453rd BG Museum Build - USAAF 4th FG Spitfire (Tamiya 1/48)

[Fritag]

Hi all,

 

This is my contribution to the 453rd BG museum build.

 

I volunteered to do a 4th FG Spitfire and Jim Clarey the museum’s curator sent me one of Tamiya’s venerable 1/48 Spitfire Vbs.

 

The 4th FG was formed directly from the RAF Eagle Squadrons which took their Spitfire V’s with them when they became a USAAF unit in September 1942, and flew them until they were replaced with P47’s in about March 1943.

 

Jim’s brief to me was that he’d  “prefer a worn and weathered model, it fits in with the 4th FG exhibits I have in the museum, the more realistic the better.”

 

Realistically worn and weathered? Talk about setting up to fail… 

 

Anyways I decided to build Spitfire Vb BM510 XR-A which was a 334th FS aircraft (formerly 71 Eagle Squadron).  I chose XR-A for two reasons:

 

Firstly because the IWM had a  few good photographs of XR-A, the best of which is here with 2nd Lt Robert L ‘Junior’ Priser standing in front of her:

 

 

And secondly because she was  the aircraft of Major Gregory A ‘Gus’ Daymond who was the first CO of the 334th, between September 1942 and March 1943 and whose personal history nicely straddles the Eagle Squadrons and the 4th FG.

 

Gus had flown Hurricanes and Spifires with 71 Eagle Squadron, shooting down 7 enemy aircraft (and adding another couple with the 334th), winning the DFC and Bar and eventually commanding 71 squadron as a RAF Squadron Leader.  He would have been all of 22 years old when he was given command of the 334th.

 

Gus also get many mentions in the book ‘War Eagles: The Story of the Eagle Squadron’ by Col. James Saxon Childers (first published in 1943).

 

The IWM have some nice photos of Gus.  As a RAF Squadron leader:

 

 

And as CO of the 334th (alongside the CO’s of the 335th and 336th (formerly 121 and 133 Eagle squadrons):

 

 

And here's one with him on the wing of a 71 Eagle Squadron Spitfire (who knows, maybe XR-A?) (credit to ‘War Eagles: The Story of the Eagle Squadron’):

 

 

So.  The WIP is here.

 

The old Tamiya kit is showing her age (mid 90’s) now and she needed a bit of TLC - but that just made the build more enjoyable.

 

A quick recap of what I did (and didn’t do) is as follows:

 

What I didn’t do was correct any of the quite well known shape issues with the kit.  They don’t stop it looking like a perfectly acceptable Spitfire and I wanted to concentrate on more noticeable stuff.

 

What I did do was:

 

• Give her a new cockpit.  Cherry picked a few bits from the Aires resin cockpit set, modified other bits for use, pinched some odds and ends from an Eduard etched set, scratched the rest and threw in some HGW ‘fabric’ seat belts.
• Plunge mould a new fixed rear canopy.
• Carve off the overwing U/C bay stiffeners and for good measure removed the oversized/incorrectly shaped wheel bulges and replaced them with home cast resin replacements.
• Change the wheel bay internal stiffeners from an ‘H’ to a ‘K’ shape to reflect the contemporary arrangement.
• Make use of the rather nice Master brass cannons, Eduard Brassin Resin exhausts (actually for the Airfix kit), Quickboost cockpit door (actually for the Eduard kit) and Quickboost rear view mirror.
• Cut off and pose the radiator shutter open and add the cannon heating pipework inside the radiator.
• Cut off and pose the tailwheel at an angle.
• Add the pipework to the undercarriage legs.
• Cut off and pose the rudder and elevators.

 

And as to the painting and finishing:

 

• I mostly used Mig acrylics for the interior and Colourcoats enamels for the exterior.
• For the cockpit I used a mixture of pre and post shading, Flory wash and oils to hopefully bring the cockpit to life.
• For the exterior: I used Mig chipping fluid over Alclad aluminium to try and recreate the characteristic Spitfire worn patches.  I didn’t pre-shade so much as apply several different colours to create a multi coloured marbled undercoat and then misted several light coats of the camouflage colours over the top.  I then did several different stages of oil work to try and get the ‘realistically worn and weathered’ look Jim was after - trying to base it on photographic evidence and to err on the side of subtlety. I didn’t do an all over panel-line wash but restricted it to the moveable flying surfaces and the panels that were likely to be regularly removed and get dirty, like the engine and gun access panels.
• Decals were a mixture of the Aviaeology Eagle Squadron Spifire Mk VB's set, which whilst it didn't actually provide XR-A did have enough X's R's an A's to let me do it! and the Aeromaster Yanks in the RAF set - which had the correct style and size of USAAF stars.  Luckily the photos of XR-A showed no sign of the serial number BM510 on the rear fuselage.  Pr'aps over painted by the sky band - don't know, don't care 

 

You’ll have to judge for yourselves whether you think I got anywhere near the look Jim was after.  It’s in the eye of the beholder after all! 

 

Anyways - I think that was it.  The WIP is only 23 pages long so it’s easy enough to go and check…. 

 

And so to the photos.  I don’t have a sophisticated photo set up and this is the best I can do with my iPhone and available lighting (apologies) 

 

Few piccies of the cockpit under construction:

 

Seat with HGW belts:

 

 

Instrument Panel:

 

 

Starboard side just before closing up the fuselage.  As I remember the WIP Giorgio @giemme told me to post this one in the RFI!

