Spitfire MkVb by realworkingsailor - Airfix - 1/72 - PLASTIC

[realworkingsailor]

Ok, so it seems my Chevy FFW truck build is back on the back burner waiting for replacement parts. I've gotten about as far as I can with it, so I've been looking for something to help pass the time. About a year ago or so, I picked up this kit as my GF at the time had expressed interest in trying to build a scale model, so I had bought her the Airfix Spitfire starter set, and I got myself this one so I could build along. Well, things didn't quite pan out and the situation changed over the summer, shall we say. 

 

 

I had built the earlier iteration of this kit, so I have a pretty good idea of what I'm getting into. 

 

 

Four sprues of the new Airfix dark grey plastic, along with one clear sprue containing the canopy parts. It's still a fairly new tool, so there's very little flash to speak of. 

 

I purchased some aftermarket decals to do a Canadian Spitfire. Kitsworld have a pretty decent set:

 

 

 

Spitfire EN921, YO-A from 401 Squadron RCAF. 

 

After checking over the parts, the first order of business was to engage in some hacking and slashing. The Airfix kit is a MkVc and the plane I wish to model is a MkVb (that's not a typo in the build title!). To change a C into a B requires the removal of one of the cannons as well as a reduction in the blister in the wing. As you may have noticed from the photo of the kit parts, both the regular and the clipped wing are included. EN921 was a clipped wing Spitfire. Fortunately, I had saved the leftovers from the last time I built this kit, so I felt free to hack and slash without fear, as I had a backup in case things went wrong. 

 

 

The two canon blister is enormous. I'm not sure how accurate it really is, but no matter, it's going away!

 

 

I taped around the offending blister and began to sand it away using some pretty coarse sanding sticks. It didn't take too long to smooth out the blister. Airfix moulded a recess on the underside of the blister, and this was perilously thin after the initial savaging. Looking at it, it's about the right size, shape and almost the right location for the single canon blister on the B wing Spitfire. Using my knife, I cut away the remaining thin layer of plastic, and opened up a big hole in the wing.

 

 

Using some styrene sheet, I cut out the approximate shape and sanded it to fit snugly into the hole, while at the same time leaving the new blister proud of the wing surface.

 

 

Using some fire sanding sticks, the new blister was given a pleasing aerodynamic shape.

 

 

You can see the difference in the blisters, as well as the different plastics that Airfix use. Overall I'm pleased with the results, and I will use the older parts in place of the new kit pieces. I will fill the extra holes for the canons after assembling the wings, later on in the build using the kit parts themselves.

 

I'm sure the purists will point out a whole plethora of other differences between the two types of Spitfire wings, but I'm happy enough getting the bit details sort of, more or less, almost but not quite, correct.

 

Andy

[amateur]

Nice. Flew one over my place yesterday (Spitfire, no clue about the type)  Nice plane with even nicer sound!

 

(something completely different: you once started a model of a great lakes self-unloader. Did you ever finish that one?)

 

Jan

Edited Sunday at 08:30 PM by amateur

[realworkingsailor]

17 minutes ago, amateur said:

 

(something completely different: you once started a model of a great lakes self-unloader. Did you ever finish that one?)

 

Jan

Oh, wow, yeah, that’s going back a long time. Honestly I haven’t touched that project in years. Because of life circumstances, I’m no longer a member of the model railway club for which it was intended. The model has been sitting in a closet ever since.
 

Andy

Edited Sunday at 08:46 PM by realworkingsailor

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, realworkingsailor said:

I'm sure the purists will point out a whole plethora of other differences between the two types of Spitfire wings

 

I'm not a purist, but I suspect some of our members may not know the significance of the a, b, and c (and later e) in Spitfire parlance. These were not sub-variants, as seen for example in designations like P-51D or Bf-109G, but rather indicators of the type of wing used on the aircraft. Each wing could accommodate a different armament configuration:

• a wing: eight .303 machine guns
• b wing: four .303 machine guns and two 20mm cannon
• The c, or universal, wing could be configured with the a loadout, the b loadout, or with four 20mm cannon, as well as bomb racks.
• The e wing could take four 20mm cannon or a pair of cannon and two .50 cal Brownings.

Personally, the clipped wing Spitfires have never caught my fancy, which is why I don't have the Halinski Mk. XIV in my stash, but the clipped wing improved roll rate, so I can understand why they were built.

 

Cheers!

