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KIT
OVERVIEW
This
Spitfire seems to be one of the oldest 1/24 Airfix kits: molding is not very
accurate and a bit of work is needed to fit some parts together; anyway, I did
not check all the plane dimensions, feeling that overall scaling was good enough
for me.
Instruction
sheet is well detailed, except for painting hints that are very poor.
Colors
I will refer to are all Humbrol Enamels; painting is done using bristle brush
only.
P-9444
RN-D SPITFIRE
I
decided to reproduce the Spitfire Mk1a that I saw in London at Science Museum a few
years ago; this is P9444 Spitfire marked “RN-D” that flew for Squadron 72
“Basutoland”; unfortunately, I did not take very useful shots of the real
thing (I could not imagine I was to start modeling again!). Yes, the guy hiding
the plane is me!
ENGINE
I
started working with engine; additional detailing here was mainly devoted to
reproducing wires and cables; I used different materials: various diameter
copper wire from electrical cables, brass wire, steel wire and guitar strings;
on the firewall behind engine are molded several lines; I sanded them away, then
reconstructed them with copper wire painted black. Documentation for this
detailing job was a set of photos of a later version of the Spit, not Mk I;
moreover, I found difficult to reproduce each single cable, so my final goal was
to give an overall impression of a cabled engine.
| Fitting
engine cowling was quite a bit of work! The small aligning pins are very
fragile, so I built new attachments, that in no way reproduce inside of
the cowling but allow for easy opening/secure closing of engine bay.
Alignment of the cowling is still not perfect, but after many hours of
work with knife, plastic card, file and super glue (used instead of
putty) I said: - ok: this will be enough for this project. |
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on images below to see larger images |
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I
painted the exhaust using this technique: I gave first a coat of Gold (#16), and,
when it was still wet, I brushed again with Coal Black (#85), thus mixing the
two colors on the piece; I think it looks pretty fine.
COCKPIT
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