1/72 Airfix Spitfire Mk.1a

Gallery Article by Matthew G. on Mar 5 2010

Spitfire - Maiden flight of Spitfire in 1936

 

I recently built Airfix's classic kit and produced a decent replica of a Spitfire. I built this kit right out of the box with the kit decals though I did make a few minor modifications. I added some detail in the cockpit (which consists of nothing but a seat, pilot and out of scale gunsight) and I also repositioned the elevators for the first time and hollowed out the air intakes and exhaust pipes.

Click on images below to see larger images

  

  

  

The fit of many of the parts was marginal but after a lot of sanding around the wing roots, it all cleaned up well. I brush painted the camouflage and put on the decals with Microsol which I was pleased to find made them snug down to the surface much, much better than the Testors Decal Set I used on my last model.

Since I was too lazy to rescribe the raised panel lines, I got out a very sharp black pencil and carefully highlighted them all. I also used some graphite dust from a shaved pencil lead to show the weathering from the guns and carefully drybrushed the exhaust stains. With a final layer of Testors Dullcote, my model was finished.

Enjoy the photos

Matthew G.

Photos and text © by Matthew G.