Spitfire GB

Good work with the Silly Putty. Never tried it before. Looks good.

Spitfire paint job came out very well, Joe.  Looks good.

I've made some progress on mine. 

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The one on the left is the old mold, the new is on the right.  You can see that the new mold has a separate rudder, also a rearview mirror molded on the canopy.  I had to sand the rear of the canopy to get a fit, and even then it was very snug.  

The new mold canopy sort of hinges at the front of the cockpit and then swings down into place.  The old mold has a hole in the fuselage and a pin on the canopy, and just settles and sits on top of the fuselage. 

I attached the canopies with white glue, then filled in the gaps around them with diluted white glue.  The spinner back plate is in place on both and masked.

I'm ready to paint, and here's a look at my masking technique.  Hopefully it will work.

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First, there's ordinary kitchen type wax paper.  On top of that I taped down some strips of masking tape, wide enough to accomodate the masks.  Then I taped the masks on top of the masking tape with clear packaging tape, so I can see to cut them out.  Once the masks are cut out, I can peel the wax paper away, and they shoudl be ready to stick.  Of course, they will leave a hard edge to the camouflage. 

The masks themselves are old copies of old Eduard masks, which I haven't seen available for sale for at least three years.  They were produced in both A and B patterns, and were pretty handy.  Too bad they appear to be discontinued.  I altered them somewhat using photos and profiles, and sized them to the Airfix Spits by computer.  Remarkably, both old and new molds are so similar in size, I didn't need to change the size of the masks; they fit either one.

I'll be doing the undersurfaces on all three, then the brown; apply masks and paint the green.  Should take a couple of days, with time for the paint to dry between colours.

By the way, I gained a lot from "listening in" to your discussion on national markings, Tim and Jack.  Very informative.  Thanks.

Thank You Gentlemen for the compliments.

Checkmateking - I really like your comparison build your doing. The concept is very unique and quite interesting. Curious, does your masks wrap around the fuselage and mate on top?

NoahT -  Your camo came out very nicely. What did you use for a mask?

                                                                Joe

Thanks, Joe.  I find myself liking both of them a lot. 

Yes, the masks wrap around and meet at the top, although sometiimes I have to fiddle with some extra pieces to fill in here and there.

Thanks Joe, no masks I brush on the bottom color, sand, coat, sand, think, camo, sand, touch up, decals, dull coat.

Hey Guys

I almost have my BOB Mk1 Airfix kit done, just need a little touch up and some detailing.

I just bought a Star Supermarie Floatfire in 1/72nd last night off of ebay ($7.56 shipped). Anybody build one of these before?

Noah T

Hey Guys

I almost have my BOB Mk1 Airfix kit done, just need a little touch up and some detailing.

I just bought a Star Supermarie Floatfire in 1/72nd last night off of ebay ($7.56 shipped). Anybody build one of these before?

A float-fire??? I think I've actually seen a picture or two but didn't realize there was a kit out there!

VanceCrozier

 

Noah T:

 

Hey Guys

I almost have my BOB Mk1 Airfix kit done, just need a little touch up and some detailing.

I just bought a Star Supermarie Floatfire in 1/72nd last night off of ebay ($7.56 shipped). Anybody build one of these before?

 

 

 

A float-fire??? I think I've actually seen a picture or two but didn't realize there was a kit out there!

Trumpy makes a 1/24 Spit V floater...

Well my paints came in today, along with some turned brass cannon.

So put me down for Special Hobby's 1/48 Spitfire Mk.VC

This is the markings it will be built in.  Caption for this profile states while flying this particular Spitfire, George Beurling would achieve ace status.  His official killboard though shows that he had only 4 confirmed and two damaged at this point - does that mean a damage counts as half a kill?

regards,

Jack

Hey, everyone is doing some very interesting and nice looking work. My mind hasent been into the spitfire lately, Im finishing a mustang then going back on the spit. Im not 100% certain but I think I wont have an offical deadline, but rather and official last day to sign up. Once youre in you can take as long as you need to finish and still claim the badge. With how I work on models, its the only reasonable option I think. I hate deadlines...

ww2psycho

Hey, everyone is doing some very interesting and nice looking work. My mind hasent been into the spitfire lately, Im finishing a mustang then going back on the spit. Im not 100% certain but I think I wont have an offical deadline, but rather and official last day to sign up. Once youre in you can take as long as you need to finish and still claim the badge. With how I work on models, its the only reasonable option I think. I hate deadlines...

 I'm all good with that. Fits my building pace just fine.

Made some progress over the last several days.  First are the three Spits, with undersurfaces painted and masked.  Top surfaces were painted already in Dark Earth by the time I remembered to take pictures.

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Here's how the two types of DE look next to each other.  MM DE is far right; WEM are top and left.  There is a noticeable difference in the two interpretations of the color (colour?).

