Airfix 1/48 Spitfire 1a

[Nomore Shelfspace]

Although I stopped aircraft modelling a while ago, I just thought I'd pick this one up last week. It's an excellent kit but needs work. I am still sure "New Airfix", welcome as they are, put really good Computer Aided Design before buildability! I did take Work in Progress photos but decided just to get to the finished model. The plastic is the well-known Soft Bluey Stuff and has to be treated with care - it just soaks up liquid cements and tube cement instantly melts it. There was no way I was going to give someone in Eastern Europe 8 pounds and wait three weeks for an aftermarket seatbelt printed on sticky paper or something so I made my own from pie case foil. So I didn't get "Supermarine" on the rudder pedals but did get "Birds Eye" on the seatbelts. I used a watchmakers screwdriver to emboss small pieces of foil to make buckles. The interior is tricky - the various bulkheads have to slot into the cockpit walls and these slots need "easing" with a knife etc. before it will all fit. The instrument panel is supplied as a decal which has to go over moulded detail... being mad I just cut out the dials and applied them individually. Some research provided a more accurate colour scheme for the cockpit.  I had to file off a lot of plastic from under the cockpit tub before the lower wing would fit properly. Note there is a hole in the bottom of the tub, not to let water out but to accomodate the landing light... this thing has more detail than the old 1/24 scale Spitfire I built when I was (you don't want to know...)- years old!

  Amused to see another old friend, the pilot figure out of the above mentioned 1/24 scale Spit... complete with his sea boots. Must have been seconded from the Royal Navy.

  This model is brush painted. It was a bit of an experiment, and I won't do it again. I used the recommended Humbrol paints in two thin coats. The model was then brush coated in Klear, which wasn't enough to prevent problems with the (otherwise very good) decals silvering despite liberal amounts of Decalfix (which is really more of a wetting agent). One more coat would have worked, as I found out halfway through decalling. However, I will definitely go back to airbrushed Xtracolor acrylic if I build another aeroplane, I used to use this method with no problems. It's just all that masking!!

   I had to airbrush anyway with a coat of Xtracrylic matt varnish (after masking the transparencies...)

  Only potential problem if you aren't ready for it is the two-piece undercarriage legs... I know Airfix were going for dead accuracy etc. but there must be a less tricky method than fixing the top end of the leg into the undercarriage well before assembling both wing halves, then cementing the rest of the leg onto a hopefully secure stepped joint once everything has been assembled...

  Weathering was by pastels and a fine brush applied aluminium-ish paint.

  I used GS Hypo Cement for some of the transparencies - this is a jewellers cement that dries clear and doesn't fog. I actually had to pare down the fuselage top light before it would fit, with the aid of a head magnifier, something I used quite a lot in this build. I am wondering if Airfix could just scale this kit up to 1/32, it certainly looks like they could...

  Well there it is, as I say a bit of an experiment, I could have done better with the finish but it looks geat on the shelf with my few remaining aircraft!

 

 

[GREG DESTEC]

Great result 👍 

 

I really like the finish you have achieved too.

 

Cheers Greg

[alt-92]

Overall good result  and subtle weathering 👍

Were you still going to add the antenna wire?

On the aircraft you have modeled, it runs from slightly behind the aerial mast up to the top and then to the post on the rear empennage. No IFF wires, fortunately. 
Just the mirror in green and a swipe of interior green (or grey) over the crowbar and it's a real beaut

 

[SAT69]

Very nice Spitfire!

[keith in the uk]

RED CROW BAR STRIKES AGAIN  . 😩

[Nomore Shelfspace]

8 hours ago, alt-92 said:

Overall good result  and subtle weathering 👍

Were you still going to add the antenna wire?

On the aircraft you have modeled, it runs from slightly behind the aerial mast up to the top and then to the post on the rear empennage. No IFF wires, fortunately. 
Just the mirror in green and a swipe of interior green (or grey) over the crowbar and it's a real beaut

 

Yeah, I realised I'd forgotten to paint the mirror after I took the photos... the red crowbar is probably a misconception, don't know where that started. I wasn't sure if this variant did have the wire so left it off. I will have another go at it some time.

[RMCS]

Niiiice 

[bigbadbadge]

Nice Spitfire, I use brush painted thinned Humbrol in my models but usually it takes three coats. You can fix decals using klear which is watered down around 30-40 % I saw @stevehnz mention it on a thread and gave it a try on a Frog Blackburn Shark I built in a group build.  The model only had one brushed on coat of klear and using the diluted Klear method by painting some on the model where the decal is meant to go and laying the decal down and once in the correct place press down it worked, no silvering and the decal dried really well quickly and the model was glossed, decalled and glossed again in one evening session, wow.  Not necessarily suitable for all decals but is great and quite effective. Steve will be able to put me right of I have anything wrong there.

 

Great work on your Spitfire

All the best

Chris

 

[stevehnz]

Sounds about right to me Chris, link for more homework for anyone who wants it.

 

Steve.

[Peter Roberts]

Very nice result - well done! The new Airfix kits are a bit Jeckyl and Hyde, sometimes great fit and detail, sometimes not so good fit and detail! You've wrestled this one to a win.  

[Nomore Shelfspace]

18 hours ago, Peter Roberts said:

Very nice result - well done! The new Airfix kits are a bit Jeckyl and Hyde, sometimes great fit and detail, sometimes not so good fit and detail! You've wrestled this one to a win.  

Thanks! It does look good, very redolent of the machine and era.

[Newbie(kinda)]

I'm not going to mention the RED CROWBAR...........................................................................................oh!

 

That apart, it's a pretty tasty finish for a 'brush painting experiment'. Why are you not going to repeat it; I think you should. It's an awful lot better than any of my efforts. 

 

And if the build was tricky (how did you deal with the gear legs?!), it certainly doesn't look like you struggled with it.

 

As for aerial wires, I'm still not convinced they're absolutely necessary, even in 1/48 (and DEFINITELY not in 1/72). 

 

Oh, and I'm not going to mention the mirror either................................................................................ah!! 

 

All of that said; I really like your Spitfire and wish I could build as well. Thanks for sharing.

[Nomore Shelfspace]

For your edification gentlemen, here is a (belated) photo of the above model with painted mirror and crowbar that is no longer red.

 

 

[alt-92]

Niiice  I like the colours on the exhaust stacks btw, didn't notice that the first time.