The Tamiya Spitfire kit was piled without even opening the box, hoping to make it one day. I remember I kept trying to build from a small scale for practice because I also have a 1/32 Spitfire. I’ve built other manufacturers’ and tropical versions of Tamiya, but this Mk. I is probably the most basic aircraft. It was said to have taken part in the famous Dunkirk retreat. I can choose three different markings without having to buy a separate decal.
There are descriptions of the actual aircraft, color painting illustrations, and even canopy masking seals and etched parts. Once I get used to having so full of perfect kits, I won’t be able to make other ones.
I can’t decide when to airbrush the inside of the aircraft. I want to blow the same color parts as much as possible at once.
Compared to the Tamiya 1/48 scale aircraft plastic models I have ever made, there are many delicate parts. The assembly accuracy is excellent, so I don’t have a problem with it at the moment, but it seems to involve a lot of detailed painting processes.
If I don’t decide which marking aircraft I will make first, there will be quite a difference in gluing the small parts of the cockpit. It’s surprisingly complicated. Maybe there was some mis-fitting.
I am also working on airbrushing and painting delicate parts.
The scales and needles on the gauges are also marked with decals, so it’s nice to have a fairly detailed feel.
(2023/09/06)
After painting the cockpit’s fine details, I could finally attach the left and right fuselage parts.
Look in a little, and it also shows the instrument panel. The pedal foot fastening belt was an etched part.
The landing gear compartment on the main wing comprises multiple parts and seems to be reproduced reasonably accurately.
I didn’t use it this time, but here is a figure of a Royal Air Force pilot. It doesn’t feel much different from the time of Tropical Spitfire, but maybe the mold is a little better.
I’ve fitted most of the big parts. The parts fit so well that almost no modification work was needed.
When did Tamiya’s plastic airplane models get canopy masking sheets? I have to cut this out myself, but it’s very convenient. I even want kits from other manufacturers. Twin-engine German and Japanese airplanes have many frames, making them difficult.
This time, I decided to make it with the canopy open, so I carefully masked the front and back of the clear parts. If it is made in the open state, there are more parts and tasks to be taken care of, which is hard. I’m also worried that it will work well with that.
The cockpit is also being masked. I lightly pack small pieces of tissue paper and do something I’m not used to doing. I wonder how other modelers are doing.
(2023/09/09)
I covered it with masking tape and closed the gap with masking sol. Maybe this will help. Masking is not that hard work because it is a single-seater fighter.
Air intake? I also painted the inside with silver, covering the front and back.
After painting the landing gear in silver, I did masking work. I made a mistake in the procedure here. There was also a silver part at the bottom of the aircraft, so I should have worked together with them.
It was painted from the black area on the right half of the lower part of the fuselage. Now is the time to blow white.
This fuselage sprays three colors of white, black, and silver on the underside of the fuselage, which took a lot of work. There’s a lot of thin masking tape left over, so if I force myself to use it, it’s extra work.
I noticed that the seam of the nose was still left on the top of the fuselage while I was blowing the brown, so I filled the putty. It’s pretty clumsy.
Spitfires have cool wings. I wonder if this is all I need to finish the basic painting.
Even though it’s a WWII monoplane, it has quite a lot of decals. But putting on a caution decal is better because it looks more realistic.
(2023/09/12)
Spitfire Mk. I is finally complete—the Mk. I was Spitfire’s first mass-production aircraft and served in the 1940 British mainland air campaign.
This time, the markings were for Squadron 19, participating in Operation Dynamo (to support the withdrawal of Dunkirk) in 1940. The lower surface of the fuselage is painted half black and white on the left and right, and the nose and tail are silver, probably to distinguish friends and foes.
Operation Dynamo was the codename for the massive Allied withdrawal from the Battle of Dunkirk in World War II, from May 26 to June 4, 1940.
It’s hard to see because it’s shiny, but it has an oval seal on the left side of the canopy. I wonder what this is. Then I heard it was an emergency evacuation panel (knockout panel).
This time, I lightly inked the panel line without staining it. When I made Spitfire before, I made it so dirty that I wanted to make it clean this time.
Slide back with the canopy open. It got a little dirty when I poured glue on the part where the canopy was stacked. These areas could have been treated with a clear jelly type, light-cured or epoxy putty, or even regular plastic glue with resin. I regret it a little.
It consists of engine exhausts on the left and right of the nose and many parts, and I thought it would be better to turn off the parting line, but I left it because I thought it might be a weld mark or something. After all, it is shown on the Tamiya paint chart. Paint black on the base to make it look rusty or slightly shiny. I didn’t do any weathering, but I did some dirt on the exhaust vent.
The Spitfire had three antenna lines, one on the vertical tail and one on the horizontal tail. I read in some books that No. 0.5 is appropriate in terms of the thickness of the fishing line, but this time, I used No. 0.2 because of my feeling. The 0.5 is 0.117 mm, the 0.2 is 0.074 mm, and the 0.2 is often used as an antenna for model ships. That said, I haven’t made any plastic models of ships lately. I feel like making it for the first time in a long time.
The underside of the fuselage is also barely weathered and a little inking in the white and silver area panel lines. I didn’t do it because I thought it would stand out too much if I smeared the black area brightly. There are a lot of caution decals, and I thought there was some precision and no need for more emphasis.
When it comes to building a plastic model of an airplane, we have a choice between parking and flying positions and whether to keep the canopy open or closed. It is difficult but interesting to open the canopy this time after a long time. Part of the reason was that the kit was highly reproducible inside. Tamiya’s kit is excellent.
This kit has tremendous precision in parts. It’s a touching product. I want to get rid of other manufacturers’ stock and make Tamiya from now on. Sadly, the building technique has not kept up with the precision of the kit, but I enjoyed it very much. I think I’ll do better if I make it again.
(2023/09/15)