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Next up, I put on the masks to prepare for the Dark Green. 

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Next up are the Spits with the camouflage done.

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And a photo of the undersides, from left:  MM's Duck Egg Blue, WEM's Sky Blue BS 1, and WEM's eau de nil.

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 At first glance, eau de nil is pretty striking.  Amazing that they used this color/colour.  But it grows on ya.

As usual, problem!  It appears I didn't quite get the masks on very well for DW-T.  This will require some touch up.

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I'll get to work on this.  Also am planning on using a wash to bring out the panel lines--something I haven't tried in a while, since it doesn't seem to work for me; but the undersides will look awful plain if I don't do something to them, and only one of the Spits has roundels under there.

Thanks for looking in again.

nice work checkmate!, the different colors are cool. Are they supposed to be like that or are you trying different ones to see what you like?

I've also updated the front page. Last day for sign up is a year -10 days from when it started.

Thanks, psycho; they are supposed to be like that, to "illustrate" the variations in paints used to approximate the "Sky Type S" ordered by the Air Ministry in early summer 1940.

There's even a pretty detailed discussion here:

/forums/t/140999.aspx

When the topsides are all dark earth/dark green, on all BoB Spitire and Hurricanes, it breaks up the monotony to do something different with the undersides.

Here is LO-P with a wash applied to the undersurfaces.  This is the new mold with engraved panel lines, and the wash went on with no problem.  Better still, it wiped off with no problem from the areas I didn't want it.  It's acrylic craft paint from Michaels, called "Hunter Green" (I think; I put the bottle back in the basement already). 

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Next is the topside of LO-P.  I also applied a wash of the darkest brown I could find at Michaels--Raw Umber.  I put it over the whole thing, but you can see it didn't make much of a difference against the DE/GR.

Is it better to use straight black as a wash, then? 

By the way, above the model is the profile I used as reference.  I thought I got it here off the FSM threads, but I can't find it again.  So my thanks to the contributor.

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Below is DW-T (old mold), topsides then undersurfaces.  Again, the raw umber wash didn't make much impact on the DE/DG.

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I also applied a wash, Apple Barrel "Midnight Blue" craft paint to the undersides of DW-T.  I came out lighter and more subtle than I expected, which is OK.  I was hoping it would settle around the raised lines, and, well, outline them. 

Got kind of frustrated, because I started with only a pin wash; didn't look right, so after it dried I did a sludge wash over the whole thing, leaving the pin wash (which by that time wouldn't come off anyway).  Seems it kind of blended everything together a little better.

I used a black wash in the shell ejector chutes.

Somehow, all the photos of QJ-Y disappeared between the camera and photobucket, but I used the same washes on it as on DW-T.

Hopefully I plan to finish everything up this week.  Thanks for looking in.

checkmateking02 ] - your production assembly on the spitfires is looking great.    Your method of making your camou patterns is neat and will have to keep it in mind when the need arises.   Incidentally, early in the spitfire' career the camou indeed was hard edge.  Later on rules became a bit more lax, but the Ministry advised to keep overspray down to a minimum, maybe one inch in real scale, to keep the "aerodynamic smoothness" of the aircraft's surfaces.

Regarding washes on the surfaces, black will probably be too stark a contrast particularly at this small scale - but in the end ithey are your models.  I can see using a darker wash in areas that have moving parts such as the ailerons, rudder etc and of course the ejector chutes.  Raised panels lines really need a different approach (a recent issue of finescale addressed this).  Basically they need to be painted a dark colour beforehand followed with a clear protective coat of some kind.  Then you would paint the base colour and once dry, lighty sand to expose darker panel lines.

regards,

Jack

Thank you, Jack.  Your comments are very kind.

In researching Spit camouflage on the net, I read that eventually the workers in the factories took it upon themselves to "freehand" the camouflage without the rubber masks normally utilized, and so some soft-edge was evident.  In 72nd, it doesn't matter to me very much, and I admire people who do get soft-edge results.  I tried it once with Zabreski's P-47 with mixed, but acceptable, results.  Not outstanding, not horrific.

Also, I did see the article in FSM abut the sanding method.  Initiallly, taking sandpaper to paint gives me the willies, but I may try it on a project of lesser importance some time, to see how it works.  Thanks for reminding me of the method.  It had slippped my mind. 

I was browsing the WWI group build earlier this week, and saw some of your work there.  You are very accomplished and talented.  Your artistry is exceptional.

I am finished now with alll three Spitfires, but haven't had time to do photography yet, and tonight is a late work night.  I hope by Thursday or Friday to get the end results up.  This has been a fun build, and I've picked up a lot of all-around useful  information.  

ww2psycho

I've also updated the front page. Last day for sign up is a year -10 days from when it started.

Why not make it an ongoing thing, like Hans' B-25 group?

Either way, I'd like to officially enter another build - PCM's 1/32 Spitfire Mk.XIV. 

