1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Pr Mk Ia

Gallery Article by Ian Foulkes on July 8 2015

 

      

This is the Pavla conversion, utilising the Tamiya 1/48th Scale Spitfire Mk I. No need to introduce the base kit as it has been covered elsewhere. [What would be interesting is to see if the new Airfix Spitfire measures up well to the Pavla conversions, which are all based on the Tamiya kits.] The resin set is U48-08 in Pavla’s catalogue. In the set you get two sets of decals, a new seat and armour plating, extra fuel tank to go inside the cockpit just behind the seat. Two long range fuel tanks and one modified to carry cameras, deep underside cowling, a camera port to go over the radio hatch, larger oil cooler intake and two canopies with tear drops to complete the set. A word about the decals and softening solutions - DON’T. The decals are fine enough not to need them! The instructions tell you what parts are required where. If you are willing to modify the base kits underside cowling, I am sure that you could get three kits out of one conversion set. I chose to model the Pr Mk1a. It was the first Pr Spitfire (possibly the first RAF Aircraft) to carry out a photo recce mission over Germany.

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Assembly is quick and straight forward. I decided to add the Eduard cockpit set, which really enhances the Tamiya cockpit. The one provided is perfectly acceptable with careful painting, dry brushing and weathering, which is not much different to utilizing the Eduard set. The resin parts are straightforward “drop in” so no cutting is required. The only modification to the kit parts required, are to drill two camera ports on the fuselage underside. I managed to use the wrong configuration so check carefully!! The Pavla instructions were quite clear, it was a mistake of my own…

Finally you need to remove the protruding .303 machine guns from the wing and then fill the gun ports. DO NOT fill in the gun access panels above and below the wing as the Pr 1a’s were standard Spitfires taken off the production line. 

There is some conjecture over the colour of early Pr Spitfires. I chose to follow the Pavla instructions and painted her “Sky” all over. For this I used Humbrol 90 which I think is a close match. For the exhaust I used Tamiya Smoke. I will cover this with flat varnish, as it came out glossier than I thought it would. We live, we learn. I hope that you like my efforts. Now for the other Pavla conversions…

Ian Foulkes MA

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Photos and text © by Ian Foulkes