Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb

[thug626]

With the SU-122 across the finish line and in the display case, I am taking to the air again. I had contemplated a ground crawly beastie....but, I had a couple of kits just begging to be build. They are Airfix kits and, what's in the box looks pretty darn good. Certainly good enough for a newer modeler and, a great jumping off point for someone who wants to use it as a base kit for "working on some skill sets". I haven't built an Airfix kit in about 40 years. It's high time I did. This is not the Airfix I built as a kid.
The reference books I've had for a while now...it's time they get used.

[Leon]

Count me in Dave! Looks like you have some great referance books there. TALLEY HO!!!!!!

[panzerjager2]

1/48th scale..... MAN O MAn I can't even think that small without a whole new set of bifocals...LOL

[deafpanzer]

Spitfire is so sexy I have to admit... count me in too!

[Rick]

Always up for a Spitfire build Dave. Airfix kits are certainly not what we built years ago. I actually enjoy them. Been curious about this one. I've got the 1/48 Hurricane in the stash and pretty much built their 1/72 Spit 9 up to the point of camo in a day. Build on!

Rick

[thug626]

Good evening everyone.
Leon, Always glad to have you on board.
Panzerjager2, There used to be a time where I didn't need anything to assist the Mk.I eyeballs. Now, it's progressive lenses and more and, more the Opti-Loupes.

Andy, It certainly is a beautiful aircraft. Consider yourself counted.
Rick, I am not sure what it was of late but, Spitfires have been catching my eye. Beautiful lines that aircraft. My LHS had their annual sale late last year and, they had a fresh shipment of Airfix kits. So, I popped one open to have a gander and, behold! This looks like a pretty nice kit. So I bought a couple...and a couple more. The Hurricane was on the short list but, the Spits won out....this round.

Tonights progress. I'll be adding some more detail as I get the CP sub-assemblies done up.

I drilled out the holes on the assembly.

Really the only thing left to add is the seat harness. I've got some Eduard PE harnesses lurking about somewhere.


The assembly line is down for the night. Good night all.

[adt70hk]

Hi Dave

Will be joining the party on this one.

As you say a very beautiful aircraft.  There is one hanging from the ceiling of the top floor in the Science Museum here in the UK, so you can get quite close to it and the lines are amazing.  There might be a more beautiful aircraft out there but if there is, someone needs to point me in the right direction.

And yet I find it so incongruous that something so beautiful was built with one function in mind - helping one human being kill another one - accepting of course that there is absolutely no doubt about the cause for which it was used.

All the best.

Andrew


PS apologies for the philosophising above - it's most unlike me.....

[deafpanzer]

Wait a minute! Bob and you are building Spitfire at same time... is it a bet or something like that?

[thug626]

Good evening Andrew. Glad to have you along my good man. Oh how I would like to see that magnificent machine. I do love the sound of those Merlins! No worries about philosophising. I've got things like that rolling through my head all the time. My wife and I have had several interesting and good conversations about the topics that I build. Her father,Jack was a B-17 pilot in the ETO. My great uncle Bill was as well. Bill was a B-17 pilot earlier on. Long story short, he was shot down and spent about 3-3 1/2 years in a Luftstallag. He eventually met a man who crewed a AAA unit that put the last shots into his bird. This man gave my uncle a tour of the country side where he settled after the war and, gave my great uncle the "nickel tour" that you just can't buy. They parted friends.
Good evening Andy. No, no bets going on. Funny thing is I've got a Tammy 1/32 Mk IX in the stash that was on the short list for this next build.

This kit is going together quite nicely. No real big issues, other than the coaming for the version that I want to build. More on that later.
The IP and instruments are the kit offering. The instruments are one decal. I opted to cut them singly or in pairs to negate any silvering. It paid off. The compass at the bottom of the IP was hand painted as, no decal was offered for it and, I had nothing in the bin for it. I couldn't well leave it blank as it is rather prominent. All instrument faces had gloss clear coat applied to represent the glass.

A view of the starboard panel.

A couple of views of the tanks behind the CP. The things "waving" in the air are the pilots harness. I opted to add some flattened lead wire as, I'll be installing the pilot. Not something I normally do but, the moulded figure is quite good and, it'll give a sense of scale.


The lines of this aircraft are simply stunning.

The coaming after fixing the contour. There might need to be some putty...we shall see.