Not sure about the other Spits in my stash. Got some fun things I want to do with my two Tamiya Vbs, but I have a lot of fun things I want to do with a lot of my stash, and not enough time to do them all!

Ok I'm calling the Airfix Mk1 done. I had some decal issues with the tail markings and the port roundel. The touch of paint I added there stayed domed.

next to its airfix mk1 hurricane

and now.....to introduce the FLOATFIRE!

small number of good enough parts.

nice looking decals

Anybody read Russian?

I'd like to join this GB.  I'm new to model making,  have just finished a MK IX  1/48 from Academy .   Thank you Buddy Bergman 

Looks really good, Noah.  I also had some decal trouble with mine, although I used Xtradecals for the markings. 

For touchups, I've been using acrylic craft paint from Michaels, various brands, whatever comes close.  Being water based, they can't damage the basic finish, since I use lacquers and enamels for that.

Nevertheless, nice work.

And a Floatfire.  Who'd have thought?  Love the instructions, but can't help there.

Noah T

Anybody read Russian?

 

Wow - my Russian is a little rusty - I hope there are illustrations!

Really fine build Noah. Pity about the decals. That FloatFire certainly looks intrigueing. I'm rather curious to see her come together. I too like the decals.

                                                       Joe                            

Finally found the time to take photos, only to have the camera battery expire after only one plane.  So will finish up later, but for now, here is QJ-Y, representing 616 (South Yorkshire) Squadron, stationed at Leconfield in August 1940.

The undersides are finished in WEM's Sky Blue BS 1, with dark blue wash applied in acrylic.  Roundels were shown on the profile, so after some research I put them near the wingtips, since I've not done that before.

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Overhead:  showing problems with decals.  First, the starboard roundel went on OK; the port wrinkled up like crazy with airbubbles all over, like chicken pox.  Had to open my second and last sheet of Xtradecals, leaving me with no more 56" roundels.  Second, some silvering, which defied all my efforts to eliminate it.

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Side views; for the red gun port tape, I used some left over red decal from an Academy B-17; it might be too dark, but four years ago when building Hurricanes and Spitfires, there was no red decal film to be found, so I had to improvise:

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From the front; again, the DE/DG come from WEM's Colourcoats:

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From the back, where still another decal problem popped up.  The starboard side tail stripes broke up, at the front (red), so I had to patch it up with paint.  I had three bottles of acrylic craft paint from Michaels, and one of them was a near perfect match, but now I can't tell which one I ended up using. 

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That's maybe all y'all can tolerate right now, and I still have two more to post (DW-T) and LO-P.  Thanks for looking in.

Buddy B..  My 1/48 Italeri Spitfire MK-IX. My first 1/48 and camo. (obviously) LOL

http://i1080.photobucket.com/albums/j321/babbeach/Models/P9210119.jpg

Budds  1/48 Italeri MK IX. My first 1/48 and camo job.  (obviously)

Checkmateking: Really nice build I like the sky blue more then the grey. My kit too used aftermarket decals and stated to use the smaller roundels to the extreme of the wing. I like that your tail decals wrapped around better then mine which ripped at the white. I guess I'll add that to the touch up list.

All: The Star box for the Floatfire looks like it suggests the photo recon blue over yellow? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciates. I dont even know what mark this is!!

I couldnt seem to find much on this variant on the web. I bet someone has a good resource out there...

Thanks, Noah.  I also like the darker Sky Blue.  Even in b&W, some photos look like the undersurfaces might be darker than the usual Sky.

It took plenty of MicroSol to get those tail decals to wrap around; and even then the top is touched up with white acrylic craft paint. to get that effect.

Below now is DW-T, from 610 Squadron.  I used the well-known photo as a basis for choosing the decals.

Undersides first, finished in MM Duck Egg Blue, with midnight blue wash.  No roundels, because conventional wisdom says 610 didn't have them--although I'm not sure.

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Overhead; once again a problem with silvering, which I didn't have with the fuselage markings.  Huh?  Uppersurfaces are finished with MM's version of DE/DG.  Because of ruining my only 56" roundels, the ones on DW-T are 59", from Xtradecal.

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Port view; squadron markings are Xtradecal; roundel is from Eagle Strike.  I used Floquil Grimy Black on the tires, then masked with MicroMask--and it worked.  It failed on the other two.

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 Front from both sides; I did the exhausts with MM Burnt Iron, then oversprayed with Burnt Metal:

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Starboard view; research said the red circle in the fuselage roundel is larger than standard:

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I tried to make this shot to be similar to the photo;

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Back around to the rear port:

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 Closer view of the canopy area; I was trying to see how close I could get the camera and still keep something in focus, and this just about did it:

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Had to do some repair on LO-P.  The radio wire came off one end, so will finish posting tomorrow.   Thanks for looking, again.