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The pfm Lego Investment Challenge

It's funny how grown blokes get fired up with things like this. In the past I've collected many models, mainly car stuff and did enjoy doing it. Quite a few turned decent profits when I offloaded too although the bubble burst on quite a few shortly after. I still love collecting odd ball stuff now but have never looked at lego until this thread.

3 Christmas's ago on the only other forum I really frequent a bloke posted saying Debenhams were selling off large scale 1/24 Airfix Supermarine Spitfires at £18 each. The post got sarcastic "so what" remarks as it probably would on here or anywhere in fairness.
However the posts started coming in from blokes who'd gone and bought one.
Then one lad said let's see who can build the best one.

It was then I rooted around for a Debenhams with one left:D

Honestly, and knock me if you want but it was bloody brilliant, 60+ blokes took up the challenge. Some just built the kit with the little tins of paint and glue supplied in the box, some tooled up with spray booths, air guns and the lot.

I went half way, the 18 quid model probably cost 200 quid to build when I bought accessories and all the proper paints for it.
The 3 dark winter months after Christmas were funny, the forum was just full of "build pics" from the guys, some of whom who'd normally ridicule stuff like that.

It was probably one of the best ideas and bits of fun I've ever seen on a forum, and it came about by one daft post.

Some bloody awesome Spitfires transpired too from the more professional builders, but us novices learned a hell of the lot from them.

So, what shall we build in the PFM version?:D
 
I built one of those 24th scale Spitfires as a kid. The problem going into it as an adult as a one-off, as you discovered, is all the other stuff you need to do it to a decent standard. The attraction of Lego is you just open the box, read the manual and clip it together, nothing else required. If you make a mistake just unclip it and do it again. These days Lego even comes with a little orange lever thingie to assist with the unclipping (I had to use it now and again with the Yellow Sub as I really struggled to tell the yellow and orange pieces apart in the lighting I was building in!).
 
True Tony, to do a kit justice it costs, as we all found out.

Also the range of accessories for the kit amazed me from 3rd party vendors.

Fabric harnesses, proper steel cannons, etched cockpit gauges, proper exhausts, the list went on.

It was superb though doing it along side blokes who were competent, a lot of us learned loads. It also taught you an immense amount about the plane too, especially when it came to painting it.

I guess you couldn't do that with lego as the kits all turn out the same?
 
kennyh said:
3 Christmas's ago on the only other forum I really frequent a bloke posted saying Debenhams were selling off large scale 1/24 Airfix Supermarine Spitfires at £18 each. The post got sarcastic "so what" remarks as it probably would on here or anywhere in fairness.
However the posts started coming in from blokes who'd gone and bought one.
Then one lad said let's see who can build the best one.

It was then I rooted around for a Debenhams with one left:D

Honestly, and knock me if you want but it was bloody brilliant, 60+ blokes took up the challenge. Some just built the kit with the little tins of paint and glue supplied in the box, some tooled up with spray booths, air guns and the lot.

It was probably one of the best ideas and bits of fun I've ever seen on a forum, and it came about by one daft post.

So, what shall we build in the PFM version?:D
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That's pretty much where I'm coming from. I think forums are better places with more daft challenges and less willy-waving and repetitive argument. That's why the Investment Challenge is open to you even if your Lego holding is purely virtual!

In the meantime, anticipating the Lego Spitfire challenge, I'm getting my chops in gear by building one of these.

 
This was my Spitty nearing completion :D

P1000018_zps52cf70f4.jpg
 
I have invested in kit 75910.

£21.88.

Looking at Amazon today, it's fallen to £20.83.

I knew I was getting in above my head.
 
Thanks Tony for that. Yep, the weathering. Never really knew the importance or even of its existence before the challenge.

Tamiya do a huge range of weathering kits, you can get burnt metal, rust, and a host of bloody brilliant effects to apply, sounds daft but for 3 months I was smitten with it:D

Biggest find though was the decal application solution. Rather than just dangle the decal in an egg cup of water like I did when I was a kid you apply this solution and the decal "shrinks" on to the model, revealing rivits and detail below it. Other great tip was to use a black marker on the panel joints before paint. That really does bring out the "shut lines". The plasticine "sausages" for demarking the camouflage lines was an epic trick too, softly blending the grey and green in.

I'm all fired up again now:cool:
 
It was Jan Zumbach's motif. Plane was part of the Polish 303 squadron, great stories I learned about them too.

Funnily enough I sold a big set of Celestion A2 speakers last year and a lovely Polish guy bought them. He visited our house to pick them up and saw the Spitfire. He knew straight away it was Zumbach's plane.

Softie as I am and because he was as straight as a dye with the purchase of the speakers I gave the model to him.

The look on his face and the gratitude shown made my day and the build worthwhile!!!

PS here's the "sausage" and masking tape method for paint:D

IMG_0734_zps6tg7mc0c.jpg
 
Whaleblue said:
Brilliant :)
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Thanks very much again. He was only a young guy who'd set up home here and was an engineer at Aerospace. The speakers were actually for his brother in Poland who'd already got the smaller ones from the series and was after a set of these. He was going to take them across to him a few weeks later.

He was fiercely patriotic it turned out and had a deep interest in the Polish involvement in WW2.

I was over the moon the model found a worthy home, it made my day too:)
 
As an aside, when I'd finished the model I had tons of modelling gear and stuff with no use for it.

The next winter and dark nights had me thinking of what else to build as I enjoyed doing the Spit.

I stupidly decided on a scratch build, probably way over my head though. I've completed about 1/3rd of it but have not touched it for 2 years now as the next stage was very tricky and I'd lost interest anyway. I may just fire it up again and compliment it with a few lego models now this thread has got me in play mode again:D

Any guesses as to what it will be from this very early stages shot? Tony may have seen it when he was in our "junk room" looking at hifi, so he's not allowed to guess if he did;)

P1000592_zpsidcjwlkv.jpg
 
I didn't notice it, and looking at it I've absolutely no idea!

Why not start a Airfix thread? I bet some would be up for a challenge here. Don't think I am, but I'd be interested to see how folk got on.
 
I think it's because it's so bloody big you missed it Tony.

Yep, an Airfix/model building thread would be great. I bet there are some talented blokes in our ranks here who've knocked some serious builds out.

Always been fascinated with the subject but too cack handed to do much about it :D
 
The common theme is construction. My Lego habit from my earliest memories morphed into building plastic model kits. My last constructive hobby was building DIY fencing/decking/loudspeakers. It's gone full circle back to Lego, albeit on a larger scale.

I've promised myself the next release of Armortek's 1/6th scale Jagdpather or early production Tiger 1. I think assembling, painting and weathering large scale is easier than a small fiddly model. Lugging the 200+ lb model might be more of a challenge.

Now, back to Lego ... I've just acquired 10251 Brick Bank and I'm watching closely 10246 Detective's Office. They will go nicely with my 10232 Palace Cinema.
 
James said:
Now, back to Lego ... I've just acquired 10251 Brick Bank and I'm watching closely 10246 Detective's Office. They will go nicely with my 10232 Palace Cinema.
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I'm tempted by the Palace Cinema, only £102 at John Lewis at the moment. I'm also tracking the Restaurant (10243) and would grab it at the same price.
 
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