1/48 Italeri Spitfire Mk IXe: my first Spit!

[nicholassagan]

The Spitfire has been on my mind for a while now so I figured I’d take a stab at the Italeri kit. This one in particular is the American Aces kit and has a really really nice decal set. It was a good deal, too! ($12 for a Spitfire). However, I DO have the Tamiya and new Eduard kits in the stash. Again, since this is my first foray into the world of Merlins, I’ll start with a less-invested kit.

My initial plan was to modify it to create the famous Spitfire 944 (see video below) and had acquired some good dry transfer stencils, invasion stripes AND the photo recon upgrade set from Quickboost. As soon as I opened up the kit and started fitting parts I thought why waste good aftermarket on not-so-hot-kit? So I’ll do this one out of box.

As you can see from these initial build pics there is some flash to contend with. There’s also some fitting issues with the standard wingtips. There will definitely be some Mr. Surfacer filling happening. You may also noticed I began the riveting process, too. This is a “take a break from threading fiber optics” build…

SPITFIRE 944

 

[JohnSimmons]

Cool! A Spit flew over my head today and continued to bomb up and over our fields until it finally had enough disappeared into the clouds, you could hear the engine roar all round my village
Looking forward to seeing what you do Nick!

 

[nicholassagan]

No way! That's pretty cool. There was an F-4 and P-51D heritage flight at the Chicago Airshow last year that was cool. But man! The Spitfire would have been cool to see!!

I think I'll be doing the American Desert scheme with this one....it's kinda warming up to me.

 

[Chris S]

Cool Thats actually not a bad kit ,I built the Amercian Aces boxing here on the site last year , Finished in the Tunisa desert scheme ,rather enjoyed it ,it goes together nice ....Have fun

Chris.

 

[nicholassagan]

Hey Chris! Cool! Could I dig for the thread? Anything I should really watch out for?

 

[Quaralane]

Should be a nice build, Nick.
Looking forward to seeing it

 

[nicholassagan]

Coming along! A little down time during the thunderstorm gave me a few moments to finish the riveting, buildup the cockpit, assemble, do the main antenna wire and fill in some of the nasty seams. This kit is on par with an old Airfix tool so far…but she's shaping up!

 

[Quaralane]

Oh, my....
All of those rivets....
Looking good with them, though

 

[Chris S]

Good work Just dont overdo the rivets ,they dont really show on the Spits except around the wing roots and the panel fastners

Chris.

 

[nicholassagan]

yeah, i know the whole rivet controversy after following the development of eduard's spitfire! man!
but i love rivets. they aren't so deep and will fill in just enough with the primer and paint. i hope
no photo updates but i did finish the guide cables, landing gear and canopy future last night. now on to masking and priming!

 

[Cash]

Nice work man.

 

[nicholassagan]

Got the whole she-bang assembled and primed! This is the first time I’ve actually micro-sanded the surface after the primer coat so if all goes well this will be a common practice. Also, this was the first time using the colored pre-shading method, with rust on the top side surfaces and dark blue on the bottom. Fingers crossed! I won a parts lot on eBay a couple weeks ago and included in it were some Eduard RAF seatbelts and Eduard's older Spitfire camo masks, which I will be using. I painted the propeller blades, too, but no pics of those...

 

[nicholassagan]

Got a lot done over the holiday weekend. The whole topside was masked for painting the bottom, which is a mix of Tamiya X-13 sky blue with a few drops of white. The wheel wells were painted Tamiya light blue.

THEN it was onto the top camo scheme. I’m glad Eduard decided on moving away from the vinyl masks from years ago because they do not like to stick.

Anyway, the darker color is straight up Khaki (XF-49) and the lighter color was a challenge to mix. It was yellow green (xf-4), flat yellow (xf-3), desert yellow (XF-59), and white in an approximate mixing ratio of 3:3:1:1, respectively.

The chipping was done with a dry brushing of Tamiya chrome silver.

The prop is straight up Tamiya red.

Once the paint dried enough I did a sludge wash of MiG Productions neutral gray and I have to say it was the right choice for this bird. Then came the decals, flat coat, weathering and final flat coat.

Oh, I also added the Eduard PE seatbelt.

Oh, and the propeller accidentally glued in place so I broke it off and went with magnets.

 

[JMac]

Nicely done. I like the idea of using the magnet to hold the prop and spinner, I'll have to keep that one in mind for the future.

 

[CallSignOWL]

great job!

 

[nicholassagan]

thanks guys! yeah the magnet seems the best way to go for every non-Tamiya prop setup...

 

[Cash]

Nice spit.

 

[Chris S]

Looking good

 

[nicholassagan]

Final shots! full gallery here: http://nicholassagan.wordpress.com/2013/07/07/148-italeri-spitfire-mk-ix-final-shots/

 

[CallSignOWL]

very nice!