1:72 Airfix Supermarine Spitfire Mk I

[Navy Bird]

The harried modeller, while waiting in frustration for aftermarket resin to arrive for two of his current projects, decides to fill the time with a quick little project. Jumping from the top of the stash heap came a small, shiny red box from the new Airfix. "Build me," the red box shouted. The cover artwork by the esteemed Mr Tooby reminded the modeller that he did not have an early Spitfire in his collection, an omission that must be rectified!

 

The Mk I Spitfire! The progenitor of the world's finest propeller driven fighter aircraft, with its quaint two-bladed prop. The unusual night/white underside, designed to serve as the prototype for a future episode of Star Trek ("your Spitfire is black on the wrong side!"). The box was right, it must be built!

 

"Let's build this completely out-of-the-box," declares the modeller, remembering the halcyon days before cottage industry resin casting, brass photoetching, at-home decal printing, and endless forum debates over the exact number of fasteners on the pilot's "range extender." And so the box is opened, and the sprues are handled with the same delicacy one would afford to the family heirlooms.

 

But wait! The kit has no oxygen hose! The rudder pedals are solid! No harnesses! There are no endless varieties of fiddly things on the cockpit walls! No wires, and dials, and switches, or buttons! The instrument panel is a (gasp!) two-dimensional decal!

 

The modeller's vision of out-of-the-box-ness is in jeopardy. A decision must be made quickly, before arteries burst. He reaches into his box of secret delights and a thin, clear envelope emerges. On its surfaces are the letters "E-d-u-a-r-d."

 

And so the madness begins...

 

 

 

Here we go! The photoetched pieces are added to the cockpit walls after removal of a few of the kit's moulded-in parts. The interior representations of the framework look quite heavy in the photos, but not so much in the flesh. Eduard provided a nice PE instrument panel which I replaced the kit version with. Film instruments were provided, which I first painted white on the back side. Although there are just a few layers of PE on the panel, just this little bit of 3-D really helps. Next up is the seat. Since I had only the inexpensive Eduard "zoom" set, I don't have a nice PE seat to fold up, and I'll use the kit seat.

 

 

The seat was painted Gunze H47 Red Brown to represent the plastic seat, and the cushion received a coat of black as did the headrest. I did some dry-fitting earlier to see if I had to remove the prominent ejector pin marks. Luckily, none of them can be seen when everything is assembled! I had a lot of "fun" with the seat harnesses. I installed these as instructed in the Eduard package, not knowing if this is correct or not. I think it looks pretty good, though. I then added the oxygen tanks:

 

 

After finishing the detail work, I added a light wash to provide some shadows, and I highlighted some edges with lighter version of the base colour. Following that with a coat or two of Alclad Klear Flat lacquer, here are a couple of shots to show the result:

 

 

 

 

Next, we'll get everything mounted to the fuselage walls and we'll close 'er up. I will leave the gunsight cross-hairs off until after the model is finished, because I know if I add it now, it will end up going "Ping!" and that will be that. That's it for now, be back soon.

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Am I the only one who thinks the new Photobucket interface stinks?

[crobinsonh]

Lovely work as usual Bill - fabulous detailing on what is a tiny model in reality.

I am with you the Photobucket interface is pants. Even worse in 15 days time you can no longer opt to use the old interface!

[MPaul]

Awesome work!!

I have just started a WIP on one of these too, however mine is totally oob, using whatever paints I have and mixing, so there will be some inaccuracies, am still enjoying it though.

Yours though is another level completely.

[Navy Bird]

Thanks, folks!

 

I've assembled the fuselage and it went together quite nice I think. A little filler on the top seam, but that may have been my fault. Either way, I painted the wheel wells Alclad Aluminum, and I know there is a little debate over what colour these actually were on the Mk. I Spitfires. After reading many posts here on BM about that subject, it seems the consensus is that they could be aluminum or they could be the underside colour, and the only way to know for sure is to check reference photos.

