**** DONE: 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I DW-O 610 Sqdn BoB GB

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Jason.

OK, this will be it for this build as she's all done.

First off, per Terry's suggestion, I mixed up a brassy colour using silver and gloss brown and with a very fine brush dabbed a tiny amount of paint at the entry points for the IFF antenna. It hid the hole nicely and tidied the area up well.

Next is a close-up of the tail assembly. Note the small navigation light. I filed off the kit plastic bulb to a flat surface, painted the surface white and then put a blob of PVA glue on it. Turned out pretty good I think.

Next two shots are of the underside which I haven't shown yet. Some weathering was done with black and brown pastels but, again, kept somewhat restrained because of the short life of this particular aircraft. The pitot tube and mount were scratch-built as the kit part ended up in orbit whilst I was trying to clean it up with my x-acto blade. Never found it so must have burned up on re-entry.

Next we have the cockpit again with the IFF antenna plug painted on the roundel and the remaining shots are walkarounds.

Thanks to everyone who followed this build, to those who provided input, and for all the comments. I may yet get to those upper wing roundels to sand them down and paint them on but I'm now looking forward to me next projects.

And finally, as we take pleasure from our hobby, let's take a moment on this day to remember that real soldiers fought and died in these machines either defending their homes or in upholding a misguided cause.

In memory of Pilot Officer of Frank Kinnersley Webster.....

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Andy, that's one beaut little build, superbly done m friend.

 

[Wurger]

Nicely done Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thank-you Vic and Wojtek.

 

[parsifal]

Interestingly, I discovered today that the kit scheme for DW-O refers to s/n L1043. I looked up L1043 and discovered that this plane served with 610 squadron from Dec 6 1939 to June 18, 1940 and then went on to 266 Squadron fro a short stint before going to a traing unit and ultimatley hitting a tree in 1941. So it didn't see the BoB with 610. The caption on the pic above says the picture was taken in early June so it could in fact be L1043. That could expain why the kit did not supply the s/n decal as it does not appear in the photo.

Anyway, work on R6595 has started with painting and a bit of assembly in the cockpit area. The kit seat does not have the flare cartridge rack included and, correct me if I'm wrong, I believe all Mark I's would have had it so I'm going to try to scratch build one. The lightening holes in the frame behind the seat were drilled out. Other than that, it's OOB so far.

Hi Andy

I was wondering why the whole seat assembly was painted maroon? is that the way spitfire pilots seats were finished?

 

[Crimea_River]

Very early Spits had metal seats painted in the cockpit colour. Plastic seats began to be introduced into Spitfire production in the middle of May 1940 and were comprised of a compressed phenolic resin that was reddish brown in colour. I don't recall if I researched whether or not my rig would have carried the plastic seat based on the production date but you can look up when your machine was built based on the s/n and decide.