Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

Hi all, new to the forum and collecting so any guidance would be much appreciated. :)

I'm looking to start collecting a few of the Corgi 1/72 Spitfire models - it would appear from the searching I've done that some of the earlier models don't have the correct dihedral. Could anyone tell me if the George Beurling AA31914 Spit has the dihedral?

Also is that model a Limited Edition or is it one of the Legends models?

I've done quite a bit of searching around but info seems hard to come by - though as a newbie I may be looking in the wrong places.

I'd be grateful for any help or tips.

Re: Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

The Corgi Spitfires have very little dihedral. It is what it is, tbh it really doesn't detract from the models themselves, I've got loads of them and they look just fine in the cabinets.

The Buerling model you're talking about is a limited edition, it's not a legends model.

Re: Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

Thanks for the reply Grizz.

Do you only collect Corgi Spitfire's or do you collect from Gemini (or anyone else) also? Some of the Gemini Spits seem well regarded.

Re: Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

I've collected Corgi since it's inception, only recently tailed off due to no more room. The GJ Spits are lovely models and they've produced some marks that Corgi didn't do. The dihedral is similar to Corgi, but their undercarriage construction is 'one piece' which is much more stable than the early Corgi Spitfires. I think GJs efforts forced Corgi to up their game and the later Corgi Spits are very good as well. The Beurling is an older Corgi effort, but still good, just not as detailed as the later ones and also a lot cheaper, the GJ ones command decent prices on the second hand market.

Re: Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

Many thanks for the reply.

I'm a big Spitfire nerd, but know very little about collecting models in this format. From looking around it seems that the 2 main scales are 1/72 and 1/48, with Hobbymaster looking favourable in 1/48.

For a novice collector looking to mainly collect Spits would you guys suggest 1/72 or 1/48? I'd rather stick to one scale rather than mix. I suppose eventually I might dip into some other WWII stuff, but mainly it'll be the Spitfire.

1/48 or 1/72?

Re: Corgi George Beurling AA31914.
 

I've never bought an HM 1/48 Spitfire, though I did purchase a few of their Fw190s and a solitary Hurricane. I guess the main considerations for scale are how much space do you have to display them and how much are you willing to spend? The 1/48s are fairly big models, you're not going to fit them in an IKEA wall mounted case, where as you can the 1/72s. Price wise, if you're happy to snipe on ebay and be patient you can pick up old HM ones for £50-60, but the more famous/popular the pilot the more money you pay. Some of them are going for over £120 now. Personally with the 190s and the Hurricane I thought, they just missed the mark details wise. They looked the part, but just that little extra attention could've made them superb. Things may have improved since I last bought one, well over 5 years ago.

1/72, new Corgi ones are in the £50 range, which I'm finding too rich for my taste these days, but again, if you're patient on ebay you can pick up a huge back catalogue fairly cheaply, including the newer mouds. The GJ versions are a strange bunch. Some go for fortunes, I sold a couple for well in excess of £100 a few years back, but others are still arounf for £30-40. I love the detail on them, but the stands are terrible and the models are prone to pingy bits going easily missing. Dragon Wings also did some 20 odd years ago and I liked them, but again, very fiddly, prone to losing bits easily. Corgi are your meat and veg in 1/72 scale, yeah the lack of dihedral will put the aficionado off, but I'm happy to live with it. They look like a good representation of a Spitfire and that's good enough for me. The early versions are quite basic, the aerial above the cockpit was way oversized, but that was fixed on later moulds, so make sure you do your research. Hope that helps.