This is the second 1/48 Airfix Spitfire Mk. IX I’ve done in just a few months. It’s not a fall together kit, but I enjoyed building this one (and the previous one).
It’s 100% OOB, and though it has a few mistakes and oversights here and there, I had fun building it and haven’t sweated the small stuff.
One thing that did give me a laugh- I masked the camo opposite of the instructions- didn’t realize it until I was done painting. LOL
Nice work as usual Jon, I was thinking something looked weird and then read the camo mix up, still looks the business though!
Looks good from here Jon. Nice work.
Regards, Rick
nice build of a difficult kit.
Very nice work Jon![tup] I know what you’ve had to do to get that kit looking as nice as that, and you have done a superb job. Well done!
Could have sworn that I read somewhere that the RAF used to mirror the camo patterns, similar to what you have done, between aircraft in WW2. Your Spit looks nice. Never knew the Airfix kit came with flaps down. Might have to hunt one out.
Looks great Jon. Just say that it is a negative image and no one will be the wiser[;)]
Looks good as usual Jon. After you look at it, it kinda looks better with the paint like that?[(-D]
Chris
Here is text from the Harleyford book on camouflage and markings that covers the A and B mirror patterns. If you don’t like the pattern you painted, just change the serial and all will be well!
"As the war clouds gathered in Europe so the R.A.F. was expanded in an attempt to meet the threat of war. At the same time the Force became operationally conscious and so bright finishes gave way to camouflage. It was not an immediate change. Camouflage in brown and green was introduced early in 1937 as the standard finish by contractors for front line operational aircraft coming off production. Early in 1938 it was extended to all front line aircraft and following the Munich crisis in September, 1938, to all aircraft on operational stations. This last change, coming at a time of crisis was performed hurriedly by station personnel -and in some cases with originality!
Two standard schemes for uppersurfaces known as Schemes ‘A’ and ‘B’ were evolved in dark green and dark brown, one the mirrored image of the other. To illustrate this method the reader is invited to place a mirror at the wingtip of the Blenheim on page 86 and incline the mirror until he can see two Blenheims, one in the book and the other in the mirror. On comparison the two patterns will become obvious. Scheme ‘A’ applied to aircraft with even serials and ‘B’ to those with odd numbers, e.g. in 207 Squadron, Battles K9186, K9188 and K9190 had Scheme ‘A’ and K9185, K9187 and K9189, Scheme ‘B’.
Undersurfaces remained temporarily in silver on fighters and army co-operation aircraft until mid-1938 when it was replaced by sky-grey. Following this came a general major change for fighters, the whole of the port undersurface was painted black aad the opposite starboard side sky-blue or sky-grey, with the division taking place down the centre-line of the fuselage. All bombers on the other hand had an all-black undersurface except for white serial numbers as explained below. "
Nice looking Spit there Jon…would never have realized your “oops”.
Looks good, I didn’t catch the flip flop camo when I looked at them eariler either. I see your weathering skills are improving, nice work.
Tecs, rjkplasticmod, mkhoot, TANGO 1, wing_nut, ModelMan8, JoeRugby - Thanks so much!
David Harris- It’s not a shake and bake, but still an enjoyable build. You’ll like it. If you can’t find one, let me know and I can hook you up with my LHS- I know they have one in stock.
jeaton01- Waddaya know- I was right! [;)]
I sent the pics to my friend at the LHS- he said he’d like to display it in his showcase! Kinda cool…
[tup]Very cool about the LHS display!
The debatable paint “mishap” aside, this is your nicest build yet. I resound the others’ comments about weathering and over all “feel” this aircraft has.
I always enjoy seeing your work here.
No it won’t
And this one in the B scheme:
Thanks so much for the encouragement and kind words, mucker! I really appreciate it.
Now all a y’all come over here and give me a big ol’ hug…
LOL [;)]
Thanks for the pictures, Antoni, and you are right, Jon has apparently invented a “C” or “D” scheme! Probably quite legal here in the colonies. To tell the truth I was sort of trapped in the mirror scheme thinking such that I had not noticed that the colors were transposed, rather than mirrored. I guess I will have to annotate my Harleyford book as the the 1941 change to A scheme only. I think perhaps there is a reason we in the Colonies just went with all over OD with the occaisional green fringing!
Reading in that same book that your photos are from, it appears that there were at least experimental C and D schemes for Hurricanes during the transition to dark green and ocean grey upper surfaces. In studing the photos of the Hurricanes it is also apparent that there was considerable variation in the actual layout of the patterns, I guess due to painting done “in the field” or at repair facilities rather than by the factory. I cannot find a refernce to the change deleting the B pattern, it would be nice to have a refernce to when and why that occurred.
Very well done, Jon! Your work improves considerably with each build that you do, you are rapidly becoming a master class builder! Thanks for sharing!
Brian [C):-)]
Thanks so much! You are too kind!
I gotta say- I owe a lot to the folks on this board who are so willing to help others.
beautiful build, and I gotta tell ya I would have never caught the mishap had you not pointed it out
Great job on the Spit. You did a good job on the weathering. A very fine looking aircraft.