Bedders Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Nice to get this one finished finally: Airfix's 1/72 Spitfire Ia tinkered with to produce K5054. The model depicts the aircraft in early 1937, around the time of its wheels-up landing at Martlesham Heath. By then the Spitfire had the eight brownings fitted and they were experimenting with different kinds of exhaust pipes. The cowling had a strengthening strip above the exhaust stacks, which I created with plastic card. The exhausts here came from the early Airfix Hurricane kit and look similar enough to what's in the photos. The aircraft also had a tailwheel by then, so it was looking very close to what became the Mark I Spitfire. There is no doubt lots wrong with the model: information about the original is incomplete so I didn't go all-out for correctness as I would never be fully sure whether it's really right. Instead I wanted to capure the spirit of it in 1/72. For the colour I made a bright summery mix of Tamiya XF-23 Light Blue, X-3 Royal Blue and X-2 White. I changed a few of the panel lines, some the obvious ones, some less so, to get close enough to the real thing, and to reflect what I know about the prototype (which ain't a huge amount). And I added the daisy-cutter wheel doors as I think they were still fitted at this point in time. The wheels came from the good old Matchbox Mk IX kit, and they look decent enough. Decals are from Xtradecal, and they behaved very well. I should thank them for including a pair of spare fuselage roundels in the set as I made a placement mistake first time around and had to remove them, sand, repaint and reapply. Anyroad enough verbiage, on with the photos: And here's one of the real K5054 having landed wheels-up near Martlesham in spring 1937. Thanks for looking. Justin 46 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mr T Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Nice looking model that captures the clean lines oof the prototype well. I am planning on doing the CMR kit as it appeared at the time of its first appearance at Hendon on June 1936 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
binbrook87 Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Really great looking early Spit. I may have to do one myself looking how well yours has turned out 👌 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Lovely model, great work. Got the old old Airfix mk 1 to convert using the Aeroclub conversion. I must restart this now, thanks for the inspiration. All the best Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hobo Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Excellent result - the blue looks very good. Love the first Spits and Hurricanes. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Another inspiring build Justin! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wulfman Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 A lovely build of a very attractive subject. Well done! Wulfman 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Quiet Mike Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 What a lovely representation, good work! And the grey colour looks spot on too, much more workmanlike for it's life in testing, after it's run of air displays the previous summer. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andrew.S Posted March 27, 2020 Share Posted March 27, 2020 Very pretty! Good job! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bangor Lad Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Great work. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Courageous Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 Fantastic. Stuart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-32 Posted March 28, 2020 Share Posted March 28, 2020 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SAT69 Posted March 29, 2020 Share Posted March 29, 2020 Absolutely splendid. Will stand out nicely among other 1/72 Spitfires. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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