Spitfire IXe 2011/26, 101 Squadron Isreali Air Force 1949
This is part of a “friend versus foe” theme build at our local club. I wanted to make a pair of Spitfires that were on opposing sides of a conflict, and this plus an Egyptian Spitfire fit the bill. While I could have used the same kit for both builds, I decided to also do a comparison build between the new AZModel Spitfire IX kit and the relatively new Airfix Spitfire IX.
The Subject
When Isreal wanted an air force they looked for what they could afford: cheap but effective surplus aircraft that could at least operate on a par with Isreal’s adversaries. While their initial acquisition of Bf-109’s (actually S-99’s) was less than satisfactory, Czechoslovakia was willing to offload their Spitfires because they were being forced to upgrade to Soviet aircraft.
White 26 was one of a batch of Spitfires either flown or transported to Isreal (I’m not sure which); apparently repainted en route from the former Day Fighter Scheme to something more appropriate to the Middle East — the Ocean Grey was overpainted with a brown color, such as Dark Earth or a similar color. I chose this particular subject simply because it was colorful, albeit the decal sheet also has subjects in overall silver as well as the Day Fighter Scheme.
The Model
This is the new AZModel Mk IX kit that was released in a Joy Pack of 3 kits with no decals and only one set of instructions. Detail is very good and any Mk IX/XVI high back version can be made from the kit. Both types of cannon bulges are provided (early and late), both carb intakes (small and Vokes), both horizontal tail planes and both rudder styles. The kit also contains bomb racks (no bombs) and while molded with clipped wing tips, standard tips are included. The landing gear also comes with the front scissors found on some later Spitfires.
Construction was very straight forward and relatively easy. What little detail was lost in construction I easily rescribed. For the cannons I decided to use the Master Spitfire ‘e’ wing brass cannon and .50 gun barrels. I’m convinced these are “must do” upgrade, having used them for 2 Spitfires now. They just look so much better than the plastic or resin barrels provided in most kits.
The only difficulties I had with the kit were in placement of the exhausts and the landing gear. The exhausts drop into a slot that has no backing. So if not careful a modeler can easily lose them into the fuselage, unless one either glues them on before attaching the sides together, or by applying a backing sheet inside. I chose the latter, however when it came to attaching the exhausts I realized the nice thin fuselage caused the exhausts to sit quite proud of the fuselage. My solution was to carefully sand the exhaust stub down until it fit. Unfortunately they still sit a bit proud, but that’s because the stubs are now wafer thin and flexible. Any more thinner and I’d putting individual stacks on. A better solution, and I’ll use it on my next AZModel build, will be to put 20 or 40 thou card fore and aft of the opening (inside of course) and then put the backing on. That will give me much more room to work with in fitting the exhausts.
The second problem was with the landing gear. I did not take great care putting the gear bay inserts into the lower wing before closing it up and as a result the mounting holes were slightly off center. The landing gear actually sit quite well in their holes and had I done the inserts correctly would have had an easy time of the landing gear. Instead I had to fiddle with lots of dry-fitting until it was about right, taking too much material off bot the landing gear and the wheel well. Certainly won’t win a competition with this build.
While the build up to the painting part was actually quite quick and easy, painting took my usual months. After priming with Halford’s Grey Primer, I painted with a combination of acrylics. Tamiya XF-81 RAF Dark Green, Vallejo 70.921 English Uniform for the Dark Earth, and Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Grey underneath. I put a coat of Future/Kleer before decals. The rudder was painted white in anticipation of the stripe decals.
I used Peewitt’s canopy masks for this kit. Very inexpensive and very easy to use. I’ve since purchased quite a few more and plan to pick up enough to do all my Spitfires. I’ve found they are close enough to be used on pretty much any kit canopy.
The decals are by Techmod, sheet 72-122 and went down with no problem using water. I used a mild softener, DACO medium formula, to get them settle into the very fine detail. The rudder decals were a problem for me. As mentioned on the REAF Spitfire build, the stripes caused problems. They didn’t settle as nicely and in trying to arrange them they tore. Eventually I put Future on them to help settle and seal them, then applied DACO multiple times. Again Future when on to ensure it was a well sealed rudder, but with lots of tears and pieces of white showing through. I touched it up with Tamiya XF-7 Red and frankly admit I would have spent less time just masking.
I sealed it all with Testers Clear Flat to really down down the scheme, as these were operational I could have weathered them as well, but I’m not ready to try that again, yet.
Summary
This is a great kit, however I have not yet tried putting the standard wing tips on. This requires surgery and I typically do poorly. I think this is the definitive kit of the Mk IX otherwise. There were no faults, any issues were entirely my own doing.
Thanks for looking…
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