Supermarine Spitfire Mk1

[zenrat]

Supermarine Spitfire Mk1

It's the annual fighter day at the Dadswell Bridge People's Aviation Museum.
This year the theme is WW2 and the museum are unveiling their newly restored Spitfire Mk1.
Spitfire Mk1  - 2 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Spitfire Mk1  - 4 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Spitfire Mk1  - 12 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Spitfire Mk1  - 17 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

Spitfire Mk1  - 16 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

The Model
Hasegawa 1/72 Supermarine Spitfire Mk1 built OOB.
Transfers from Tamiya Spitfire Mk1a.

Spitfire Mk1  - 18 by Fred Maillardet, on Flickr

[Dizzyfugu]

The wooden propeller looks nice!

[PR19_Kit]

Oh yes, that is VERY nice Fred. 

Yet another variation on the 'black wing' business, this time with Sky under all the rest of the aeroplane.

[Old Wombat]

Nicely done, Fred!

Yet another variation on the 'black wing' business, this time with Sky under all the rest of the aeroplane.

Well, perhaps the British AA gunners should have studied their Aircraft Recognition Charts better!

[zenrat]

Thanks folks.

According to references the one wing was painted black after the Battle of Britain.  So I suppose IRL this early a Mk1 wouldn't have been seen in this scheme.
I copied what Tamiya showed on their instructions.  I just added a twist so it was a whiff scheme.

[PR19_Kit]

According to references the one wing was painted black after the Battle of Britain. 

But there was also a 'Black Wing' scheme between the Munich Crisis and the start of WWII as well.

There were numerous variations of it, depending on the squadron or the MU who did the painting, the most common being the 50% Black/50% white scheme. With that even the tailplanes were Black & White too!

[NARSES2]

I do like the wooden prop in particular 

But there was also a 'Black Wing' scheme between the Munich Crisis and the start of WWII as well.

There were numerous variations of it, depending on the squadron or the MU who did the painting, the most common being the 50% Black/50% white scheme. With that even the tailplanes were Black & White too!

Yup, and then a fair few had the underside of the fuselage in natural metal/painted aluminium, with variations on that as well.

[zenrat]

IIRC pre war was silver underside.
Next came one black wing with the rest silver.
And then half black and half white (sometimes with the ailerons in the other colour).
I assume these were all for recognition purposes?
Then, low visibility became a requirement and they undersides were painted sky.
And then, after the battle of Britain one wing was again painted black.
Not sure how long this lasted for but soon the undersides once again reverted to something that wouldn't show up as much against the sky.

The whiffing with the paint scheme BTW is that I painted the "wrong" wing black and swapped the brown and green on the topside.
Same thing I did when I built the car door Hurricane.

[NARSES2]

IIRC pre war was silver underside.
Next came one black wing with the rest silver.
And then half black and half white (sometimes with the ailerons in the other colour).
I assume these were all for recognition purposes?

The whiffing with the paint scheme BTW is that I painted the "wrong" wing black and swapped the brown and green on the topside.
Same thing I did when I built the car door Hurricane.

I think the asymmetric painting of the undersides was to aid the Royal Observer Corps (second mention today) who were a very important part of the UK's home defence.

As for swapping the brown/green ? That was simply A and B schemes in reality, so for the time line either is accurate. Mind you I think which aircraft got the A or B scheme depended on the serial number (odd/even ?) so you could have whiffed it dependent on serial number 

Whatever it's still a terrific build 

How did you do the wood effect on the prop by the way ?

[zenrat]

I painted the prop with wooden deck tan,
When dry I used a scrubby old cut down paintbrush to paint grain in a darker brown (basically dry brushing with a knackered brush).
When dry I repeated with a second brown.
When dry I gave it a coat of clear yellow.

[Old Wombat]

Good system - it works well!

[Dizzyfugu]

Really looks good. I normally use a simpler method, just a light base and then some strokes with a darker brown tone and a flat, rather stiff brush. Yours looks excellent!

[zenrat]

Thanks guys.  It's the clear yellow IMO.  It ties it all together.

[Gondor]

As I am no where near my references I will stick my neck out and say that the carburettor intake looks to be way too far back, otherwise that's a cracking model.

Gondor

[zenrat]

I'll trust you on that Gondor.  I'm no expert on Spits.  I do have a book which breaks down the changes from mark to mark but its all the way across the room and I would need to get out of my chair to reach it.

I'm sure that if Lee passes be he'll be happy to give us a thorough breakdown of the (1975) Hasegawa Mk 1 mould.
I did offer it up to the Airfix Mk 1a (blue and yellow in the background) and the Hasegawa wings have greater chord.