1/48 Hasegawa Spitfire Mk. IX

by Joe Volz

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  D-Day 60th Anniversary - June 6th 2004    

 

This model represents a Spitfire of 485 Squadron of the Royal New Zealand Air Force. "OU-V" , flown by Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton RNZAF was given her invasion stripes on June 3, 1944. On D-Day, while leading a four-ship flight south of Omaha beach, a German Ju-88 was spotted, chased and destroyed by Houlton. Later in the day a second Ju-88 was taken, with the kill being shared by the whole section.

Click on images below to see larger images

As I'm not normally a "prop guy" I stuck mainly out-of-the-box on this build.  The Hasegawa kit builds up beautifully, and I used almost zero filler in its construction. The cockpit is well detailed and a wash and drybrushing brought out all of the fine detail. I did add Eduard colored PE seat belts, which are a real nice item.

Painting involved a good deal of masking to deal with the invasion stripes. Paints were either PolyScale or Model Master acrylics. After sealing with Future the Aeromaster decals were applied without incident, followed by an enamel wash and some pastels for light weathering. Everything was sealed with a coat of PolyScale flat.

Joe

Photos and text © by Joe Volz