Double Trouble! A Brace of 1:48 Malta Ace Spitfire Mk.Vbs *FINISHED*

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Although I haven't yet wrapped up my Albacore build, I'm working up the testicular fortitude to tackle the rigging so I thought that would be a bit 'hurry up & wait'. I therefore decided to start this project which is very much intended as a bit of a palate cleanser after two challenging builds in the Applecore and Stirling! I've therefore had these couple of beauties sat in the stash for such an occasion:

 

 

I built this kit in my pre-Britmodeller days, so there are few surprises. It's straightforward Tamiya fare, and I'll be building mostly OOB. Here's a shot of the sprues:

 

 

I have however got hold of a set of DK Decals' "Spitfire Mk.Vb Aces - Malta and MTO", which allows one to build no less than 12 yes12 schemes!

 

 

Here's a closer look - you'll know who to ask nicely if you want to build any of the other 10! 🤩 Here's a closer look (the right way up!):

 

 

I've decided to model these two schemes:

 

 

As you can see both aircraft have the Vokes filter - both also have clipped wings. I've long fancied doing a Mediterranean blue Spit, and I have rarely seen the DE/EDSG/Azure combination done before, which I think is rather spiffing. I'm making the presumption that both would have been finished in the standard desert scheme of Mid-Stone/DE/Azure prior to delivery to Malta and then repainted with whatever was available locally. It's a well-known fact that these airframes saw a very hard life, so I may try to effect some of the underlying scheme showing through. Here's a photo of EP691:

 

 

This aircraft was flown by P/O Colin Parkinson DFC RAAF, who ended the Malta campaign with 10.5 kills and 2 probables. I cannot find any photos of EP716, which was flown by Squadron Leader Thomas Smart DFC* RAF. Smart had been shot down over Dunkirk in 1940, but survived this crash and went on to lead 229 Squadron in Malta, until his aircraft suffered an engine failure on 12th April 1943 20 miles south of Pozzallo, following a bombing raid on Sicily. Smart bailed out but drowned before he could be rescued.

 

Anyway, that's where we're at - I do also have the option of throwing this into the mix:

 

 

Not sure yet - I might just keep this simple!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

[bigbadbadge]

Oooooo this is a lovely surprise Roger, great to see some more Spitfires, although not good for me trying to resist building some of mine!!! I have already been tempted by John @shortCummins build to get on with one and have been doing research.   But must behave !!!

Looking forward to seeing these progress. Are you sure about the clipped wings though ? 

They are nice kits the old Tamiya ones , I have a couple for conversion to Seafires 2 and 3  hmm🤔, no no I will resist.

Hood luck with your builds, it will be good to see the Eduard one too

Chris 

[Dunny]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Oooooo this is a lovely surprise Roger, great to see some more Spitfires, although not good for me trying to resist building some of mine!!! I have already been tempted by John @shortCummins build to get on with one and have been doing research.   But must behave !!!

Looking forward to seeing these progress. Are you sure about the clipped wings though ? 

They are nice kits the old Tamiya ones , I have a couple for conversion to Seafires 2 and 3  hmm🤔, no no I will resist.

Hood luck with your builds, it will be good to see the Eduard one too

Chris 

Hmmm - certainly not sure sure Chris, although the decal sheet shows clipped wings. Further research required - thanks for the hot tip! Not sure whether the IIb goes in the mix yet...

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

3 minutes ago, Dunny said:

Hmmm - certainly not sure sure Chris, although the decal sheet shows clipped wings. Further research required - thanks for the hot tip! Not sure whether the IIb goes in the mix yet...

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Hi Roger,  if the decals show it it could well be correct,  the photo looks like  a poss standard wingtip???

The Eduard kit will show how far the technology has come on  too.

Chris

[Dunny]

1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said:

Hi Roger,  if the decals show it it could well be correct,  the photo looks like  a poss standard wingtip???

The Eduard kit will show how far the technology has come on  too.

Chris

I reckon the jury's out on that one Chris - not definitive to my eye. The Eduard kit is definitely a step ahead in detail and engineering, but at this stage I crave simplicity!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[mark.au]

These look like a couple of great projects Roger.  I’ve never done a Malta Spitfire so I’ll follow these with great interest.  The weathering opportunities alone are enough to set my creative curiosity off!

[bigbadbadge]

41 minutes ago, Dunny said:

I reckon the jury's out on that one Chris - not definitive to my eye. The Eduard kit is definitely a step ahead in detail and engineering, but at this stage I crave simplicity!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

Which ever it is it will be a great set of builds Roger and I love the Malta Spitfires. 

Chris

[Dunny]

5 minutes ago, mark.au said:

These look like a couple of great projects Roger.  I’ve never done a Malta Spitfire so I’ll follow these with great interest.  The weathering opportunities alone are enough to set my creative curiosity off!

Thanks Mark - they certainly are both interesting subjects, as are the brave  pilots that flew them. Although the builds should be straightforward the weathering opportunities will surely test this modeller's mettle!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[AliGauld]

You've piqued my interest yet again.

Looking forward to this.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Dunny]

13 minutes ago, AliGauld said:

You've piqued my interest yet again.

