Absolutely stuning work . i like both camo schemes and couldn't choose a favorite.

Awesome Aggieman!! Two nice Spits. That plane had some real pretty lines on her. Fantastic job. Thanks for sharing it here. I'll absolutely have to get a couple in my collection. =]

Aggieman

Hi Gary.  I used to not use any primer typically, and would just clean the parts with warm water and dish soap prior to any painting.  Never really had any issue with that because I typically free-hand camouflage or I would use some masking media that would not lift paint, like Silly Putty or Parafilm or even strategically placed cardboard or Ziplock bags.  Then came last year, when I built a series of aircraft that required hard-edges on the camouflage - German splinter camouflage.  I encountered massive paint lift, especially on that giant 1/32 He 111P that I did.  And that was with the typical soapy water wash that I put the parts through. 

Someone suggested using primer, given that my typical paint is the Model Master series (that is actually changing somewhat to where I now find almost as much Tamiya and Vallejo on my bench these days).  I bought a set of gray/black/white Stynlyrez primer and have had absolutely no issues with paint lifting.  It sprays perfectly out of the airbrush, adheres strong, and cleans up well.

Awesome, Stephen.

They're both stunning!!! Great job all around!!! 

Brilliant, just brilliant! Love those Spits.

Devil Dawg

Wow, Aggieman, that Spitfire is AWESOME!! I've got one of the Tamiya 1/32nd Spitfires in my stash, and I can hardly wait to get started on it after seeing your thread here.

Got a question for you. I see that you primered the plane before painting it. I've never used primer - I always build my kit, then wipe down all surfaces with denatured alcohol (alcohol with no rubbing oils in it) to clean it all up, wait a few minutes for that to dry, then paint as usual. Do you find that using primer helps with the painting? I'm only asking as I no have no experience with primer, and, if it makes the painting process easier/better, I might give it a try.

Gary

 

 

Someone suggested using primer, given that my typical paint is the Model Master series (that is actually changing somewhat to where I now find almost as much Tamiya and Vallejo on my bench these days).  I bought a set of gray/black/white Stynlyrez primer and have had absolutely no issues with paint lifting.  It sprays perfectly out of the airbrush, adheres strong, and cleans up well.

BRAVO, Aggieman!! BRAVO!!

Here she is.  And what a fantastic gal she was to put together.

With her engine showing.

Underside dirt and grime and stains

All dressed up and ready for ... well, she's a proper lady ...

With these next two shots I was attempting to focus on different areas of the Spitfire, first the propeller and then the windscreen.  Not sure if I was successful.

Now that I have completed her, the Spitfire's starboard cowling panel looks okay in place.

On her stand.

Cockpit close-ups.

Finally, posing with her big sister, the Mk. I.

That is a lot of photos.  I hope everyone enjoys looking at my Spitfires as much as I enjoyed building them.  The Tamiya kit is truly an engineering marvel of plastic.  I believe I had some construction issues that were mine alone, but even so I barely used any filler.  My only real concern was the finish on the engine mount, but the cowling pieces seem to be aligned properly more or less; I don't see the big gap I initially saw. For the Mk. IXc I went for a tired and beaten down warbird, but not so tired as to be heading for the retirement home.  I'll leave it to everyone to decide if I accomplished that look or not.

The Revell kit is still a good kit in its own 50+ years old right.  It's not the Tamiya, yes, but it can be built into a fine representation of an early war Spitfire Mk. I.  Plus, to my eyes, the dark earth + dark green scheme IS a Spitfire, much more so than the ocean gray + dark green scheme that became the norm in mid-to-late 1941.  As this particular Mk. I was lost in May 1940, I reasoned that she would not have been so heavily weathered, so I kept a lot of that to a minimum.

I also love the fact that both of these kits represent real fliers' aircraft.  The Mk. I was an actual Spitfire that was shot down by a Bf 110 over the English Channel during the Dunkirk evacuation, and the Mk. IXc is Johnnie Johnson's ride.

Next up is ... a break.  I'm taking a class to add some additional software development skills to my skill set, but I do already have my next project in mind.  It will be sticking with my original theme for the year, which was to do strictly US aircraft (until the movie Dunkirk came around and forced me to alter that to US & Allied aircraft).  One of my two Monogram B-24D Liberators is coming out of the stash.  Preliminary plans will be to present a Liberator in a rarely seen scheme, that of a colorful formation ship.  I've already begun researching these aircraft, that were painted in eye-catching schemes to allow the other bombers in the squadron to form up before making the journey to Germany or other European targets.  I've always liked these schemes, going all the way back to Shep Paine's diorama insert that came with the original Monogram release of this bomber.

