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Finished pictures of the Supermarine Spitfire MKVB model aircraft
The 1/72 scale model finished and looking smart - pictures and further construction notes.
With the main paint scheme dried out it was time for the application of some decals. I used the USAAF markings on this model, I have a thing about American military markings (don't ask me why!).
Applying these decals is a piece of cake (hee hee). There's only a star for the port top wing surface, another star for the starboard bottom wing surface, stars and I.D. letters for the rear fuselage and a few small markings for the forward fuz and fin. These rubbed down nicely with a cotton cloth, conforming to the surface detail of the model. I didn't even use solvent for them, just water.
Next the two cannons, pitot tube and tail wheel were glued on with spots of cement followed by fixing the canopy on with PVA. This plane was getting to look the business. No painting instruction is given for the exhaust stubs on this model Spitfire. I looked at a few pictures and checked out the painting instructions for other model Spitfires and finally mixed up some gunmetal Humbrol 53 with some Humbrol rust paint. The result looks good to me. The stubs were painted before cementing to the rest
of the Spitfire.
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Moving onto the undercarriage. Again no clear paint instructions in the kit so I painted the legs aluminium, the inside doors interior green, the wheel hubs aluminium and the tyres tank grey (better then black). These were then carefully cemented into into the wheel bays of the model. The undercariage legs on this Spitfire have a square moulded onto them where they fix to the wing making alignment a doddle.
Nearly finished now, just the tailwheel to paint (I used aluminium and tank grey again), pitot to paint (aluminium), aerial to fix on and paint and the canopy frame to paint (I don't like doing this fiddly job on a model plane).
Lastly the yellow leading edge stripes were painted on free hand with a brush (the old fasioned type with hairs), the prop painted black with yellow tips and as if by magic I had a dash good model of a MKVb Spitfire sitting on the workbench.
Bally good show, chocks away and tallyho, yellow nose b??????s at 6 oclock high, lets break and have a nice cup of tea and biscuits.
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What a great little Spitfire kit this is. Easy to build and makes a very pleasing model. I bought this for £2.75 on special offer which was a bargain, I will see if they have anymore left I reckon.
The good
Fairly accurate general shape in my opinion. Looks like a Spitfire.
Great rendition of the gull formed Spitfire wing underside.
Good canopy with armour moulded in.
Pretty good decals.
Easy to build with overall good moulding.
Well done undercarriage.
Reasonable level of surface detail for the scale.
Rosy the rivetter was on holiday (hurrah.... hurrah....hurrah!)
Cheap to buy.
The bad
Slightly flat nose between the canopy and spinner but easily sorted, or ignorred.
Spinner needs a bit of filler, but not much.
No detail in the wheel bays.
Plain cockpit.
That's about it apart from minor nit-picking detail which all plastic kits have a share of.
The ugly
You gotta be kidding, there ain't nothing ugly with a Spitfire, unless you're a BF109.
Go buy one of these kits and spend some of your time with this little beauty. There can be only one.
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Spitfire Mk Vb model plane page 1 construction
Spitfire Mk Vb model plane page 2 construction
Spitfire Mk Vb page 3 finished aircraft
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