Already a Hurricane ace with No.242 Squadron despite the handicap of having lost his legs in a pre-war accident, Wing Commander Douglas Bader was appointed to command the Spitfire IIA equipped Tangmere Wing in March 1941. P7966 would be his personal mount while with the Tangmere Wing which eventually upgraded to Mk Vs by the time he was downed in a collision with a Bf109 in August 1941 (Mk Va Spitfire W3185 Lord Lloyd I) This personal Mk. II was named "Manxman", a tribute to his having spent 2 years at the start of his life on the Isle of Man.
This kit is being built completely out of the box. I'm using the decals from the Revell/Monogram kit and brushpainting the fuselage.
All in all, this is a pretty nice kit. A little small when it comes to WWII aircraft. My ideal WWII aircraft would be buying it in 1/32 and building that, but this will make a pretty good practice aircraft. This build will be completely out-of-box (OOB) no aftermarket, no additional detail. It's going to be all done with whatever came in the box.
The decals as shown are OOB and denote both WC Bader's aircraft and those of another Spitfire Mk. II.
It is my hope that I can manage to do a somewhat reasonable model of Sir Douglas Bader's Spitfire. This model being somewhat small compared to the 1/48 jets I usually work on. The ideal size for WWII aircraft (with my eyesight) to work on is usually 1/32, so that would approximate the size of the 1/48 jets I'm used to working on.
As far as paints, I decided to use a combo of Modelmaster and Humbrol paints for the build. I've elected to go Humbrol on the two main camoflage colors choosing 88 Matt Dark Green and 29 Matt Dark Earth. I chose Matt Dark Earth as it seems to closely simulate the brown on the British Spitfire. I choose Modelmaster MM2049 RAF "Sky (Type "S") as that approximates the color the closest for the underside of the Spitfire. For the interior I chose MM2062 RAF Interior Green as it clearly fits the type of green used on the Mk. II.
The Spitfire cockpit parts consist of the instrument panel and a pedal base frame which need gluing together. The instrument panel which needs to be painted black will have to be masked off for painting after you paint the entire intrument panel RAF Interior Green. Use flat white oils or enamels to drybrush the details of the instruments. Paint the rudder pedals black and dry brush with silver to simulate wear. I am painting the stick base an RAF interior green then painting the hand yoke black; red for the trigger judiciously applied with a sharpened toothpick.
The seat will be painted RAF Interior Green and instead of using the kit "strap" decals, I will cut out straps from masking tape. I'll loop thin wire around the ends to simulate buckles and stick them to the seats after painting the seat back black as the head-rest. The seat will be glued to the cockpit bulkhead which will be painted RAF Interior Green. The radio gear pack will be attached to the rear of the bulkhead wall by means of Testor's glue. The gummy factor helps adhesion of one part to the other. After that cockpit is finito.
PICS COMING WHEN COCKPIT IS FINISHED!