any pressure while assembling it without breaking it. The entire fuselage weighs about 20 grams, parts crack extremely easy, very, very frustrating, not enjoyable at all.End product is somewhat appealing, but it takes a lot of sanding and tweaking and reinforcing to make it acceptable. Price is not right, I expected a lot more for what I paid. Had to finish the build since my 9yo son was very excited to see it fly, however, after this much work on this extremely weak model, I prohibited him to fly it, it would definitely not withstand the simplest crash without breaking into million pieces, that weak this thing is. Unacceptable.

Very well designed and crafted laser cut model kit. My shortcoming is getting familiar with the British terminology contained in the plans.

There are two fundamental problems with this model:1) The instructions2) The materialsFundamentally, unless you've built one of these before you're going to need another resource to be able to complete it. There's some stuff on YouTube (provided by other people) but the quality of these videos isn't great. I could give you many, many examples in the instructions provided that don't give enough detail as to what you're actually meant to do. There is an accompanying 1:1 scale blueprint but some parts of the build just aren't clear or aren't included on this. An example from fitting the propeller (quite important), "...locate the plastic propeller to the slots formed by the two parts SP3 and centralise the radiused boss to the hole in part SP2..." - you then have to glue it in place. With the propeller we were provided, there seems a bit of extra plastic which we don't know whether it's part of the design or not. It won't fit, we don't know if it's something we're doing or a problem with the part. There are no further instructions about this and nothing on the diagram that helps. There are many such confusing parts to the process and you end up having to guess how it should fit.Now, the material used - balsa wood. I know it has to be light to be able to fly but many of the components are so delicate and fragile, a slight wrong move or apply just a fraction too much pressure and it will snap. There are no spare's so once it's snapped you have to either hope it wasn't structurally significant or try and make a replacement yourself. Even just removing some parts from the template is a challenge.I've made lots of models in the past and I don't often write negative reviews but seeing the excitement my son had for this turn into frustration, disappointment and then relief when I said we don't have to complete it if he doesn't want to, was enough for me to write this.

This is a fantastic kit with excellent drawings and instructions. My advice before starting is to read both the booklet and study the plan in detail and make sure you have all the bits needed. I have not completed the model but have a fusilage, wing assembly and tailplanes ready for the next stage. Well done Vintage models

Having now assembled most of this model aircraft i now find a piece missing . The SPINNER (OR NOSE SECTION) IS NOT WITH EVERYTHING ELSE IN BOX. Having got to this stage i now dont know how i can complete this model . WOULD IT BE POSSIBLE TO SEND A REPLACEMENT PART OR DO I HAVE TO COME UP WITH SOMETHING MYSELF ??P.S was given this as a gift .

Good quality, everything's in there that you will need, to build your model, all you need to buy is the resin to put on the tissue covering, great model for the price, great seller, Thank you

It was a birthday present for my father, who lives in the UK. I live in NZ. However, he seemed delighted with the thing. He will probably email me in a few days and tell me that the decals are wrong for a plane of that type as the 'MK7 Spitfire never flew against Rommel, as it was only used in the Normandy Campaign' or some such... Anyway, I'll let you know all the details about it next time I see him.