Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb Trop. Royal Air Force Fighter Tamiya 1/48

It is a feature of the good old Tamiya Spitfire. I made it in April 2015.

When I discovered the caterpillar track of the tiger the other day, various plastic models came out of my cave. The Spitfire of this North African front version is very old (around 20 years ago?), but Tamiya has good parts fitting and seems to be assembled without any problem. Is it the German bomber Dornier Do-17? This package during the battle is very excellent. Probably this picture attracted me, and I purchased it.

I cut out the main parts and checked the fitting. Firstly, this kit was released as a regular spitfire and added parts of the desert climate. The pilot uniform is for tropical, too. The standard and tropical uniform figures, two types, are in this box; someday, another figure has a chance to be made.

I adjusted the Pilot pose to the seat. I checked every part, joint of the main wing, and landing gear. I think the cockpit space is narrow; his knees seem to hit the panel.

The inside body color, including the cockpit, is 1:3:1, mixing with XF-5 mat green, XF-21 sky, and XF-65 field gray by the instruction. I replace the color I have now, Creos Mr.Color, No.6 Green, No.118 RLM78 light blue, and No.52 field gray. But it’s a little different from my image, so it mixed with the No.124 Japanese Navy plane color and No.27 Interior color.
I know later, Creos released an aircraft interior color set of US and British WWII planes. I wonder why these are not sold separately.
I think Tamiya abandons the strange pride and has additional information on the color numbers of Creos and Humbrol.

I blew the surfacer on this figure; it’s only 3cm. It’s a good-looking short sleeve and short-pants pilot.
(10-March-2015)

Because there was no decal of the cockpit panel in this kit, I did handwriting unwillingly. At first, I painted the panel in matte black and next dry brushing in silver. I did washing lightly inside of the meters in white. The white inside meters sometimes have surface irregularity and look like meter needles and scale marks. Anyway, it’s better than my image. I wonder when is the start of the panel decal attached to an airplane kit.

I am painting the pilot figure. It isn’t good to start painting not fixed on the hold tight; I just have attached the double-stick tape to the wood chip. The figure almost comes off from the tape on the way, and I cannot paint it calmly. It’s better to use a metal stick to fixed in the wood chip usually.
I feel this pilot resembles Count Cagliostro in “Lupin the Third: Castle of Cagliostro, ” a famous Japanese animation for 35 years; the director was Mr. Hayao Miyazaki.

I made the exhaust vent on these engine mufflers with my motor tool. The left is just I drilled one. I don’t need to drill too deep; it’s easily broken.
(12-March-2015)

There is a gap between the body and the main wing. I thought it was no problem while painting because it was so small a gap, but anyway, I molded it with a melted plastic runner (handmade plastic putty) and again carved panel lines and rivets. Maybe it needed more smooth surface treatment.

Spitfire appeared in the comic “The cockpit,” a famous Japanese artist, Mr. Leiji Matsumoto’s works; the first episode was the battle of Spitfire vs. Messerschmitt in North Africa. The fuselage underside color is cobalt blue; it seems to blend when we view up from the bottom in the blue sky of the Mediterranean. After I show you the view from the upper side, it is brown camouflage, such as fit in with the Sahara.

This is the masking seal that does not usually use the Tamiya brand; I tried to use it for the broader width of the cover. Masking is easy, but I was worried that it was too sticky. I dropped the sticking power to peel off and attach it to my jeans several times. There was no particular problem when I later removed them.

The backside is as in this photo.

The camouflage color is Mr.Color 39 dark yellow and 43 wood brown 4:1. Tamiya’s instructions said dark yellow and dessert yellow 1:1. I have a slight adjustment adding 21 middle stones; I noticed this color is primarily for the Royal Air Force camouflage, so using this color alone is OK, I suppose. Brown was painted in 310 Brown FS80219. I favor a pale brown color this time, so it matches my feeling.

