
Painting begins with the false canopy painted onto the bottom of the Operation Granby Jaguars. This is something most manufacturers miss out on. Based on the photos I’ve found, there also seems to be different patterns. I decided to just follow the easiest pattern I can find.

For the main ‘desert pink’ color, different companies have different color call outs so I compared the callouts from Hasegawa, Italeri and Kittyhawk. The latter two called for FS30279 so I decided to go with that. The tan I used is Real Color Desert Sand FS30279.

I went with a very thin mix of paint so the opacity can be slowly built up so that base preshade is still visible and adds some visual interest to the otherwise monotone color scheme.

Details like the gun port was masked off and painted.

The things under (and over) the wings were painted with some of the details picked out with a paintbrush.

Once the main color was done I handpainted the small details like the wingtip lights.

The air brakes were also masked off and painted based on some photos I found.

Once cured it was time for decals.

The decals went on over a gloss coat.

Pink Spitfire is finally taking shape! Comparing to photos the outline of the decals seem overly thick but otherwise, they look good and went on easily.

Next was a panel wash with my usual thinned Abteilung Starship Filth.

The details really pop after the wash.

The kit looking much better now.

The Jaguars went through a lot of weathering during their deployment and I tried to replicate it here with the staining at the bottom of the kit.

I also added random staining over the rest of the kit.

Happy to see that the canopy masking was done well.

Next was attaching the landing gear. Note that I have corrected the way the two-part nose gear door fits. The main landing gear connect via butt joints so I used sprue glue instead of normal cement.

The air brakes go on next. Leaving them open gives some additional visual interest but they can’t be closed without modification.

Weapons are next which are all butt-jointed.

Last on were the overwing AIM-9s and I’m done. It was a pretty trouble-free build and I really like how it has turned out.
Build Log
Pt.1 – Construction | Pt.2 – Painting & Finishing