 

 

A few of the cockpit area and close ups of the chipping/weathering there:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A few of the nether regions:

 

 

 

I didn't go for extremely dark/long oil stains underneath as the groundcrew would have tried to keep the aircraft clean between sorties - even if it would have been an eventually losing battle.

 

 

 

Open radiator and gun heating pipes:

 

 

And finally some overall views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I didn’t think I was that fussed about Spitfires (overdosed as a kid no doubt) but  I grew quite fond of Spittie as I was building her.

 

Hope you like her; but please feel free to say if you don’t (as well as if you do).

 

Edited December 6, 2021 by Fritag
typos

[SAT69]

I can't even begin to come close to the build quality you've demonstrated here. Frankly, I'm overwhelmed. Top notch work doesn't begin to do justice to what you've accomplished here.

[Steve27752]

Very nice.

[John Laidlaw]

That is superb. What a beautiful piece of work!

[Newbie(kinda)]

Nailed it. In every way. Superb!

[Dave Spencer]

Loving the exhausts. What methods did you use?

[RMCS]

Superb work 

[Wulfman]

A fabulous build , excellent finish and weathering, truly museum quality !

 

Wulfman

[DOD]

Excellent work! Love the  cockpit and shiny canopy. As for the exhausts - stunning.  I, too, would love to know how they were done.

[Galligraphics]

That looks like a Spitfire. Too often we see models that look like models - and, yes, we can appreciate the work that went into them but they still look like a model.

Your work looks like the real thing. Job done (very well).

[ColinChipmunkfan]

Excellent work again Fritag, the wing root weathering and the exhausts painting is just so realistic- of course it is for a museum.  Well done sir!!

Colin

[Remus389]

Simply perfect. Hard to think how to do it better. 🥇

[T-21]

Great finish, love the note's on how the end result was achieved. Inspiring and helpful to other modeller's.

[81-er]

Excellent work indeed Steve, I'll hopefully get to see it in reality at the 453rd museum one day. Shouldn't it be moved to the completed section of your signature though?

 

James

[Fritag]

Thank you very much for the comments all.

 

1 hour ago, 81-er said:

Shouldn't it be moved to the completed section of your signature though?

 

Done now TVM James 

 

11 hours ago, Dave Spencer said:

Loving the exhausts. What methods did you use?

 

11 hours ago, DOD said:

As for the exhausts - stunning.  I, too, would love to know how they were done.

 

Not too much of a faff.  Well maybe a tad of a faff - but it was fun 

 

Primed then airbrushed the exhausts with alclad aluminium:

 

 

Then airbrushed very thinned Tamiya Nato Black over the inner body sections of the individual exhausts and over the outer sections of the front exhausts.  This photo is a bit dark and the black coat wasn't as dense as it looks here:

 

 

Then airbrushed very thinned Tamiya Red Brown over the top of the black and over outer sections of the middle and rear individual sections.

 

 

And after that I used Tamiya Weathering Master pigments various - mainly Oil Stain, Soot and Burnt Red - but basically I just played about until the exhausts looked suitably variegated and as much like the WW2 colour photographs I had in front of me on the iPad screen (like the one above) as I could manage.

 

 

Finally I did a very light black oil pin wash to get some of the moulded in detail to 'pop' a little and rubbed the edges a bit with a cotton bud to let the aluminium base coat shine through a little.  And then I gave them a semi-gloss clear coat to fix everything.

 

Simples?

 

It sounds exhaustive but actually it was quite easy and most importantly it was a fun modelling session sat at the bench with the iPad and mucking about with the colours.

[Joao Augusto]

Great! Wonderful model, congrats!

[Luka]

Right. Scrolling down it already started with that seat as a little taste of the skill level involved in this build. But dang, that Spit looks absolutely superb! Great work!

[giemme]

17 hours ago, Fritag said:

As I remember the WIP Giorgio @giemme told me to post this one in the RFI!

 

And it's just as well! Gorgeous interiors, right on par with all the rest of the model    

 

I too did ignore the shape flaws when I built mine, but you took this to a stellar level, nonetheless!   

 

Ciao

[GREG DESTEC]

Superb!

 

I watched the Wip as you progressed and really enjoyed watching your Spitfire come together. Congratulations on a great model and thanks for sharing.

 

Cheers Greg 👍

[TonyOD]

Just wow. Seen plenty Spits in here but this has to be up there.

[Galligraphics]

9 hours ago, Fritag said:

It sounds exhaustive

Exhaustive… 🙄😁

[GRK]

Looks great, as others have said the exhausts and the chipping are extremely well done. I followed along on the wip and made some notes on the technique you used to mottle/dapple the oil paints-will have to give that a go when I get back into doing aircraft!

[general melchett]

Great job Steve, love the weathering and chipping,  particularly the exhaust stacks. The old girl looks suitably bruised and battered, I'm sure Jim will be chuffed with this.

 

Amazing how young 'Gus' Daymond looks in that seated photo......as you say, 22 years of age and given a command.

[Cookenbacher]

Well that's pretty dang cool.

[Roberto]

A really great job!