Well, it was a fiasco… Since Tamiya decals cannot be used, many are cracked and too old. I searched for Hasegawa’s same-situation decals in my house, and I was fortunate. This Hasegawa decal was a new type and the first for me. It’s something like a slide decal, which was required to scrub vigorously. It does not move, even going to change the little position adjustment; once I attached it, it was difficult to handle. Well, it’s not moving, so I tried to peel it off but impossible… OK, so I scraped it to file! I’m afraid to damage the primary color to hesitate too many scratches on the surface. Now I’m lost in abstraction at the last stage of a process that should be the most enjoyable work of decal changed to catastrophe; now I’m thinking the recovery. Come to think of it, a long time ago, maybe I left it to go this decal that seems difficult to handle.
(31-March-2015)

I mistook understanding the explanation of this decal. I should have peeled off the thick paper, remaining only semi-transparent paper to attach to the body. But the situation is almost the same, and the decal location should be fixed in one shot.

The decal under the cockpit and some others are not good. One good point is that this Hasegawa decal’s color is vivid and fantastic.

There are four notification letters under the main wing. I succeeded 3 in 4, the only one I tried from Tamiya’s old decal. Like this photo, the decal is melted in the water…..

I coated this decal with clear paint in my style. I suppose the unnatural glossy coat was unified after the final semi-gloss coating.

Roundel’s national symbol was also retouched by brush. The brushing part is matted and visible, although not much recognized the affected area in this photo. It will be cleared after coating the splay. It’s a relief that the cat character decal was good paste, no fail. It’s smooth ink in the panel lines in a dark color on the glossy surface, at this point glossy surface.
(02-April-2015)

The Spitfire is now completed. The shape of the main wing and coloring differed from the airplane assigned in the UK mainland. This aircraft is equipped with a sand-proof filter suitable for combat in the desert region in the North African Campaign.d

I drilled the muzzle of Hispano Mk. I 20mm machine-gun by design knife.

This marking is the 244th Wing Commander Ian R Gleed,1943 Tunisia North Africa. Tamiya’s decal was too old, so I tried to use the Hasegawa decal I have. It’s troubled work. Anyway, I completed it.

An antenna cable is a thin metal wire usually used in the ship model. It looks a bit slack. I wonder whether it is suitable for a battleship but not an airplane. I need to research fishing and metal lines that are good for the antenna.

Camouflage Brown is a little different from others. It’s like the color used by Messerschmitt. Sometimes I look the similar coloring but a minority. Well, it looks cool, so it melted in the desert field.

2 x 20mm machine-gun, 4 x 7.7 mm machine-gun is heavily armed. At first, I wonder about the black decals and the holes front side of the main wing; a total of 6 machine guns in this little air flame is amazing.

Adhesion of the cockpit and airframe did not go very well. I level up the higher completion if this work is appropriate…

I blew dark brown on the back of the exhaust pipes. I was careful not to cover this blowing over the cartoon character decal.

I did peel-off paint weathering on the joint of the left main wing and body that the pilot got on and off repeatedly. Considering the severe climate of North Africa, harder weathering looks natural.

I made it harder to wash and weather on the underside.

I failed to paste the Hasegawa decal underside of some notification messages. I pasted the Tamiya. Since the font size and type differ from Hasegawa’s, I usually decorate it every day, not seeing the underside. Hence, it’s OK; only I felt a sense of accomplishment to paste the decals fully.

Lieutenant Colonel Ian·R·Greed fought in the air war of the German invasion of France and the famous Battle of Britain. When he was appointed to North Africa, he was the 244th Wing Commander. Unfortunately, he was killed in action at 26 in April 1943. His Spitfire Vb seems to be outdated compared to the Focke-Wulf German fighters. He was credited with 13 victories, including shared victories and a probable total of around 20 credits.

This cat Figaro was released in 1940 from Disney characters. It came into the cartoon of Pinocchio, this cat ill-natured to Pinocchio. Figaro is breaking into shatters the German marking swastika.

The Spitfire propeller seems to have been wooden at the first stage; now, Mark Vb’s is made of metal. I tried to paint the effect of the peeling of the original paint. The tires are fresh. I forgot to have pastel work. The others are a good atmosphere, I suppose.

I forgot to set out the size of the comparison sample, the overall length is about 21cm, and the full width is about 22cm. It’s the best distance to look at this plane. Too close looking is not great.

I think this angle looks the most favorite. I love this Spitfire as it makes me do many complex works, especially decals and painting.

Still slightly slanting this antenna cable, I retried more tension after the above photo. Many points I have to be improved next time.
(4-April-2015)