273 Squadron Spitfire XIV - Indo-China December '45 - Now Finished

[Olmec Head]

I understand that 273 Squadron operated Spitfire XIVs for a short time in Indo-China after the Japanese surrender from RAF Saigon (Nov 45 - Jan 46).  Further, on 11 December, 3 XIV aircraft supported French ground troops and attacked insurgent forces at Ban Me Thuot.  Other recce missions were flown until the Squadron disbanded at the end of Jan 46 in Burma.

 

From: https://www.britainatwar.com/2017/12/19/gremlins-and-masterdom-britains-vietnam-war/

 

Could this be permissible for this GB please?

Edited December 13, 2020 by Olmec Head
finished

[modelling minion]

1 hour ago, Olmec Head said:

Could this be permissible for this GB please?

Absolutely!

In fact I only mentioned my surprise that nobody had sneaked an RAF Spitfire into the GB a couple of days ago. It is certainly eligible and goes very well with our two Ki-43's in French markings.

Good luck with your build, which kit will you be using?

[Olmec Head]

Thanks I will be looking to do the Airfix Spitfire XIV as:

 

 

 

But not yet as I am trying to finish some Spitfires for the BoB GB.

 

[trickyrich]

Welcome along and very nice to see something quite different as well as being a Spitfire.

 

I was hoping we may get to see some of the lesser known aircraft used in this area/theatre and you've nailed it perfectly...... and I've learnt something today.

 

Good luck with the build I'm sure you'll have a lot of interested follows.

[John Masters]

Nice.  This'll be fun.

[Olmec Head]

Still finishing off the last BoB GB builds.  I am not sure if the Airfix 1/48 Spitfire XIV is an easy build however.

[Olmec Head]

I haven't forgotten this, I am trying to assemble the Mk XIV carefully to ensure I don't get caught out by any Airfix design 'difficulties'.  I'll try to post a picture or two when it is at an interesting stage.

[modelling minion]

I look forward to seeing the pics.

[Olmec Head]

A Start

 

I have used the ideas in the various builds on Britmodeller of this kit to try to get a good result from the kit.  The big issues seem to be the fuel tank cover area forward of the cockpit, the wing gap fit and  some other niggling issues.  As a start , to  make sure it went together I gave it a good clamping!

 

 

A picture is worth a thousand words? Any questions on the above?  Yes I ran out of clamps!

[modelling minion]

That really is a lot of clamps!

I have seen a few of these kits built up and they do look the part when finished.

[trickyrich]

wow that is a lot of clamps!! Lets see the wee beastie get out of that one!

[Olmec Head]

More progress

 

Having unclamped the fuselage, I have now glued on the wings, tailplanes (less elevators) and the infamous, badly thought out, armour fuel tank cover.

 

Some aspects were OK and some despite my attempts to improve the fit of the kit did not work.

 

Before starting the actual building I reviewed previous build on Britmodeller and the internet.  The most useful link was Ray_W 's build and his approach: 

 I also used some aspects of Paul Budzik's video critiques of the model and how to improve them.

 

 

I know that his videos caused a furor with some Britmodellers, those who seem to reject other's viewpoints that they don't like, I found a similar thing when the new Eduard Spitfire 1a was criticized for a few minor points.  Sometimes it seems that Airfix and Eduard are off limits for critiquing.  

 

But on with the build:

 

 

I fitted the cockpit sidewalls to each side rather than build the tub and fitted the frames etc in to one side.  I then realised I should have fitted the seat and armour plate first which took some manoeuvring to get in.  The kit seat attachments are a bit fragile and I had to put in a bit of sprue to hold the seat in place.  The cockpit has reasonable detail, but I will be doing it with the canopy closed, I know - heresy, but I didn't to spend time detailing the cockpit overmuch, the actual aircraft seemed to have a lot of extra wiring knobs and levers to put in to get a good representation.  I did add some obvious basic extras: radio, O2 tube, the seat harness and the little bar added to the seat armour that the harness goes around. I did have the Eduard PE  set, but I'll keep that for another time.

 

 

I spent some time following the advice on improving the fuel cover area by shimming it at the front and putting in extra shims inside the cover to force out the the sides to get the overhang effect of the extra armour.  I followed both Paul and Ray's ideas which caused me to realise that you had to follow one or the other, not both.  The issue is as Paul says that the plastic sides of the insert are thinner than the fuselage plastic and so the effect is the reverse of what it should be in real-life.  Eventually after some fiddling I got a reasonable result , but not as precise as Ray or Paul.  The overall fit and design is worse than the version on the Airfix Spitfire 1 and Vb which I think this kit is based on.

