S31 Spitfire XIX, Swedish Air Force - Airfix

Who hasn't built an Airfix Spitfire? I will build the blue one, which in the Swedish Air Force was called S 31 (S stands for "spaning" meaning reconnaisance). Guess who we were spying on? Hint: it begins with Союз Советских Социалистических and ends with Республик. 

Tiny box, so cute. Difficulty level 1, so a beginner kit. Loving it already. 

Not a lot of parts, but it all seems well laid out. 

Being an Airfix kit, the panel lines are a bit too trench-like for my liking, but it's still quite acceptable. 

Decals look beautiful and thin. The colors also seem spot on. But I will also use some decals from the Moose Republic decal sheet, because I have it. 

Easy to follow instructions - it is a beginner kit, remember? 

I will replace the rather crude cockpit with some resin pieces from Pavla. But first I need to clean up everything. 

Since the kit does not provide the cameras, I also bought a resin camera set from Pavla. Not sure how much will be visible in this scale, but why not. 

The molded on and rather simple side wall detail will need to go to accept the resin parts. 

Removed with the Dremel grinder. 

The new resin cockpit tub is prepared. The resin instrument panel is sanded smooth since I will be using a pre-painted PE-panel. 

The tub is superglued into the fuselage - it fits almost perfectly. The rudder pedals are ridiculously oversized and look more like concrete slabs, but actually won't be visible once everything is in place. 

Resin side wall details added. Not absolutely accurate for a Swedish Spitfire where the three oxygen bottles should be horizontally lying on a shelf behind the seat, but I am not a rivet counter. 

The original plastic internal bulkhead needs quite some persuation to fit. 

The bulkhead needs to be drilled open to accept the seat belts. The round hole will be hidden by the PE armor headrest. 

Photo-etched armor plate added and a headrest fabricated from a styrene rod. 

Inside parts primed. 

Hand painted with Vallejo and Tamiya acrylics, and slightly weathered. It's a pity that almost nothing of this lovely detail will be visible when assembled. 

The fuselage wall is significantly thinned down where the side camera will go, as I intend to have the camera hatch open. It doesn't have to look pretty from the inside. 

Scale thickness is much more realistic now and does not resemble a medieval castle wall.  

The cameras were painted with Tamiya acrylics. The lenses were made shiny by applying a drop of Gauzy Glass Coat. I didn't work on the grain the plywood camera mounts, I figured it will not be visible anyway. And it sure isn't. 

Cameras installed - well, as you can see, not much will be visible. 

Fuselage halves joined. The cockpit detail is already getting buried - just wait until the canopy is in place. 

Wing underside added. The fit is absolutely flawless and simply clicks in place. 

Wing top sides added. Dang, the fit is not nearly as impressing here. Quite some filling will be required to fair in the slight gaps and steps around the fuselage join. 

Stabilizer and rudder cemented on, the rudder with an ever so slight offset.  

The wheel wells were improved with some photo-etch parts. The white stuff is putty to fair everything in. I know, it looks nasty, dusty and scratchy here but it will be cleaned up soon! 

I decided not to install the provided camera windows as they do not nearly fill the round openings. They are in fact so ill-fitting, that for a minute I thought that there was another part on the sprue that I had missed. Anyway, I will instead use Kristal Klear to represent the glass panes once the main paintjob is finished. 

I replaced the kit's exhaust stack with resin parts. The original part is placed on the top of the hood in this photo. As you can see, it is quite anemic in comparison. 

The landing gear comes integrated with the doors. It's a pity, but I get it, it is a level 1 beginner's kit. It makes things easier to assemble. 

The tail wheel at least got some sweet PE. 

The one piece canopy is quite clear but a bit thick. I will try to enhance the clarity by dipping it in Gauzy Glass Coat. 

Excess fluid wicked off on a piece of kitchen tissue. 

Let dry overnight, covered up to prevent dust and lint to stick to the Gauzy coat while drying. 

