Lancfan's RAAF Fighter ***FINISHED***

[lancfan]

This is my first Spitfire GB build for this year, the Airfix Spitfire Vc which was in turn based on the venerable Spitfire Vb kit, the Vb kit from this box was robbed for use in a GB last year and has now been replaced by an older boxing kit, hence the different coloured plastic.
This will be built in kit RAAF 79 sqdn markings as an aircraft based on New Guinea.


David.

[lancfan]

The cockpit for this kit does need work and to correct this before I began I made Das Clay side inserts taken from Miliput impressions of the AZ cockpit sides which were made earlier for repeated use on these OT Airfix and other kits. When these had dried they were then sanded thin enough to fit into the kit fuselage, the inside faces of the cockpit were milled down to make room for the new interior and the inserts were then cyano'd into the fuselage.


David.

[lancfan]

The finished and painted cockpit sides.


The fuselage was assembled next and set aside to dry but when I turned to the terrible kit mk Vc wing and looked at the work needed to make it even close to realistic I scrapped it and instead drew another Airfix mk IXc kit from the stash and have assembled that wing to be modified to suit the mk Vc.


David.

[TomW]

Good start David and a clever idea for improving older Spitfire kit cockpits. I'm not surprised you elected not to use the Airfix Vc wing from the kit, I think if memory serves it's about a scale 6 foot thick.

Regards

Tom

[DazDaMan]

The fuselage was assembled next and set aside to dry but when I turned to the terrible kit mk Vc wing and looked at the work needed to make it even close to realistic I scrapped it [/img]

Hmm. I have this kit in the stash, and was planning to do a Malta Spit with it. I still plan on the Malta colours, but maybe not as a Spit Vc!

[lancfan]

The mk 9c wing works well with the mk 5 fuselage Daren and the rest of the mk 9 kit needn't be wasted as you will see later!

David.

[PaulBradley]

He has a cunning plan!

[fredk]

What do you do about the oil cooler on the wing?

[lancfan]

I will use the kit one Fred, I have cut off the locating block for the radiator. All will be explained soon.


David.

[lancfan]

The converted mk IXc wing, the cannon and wheel bulges have been filed flush, new cannon bulges left over from an AZ Spitfire build have been glued onto the wing and turning the wing over the port radiator locating block has been cut away, the hole has been plugged with scraps of plastic card, filled and then sanded flush ready for the oil cooler- and hey presto, a reasonably accurate Airfix mk Vc wing.



David.

[lancfan]

Yesterday the pilots seat and control column were fitted and have been painted.


The wing was then joined to the fuselage and left to dry.


The lower cowling was cut away for the tropical filter, I also fitted the tailplanes straight after I fitted the tropical filter.


I found a number of pictures online of this very aeroplane and they clearly show that the aircraft was fitted with a slipper drop tank so when the glue had dried on the air filter I fitted one such part taken from the spares box.


Time to paint, I began first thing this morning with the white on the tail and the wing leading edges.



David.

[iggie]

Positively rocking along!

[lancfan]

I then masked off the tail and wing leading edges and sprayed the underside in mixed Sky Blue.


The uppersurface green came next using Humbrol 30, when that had dried I removed the masking, fitted the cannons, radiator and undercarriage legs, painted the wheel wells and touched in the paintwork where needed.



David.

[lancfan]

A coat of gloss varnish came next to make the model ready for the decals which were then applied. A coat of matt varnish fogged with white was then airbrushed on to brighten the finish and seal the decals in, this didn't completely work and I had to then overpaint the decals to correct the colours, almost done now with just the last few parts and the weathering to be done to complete the model.


Finished, Spitfire F.mk Vc A58-137 of 79 Sqn, RAAF, Merauke, New Guinea, October 1944.






David.

[DazDaMan]

Very nice.