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Another 1/24 Airfix Spitfire

Greg Kimsey

Greg Kimsey

Well-known member
I had not planned on starting a thread on this build since master @paddy has one going, but I keep highjacking his thread with questions and I need some advice on the build. I know little about WWII planes, other than what I see in movies, (the movie Dunkirk comes to mind), but I DO know that the Spitfire changed the course of the war. It is an absolute British icon and an engineering marvel they are proud of, and should be. I have built one 1/48 Spitfire. It has been a minute and I don't even remember which maker made the kit. When I heard Airfix was retooling a 1/24 Spitfire, I admit I got excited. I was even more excited when Paddy started his first!

I plan on leaving some panels open for the "cool factor", and was not sure about this particular panel:
20230429_210312.jpg

I think I would like to open it but wasn't sure if it would be on the real plane.

What I have done so far is mostly prep pieces for priming and painting on the interior. I have the interior of the fuselage green with panel centers highlighted and ready for oil weathering.
20230429_230908.jpg


I have three piles of parts ready for different primers. First pile will be Alclad Grey microfiller for painting in cockpit green.
20230429_230919.jpg


The next pile will be painted black, so they will be primered in Alclad black microfiller. I am going to do both Instrument panels, one decalled and one hand painted and see which is best.
20230429_231231.jpg



The last pile are to be painted Aluminum, so they will be primered in Alclad gloss black base primer. You can see that I goofed with two of the ribs and painted them green before realizing they are to be aluminum.
20230429_231155.jpg

Not much else to see. Oh! I think I will use the provided harness. I spent a great deal of time with files, dremel, and exacto knife scraping to reduce the thickness to less than half of the molded thickness. I think they are in scale now.
20230429_232935.jpg



For the seat, I added Tamiya tape along the seat edges to simulate the tape used to prevent chafing. Paddy painted his leather seat cover black, which is probably more correct than the shiny dark green I am going to use. The instructions say to paint it brown leather, but the photo reference looks dark green...soon, dark green it shall be. The seat bottom will be a mottled red/brown to simulate bakelite material
20230429_230930.jpg

Any ole' who, Sharkmouth is going to flood me with TMI on the radio access panel opening I asked about, and it is MUCH appreciated!! Thank you!
 
One thing to keep in mind about open panels, need to thin the edges to represent the scale thickness of the aluminum. So often we see the thickness of the plastic which would scale up to like 4 inches. The framing around those panels would not be nearly that thick.
 
moon puppy said:
One thing to keep in mind about open panels, need to thin the edges to represent the scale thickness of the aluminum. So often we see the thickness of the plastic which would scale up to like 4 inches. The framing around those panels would not be nearly that thick.
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Thank you for that reminder! I would have forgotten to do it LOL
 
OK, the hand painted instrument panel won the day. It is not too late to remove the silver edges, even though I really love the way it looks; but if it is blasphemously wrong I will do it. Let me know please. Thanks!
20230430_222342.jpg
 
Seriously, it is your model and, as long as you're enjoying it, does it matter to please anyone else? Yes, I am Mr. TMI but that is because it is how I model, trying to get everything I see in miniature. I'll gladly help with references and it is up to the recipient to decide how much, if any, they want to tackle.

I like it!
 
The dials do look better with black instead of silver. Another color that the edges can be (depending on the instrument) is a dark brown "bake light" color. It all depends on the instrument and who made it. You have to do research on that, but it can make a difference and give more detailing when working on larger builds.
 
Heavens Eagle said:
The dials do look better with black instead of silver. Another color that the edges can be (depending on the instrument) is a dark brown "bake light" color. It all depends on the instrument and who made it. You have to do research on that, but it can make a difference and give more detailing when working on larger builds.
Click to expand...
I think that it will be difficult now that the joy stick (?) is in, but I have a brown Gundam marker that might get in there.
 
I had some trouble putting the port side in place. The center seam in front of the cockpit took a lot of convincing, plus a LOT of scraping down the left side of the instrument panel to get it to be close. I am certain I had something out of alignment on the right side because I have heard from everyone who I know who has put this together that it goes together seamlessly. So, in the end, it is close, but far from perfect.

20230504_210353.jpg


20230504_210430.jpg


I did open the battery (?) inspection panel.

20230504_210309.jpg


and scraped and scraped and sanded and sanded and scraped some more until the removed panel was thin...
20230504_211234.jpg


And on the inside I cut a piece of styrene to shape for the inside, but looking at it now I could have done a much better job. I may remove it and make another...
20230504_211219.jpg


Next, I may need some advice. I am now working on the inside of the wings structure.
20230504_205527.jpg


The instructions, when not giving a specific color for a specific piece, say to paint it "UNDER SURFACE COLOR", but doesn't say what that color is. I have researched, and have honestly become more confused as to what I need to do. The material is Aluminium, yes (?) but the material they used corroded easily and badly so it had to be painted. I have found reference that it was painted either aluminium, silver, sky grey, or zinc chromate, depending on the source. Some say absolutely NOT zinc chromate or cockpit interior green. Some say only the wheel well was painted green. Some say the wheel well was definitely NOT green. It seems that silver and sky gray got the most votes. Some say use both, depending on the part. Like I said,... more confused than ever. I am leaning Sky Gray. Should I paint the whole thing sky gray, or some of it silver also? I realize most won't be seen except where the panels are open. So, what say the experts?

PS: if the instructions DO give a specific color for a part in this area, the color given is silver.

Thanks for looking!
 
Sharkmouth said:
Undersurface color is the lower camouflage scheme color.
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I thought that is what it meant at first, then the more I read it seemed that it meant the interior of the wing shell, that the undercarriage and undersurface were two different things. Are you saying they should be the same, depending on the color scheme I chose?
 
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