Spitfire mk-14 Japan 1946

This kit looks like a fun little kit in this scale. The detail is decent and parts look clean. I don't have a plan to make many modifications but you never know where thinks are going. I did drill out the holes in the bulkhead to add some detail. 

Many small parts are hand painted and a added a ammo dark night wash to them. I used revell aqua paints. 

Painting the instrument panel is also done by hand. I'm really happy with the result. There is no decals included for any cockpit detail but painting these 1/72 cockpits for academy is really fun. I also have a great experience with the bf-109 academy cockpit a few years back. I painted the panel back before giving it a drybrush with white paint and then a silver paint. I painted some detail with various colour before adding clear varnish to to imitate glass. 

gun sight is finished in the same way as the intrument panel. 

All interior parts are painted with vallejo model air interoir gray green. I also painted the unpainted parts behind the seat white aluminium. All side wall detail is painted with revell aqua paints.  

I added a wash to the cockpit and a light dry brush with a aluminium colour. 

 

The fit of the fuselage halfs is decent. 

the wings fit really well to the fuselage on the upperside. I had many probelm on many differnte spitfire kit in this area. But here the fit in the upperside is great. Don't talk about the underside though, I also added a clear plactic gun sight glass to the cockpit. before placing the canopy. 

The wing fit to the fuselage isn't the best on the underside. I filled the gaps with vallejo acrylic putty. 

I masked and placed the canopy. The fit seemed decent but after I painted the interior colour I realised thet there was a gap infromt of the widscreens so a had to use some putty. 

I primed everything black with Ammo one shot primer. 

I got this aftermarket set some time ago. Many great schemes to choose from. 

I have chosen this scheme. I really like the red nose and the 2 tone scheme looks like something different. This should be a clipped wing mk14 but I don't really care this time. 

I preshaded the black with white and added white to all pieces that need to be painted yellow or red.  

The prop blades are ready. I'm happy with the yellow. 

constructing the prop is not easy when it's done like this. I slightly chipped the edges of the prop blades with silver paint.  

I painted the underside and the first layer of the camo scheme medium sea gray and masked the paint with bluetag. I added dark green for the second layer. 

pretty happy with the result. I didn't take much time at all but the result is acceptable. 

The aftermarket decals are decent. The are easy to apply and look good. But they don't conform to the detail as much as I would like. I needed the kit decals for the stencils but there aren't many included. 

I hand painted the red gun tape and added black to the shell exit holes. 

I tried to paint the missing stripe details with the airbrush and it went better then expected. 

I used the green brown wash on the upper and underside of the plane. Looks preety good on this kind of colour scheme. I gloss coated the plane with VMS before the wash. 

 

I painted the landing gear bays and then used VMS matte acrylic to seal the wash and paint. After that I added some chipping with alluminium paint. 

I added smoke effects to the gun barrels with oil paints and added dust to the part where the pilot walks. 

I also added smoke to the shell exit holes. The exhaust smoke is also added with oil paints but it still needs more work. also added dust to the gear bay doors. 

Oil streaks are added to the oil cooler area. 

I added the mirror and removed the masking. 

the landing gear and prop are installed. the fit is decent. 

Completed. I really enjoyed this build it's very easy and I like the results you can get.