Canopy cemented on with Tamiya Extra Thin cement. It is definitely clearer now, and there was no fogging or any other nasty side effects. The masking tape might tear off the Gauzy glass coat if not handled with extreme care, so I might regret it later. 

Camera hatches masked off with some plastic foam. It's the kind of packaging material for electronics and stuff. 

Canopy masked off with the precut Eduard masks and some Mr Hobby Neo masking fluid, and then the whole model is rubbed off with IPA alcohol to remove dust or grease. 

Extra parts not yet cemented onto the model prepared for painting. The wheels are resin pieces, but the propeller and the underwing boxes (for the oil cooler and the supercharger intercooler) are from the kit. 

Priming done with UMP Ultimate Primer. A few minor blemishes fixed and reprimed. Now let's wait a day for the primer to dry before going for that peculiar blue PRU paintjob. 

PRU Blue sprayed on (mixed from Tamiya XF-18, 70% and Tamiya XF-2, 30%). I then used my favorite post-shading method of mixing in a few drops more white and spraying a diluted layer inside the panel lines to give the impression of faded paint. For me it works much better than pre-shading. 

This blue is a really elusive color which looks different depending on the light and the background, but it seems to match my photos from the Swedish Air Forced Museum quite well. 

The spinner needs some circular masking, so I used a template with the correct diameter to cut a semi-circular piece of masking tape. 

The PRU blue inner part of the spinner is carefully masked off. This took a few attempts to get right! 

Outside part sprayed glossy insignia blue (Tamiya X-14). 

The sharp looking propeller assembly should contrast nicely with the faded appearance of the Spitfire! Let's wait with attaching this until the decaling phase is done. 

Surfaces coated with AKI Gauzy Shine Enhancer varnish to protect the paintwork and to provide a base for the decals. I applied the varnish with a broad brush as it is just a utility coat and does not have to be absolutely showroom car perfect. The final finish will be kind of satin matt. 

Panel lines filled with brown wash (Tamiya Panel Line Accent Color), left to dry for 30 minutes and then carefully wiped off with a cotton bud moisted with AKI turpentine. The brown wash leaves just the right amount of discoloring along the panel lines to look a bit dirty. Black wash would be way to stark with these hefty Airfix panel lines. The picture is of course before the excess wash is wiped off. 

Weathered and slightly dirty, but hopefully not over the top. Time to add the decals! 

Decaling in progress. I am using a mix of the kit's own decals and the Moose Republic decal sheet (printed by Cartograph). Surprisingly, the Airfix decals are a lot thinner - the MR decals are better printed but are thick and require quite a lot of softening solutions to sink into the panel lines. Even over a glossy surface, some of the stencils would silver quite badly and had to be removed. 

The small camera windows are filled with Micro Kristal Klear to represent the glass. It is a white, thick liquid that can be used to fill a tiny opening (1-2 mm) with a cocktail stick or a brush, and will dry perfectly transparent when dry. Not exactly Zeiss quality lens, but it is a really small piece! 

Propeller and wheels added, surfaces carefully sprayed with a thin coat of Tamiya XF-86 Flat Clear for a satin sheen ... and hereby I consider this build finished! 

Spitfire bird ready (base: Coastal Kits) 

The Spitfire is a simply magnificent aircraft (base: Coastal Kits). Oops, I accidentally broke off the camera hatch, let's make another shot from this angle! 

Here it is: Swedish S 31 on the taxiway (base: Coastal Kits). Notice how the PRU blue color shifts depending on white balance setting in the camera. 

S 31 (base: Coastal Kits) 

Hangar shot (base: Coastal Kits) 

In the spotlight (base: ICM) 

Spitfire wings! The faded paintwork on the wings is nice, but the real ones were in fact quite glossy! (base: ICM) 

Sweden, December 1951 (hangar: GPM) 

In the hangar (hangar: GPM) 

That's one mean looking propeller (hangar: GPM) 

Löjtnant Wängström's aircraft: fueled and ready to fly to Murmansk! (hangar: GPM)