1:48 Supermarine Spitfire Tr.9 TFace canopy frame paint mask (inside & outside)

The two-seat Spitfire and its pair of canopies

The trainer version of the Spitfire came about only after the war and it was not a new build but a conversion. Vickers Supermarine took a Mk.IX airframe, moved the original cockpit forward and behind it built in a second, higher-set instructor's position with a bulged canopy. The pupil sat in front with the usual view; the instructor behind looked over his head. Aircraft modified in this way served, among others, with the Irish Air Corps and with Dutch and Indian units, and several of them fly to this day as two-seat pleasure-flight aircraft.

A pair of cockpits means double the masking work for the builder, and on top of that framing that occurs nowhere on a single-seat Spitfire. The package contains pieces cut to the shape of both canopies and of the fixed sections of glazing. The material is kabuki paper, that is, a thin adhesive tape which can be bent over a curve without wrinkling and leaves no trace on the glass after removal. The masks are enclosed for both sides, so the inner frames get the cockpit color before the canopy is fitted.

One practical note on the build: the bulged rear canopy is masked from the top downward, so that the overlapped edges do not converge at the top of the curve. Before spraying it pays to rid the glass of fingerprints and to let the taped part rest a while, so that the tape settles over the whole area.

For a collection the trainer version has one advantage more. Thanks to its postwar users it can be built in colors that combat Mk.IXs never wore, from the silver airframes of training units to the striking finishes of the aircraft that fly at air shows to this day.