[realworkingsailor]

18 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

 

I'm not a purist, but I suspect some of our members may not know the significance of the a, b, and c (and later e) in Spitfire parlance. These were not sub-variants, as seen for example in designations like P-51D or Bf-109G, but rather indicators of the type of wing used on the aircraft. Each wing could accommodate a different armament configuration:

• a wing: eight .303 machine guns
• b wing: four .303 machine guns and two 20mm cannon
• The c, or universal, wing could be configured with the a loadout, the b loadout, or with four 20mm cannon, as well as bomb racks.
• The e wing could take four 20mm cannon or a pair of cannon and two .50 cal Brownings.

Personally, the clipped wing Spitfires have never caught my fancy, which is why I don't have the Halinski Mk. XIV in my stash, but the clipped wing improved roll rate, so I can understand why they were built.

 

Cheers!

Thanks for contributing the explanation of the various Spitfire wings! I’m sure I would have got that in somewhere, but no I don’t have to 😁!

 

The clip winged Spits aren’t really my favourite either, but it’s different enough from the first time I built this kit that it’s not a total repeat. I would still rank them above the high altitude wing, though… those look like the result of a spy who tried to copy the original wing and didn’t get things quite right….

 

Andy

[Dave_E]

I’m in. 🍿🥤

[Canute]

Nice job, reducing the blister. I'm a fan of Spitfires. I'm in, Andy.

[realworkingsailor]

Thanks for the likes and kind comments! 

 

Having built this kit once before, work has proceeded reasonably quickly, only the wing mods are "new" territory. As I mentioned earlier, I was satisfied with my canon blister mods, so I kept the older wing upper surfaces. 

 

 

Skipping ahead in the instructions, I went and made the wing assembly. After adding the parts for the wheel wells, I set about removing the small blister on the underside of the wing and then filling the spent casing ejection port.

 

 

After these had been sanded smooth, the wing assembly was completed. Part of the reason for the skip-ahead was waiting for the paint to dry on various components of the cockpit and fuselage sides:

 

 

 

Of all the 1/72 Spitfires I've seen, I think this Airfix offering has one of the most out-of-the-box detailed cockpits. All of the components find in a two-piece lower cockpit tub. I used a Tamiya rattle can to spray the silver/aluminium, then Vallejo interior green for the remainder of the parts, along with some Vallejo black to pick out various controls as well as the instrument panel. Yes there are some ejector pin marks (rather prominent after a black wash), but rest assured, they will invisible after assembly.

 

 

A lot of work that will be eventually hidden away, never to be seen again. But that's the way we like it!

 

 

After the cockpit is assembled, the fuselage is next. The fit is excellent, the seams will only need a minimum of care afterwards.

 

I went back to the wings to finish up the last outstanding issue in the conversion, the extra canon barrel and hole in the wing.

 

Airfix provide options for the "C" wing that include either the full canon barrel for those armed with four canons, or the nub that covered the vacant mount when only fitted with two canons. I fitted the upper half of the canon stub, and when the glue had dried, I snipped of the nub and sanded everything down flush with the leading edge of the wing.

 

 

Time to glue the wings to the fuselage!

 

From what I've seen online, early builders of this kit had issues with a prominent gap at the wing root. I've built this kit twice, both the early and now the second release, and I've never had this problem. The way I see it, the gap issue could stem from three possible problems. First, not seating the upper wing properly on the lower wing, as the upper wing fits overtop of the lower wing (if you look at the second photo I posted above), there is the chance for the upper half of the wing to slide ever so slightly outwards when glueing. Secondly, there may have been a slight warp in the lower wing half that would have decreased the dihedral angle. Finally if the builder was too aggressive when assembling the fuselage and they accidentally pinched the bottom too aggressively to the cockpit tub. As it is for both my Spits, I've done my best to be aware of these issues, and my fuselage and wing joint has been tight every time.

 

 

After adding the wing I added the lower engine cowl and carburetor intake. The last time I built this kit I had to use the Vokes filter, a rather ugly affair that spoils the Spitfire's nice lines. This time around, I got to use the more sleeker setup!

 

Finally the last bit of assembly was the horizontal stabilizers and rudder:

 

 

 

The stabilizers fit nicely into their little slots, and the rudder fits nicely into a little groove at the back of the tail fin. Nothing unusual here. Everything fits nice and snug.

 

The way things are going, I'm going to be looking at paint very soon. I'm going to hold off on adding the radiator and oil cooler until after painting, that way I can ensure that the radiator details can be properly masked when painting the underside colour.

 

Thanks again for the likes and comments, it's very much appreciated!

 

Andy

 

 

[AJohnson]

Great progress Andy, I have also built this kit last year (just did it out of the box and with the box top scheme decals), a nice little kit and as you have been finding with your two builds of it, it goes together really well. 😁