Michael louey Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 (edited) With all the interesting discussion regarding 1/72 Spitfire XIV kits, I've decided to post the Fujimi kit I built last year. The subject is a RAAF 451 Squadron airframe based at Gatow Germany post war. When I went looking for a low back Mk XIV at the time (probably 2015) they were scarcer than I expected and I ended up buying one from Taiwan. Problems started from Day 1 when I found the brown plastic as brittle as eggshell. (I managed to snap both the wing and fin). The kit looks authentic (box, decals and all) but one of my fellow club members thinks there have been some lower quality counterfeits coming out from Asia. Luckily I also could get high back Mk XIV's relatively easily from a local shop, so I used the couple of low back unique parts (rear spine and some clear parts) from the Taiwan kit as conversion parts. Regarding the Fujimi kit - The main work is filling all the gun panel lines, removing the pressure intake in the cowl and cutting out the rear tail wheel cover. Not all of this is mentioned in the instructions. I also have an AZ kit but the Fujimi is a lot easier to do a good rear camera port option as in the FR version I built. Since then a new Sword kit has come out but I haven't got it yet - I managed to get a twin pack from Fujimi just before it came out, so I am 'right' for XIV's for the time being. The decals are from Red Roo and went down well. The stencils are from Aviaeology from memory. The only hard bit to do were the yellow cut out stencils for the pilot's door which are really prominent in the photos. I got these from a Vampire Xtradecal sheet but not sure where I'll find more of these. The Fujimi kit still looks find but filling the right panels and getting the rear spine to blend in was time consuming. I also eventually used a Falcon canopy as the kit canopy seem to have "crease marks" which I couldn't polish out after sanding them smooth (maybe another side issue with the Taiwan kit). One thing I immediately noticed was the low "sit" of this model compared to various other ones I have on display (Sword Vc, Xtrakit XII, AZ VII). The only other comparable kit was the Airfix Mk I. I wonder which is more correct or whether it is somewhere in between. Cheers Michael Edited April 18, 2018 by Michael louey Postimage issues 17 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Beautiful Spitfire Michael. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Very nice Michael after what sounds like a challenging build - good job Sir! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beard Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 That looks very smart. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rob G Posted February 20, 2017 Share Posted February 20, 2017 Apart from the dodgy cockpit floor, I really like these kits. You've done a cracking job there Michael! (I admit to cheating with mine, and only doing Aluminium ones. I do have Lacey's half built in the Box of Doom though; must finish it one day.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael louey Posted February 21, 2017 Author Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) 13 hours ago, Rob G said: Apart from the dodgy cockpit floor, I really like these kits. You've done a cracking job there Michael! (I admit to cheating with mine, and only doing Aluminium ones. I do have Lacey's half built in the Box of Doom though; must finish it one day.) Hi Rob, Thanks for reminding me. Yes the really odd u shaped cockpit in the kit must be Fujimi's idea of an "easy" fit for the kit though why they chose this and not a more plausible flat floor/rudder arrangement like many Hasegawa kits (even thought not accurate either) is hard to fathom. It was probably one of the reasons not to open the canopy even though I had a nice thin vac canopy. I wonder where I can 'borrow' a cockpit from to do the next kit. Maybe not to hard to scratch something a bit more realistic. Cheers Michael Edited February 21, 2017 by Michael louey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The wooksta V2.0 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 The Eduard mk IX should give you enough cockpit spares to start with. I tend to use home cast resin copies of the Academy 14 interior with my Fujimi builds as I know it'll fit. Nice build. "Right for XIVs"? Sir, one can never have either enough or too many Spitfire kits! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael louey Posted February 21, 2017 Author Share Posted February 21, 2017 (edited) 15 minutes ago, The Wooksta! said: The Eduard mk IX should give you enough cockpit spares to start with. I tend to use home cast resin copies of the Academy 14 interior with my Fujimi builds as I know it'll fit. Nice build. "Right for XIVs"? Sir, one can never have either enough or too many Spitfire kits! Thanks for the info! I have a few Eduard Mk IX and Mk XVI's and I did notice they had a lot of spare optional parts. I didn't notice (or remember) that they had spare cockpit parts. As for too many Sptifires, I did think of going on to an Airfix Mk 24 but I had a few items I am "committed" to finish so had to delay that one. Thanks Michael Edited February 21, 2017 by Michael louey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The wooksta V2.0 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 The cockpit spares are the seat bulkhead and the instrument panel - they come either moulded on or blank/clean to add the etch parts. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Meatbox8 Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 All the work you've put in has certainly paid off. A great looking Spit. Interesting that the kit you bought may have been a knock off from Taiwan. I have built a couple of different releases of this mould in the past. Pretty nice but, although commendable of Fujimi to provide us with so many versions, they do require some work depending on which version you want to build. I have the Sword kit of this sub-mark in my stash. It looks great and you get enough almost enough spare parts to build another model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jean Posted February 21, 2017 Share Posted February 21, 2017 Hi Michael, absolutely beautiful ! Nothing but congrats for such a build. In your other (and just as smashing) Mk XII build, you say you used Humbrol paints for the above kit. May I ask you which paint numbers you used? Thanks JR Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michael louey Posted February 22, 2017 Author Share Posted February 22, 2017 Thanks for all the comments. Jean - As far as I know, I would have used the standard colour Humbrol calls Ocean Grey - It googles up as 106. There is a small chance I used an ancient can of Humbrol Authentics of which I have lots of stock of some colours but I doubt a commonly used colour like Ocean Grey would have lasted this long. I had a quick look at my RAF museum chart this morning and the colour chip didn't have much of a blue tinge - i.e. more like the Humbrol however it's only a small area. Strangely the photo of a Mk IX on the cover seems to show a bluer cast like the Model master Ocean grey but since it's a warbird and colour photography/lighting make judgements a bit of a mine field, it can be taken with a grain of salt. The undersurface colour would be similar - I would just google up Humbrol Medium Sea Grey. The green is not Humbrol. I used Testors Model master. In the past Humbrol's RAF Dark Green was too green and not olive enough. Cheers Michael Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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