 

I used Ray's idea of shimming the undercart location lugs to force the fuselage sides out and then put on the lower wing.  This seemed to go well.  The upper wings fitted on well in dry fit, but when glued on, I got gaps in the wing to fuselage which was annoying.  It was possibly due to some misalignment and the fuselage being drawn in by the cockpit bay sides when finally glued.  I thought with fondness of the Tamiya Spitfire 1a fit that I built recently for the BoB GB.

 

 

Further the upper wing had a definite step where it met the fuselage, again which did not show up when dry fitting.  

 

 

After some sanding down, filling and shimming, I think it is now at an acceptable level, albeit I will have to do some re-scribing.  On one wing, I had removed the wing tip, but kept on the other as I realised that it is needed to ensure the wing lined up properly - the wing has no locating pins and holes in it which is odd. I then razor sawed of the final wing tip to get the clipped wing of the FR XIV.  

 

Next is the big under nose air intake and to fit the rocker covers.

[modelling minion]

I think that you are doing a really good job on the Spitfire, she's taking shape very nicely and will make an interesting addition to the gallery.

[Olmec Head]

Advances are made on all fronts!

 

After my somewhat tedious diatribe against the kit last post, I thought I should actually just get on with it, armed with thin plastic shims at the ready:

 

 

I dry-fitted the fishtail exhausts in place after a bit of sanding and slicing; one Airfix exhaust always seems not to properly in every kit I have made (sorry I said I won't do that).  So this time I thought I would get it right first and not try to heave it at the end of the build.  I then glued the Griffon rocker covers around the exhausts to make sure they could fit back in later.  This meant the covers needed some filler and sanding to get a better look.  I am sure that I didn't have such problems in the old 1990s Spitfire 24 that I made a couple of years back.  

 

I managed to lose the starboard camera port insert, so I re-did it in plastic card.  The original aircraft had that side's port painted over so that is fine.  

 

I was going to hollow out the small nose intake, but chickened out.  Instead I put on the clipped wing ends.  I put in the inevitable shims into the aileron slots as recommended by Paul B in his video which helped fit the ailerons better and gave them something to properly attach to. 

 

Forewarned by Ray_W's build post that the air intake needed shimming to fit, I put in the required shim and got a reasonable fit.  It also helped the lips of the intake which where a bit rounded at the halves' joint which left a slight gap.  If you have built a Griffon intake or Vokes filter you will know what I mean.

 

 

I did the radiators as closed to avoid extra detailing and they only needed a slight sanding to fit into their beds.

 

Previously I had drilled the underwing lights near the tips and moved the fuselage light back from the kits central position.  The kit's rear wheel doors were put in although these lack detail really, I wasn't able to find a good set of replacements in the spares box.  Almost out of glue after such a building frenzy, I put on the 50 cal stubs which were tedious to sand off to remove the sprue gates.  The cannon wing attachments are not stellar, but not too bad and it seems always a weakness of Spitfire wings in kits to get right.  I still need to improve the outer stubs before adding the cannon, which I have lifted from an Eduard Spitfire IX kit.  

 

 

The blur is due to poor cameramanship.

 

 

Next will be a basecoat of Halfords white plastic primer and I need to drill out the gun camera in the starboard (or is it port) wing root, 50-50.

 

 

Edited November 19, 2020 by Olmec Head
GPS

[modelling minion]

Edging ever closer to the painting stage, and looking good too.

[Olmec Head]

Modelling Minion - Your Wish is my Command

 

I spent a bit of time tidying up the model and then re-scribed around the upper fuel tank join line and the lines at the wing root.  I also redid the fasteners with a beader and rivet 'holes' where these had been sanded away.  Possibly too many redone rivets, but I like 'beading.'

 

Then I sprayed the underside with Tamiya MSG after some pre shading.  Following the general trend, I then put in painted over lower C roundels.  The aircraft was repainted  inTemperate Land Scheme in theatre and I would imagine that the MSG was probably also resprayed at the same time, but the overpainted roundels add some interest.  The aircraft was only3-4 months old in late '45, so I think the shading overall is probably a bit excessive,  but it may well have been outside in the tropics for that time.

 

 

Spraying in my outside garage in 8 degrees C is interesting and the hair dryer is proving invaluable.

[modelling minion]

That is nice work, I am sure that the painted out roundels would look very much as you have done them and also that the airframe would have had a degree of weathering as the tropical climate doesn't need long to have an affect on the state of paint work. Add to that the fact that they weren't operating from airfields in the best of conditions.

[trickyrich]

gee i do like this build and all the extra/correction work you've done, awesome job!

 

The over-sprayed roundels look spot-on! 

