If you've checked the 2012 Hendon/IPMS Barnet thread you'd have seen that the SIG display surpassed itself this year, and that I appear to have gained a stalker. Sadly it wasn't the delightful bit of tall that sashayed past the stand on several occasions (and which caused OGL to turn his head, owl like, through some 350 degrees anticlockwise!), but you can't win them all I suppose.
Amongst my offerings was a Gnat F2 that had first appeared at Cosford, albeit
not in its final guise; that's posted up on the Gnat theme build thread. A brand new effort that was let out to play owed its
origins to Cosford, but was built for Hendon. The Dewoitine-Vickers DV521 Spitfire I is meant to be a product of Anglo-French collaborative builds that emerged in the mid-30s (I'm tempted to have a go at a Hawker-Morane Ouragan at some stage - whether it will be MS406 or Hurricane based only time will tell). Now there's a grain of truth in the DV521 designation - a D521 project
did exist and was intended to be a Merlin-powered D520 - and to add a further grain of truth of course the model is finished in the old Airfix Spitfire I's 1940 markings. I say it's origins lie in the Cosford show - OGL needed a Spitfire for 'Operation Cosford' and I came close to obliging. Thankfully Radish stepped into the breach in his own inimitable style and I didn't have to a) buy, and b) build anything (thankfully). Still inspired by the idea of a D520 masquerading as a Spitfire, I snapped up a SMER boxing of the old Heller D520 for less than half the price of the HobbyBoss D520 I'd have bought had the build been needed for Cosford.
The build was quite a quick one, the only changes to the kit (apart from the obvious paint job) were the addition of an old Airfix Spitfire I prop, tailplane and tailwheel. Decals, part from the wing roundels, all came from the Airfix kit. Looking back I wish I'd replace the fin and rudder with Spitfire items, but that would have extended the build and hey, it's a hobby!



