1:32 SPITFIRE VIII

What can be seen behind the glass

In 1:32 a cockpit stops being a closed box. Through the clear canopy of the Spitfire, an ordinary look reveals the shape of the gunsight on the instrument panel, the headrest with its armor plate behind the seat, the glazed head fairing and even the trim tab cable running along the left wall. All that work stays visible only if the cockpit frame does not remain a bare transparent strip but has the right color on both sides.

The inner face is half the result

That is precisely why the set contains stencils for both faces of the molding. The inner layer goes on first, while the part is loose and can be turned over. When it is forgotten, a glossy clear edge of a bar shows through the glazing and the whole impression falls apart, however well the interior is worked up. The procedure is simple, but it cannot be made good later, because the inner face of a canopy that is glued in place can no longer be reached.

Before the canopy is fitted

Builders often finish the Mk VIII with the cockpit closed, so the last look into the interior comes at the moment when the canopy is in your hand. It pays at that point to check that everything inside is in its place, and only then to lay the masks on. Two national insignia masks are part of the set; a decal sheet is not.

A preparatory step

Before masking, it pays to polish the canopy and to lay a thin coat of gloss clear over it. The surface thereby gains the smoothness on which the film holds more firmly, and the boundary of the spray comes out crisp along the whole length of the bar.