Revell 1:32 Spitfire mk2a

colin m

colin m

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The Revell 1:32 Spitfire Mk2a, available new for less than £30.00 Well worth it. I built it OOB over the last few months. I actually suspended building this for the Bi-plane build, so can't really say how long it took me, but some of you professional builders could knock this out in a couple of weeks, it was that easy.
Some of you know, I do like a bit of weathering on my models and have been guilty of over doing it on a few occasions. This is one of those models, you could actually go well over the top, and still be safely in the realms of reality. There are many pictures flying around of very tired Battle of Britain Spitfires on the web.
For example, not much paint left on that wing root.
Weathered.jpg

Anyway, I think I've been quite restrained with weathering on this build. See what you think.
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Paints were by MRP. I also used a bit of hairspray for the wear on the wing roots.

Paint is all MRP, and the famous hairspray trick for the wing roots. If you want a decent priced 1:32 Spitfire, with good detail, I do recomend this offering from Revell.
 
vizenz

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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
 
Jakko

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vizenz said:
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.
Click to expand...
You’re taking the words right out of my mouth :smiling3: If this were an armoured vehicle my first thought would have been a gas-detector patch, but that’s a little unlikely on an aircraft …

vizenz said:
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?
Click to expand...
That one I do know: the red squares cover the holes, for streamlining. Not sure what material they were, but I suspect paper or something.
 
Tim Marlow

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vizenz said:
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
Click to expand...
Jakko said:
You’re taking the words right out of my mouth :smiling3: If this were an armoured vehicle my first thought would have been a gas-detector patch, but that’s a little unlikely on an aircraft …


That one I do know: the red squares cover the holes, for streamlining. Not sure what material they were, but I suspect paper or something.
Click to expand...
Gas detector patch is exactly what it is. I’ve always assumed it was for when the aircraft was parked in dispersal though, not for use when flying…..it was yellow I think. As I understand, the red patches were to stop the guns icing up before they were used, not for streamlining….
 
stona

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That's an excellent job you've done on the Spitfire, nice subject too.

It was a presentation Spitfire with a self-explanatory (and non-regulation) inscription, being funded by the Belfast Telegraph's 'Spitfire Shilling Fund'. It took a lot of shillings to make up the required £5,000 for a S/E fighter!

P7849 did not survive the war. It was upgraded to Mk. V standard in August 1942 and eventually handed over to the Americans in November that year. On 28 March 1943, flown by Lt. D.R. Scott it was involved in a mid-air collision with another Spitfire, and subsequently struck off charge. Unfortunately, Scott was killed.

In 1939/40 gas patches and gas paint was applied to all sorts of things, whether they moved or not. There was a genuine and very real fear that chemical attacks would be made. Motor vehicles. dustbin lids, lamp posts, you name it and it might have had a patch or paint applied.
 
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Scratchbuilder

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vizenz said:
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
Click to expand...
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

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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

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Scratchbuilder said:
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.
Click to expand...

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!
 
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