August's prewar job - FINISHED

[K5083]

My old Hasegawa has been unpacked and fondled:



Paint scheme is not finally decided but I'm leaning toward one of the aircraft from 14 Squadron, which appeared in May 1938 with the port wing hastily overpainted over the standard factory finish, leaving the other wing aluminum.



The old Ducimus books opine that the starboard wing still carried the roundel and serial, whereas whoever researched the 1/72 Iliad decal sheet thinks not. I'm unaware of conclusive evidence either way but I like the idea of the roundal and serial so would go with that.

August

[K5083]

Painless build so far. The cockpit is a bit ridiculous, with a strangely shaped seat and no sidewall detail. I did lay down a few strips of tape just to provide some relief to be emphasized by the dark wash. Otherwise it's bone stock.



Fit of the fuselage halves and the fuselage-wing join is outstanding, especially for a kit of this vintage. Like so many Spitfire kits, the wing bottom comes with almost no dihedral and a downward warp outboard, so the onus is on the modeler to avoid a droopy wing. This pic was taken just before I touched the delicate antenna mast once too many, broke it off and lost it. I think I've done that with every Spit I've built that had an integrally molded mast.

August

[splash]

I have the same problem with those pesky aerials.

Regards Splash

[DazDaMan]

Yeah, thank God for separate aerials!

[TobyC]

Yeah, thank God for separate aerials!

Hobbyboss has the annoying trait of having prefixed machine guns on their wings and they constantly go missing much the same way as aerials do.

[DazDaMan]

One of the good things about the old Airfix Mk.IX Spit was that you didn't have that problem - the cannons were thick enough!!

[jssel]

Nice progress on this. Love those swirls in the plastic.

[K5083]

One of the good things about the old Airfix Mk.IX Spit was that you didn't have that problem - the cannons were thick enough!!

That's true of the KP as well. Even the aerial is too stout to break off so far. I'll have to sand it to scale size before I paint, but it beats losing it in the carpet.

August

[K5083]

Ready for paint this weekend, canopy on and masked. Depending on the paint scheme, I often leave the tail feathers off until after painting if the fit is good enough. Like my other photo this morning, the forum software stubbornly refuses to display this pic right side up no matter how it looks on my PC or server, so you get to see an inverted pass today.



August

[Martin R]

Top of a loop or halfway through a barrel roll.

Looks good, whatever orientation it is.

regards,

Martin

[K5083]

Not a fan of Tamiya Dark Earth. Too light, creates too much contrast with the Dark Green. This one may need a do-over.

August

[K5083]

Since my last update on this one, I redid the upper camouflage with Xtracolor.

This weekend, got the rest of the paint on (underside required two tries) and the simple decal scheme applied. I chose a subject pictured in the old Ducimus Camo & Markings book. The roundels are Modeldecal and the 24-inch codes are from Xtradecal sheet 72145.





As you can see I could have done a better job with the port underside wingtip seam. May do a little touch-up there.

Quite pleased with this kit overall. If you can avert your eyes from lack of gull contours under the wing, it makes a good looking model.

August

[Chris]

Looking good.

[splash]

It looks great.

Regards Splash

[JohnRatzenberger]

Hmmm, I just noticed those two "fences" on each wing ????