Wow, Aggieman, that Spitfire is AWESOME!! I've got one of the Tamiya 1/32nd Spitfires in my stash, and I can hardly wait to get started on it after seeing your thread here.

Got a question for you. I see that you primered the plane before painting it. I've never used primer - I always build my kit, then wipe down all surfaces with denatured alcohol (alcohol with no rubbing oils in it) to clean it all up, wait a few minutes for that to dry, then paint as usual. Do you find that using primer helps with the painting? I'm only asking as I no have no experience with primer, and, if it makes the painting process easier/better, I might give it a try.

Gary

bvallot

Is that even a real question!?! The only Tigers in the SEC are the LSU Tigers baby! =D lol. Now, hopefully Coach O can keep these boys looking like they belong out there. 

Yeah, I hear you on the sprues. That was a no brainer. I'm wondering when I'll ever get to a few spitfires myself. Those Eduard bonus kits look pretty enticing too. 

Keep em' comin' =]

 

So here are my final WIP photos.

Exhaust stacks - this is probably the kit's worst feature.  They look great, stunningly so, but Tamiya provides a tiny attachment tab for each of these individual pipes that, coupled with the small size of the part, makes it difficult to get each into place.  I painted these Model Master Metalizer burnt metal and Model Master Metalizer Exhaust, then wiped them with Tamiya weathering compounds - burnt blue and sand.  I'm not sure that the photos really capture all of that, but to the eye they look good.

Cowling - here is another facet of Tamiya's kit that could be considered a weakness, I suppose, but I think my problem with these pieces was more self-induced than a design flaw of the parts themselves.  The port side cowling fits pretty well, but on the starboard side there is a noticeable gap along the wing root.  I think the problem stems from an issue in construction; something just did not get put into place quite right, and the result is that the engine mount does not fit snugly against the wing root as it does on the opposite side.  Even so, the port side is not as snug as it could be either, as I believe the photos show.

Finally, the pilot figure.  The kit comes with two, one seated (that I put into the Revell kit to replace the awful figure that is a staple of Revell kits from the late 1960s), and one standing.  I don't feel like I do figures very well.  This one is really no exception.  I did manage to give him a stache, but looking at the blown up photo, he looks like he's getting ready to take part in the latest Walking Dead flick. I did the clothing shading with a dark wash, but I'm thinking that's not the best way to go about that; I probably should mix up a slightly darker variant of the paint to replicate shadows that form along folds and creases.  This guy is a good example of why I rarely do figures.

So that concludes my work in progress.  Yes, she's done.  I will return when I can to post final build photos, but that will have to wait probably until tomorrow.

Is that even a real question!?! The only Tigers in the SEC are the LSU Tigers baby! =D lol. Now, hopefully Coach O can keep these boys looking like they belong out there. 

Yeah, I hear you on the sprues. That was a no brainer. I'm wondering when I'll ever get to a few spitfires myself. Those Eduard bonus kits look pretty enticing too. 

Keep em' comin' =]

Which Tigers?  We have so many of them in the SEC.  As for the Aggies, I did like how they looked in the second half last weekend, but still have concerns going forward since the schedule is now ramping up to holy moly difficult.  But they sure did "Houston Oiler" that game against UCLA.  I think that game is going to really be difficult to forget.

As for the Spitfires, I had several reasons to build them as I have.  First, the Revell was a familiar subject, having built it several times in the distant past.  Plus it had something like 3 sprues, maybe 4, with not even 100 parts.  The Tamiya kit had easily a dozen sprues filled to the brim with parts.  It had PE, vinyl, screws ... Then there was the Dunkirk issue, which was the driving force behind even building any Spitfire.  I wanted a Spitfire that looked like the one from the movie, and in fact, the one that I built was from a pilot who was shot down over the English Channel on May 10, 1940.  I did put a good bit of effort into that kit to get it to look as good as it does (humble brag on my part), but this Tamiya kit is like moving from Rookie Ball to the Majors.  No comparison, although at the end of the day I'll have 2 1/32 Spitfires to admire.

