Somewhere along the line I picked up the decal sheet and instructions from Hasegawa kit 09308, the Spitfire Mk. Vb 'Red Star'. I must have FUBARed the kit, because the decals and instructions were all I had, so I picked up a Tamiya Spitfire to use the decals with.

As with most Tamiya kits, there were no problems with the build. I even remembered to check the height of the armor behind the seat so it wouldn't interfere with the rear part of the canopy - I think I've had that happen on all previous builds of this kit.

The exterior was painted with Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Gray 2 (RAF) on the bottom and XF-82 Ocean Gray 2 (RAF) and XF-81 Dark Green 2 (RAF) on the top. (I find it interesting that Tamiya uses the American spelling of "gray" rather than the British spelling for these colors.) I hand masked the spinner to get the white and red. It wasn't perfect but doesn't look too bad. The Hasegawa instructions showed no Sky band on the fuselage, and no yellow on the wing leading edges, so I didn't have to paint those. The dark green camouflage was freehanded.

The decals went on with any major issues using just Microset. I did have to apply some Mr. Mark Softener on the insignias on the bottom of the wings, since there are major bumps on the bottom of Spitfire wings.

Page last updated June 15, 2023.