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Airfix 1/24 Spitfire Mk1


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Winter is coming and I have picked a real challenge, I think.

 

32117965948_1531eb03a3_z.jpg

 

I had heard a lot of bad press on this and when I opened the box the initial impression was that a lot of what I was hearing was confirmed. 

 

The kit seems pretty basic and the age of the moulding shows. It lacks the crispness of more modern kits, and I am clearly going to have do a lot of work here. I'm probably going to retain some of the minor defects.

 

I'm going to need to build a spar and I'm thinking I'll probably try and build in gun bays, wheel wells and flap detail and I'd be very grateful if anyone out there has anything they can let me have in terms of advice.

 

I do have this,

 

45939492922_af728c0784_m.jpg

 

More later...

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Update on this, should anyone be interested.

 

I've spent a lot of time just thinking about how I'm going to do this and testing. The place I'm going to start is the wing which because the plastic is notoriously has tendency to flap about. This gives problems with the dihedral and so on. 

 

First problem is the lower wing section.

 

Oh Wow. The only saving grace is that the piece is SO flexible that it should rectify when I glue everything together. Seemed to work OK when I taped it. 

 

46012385162_47db85d84c_z.jpg

 

The second problem is the big void in the wing. 

 

46012385102_26620ba548_z.jpg

 

 

 

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Cloudman1961,

I feel your pain. I have 2 kits of the Spitfire MK1 and P-51D and the JU-87 Stuka in 1/24th scale.. Bought them while stationed at RAF Lakenheath back in the late 70's. I still have them and with all the after market stuff out there I'll have to start building up replacement parts. Decals mostly. I'll watch with interest your progress.

 

Thanks

Ron VanDerwarker

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32 minutes ago, Cloudman1961 said:

After a weekend on this, learning as I go. I've cut out the flaps and I'm about 80% through the internal structure I want in the port wing:

 

32190967468_025c450a6c_m.jpg

 

wish I'd seen this sooner.

Flaps were up on the ground unless down for maintenance.  You got fined for leaving them down.

Interior colour, apart from the cockpit forward of the seat bulkhead was aluminium paint,  engine bay, gun bays, rear fuselage, the inner leg of the wheel well, the outer wheel part is the underside colour (this gets debated, never seen a photo showing anything else though) 

 

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-spitfire-cockpit.html

Quote

The aircraft serving as our subject is Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb BL628 YO-D, recently completed by Avspecs Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand. Due to the fantastic quality of the restoration work which took full 30 years, the cockpit of this Spitfire conforms almost entirely to wartime production standards. For this reason, the following photographs can serve as reliable reference to the cockpit layout of the production Spitfire Mk. V.

07l628_009-640x480.jpg

 

note alu/grey green paint line,  and a Mk.V cockpit is very similar to a Mk.I as well.

 

this wartime shot, if you look carefully at the radio hatch and open gun bays cover you can see the Aluminium paint

3052829500_1ce4f68d71_o.jpgSpitfire in England by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

more wartime Spitfires in colour here

https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=8270787%40N07&q=spitfire

 

The PSL book has some good info, but it also 45 years old.... 

 

HTH

T

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I built the Stuka earlier this year and it’s a pretty good kit, actually.

 

The only real problems were because of the age of the kit. The decals were pretty much throw away and some of the parts were brittle. 

 

I used a Montex mask set instead of decals, and some aftermarket cockpit labels and stencils. You can build a pretty decent kit out of the box. I shared a few photos last week, if you’re interested. 

 

I also have the P51D, and I’d be interested in comparing notes if you feel like opening the box any time soon.

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Thanks for the correction Troy Smith. I didn’t know that. I thought I’d got that right so I obviously need to do a bit more research. You see a lot of conflicting stuff.

 

Im going with Sky wheel wells to tie into the lower body colour, aluminium for the undercarriage leg but until now, I was going to go with light a/c grey green inside the wheel fairing. 

 

The ambition is to go with an aircraft in maintenance, including flaps down. But I’ll get to that as I go through. 

 

Any pointers gratefully received.

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1 hour ago, Troy Smith said:

Flaps were up on the ground unless down for maintenance.  You got fined for leaving them down.

Well the engine is there and you could pose it in a maintenance setting ? Probably need some greeblies and gubbins in there to busy it up. 

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2 hours ago, Cloudman1961 said:

I built the Stuka earlier this year and it’s a pretty good kit, actually.

 

The only real problems were because of the age of the kit. The decals were pretty much throw away and some of the parts were brittle. 

 

I used a Montex mask set instead of decals, and some aftermarket cockpit labels and stencils. You can build a pretty decent kit out of the box. I shared a few photos last week, if you’re interested. 

 

I also have the P51D, and I’d be interested in comparing notes if you feel like opening the box any time soon.

What I had when I got all my household goods from a follow on assignment to Cannon AFB New Mexico one of the Mustang and Stuka was torn apart. I do have all the pieces that fell of the sprue trees in zip lock bags. The guns and engine parts of the mustang look great and beg for enhancement. On the Stuka, the engine mounts were broken off the fuselage halves. With that in mind it's been nearly 30 years since I returned to the US. So plans are to see what metal and resin parts are available and decals I'll order and place in zip lock bags for later use. So far your on the right track in your build. Press on with pride.

