The Kits

Hasegawa Spitfires are, in my opinion, well known and there is no need for some depth review on them. They are well moulded, without any flashes with some optional parts, ie. exhausts, wheel hubs, etc. There is some discussions about correct shape of their fuselage, but in Brigade Models conversion set a whole new fuselage halves are included, no worries here! Otherwise this set was disappointment. Not because of its very short-run nature, but because of lack of interior parts. Right, there are some, useless! Rear canopy is not vac-formed item, but injection molded one and is too thick and milky and you can't see through no matter how hard you try!

And this all for £25! It seems to me a little bit mad, to fork out this sum for average quality short-run. I think, that some resin or photo etched parts could be included in this box. From the other hand you'll get the only conversion of this type on the market and I've got one decal sheet extra free! So it wasn't all too bad after all. But this set is for experienced and hard working modelers.

Brigade Models decal sheet is designed by Joe Maxwell from Max Decals and is well printed. Unfortunately, for some, only one version of Irish Air Corps Spitfire is included. Modeler who whish to build "all green" variants with older type of Celtic bosses have no other choice but to find different source.




Building Process

As usual building process begins with interiors. BM conversion has good exterior details, but interior ones are too shallow, so I decided to rebuild them my self. I sanded down whole fuselage halves, then marked inner reinforcement ribs with a pencil and recreated them from Evergreen plastic stock. I used some of Hasegawa's parts in front cockpit and -at the same time- I used them as a template for scratch building of rear instruments, seat and control stick. Basically, all rear interior is scratch built, except for floor pan which is heavy modified and detailed anyway. I used Extratech etched parts extensively and found them very useful. I did not use just one particular set, hence no item numbers, but mix from few sets for interiors and exteriors of Spitfires of different marks.

Once I was happy with my rebuilding result I sprayed whole interior with German Panzer Grau with black dash boards and details. To bring some live all cables are painted in colour of natural wood. Washes with Burnt Sienna and Paynes Gray oil paints and some dry brushing with light gray and white followed. Now, back to interior colour: BM instructions suggests Interior Green as the only colour to be used, with black dash boards, but, after careful examination of photographs (black & white and full colour as well), I've decided that this is not the case. I can't talk about Dutch examples, but cockpits of Irish trainers were painted black. I believe, that after fighter - trainer conversion in U.K., in the very late 40's, black interior colour was applied as the new scheme for all British built aircrafts...

After interiors were finished I finaly could joint both fuselage halves together - it did not cause any trouble - and glue separate nose on this assembly, but there is some filling and sanding needed, especially on top of the nose, on joint line. In this stage I replaced B.M. tail for Hasegawa one. Tail made in Japan has much better details, but I used BM rudder. I hope picture on the left will be of some help. Light grey parts are from Brigade Model conversion box, dark gray is Hasegawa. This picture and the one bellow were taken just before masking off cockpits and spraying so all Extratech brass exterior parts are visible here.

Original Hasegawa wings needs to be very slightly modified. The only thing you have to do is to sand down bums on 2cm gun covers and to blind used cartrige chutes on lower sides of the wing. I used 0.05" thin plastic for this task, which works well. I played with the idea of open landing flaps, but I left it behind as building process progressed, there was too many things to do, so this was simply too much to be done for me... And to be perfectly honest I had to abandon work on this project at one stage. Reason? Pure frustration: I am not good in fill-sand-fill work. But, it was worth it and finished machine looks very, very nice.

Painting process

I have decided to do green-gray overall scheme to match my Seafire in the same colour. But, paint I had mixed and stored in glass jar, from before, lost its consistency and I had to start again, from beginning. Now I tried something else. Rather, than mix the right colour, which, by the way, is almost impossible if you don't have records of previous mix, I sprayed whole model with Humbrol Interior Green, No78. This is darker and much greener, than it should be, but this is just beginning. I then added a few drops of Humbrol Duck Egg Blue (23) into mix and sprayed misty coat all over.

Then again, adding more of 23 and some light blue for panel centers, this process was repeated as many times as needed. I don't stop messing with paint mixes and airbrush until I am satisfied. Then, black identification numbers were sprayed on using plotter cut masks made by my-self. After some drying time, two days, coat of Johnson's Klear protective coat was applied, than some usual stuff like washes with oil paints, oil stains and general dirt brought this kit to life. I used decals supplied in the BM conversion and after use of Model Master solvents they went down well. Some coats of Humbrol Semi-matt clear coat sealed everything at the end.

Finished model

There are 3 options you can choose from: green-grey overall with older type two-colour bosses, the same overall with new three coloured insignia as represented on my model, or silver overall with black anti-glare panel and new marking. Older type boss is missing on decal sheet, so it is up to you... I have chosen, probably the most famous of them all, No.162. This aircraft scored the first allied victory on 6.6.1944, or on the D-Day, if you wish. As one-seater fighter, coded OUoV and with RAF colour scheme and roundels on its wings, back then... Now, it is flying on many shows, mainly in the U.K. But, I messed it all up at the end, because this colour scheme would apply for No.163 only. Oh well, next time…

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