**** DONE: GB-62 1/48 Spitfire Vc Trop - Spitfires

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Seat and Frame 11 painted up. Black leather seat back dry-brushed to add some wear, rivets added using a pin (have never got these to come out perfectly) and a few marks added on the head armour plate using straight Tamiya XF-71 Cockpit Green to add a bit of age. That doesn't show up very well though as the photo is a bit on the over-exposed side.



The seat is just dry-fitted as I want to add the wires on the control column before gluing it in. I like Eduard's PE flare rack but it makes no sense that it's empty so I may cut some small discs and glue them in. Also just noticed brown paint on the seat height adjustment handle that I'll need to fix that.



My Tamiya mix for the Grey-Green is XF5:1 + XF21:3 + XF65:1. I'll still be gloss coating this stuff and adding a wash to add some depth. The week promises to have some shite weather so I may get a decent amount of work done. Thanks for looking in.
 
I think you managed even to get some sweat stains in. Nice!
 
Thanks guys. Continued reading on this bird revealed the following interesting pics from here , apparently taken from a Discovery Channel series about the siege of Malta. The pics are taken from a TV screen so are not great. I'm trying to find the video on You Tube.



Interesting to me are:

Dark camo
Possible confirmation of light coloured spine, thought to be show-through of DE/MS camo underneath, also suggested by the reference pic in post 1
Variation in style of ID letters.
Underside of _A appears to be the Light Blue as opposed to Azure.
 
The next conundrum is this from Eduard's instruction sheet:



Discussion around the single reference picture of this aircraft notes the absence of the outer gun and Eduard's paint instructions indeed show no tape patch on the outer MG. So, what are the gun bulges parts 35 and 36 for and how would Eduard know that they were there given that there is no apparent photo of the wing uppers for BR301 (Build Option A)? The outer bulges are in addition to the usual larger teardrop shaped ones for the cannons (part T29 in my case). I've never noticed TWO bulges on a Spitfire V before until I ran across this picture (sorry for poor quality) in the SAM Modeller's Datafile on the Spitfire by Humphreys:



Can anyone enlighten my on when and why such outer bulges were carried and how we would know they were present on BR301?
 
Andy,

I have checked on a couple of books and there was nothing on the small bulge and the reason these were added for. I can guess only it might have been used for Browning 0.5 gun that could be installed instead of the .303 one. I have had a look at a couple of Spitfire Mk.Vs and I can state the small bulges are associated with the "C" type wing only. I didn't find them on Spitfire Mk.Vb but just on the Mk.Vc mostly.

The first Mk.Vc AA873 had them and the BR202 as well



But the most of the Spitfire Mk.Vc with the bulges can be found on the kites of the BR and BP serials. Because there are images of the USS Wasp with the Spits of the BR batch embarked in 1942 for the Malta supply and the BR301 belonged to the series as well , that's the reason the Eduard suggests attaching of the bulges. IMHO it is correct because all of the BR Spitfires for the Malta seem to have them.

BR136 ...


BR22? possible BR226/227/229


and the BP serials .. BP983 and BP965



USS Wasp ...


the pic source: the net.
 
Excellent my friend, thank-you. Good to see some other examples and what you say makes sense.

I swear the net search engine you have is far superior to my Google. I spent hours searching for such images and came across none of the ones you have posted.
 
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My pleasure Pal. Here is enlarged shot of the USS Wasp flight deck with Spits. The small bulges can be noticed although not on all of the planes. But it may be because of the pic qulity and the angle and the distaance the shot was taken with. Anyway the bulges were there IMHO.


the source: the net.
 
More on the outer wing bulges on the Vc, for those interested. Seems that the late Edgar Brooks didn't know either but that he suspected it had to do with outer wing gun heating pipes but not proven and still open to question. No mention of .50s but it seems plausible.

and here Airfix Spitfire Vc

Edgar posted this diagram as well:



I see some major headaches with placing the upper wing roundel decals......
 
Looks like you will need a awful lot of Micro Sol, patience and determination to settle them.
 
A bit of progress was made snatching an hour here and there at my bench since the last post. The cockpit parts were grubbied-up a fair amount using thinned black and brown artist oils then the higher surfaces were highlighted with a lighter version of the grey-green to help them stand out more. The seat was assembled to the floor after adding the electrical harnesses to the control column. The IP frame received some lead wire tubing. Modern restoration pics show these to be a brass colour but I'm not sure that's a true representation so I went with aluminum. I also added a few flare shells cut from round stock. Yes, not all the holes were filled owing to rationing!



All the above will get a few more tweaks before seeing a matte coat applied. The other work front involved completing the wing assembly. Having already opened the outer gun holes, I had to fill them in again given the observed feature on this particular bird. Despite showing this correctly on the profile, Eduard's instructions neglect to mention leaving these openings closed.



That's all for now. Hope to have a bit more by midweek.
 

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