1:48 Airfix Spitfire mk1 (new tooling) - Battle of Britain - Completed

[Squibby]

Hello again all,

After the cursed Hurricane I've decided to put 1:72 aside for a bit and move up a scale to 1:48 to see what all the fuss is about.

I'm staying with British aircraft and moving onto the Hurricane's more glamorous stablemate the Spitfire Mk1. I've already got a mk1 spitfire in 1:72 in my collection (was my 2nd ever model since returning to the hobby) and it's decidedly crude. I'll be hoping to do better by this lovely aircraft this time around.

I'm going to be building up the new tooling Airfix kit released last year for the 75 year BoB anniversary which seems to be generally well received amongst the reviewing community. Though given my experiences with the Hurricane I'm going to be extra careful with the build this time.

My initial impressions are that the kit is very nicely detailed out of the box and just so much bigger. That being said I'm going to push myself to improve the detail wherever I can to make use of these expensive tools I've accumulated . Hopefully with larger bits there should be a fair amount of scope for this.

I'll be sticking to the basic kit supplied BoB scheme for this one to just focus on producing a realistically painted and weathered bird building on the techniques I pioneered on the Hurricane. With the larger scale It'll be interesting to see how things pan out.

Anyway I've started haphazardly on the cockpit bits. I decided the kit supplied throttle quadrant peice was a bit basic and missing a mixture lever so decided to spruce it up a bit. I cut off the thick plastic levers and built new ones from 30gauge copper wire flattened by laying it on my steel rule and rolling my knife handle over it repeatedly. I built the throttle lever handle from a short length of thin pastic rod, used a 0.5mm punched disc of 0.5mm styrene for the mixture handle and the prop pitch handle was formed from a blob of 2 part epoxy.

I'm quite proud of the finished result. Should be fun to paint

I then decided to tackle the control lollipop. For some reason Airfix have placed the trigger on the base of the loop whereas I believe it should be on the upper left side.The loop was a tad thick as well.

I started by cutting the loop off and then forming a new one with soft 0.015" lead wire using the airfix one as a rough guide to size. I then cut a small sliver of plastic rod, flattened the mounting point with my tweezer tip and glued the disc on to form the body of the trigger. I added a brake lever out of lead wire with one side squashed flat and curved a bit. The firing button was formed from a 0.5mm punched disc of 0.13mm plastic sheet to create a bit of raised detail.

Cut off bit of the kit part next to it for comparison. Just got be real careful not to squash the soft wire loop with my fat fingers when assembling it to the column.

I'm quite enjoying this so far

Edited October 16, 2016 by Squibby

[Bodmin]

Great attention to the detail you're making there. 1/48 looks a nice scale, never built one myself. Good luck with the build

[Biggles87]

Great start. Looking forward to this if that's an example of your attention to detail.

cheers

John

[Squibby]

A quick update.

Messed around tonight trying to finish off the control column. I took the column bit and cut off the moulded hoses, fitted the top piece, painted the whole lot up and added some black enameled 30gauge copper wire to form the hoses. I used little strips of aluminum foil tape to form the strapping.

Looking good this far, and I only managed to break off the loop once. Now it's stuck to the brake lever as well for extra strength.

I'm dreading actually trying to fit these parts into the sub assemblies. I think I might have inadvertently cut off the locating tab for the control column, not that it may have mattered as the locating hole seems far too small. I think I'll shelve these little detailing projects and progress on some of the sub-assemblies next.

Edited May 5, 2016 by Squibby

[Squibby]

I decided to tackle the lower framing of the cockpit first which the column and rudder pedals slot into.

Before I started with the structure I wanted to do something with the kit rudder pedals. They were a bit simple looking and thick so I tried to improve the situation, starting by thinning the sides down. I ended up making a meal of it and cutting a nice angle into the pedal.

Looks like another excuse to try my hand at some more scratch building. I cut out some strips of 0.001" styrene sheet and carefully assembled them into a set of pedals. I took me a couple of tries and a makeshift jig to get something acceptable.

I added a flattened lead wire strap above to complete them. Here they are with the ruined kit pedal. A decent improvement I think.

I painted them gloss black and sprayed on coat of Vallejo metal colour dark aluminum. I painted the straps in XF-55 Deck tan following some photos I've seen. To create the tread effect took some aluminum foil tape, scored it lightly crosswise, cut out a thin strip and stuck it onto the flat bits wrapping around the front.

I'm quite impressed with the final product and gaining more confidence in my limited scratch build abilities.

Cheers for reading.

Edited May 6, 2016 by Squibby

[The Spadgent]

Great start. Very impressive skills on show sir.

John.

[Squibby]

Another tiny step forwards.

Spent a good amount of time cutting out, cleaning up and test fitting all the main cockpit structure bits together, There was a fair bit of fettling needed to get the bulkheads to fit together into the sidewalls properly but everything now seems to be squared away. I also took the opportunity to drill out all the lightening holes.

