1/48 ICM Spitfire Mk.VII

by Tom Choy

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  D-Day 60th Anniversary - June 6th 2004    

 

My Spitfire VII was built using ICM's kit, using as much of the kit components as possible. The only aftermarket items used in this is a resin seat from Ultracast. Decals are from Victory Production's Spitfire Aces of The Empire sheet. In this case I chose the markings of Wing Commander Peter Brothers of Culmhead Wing, formed from Nos. 131 and 616 Squadrons. Interestingly enough, the sheet provides 3 different marking schemes - the one shown here, a more subdued stripe scheme with the top of the wings and the upper half of the fuselage overpainted, or the third scheme, which has the VII's high-altitude wingtips replaced with standard Mk.IX wingips and a crudely painted ocean gray/dark green Type "A" scheme, with widely feathered demarcations.

Click on images below to see larger images

While many builders consider the ICM kit to be one of the most accurate Spitfire kits out in the market, yet lacking in quality, I built this with the aim of replacing as little as possible. The wingtips, for example, are considered to be a poor fit and better done as an aftermarket item. Being cheap, I opted to pound the wingtips into submission with layers of Milliput, Mr Surfacer, CA glue, judiciuous sanding and rescribing. I'd have to say that the wingtips are my point of pride in this model. The gun patches are made from Tamiya tape, cut into little squares and painted Testor's British Crimson (I forget the FS number, but I can look it up for you guys if you need it).

This is my second ICM Spitfire, and my fifth one built to date. I'm a huge Spitfire fan with a whole lot of Spitfire kits in the stash, but I space them out for variety. Since the majority of my marks are the ICM kit, it looks like I'll be kept busy for a very long time!

Tom

Photos and text © by Tom Choy