Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk IX by Andy Bannister
Arguably one of the most aesthetically pleasing aircraft designs of all time, the Spitfire really needs no introduction or historical description in these pages. I think even my cats have heard of Reginald Mitchell's finest!
I've waited a long time for a good mainstream kit in the manly scale of the Spitfire Mk. IX, my favourite mark of one of my favourite aircraft and in my favourite scale. Compared to the plethora of kits of its main adversaries, the Bf109 and the Fw190, the Mk. IX has been relatively underrepresented in 1/72 scale. Of the kits available over the years, the more recent Hasegawa kit was the best of a bad bunch, though it still had some pretty significant outline errors; a rear fuselage too slender in plan and side view, shallow radiators and exaggerated oval wheel wells. While there have been decent, but expensive, limited run and resin kits, we still didn't have a good mainstream Spit IX kit - until the release of Airfix's new tool in 2009. By no means perfect, offering no more detail than Hasegawa and nowhere near as much as Airfix's newer kits, the shape is much better and it is, in my opinion, the best 1/72 Spitfire Mk. IX available from a major manufacturer to date.
Out of the box the kit represents a mid to late production Mk. IXc. There are no optional parts included other than early or late style carburettor intakes. Moulding quality is generally very good, though the panel lines may be a bit deep for some tastes.
Now at this point I must make a confession: I suffer from chronic AMS (Advanced Modeller Syndrome). Normally I can keep this under control with just enough extra detail to keep the monster at bay. In this case, due to the subject matter, I happily let my guard down and allowed the monster to run amuck. After all, if scientists can build nanomachines from single molecules, how hard could it be to super detail a miniature Spitfire cockpit…?!
For this build I had three main criteria: 1) I didn’t want to do Johnny Johnson’s aircraft. I certainly have nothing against him, but Spitfire models with ”JE J” on the side have become almost as ubiquitous as that red triplane has from the previous world war. 2) I didn’t want to model a Spit in invasion stripes as I felt that they too were becoming a bit of a cliché. 3) I wanted to model an RCAF aircraft, or an aircraft flown by a Canadian pilot. Having spent most of my life in Canada before moving to the UK in 1997, it is perhaps no surprise that my main interest lies in aircraft and pilots hailing from the Great White North. There are many Canadian Spitfire pilots to choose from, and having in my possession an IPMS Canada decal sheet that included two of Buzz Beurling’s Mk. IXs, the decision was soon made.
Construction
As with any project involving extra detail, research is paramount, both before and during construction. Fortunately the Spitfire Mk. IX is rather better served in the reference section than it has been by the kit manufacturers, though I only had one fairly poor photograph of the aircraft in question to go by which was found in Spitfire the Canadians, by Robert Bracken. A certain amount of conjecture was necessary regarding such things as the style of the gun blisters and armament fit as it just wasn’t clear from the picture.
Cockpit detail as supplied in the kit is pretty much non-existent; a seat that looks like it came out of a miniature fast food restaurant, an attempt at the armour plate and a decidedly non-standard floor is all there is, therefore everything had to be made from scratch or whatever aftermarket parts I could get my hands on. Construction began by thinning down the cockpit sides as much as I dared using a grinding bit in my Dremel and finishing off with wet sanding. The cockpit door was cut out so it could be replaced later with a photo etched item.
Once I was happy with the cockpit sides, the frames and longerons were added from .010” x .010” and .010” x .020” plastic strip. A generic etched Spitfire cockpit set from Fotocut was used for items such as the seat, instrument panel, armour plate, throttle and some of the framework. This set was not designed for any specific kit so the frames required a bit of fettling to get them to fit but it was well worth the effort. All etched parts were primed with Gunze Mr. Metal Primer, a thin and fast drying clear coating that can be brushed on and greatly improves the adhesion of paint on metal parts. Additional frames were cut from .020” plasticard with lightening holes drilled in.
