Tamiya 1/32 Spitfire Mk8 (completed)

Theuns, this is a premier masterpiece that goes together with your eyes closed.  In your hands it will assemble itself.  Great choice excellent pick!  I will be following.  I think I did the grey nurse version.

Toshi

Nice start! Looking forward to seeing this one come together.

Howzit Raymond, nice to hear from you again :-)

The engineering on these Tamiyas are just so much fun to build.

Theuns

Gorgeous work, Theuns!

Here is the wingroot fit on the Tam spitty, a light sanding and it will be ready for paint. Only thin cement was needed, no filler.

The engine took about 90 min to assemble ready for paint.

Good progress for only 3 days work  

In the meantime I painted all the bits for the engine mounds and firewall.

Theuns

Nice work!

It looks like this kit comes together well, with lots of detail. I don't know why I am drawn to the kits which require too much work to get a good result.

If I had a choice to build only these easy shake n bake Tamigawa super kits I wouls gladly do so....however my budhget only allows mt kits of about 1/3 to 1/2 their price so I am mostly stuck with kits that you need to "work at"

This spitty does not belong to me ;-)

Theuns

Thanx.

Here is the basic firewall forward assembly, it was a little more "fiddly" and difficult than the rest of the model bt it looks busy enough.

ALthough the whole cowl can be take n off I might just remove te one side and the bottom cowl but leave the rest on to try and maintain the "lines" of the plane yet still show off enough to be interesting, I did the same on my mustprang ad it works well.

That looks just fantastic Thuens!  Your pre shading is spot on, especially the color (Bottom fueselage) mix.

Toshi

Thanx, this pic does not really show up the shading through the blue, the light was to sharp and camera to poor.

It does show just the right amount in real life.

I was looking for Xtracolour 26 as I understand it is an "out the tin"  correct Azure but couldnt find any. I cant figure out why guys like Humbrol and Tamiya doesnt make this standard colour....I hate having to mix paints , i am rarely correct with the final colour :-(

Theuns

I decided to preshade the top aswell, I usually do not but the nice rivet detail and shading might be enough to not need a pin wash.
I also usually do a light base colour all over then mask and do the darker colour but in this case I think it would hide the pre shading.




Theuns

The faded dark earth it on, I am happy with it sofar.


I am not going to do a pinwash on the upper surface, the detail it showing up well enough.

Theuns

Beautiful Theuns! I long to add some British aircraft to my collection...especially some MTO gems. My grandfather was captured in Italy and spent much of the war in a POW camp. As soon as I get off this Pacific kick, I'll be moving on to the ETO and Mediterrean pretties. =]

I do love the detail offered in the cockpits and engines at 1:32, but I'm a diehard 1:48 guy. I'm still jealous of how pretty the 1:32s come out. =]

The kit does supply decals for the RAF, but the owner wants USAAF markings.

Interestingly my maternal Grandfather was an airframe fitter/fabric and wood (just like me) and he was also in the North Africa, Cisily ,Itali amd the Balkens :-)

I painted on the yellow wingbands rather than use the decals, I also got the gloss clearcoat on.

Theuns

NO kidding. It was my mother's father as well. He was in the US Army 36th Infantry Division "Texas." How about that. This whole foray into modeling was very much an effort to satisfy a gap in what I know about him. He died when I was 2 1/2 years old, so I didn't really get to know him. I only have vague recollections of him. My mother told me a long time ago how his favorite general was MacAuthur out in the Pacific...and somehow over time that put it in my head that he was in the Pacific and that he was a Marine in the Pacific under MacAuthur. Imagine how pissed I was at learning how long I'd been lying to people about my grandfather when I finally hear the truth about it all. =] Still, the PTO had hooked me in as it was a part of the war I knew virturally nothing about like a lot of younger people. One day when my little boy gets a little older, I'll put together a few things with some MTO dioramas to prop them up on so he can learn about this page in history. 

I have my grandfathers campaign medals for WW2 MTO, as he was an airframe carpenter/fabric he would have worked an many different RAF/SAAF planes. I also plan a build of something he would have repaired and put it on a base with his medals.

Theuns

Tamiya makes exelent kits but damn they can not make nice decals  
For the price this kit sells for I would reallt have expected better quality decals.

Most of the decals were hard and brittle, qiute a few broke and I had to piece them togehter as best I could.

I really hope they dont silver under the mattcoat, I will dose it with loads of microsol.....stay tuned.

Theuns

As for the decals, I used tamiya thin cement applied CAREFULLY to the stencles and the walkways to desolve the carrierfilm. It was risky but I think after this and an application of microsol it will be OK I hope.

Theuns

That looks great, not overdone on the panel lines.

Mike

After microsol the decals seem to have settled down into the detail, however on the top and left fuselage insignea there are a few fine cracks that have developed on the white parts, these I will try to touchup with a fine brush and paint, but to match the colour exactly will be the issue.......now I can see why people buy expensive AM decals  :-(

Theuns

Very nice. Indeed, its always best to avoid Tamiya decals. I think they are based on a dare.

I built a few of Tamiya's 1/48 109, 262 and p-51 and all of those decals were just fine...dont know why these ones were so hard and brittle. Anyway I filled in the cracks with paint, will have to see what the results are ubder the final clearcoat.

Hoping to have it all completed by early next week, the last few parts are being painted and then it is only assembly.

Theuns

You seemed to correct the issue at hand.  Everything looks great!

Toshi

The engine was a real PITA to get to fit, but with enough glue and force I got it close enough for the cowls to fit. I had exactly the same problem with my P-51.

The undercart is also on, I am now fitting small items hoping to get the clearcoat on this weekend.