WiP - Airfix 1/72 Spitfire F Mk.22

[Brad Cancian]

Hi all - here is my next project - the Airfix 1/72 Spitfire F Mk.22. I've had this kit in the stash for a few years, and have collected some odds and sods for it over the years... so now, it's time to build it!
 

 

It should hopefully be a relatively simple build. Anyone have any tips?

 

Here is where things are at after the first 24 hours - cockpit is done. The Arfix plastic is quite soft, but that makes it easy to work with for things like removing the cockpit door (as I did). The Pavla set is a very good fit and doesn't require any extra trimming. The primary components are the seat, seat back and rear bulkhead, and the instrument panel / bulkhead, floor, rudder pedals, compass, control column, cockpit door and crowbar. There are no etched parts in the Pavla set, which is a shame - this meant I had to source RAF seatbelts separately. The kit sidewalls are left as is with the Pavla set, so that's what I stuck with. The Airfix kit does have some annoying (and large) mould release pin marks on the inside of the fuselage; they are all hidden bar one, right in the middle of the starboard cockpit sidewall. I managed to clean this one up but it was slightly fiddly.

 

 

The fuselage halves went together with no problems and are currently drying... I also got the wheels painted, and the prop will go into the spray booth tonight  Clean up of the fuselage seam will hopefully be done tomorrow.

 

 

It looks like the wings should be a good fit, but I might be cautious and glue the top halves to the fuselage parts before the bottom wing part.

 

I am planning on doing this one in the silver scheme for something slightly different - I understand that these were painted in RAF High Speed Silver and not left in natural metal. I'm good with that, but I am curious as to whether the wheel wells and gear doors were also done in silver? I have seen people mention that these might have been painted in light green, similar to the cockpit? Can anyone help?

 

Cheers!

 

BC

 

 

 

[2996 Victor]

Hi BC,

Looks like a great start here.

I'll follow along, if I may, as I've got a hankering for an Airfix Spit or two!

Cheers,

Mark

[Brad Cancian]

Hi folks - not much progress, but the big 'bits' are together. I tried something slightly different, in that I attacjed the upper wing halves to the fuselage first before I glued on the single piece underside / belly. This worked well for the upper side of the wing, i.e. no filling or rescribing needed, but not so great for the underside. The way the wing is moulded, along the flaps and inboard from the wingtips, means that there was quite a bit of a step here and at the leading edge which needed a bit of filling and smoothing. It wasnt too bad in the end, but I suspect I would have had more troubles if i'd tried it the other way (i.e. wings together then mate the fuselage). At least this way I had minimal rescribing.

 

 

The resin tailplanes went on with no issues. The barrels also fit well, but the stubs didn't seem to be completely moulded on the Airfix wing parts. Oh well.

 

Now onto priming.

 

Cheers,

 

BC

[bigbadbadge]

Great start, cockpit details look great and has come together quickly.

Great work

Chrus

[TheFlogger]

Wouw. Impressive work. So many after market goodies  for a tiny kit.

 

Cant wait to see the result 

Edited October 20, 2020 by TheFlogger