Pre-start Dilemma

Since all of the IAC Seafires were de-navalised I had to take in account all possibilities of today's market, before I have started to think about building one of these...There is MDC conversion, but spent money for it and then use just a few parts? I rather decided to use Tamiya's Spitfire MkV.b fuselage, good auld Airfix for wings, some bits and pieces from Occidental's Spitfire Mk.IX - exhausts, 4 spoke wheels. And some Extratech photo etched stuff...



The Kits

Airfix, Seafire Mk.III / Spitfire Mk.Vb, 05110, is typical kit of this U.K. manufacturer. In box you find a pile of parts, new "type C" wings with recessed lines and vintage fuselage, "B" wings, interior parts and so on. Although there is engraved date on the inside of starboard fuselage half, which says 1979, I reckon it should be well 20 years down the line! Decals are for 4 options with excellent roundels and stencils except the ones for propeller. I will not comment colours, I am not the expert, but it seems OK. Overall this is still good kit! And if you are willing to put some work into it can make a very nice model. And it’s all for around €14,-. Don't do something with it!

Tamiya, Spitfire Mk.Vb, 61033, is second typical kit. This time from land of the rising sun. It features clean crisp details, fully sunk scribing and no flashes at all. Would I be too picky to ask about drop landing flaps possibility? And separate control surfaces as well? I haven't used just one single decal from kit's decal sheet, but Tamiya decals tends to be too thick for comfortable application. And these ones are not different. Printed well, but stencils are better in Airfix box. Anyway, if you looking for shake-box-building this kit is for you! Price is little bit higher around €26,- but that's still OK for excellent kit.

Airfix -top and Tamiya fuselage halves.
Spot the difference...
On Tamiya part is already some work done





Construction

For interior I used parts straight from Tamiya box. I added some wires here and there and cut out seat belts from 0,05" plastic card. Originally I was building kit with closed hood, but it all changed in the end with use of excellent Falcon's Clear Vax canopy.



After some fuselage rivet treatment, a must fashion in those days, I added 2 reinforcement strips, which are running vertically just below pilot's door on both sides of fuselage and two engine cradle reinforcement points, just behind lower engine access panels. In this point is wise to check your references. Some IAC Seafires appears to have them removed.

Propeller is Tamiya item with 4th blade fabricated from piece of plastic. Spinner is taken from Airfix kit, exhaust pipes are Occidental's and Falcon canopy crowned this up.

Wing are new items in old Airfix kit, generally they are OK, but their surface has dusty appearance and needs to be sanded smooth. I also swapped landing gear bays for Tamiya ones. When I checked finished wing against finished fuselage, few gaps appeared, but nothing too serious. Then, I scratch built landing flaps and added some Extratech brass details.




Painting Process

There is lot of speculation about "the right shade of green" of Irish Seafires, from light slate gray to yellow-green. I sprayed mine with mixture of Humbrol 78, 26 and white 34. I tried to match colour, which can be seen in IAC Celebrates 100 Years of Flight. It is very similar to interior green, but has some strange blueish shade. It can be caused by print, but it looks rather interesting to me. So I played with my airbrush and colour mixes and sprayed layer after layer until I was happy with the result.

Finished model

Marking is for aircraft No.148. It has been delivered to IAC on 17/02/1947, but crashed into sea killing its pilot on 22/05/1953. Which is sad thing, but from the other hand, it makes this plane interesting. This particular aircraft seems to have propeller spinner and ruder painted with lighter colour than the rest of the a/c. National insignia and all numbers are sprayed using plotter-cut masks, what is still missing is 1st Fighter Squadron badge. Max Decals of Dublin discounted their IAC decal sheet (48001) some time ago and I can't find any around. So it stands on the shelf unfinished, but one day...surely...



PS: finally I have got them!!! Max Decals are here. They traveled all way from Czech Republic, they were purchased in sale section of some model exhibition over there - good connections on local modelers are working well. Cheers!





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