Spitfire Mk. VIII, Hasegawa, 1/72

[opus999]

Spitfire Mk. VIII | 1/72 | Hasegawa

No. 155 Squadron, Royal Air Force, Burma, 1945

 

 

I finished this on 7/18/2020.  A straightforward build, however I used some spare parts from my Eduard Mk.IX builds to improve the cockpit (which may have been a waste of time with a closed canopy), and provide better looking landing gears and gear doors.  In general the Hasegawa kit has nice external detail and went together fairly easily (although I had to put a little more work than usual into getting the nose seams to look good).  My only gripe with the kit is this: I was warned by someone that the Hasagawa Mk. VIII, was "too small" in the back, which I mis-interpreted as "too short". Matching it to an un-built Eduard Mk. IX, I found that, if the fuselages are lined up at the back of the canopy, then both the tail and nose are about 1 mm too short.  Not very noticeable.  However, I think "too small" meant that the area just forward of the empennage is too thin (from bottom to top).  It looks more spindly just forward of the tail than the Eduard kits on my shelf.

 

I tried to mimic the dusty conditions I saw in some photos of 155 sqn. aircraft by using white oil paint rubbed into the gloss coat (post decals).  My experience is that this oil paint will become very light when dry, but will darken again with the application of dull coat.  Unfortunately, it darkened too much so it was not very noticeable, so I misted the surface in spots with a Mr. Color tan.  It actually looks better in the pictures than in real life! 

 

This kit is actually a replacement for the terrible Starfix Mk. XIV I made a few years ago.  I really like the SEAC scheme, so I chose this kit, to replace the Starfix one.  I will be re-doing Ginger Lacey's Mk. XIV mount (Correctly) using the Sword 1/72 kit.

 

Paint: Mr. Surfacer 1500 black decanted into airbrush > Hataka RAF Dark Earth / Ocean Gray / medium Sea Gray >  Testor's "Deep Yellow" > Mr. Color 311 (FS36622) for spinner and theater stripes  > Alclad Aqua Gloss (pre-decal) > Mr. Color GX113 dullcoat (post-decal) 

Decals: Kit decals plus leftover Eduard stencils

Aftermarket:  Eduard steel seatbelts

 

No WIP for this one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here's a comparison of the instrument panels: Hasagawa in the center, un-altered Eduard on the right, and the Eduard one I modified to use on the left:

 

 

Eduard's part behind seat looked better than Hasegawa's so I modified it and used it (Hasegawa on the right):

 

 

Here's the cockpit all finished:

 

 

And I scratch built the rod that extends from the back of the seat:

 

 

Thanks for looking!  Questions, comments and constructive criticism always welcomed.

 

 

Edited July 25, 2020 by opus999

[malpaso]

Very nice looking build.  I have the same kit in the stash with those decals.  Your tips on improving will be handy, but not sure I'll use the decals as i just built this plane in 1/48 for the GB using an Eduard.

My kit has a ready painted canopy!  Although it will apparently need masking on the rear pane for a VIII.

Cheers 

Will

[bigbadbadge]

Great work your Spitfire looks gorgeous, I have this one too with the ready painted canopy and built it in this scheme.  Your paint work looks wonderful.

Great work

All the best

Chris

[Wulfman]

Super Spitfire, excellent build and finish ! (I would love all kits to come with painted canopies.)

 

Wulfman

[Spitfire31]

Exceedingly convincing, 'right-looking' Spitfire!

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

[IanC]

Nice Spit. The faded paintwork effect looks great.

 

 

[opus999]

9 hours ago, malpaso said:

My kit has a ready painted canopy!

 

9 hours ago, bigbadbadge said:

I have this one too with the ready painted canopy

 

5 hours ago, Wulfman said:

I would love all kits to come with painted canopies.

Whaaat????  There was a version with a painted canopy? Well, this one certainly did not have one.  I couldn't find masks for a Mk. VIII, so I took a chance and bought the Eduard masks for the Hasegawa Mk. IX, which were correct except for 2 areas that I had to fix.  That was a real time saver. 

 

Thanks for the kind words! I'm very happy with the results on this one.

[opus999]

9 hours ago, malpaso said:

Although it will apparently need masking on the rear pane for a VIII.

I noticed that the framing on the rear pane went down to the sliding rail.  I wasn't sure why that was until I saw marks to cut out holes on the inside of the starboard side, just under the exhausts.  Then I realized that this was mold was for the mk.VII and mk.VIII.  That's how I learned that the early Mk. VII had a rear pane that extended further down the fuselage than the Mk. VIII.  But it sounds like you already knew that.  

[opus999]

1 hour ago, IanC said:

Nice Spit. The faded paintwork effect looks great.

Thank you very much!  It's been a challenge to get that effect consistently and I don't get many opportunities to practice.