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Airfix 1/72 Spitfire XIX


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Hi all,

 

Having recently joined Britmodeller I thought I'd take the plunge...

 

20190328%20Airfix%20Spitfire%20XIX_1.jpg

 

20190328%20Airfix%20Spitfire%20XIX_2.jpg

 

 

When I started this it was to be an OOB/weekend build (how many times have you said that?) and of course it escalated. I wanted to do a WW2 Spitfire XIX and one from RAF Benson, the home of WW2 photographic reconnaissance, so it will be RM643/Z using the Extradecal set X72105.

 

According to Scalemates, Airfix released the kit in 2009. It's a nice looking but simple kit. Accuracy is reputed to be good and the panel lines are OK. It got generally got good reviews and is supposed to be an easy build. The fit is generally good, but as you can see, there are a few gaps that needed filling and the wings/fuselage join needed a quite bit of work. The filler on the fuselage sides behind the cockpit isn't Airfix's fault, the fuselage needed raising slightly to model the non-pressurised canopy.

 

As it's going to be an early unpressurised version based on the Mk.XIV, this led to an error. I'd used the Pavla cockpit (C 72085) which is well detailed (the kit's cockpit was a bit bare) but the Pavla resin cockpit isn't easy, much of the kit's cockpit detail and sidewall needs to be removed. I do like to make work for myself. But once done, the Pavla cockpit fitted surprisingly well. But it has the solid bulkhead for pressurisation behind the cockpit and I'm assuming the Mk.XIV fuselage wouldn't have had that. By the time I'd realised that, it was a bit late.

 

The kit's wheel wells are completely bare, so I added a bit of filling and plastic card. But what colour should they be? No real concensus on Britmodeller or elsewhere. Photographers with colour film had better subjects waiting during WW2!

Cheers!

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2 hours ago, Johnson said:

But what colour should they be?

I think the inner and outer surfaces of the fairing doors would be the undersurface color, as would the openings for the wheels; the recess into which the strut fits would be painted aluminum, IIRC, but maybe @Graham Boak or @Troy Smith could be better qualified to comment. There is an extensive walk around of the PR XIX on the IPMS Stockholm site if you don't already have it-see the link below; but be careful, as restored museum aircraft aren't the most reliable color references.

Mike

 

https://www.ipmsstockholm.org/magazine/1998/08/stuff_eng_detail_spit19.htm

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3 hours ago, Johnson said:

But what colour should they be? No real concensus on Britmodeller or elsewhere. Photographers with colour film had better subjects waiting during WW2!

9737831392_f71e719fa7_o.jpgSpitfire XIX, 1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

50 minutes ago, 72modeler said:

I think the inner and outer surfaces of the fairing doors would be the undersurface color, as would the openings for the wheels; the recess into which the strut fits would be painted aluminum, IIRC,

 

I have yet to see a decent shot of the underside where the wheel part of the well,  is not the underside colour , early war, say to late mid/43, the UC legs  were either painted alumium, or the underside colour, later on just underside colur.  

the XIX colour shot above , you can see the legs and hubs are PRU Blue

More clearly seen on this PR XI

3269412203_34071282fc_o.jpgSpitfire P R Mk. XI by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

more period colour here

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

 

HTH

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Hi Troy,

 

Many thanks for posting the pics and the links. Some excellent photos.

 

But... (I sound ungrateful I know) a whisper of doubt crept into my mind...

 

Is it possible that maybe some of these have been colourised? It's all the rage these days and, with the software available, not as difficult as it once was.

 

I'd be really happy to be wrong!

 

Charlie

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29 minutes ago, Johnson said:

Is it possible that maybe some of these have been colourised?

Maybe, the flickr link is of a member,  @Etiennedup   who is a modeller, and been doing this for a fair while,  I know I regularly use them.

Many are of known provenance,  as there are only so many images about, and in the case of British  subjects, fairly rare.

 

but new images do emerge on occasion. 

like this, and some Typhoons in Denmark

42614657211_9dcb029dc0_o.jpgSpitfire XIVe in Denmark, 1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

 

 Etienne is knowledgeable, so I trust his judgement.

In the case of the PR Spitfires,  there are a few, all of the same unit/time, and there is a known provenance,  there maybe some info in the comments section.

 

the only one he notes as possibly being colourised is the Spit F.22 in flight.

 

HTH

 

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The canopy... can make (or break) a model.

 

I bought the Rob Taurus Mk.XIX vacuformed replacement for this Airfix kit. £4.30 from that well known supplier in Lowestoft. You get 2 canopies; one 'closed' and one 'open' with gaps between the units.