 

I'm using the kit markings, WZ-T from No. 19(F) Squadron in 1938. I've only found one picture of Spitfires from this squadron, and although they confirm the "US style" of the roundel placement on the upper wings, I have no photos of the underside either in flight or on the ground. If anyone knows for sure, please let me know before I paint the underside! Thanks - here are some photos where I tried to get a picture of how busy the cockpit looks, but I'm not sure if I was successful.

 

 

 

 

Next up will be the priming stage. My intent is to use Alclad grey primer over the panel lines, and then sand most of it off, leaving it only in the bottom of the lines. I'm curious if this will tone them just down a bit.

 

Winnie says "Hey, where's my daily allotment of styrene? Drop something, would ya?"

 

 

Cheers,

Bill

[HOUSTON]

Exemplary work so far.

[Giorgio N]

Bill, will you stay OOB for the exterior or do you want to add a few bits as you did for the cockpit ?
As I just finished one of these myself, there are a couple of things that can be added, one easy and one not so easy.

The easy one is the actuator for the rudder, for which Airfix only has the part on the rudder itself but not the part on the fuselage and the actuator proper

The not so easy one is the wing-fuselage fairing that on the kit is represented as a panel line while it should be a part with a ">" section protruding from the fuselage

[Duncan B]

"OOB" ?

Duncan B

Edited February 18, 2013 by Duncan B

[pte1643]

That's outrageous detailing in 72nd.

[Flying Badger]

Hey you're making me look bad! :-)

Nice detailing.

Oh and... cute dog, he's really nailed down that look that tries to guilt trip you with "I'm unloved and starving" until you feed him something or throw a ball for him!

TFB

[Navy Bird]

On 2/18/2013 at 04:46, Giorgio N said:

Bill, will you stay OOB for the exterior or do you want to add a few bits as you did for the cockpit ?

As I just finished one of these myself, there are a couple of things that can be added, one easy and one not so easy.

The easy one is the actuator for the rudder, for which Airfix only has the part on the rudder itself but not the part on the fuselage and the actuator proper

The not so easy one is the wing-fuselage fairing that on the kit is represented as a panel line while it should be a part with a ">" section protruding from the fuselage

 

I was going to limit the extra fiddly bits to the pit, but I could be persuaded. I understand the rudder actuator, but I'm not sure what you mean with the other suggestion. That may be due to my overall lack of knowledge concerning all things Spitfire. Maybe a picture would help?

 

On 2/18/2013 at 05:11, pte1643 said:

That's outrageous detailing in 72nd.

 

Those little PE things drive you nuts! My blood pressure went ballistic with those crazy little wires. The photos are magnified considerably, and they make it look much worse than it does in the flesh. It looks really good when you're holding it in your hand and gazing directly at it, but those photos! Ugh!

 

On 2/18/2013 at 11:05, Flying Badger said:

Hey you're making me look bad! :-)

Nice detailing.

Oh and... cute dog, he's really nailed down that look that tries to guilt trip you with "I'm unloved and starving" until you feed him something or throw a ball for him!

TFB

 

Yeah, Winnie definitely has that puppy-dog "I'm starving to death" look. You can't refuse her anything when she looks at you like that. She's half Black Labrador Retriever and half Pit Bull Terrier. Her idea of "watchdog" is to watch the thieves cart everything away.

 

On 2/18/2013 at 05:09, Duncan B said:

"OOB" ?

Duncan B

 

In my case, that means "out on bail."

 

Cheers,

Bill

[pte1643]

That's outrageous detailing in 72nd.

Those little PE things drive you nuts! My blood pressure went ballistic with those crazy little wires. The photos are magnified considerably, and they make it look much worse than it does in the flesh. It looks really good when you're holding it in your hand and gazing directly at it, but those photos! Ugh!

Bill.

My comment was meant as a compliment... As in... Kudos for producing that level of detailing in 72nd.

I thought it looked damn good in the photos, I'm sure it's fantastic "in the flesh".

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice work so far, it's a nice kit to build.

All the best

Chris

[Murdo]

That is cracking work!

