1/48 Airfix Spitfire Mk. Vb Tropical  

by Tom Rowson

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Thought I’d send in a few pictures of the first kit I’ve built since coming back to the hobby. I haven’t built a kit since I was a teenager, more than a decade ago. The Airfix kit is fairly ubiquitous, so I won’t bore you all to death with pages of detail. The first thing you’ll see from the photos is that it’s not particularly well put together – I’m still rebuilding my stocks of important things, like plastic filler. I also didn’t gloss coat beneath the decals, so there’s some silvering. Rest assured I’ve learned my lesson there.

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The shot below shows quite how badly the Spit lists to one side – this being an Airfix kit, the ease of assembly is offset by the poor production values. I’m currently working on a 1/72 Lanc of theirs (I like British WW2 aircraft, my grandfather worked on them), and there’s about half a tube of filler on it. The Spit has one undercarriage mount longer than the other, which I failed to notice until the glue was dried and it was the right way up again (having been fixed upside-down). Other problems include the gaping hole along the wing join on both sides, which I would have filled in hindsight. At the time, I was eager to get the model made, and so it was left. I assembled the kit straight out of the box, which is why the canopy is closed – there’s practically no detail to speak of in the cockpit. I’m also a fan of including the pilot, mostly because it goes some way to covering up the lack of interior detail. All the painting is done by hand (I’ve since invested in an airbrush) and there’s no weathering, since I don’t have the means or, quite frankly, the guts to apply it. The radio line running to the tailplane is just a bit of black cotton thread, the only non-OOB part. The sharper-eyed amongst you will notice the lack of a mirror above the cockpit – at this scale the mirror is tiny, and I must admit I was finding it more hassle to attach than I decided it was worth. I can hear the purists sucking air through their teeth right now. Sorry guys!

Tom

Photos and text © by Tom Rowson