What can I say
the perfect kit ever ! I built this straight out of the box with the exception
of a couple of extra hoses and wires around the engine to make it look a bit
busier - the ignition harnesses are particularly noticeable by their absence.
The only problems I had with the kit were the seam line along the canopy, those
nasty wing leading edge gun inserts (which for some reason I battled with) and
the punch marks on the inside of the fold down cockpit access door this
forced me to rebuild this part. Apart from that, I have never come across a
better engineered kit.
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I decided to go for a
change from the standard JE-J and selected the kit option of a colourful
French Air Force Spit operational in Vietnam in the late 40s. I
particularly like the French blue spinner (with sky backing plate !) and
the tall configuration rudder painted in the tricolor. Based on past
experience, I tested some of the kit decals on my trusty F-16 test plane.
Yes, as suspected, the printing is beautiful but the decals did not
respond to Micro Set/Sol. This is where things got tricky I decided to
paint all the roundels. The entire aircraft was masked off except for the
roundel areas a circular cutter is a must for this operation. The
roundels were painted before the camouflage. White was painted first,
masked, followed by the red and then the blue (and yellow on the fuselage
roundels) using a convoluted sequence of various diameter masks. To my
amazement the roundels came out really well most importantly, the
kit's fine riveting was still intact and visible. Colours used were white
Tamiya X-8, red Tamiya X-7, yellow Tamiya X-8 and blue (Tamiya X-14 and
Humbrol H48 in a 1:3 mix). The spinner was painted using a mix of Tamiya
XF-8 and X-2. The engine was painted a dark grey. I used a sharp silver
pencil to replicate the chipping of paint and the silver studs so
prevalent on a Merlin engine and used a combination of oil/white spirit
wash and pastels.
My local model shops had not received the
Tamiya Spitfire camouflage colours (AS-30, AS-31 and AS-32) so I had to
make up a mix. These were :
- Undersurface light grey
XtraColor X255 RAL 7001 Silbergrau and Tamiya X-2 white in a 50:50 mix
- Upper surface grey 5
parts XtraColor X157 (FS16176 F-15 mod Eagle grey) and 2 parts X603 Russian
Flanker blue (of all colours !)
- Green 5 parts
XtraColor X155 (FS14096 B-52 dark green) and 2 parts Tamiya X-2 + spot
Tamiya X-8
I lightened the upper
surface green quite a bit for scale and fading as I would expect would
have happened in South East Asia what with all the humidity and rain. The
soft demarcation between the upper surface colours was achieved using
rolls of prestic/blu-tac. I then masked off and painted the walkway line
on the wings (in dark grey) and the red gun covers.
I applied a
lot of chipping to various parts of the airframe using a pointed tip brush and
Tamiya XF-16 aluminium. My assumption is that Spitfire paint would flake off in
large quantities in the SEA environment as was the case of Japanese WWII
aircraft. I could not find any reference photos on French AF Spitfires in SEA
service so had to use pictures of other aircraft as a guideline. I then applied
a liberal dusting of dark grey pastels to the panel lines and to tone down the
chipping. Exhaust stains were provided using light grey airbrushed and
over-sprayed with dark grey. Subtle gun gas stains on the wings were also
applied with airbrush applied dark grey metallizer.
The only decals I used were the P codes, the
serial numbers and the various stenciling. After the decals had dried, each
individual rivet hole had to be perforated using a sharp needle. I used my
trusty decal solvent (Tamiya SuperThin !!!) where the decals silvered (even on a
gloss paint base). This stuff works well but is not very forgiving if too much
is applied as it melts the paint on the model and the decal. Anyway, when decals
dont respond to Micro Set, they get the aggressive treatment ! A final
Humbrol matt coat dulled everything down.
I can safely say this is the easiest, quickest build
Ive had in 20 years it took about 2 months of on and off evening building
to complete. I wonder what Tamiya will bring out next ? Cant wait.
Malcolm Reid
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