Tamiya's New Spitfire Mk I N3200 of 19 Squadron

[Crimea_River]

OK so I've decided to depict the model before the armour mods were added and so will proceed accordingly. Unfortunately, I had already sawn off the headrest but it was easy to stick it back on. I've also fixed the padding colour and used Tamiya XF-11 JN Green. So here is the finished tub.

And the same with the shoulder belts added.

I then glued the tub into the starboard wall and I managed to get the oxygen lines routed into the hole in frame 8........ well, 1 for sure and the other almost. Just realized looking at this that I left the leather wear pad on the seat pan brown. Well, that's the way it's gonna stay as I've now glued the halves together.

On t'other side, some final additions were completed. First, I found a pic showing the two cables from the radio selector routing to the rear on a downward angle off the door sill so I moved them. Also two actuator cables were added to the throttle linkage and the rudder trim knob got some coloured blobs on it.

And with that, I glued the halves together, as I said, and the fuselage is now curing. The fit was wonderful. Sigh......

 

[Wurger]

 

[Airframes]

Nice !

 

[le_steph40]

Great cockpit !

 

[Tony Hill]

Great stuff Andy!! A beautiful cockpit section.

With the seat, I think for scale, you have absolutely pegged the early cushion. They look almost black sometimes and other times, as the one below, they are quite faded. I also suspect they are a little "chameleon like "and take on a tinge of the seat depending on the lighting. To my eyes both the seats below are quite possibly a black colour tinged by the seat around. Anyway, spot on with yours for scale.

Anyway, superb job at 1/48 scale mate! Nothing noticable/practical to change at all.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. So no leather wear strip on the left side of the early seat then?

 

[Tony Hill]

Yes Andy, definitely should be there! The metal seat above has either been refurbished or rebuilt.

The leather guard was fitted very early on to prevent wear on the all important parachute ripcord.
Here is an early seat that you can actually see, under the wear, was originally black... that proves not only
the existence of the mythical but uncommon black but also that such early seats had the leather added.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Darryl. I may yet get it turned to green with a very pointy brush.

 

[Tony Hill]

Do you mean the leather patch Andy? No, THAT should be brown Basil leather. For mine, your seat is now perfect!

 

[Crimea_River]

Ah OK. Yes, I meant the patch and didn't see your other picture at first. Saved me some brain surgery so thanks. I'll leave it brown.

 

[Airframes]

Good info.
Not sure about the black on the seat under the wear though Darryl. Looks more like worn / dirty / mouldy leather, with the seat itself showing bare metal under the wear / chipping.

 

[Gnomey]

Great work so far Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Seems my seams are showing slightly on the nose cowl so I've run a bead of surface primer along them. All my models are at the stage of fixing surface imperfections. Grrr.

 

[Tony Hill]

Terry. It certainly could look that way but while they had the seat in that condition I had it looked over very closely.

The black in the leather area is paint. The seat was previously stripped and painted at some stage without removing the leather. Once the new paint wears through it shows bare ali, as it does where the original black paint wore once the leather perished. There are several places on the seat where the striping job was not quite 100% (around rivets, under seams) The guy who owns the seat was skeptical about there ever having been black seats, as was I. But when he examined it closely at my request, he told me that it had, after all, definitely been black first. Once he completely stripped the seat there were other small areas (mostly dents/knocks) that still had traces of black paint in them. Sadly this is all lost to history now as the seat has been restored (last photo) and will be going into a Spitfire II (which is also a little sad for such a historic seat..but needs must).

The only other primary source I've found for black seats is Cross & Scarborough's early 70's book for the Airfix Spitfire which told first hand that the seat was black and they had rare access to the IWM bird when it was off its sling all those years ago. Then there are the secondary sources such as Edgar Brooks who, in his information on seat colour said that metal seats were green although black had been found in crashed early Spitfires.

It is always nice to uncover some actual proof of rare things and not just be reliant on stories that parents tell children at night if they want them to grow up to be upholsterers

 

[Crimea_River]

Excellent info guys. This is what I love about modelling - learning new info.

 

[herman1rg]

And this website has loads of people with loads of info available

 

[Airframes]

I agree, and thanks for the clarification Darryl.
I had heard about black seats, and have seen some photos of early Spits where it appears the seat might have been black, although of course, being B&W pics, it's difficult to be certain, especially taking into account the lighting, print reproduction etc.
The question is, was the black the actual finish colour, or a primer-undercoat, perhaps sometimes just left without painting the green, due to production demand etc ?
When I did the AV presentation production at the BBMF back in the early 1980's, I seem to recall that one of the Spits appeared to have a black seat (I'm fairly sure it was the MkII, but may have been the MkV), but I didn't take much notice at the time, being awed by the very act of sitting in the cockpit, and just assumed that it had been re-painted at some point in its life.

 

[Snautzer01]

I realley do enjoy this build and the comment of Tony Hill. Thanks guys.

 

[javlin]

Looks Exquisite ! Kevin

 

[Tony Hill]

Cheers Terry,

I think some of the "plastic" (groan) seats look almost black in some lights, some look almost red. But it is possible that the BBMF Spit had black...who knows.
I am constantly frustrated when people expect pilots to notice that sort of thing"because they were there". REALLY?? "I am fighting for my life day in and day out
and at the point of exhaustion but sure, I can tell you for certain that the seat was black, the fuel cock had 7 rivets on each lever and they definitely put the crowbar
on my door on the 27th June 1941.....I think it was 0715 from memory"...