1/48 Revell Spitfire Mk II (Completed - pg. 6 update)

Some really nice scratch work in there Mike, its coming on really nice.

Its actually pretty easy to scratch build things. All you need is some scraps to work with.

For example, I built up the flap control with some scrap card stock.

I cut some squares about the same size and then cut the corners off of those to make octagons.

From this point its easy to sand off those corners and make the shapes round.

I then cut out a slot for my control lever.

After that I sandwiched and glued the three layers together with the slotted disk in the middle. I sanded down all three disks down even, glued it in place, and added a lever.

On the throttle side I built it very much as it was molded on the side wall and using a little memory from what my references showed me I came up with this;

I also scraped off the emergency bar and added one of appropriate size in its place on the side door.

When you get into the mind set of scratch building, suddenly every little piece of junk has a new purpose. Such as, I like to use bread tie wires, paper clips, and staples a lot.

That's just incredible.  I just don't know where or how to start scratch building.  I can't imagine how you guys do it!

Toshi

Ask, and ye shall recieve. lol

I've got the radiator painted in aluminum with a dark metalic wash, but I think it needs further definition with a good ol' black wash to make it pop a bit more.

The damper is built and installed and I even have some simplistic actuators in there as I couldn't find a single reference picture for the radiator at all. So I (forgive me) "winged" it.  ;)

I've also got the seat painted and given a wash. I've left the seatbelts off this time because I'm going to install them after the paint instead of painting them while they're on the seat this time. That will cover up that ugly EP mark in the bottum of the bucket.

Then I closed up the fuse halve temporarily to check how much room I have for the next round of scratch building in the pit for the walls. I need to build up a throttle body and what I believe is a flap actuator on the right side (correct me, please, if I am wrong).

Its very difficult to get a good shot in there with the fuselage closed up, but far better with the naked eye. After looking at some pictures online I think I have a good idea of what I need to build.

As always, it's looking great!  I'm very excited to see more progress!

Toshi

LOL Good comments, fellas! LOL

I'm working on painting the seat and I'm back into this model now. I'll post some progress pics later.  :)

Always great stuff, Mike!  I have been wanting to start this kit for a couple of years now and always end up doing something else.

As I have learned from several internet sources, the kit is of 1979 vintage and is a pretty decent kit.  The only real big issue is that it misses the gull wing shape of the wings under the fuselage.  If you look at a pic of a MkII and others i suppose from the underside you can see it clearly.  Other than that, spruce up the pit and she's good to go.

Spitfires just get my juices flowing!!!!!

Thanks, Brandon. Although I had thought I knew this kit, it turns out I've never built it before lol. I like it though. Just like the 109G-10, the kit has just enough detail to let me make it even more fun lol.

Just before bed last night I stayed up with the builder's bug and I detailed the radiator using some internet pictures for inspiration. I don't think this is accurate, but it sure as heck looks cool.





Of course copious bits of sprue and card stock were used. The results are pretty good, I think.





It looks like a radiator.    Now I just need to find a good picture of the actuator for the damper so I can add those in there as well.

Have a great day!

Beautiful work Sir, you are off to a great start. I love the gun sight mod, great idea! 

BK

There was this gap...



...behind the cockpit and I knew I wouldn't be able to putty it after it was painted and assembled so I glued some styrene scraps and stretched sprue to build up the gap then sanded and filed it to fit together without the gap.



That should eliminate the need to fix it afterwards.

Then there was this wing warp issue. No big deal and easily rectified. This is the first time I've had one this bad though.



And lastly this fine evening, I made some choice cuts in preparation for further detailing later. Guess what I'm up to? lol

And also I found this;

Reasoned, I owe you an appology. You were RIGHT. This is a Monovell kit. I must be remembering a Snap Tight kit, I guess. This is not a kit I remember from my childhood, so I guess I've never built this one before. I am sorry about that.

Thanks for looking and have a great night. 

I am not awake yet, Jay. But this is where you can find some alacrity;

a·lac·ri·ty

"The throttle is molded to the side wall and really lacks depth, but I'll fix that with alacrity! "

So where can I get this Alacrity ?  Does it cost much ?  I supose I hafta order it from the UK. 

I had the old Monogram kit when I was a kid. It had a pilot and no pit what-so-ever. The landing gear were able to swing down and click into place as well. This is not that old Monogram kit. I think this one is a classic Revell. But yes, it has the raised panel lines [sigh] which I plan on fixing some of them. Mainly around the engine, gun bays, and the hatch aft of the cockpit.

This kit does have the Monogram feel to it, but that kit didn't have anything on the inside of it. The pilot sat on a peg lol.

However, this is the kit that is available in almost every store in America, yes.

Now on to tonights last gasp.

I removed the odd structures from the seat that I could find no picture references for. Miraculously the seat fit like a glove after I removed the mystery bits. I then decided to detail the (whatever it is) behind the pilot's seat and add some detail to it. It looks decent enough without paint. I hope it looks better WITH paint lol.

Believe it or not, all of that carving took me quite some time to accomplish this evening. And here I thought I was going to get to piant something, lol, silly me.

Then remove the drill bit and stretch out your coil of wire/cable.

Fantastic start Mike! This is the old Revellogram MkII that is in every hobby store on the planet for less than $15, with raised panel lines etc.? Well keep the shots coming, this was my first kit after coming back to the hobby, she's austere at best.