 

Cutting out is the nightmare. So difficult to the get the cut in the right place. A new Swann-Morton 10A blade, lots of light, and powerful reading glasses. Better (or younger) eyes would help! I cut them out very slowly, scoring the canopy in many small cuts rather than trying to make one deep cut. And leaving a bit outside the frame to remove afterwards. You can shave thin slices off - but you can't put them back!

 

DSCF0919.jpg

 

Dscf0938.jpg

 

I'm very impressed with the Rob Taurus canopies. Clear and beautifully moulded. And it fits!

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  • 4 weeks later...

Hi all,

 

Some time over Easter so a bit more progress on my Airfix 1/72 Spitfire XIX.

 

Despite my initial intention of making it OOB, I could not help myself and continued adding bits; the various bumps missing from the kit. Namely, the bulge under the fuselage for the Rebecca homing aerial which is clearly visible on RM643/Z, the plane I intend to portray:

 

Dscf0949

 

Dscf0951

 

I couldn't find (in my library or via Google) any decent pics of the fairing/aerial, and used the plans on this site - https://www.rcgroups.com/forums/showthread.php?2677622-Spitfires/page2

 

Later (of course!) I found this site; http://spitfiresite.com/2010/04/spitfire-masts-and-aerials.html/2 and my Rebecca bump looks a bit shallow, so I may have to add a bit of depth to the fairing. Does it look about right? Or should I ditch it and start again?

 

I also added the two small fairings on the upper wings, not sure what they do - from the location, something to do with the undercarriage?

 

Dscf0952

 

Charlie

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Thanks for the encouragement!

 

It's going OK and is a pretty straightforward kit, despite the time it's taking me and the amount of filler you can see! Looking forward to getting on to painting it.

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Welcome to the family Charlie,

 

Very nice debut, and good clear photos, for a couch modeller like me, this is manna from heaven.

 

Box on

 

Strickers

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Welcome Charlie, and a very fine first WIP. Love the subject and the way you are dealing with it. I agree with your caution over WW2 colour shots. Many we now see have been colourised so colour matching from these can be a challenge.

 

Looking forward to watching this progress.

 

Terry

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Thanks chaps.

I try to take sharp pics. I have an old Fujifilm Finepix S5800 digital camera with a great macro setting. With good light it takes excellent pics. Now posting them on Flickr, much better than Photobucket.

Charlie

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2 hours ago, Johnson said:

It's going OK and is a pretty straightforward kit, despite the time it's taking me and the amount of filler you can see!

46942711254_4491ab8ac3_b.jpg&key=28fc2a0

 

a suggestion.

In a case like this, pack out the gap with plastic sheet, to make the rear wing part level with the fuselage,  (and the front) even if packed slightly proud, and then scrape/sand back,  plus plastic strip is the same material.  

A bit of test fitting, scraping and jiggling parts to get the best fit can save or greatly reduce a tedious filling job.

 

Also for small gaps and imperfections, try Mr Surfacer,  it works very well,  and/or superglue,  just sand this before it sets really hard, as it is then harder than the plastic.

Bigger gaps can be filled by mixing superglue and talc, and you can vary the consistency.  

I also use superglue for construction.  in both cases the speed of drying can greatly speed up what you do, I don't know how long Green Stuff putty takes to go off, you can work SG as filler in minutes. 

  I just buy the cheap superglue multipacks from the pound shop. 

As with any new technique, experiment on scrap first.

 

Going well, build is going well.

 

cheers

T

 

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  • 1 month later...

Hi all,

 

A bit of progress, which is a bit difficult this time of year as apparently there's a garden out there (good thing its raining!) :D

 

I'm fairly basic with my painting, I stick to Xtracolor for airbrush work and the decals go on really well. No messing about with additional gloss finishes. A coat of PRU blue and the black and white for the invasion stripes. Which are a topic in their own right: 

 

Thanks to @Giorgio N for his observation about the width of the back white stripe. This prompted me to do a bit of analysis on the only available photo I'm aware of:

 

Spitfire XIX RM645_2

 

I measured the widths of each stripe, as best I could, and put the results in a spreadsheet to calculate the widths of the individual stripes:

 

Scan_20190602

Some might think this a bit obsessive... :rolleyes:

 

Studying the photo made me think about the location and size of the fuselage roundel, which stuck me as bigger, or at least higher, than the one on Xtradecal set X72-105, but I'll leave that problem till I apply them. AND, if I'm right, the canopy is missing in the photo?