Assembly of the wings was interesting. There are no alignment pins. I started from the wingtip and worked in using Tamiya thin cement. No putty will be necessary.

[Rick]

Lookin' Good! (but then again, it IS a Spitfire!) Looks like it's going together quickly. Was the coaming problem an issue with fit or something else? Great work on the instrument panel. Cutting the decals made a world of difference. Everytime a Spit gets' added I get the urge to get back to a couple I've already started.
Rick!

[dupes]

The caveat with Airfix kits is that you need to do your research on specific boxings. For whatever reason, they still produce the old tools (in new boxes) concurrently with their new tools (also in new boxes) which are not nearly the same level of quality.

The new stuff is leaps and bounds over the old stuff!

[adt70hk]

Jan 31, 2017 21:16:37 GMT -5 thug626 said:

Good evening Andrew. Glad to have you along my good man. Oh how I would like to see that magnificent machine. I do love the sound of those Merlins! No worries about philosophising. I've got things like that rolling through my head all the time. My wife and I have had several interesting and good conversations about the topics that I build. Her father,Jack was a B-17 pilot in the ETO. My great uncle Bill was as well. Bill was a B-17 pilot earlier on. Long story short, he was shot down and spent about 3-3 1/2 years in a Luftstallag. He eventually met a man who crewed a AAA unit that put the last shots into his bird. This man gave my uncle a tour of the country side where he settled after the war and, gave my great uncle the "nickel tour" that you just can't buy. They parted friends.

Hi Dave

Now that's what I call a coincidence and I'm glad they parted friends.

I also have to say well done on the cockpit so far it's looking very nice indeed.

As for the sound of the Merlins I have to agree they are something.  At the risk of rubbing your nose in it still further I was fortunate to go the 2015 Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford.

One of the main draws was one of the last flights by the only flying Vulcan.  I happened to be quite close to the runway and as she banked away from us after take off I found myself looking straight down the pipes of the four engines -  the noise was unbelievable and it almost felt like I was shaking.

However, the highlight for me was a Battle of Britain 75th Anniversary fly past - a newly restored Blenheim, a BF109G and a Spanish licensed version (Hispano Buchon HA 1113), four Hurricanes of various marks, 1 Seafire and 9 Spitfires of various marks.  One of the Spits and one of the Hurricanes were genuine Battle of Britain survivors.

There was also even an individual display with the BF109 and one of the Spits flying in formation - quite something.

Below is a link to a report on the day (scroll about 2/3 of the way down for the WW2 bit) and the best home made video of the fly past I could find after doing a quick search on Youtube

Hope you enjoy it!

All the best.

Andrew


www.air-shows.org.uk/2015-reviews/review-the-royal-international-air-tattoo-2015-raf-fairford/

[thug626]

Good evening all.
Rick, Thank you for the compliment. I'm not sure where the fit problem with the coaming started but, it was an easy fix. Airfix nailed the detail with the armored upper gas tank cover. The aft end of the coaming panel has the step down where the armor ends. The decals are by Cartograph, so they are quite nice to work with.

Dupes, You are most correct about specific boxings.

Andrew, Thank you my good man for the compliment. A very BIG thank you for the video. Ooooooh the sounds of all of those V-12s, not to mention the Blenheim. There is a museum in McMinville Oregon that has a Bf-109G that has been restored to flight worthy status. There are no plans to fly it. I remember the first time I saw it and realized it was an actual aircraft that flew in war. It may sound strange but, I just stood there transfixed by this machine that flew in combat.

Since my last build was a winter theme, I opted to build a Spitfire based on Malta. Something a bit more tropical.


Getting all the bits and bobs painted.

The pilot is all primed and ready for paint and, the office.

I used Vallejo Tyre Black for the spinner and props. The tips were masked and painted with Vallejo yellow

Here the underside is painted and, as you can see, I am using the underbelly drop tank.

[Rick]

Looking good. nice to see a tropical version for once. I've had a hankering to do a tropical scheme instead of the usual grey/green. I've got beau in the stash to try a Malta version. I hope to get to it before the decade ends.

[Leon]

Nice to see some paint going on Dave! Looking more like a spitfire now.

[jpc1968]

lookin' good

[deafpanzer]

Looking real good! It is starting to look like a Spitfire!

Lots of snow in your area must have helped you with the bench times?

[TRM]

Best of luck on the painting! She's looking might fine!

