A very special Spitfire build, another Kotare Spitfire Mk1a (late)

[BarryW]

This will be my third Kotare Spitfire and I am sure it's not my last.

It is though a very special one.

I have a set of cufflinks made from the Merlin engine of Spitfire serial number X4170. So naturally I want an accurate kit of this aircraft.

I won't start the build for a few days as I have my Sea Fury to finish, I will post some completed photos of this when done. This, therefore, is just an introduction to my next full build thread.

I did do a build of this aircraft years ago using the rather poor Revell 1/32 Mk2 as the base. I spent a lot of money on resin to correct faults in the kit and painted it based on the best information I had at the time. Below is a picture of that build.

This model will be very different in a number of key aspects with the most visual difference being the spinner colour.

Here is the kit box

Here is a close up of the cufflinks

Some details of the aircraft
Serial X4170
Codes LZ*R
B Camo scheme

Squadron commander of 66 Squadron, Rupert Leigh, ordered his squadron to paint their spinners bright red due to an incident.

The pilot of this aircraft when it was shot down was Bobby Oxspring who went on to survive the war and become an ace and a senior officer in the post war RAF. This aircraft crashed not far from me, in an orchard near Capel le Ferne. It's actually quite close to the present day Battle of Britain memorial.

He had 10 victories in the Battle of Britain, 6 while flying X4170 four of which were 109's, one 110 and one 111..

One of the kit options is from 66 squadron but from an earlier Spitfire batch.
This

Another kit option is very close in build sequence to X4170, this.

Therefore I conclude that i will get as close to an accurate representation as you can by incorporating appropriate elements from these two kit versions.

I have appropriate codes and serial numbers produced by Xtra decal from Hannants.

I will post more when I make a start.

 

[VegasAWACER13]

Very cool project and history. Look forward to seeing this. I never get tired of Spits.

Scale 1/32 isn't really my medium but I would like to build one of these Kotare kits at some point. I will likely wait until they put out a Merlin 60-series variant though.

 

[BarryW]

In just one day I have cleaned up the cockpit parts and put together my sub-assemblies ready to paint.

First an overview of the cockpit sub-assemblies all in their subs needed to paint.

You can see that I have also added some panels to the fuselage halves.

A close up of the three main cockpit subs

I also got in with the main wing assembly. I will attach the wing halves, wing fillets and ailerons before painting.

Fit is, of course, superlative. I will just say one thing, it is essential to remember that tolerances are tight so it's more important than ever to make sure parts are properly cleaned up. Any excess plastic will come back to bite you. Also dry fitting is essential. If something doesn't fit it's your own fault.

 

[BarryW]

I have got on with the painting, just airbrushing so far. Mostly on the cockpit part but I have sprayed a few other components as well.

The prop and distinctive red spinner

The cockpit subs

I sprayed the top insert dark Earth around the upper signal light as it makes it easier to mask it.

Below you can see how I inserted it from the bottom after spraying the top.

It will be easy to mask it with liquid mask.

The orange light sprayed

Exhausts sprayed with burnt iron

I also joined the wing halves. Perfect fit.

Progress is quite fast as you can see.

 

[Edbert]

This will be my third Kotare Spitfire and I am sure it's not my last.

I am totally enthralled by this kitmaker!

They just opened pre-orders for the 109E, I was considering getting the 109K to go with it as bookends.

Zoukei Mura is fantastic and hyper-detailed, but Kotare takes a different tack...incredible detail while keeping simplicity.

One example...the rivets on the rear-half of the Mk.V with the A-wing vary. Who does that!?!? (I mean who even makes a Mk.Va instead of the Mk.Vb?)