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Tamiya 1/48th Spitfire Mk.I


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The second one finished today and the fourth Spitfire, so far, this year. This is the old tooling of the Tamiya Mk.I but still a good kit to put together, with no pitfalls. I added the Eduard cockpit etch set as well as the Ultracast door and exhausts. Painting was all achieved using Xtracrylix paints along with the Montex mask set for the main markings. I quite fancied building an early war version and this one is a Duxford based 66 Squadron from early 1940. As usual, glossed up for decals with Future and then dulled down again with Xtracrylix Matt varnish. Flory dark dirt was used to add a little bit of muck, but not too much. A bit of a minefield getting these early Spitfire details correct but hopefully I've managed it and you enjoy it as much as I did building it.

 

As always comments and critique welcomed.

Pete

 

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Superb early Spitfire. :like:  I have also dug a couple of these kits out of the stash, did you cut the kit elevators off or use the Aires replacements?  FYI you have to do the same with the newer Tamiya Spitfire. 😉

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Thanks guys for some really great comments.

 

12 hours ago, Retired Bob said:

Superb early Spitfire. :like:  I have also dug a couple of these kits out of the stash, did you cut the kit elevators off or use the Aires replacements?  FYI you have to do the same with the newer Tamiya Spitfire. 😉

Bob, yes I did cut the elevators off. I had bought the Aires ones but then discovered that they were for the newer Tamiya Spitfire, so have put them in that kit box until I get around to starting it. 

 

Pete

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12 hours ago, Peter W said:

Bob, yes I did cut the elevators off. I had bought the Aires ones but then discovered that they were for the newer Tamiya Spitfire, so have put them in that kit box until I get around to starting it. 

Hi Peter, I was reluctant to buy the new Tamiya Spitfire because of the separate cockpit sections but as I wanted a section of Spitfires for our clubs 80th BoB celebration I bought one.  Same minefield of getting the early period details correct of course, it doesn't help when Tamiya put the IFF cheese cutter wires on all their colour choices, even the 1938 example.  As an experiment I'm trying the closed cockpit section with a vacform canopy, I'm still at the interior painting phase at the moment, I think I've got the correct shade of early cockpit interior green. 😉  The new kits elevators are much easier to cut free.

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1 hour ago, Paulaero said:

Very nice build , its a great kit, how much better is the new one ???

the new kit is apparently accurate  in outline.  (I say apparently as I have not got one as yet) 

the old kit is a great example of the legendary Tamiya engineering.  It's not a very good representation of a Spitfire. It's not really horrible, and it look OK in photos, or not next to the one with the right shapes.

It's a a little short, too wide and slab sided.  The wing is too broad in mid chord.   Actually it is fixable if you are inclined

see here for the gory details.

weirdly enough 1/48th Spitfire kits got worse in accuracy in the 90's/00's for a while,  most of the old kits are actually very well shaped.... 

 

HTH

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