1/24 Airfix Spitfire Vb

by Matt Bacon

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This is a true Classic British Kit. First released in 1970 as a Mk1, Airfix chose the iconic British warplane for their first "Superkit" in a dramatic large scale.  Very well detailed for the time, the kit also offered "working features": retractable undercarriage, movable control surfaces, sliding canopy, removable cowls.  Today, the detail looks a bit sparse (compared to, say, the PCM Spitfire IX), and the working features are a bit of a challenge.  But the shapes are absolutely spot on, and the surface detail, to my eye, looks much more like the real thing than the up to date Trumpeter alternative. The kit is also easily available for less than half the price of the competition. I wanted one for a BIG present as a lad when it appeared, but I never got one. Thirty years later, my long-suffering wife bought me one for Christmas, so I set out to see what could be done with this classic kit.

Having read the excellent "For Your Freedom and Ours", the the true story of a group Polish pilots in the RAF, I'd become interested the exploits of 303 "Kosciuszko" Sqn, and so my choice of build options quickly settled on Donald Zumbach's "RF-D". (It helped that I think the Spitfire looks much better without desert air filters etc, and that I built RF-D from the excellent Airfix 1/72 kit as a boy in the 70s when it first appeared). There are a few well-known photos of RF-D around which can easily be Googled. For a kit this size, good references are essential, so I broke out the SAM Publications Merlin Spitfire book, Mushroom Model Publications "Spitfire V" and the Pilots Notes. It's a big kit in a ridiculously big box, so my workbench was soon buried!

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This release of the kit has been modified to allow you to build a Mk Vb based on the original Mk 1 parts. You get additional sprues with a new prop, cannons and wing bulges, radiator and oil cooler parts, clipped wings, and various air filters for the "desert" versions. The new parts are generally thicker and less well detailed than the original parts. Despite the fact that the vintage moulds are nearly 40 years old, flash is minimal, and the fit of the original parts is still excellent. You begin with the engine, which has some new parts for the starter. If you want to close the cowl panels, don't bother - the engine won't fit with the new parts in place! The engine is OK, but since I only wanted it to hang the prop on, I didn't do any additional detailing. There are no aftermarket parts for this kit except some generic placards from Waldron - if someone bashed out a resin Merlin based on the much better one in the later Airfix Hurricane, anyone who wants to build this Spit with the engine exposed will be queuing up to buy one! There are a few new parts for the Vb cockpit in the kit, but this is where the real work is needed. Using for reference a combination of the Pilot's Notes, the excellent photo in the RAF Museum calendar, and the "Spitfire Spares" web site (where you can find clear colour pictures of most of the items named on the blurry black and white layout images in Pilot's Notes), I scratch built many boxes, wheels, levers and switches. It's very satisfying, even if most of the work is hidden by the pilot! I like to put little guys in my models, especially since this was a personal aircraft, so I took some time painting up the pilot (whose face was modified slightly to give him a more Zumbach-like square jaw and chipmunk-cheeks...). The straps are made from wine bottle foil, and I built the Sutton harness attachment behind the pilot's head from wire and lead foil. I made a 1/24 instrument panel from images on the web, and pasted that behind the plastic version, rather than use the thick and distorted clear plastic part. The cockpit slides in from the bottom (in several interlocking assemblies) after the fuselage is together, as with most Spitfires. I fixed the cowls to the frames permanently before joining the fuselage halves (still an excellent press fit after cleaning up). The wing fit is generally excellent, but the seam along the fairing behind the wing is pretty ugly. I rebuilt the apex in Milliput and smoothed it to a sharper edge. The wheel wells are open, and compromised by the "working" undercarriage, so I lined them with plastic card, trimmed the gear legs at the top and fixed them in place. Time for the paint booth.

Zumbach actually flew 3 RF-D's, with different serial numbers, with the cartoon duck (and victory tally) getting bigger and more impressive over the months of 1942. Although an RF-D is an option among the Airfix markings, I decided (with some trepidation) to use the Techmod decal set which offers all three aircraft. (Mainly because I didn't KNOW RF-D was in the box when I ordered the decals... though in retrospect the duck is MUCH better in the Techmod set anyway). The airframe was primed with grey car primer, rubbed down gently, and preshaded. I added some silver areas, masked with Copydex latex glue, to represent paint chipping when the glue was pulled off after painting the camo on top. I painted the prop satin black, and simulated a bit of wear with matt paint (the blades are wood composite, not metal, so they don't "chip") I used the excellent White Ensign "Colourcoats" enamels for the Dark Green, Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Gray camouflage. The decals went on surprisingly painlessly - they weren't as fragile and limpet-like as previous Techmod sets I've used.

The last RF-D was a well-used aircraft, so I knew some serious weathering would be needed. One thing that stands out on the pictures is that the cowling panels are noticeably darker than the rest of the aircraft - perhaps due to baked on oil from the hot engine. I masked along the firewall line, and treated the cowl to several coats of thinned Tamiya Smoke, until I thought the contrast looked about right. I was wondering for a while about how to achieve the faded look, and in the end decided on pastels. Lots of pastels - it's a big model. My local art shop provided lighter tones of each of the main camo colours. After matt coting the whole model, I started applying the pastel dust with a chopped down paintbrush, highlighting the middle of each panel and then "dusting" with a big soft brush. It sounds complicated, but the whole thing, top and bottom, took about an hour. The great thing about the pastels is that they are very easy to control, and if you think you've overdone it, you can just "dust off" some more. In the end, I was very pleased with the effect - nothing represents the chalky, faded look of old sunbleached paint as well as chalk in faded colours!

Overall, I really enjoyed this build, and it really pushed my modelling skills. The old Airfix kit is still a great kit, and with a bit of work can be turned into a very real looking replica. There are a few things I'd do differently next time (make sure my surface is REALLY shiny before applying a wash...), but generally I'm very happy with the way RF-D turned out. Now it's time to bash together a few 1/72 Matchbox kits for a bit of 'RnR"

Matt

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Photos and text © by Matt Bacon