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Tolga ULGUR
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1/32 Hasegawa Spitfire Mk.Va “Douglas Bader”

August 30, 2017 · in Aviation · · 17 · 2.9K

This is Mk.Va with the markings of Douglas Bader's W3185 flown by him in August 1941 in Tangmere.

I have used Hasegawa's Mk.II No.41 kit. This is re-tooled Hasegawa Mk.V with new wings parts, years ago. So it s based on old Hasegawa s Mk.Vb with raised panel lines fuselage, cockpit,,landing gears etc. Retooled wings are very nice and have engraved panel lines with shell ejector ports.

First of all I rescribed raised panels lines of the fuselage halves.

Construction started from the cockpit as usual. I decided to modify cockpit by using ;

-Barracuda cockpit upgrade set

-Barracuda seat

-Eduard instrument panel

-MDC seat belts

Fuselage parts went together nicely. After few sanding process of the fuselage I have used “Archer fine transfer resin fastener set” for the fastener on the cowling

Horizontal stabilizators replaced by “Master details” Spitfire Mk.II Horizontal tail surfaces.

Painting was done by Gunze Sangyo acrylics. Upper surfaces painted to RAF Dark green/ Dark earth and under surfaces to RAF Sky duck egg green. I have used a combination of Life like and Eagle cals decal sets.

Other modifications are:

-Quickboost exhaust

-Barracudacast wheels

-Quickboost spinner and propeller set

-Scale Aircraft Conversiın white metal landing gear set

-Barracudacast cockpit door

After some weathering I have applied matt coat from Gunze Sangyo.

Happy modelling

Reader reactions:
13  Awesome

43 additional images. Click to enlarge.


17 responses

  1. There isn't much more beautiful than a spitfire! And you have done it justice - really lovely.

  2. Outstanding Spitfire, Tolga!

  3. Your mastery in detail, technique and photography continue to amaze, sir.

  4. Another lovely build, Tolga! Love the detail and the weathering. Inspiring.

  5. Another Tolga masterpiece - surprise surprise. 🙂

  6. Simply Marvelous!

  7. Beautiful Spitfire ! I like it a LOT !

  8. 🙂 ... Greetings ... 🙂 :
    Tolga ... that model is just amazing, the detail work alone stands out and the weathering is just right and not overdone ... and to make things better it is a model of one of the aircraft of Douglas Bader ( always admired him, a good amount of his photos, books, models, and a movie are within my possession ) . Very nice modeling, I am planning on doing this one and a resin figure later on.
    Again ... nice work.

    • Thank you.
      For my opinion this old hybrid Hasegawa s Spitfire is better and accurate than the new Revell s.
      This looks more like Spitfire.
      With a few modification is much better
      I have a many Hasegawa Mk1 waiting to be built.
      Next one is Farquhar s Mk.1.
      And later a Turkish Mk.1 with square national insignia

  9. Thanks for your comments.

  10. Nice! worthy of a museum.

  11. Tolga, I have to admit I get a little bored seeing the same old paint schemes on Spitfires, but when they are done this well, I have to take notice and enjoy the view. This is really nice. Outstanding work on this Tolga, I like it a lot !

  12. Spot on, Tolga. It has come in various boxings and guises but, the old hybrid Hasegawa Spitfire is far better and more accurate than the new Revell release. I built one of these a few years ago (a Revell boxing) and, like you, I put some work into it. Totally worth the effort. I see from your photos that we both did similar things to get our respective Spitfires up to snuff. Proof that great minds think alike. Looking foward to seeing your next Spitfire. Slainte.

  13. A classic Spitfire beautifully built, finished and photographed.

  14. Hi Tolga. Just gorgeous. As close to perfect as you can get. These early Hasegawa Spitfires are, in my opinion, still the best Mks I, II, & Vs in 1/32 by a wide margin, even allowing for rescribing. I have build the Hobby Boss kit but the amount of remedial work to fix very basic errors was more than I would ever do again. The new Revell kit seems to be better but also has some glaring errors unfortunately. There are so many Spitfires flying now that you'd think the kits would be spot on! Maybe Hasegawa could be persuaded to do another run?

    • Thanks Tony
      Yes I am agreed with you about the Hasegawa Spitfires.
      Hasegawa, could release very good Spitfire kits with some improvements like new details for the fuselage and cockpit.
      But they did not.
      I have already built a Revell Mk II , and I do not think to built another one for the same reason

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