I went back and finished off the rudder pedal mount, I'm using XF-71 for all the cockpit internal base colour. I recently brought a tube of AK true metal wax based buffable mettalic paint. I brushed it on carefully over the polished steel runners of the pedal assembly and the finish was surprisingly shiny even without any buffing (which would have been difficult given the part). I solved the issue of the control column mounting by sticking on a bit of 1mm plastic rod to the bottom and drilling a corresponding hole into the assembly for it to slot into.

And I'm done with my first sub assembly.

[Squibby]

Made a little more progress over the last few days.

Finished up the instrument panel and front bulkhead. Lots of little details added here.

While not particularly great or accurate looking I used the kit decal on the IP. Got it down over all the raised detail by slathering it in Mr Mark Softer a few times. I ended up with one misaligned gauge, not a bad effort I think. I over painted the misaligned gauge and painted on various other detail bits that the decal didn't cover like the flap lever, U/C indicator, oil and fuel gauges and volt meter. I used Vallejo model colour paints for this since I heard they were good for brush painting with, they were definitely easier than the Tamiya paints, but my brush skills aren't particularly amazing so the end result was still a bit rough and ready.

I painted on some gloss over the dial faces when I was done and added a small length of lead wire to represent the gunsight cable. I'll maneuver and hide the end behind the sight when the top cover piece goes on.

To the front bulkhead I added the fuel selector switch, fuel pressure switch and that bundle of wires (formed with brown coloured copper wire, it's quite a good match for brass tubing I think). I also formed a better looking primer knob thing from some punched discs of styrene.

The compass bit came separate and was a bit blobby looking. I added a dial face with a 2mm disc of styrene, painted it (which took several tries) and added a clear 2mm disc on top. The compass though is hidden a bit more than I would have liked due to the thickness of the panel. I should have sanded it down a bit, but too late for that.

I'm overall quite happy with my efforts. It looks nice and busy and, I hope, somewhat based in reality

Edited May 10, 2016 by Squibby

[chrislowe]

You should be happy with that. The progress you've made looks great. Hoping for more updates soon...

[Bodmin]

Looking good. Keep up the good work.

[Raven Morpheus]

Looks good.

I built this kit last year, loved it, it "fell together". Only real problems I had were the fit of the canopy, the fit of one of the pieces that fit over the top of fuselage just in front of the canopy (Airfix ask you to do some cutting/sanding/filing around where the canopy and the top part of the fuselage in front of the canopy go iirc due to there being different parts you can use), and also one or two of the decals were stubborn (and I managed to mess a couple up)!

Despite those few relatively minor items it wasn't a difficult build at all.

But I do wish I hadn't spent 2-3 or more hours doing the interior, you can't see 99.9% of it once you put the canopy on...

Edited May 10, 2016 by Raven Morpheus

[Squibby]

Cheers for the heads up Raven,

I've been looking at the instructions for the canopy fitting and I do see some cutting required here and there. I'll be extra careful when I get to that stage.

I'm intending to display the canopy open with the pilot side access door also open, hopefully the effort put into detailing the cockpit won't all be wasted. At least I'll know it's there

[Texan76]

Raven is right. This kit builds into a very nice model, but there are several fit issues. Like he said, the main one is the top forward fuselage cover. Took a lot of sanding, test fitting, then filler. I seem to remember the cockpit sidewalls giving me problems as well.

[Squibby]

I've test fitted the whole cockpit tub together and it went together ok after a bit of fettling I did test fit the top cover and saw a small gap between the base of the lower sidewalls and the top plate but assumed the fuselage sides would rise a bit higher to cover it. I'll be sure to do some test fitting of the full fuselage tonight to see if that gap is still there.

Did you fix the fuselage side wall sections onto the main fuselage sections beforehand or assemble the tub and drop it into the bottom? something about dropping it in may cause it to sit lower because I've seen a couple of builds where this issue didn't crop up.

Cheers guys,

Edited May 11, 2016 by Squibby

[Texan76]

I seem to remember that I glued it in one fuselage half, then glued the fuselage together. Also, I had to trim down the top of the instrument panel and underneath the top cover to help reduce that gap.

[Biggles87]

If you don't glue the nose when you join the fuselage you will be able to insert the completed cockpit from below. I also scraped a deeper groove in the inside of the fuselage ' saddle ' rather than trim some off the instrument panel.

John

[Squibby]

Whew, test fitted and must have done something right since it seemed to fit pretty well. I'll still need to do some cleanup on top but that aforementioned gap isn't present.

I'll have to be careful to scrape off the paint on the mating surfaces because the margin for error seems pretty slim.

Cheers for all the tips guys, appreciate your input, Luckily I think I dodged this bullet somehow.

[Squibby]

More progress on the internals.

