New 1/32nd Revell Spitfire Mk.IX- 322Sqn R.Netherlands East Indies AF-

[Big Tony]

Hiya Folks,

                I was asked to run a WIP here on LSP so please be gentle,..... I`m not up to the standard of most of the fine modellers on this site.

Well having already built one as a RAAF Mk.VIII,.....I enjoyed this new Revell Spitfire kit so much that I went and bought another one yesterday and started it as soon as I got home!

Unlike the Aussie Spit I shall be building this one mostly straight from the box, with the exception of the decals as I`ll be using Flevo Decals FD32-021 to build my model as a Jungle Green and Light Blue (MSG?) aircraft from 322 Sqn of the Royl Netherlands East Indies Air Force during 1949;

I`ve quite fancied building one of these ever since seeing this aircraft MH271, painted as MH424 at the Aviadome Museum at Amsterdam Airport back in the day,....this Spit is now at Duxford; 

This is a nice painting featuring the same colour scheme;

 

Anyway that is the intention,.....onto the model;

Here is the box art;

Here are the parts straight out of the box;

,

The fuselage halves;

The wings,.....these have the bulges in the upper surface found only on post war aircraft when larger tyres were fitted.

Under the wings the radiators are mounted level with the wings and are not semi recessed inside the wing,.... a mistake yes,....but one that I can personally live with;

Another poor area of the kit is the seat, I am thinking of maybe adding a pilot figure but have a feeling that this Tamiya Mustang pilot may be too large?

 

Tonight I`ve been pre painting the interior parts and assembling the cockpit,....I`ll add more pics in the morning,

Cheers

           Tony 

Edited April 12, 2017 by Big Tony

[LSP_Kevin]

So glad to see you start this thread, Tony. I'm sure we can all learn a thing or two from your fantastic workmanship. A tutorial on brush painting would be most welcome!

 

Kev

[Big Tony]

Right I`ve been hitting the books this morning;

And as well as the above colours I`ve found that the Dutch Spits seem to have retained their wartime style wings without the post war bulges over the wheel bays,....so more sanding!

Also,.....here are the tailplanes which need to have their tips cropped to match the late style elevators;

One of the poor aspects of this kit are the exhaust stubs,..... they are useable but need lots of sanding;

Now onto construction,

Cheers

          Tony

[Big Tony]

Hiya Folks,....well onto construction,....having painted the interior yesterday evening I burned a bit of midnight oil and got on with the cockpit. As the kit does not provide any armour plating for behind the pilots seat I made some from plastic card. The armour behind the pilots head has a circular mounting tor a head rest found on earlier variants and so this was cut away too. The seat is a weak point, mainly because the seat cusihon  is over simplified;

Here are the fuselage halves painted inside;

And the cockpit in place ready for the halves to be joined;

Here is the fuselage with the optional rudders and the chin intake;

This chin intake is quite blunt and would benefit from a bit of sanding and filing. It is almost as if there was meant to be a separate lip part to be added on but then it was forgotten about;

After the fuselage halves were joined they were fitted to the already constructed wings which have yet to receive their ailerons and clipped wing tips;

As with the Aussie Spit that I made, plastic card shims were required along the wing root joint,......a 30 second job!;

 

So that is where I am up to,.....I`m letting the glue dry for a while now,

Cheers

            Tony

Edited April 12, 2017 by Big Tony

[Big Tony]

So glad to see you start this thread, Tony. I'm sure we can all learn a thing or two from your fantastic workmanship. A tutorial on brush painting would be most welcome!

 

Kev

Cheers Kev,......I`ll try my best!

[Jack]

Very nice build sofar Tony, was looking to buy one myself.

 

cheers,

Jack.

[Cees Broere]

As the Vokes filter intake was indeed blunt at the front, I think if you will round off the edges and clean up the upper side of the opening then it looks alright.

[Leaning_Dog]

Nice!

 

 

John.

[Big Tony]

Just a quick one to let you know that this one might not be as quick as expected,......I was almost at the painting stages but today I slipped another disc in my back, which has put back my recovery from 2 major spinal operations that I had in January!  I`m hoping that I won`t have to go back to hospital but I`ll have to lay off the models for a while as I`ve been over doing things,

Cheers

           Tony 

[R Palimaka]

That's too bad Tony, but your health of course comes first. It's been fun following your builds, but maybe it'll give the rest of us a chance to get our mitts on a copy of this kit. You work fast!!

 

Richard

[alaninaustria]

Just a quick one to let you know that this one might not be as quick as expected,......I was almost at the painting stages but today I slipped another disc in my back, which has put back my recovery from 2 major spinal operations that I had in January!  I`m hoping that I won`t have to go back to hospital but I`ll have to lay off the models for a while as I`ve been over doing things,

Cheers

           Tony

 

Been there - done that - got the T-shirt!! Get well soon!

Cheers

Alan

[MikeC]

Just a quick one to let you know that this one might not be as quick as expected,......I was almost at the painting stages but today I slipped another disc in my back, which has put back my recovery from 2 major spinal operations that I had in January!  I`m hoping that I won`t have to go back to hospital but I`ll have to lay off the models for a while as I`ve been over doing things,

Cheers

           Tony 

Ouch!  Hope you recover soon, without another spell of hospital. 

[Big Tony]

Hiya Folks,

                 Thanks for the kind thoughts everybody,.......yes the back is bad but thankfully it doesn`t seem to be back to pre op conditions,......although it has put my recovery back 2 months to just after I came home from hospital,.....so I have all of that pain and frustration to go through again,.....bummer! On the bright side, If I`m careful it shouldn`t mean another op `yet',..... plus there cannot be much to cut away next time anyway!

Back to the model,...... I`m doing a little light modelling from the settee using my trusty tray but not pushing it too much,.... I did some sanding last night and the model is ready for painting now, I cannot get out to buy the exact Humbrol shade requiired for the undersides but I have found a bottle of  Polly Scale French underside Light Blue Grey which I hope will suffice. Along with this I shall be using Polly Scale RAAF Foliage Green as an undercoat for the upper surfaces to build up the coats then will probably finish it off with the prescribed Humbrol 75 enamel;

 

I`ve brushed on the first coat of light blue to the undersides from my trusty trayy;

I`ve been asked before about my technique for brush painting and all I can say is build up layers of thin coats using a flat brush and try to paint the model section by section,

Cheers

          Tony

[Big Tony]

Hiya Folks,

                After two coats of Light Blue I`ve masked off the undersides and applied the first coat of Foliage Green. It might look like a mess at the moment but I`ll build the coats up, one thin layer at a time;

 

For the spinner I used an old Halfords rattle can,.....VW Orange!

Cheers

           Tony 

Edited April 16, 2017 by Big Tony

[Anthony in NZ]

Hi Tony, so pleased to see a WIP from you here mate. If you are the same Tony (which I suspect you are) from Britmodeller, then you need not be afraid ole chum! Your work is superb and personally from what I have seen you also have a good grip on colours etc.

 

Cheers and great update!

Anthony