 

Ron VanDerwarker

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16 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Well the engine is there and you could pose it in a maintenance setting ? Probably need some greeblies and gubbins in there to busy it up. 

Indeed, but we’re getting a bit ahead of our selves! 😉

 

Still trying to work out the wing!

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On 11/26/2018 at 9:03 PM, Troy Smith said:

 

 

3052829500_1ce4f68d71_o.jpg

Troy Smith, looking back at this photo, is there any guidance on what is the correct colour for the squadron code letters?

 

Also I’m not seeing any of antenna wires that extend from the cockpit aerial back to the tail or the IFF wires. Presumably these were on later models, then?

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2 hours ago, Cloudman1961 said:

is there any guidance on what is the correct colour for the squadron code letters?

 

Medium Sea Grey

Standard colour for all codes on Temperate Land Scheme  (TLS) fighters from 1938 to 1941, with the change to Day Fighter Scheme (DFS) and Sky codes

For a really good grounding in the basics of NW Europe Spitfire cam and markings, read the scans of this

Supermarine%20Spitfire%20Camo%20&%20Mark

here

https://boxartden.com/reference/gallery/index.php/Modeling-References/Camoflage-Markings/01-Supermarine-Spitfire

 

note on my monitor the above photo gives an excellent representation of the actual colours of TLS, in particular note that Dark Green is an olive green, not a blue green like Humbrol 30 suggested  in the instructions.

 

the photo is from late spring 1941, and is part of a series taken for Life Magazine. Other are in the link I posted above.

https://www.flickr.com/search/?w=8270787%40N07&q=spitfire

2 hours ago, Cloudman1961 said:

Also I’m not seeing any of antenna wires that extend from the cockpit aerial back to the tail or the IFF wires. Presumably these were on later models, then?

Not really up on this, depends on the radio.

Don't think the IFF had external wires.   Good questions though, try in the WWII section if you want more info.

 

HTH

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On 27/11/2018 at 00:05, f111guru said:

So plans are to see what metal and resin parts are available and decals I'll order and place in zip lock bags for later use.

not much really.

Aftermarket has skipped over these kits pretty much.   The ones that have been subsequently been done by other companies, there will be AM for those.

 

 

There decals and mask sets for some subjects, have a look on Scalemates

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11 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

I think that this one had the IFF wire antennae,the attachment point is visible in the roundel.

 

uBsarb~fYI.JPG

 

The attachment point may be there, but not always the wire, or so it seems

 

Lok at this picture from the same source (Flickr):

Spitfire Mk. Vb.

 

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4 hours ago, pinky coffeeboat said:

Does anyone know at which airbase the picture was taken?

 

Thanks,

 

Jeff

 

It's most probably 54 Sqn, in which case judging from the scheme and the fact the erks are in singlets, spring/summer 1941, which would put it as Hornchurch.

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1 hour ago, Smithy said:

 

It's most probably 54 Sqn, in which case judging from the scheme and the fact the erks are in singlets, spring/summer 1941, which would put it as Hornchurch.

 

it's credited as 54 sq in the comments on this one

 

4181500566_4e42df0dd7_o.jpgSpitfire in England. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

again, note aluminium paint on ammo boxes and open gun bay door. 

 

 

 

 

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2 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

this is the other photo in the sequence

3757129355_dd7a89479f_o.jpgSpitfire II. 1941. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

captioned

 

Note the Albion refueller in the background.  

That's obviously fake:

1) the panel lines aren't black

2) the panels aree monotone, all panels fade in the centre

3) no soot trails from the guns over the wings

4)tyres aren't flat

5) crowbar's wrong colour

 

😋

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1 hour ago, McYellowbelly said:

That's obviously fake:

1) the panel lines aren't black

2) the panels aree monotone, all panels fade in the centre

3) no soot trails from the guns over the wings

4)tyres aren't flat

5) crowbar's wrong colour

 

😋

I think I love you.

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On 11/29/2018 at 10:13 PM, McYellowbelly said:

That's obviously fake:

1) the panel lines aren't black

2) the panels aree monotone, all panels fade in the centre

3) no soot trails from the guns over the wings

4)tyres aren't flat

5) crowbar's wrong colour

 

😋

 

Haven't you ever thought of modellers having created their own ideas about what is the real thing. That the special embellishment of models have little to do with reality, but serves to please the establishment of co-modellers? 

 

I believe that these photos tell the true story: (as you see, I totally agree with your commentary)

 

Spit-1

 

Spit-2.jpg

 

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You have set yourself a challenge, but you've got Troy watching now to give you sound advice, and some good reference material.

I thought this kit was the bees knees when it was first issued ( I think I was in my mid 20s ) but when I bought another one about 25 years ago for old time's sake, I took one look at it and gave it away.

Watching with interest.

 

John

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