Aggieman!!! It's been a little while. Good to see you again. Sorry about them Aggies...they'll come around. Our Tigers have some issues to work out as well. ;)

Fancy little post you've got going. I can see why you started with the Revell. It's night and  day comparing that to the Tamiya kit. You still made a real nice Spitfire out of the Revell. A little TLC can take anything a long ways. Looking forward to seeing what you're going to do with the next one. =]

Hope you're high and dry out there.

Here are a bunch of pictures of the work I just did to complete painting of the wings.  This encompasses the yellow leading outer wing edge and the red tape that was typically placed over the outer gun ports.

Next up is to finish and install the exhaust stacks, and to apply the decals.  I hope to bring this to completion by Thursday.

Been working most of the day, with a couple hours away from the work bench for church and lunch.  I started the day off by inspecting what I had done yesterday, and noted pretty quickly that my attempt to paint the yellow ID bands on the wing's leading outer edges was a fail, as there were some barely perceptible seams that suddenly became Grand Canyon-esque under yellow paint.  I filled those canyons and opted to just do the primary camouflage colors, then come back later with masking and do the ID bands.

I did the underside painting first, with Tamiya medium sea gray.  I was mostly pleased with how it turned out, except that the texture of the paint, which seems to be the case some of the time with Tamiya paints, at least for me, had a gritty appearance.  Probably a case of user error.  Perhaps not thinned well enough, or maybe the airbrush was not completely clean?  Under a coat of Future that gritty appearance disappeared, so I'm good with it.

While the Future was curing, I spent time finishing the landing gear, starting work on prop construction, and putting together the external drop tank.  There are two tanks for this kit - one to be used with the stand, and one not.  I assembled both - assembly in this case is simply inserting some mounting pins into an interior clamping piece on both, and the added insertion of a nut for the stand tank.  I will use the non-stand piece for final photographs, but likely will use the stand for displaying in my case as I expect that to make best use of the space available.

Landing Gear - I still need to put on a couple of decals, little red pieces of tape?, along the tire where it meets with the wheel.  These tires are vinyl, I believe, and have a nifty mold release line running around the tire's circumference.  I tried sanding it away, and I tried scraping it away, but none of that seemed to do the trick, and I was weary of causing irrepairable damage to the tires.  Any suggestions how to get rid of this?

Completed stabilizers.  I never attach the stabilizers until after I have painted them and the areas surrounding them.  Makes the painting process a lot more hassle-free. (Unless of course it's one of those old Monogram, or similar, kits with a single piece stabilizer intended to be inserted when closing up the fuselage, like the old Monogram Corsair, for instance).

Completed cowling panels.  I will find out if I was able to accurately match up the paint across pieces, as I did this largely by eye-balling it.  If not it won't be a big deal to get all the paint matching across these pieces.

Radiator grills and fairings.  I left these off to ease with painting and weathering.  Once the underside was painted and ready for handling, I weathered the grills with some Flory dark dirt wash prior to installing them.  I then used some Tamiya weathering pastels to get some oil stains in there prior to attaching the fairings.  The first two shots here show the oil staining while the third shows the grills contained within the fairings.

These final shots show the camouflage painting.  The RAF Sky-S ID band looks good.

Some of the pieces appear overly glossy, as that is the just-applied Future shining under my lights.  I hope to get back out there tonight to mask the wings for the ID bands.  Then will come decaling, and I just recalled that I have yet to even think about the exhaust stacks.  In this kit they are individual pieces.  I had left them off to aid with painting.  Depending on what this week brings, I should be on track to complete this Spitfire some time this week.

I spent the majority of today frying at Kyle Field in College Station, but for some reason, particularly in the first half of the Aggies' game this morning, my thoughts kept returning to my Spitfire.  I knew it was at the stage where full-fledged painting activities are ready to begin, but I kept thinking how I was going to attack it.  Eventually the Aggies figured things out and finally pulled away from an opponent in a rather decisive fashion in the second half, so then my thoughts remained focused on the Spitfire.

I am building Johnnie Johnson's JE-J mount.  It features a sky blue fuselage ID band as well as a sky spinner, with the typical yellow ID stripes located on the leading edge of the outer wings.  Tamiya supplies decals for these, but these are the kind of things I abhor the use of decals.  I never can seem to get the decals on right.  I've been painting these features on other aircraft for a good many years now, so nothing was going to change with this Spitfire.