I'm currently building one of these, the Mk1a which looks identical to yours but without the AM stuff. With the exception of adding a harness made from painted Tamiya tape it will be OOB. It's a nice wee kit and has really gone together nicely. I did need about 5mm of filler on one panel line where the wing bottom joins the fuselage at the rear but that was it.

The canopy on mine is a one piece job so without some serious cutting I didn't think anything much would be seen.

Assuming we have the same kit are you going to cut open the canopy on yours?

[Navy Bird]

On 2/18/2013 at 13:26, pte1643 said:

Bill.

My comment was meant as a compliment... As in... Kudos for producing that level of detailing in 72nd.

I thought it looked damn good in the photos, I'm sure it's fantastic "in the flesh".

 

I took at as a compliment, thank you! I started thinking, maybe I should post a photo of the cockpit that is "actual size." I measured from the back of the headrest to the instrument panel on the kit, and it is about 15mm. So I cropped one of the photos (the one that is closest to a side view) so it spanned from the back of the headrest to the instrument panel. Then I re-sampled it down to 60 x 60 pixels (this should be approximately 15mm wide on screen at 96 dpi). Here it is:

 

 

See how close this is to 15mm wide on your monitor, it's pretty close on mine - but as my physics teacher used to say "approximation is not an exact science." Gives you another view on this crazy hobby, doesn't it?

 

On 2/18/2013 at 16:56, Murdo said:

That is cracking work!

I'm currently building one of these, the Mk1a which looks identical to yours but without the AM stuff. With the exception of adding a harness made from painted Tamiya tape it will be OOB. It's a nice wee kit and has really gone together nicely. I did need about 5mm of filler on one panel line where the wing bottom joins the fuselage at the rear but that was it.

The canopy on mine is a one piece job so without some serious cutting I didn't think anything much would be seen.

Assuming we have the same kit are you going to cut open the canopy on yours?

 

Thanks, Murdo! Yes, I'm planning having the canopy open. I have a vacuform replacement from Falcon, and what I suspect will happen is that I will cut the Airfix canopy into three, using this for the windscreen and rear section, and then use the vacuform for the sliding center section.

 

Damn, now I have to go make some popcorn...

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Neil Lambess]

The Mk I Spitfire! The progenitor of the world's finest propeller driven fighter aircraft, with its quaint two-bladed prop. The unusual night/white underside, designed to serve as the prototype for a future episode of Star Trek ("your Spitfire is black on the wrong side!"). The box was right, it must be built!

hahahahah i love your "low-key" sense of humour there one of my favorite episodes !

was away when ya finished the sea vixen (well done!) looking forward to following this one too

[mekon]

Had to double take when you said 72 scale; wonderful pit and details

[Miggers]

You're daft you Billy-Boy.

It's your fault I've now got my paws on an Xtrakit Vix and am hammering away at

my Revell/Frogger.

I also have this lovely little Mk.1 kit,so it'll be your fault when I start that too.

That Eduard set makes the 'pit look superb.

Good work matey,BTW,it looks like you've used my favorite wheeze for

getting away with sanding Spit wing root joints too.

[Navy Bird]

On 2/19/2013 at 14:55, Miggers said:

You're daft you Billy-Boy.

Good work matey,BTW,it looks like you've used my favorite wheeze for

getting away with sanding Spit wing root joints too.

 

Daft? I'll take that as a compliment!

 

And as much as I'd like to say I know what you're talking about relative to the wing root joints, I have to admit I don't. Please define "my favorite wheeze." Where I live, Weeze is the local morning DJ on the radio!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Flying Badger]

Miggers,

What do you mean?

Bill's Mk1 wing roots look like they came out just the same as mine:

(Sorry not got a closeup of the wing root or pre-painting shot)

The kit has a pretty good fit for the wing roots. Did we miss a trick?

TFB

Edited February 20, 2013 by Flying Badger

[Navy Bird]

Hi mates,

 

Miggers may be referring to the suggestion made By Giorgio for correction of the wing root fairings. "My favorite wheeze" may refer to my excuse for avoiding this issue - Miggers to confirm.

