Hi All
My name’s Phil, and I’m getting back into scale modeling after 22 years (at least). The last time I built a model my family didn’t even have the internet at the time, this time around I have the opportunity to learn about a whole lot of new techniques that I didn’t really know about when I was in my early/mid teens. Plus I have a whole lot more patience now as well.
I’m not too sure how to post photos of my build with this forum software, so I’ll share a Dropbox ink of the gallery here:
https://www.dropbox.com/sh/wp54m33jev91u9g/AABs70FfEu0jTnO2qILmV7b9a?dl=0
What prompted me to really get back into into plastic models was a trip to a small, local air museum (Lyon Air Museum in Orange County, CA) last month. They had quite a lot of models on display, and I had a great tour guide who spent an hour with me giving me the history of the planes in the museum. So, the next day I went to a great local shop called Military Hobbies, a great honest-to-goodness scale model shop that’s in town. My first build was an Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vb 1/48. I had built a Spitfire as a teenager, so I thought this would be a good way to get reintroduced to the hobby.
Assembling the model was pretty fun, and finding solutions to problems was satisfying. Some things did give me some aggravation though, and that was painting. I purchased Humbrol enamel paint, and I had trouble with it starting with the cockpit. I had difficulty getting good consistency with the paint, and couldn’t apply it evenly. My plan all along was to have a closed cockpit because I thought I wasn’t going to do well assembling it, but it turned out pretty well despite the paint issue. But I painted the cockpit wrong color, so I kept it closed. I’m not too upset about it, though. I’ll have the cockput more on-view next build.
One tank that’s supposed to go in the cockpit after gluing to the fuselage was impossible for me to attach. I did dry runs before gluing anything several times to see how I could do it. Ultimately I tried to mount the tank on a pin to guide it in, but while doing so I squeezed the tank too hard with tweezers and it went flying into the ether, never to be seen again. I did the same thing with the clear parts in the front of the cockpit - twice. The support bar at the back of the cockpit spontaneously broke, but it was a part I could easily make from leftover parts of the sprues.
I had trouble with the top segment of the fuel tank where it meets the cockpit. It didn’t fit well at all on the plane once I put it on the rest of the fuselage, and it looked very out of place. I shaped and sanded it, and managed to keep the detail on the top of the part. Next time around I’ll buy smaller files and sanders, the big lounge-depressor sized one I had was a bit too big and filed out some details. One thing about this kit that there’s a point in the front of the fuselage where the details don’t line up at all. I wasn’t sure what to do about that so I filed it off.
I put the extended range fuel tank on the model because I misread the options and drilled holes on the bottom of the wings thinking it was part of the process and not an option. I had to put the tank on because I didn’t have anything to fill the holes I made.
After that things were going decently well until I started painting the plane in earnest. Hand painting wasn’t cutting it so I bought an airbrush. It took a while to get used to as I had never used one before. Steep learning curve, and I kept having issue with the paint. I painted the underside, and the finish seemed rather coarse, so I sanded it down a bit which made it a bit smoother (but still porous). The brown paint - oh boy - the first layer of paint I sprayed on it looked like the plane flew through mud. I cleaned nearly all of it off with rubbing alcohol. The second layer I sprayed on looked coarse, and had very little adhesion. When it dried I wiped off a lot of it with a Q-tip. Reading more airbrush technique online, and threads about the Humbrol paint I thinned the paint further (way more than what’s been suggested online) and added a drop of washing up liquid - THAT layer of paint was finally OK. However, when I followed the same formula with the gray paint the results were different in terms of finish, despite also giving it a light sand. The varnish I used looked great on the brown paint, but was completely absorbed by the gray paint. I used a lot of varnish, but couldn’t make it look consistent in the end. Oh well. I had Testors black enamel paint, which worked just fine. The Testors aluminum paint worked OK - but kind of had issues when I started weathering with mineral spirits.
I was dreading the landing gear. I always messed up landing gear as a kid. Probably because I was impatient and fiddled with it before it had a chance to dry and cure. Thanks to the large fuel tank I could put some putty on the landing gear next to the tank to hold it in place while it dried. Unfortunately, I perhaps had too much paint in between the plastic bits and one landing side fell off. However the break was clean, and I could reglue it back on the model and ultimately had it on a better angle than I had when I originally glued it on.
In hindsight I should’ve shaped the canopy choice to the plane before painting the fuselage. It was a little off, and had gaps that I wasn’t sure how to fill. I had lots of Tamiya tape, and things went OK as far as painting it was concerned - again the consistency of the paint was disappointing.
Applying the decals was nerve-racking. When I was a kid I’d drop the whole sheet of decals into the water at once. Doing this as an adult I can’t believe I ever did that. I sort of got the hang of it after doing an initial dunk of the decal in vinegar. But I still experienced some silvering, probably because of the inconsistent finish of the paint. I did use rubbing alcohol to sort of melt the decal into the model, which worked OK. It did affect the varnish a tad, especially on the porous gray paint. Maybe I’ll try the decal softener product next time.
Weathering was fun. I’m pretty comfortable with artist’s oil paints, and I had those supplies on-hand. I had to go a bit overboard on the bottom of the plane because the finish was so porous, but looking at photos of spitfires I saw that the underside could indeed get very filthily. The mineral spirits seemed to affect the aluminum paint which made the tires a little sparkly, and so I had to hand repaint the tires.
All in all I’m satisfied with the results for a first build. Next time around I really think I’ll switch to acrylic paint. The enamel paint really took a lot of fun out of the project, and really filled the workspace with a lot of fumes. I had a pretty open room with windows open, and fans moving air, and a respirator on, but it’s just too toxic I find.