KoTare Spitfire Mk.I, Early 1:32

The Kit

The box has some lovely artwork by Darryl Legge of K9795 – the aircraft chosen by Sqn Ldr H Cozens to fly during an official press photographer’s day on 31st Oct, 1938, the Squadron number being painted on the fin especially for this event.

The kit contains all the sprues for the mid production Mk.Ia but has an extra sprue for the parts needed for this early aircraft.

This includes the instrument panel, Watts and De Havilland propellers, un-armoured fuel tank cover, early type engine cowlings and fuselage spine, cockpit door and ejector exhausts. The clear sprue also has armoured and un-armoured windscreen options and a choice of flat or bulged canopies.

There are three options provided:-

Spitfire Mk.I, K9795, 19 Squadron, October 1938.

Spitfire Mk.I, K9798, 19 Squadron, May 1939. This aircraft had the B type camouflage scheme over black/white under surfaces and incorporated a bulged cockpit hood.

Spitfire Mk.Ia, L1065, 609 Squadron, August 1940. This was the 280th aircraft from the initial production order and incorporated a De Havilland propeller, pilot and fuel tank armour and the early form of IFF. Under surfaces were painted Sky although the wheel wells retained the earlier black/white paint.

The different time periods of these options meant various modification states. The instruction booklet makes it clear which parts need incorporating to reflect your choice of aircraft. My choice was to build K9795 as it appeared at the aforementioned press day.

Construction

Full details of putting this kit together appear in my own and other builds of the later aircraft. Suffice to say that KoTare have put a lot of thought and engineering into this model and the result is that it is a joy to build. No expensive aftermarket items are needed as this would just be gilding the lily in my opinion. The following photos show some differences between the early and mid-production aircraft.

Instrument panel and cockpit tub showing the uncluttered look of this early Mk.I. Note the small undercarriage selector with its larger hand pump.

This shows the un-armoured fuel tank cover.

Painting and Markings

K9795 was painted with the A pattern camouflage scheme of Dark Green over Dark Earth on the upper surfaces. Underneath it was painted in Aluminium. Note that this is not a bare metal finish or the later RAF High Speed Silver finish. The wing roundels at this time were of the rather obvious A1 type.

I used MRPs version of Dark Earth and Tamiya XF-81 RAF Dark Green for the upper surfaces. For underneath I turned to True Metals Dull Aluminium. The camouflage demarcation wash hard edged on these earlier Spits and so I utilised very thin rolls of blue tack squashed flat to achieve this.

One unusual aspect of K9795 at this time was the faired over empty shell and link ports.

As this aircraft was almost brand new and would have been pampered by her ground crew, I decided on a bare minimum of weathering. A very light panel line wash on the underside and the steel painted exhausts were given a bit of heat treatment with Alclad Hot Metal and Hot Blue before a touch of Jet Exhaust staining on the rear two ejectors on each side. These wide ejectors didn’t leave the extensive fuselage staining seen on later marks – particularly those with stub exhausts.

The decals were from Cartograf and went on beautifully using Micro Sol and Set.

Summary, Gallery and PDF…