1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk. I

by Jörgen Toll on Dec 2 2003

--------------------

 

Tamiya's Spitfires are true "just add glue" kits.  Meaning they require little or no filler. 

Building this Spitfire presents no substantial challenge to the casual builder... Add a
Eduard cockpit detail set and a few disasters and you have your hands full, though!

The Eduard set adds quite a lot of detail to a already detailed cockpit. The Clear film behind the instrument panel adds very detailed gauges. A few structure pieces, some levers, controls and trimwheels.

To spruce up the exterior you get some netting for the water and oil cooler. I scratch built the "scoop" behind the watercooler.

The rudder, ailerons and elevator where cut out and replaced slightly deflected to resemble the control surfaces of a parked aircraft.

I primed the kit with Humbrol enamel colour (light grey) and preshaded the panel lines with Humbrol black. I then went on to paint the underside with a sky colour that I mixed myself. That came out almost grey..! So I re-applied the preshade and tried again, with another mix, and all was well!

The topside was painted in slightly mixed Humbrol enamels that totally covered the preshading. Rats! Should've gone for lighter coats!

Click on images below to see larger images

The Spit was then left to dry and later covered with Humbrol clear.

The kit decals was applied with liberal use of Microset and sol. All decals went on fine, except for the wingroundels! They just wouldn't conform around a "hump" on the outer gun panel. "Darn Tamiya decals" I thought, and ordered new ones from Hannants.

Removing the decals proved to be a genuine nightmare! The Microset bottle says decals can be removed by applying Microset... Well, they can, but with the decals-off came the paint!!! Horror!!!
Sand down, re apply primer, paint and clear coat...

The new decals came in the mail, after the Norwegian postal service held on to them for almost a month not quite knowing what I should pay in customs fees..! Anyway! All was well again! The decals almost flowed onto the wing, snuggling down like paint!

While waiting for the new decals, the model was dropped on the floor. Landing gears and Radio mast had to be re-attached with reinforcements. Disaster no.2!

I added diluted oil paints to enhance the panel lines, and then learned about using Tamiya Smoke acrylic paint as a "post shade" on the panels. Worked great! I may have over done the effect in all excitement, but who cares!

Paintchipping was done with a silver pastel pen.

Everything was sealed with ModelMaster flat coat.

Click on images below to see larger images

Disaster number 3 occurred when I was masking the rear cockpit canopy... It cracked between my fingers! 
Hannants to the rescue, again! A set of Falcon vacuform canopies arrived in the mail, along with some goodies needed for other kits I have stashed away.  Hannants "minimum order limit" works as intended! You always end up buying more than you need!
I ended up using the Falcon sliding canopy as well, as it was better than the kit canopy.

The radio antennas are made from human hair. My fianceés hair, to be exact. I bet she's proud of her contribution!

It didn't turn out to be quite the Spitfire replica I set out to build, but it's been a learning experience...and it's been fun...and quite annoying at the same time.

Jörgen

Click on images below to see larger images

Photos and text © by Jörgen Toll