I finished off the left hand lower sidewall bit, Aside from the throttle quadrant I added a bit more detail to the map holder boxy bit below the trim wheel. I thought the area aft of the trim wheels was a bit bare and looking at photos of the real thing I noted there were some covering panels and a fuse box / console thing which I also added in with bits of styrene. I painted the rear parts in Vallejo metal colour aluminum / dark aluminum and base coated the forward part in XF-71.

All the details were hand brushed in with Vallejo Model colour paints. Everything was then given a light drybrush with titanium white oil paint and an pin wash with ivory black (funny name that) oil paint dissolved in odourless turps to finish.

While trying to glue in the compressed air receiver bottles I had a little accident with the Tamiya extra thin which is why the last bay looks like a dogs breakfast. This bit will be hidden behind the final bulkhead so I'm not too concerned. Must be more careful with that stuff as it'll go through paint and plastic in seconds.

And test fitted to the front bulkhead and control column floor.

Edited May 13, 2016 by Squibby

[Squibby]

Work continues,

I first reworked the landing gear deploy lever. I started by cutting off the blocky lever arm and the molded on wiring. I used my new set of RB productions etch contour saws to saw out a groove and added the lever arm from 0.005 styrene. The handle was formed with punched out 2 discs of styrene. I then drilled 4x holes with an #80 drill to accept some copper wires after everything gets painted up.

Didn't do too much else to the right sidewall. I could have added a bit more brass tubing but there was enough molded on. I only opening out the rib structure holes with a 0.8mm drill, added a small punched disc handle to the valve aft of the main rib and added the emergency U/C deploy lever from flattened 0.015" lead wire.

After some careful detail painting, a drybrush and dark oil pin wash I was all done. To paint the fiddly little molded on brass tubing, I first went over as normal with a fine brush as best I could (I used Vallejo Model air bright bronze). To clean up the inevitable scraggy lines I applied a pin wash of thinned interior green (XF-71) to help blend the mistakes out.

I'll move onto the seat bulkhead next. I may add the windscreen deicing pump fitted to the main rib but I'm wary it may hit the seat.

I stuck on the U/C lever temporarily with some bluetack for the photo, it'll have to be fitted after and the wires threaded through the front bulkhead.

[Squibby]

You can see the tumbleweeds in this thread ,

no matter onwards with the build.

Put the seat together and cleaned up all the seat bits for painting. I've added a flare rack with some thick strip styrene painstakingly drilled out with an 0.8mm bit. I also opened up the small slot in the right side of the seat and added a couple of thin strips of aluminum foil tape to add a bit of interest to the seat back.

The lightening holes in the support frame were also drilled out and the little bits of plastic rod + wire you see are my attempt to add in a pair of pistons which appear on the real deal. I'll trim the wire to suit and try to fit them afterwards.

I also added a bit of lengthwise scored aluminum foil tape to the adjustment handle to form the grip.

[PlaStix]

You are doing an absolutely amazing job with all the scratch building you're doing in the cockpit!! Very impressive stuff!

Kind regards,

Stix

[Squibby]

Onwards with the seat painting.

I painted the seat red / brown (XF-9 Hull Red) to represent the resin impregnated paper / cloth material it was made from. It has a patchy appearance in reality so I took off my airbrush nozzle cap and spattered some heavily thinned XF-49 Khaki over it. I blended back the splatter effect with more heavily thinned XF-9 to finish. I also went over and scribbled on it with some yellow and brown colour pencils to add more wear. The seat cushion was base coated in XF-85 rubber black and had some brush painted crease marks added with pure black. I intentionally left this bit slightly glossy to represent the cushion covering.

I used a set of Eduard superfabric belts for the first time as I couldn't find any 1:48 PE RAF belts.

I found them refreshingly easy to fit and pose but I didn't think they looked quite as good as PE belts, especially the buckles which are just painted on and have the same rough texture. I added tiny squares of aluminum foil tape and dabbed some XF-55 deck tan in the middle to make them look more like buckles. I also gave the belts a good working over with some black, brown and dust pigments and a dark oil wash to dirty them up a bit. Potentially went a tiny bit too far but what is done is done and they look decent enough. I've still got the main straps to add once I sort out the headrest bit (which was forgotten).

Assembled most of the bits and stopped short of sticking them to the bulkhead as the headrest needs to slot in behind the armour plate.

I also stuck on my little scratch built piston things which are almost completely hidden by the seat and framing when fitted, go figure still they went on quite easily so no harm done. I'm sure if you squint through the rear window you might just see them

I tried test fitting with the rest of the cockpit bits and it was interesting to say the least. All my added detail just fits with the seat in the final position but I can't just drop the seat + bulkhead in once the 2 sidewalls are together as Airfix wants me to do. I managed to make it work by test assembling everything onto one sidewall and closing it up. A few more bits to go before I close it up for real.

Edited May 17, 2016 by Squibby

[delta7]

Very nice

Edited May 18, 2016 by delta7

[elger]

Nice work but I think the shoulder straps are upside down.

[Squibby]

I haven't installed the shoulders straps yet, that is the back strap on the seat.