The control surfaces were removed so they could be reworked and then reinstated later in something other than a neutral position. This also involved thinning and hollowing out their positions on the wings, stabilisers and vertical fin to allow the control surfaces to be inset as they should be.
Other sundry bits of cockpit furniture such as the compass, fuse panel, gun camera control, r/t equipment, windscreen de-icer tank and pump, emergency landing gear bottle, primer pump, voltage regulator, and Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) detonator were made with plastic sheet, rod and tube and detailed with various gauges of wire. The pilot’s oxygen bottle was fabricated from the head of a rocket from a Frog Sea Fury and the two air tanks behind the seat were from thick plastic rod with the ends rounded off. The spade grip is .020” brass rod formed into a ring with the lower section from the etched set, laminated to .015” plastic sheet and detailed with thin wire for the brake and gun trigger cables. Rudder pedal guides are stainless steel tubing and control cables are fine wire.
The basic interior colour is from my rapidly dwindling supply of Polly Scale British Cockpit Green with various bits and pieces picked out in black, aluminium and red as appropriate. Instrument decals from Reheat were utilised for the instrument panel and compass and the same company’s placard decals were used in several places.
The photo etched seat was further detailed with aluminium foil seat belts with Reheat p/e buckles and an adjustment lever from .015” plastic rod. The ratchet mechanism for the latter was made from a quarter section of a watch gear which was gently bent inside out so the teeth were on the inside. This was extremely effective, or would have been if it wasn’t completely invisible on the completed model!
The seat back was coated with Gunze’s “Mr Dissolved Putty” (I do love their product names!) which has a tendency to skin up very quickly yet still remains soft and pliable for quite a while. After allowing it to set for a couple of minutes, the edge of a hobby knife was gently pressed into the putty to simulate the cushion creases. Once completely cured and painted a dark leather colour the effect was very convincing. The seat belts were done in Humbrol Khaki and the seat itself was painted tan and then oversprayed with a thin coat of darker brown to simulate the composite material.
With all the bits and pieces in place the cockpit was taking on a decidedly cluttered – not to mention fragile – appearance. When I felt I had crammed in as much detail as it was practical to do, the fuselage halves were finally put together. Some of the details such as the pipework coming from the landing gear / flap control unit and some wiring were routed through the cockpit frames, therefore these had to be carefully fitted in from the bottom after the fuselage halves were joined.
The Spitfire of course has no cockpit floor as such. A Mattel Vacformer was used to produce the fuselage bottom in .020” plasticard using a Hellcat drop tank half found in Ye Olde Spares Box as a mould. Both the cockpit bottom moulding and the inside of the bottom wing half had to be drastically thinned to get the wing to fit, in fact the wing is so thin that the white plastic of the cockpit bottom was clearly visible through it.
There are two gaping holes for wheel wells so these need to be boxed in and some detail added. Fortunately the Spitfire has very simple wheel wells so this was a refreshingly easy job using .020” sheet. The large sockets moulded to the upper wing halves to locate the gear legs were removed and smaller holes drilled into the top wing halves to accept brass rod glued into the top of the gear legs. The ribs in each well were added from strips cut from .005” sheet and then the wings were assembled and fitted to the fuselage.
Fit of the major components was quite good, though some gaps occurred around the wing roots and the wingtips on the bottom. These were filled with Milliput, other minor gaps taken care of with one or two heavy coats of Mr. Surfacer.
There are some inaccurate panel lines and inspection panels and some that are missing entirely which I dealt with at this stage. Scribing is my most despised operation in modelling therefore I kept this to a minimum. It doesn’t seem to matter how careful I am, how many light passes I make or what kind of scriber I use, at some point the darn thing will go skittering across the surface leaving a chaotic panel line where I had no intention of putting one. My efforts always seem to consist of one part scribing to ten parts filling, sanding and rescribing.