[thug626]

Rick, Thank you kindly buddy. Break out the Beau and base it on Malta.
Leon, Keep on reading....there's more paint to be had.
jpc1968, Thank you very much.
Andy, Thank you my friend. Actually, it kind of hindered it. The garage got down to 42º... I know that's not to bad...but, when it's less than half your body temp...no bueno!
T, Thank you very much my good man. The painting went well. There's a couple of touch up areas but, not too bad.

I burned through a lot of Tamiya tape masking for the hard edged camo on the Spit today. The colors are Vallejo Dark Earth and, for the grey, a mix of Sea Grey and Ocean Grey. It turns out the grey was sourced locally on Malta so, I am not going to nit pick the color. After the colors were laid down, they were lightened in a patch work fashion using lighter colors. Not really evident in the pics but, the effect is there. The CP will remain masked until the satin coat is laid down for the decals.



The antenna is made up from EZ Line. Really nice stuff to work with.

[adt70hk]

Hi Dave

Glad you liked the clip. And you're right the sound was tremendous. At the time I think it was the largest flypast of its type in years. Although I think there was a slightly bigger one at Duxford later in the year.

As for the build it's looking very good. I was visiting my cousin a couple of weeks ago and her son, who's in his early teens, is in the middle of making this very kit. I'll be pointing him in your direction!!

Well done again.

Andrew

[TRM]

And just like that, we have some camo!! Tight work...great scheme!

[Leon]

Great work on the camo Dave!

[Rick]

Great paint. I've always struggled with rigging antenna line. Yours looks fantastic.

[thug626]

Hello Andrew, Thank you for the compliment and, for steering your relative to this build. That is high praise indeed.
Good afternoon T, Thank you kindly my good man.
Good afternoon Leon, Thank you for the compliment. Always glad to have your eyes on it...heaven knows my Mk.I eyeballs need all the help they can get.
Greetings Rick, Thank you for the compliment buddy. I have started using EZ Line. This stuff is the bees knees. It has a huge amount of elasticity and works well with CA glue. It is also exceedingly compliant. An example is you could use it, not stretched out, for a late model Fw-190, where the aerial droops when the canopy is opened.

Much progress has been made since the last update. The kind of progress where I'm calling it done. All in all a very nice kit. There is one caveat. That is the mounting of the main landing gear. It's a bit fiddly, unless you mount the gear closed as in flight or belly landing....which, if it weren't for a lot of creative swearing, it just about made a "belly landing". In the end the opposable thumbs and brain pan won out in the end.

Since it was a lovely day outside and, I haven't seen the sun in quite a while, I opted to shoot outside. The dogs did their darnedest to "help". Amazingly, they did not photobomb any of the shots.
The decals are by Cartograph and, there was a couple of places on the bottom roundels where, they fractured. Not Cartographs doing but, rather mine. I had not allowed enough time to let the Solvaset do its magic.


I chipped the spinner with a sponge and some Vallejo Dull Aluminum.

The exhausts are resin replacements by Vector. They are a drop in fit with better detail than the kit offering. I "baked" the paint aft of the exhaust stacks with Vallejo Stone Grey.


I decided to use the pilot figure. It really is a nice moulding. There are a couple of spots where the detail is soft but, these places will never be seen. The additional harness straps are flattened lead wire.

The shape of the main tires is incorrect. These have a flat tread surface instead of a rounded one. I decided to run with it as is.

I saw a pic of the underside of a Spitfire based out Malta that had quite the dirty underside. The A/C was weathered but, I left the extra fuel tank largely unweathered as I imagine these were not used as often as the A/C themselves.

The weathering was done with a mix of heavily thinned Vallejo gloss black sprayed via the Iwata, a mix of various oil paints and washes.


Now it's been a while since I've built anything German. I'll be staying with a similar vintage and building this......

[Rick]

Turned out exceedingly well Dave! I like the pilot inside. I haven't added a pilot in years. Mainly 'cause I can paint figures to save my soul. Be proud of this one for sure.

[thug626]

Thank you kindly Rick. If I paint figures, they're 1/35 scale. 1/48 gets a bit challenging.

[Leon]

Great finish on the Spitfire Dave! Weathering looks fantastic.

[thug626]

Thank you very much my good man. This is one of the quicker builds I've had in recent years.

[dierk]

Spitty turned out lovely!

[thug626]

Thank you kindly Dierk.