Revell 1:32 Spitfire mk2a

[The Smythe Meister]

Love it :thumb2:

[Scratchbuilder]

Hello,
That's a great looking Spitfire! The stressed paint job looks awesome to me.

I still have two questions. In the photo of the real Spitfire you can see a white square on the wing. What is that? Any marker for a leader? I've never seen that before.
And I'm surprised at the lack of armament on the model. Shouldn't there be openings for the machine guns where the red fields are on the wing? Or did the British have them covered somehow?
Best regards,
Andi

The 'White' square is actually a mustard yellow square that was applied to aircraft early on in the conflict to detect gas, the same was also why people were made to carry gas masks.
The Red patches were applied over the gun muzzle openings so that at a glance fitters could see if the guns had been fired or not. If they were intact then the guns had not been fired.

[Scratchbuilder]

That really is a superb build, and with just the right amount of weathering.
I have noticed over the past year that 'weathering' 'pre shading' 'post shading' seems to have gone way over the top, both on aircraft and armour and in reality if I saw that amount that some modellers put on the real item I would be a bit dubious about climbing into the turret or cockpit.
Again a superb build and what you can do with a kit.

[stona]

The Red patches were applied over the gun muzzle openings so that at a glance fitters could see if the guns had been fired or not. If they were intact then the guns had not been fired.

True, but they also kept FOD out of the gun bays as well as freezing cold air which could easily overwhelm the dodgy gun heating system, particularly on early Marks of Spitfire.

On this Mark II hot air was ducted from the starboard underwing radiator to heat the guns. This modification was introduced in May 1938 when the problem of gun freezing became all too evident. Because the pipe run to the port side guns was longer, making the heating to that side less effective, this system was later augmented by taking heat from the exhaust stubs on both sides, not just port, to the gun bays. This improvement wasn't trialled until August 1941 and must have been introduced on the production lines after that date.

The Americans avoided all this by (usually) heating their guns electrically!

[Andy the Sheep]

An absolutely nice model, Colin.
I suppose markings are painted, not decals. Am I right?

[Andy T]

That's superb Colin, I love it!

[papa 695]

Fantastic work Colin.

[yak face]

Lovely job colin , paintwork is fantastic , nicely weathered too , cheers tony

[colin m]

I particularly like the chipping

Thanks Barry. So MRP can be chipped. It's tough, but possible.

The weathering looks spot on

Cheers. It would have been too easy to carry on and do a little bit more.

That's a great looking Spitfire! The stressed paint job looks awesome to me

Thank you Andi. I see your questions have been answered. You can see we have very knowledgeable people on this forum.

If anyone's interested..........................

Not bad Dave, but I paid £17.00 for mine, second hand.

ive built this and it is a good value for money kit

It is indeed. Quite a model for a few quid.

nice subject too.

Thank you Steve, and thanks for the background information. I did forget to research this build, probably because I started it so long ago.

I have noticed over the past year that 'weathering' 'pre shading' 'post shading' seems to have gone way over the top

And I for one have been guilty of that mistake. Although I was tempted to go a bit further, I managed to restrain myself, well a bit anyway.

I suppose markings are painted, not decals. Am I right?

No Andrea, these are the kit decals, except for the 'Sky' band on the fuselage, Revell don't supply this as a decal.

Thank you all for stopping by and having a look. It's always great to see a thread that gets conversation flowing. That, I think might be down to the captivating charm of the Spitfire.

[Mickc1440]

Top job Colin

[Waspie]

Hello,
That's a great looking Spitfire! The stressed paint job looks awesome to me.

I still have two questions. In the photo of the real Spitfire you can see a white square on the wing. What is that? Any marker for a leader? I've never seen that before.
And I'm surprised at the lack of armament on the model. Shouldn't there be openings for the machine guns where the red fields are on the wing? Or did the British have them covered somehow?
Best regards,
Andi

My best bet would be a temporary repair to possible damage. Looks like tape around the edge.
Could also be a squadron marking to identify that particular plane!!!

[flyjoe180]

Lovely result Colin, your weathering is restrained and looks the part

[Tim Marlow]

My best bet would be a temporary repair to possible damage. Looks like tape around the edge.
Could also be a squadron marking to identify that particular plane!!!

The answer is on the previous page Doug. A gas detector patch.

[colin m]

Lovely result Colin, your weathering is restrained and looks the part

Thanks Joe. This 'less is more', I think I'm beginning to understand it.

[Lee Drennen]

Looks very nice Colin