Fortunately not much was required in this case. The small circular cover over the external power socket is present on the rear of both wing root fillets when there should only be one on the left side, similarly the D-shaped oil filler access panel is on both sides of the nose when it should be on the left side only. There is however a small round panel on the the right side of the nose, positioned further back than the oil filler. This is missing from the kit so a template was made up from .010” sheet and the missing panel scribed in using a sewing needle chucked in a pin vise, the redundant oil fller access being filled and sanded smooth.
I also made up a template for the small panels over the flap linkages on the wings which pop up when the flaps are down, these too are absent from the mouldings. I chose not to drop the flaps as they were rarely, if ever, left down on parked Spitfires. Pilots could in fact be fined for leaving them down as they impeded the airflow through the radiators which compounded the Spitfire’s tendency to overheat during engine run up and taxying due to the radiators being outside the propwash.
The filler for the upper fuselage tank was also missing. Being placed right smack in the middle of a major seam, I decided not to attempt to scribe this in for fear of it all going horribly wrong. Instead I drilled a hole to accept a short length of plastic rod, this being a snug fit so it wouldn’t drop inside the fuselage (I forgot about this earlier - obviously I should have done it before fitting the wings!). The rod was pushed in until it was flush with the upper fuselage then glued with a touch of liquid poly.
Once the scribing was out of the way I tackled the control surfaces. As I mentioned previously, the positions for the rudder and ailerons had been thinned down in the fin and wings respectively to allow them to be inset properly. This was a bit more problematic with regards the elevators as the stabilisers were single piece mouldings. For these I used a fine round file to cut a groove in the rear of the stabilisers where the elevators would fit, followed by a small round Dremel cutting bit used manually as a scraper. Hinges were added from scraps of .010” sheet and sanded to shape once dry. Once I was happy with the stabilisers they were glued on and minor gaps filled with Mr. Surfacer, the elevators being added during final assembly.
Strips of .030” plastic were glued to the leading edges of the control surfaces which were shaped with files and sandpaper once dry and small slots were cut for the hinges. The fairly prominent fairing for the rudder trim tab actuator is missing, this was added from a bit of scrap stretched plastic tubing. As always, constant test fitting is required to ensure the control surfaces fit in the correct position without excessive gaps. In the end I somehow managed to get the ailerons to fit without glue, though of course they were permanently attached later. It’s very embarrasing having bits spontaneously dropping off at club meetings.
The radiator housings lacked detail and were incorrectly shaped. These were reworked and then cast in resin for use on future Spitfire projects. The radiator faces are also not deep enough, merely sitting on top of the wing surface instead of extending up inside the wing as they should, therefore I scraped and filed inlet and outlet ramps into the lower wing surfaces and extended the radiator and oil cooler faces to suit. A hole was drilled in the starboard radiator inlet ramp for the water spray tube which would be added from fine wire after the painting stage.
Navigation lights are represented by vague lumps on the wingtips so these were built up with a mix of super glue and talcum powder. Once set, they were sanded to shape and tiny quarter sections filed out with the edge of a cutting file. The lights themselves were one of the last things added at the final stages of the build, these being represented with tiny blobs of Testors Clear Parts Cement and painted Gunze Clear Red and Green. The clear teardrop shaped position light behind the cockpit was from a CMK set of resin lights.
The 20mm cannons are from the excellent range of turned brass guns from Polish firm Master. A simple and inexpensive addition which is a big improvement over those supplied in the kit.
The Pavla vac form canopy intended specifically for this kit fit quite well, though some of the frames I felt were a bit heavy. It was cut apart so that it could be displayed in the open position and each section dipped in Klear to give it that sparkling clarity a Spitfire deserves. Prior to adding the windscreen, a resin British reflector sight from Quickboost was glued to the top of the instrument panel. The windscreen and small rear section were then glued in with cyanoacrylate, the Klear having the added benefit of protecting the canopy parts from frosting due to cyano fumes. The canopy parts were masked with Bare Metal Foil prior to painting the airframe.