 

What I've learned from discussions with Giorgio is that the wing/fuselage fairing was a separate piece that when attached stood proud of the fuselage. Giorgio showed me a nice photo of a Spit with this fairing removed, and it was interesting to see the actual wing to fuselage join. Not nearly as cool as the fairing! The Spit is so much more graceful with the fairing attached.

 

The Airfix Mk I/IIa kit does not represent this, it merely marks the edges of the fairing with a panel line. There should be a noticeable step when moving from the fuselage to the fairing. Oddly, older Airfix kits like the earlier Mk I and Mk Vb have the fairing slightly proud of the fuselage, as do the new tool Mk IX and Mk 22 kits. How much the step was is an interesting discussion, not much I suspect. Maybe just the thickness of the metal? In 1:72 scale that is very small indeed.

 

The other condition with the fairing is that it does not smoothly flow into the fuselage (both having the same curvature). Where the fuselage and fairing meet there is a noticeable change in the curvature, an angle if you will.

 

Since I'm not building this kit for competition, I'm not going to make any attempt to correct this. The model will fill a spot in my collection sitting next to my Revell Mk Vb which not only has this same fairing error, it has the mother of all Spitfire mistakes on its belly. But I don't allow anyone to turn it over, so it doesn't count!

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Navy Bird]

Very quick update, before I have to go to yet another meeting. No wait, forget that - I'm not at work right now. Repeat, I'm not at work right now.

 

To tone down the panel lines a bit, I gave the entire model two coats of Alclad grey primer, sanding down the first coat prior to application of the second. This left the first coat just in the panel lines, hopefully they're a little less deep now.

 

Then, I struggled a bit with my selection of Dark Earth. I first shot a light coat of Model Master RAF Dark Earth, but it had a really green cast to it. I mean really green, like baby...stuff. I looked at other folk's models and I really couldn't verify that this is right. The Tamiya Dark Earth was invisible (i.e. out of stock at the LHS). I even pulled out an old (OK really old) bottle of Pactra International Colors RAF Dark Earth. This was very close to Gunze H72, which has been accused of being a bit too "chocolate." I don't have any local sources for Xtracolour, Lifecolour, Vallejo, etc. so I shot a coat of Gunze.

 

 

 

It doesn't look too bad, and doesn't have that milk chocolate look that I remember. It even has just a touch of green to it. So I'll go with this, and see how it looks with the Dark Green added.

 

Question - Mk I Spitfires in 1938: hard edge or soft edge between the Dark Earth and Dark Green?

 

Looking at the painted model, I have formed an interesting opinion about the panel lines. They will not require a wash. They are as visible as I would like them right now. Those fasteners around the engine panels are awfully deep though. Very prominent.

 

I plan on adding some hypo needles to represent the guns, and I believe they did not protrude from the wing. Please correct me if I'm wrong on that. It will be an interesting contrast in my collection to see some Spits with the red patches over the guns, and some with the guns visible.

 

Cheers,

Bill

[MPaul]

Nice progress there Bill. Great to see it coming along so well.

I will be using Revell Aqua Colour Dark Earth on mine, which always looks a bit light to me, but seems ok once decalled, weathered and matt coated..

[Flying Badger]

Yeap I used the revel dark earth on mine and it looks OK

I was told by normally reliable people on here that the gun barrels don't quite project from the leading edge (you could see them I think but only just) - hypo needles should work (I'm using some micro-tubing I have kicking around).

The references I looked at for my pre-war mk1 spit showed hard edged camo but it was hard to be 100% sure due to the age of the pics. Oh and make sure you get the pattern the right way round for the serial number aircraft you are building! Camo pattern A and B are mirror images of each other.

It's coming along nicely though.

TFB

Edited February 20, 2013 by Flying Badger

[Paramedic]

Absolutely stunning cockpit for a 1:72 aircraft!

That green, er brown..? Looks even and nice, will be interesting how it turns out and matches with the other camo-colours!

[David H]

Looks very nice Bill! I suspect Roy Sutherland might know the answer to your hard/ soft edge query, but most of his past Spitfire builds have been later variants.

-d-