Revell (Hasegawa) Spitfire IX in 1/48th Scale.Finished.

Alex Gordon · May 2, 2020

G'day Chums,whilst having a tidy up I dug this one out and decided to give it another go.Many moons ago this one was going to become a PR XI off the back of an XIV conversion that I was having a crack at in 2014's D Day 70th anniversary GB.I got as far as chucking a bit of paint at various bits and then found out about the fuselage length issue.A bit of digging and heartsearching later I decided to put it to one side because of the amount of work to do something about it.

The other day,in truth a couple of weeks ago,she rose to the surface."Just build the thing" thought I so here we go.This will be the second one of these across my bench over the years,having built and been very impressed with the VIII boxing.Lousy photography alert,proper film piccie taken back in 2005 or so.For the purists I slavishly followed the instructions on this one.After I joined BM back in 2010 I found out that MD280 was shot down 2 weeks before the Fit The Bomb Racks instruction was issued and therefore was never fitted with them.In my defence I'd never even seen a photo of a Mk VIII before I joined BM.

The snag with this kit is that the fuselage is too short,here shown taped together with the ICM fuselage.

This isn't just in one place,here the rudder posts are aligned.If the rear of the canopy is aligned then the canopy aperture falls short.Aligning the front of the windscreen reveals the fuel tank area to be too short.The engine cowling area has the same snag.This could be overcome with some applied cut and shut (one day,maybe) but I have a handful of ICMs in the stash that will take care of my near future whims.

"Just build the thing" thought I.The kit itself is a straightforward build.It fits together easily and well,no need for all the trimming and fettling that I've been finding with my Airfix Vb build elsewhere in this GB.Here's where we got to all that time ago

I reckon it falls into the less than 25% bracket so I'm going to get this one on the bench and then on the shelf.I'm not going to attempt any corrections,just build her as is.The fuselage was glued together and propellor and spinner were made ready for paint.

The blade tips had a coat of gloss yellow,the spinner and fuselage band area had a squirt of Xtracolour Sky.

The cockpit bits were tarted up and made ready to go in.The gauge detail on the instrument panel is really rather good and was painted up as best I could.The seat straps are painted masking tape,I'm not going to bother with the buckles,I'm fed up with fiddly at the moment.

After a tiny bit of seam sanding the upper wing halves were glued on making a fettle free joint.

Once set the lower wing was fitted and glued as well as the chin cowling and carburettor air intake.

The tailplanes tried to set twisted but a couple of strips of insulting tape took care of that.Glue set,cleaned up,wiped down with white spirit and ready for paint.

The inside of the canopy framing was given a hairy stickful of slightly darkened Sky paint.The propellor blade tips were masked off and then matt black paint,Humbrol 33,was sprayed on to the bits I wanted painted black.

Cannon fairings fitted and only the canopy left to attach,it's yellow paint time.

This is where things slow down,with painting the main colours and then masking off in between.More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.Be good and stay safe.

Edited June 3, 2020 by Alex Gordon

Alex Gordon · May 4, 2020

Hello again Chums,a little bit more done.

I read something that Troy posted in another build about the bulges above the wheel wells on the Mk IX were a postwar modification to accommodate a larger diameter wheel.Being as the markings for my offering are for June 1945 that mod probably wouldn't apply here so I got busy with the chisel and sanding stick and removed them.

A brushful of thick paint and a light sanding will remove the last vestiges of their existence.I then stuffed the cockpit with bog roll,turned her over and sprayed the underside with a mixture of Humbrol 165 Medium Sea Grey and gloss varnish.While that was drying I turned my attention to the undercarriage.

I like Hasegawa's approach to this,separating the hub sides from the tyre makes painting easy.The hub sides are handed to the tyres,there is a locating hole on one side of each tyre and a corresponding pip on the inside hub component.It's a good thing that I spotted that one before I started chucking the glue about.

The lightening holes in the torque links will be drilled out and self adhesive aluminium will be applied to the sliding portions of the legs.

The only problem with the fit that I have so far encountered was with the rear portion of the canopy.It was slightly wide causing a slight step against the fuselage.I glued on a very thin sliver of plastic card,let it set and then sanded it to fair them both together.The glassware is flush on the other side.

The underside was masked off ready for painting the upper surfaces.

Remember my painting the spinner Sky?While consulting the map on another matter I happened to notice that it is supposed to be Carmine Red.Who? I mixed up a drop of 19 gloss Red with a drop of 29 Dark Earth and hairy sticked the spinner to match the red of the roundel centres.I think I got it close enough for most purposes.

Thanks for looking in Chums,more soon.Stay safe.

Alex Gordon · May 9, 2020

G'day again Chums,we've been painting.Xtracolour Ocean Grey for a start

and then masked off for Xtracolour RAF Dark Green

Once dry the wing walkway lines were half masked and hairy sticked with Humbrol 21 Gloss Black.The masking was to one side of the panel line so that careful painting gave me the result I wanted without too much fuss.

She's now dry and ready for decals.These will have to come from various sheets as I used some of the kit sheet as spares for other projects.

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.Stay safe and be happy.

Alex Gordon · May 12, 2020

Hello again Chums,the last update for this build.

The undercarriage components were fettled and made ready to assemble.

The decals went on without a hitch,Klear being the setting goop of choice as usual.Vallejo matt varnish was hairy sticked all over and that was about it.I'm calling this one finished.Just before I took these piccies one of my lamp bulbs finally demised so these are a little austere in the illumination department.