1/72 Hasegawa Spitfire Mk VIII as MD 219 of the RIAF, Spring 1946, Kohat, India

[Madmaks]

Greetings! The last time I built a 1/72 Hasegawa Spitfire VIII was around 17 years back. I am revisiting this neat little kit with this quick build. Until the Eduard Mk VIII kit came out, the Hasegawa Mk VIII was the benchmark for me. Though this comes no where as close to the detail as Eduard but the engraved panel lines and the lines are pretty good, providing a neat fit and clean quick build. The cockpit has just around enough detail to look ok when you peer in. The only part I disliked was the undercarriage attachment which took some patience. I gave the kit a primary coat of Tamiya flat aluminum and applied salt to places I wanted the metal to show through for weathering. Next up was pre-shading using Tamiya flat black and then applying the camo - Tamiya Medium Sea Gray beneath and on top Tamiya Flat Earth and RAF Green. This was sealed with Tamiya clear. The stencils were from the kit as well as the spares box (Kits-world). I used xtra decals for the numbering and some more after market decals for the roundels and fin-flash. The reference picture I used is in black and white and i guessed that the nose looked blue and that's what I went with.

 

Some quick history about the subject: This particular aircraft (MD 219) was flown by 2 Squadron Royal Indian Air Force and was forced to belly land when it suffered engine failure while formation flying from Kohat in May 1946. I added extra weathering assuming the airplane required much needed TLC before it went down. The pilot, Flying Officer K.L. Suri survived with minor injuries. I got this information from the excellent reference book, "Spitfires in the Sun" which is now my go-to book for the next few Spitfire builds I am planning.