The cockpit door was made up from parts in the aforementioned photo etched set and consists of two very fragile frames which are laminated together and added to the back. All of these need carefully bending to match the shape of the fuselage. I rolled the handle of a hobby knife over them to gently bend them to the correct curve, annealing the parts beforehand was unnecessary and in fact the fragile frames would probably have disappeared in a puff of smoke had I attempted it. The door locking mechanism is also included in the photo etched set along with a spare, both of which I managed to lose amongst the many half completed projects and associated detritus littering my workbench. A replacement handle was therefore fashioned from flattened copper wire with the linkage and springs made from fine steel wire. The crowbar is from fuse wire with one end flattened under a knife blade. The cockpit door was temporarily installed in the closed position with dabs of Humbrol Maskol used to seal any minor gaps and prevent overspray entering the cockpit.
Masking of the cockpit opening was done with Tamiya tape. Any gaps were sealed with Humbrol Maskol.
Painting
Once again I delved into the Polly Scale vault and pulled out their British Dark Green and Sea Grey. Despite thoroughly washing my models in soap and water before painting, Polly Scale has recently developed a propensity for coming off in chunks when masking is removed. This I can only put down to the age of the paint I have, most of which I brought with me from Canada all those years ago. Having never had an adhesion problem with enamels, I decided to use Humbrol enamel for the upper surface Ocean Grey before masking with blue tack for the dark green. This worked very well, though I still lost a few small chips of Sea Grey off the bottom when removing the blue tack. Annoying, but easily repaired and repainted.
The fuselage band and spinner are Model Master Sky Type S. Leading edge stripes were masked using thin strips of Tamiya tape and then sprayed with Model Master Insignia Yellow. Once all painting and touch ups were complete a couple of coats of Gunze clear gloss were applied in preparation for the decals.
Decalling
Most of the decals came from the IPMS Canada sheet as mentioned previously. This is an excellent sheet offering schemes for several Canadian aces flying various aircraft, though there are some errors on the instruction sheet to be aware of. The upper wing type B roundels are noted as being 50”, these should actually be the 56” roundels which are provided. Based on pictures of other RCAF 412 squadron Spitfires, I think the rear code letter on the starboard side should go over top of the serial number and not in front of it as the instructions state, however as there is no picture of VZ B from the right that I know of this is only conjecture on my part.
The decals themselves are nicely printed with good colour density but were fairly resistant to decal setting solutions and loathe to settle down into the panel lines. I sliced each decal along the panel lines, doused them with Daco’s strong decal setting solution and pressed them down with a soft cloth to get them to conform. A couple of repetitions of this process eventually bedded the decals down nicely.
The kill markings were on a small ALPS printed addendum sheet to replace those on the main sheet which were incorrectly printed in 1/48th scale. They should be applied at a slight angle to the centre line, roughly parallel to the upper wing surface rather than the top of the cowling as the instructions show them. The code letters were replaced with some from an Arrow Graphics sheet which looked better and were also a closer match to the Model Master Sky paint. Stencils also came from an Arrow Graphics “Spitfire Scribbles” sheet. After the decals had dried overnight I gave the model a quick wash to remove any excess adhesive and solvents. Final finish was Gunze Clear Flat after most of the weathering had been applied.
Weathering
I'm not a big fan of some of the current weathering fads. It seems that in recent years, aircraft modellers have developed a rather unhealthy obsession with panel lines. Consequently club tables, magazines and websites are festooned with model aircraft displaying criss crossing dark lines making them look more like a 3-dimensional crossword puzzle than a miniature representation of a full sized aircraft.