7474

How did you paint the instruments like that? I can only dry brush them, looks very realistic. 

 

I cheat! I use very fine tip artist's pens and fine tip sharpies.

Once you get your panel painted you just use a very small brush to drop in some very thin white paint. Capillary action fills it in. After that dries you start "coloring" your gauges in. It still takes a steady hand to make sure you stay withing the lines, but its easier than trying to use a tiny brush. Trust me, I know.

Update! Because who doesn't like an update, right? lol

For those of you cheap bast@rds like myself, who would rather take a shot at building it up yourself, rather than shell out the cash for better parts to cut the build time down a lot, I thought I'd share this little idea for those of you who haven't already seen it.

All you need to replicate (Better than not doing it) some decent looking gun sights is a little bit of blister packaging. It comes from almost everything these days so you shouldn't have a hard time getting your hands on a bit of scrap.

You just need some sharp scissors and some sanding stick of some kind to first cut out a general sized piece and then shape it to your needs.





Affix the lens with some clear gloss and you've got a fairly good looking gun sight. The one tht cam ewith this kit was molded completely solid. It definitely needed this little bit of scratch building.





And that's your tip for the day lol.

Now I am going to do a little internetz diggin' to figure out how to better represent this box (Battery? Radio??) behind the pilot's seat. You should be able to see quite a bit of detail through the glass on this one so I want to make sure it doesn't look like generic block. Besides, this seat doesn't look like it has enough to it either, or maybe it does. I'll have to go find out.



Keep moddlin' my friends!

How did you paint the instruments like that? I can only dry brush them, looks very realistic. 

Hodakamax

Ah, cool new project and looking good. I built the Tamiya version so try not to make mine look too bad. Keep up the good work and I may post mine after I see yours. LOL

Max

 

Bah! I bet yours looks fabulous, Max. I'll try not to? lol

1943Mike

Mike,

I'm very envious of your painting skills! When I look at your work compared to mine I almost want to give up. Now that's not going to happen so I'll just have to keep looking at marvelous work like yours and try to emulate some of the techniques you so aptly display.

The only Spitfire I have in my stash is the Occidental Mk IXe which, I've read, is not at all accurate as far as shape is concerned and not very detailed. How do you rate your kit?

 

 

No need to be envious of my skills, lol. They certainly are not up to my satisfaction at times lol. NEVER give up! Just let things rest a while before returning to them. SOme of my best work has come from setting things aside for a time and working on something else till I feel like working on it again.

I think I'll try showing you how I painted that color. It could come in handy, eh?

As for rating this kit...

I've just started it and I've never built this one before. The level of detail is rather nice for an older kit. It certainly was amazing for its time. The fit of parts needs a little tweeking and sanding before the few parts I've worked over fit without any issues. Which is typical.

There is plenty of room for scratch building up more details though. This kit comes with all the basic structures and parts but lacks all the seriously good details such as the wires or basic throttle controls. The throttle is molded to the side wall and really lacks depth, but I'll fix that with alacrity!

Basically you get enough to work with without having to buy a whole set of detail kits to make it look right. But if you wanted to, there would certainly be no problem with that. lol

Also it looks like the canopy is designed to actually slide open and closed. Nice feature, but it makes the pit sides look off. I think I can work with it and give it a little improvement however.

Overall score in my book would be about a 5. Just average in comparison with what has been produced in this decade.

As far as the general shape... It looks like a Spitfire to me, lol. We'll see what I can make of it, eh?

Oh, one last thing; the landing gear look a little weak and fragile. About as bad as they were on the Me-109G10 I built a while back. I'll probably have to adjust the way they stand once I get to thet point. The gear on the 109 were way too far inboard and it made the plane sit funny. http://cs.finescale.com/fsm/modeling_subjects/f/2/t/165748.aspx

So now I'll get to work on documenting what I do with the seat section of the pit. ;)

Ah, cool new project and looking good. I built the Tamiya version so try not to make mine look too bad. Keep up the good work and I may post mine after I see yours. LOL

Max

Jay Jay

Mike,

TY for posting this , another inspiring build.

Your IP looks stellar . The green wash you used made the color very realistic to my eyes for sure.  Looking foward to the next installment of your WIP.

 

Inspiring? Thank you! I think that IP is turning out pretty good myself, and I do like the color after the wash. It looks right to my eyes as well. I'm pretty sure its wrong, but I still like it lol.

I'll update as soon as I can.  :)

Mike,

I'm very envious of your painting skills! When I look at your work compared to mine I almost want to give up. Now that's not going to happen so I'll just have to keep looking at marvelous work like yours and try to emulate some of the techniques you so aptly display.

The only Spitfire I have in my stash is the Occidental Mk IXe which, I've read, is not at all accurate as far as shape is concerned and not very detailed. How do you rate your kit?

Mike,

TY for posting this , another inspiring build.

Your IP looks stellar . The green wash you used made the color very realistic to my eyes for sure.  Looking foward to the next installment of your WIP.

Well thank you, my fiend. I'm literally just getting started lol.

Paint is 95% done on the IP. Its not turning out too badly for a kit piece. The camera on Macro is showing me that there is a little refinement to take care of, but that's at least mostly done.

The guages are a little more rough looking at this distance, but the compass looks decent enough.

This is very exciting.  You've really have my attention!

Toshi