1/48 Airfix Spitfire Vb

by Phil Hastie

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This is my 48th scale Airfix Spitfire Vb in the markings of 457 (RAAF) Squadron RAF, based at Jurby on the Isle of Man from Dec 41 to Mar 42.  It was flown by a New Zealander SQNLDR Johny Gibson who had a total of twelve and a half victories at the end of the war.  I built this kit about 12 months ago. It was built straight from the box except for opening the cockpit door and using a spare canopy with DV window from the Tamiya kit. The kit went together fairly easily and after some rescribing to replace panel lines it was ready to paint.

The rear fuselage was painted Humbrol Sky along with the spinner. The rear band was then masked then the upper surface was painted Humbrol Ocean Grey and after drying was then masked, using Frisket paper cut using the camouflage pattern from the Tamiya Vb painting diagram, and it was then sprayed with Gunze RAF Dark Green. Once these were dry I masked the lower fuselage line and sprayed the lower surfaces Gunze Medium Sea Grey. At the same time the canopy had been masked using Tamiya tape and fixed in the closed position using Humbrol ClearFix, so that they were painted at the same time.

Once it was all dry I coated it with Gunze Clear Gloss and after allowing two days for this to dry I applied the decals and as you can see they sat down into the panel lines really nicely.  I then sprayed more gloss clear and weathered the model using a combination of  pastels, gauche, and thinned paint before applying a coat of Gunze flat with a drop of gloss in it. The aerial is made with invisible thread. 

Click on images below to see larger images

I like the finished product and I hope everyone out there does as well.  There is another one of these and a Technics interior lurking in my cupboard waiting to see the light of my hobby room.  You may find it in the discussion group on kit collections.

Phil

Photos and text © by Phil Hastie