Jason Koh of SFTPMS detailed this build log of Academy's 1/48 Spitfire FR Mk XIV E. This aircraft took part in SFTPMS's SMM07 Single Propeller Aircraft event.

As usual, construction begins with the front office. Below are the subassemblies for the cockpit. There's a large sink hole in the seat pan but I'll leave this alone as I will add a seat cushion later.

Here's a picture of the assembled but unpainted seat. The detail is not bad by itself although the seatbelts are not represented at all. I drilled out all the lightening / cable through holes that was merely represented by half sunk depressions.

Here, we see the seat with the newly added on seatbelts and seat cushions. These were fashioned out of some bondite epoxy putty.

Test fitting the seat assembly into the fuselage. The fit up to this stage is quite good.

One of the rudder pedals with a little bit of extra detail added.

Here's a picture of the instrument panel with the lightening / cable through holes drilled out. I will add some cabling detail later.

An array of parts. The cockpit sidewall cables were made from thinly rolled epoxy putty and also some thin fuse wire for variety. Other miscellaneous detail is made from scrap styrene pieces.

We move on to painting the internal parts. After the base colours are done, I applied a wash and light drybrushing to bring out the details.

Close up of the almost finished seat.

Detailing up the interior tanks. The hoses were made from thinly rolled epoxy putty and the gauges (white dots) are from some scrape styrene that was sanded to shape.

The assembled cockpit.  I added the compass holder just below the instrument panel.

Here's the tiny little recon camera. The camera lens is made from 2 part epoxy glue and is then fixed  onto one side of the fuselage. I added some wiring detail but this can hardly be seen once closed up.

I separated the rudder and tailerons. Since these parts were all two piece affairs, I had to close up the obvious gaps with some styrene strips.

Here's the main body, fresh from the paint shop and awaiting a gloss coat and decal application. The camouflage is sprayed freehand with the camouflage sprayed free hand.

And here's the finished product, all decalled and weathered up. Panel lines were done with a dark grey oil + mineral spirit wash mix over a gloss coat. Weathering is kept light with very slight paint fading on the upper exposed surface and also some minor chippings here and there. The kit decals weren't too good. They were badly off register besides being somewhat thick and resistant to numerous Mr. Mark Setter applications. 

All in all, (discounting accuracy issues) this is not a bad kit to build. It builds up fast and has room for additional details if you want to go the distance. Overall fit is reasonable enough with some minor use of putty at the wing / fuselage joint and also the gun covers (if you close them). If you intend to build this kit, do consider going for aftermarket decals if you can.

Jason Koh