1:48 Spitfire Mk IXc

A bulged dome and the rear transparency

The Nine came about as a fast answer to the German fighter that had gained the upper hand over the Channel, and against older marks it was recognized mainly by a longer nose and an engine with a two-stage supercharger. The cockpit went through a development of its own. The original flat sliding hood gave way to a bulged dome that gave the pilot room to turn his head, and the windscreen received a thick armored pane in the middle. Behind the sliding section the fixed glazing of the decking remained.

Three surfaces, three different procedures

Each of those parts is masked differently. The rounded dome has few bars but a strongly curved surface. The windscreen is the opposite, small fields and deeply sunken frames. The rear transparency then tends to have an outline that can hardly be cut from a straight strip of tape. The set solves all three at once and moreover adds covering of the inner surfaces, so the frames can be visually closed from both sides.

Box contents

Alongside the panes a sheet is enclosed through which you apply the cockade as well as the stripes by spraying. The cut follows the plastic of the Hasegawa company. The parts of the aircraft are not in the box; this is an aid to the build.

A tip at the end

Leave the armored pane in the windscreen covered until the last moment, because even a light overspray takes away from its clarity and the only way to repair that is polishing. It also pays to split the work into two rounds, first the inner surfaces before the fuselage is glued together, then the outer ones only after the base spraying of the surrounding skin is finished. The edge then comes out sharp on both sides of the glass.