Looking forward to this.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Alistair,

 

Happy to pique once more (fnarr). Welcome aboard sir!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

A brief update on the Spits. I didn't get much bench time at the weekend other than throwing paint around, so I've primed and painted all of the aluminium and interior green components. This was all carried out during woeful attempts to rig the Albacore, first using the tried & tested Uschi 'Standard' line, and then stretched sprue (neither was to my satisfaction). Anyways, last night during an interminable work call I turned my attention to the instrument panels. Although the Tamiya panel is nicely detailed, no decal is provided, so out came the trusty Airscale instrument decals (really need to get some more of them). An hour's work got us here:

 

 

Macro photography is not kind - although the oil temperature is a bit high I'll live with it! I also used up the last 2 compass decals:

 

 

Although the compass needs a lick of neutral grey around the body, I don't think those look too bad? I'll add the very visible wiring down the left of the IP bulkhead and do a bit of dry-brushing, then apply some gloss to the instruments before those are completed. In other news, I decided to have my first go at figure painting in a looong time. Tamiya thoughtfully provide a pilot in tropical uniform as part of the Mk.Vb 'extra' sprue, so it seemed rude not to give it a go! Here's stage 1:

 

 

I'll keep that one going as a little side-project and then decide whether or not Sqn Ldr Smart DFC* is suitable for inclusion in the finished article!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

 

[mark.au]

And there I was thinking we’d seen the last o& the black marble kitchen bench…. 😂

 

The IPs look good Roger.

[Dunny]

10 minutes ago, mark.au said:

And there I was thinking we’d seen the last o& the black marble kitchen bench…. 😂

 

The IPs look good Roger.

Thanks Mark - the 'backside of an engineering drawing' backdrop is just for select components! 🤣

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Scooby]

Nice work!

 

I’ve never used DK decals, how are they? I love their subjects.

[Dunny]

53 minutes ago, Scooby said:

Nice work!

 

I’ve never used DK decals, how are they? I love their subjects.

Thanks very much Scooby - me neither! They certainly look to be in good register, but we'll see how they perform,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[AliGauld]

Nicely done so far.

My pilot figure for the Spit has had a first lick of paint and I hope it looks reasonable in the end.

Nice work with the IP's.

Looking forward to more as I'm still packed up.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

[Dunny]

1 minute ago, AliGauld said:

Nicely done so far.

My pilot figure for the Spit has had a first lick of paint and I hope it looks reasonable in the end.

Nice work with the IP's.

Looking forward to more as I'm still packed up.

 

 

Cheers,

Alistair

Thanks Alistair! The pilot figure is certainly well-detailed, and I'm sure the limiting factor will be me (have not done any figure painting in at least 5 years!) Hope the move proceeds smoothly,

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Nice job  on the IPs Roger.  Good to see these on the bench again.

Chris

[Dunny]

5 minutes ago, bigbadbadge said:

Nice job  on the IPs Roger.  Good to see these on the bench again.

Chris

Thanks Chris - not much achieved but more to come soon hopefully!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Jeff G]

"Tedious" is the word that comes to mind as I feel the muscles cramp through my hands just thinking about applying those decals! Nice work getting them all lined up.

[Dunny]

22 minutes ago, Jeff G said:

"Tedious" is the word that comes to mind as I feel the muscles cramp through my hands just thinking about applying those decals! Nice work getting them all lined up.

Thanks very much Jeff - it was a looong evening meeting!

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[Dunny]

Hi All,

 

Some good progress on the Spits today, although the first of these photos are catchups from last weekend. Here's the fuselage halves:

 

 

Unusual playing with sand coloured plastic for a change! Here's one of the seats following dry-brushing:

 

 

Appears a bit extreme but doesn't look to bad to the naked eye. I've also made some progress with Sqn Ldr Smart:

 

 

I originally painted his helmet red-brown for a leather finish, but then did a bit of research on RAF tropical uniforms and found that there was indeed a tropical flying helmet, so modified things accordingly. Here he is following detail painting, but before a final oil wash:

 

 

I'm not displeased with that - although no prizes will be won. (Having said that, none are requested ).

 

Here's a final shot of the instrument panels following detail painting and dry-brushing:

 

 

Construction then proceeded smoothly for both - this kit almost falls together. Here's the halves:

 

 

Here's another showing one fuselage together with the second cockpit on the way. S/L Smart does block much of the detail of the cockpit from view, which is I think why I'm generally not a fan of including the pilot in the build, but one with, one without is an acceptable compromise!

 

 

Here's another shot of Sqn Ldr Smart in situ, after another oil wash on his visog:

 

 

Not too bad? Finally, here's the state of play after both kits virtually assembled themselves:

 

 

I'm loving the lines of the Mk.Vb - the clipped wings and the Vokes filter give a real thuggish look to the beautiful Spit, which indeed was exactly what these aircraft became in the desperate battles of 1943 over Malta and Sicily. More to come tomorrow!

 

Thanks for looking,

 

Roger

 

 

 

 

[mark.au]

You’ve done a great job with S/L Smart Roger, very convincing indeed.  The Spitfires are coming along nicely.

[Dunny]

18 minutes ago, mark.au said:

You’ve done a great job with S/L Smart Roger, very convincing indeed.  The Spitfires are coming along nicely.

Thanks Mark,

 

As per your lovely Ta152 this is very much an entertainment build ahead of something a little more testing 😉

 

Cheers,

 

Roger

[bigbadbadge]

Looking good Roger, the pilot figure looks great too, cracking work. The Vs are a cracking looking aircraft.

 

Chris