1/48 Snap, Spitfire Mark 1

This is a great "beginner" model kit. The assembled model has considerably more detail than one might expect for the price and suggested skill level. For children, there are enough steps (including painting) to teach "patience" and the need to assemble things in a step-by-step manner, without assembly taking so long that the child gets bored. The design is simple enough (given the broad surfaces, camouflage design on the top and lack of a human model pilot with all the attendant complexity) that even a relatively small child can feel like they did a decent job painting the plane. The model's directions also include a short description of the particular model in question and its pilot (Eric Lock).The only complaints are minor or rectified. The minor complaints are that the two fuselage halves did not fit together quite perfectly (though, again, this is minor) and the plastic surface of the model is so smooth that acrylic paints have a bit of a hard time sticking to it. The rectified problem was that the first kit was missing half a fuselage (this random manufacturing defect was fixed by Amazon taking back the kit and sending a replacement).One last thing -- you'll see some people suggest that plastic model aircraft aren't "toys" and they shouldn't be expected to hold up to children treating them as such. For beginning level models, that's just unrealistic. Kids make these things, and then want to play with them. This model won't stand up to being hurled across the room like a paper airplane, of course, but (particularly if a little model cement is used here and there) this Pegasus Hobby model actually will stand up to a certain level of abuse of the kind you might expect from a 6-7 year old child reenacting the Battle of Britain in his or her bedroom.

Another nice kit all around. This one I didn't use glue or filler on just to see how good the 'snap together' really was and I was fairly impressed. The fit was even better than the Bf-109 kit and didn't need any filler really. I will probably use some thin cement on the seams next time but to be honest the paint filled them in pretty well itself (I use a paint brush for everything) The decals went on really nicely, they were a little brighter than I wanted though so I smudged a little chalk on them. The kit doesn't come with a pilot or an antenna and there is very little cockpit detail. That's it's main downside. But with recessed panel lines and the price it's great to work on your weathering and painting. It'll snap together (without glue) in about 20 minutes and it's sturdy, I'd expect a careful kid could even play with it a little if they weren't really rough. It can be built gear up or down. The cockpit is closed, no real open option.

We bought this Spitfire and two other Pegasus Snap model planes (the Messerschmidt & Zero) for our 7-year-old who was interested in modeling. He easily assembled them, and with a little bit of dad-aided paint and the decals, the end result was very good. The molding is of high quality and very detailed for this scale - particularly the Spitfire - and the snap fit was quite solid and precise (though we did use a little modeling glue to make it a bit more solid). All three ended up looking better than the early models of my youth, and he is quite proud of them. All in all, a very good buy that has reinforced our son's interest in both the hobby and a bit of history.

The last time I saw my dad happy was when he saw this model and put it together. He was 85 and needed the simplicity of this model. It didn't stay together well but that was okay.

Great detail. Fun