The first thing I did when I returned home from Aggieland was to touch up the primer; it turned out I needed a couple of seam fixes.  Then I used black Stynlyrez primer to pre-shade the panel lines.  I don't always use this technique.  I did not pre-shade the Revell Spitfire, for instance, but for this one, I decided to go forward with that.  Once that was done, I put down light coats of Model Master acrylic Sky-S for the fuselage band and the spinner.  Next, I used the Tamiya decal sheet to take measurements for the provided yellow prop tips (another decal that I never use), masked to expose the tips per the measurement of the decal, and then laid down an underlying coat of Tamiya flat white on both the prop tips and the leading edges of the outer wings.  After that dried sufficiently I finished up the night with a follow-on coat of Tamiya flat yellow for the wing edges and prop tip, and sealed all of that with a coat of Future.

Spinner

The two-part prop.  I still need to paint the hub.

Fuselage ID band

Overall upper and lower shots

1943Mike

I'm learning a little from skilled modelers like you ... I'd learn more but my brain's memory banks are just about shot . I keep hoping I'll retain most of the valuable infomation regarding weathering/painting/finishing as well as how to "fix" a flaw native to a part in the kit. Must eat more brain food.

RE: the mold release line in the canopy. Was it a fore/aft or port/starboard line? Was it on the inside of the canopy or the exterior? I can understand how you might scrape away excess plastic if it was on the outside, but I'd be stumped if it were on the inside. Of course I have no clue how the plastic is released from the mold anyway so my question may be really stupid but I thought I'd ask.

 

 

I'm learning a little from skilled modelers like you ... I'd learn more but my brain's memory banks are just about shot . I keep hoping I'll retain most of the valuable infomation regarding weathering/painting/finishing as well as how to "fix" a flaw native to a part in the kit. Must eat more brain food.

RE: the mold release line in the canopy. Was it a fore/aft or port/starboard line? Was it on the inside of the canopy or the exterior? I can understand how you might scrape away excess plastic if it was on the outside, but I'd be stumped if it were on the inside. Of course I have no clue how the plastic is released from the mold anyway so my question may be really stupid but I thought I'd ask.

Let there be ... primer!

I spent the last hour or so putting down an initial, probably only, coat of primer on all of the external parts.  Initial eyeball inspection reveals absolutely nothing that I have to come back at with sanding and/or filler, but I'll let the primer dry thoroughly before I inspect all the seams again with my Optivisor (my eyes have not been working as well as they once did).

Stabilizers (note that I have already installed the radio antenna rigging)

Cowling side panels

Cowling top and under panels

Radiator grills and fairings

Landing gear and air intake

Canopy with interior painted RAF interior green (I think I have too much light in this picture)

A trio of full body shots

I am aiming to get some more work in on this one tonight, provided I don't have to spend any time addressing missed seams or what-have-you.  Tomorrow is a wash as I'm going to back to Aggieland for a ball game, but I'm aiming for completion late next week if the modeling gods smile on me, that is.

Great job there on the engine and canopy!!! 

I understand why the mold the seam lines on the top of the canopy like that but still yes it's really, really, frustrating. Great save there. 

Your doing a fantastic job in building the Tamiya kit up.  This is some amazing work!

Toshi

Well, I found something to ding Tamiya on for this kit - the canopy. It comes molded as an off-shoot piece of the clear sprue, with a protective "cage" running along side the piece and across the top of it.  That's great.  When I removed the piece from the sprue, I noticed right away the big ugly mold release line running right across the center of the canopy.  Ugh.  So it is not a 100% perfect kit.  It's only a 99.99999% perfect kit.

I had run into this issue with Tamiya's 1/48 F-16 Falcon that I built a couple of years back. At the time I was dealing with that one, some research pointed me toward using my Exacto knife to lightly scrape away the mold release line, and then to attack it with polishing compounds.  I used Tamiya's line of polishes - coarse, fine and finishing - then, and the F-16 canopy turned out just fine, sans mold release line.

Here is probably the best photo I have of that F-16 - I really had a great time building and painting that one!  

So with that background, I applied the same techniques to the Spitfire canopy.  I don't have a photo of the canopy, which is currently covered with the mask that comes with the kit, but the mold release line is just ... gone.  After I did the light scraping, I rubbed on a small dollop of the coarse polishing compound, much like one would do when waxing a car, and let it dry for about 20 minutes.  Then I rubbed it off with a clean towel, and repeated that process with the fine compound and finally the finishing compound.  After that, I put down a coat of Future - there is a PE piece that needs to be installed inside the canopy, so the Future will hopefully prevent the fuming from ruining the piece (there have been times when other modelers have reported that Future does not always work, so keeping my fingers crossed on this one).