To me, panel lines should be a subtle accent to a model, not the first thing you see from 10 feet away. While it is true that dirt and oil will collect in panel lines and make them appear darker, in propeller driven aircraft at least, this is usually more prominent around engine cowlings and the underside of the aircraft and is carried back by the effects of the slipstream. It would not therefore be appropriate to have the same intensity of panel lines towards the wingtips and tailplane as it would on the engine cowlings and forward fuselage, and even at that the effect is not overtly evident from any great distance, unless the aircraft is very heavily weathered. Aircraft just do not consistently weather from wingtip to wingtip and nose to tail, nor do metal panels conveniently fade from the inside to the outer edges! While I admit the effect is quite dramatic, it's not very realistic and I find restrained weathering far more effective than a heavy handed approach.
It is for these reasons I don't use any pre-shading techniques, preferring only to accentuate the panel lines with a medium-dark grey wash with chalk pastels used for general dirt and grime. I decided to give Humbrol’s recent line of washes a go, Blue/Grey in this case, and was very pleased with the results. I found it still required some thinning with mineral spirits to wash out the colour a bit and make it run along the panel lines more easily but it worked very well and I will definitely use it again for this purpose.
For the exhaust stains, I airbrushed on a few drops of a pale grimy grey colour mixed with clear flat which allows the stain to be built up slowly and gives it a nice translucent finish. On top of this I used pastels in brown and dark grey, ensuring that the stains curve downward as they tend to do on the real aircraft. Quickboost exhausts were used, these were finished in Testors Metalizer Burnt Metal and dry brushed with rust, brown and black. A thin wash of semi-gloss black with a touch of brown in it was brushed on for the characteristic oil stains on the underside. Paint chips were done with Testors Metalizer Aluminum applied with a 00000 brush.
Final Details
Airfix’s landing gear was not one of the highlights of the kit as the gear legs and covers are moulded as a single part, I therefore robbed some from an Academy Mk.XIV along with the wheels. The legs had to be lengthened slightly with plastic tubing to make up for the large sockets I had earlier removed from the wings. The landing gear covers came from another Fotocut set which had various styles of Spitfire covers and wheel hubs on as well as the tiny uplock rings to go on the upper part of the legs. Brake lines are from fine lead wire painted black. Wheels were painted black with a touch of light grey in (off-black, if you like) with the hubs in aluminium. Tiny lengths of brass wire simulates the valves.
Resin prop blades and spinner from Quickboost were on hand but when I came to use them I thought the exaggerated groove in the spinner spoiled the otherwise fine casting and the prop blades were warped and lacked an airfoil shape. Both of these went back in the packet after I had another look at the kit items and decided they weren’t too bad after all, though I did use the very handy Quickboost jig with a bit of modification to suit the Airfix prop. The kit prop blades were excessively rounded on both sides and the tips were a bit too pointy. The blades were cut from the rudimentary hub and then reshaped by scraping with a hobby knife, finishing off with fine sandpaper until the backs were more or less flat and the fronts were an airfoil shape as they should be. The tips were reshaped then painted Insignia Yellow with the blades in semi-gloss black. The brass leading edge strips were carefully hand painted with Gunze Mr. Metal Colour Brass and stencils from Airfix’s Mk. 22 Spitfire kit were applied to the spinner. The prop was then attached with super glue.
The sliding canopy was glued on after adding the handle and miniscule etched latching mechanism from the Fotocut set. The final additions were the pitot tube, rear view mirror and the landing gear indicators that protrude through the upper wing when the gear is down, these are from fine wire painted red.
I’ve never had much interest in counting the hours or number of parts invested in a project, suffice to say there are a lot of both in this! Despite all the work I stand by my initial opinion of Airfix’s Mk. IX as the best mainstream kit of this subject in 1/72 scale and I’m sure it would look every bit a late Merlin powered Spitfire even if built straight out of the box. The time and effort I spent on this is far in excess of what I had originally intended and it may be a long time before I again go to such lengths on a model, but in the end I’m pleased with the outcome. More importantly, I think I’ve discovered a cure, or at least a control for AMS – let it have its way now and then!
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