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George Henderson
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Airfix 1:48 Spitfire Mk.Vb

August 18, 2019 · in Aviation · · 31 · 2.5K

This aircraft was flown by Pilot Officer Robert W. "Buck" McNair D.S.O., D.F.C (2 Bars)(RCAF). No. 249 (Gold Coast) Sqn. at Ta' Qali, Malta, Mar. 1942. http://acesofww2.com/can/aces/mcnair/

This is the newest boxing with all the issues that everyone else has posted about: fuel tank covering, landing gear, extreme tight fit of some parts, etc. For the fuel tank, I removed the locating tabs and sanded the bottom of the part. Within minutes I got it to a "close enough for me and it won't get any better fit". When the fuselage and innards were together I found that the instrument panel interfered with the fuel tank cover so I sanded down the top of the I.P. and reamed the bejaysus out of the inside of the fuel tank cover until I got a good fit. For the landing gear I drilled holes in the corresponding parts, inserted some stiff wire and CA'd it all together for a very strong bond. One of the things Airfix got wrong or at least I think they got wrong is the exhaust type for my option. They would have you use the exhaust with the heater tubes at the rear but looking at the photo of the actual aircraft, I can't see it. I found another photo with the aircraft positioned identically and the tube is clearly seen. No other online builds mention this. All painting was done with . The innards were painted XF-71 Cockpit Green and XF-69 Nato Black. The upper camo was done with XF-54 Dark Sea Grey, for the Dk. Earth I used a 50/50 mix of XF-64 Red Brown and XF-52 Flat Earth. The lower surface was done with XF-19 Sky Grey

Reader reactions:
10  Awesome

6 additional images. Click to enlarge.


31 responses

  1. Nice presentation, George...good-lookin' build.

  2. Good looking Spit George. I like it.

  3. That turned out great!

  4. Nice looking Spitfire, I’ve always been fond of those Malta defenders, got to try one sometime.

    • Thanks Pedro. I’ve also got the Italeri rebox of the Special Hobby Mk.Vc to be done as Beurling’s kite. According to Brett Green on Hyerscale, there are 12 minor alterations that can make the kit user friendly

  5. Looks great, George. It's a great day to be a Spitfire fancier!

  6. Very well done George!

  7. 🙂 … Greetings … 🙂 :
    Nicely done George, the camouflage is well applied.
    Thank you for sharing the pictures.

  8. Tail end Charlie...George, that is a prim and proper Airfix Spitfire. Very smart looking and photographed well. I like your comments about the landing gear too.

    Two thumbs up on the modeling inspiration.

  9. That's really nice George. Excellent work to bring the best out of the kit.

    For those doing Airfix Spitfires, I just tried a trick John Healy suggested to me: put a tab of sheet plastic on the inside of the fuselage along the bottom of the area, cut off the locating pints on the fuel tank, and fit it to the tabs. Just worked like a charm on the most recent Spitfire XIV I am in the midst of.

  10. A real beauty, George!

  11. Really nice looking Spitfire George. Some nice photos too.

  12. that came out pretty good, nice work!

  13. Very nice build. Congrats mate

  14. McNair was C.O. of the RCAF base at Baden-Baden, where I was born when my dad was a met officer. Hope to do one of his Spitfires eventually.

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