Photos are of the finished clear pieces masked and ready for installation; the second picture shows them just resting on the fuselage.  Since that photo was taken, I have installed the wind screen and the rear window.  My initial plan had been to tack the canopy into place to enable painting, but a bit of the rear portion of the canopy extends over the rear window, meaning I won't get any paint to that area if I do tack the canopy into place.  So I will have to mask off the cockpit with cotton/foam to prevent errant paint from getting in there.  Tamiya also provides two access doors, one for closed position and the second for the open position.  I plan to display this with that door open, but have tacked into place with white glue the closed door for the painting process that will begin tomorrow.

Wow.  The Revell kit came out fantastic, and it looks like the Tamiya is going to as well.  Can't wait to see more! 

Cheers, Mark

I actually did not expect to get any work in today, but as things evolved through the day it did become clear that I was going to have some bench time, so take advantage of it I did.

I completed just about all the work I'm going to do on the engine.  I added a bunch of wiring in a very rough approximation to matching photos I found.  I'm pretty certain that my wiring/tubing is not representative of an actual Merlin engine, but I was pleased with how it looks nevertheless.  

I've left the exhaust stacks (separate pieces) off for now to aide in painting efforts to come.  The Tamiya Spitfire includes removal engine cowling panels all the way around. The panels can be attached and held in place with tiny magnets strategically placed around the engine block.  I've yet to test the holding strength; there were some reviews indicating this did not work quite as well as Tamiya expected, so I'll have to see if that holds true for me.  I will say that I had some issues installing the set of magnets on the underside, hidden in the air filter; I got one in place, finally (fat fingers + tiny magnets + limited space = tough work), then on the second magnet, with even less room to work, that magnet kept jumping out of my fingers and going to the already installed first magnet.  I also could not use my tweezers or the tip of my Exacto knife because the magnets (I know, shockingly) found more attraction to the metal on those instruments than to the CA on the plastic piece.

The outermost chassis parts proved to be a wee bit difficult to get into place, perhaps because they are actually a bit fragile, or at least they seem so.

Any way, on to some photos.

I will come back soon to do a bit more weathering on the engine mounts, but otherwise I'm calling this part of the build done.

I have hand-placed the engine into place on the Spitfire in these next photos.  Just wanted to see how easy or not it is to get the engine into place.  I'm happy to say that it just slides right in with absolutely no issue.

Some full body shots.

Next up is to complete weathering on the engine mount and put a coat of Future on the canopy pieces so that I can start protect the clear plastic from the notorious CA fumes (there is a PE piece to install inside the canopy).

Your work on the first Spitfire is superb.  I made the Tamiya kit a year ago and enjoyed every piece of it.  You're doing a fantastic job on the Tamiya Spitfire!

Toshi

On the day after yet another bad game from the Aggies, one in which they held on for a narrow win, I thought I would sit back and do pretty much nothing, but unfortunately, it's love bug season in Texas, and any trip generally results in a love bug massacre on the front surfaces of any cars.  So I spent some time washing all that away, then found myself drawn to the bench ... where of course my Spitfire was sitting there, waiting for me to return to her.  So I obliged.

Today I got the majority of the engine completed.  Primary painting is done, mostly Tamiya flat black and Model Master RAF interior green, with some Tamiya metallic gray and Model Master Metalizer Aluminum sprinkled in for good measure.  The engine looks good.  I'm not an expert on any engines but it appears correct based on the photos I've seen.

Photos that follow are of the mounting chassis and the engine itself; I have not yet actually mounted the engine.  I am researching photos to see placement of additional tubing and wiring, but am so far not convinced I have much space to work with in adding more details.  I'll probably spend a couple of days looking into that - cutting out some wiring to see if I can in fact add to the Merlin.

Got some work done on the engine yesterday and earlier this morning.  The engine appears to be quite detailed but there is room for more.  I'm looking at photos of the Merlin engine to see what I can add in the form of tubing and wiring.

But everything is on hold for the rest of today as I have to make a trip to Aggieland to watch a football game, hopefully one that does not end in another historic collapse.