 

The tropical climate played havoc with the paint finishes plus with the local re-sprays you could and did get quite a bit of variation with the colourings. Being kept outside all the time and uncovered, everything you'd see of her looking almost straight down would have been hit the hardest and most faded, this tapers off as you go down the sides, underneath more dirty from operations of poorly surfaced airfields. If you can track down period photo's you'll get to see the state of these birds towards the end, only the new replacements would have been in better condition.

 

Gosh 8C!!!  Chilly, I can understand the painting challenges, though we had 40C here the other day while I was painting my Skyraider, now that was interesting!

 

Good luck with the rest of the build, you're doing a fantastic job, well done! 

[Olmec Head]

19 hours ago, trickyrich said:

gee i do like this build and all the extra/correction work you've done, awesome job!

 

The over-sprayed roundels look spot-on! 

 

The tropical climate played havoc with the paint finishes plus with the local re-sprays you could and did get quite a bit of variation with the colourings. Being kept outside all the time and uncovered, everything you'd see of her looking almost straight down would have been hit the hardest and most faded, this tapers off as you go down the sides, underneath more dirty from operations of poorly surfaced airfields. If you can track down period photo's you'll get to see the state of these birds towards the end, only the new replacements would have been in better condition.

 

Gosh 8C!!!  Chilly, I can understand the painting challenges, though we had 40C here the other day while I was painting my Skyraider, now that was interesting!

 

Good luck with the rest of the build, you're doing a fantastic job, well done! 

 Thanks Rich for the kind words.  40 C is very hot,  I imagine that the paint drys before getting to the model!  For 273 Squadron , I have decided on a fictitious backstory that the airmen were all browned off with still being in SEAC after the war had ended and so didn't keep the airframes shiny.  I know I would have been keen to go home rather than have to do a stint in French Indo China!  Joe for King!

[Olmec Head]

I see a red door and I want to paint it brown

 

After the excitement of the grey undersides, I though I would push the boat out and paint the top in  the SEAC RAF Dark Earth.  Some profiles have  RN218 as DFS scheme in Green and Grey, but the white aircraft serial numbers  usually denote a TLS repaint.  Some Spitfire XIVs were DFS and some were TLS in South East Asia post war without seemingly any definite RAF painting instructions.

 

 

I airbrushed  on the Vallejo Dark Earth.  I find the latest Vallejo DE 71323 to be a good match, but sometimes I put on a loose base coat of old Vallejo DE 029  which is darker.  By then over-spraying a second coat of the newer lighter colour it gives a weathering effect and a bit of variation.  Airbrushing Vallejo Model Air seems to always be a lottery.  Sometimes it goes on brilliantly,  other times, like this time, it clogs continuously and needs recleans.  It became a bit of a battle to get all the aircraft done before the paint finally stopped.  The colder weather (but not that cold) may not have helped, and having also used Tamiya previously in the same airbrush may have caused problems - although I did completely clean it in between.  Perhaps it is designed for warm dry Spanish conditions, not a cold dank British garage in early winter.

 

I added in the camera port, but the fit was not excellent -again.  I have to give Airfix the benefit of the doubt as I lost one port and so I could have used the wrong side (but I doubt it).  After a bit of sanding down the protruding corner and a bit of filler, the fit was better.

 

The cockpit canopy and windshield have been balanced on top to see if they fit, which does not look too bad.

 

So just as a contrast, I am also doing a Hawk T.1 Trainer for a concurrent  GB  which is a bit more colourful:

 

 

[modelling minion]

Good job on spraying the dark earth and a good idea of using the two different shades of the same colour for variation.

Your Hawk looks great too and is certainly very colourful compared to your Spitfire.

[trickyrich]

I agree, a nice job with the painting.

[Olmec Head]

Green On, Go...

 

I used my usual Spitfire Camouflage paper masks with some slight adjustments to fit a Mark XIV and then airbrushed on the Tamiya RAF Dark Green.  I did a bit of pre shade and some lightened green with yellow and white.  

 

A late mark Spitfire does look odd in Battle of Britain colours.  The Tamiya sprayed well and without the grainyness that I often get with Tamiya.  Unfortunately, the careful and subtle variation of colours in the DG and DE has not really come through.  I find that the camouflage unfortunately distracts the eye from the individual colours and 'washes out' the shading effects.  I might try the oil dot filter if I get the time.

 

 

Next are the SEAC white stripes on the wings and tail parts.  Here is hoping the white paint doesn't bleed too much under the masking tape.  I must also do the canopy, before I forget.

[modelling minion]

You're right, late mark Spitfires do look odd in the DG/DE scheme but you have done a very good job on applying yours. Make sure you get the masking tape nice and tight at the edges when you apply the white.

[trickyrich]

they may look add but you're got a great finish on her, well done.

 

To help stop any bleeding I'd do multiple light coats of the white......try to avoid getting it too wet, that should help with possible bleeding.