 

I also agree with @ben_m that the stripes would not have been applied in a hurry. Probably quite carefully by an Aircraftsman under the watchful gaze of his Flight Sargeant.

So I just need to measure, cut and position the masking tape to 0.01mm, should be easy!

 

Dscf1016

 

Mask the rest of the model:

 

Dscf1020

 

You might have noticed the airbrush? An old Aerograph "Super 63". Probably not the latest technology, second hand when I got it 25 years ago. Works fine.

 

Dscf1024

 

With Xtracolor, any masking tape needs to be removed while the paint is still soft, or you get a distinct raised line, luckily it all came off OK. But I have had a few mishaps at this stage.

 

So far OK I think. Looking forward to the decals!

 

Charlie

 

Edited by Johnson
Error (serial no.)
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Sorry I missed the start of your build, I'd have been able to mention one small issue with this kit: the panel with the camera window is not quite at the correct level in this kit, can't remember if it's too high or too low by around 1 mm.

It's an error that is barely noticeable but becomes more so when the level of the panel is used to judge the location of the roundel... Now as you've alread started painting, I probably wouldn't bother correcting this, however keep in mind that the relative position of the roundel, the panel and the top of the fuselage on the model will be slightly different from what you see in the picture. All this came to my mind when you mentioned the roundel location of course...

Edited by Giorgio N
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Thank you Giorgio and Andre, I'd not considered that it was the hatch being too high, seems obvious when its pointed out! :blush:

 

Certainly explains why the roundel position/height seemed incorrect. I will have to live with it now. There are other well known faults with the kit (like engine cowling width), but it still looks like a good model.

 

Cheers!

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I like your paintjob!

Try the eduard 1/72 Spifire Mk. IXc next time. It will show how good you really are with your paintbrush! ;)

 

Cheers / André

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19 hours ago, Johnson said:

Thank you Giorgio and Andre, I'd not considered that it was the hatch being too high, seems obvious when its pointed out! :blush:

 

Certainly explains why the roundel position/height seemed incorrect. I will have to live with it now. There are other well known faults with the kit (like engine cowling width), but it still looks like a good model.

 

Cheers!

 

It's amazing how many small and not so small inaccuracies are discovered when checking pictures before applying the decals. I've learnt this when designing my own decals, I used to prepare everything based on drawings and official documents, then when it was time to put the decal in place things didn't look right. Initially I thought it had been my mistake, then I realised that most times it was the kit's fault 🤣

There' not much that can be done, best is as you say, just live with it.

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  • 4 months later...

Hi Folks,

 

It's been ages since I updated this build having been completely distracted over the Summer by the excellent FROG Group Build, my first.

 

But - progress! Decals.

 

Dscf1535

 

The Xtradecals were pretty good but I did have trouble with getting them to bed into the pretty substantial panel lines, the red portion tended to crack rather than bend, even with copious applications of Microsol. Almost every source I looked at had a different location for the wing roundels. So in the end I used the best period photo of a Mk XIX with a Type B roundel I could find actually showing where they were.

 

Unlike more recent productions, Airfix's decals were very minimal and no stencils were included. So I used the BarracudaCals 'Late Mark Airframe Stencils for Marks VII thru 24' which seem fine as long one ignores that they think late marks of Spitfires only had 4 prop blades.

 

Next it will be a coat of matt acrylic varnish, some light weathering and then attaching all the 'bits and bobs'.

 

Cheers,

Edited by Johnson
spelling
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2 hours ago, Johnson said:

Almost every source I looked at had a different location for the wing roundels. So in the end I used the best period photo of a Mk XIX with a Type B roundel I could find actually showing where they were.

a little bit of info that seems 'lost'

there is a formula for the position of RAF uppperwing roundels,  centre of roundel 1/3 in from wing tip,  full distance taken from aircraft centreline

In the Spitfire cae, this is calculated with normal wing tips, IIRC A Spitfire is 36 ft wings span, 36ft/2 = 18ft/3 = 6ft, , 72nd is 6 feet to the inch, 1 inch. so centre should be in 1/72 1 inch in from tip....   ( I usually use the Hurricane for this as I can do it from memory..)

 

PR types may vary from this, though this look factory applied

5232312442_f14ba213c0_o.jpgSpitfire PR XI   Nov. 1943. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

2nd TAF after  Jan 45 when they used C1 uppers, due to friendly fire incidents with the USAAF

25000713876_1874a0389f_o.jpgSpitfirePR Mk. XI, 1944. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

and as I'm at at, a colour shot of a PR XIX

9737831392_f71e719fa7_o.jpgSpitfire XIX, 1945. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Looks great, neat work

:goodjob:

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