The Hamfisted Modeller: 1/32 Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk IXc 485 (NZ) Sqn RAF

This aircraft is one flown by Flying Officer Johnny A Houlton st Merville France 1944. Johnny Houlton is credited with the first kill on D day flying this aircraft. But as part of 2nd Tactical Air Force 485 Sqn moved to France shortly after D Day and operated a lot of the time flying ground attack in support of ground troops.

This actual aircraft is still flying in the UK today as a two seater.

The Kit

1/32 Tamiya Spitfire MK IXc Kit No. 60319

This is the first of Tamiya uber 32 scale kits I have built and generally it does live up to the hype. The only area I had issues with was the front cowls. But this is primarily because they are intended to be removable so getting them to be fitted permanently proved a little tricky.

Aftermarket

Barracuda Studios Starboard Cockpit Sidewall
Barracuda Studios Cockpit Upgrade
Barracuda Studios Spitfire Seat with backpad
Barracuda Studios Spitfire Door with separate sidewall
HGW Fabric Seatbelts
Yahu Instrument Panels

I spent a couple of weeks working on the cockpit. The kit cockpit is pretty nice and to be honest everything bar the seat belts will be hard to see when fuselage is joined up.

Still there is no point letting them go to waste so I've used Barracuda sidewall, Cockpit update set, and seat along with the Yahu Instrument panel and HGW Seat belts.

Alley Cat Spitfire Mk IXe Wing Conversion

The Alley Cat W wing conversion is pretty straight forward. Fit is pretty good, as long as you take care removing it from the casting remnants.

Master Models Spitfire Mk IXe Barrels

Rather than use the Alley Cat resin barrels, which are for the shorter later E wing aircraft I used the early E wing barrels from master models. A worthwhile upgrade IMHO.
Barracuda Studios 4 Spoke Wheels

I used these to replace the kits rubber tyres

MDC Bomb and Bomb Carrier

This was given to me by a mate. Check out his (cough) work (cough) at his Web site and on Facebook . Actually I was really grateful for the bomb and carrier as they are long out of production and hard to find. They are very detailed and I spent a few hours assembling it . It didn't help that he sent me the wrong bomb 😀

Quickboost Exhausts (for the Revell Kit)

If your wondering why the Quickboost exhausts for the Revell kit and not those specifically for this kit. Well the set for this skit are, like the kit parts, individual stubs . Getting these aligned are pretty difficult. But if you are having the cowls open you have no choice. If you are having the cowls closed the Revell set are, like most aftermarket exhausts, are single pieces so all the stubs are aligned. You do need to do some chiselling of the exhaust area on the kit to get them to fit. For me this was easier than aligning all those stubs.

Paint

Dark Green - Mr Color C361 with some Tamiya XF81.
Ocean Grey - Mr Color C362 with some Tamiya AS 10 spots
Medium Sea Grey - Mr Color C363 with some Tamiya AS 11 spots
Black - Gaianotes German Grey
White - Tamiya XF-2 with a touch of grey
Various Vallejo Acrylics for details
Yellow - Mr Paint RAF marking yellow
Roundel Red - Tamiya - 75% XF7 Flat Red 25% XF64 Red Brown
Roundel Blue - Tamiya - 75% XF8 Blue 25% X18 Semi Gloss Black

To get the camouflage pattern I first painted all the upper surfaces Ocean Grey using AS10 from Tamiya and Ocean Grey C362 from Mr Color . I used airbrush stencil to add some random colour patterns

To get a slightly feathered edge of the dark green I scaled up the instructions and printed them out on card (not paper). The card extra rigidity means the paint coming out of the airbrush doesn't push the edge down onto the model.

Decals and Markings

The main markings are masks made by me on my Silhouette Portrait

Nose Art was custom made by Custom Hobby Decals

The the artwork is nice but the decal was quite thick. I needed a couple thick sealing coats and some wet sanding to flare it in.

Stencils HGW Wet Transfers

First time I have used these. The instruction say a gloss coat is needed prior to application. But were they worked best for me was over the areas that had less glossy surface. They really need to bite into the model so they don't pull off when you remove the carrier film. I think a flatter surface is better . There can be no silvering as you remove the carrier film.

Weathering

Oil paints for washes

Pigments

Tamiya Weathering Sets

Weathering stencils from Artools, RB productions and USHI.

Build Thread

Britmodeller

The Figures

Masterbox RAF figures Set NO. MB3206

I tried the new ICM set and a figure from Blackbox. Both the ICM set and the Blackbox figure scaled out to bewteen 6 ft 2 (ICM) to 6 ft 4 (Blackbox). Whilst they were beautifully moulded they looks ridiculously large by the aircraft

In this image you can see the ICM ones on the ends, Masterbox the next two in, and Tamiya's one in the middle.

In the end I went with the Masterbox set as they looked the right size. Unfortunately I din't really do as good a job on painting them as I'd have liked

The Base

The grass mat is from Ammo by Mig

IIRC It's actually 2 pieces joined together. The join isn't great. I'd prefer they made them in larger sizes for 32 scale subjects.
The frame is cheap moulding from Bunnings.