Agape forum member Gil Hodges (g.hodges) built this great looking Spitfire Mk. Vb. Awesome work, Gil!
Before Don Gentile became a famous 4thFG ace flying his Mustang “Shangri-La”, he was a member of the American volunteer Eagle Squadron. His first a/c was this MkV Spitfire, which he called “Buckeye Don”, since he was an Ohio Boy. He got 2 Fw-190 kills in this plane. I built this one for the British Invasion group build over on the IPMS-USA forum.
This is the Tamiya 1/48 MkV kit, and goes together great! The fit and detail is very good out of the box, and all I added were some photo etch seatbelts. I did switch out the prop for an early blunt Rotol spinner, as that wasn’t included in this boxing. The decals are from Aeromaster, and except for the fin flash, which had to replaced from the spares box, and some fracturing of the bottom roundels over the scoops and lumps in their positions that required some touch up painting, they went on generally well. I used Model Master British colors, except for the yellow; which is Floquil BNSF yellow.
This was a fun build, quite relaxing and enjoyable compared to the last 2 or 3 I tackled. If you’re looking for a relatively quick build with no vices and no real need to spend money on aftermarket, I recommend the Tamiya Spitfire!
