For the seat I added the padded back-rest, missing rivets, and made corrections to the harness using fine wire (.006" & .012")
The sidewalls of the cockpit have been riveted using a fine pounce wheel, I feel it is better to at least represent some sort of riveting than nothing at all in this case. For the more prominent rivets I used sliced .010" plastruct rod, a very time consuming and frustrating process.
The throttle and main landing gear mechanisms have been detailed by removing the thick molded controls and replacing them with thin plastic scratch-built ones, and I used a fine saw to add the recessed paths that they sit in.
The control spade has missing tape added, a detail that is in every spitfire but Tamiya decided not to portray in the kit, possibly because it would not look right molded in plastic. I wrapped thinly sliced decal around the control spade and sealed it with a coat of Tamiya grey putty mixed with Tamiya extra thin cement. More sliced .010" rod rivets are visible in this picture as well.
The cockpit side walls detailed.
The pilots access door has been detailed and I have scratch-built an oxygen hose, another detail missing in the kit if you choose not to model the plane with the pilot in the cockpit. The hose was made by using aluminum rod bent to shape, wrapped with fine wire, the brass piece on the end was made on my small home-made lathe, and the clasp is an old piece of photo-etch.
Some of the kit decals inaccurately portrayed such as the blue artificial horizon have been replaced with more period instruments from a Mike Grant decal set I was given.
I have added new brake lines and a few missing rivets to the landing gear.
A few more details need to be added to the engine, and I want to do some sort of pilot figure to go with the plane, and then it will be time to paint!
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