Spitfire GB

Jack, honestly I can not answer that accurately one way or another. I do not have any references to fall back on beyond the cockpitnd exterior. I dont trust modern restored aircraft for 100% accuracy as I have seen the engine in gray and black. Although some of the ones I saw in image searches showed green in the engine area. At this point I am just following the kit instruction painting directions. I do beleive that only the early Mk Is had the Aluminum finish in the undercarriage bays due to that being the underside color when production was started.

I do like that Sky Blue shade that you mixed.

Alright folks, I guess I have officially started as of yesterday. Killing time waiting for my daughter at the gym, I brought the Seafire along with me & scraped the cockpit sidewalls off, getting ready for True Details resin replacements. I suspect it'll be slow progress as I finish up some other projects, but it's a start.

Thank You All for the positive compliments. It's nice to know that I'm making progress in my modeling skills.

Stikpusher - The control stick is actually in the straight upright neutral position. The camera angle simply gives it the appearance of being canted. I compliment you are your excellent observation though. I'm not sure I would have caught that in my build had I had positionable flaps. That one is noted in the memory bank. Also, your cockpit and engine are lookin very sweet. Nice work indeed.

                                                         Joe 

Thank you Joe. I could not tell you where the flaps lever is though I cant even recall where it is on a  T-6 at this moment and I have spent a few hours sitting in the one that my friend owns goofing off and pretending. I know how those camera angles can be misleading. That really is a beautiful build.

Well as a money saving measure I decided to go with the kit seat. I forgot that I had some Reheat PE RAF cockpit details in my drawer of goodies. Since I had thinned  down the seat to an acceptable level of thickness, I figured I might as well go with what I have. So I added the PE harness to the seat. The biggest challenge was to get the shoulder harnesses to line up with the "mail slot" in the seat back armor plate. I think it came out decent. Now I have to prime it all and paint it. Good thing that the seat is not glued inplace yet

I also did the dry brushing on the interior gray green area highligts using Humbrol Sky. Beyond that I did some sanding to the engine mount firewall to get it to fit better. It really does look too nice to close up in there. Unfortunatley the sanding and fitting lead to minor accident, but no photos of that for now.

Nice looking cockpit, stik.

My spit has white decals that go under the colored decals, do I need to use the white ones? The other ones look good enough to me, and dont appear as if the paint underneath would show through.

Psych:  I think if the decals came with white "under-decals" I'd use them.  Maybe the manufacturer knows something not obvious.  I've sometimes been unpleasantly surprised when painting shadows appeared through a decal that looked thick enough.

They must be there for a reason! Can you take a pic or a scan & show us what you are looking at?

Regarding the white decals, I'm working on the same kit. 

I'd say it's a personal choice if you want to use them.  On one hand it will make the whites and colours more vibrant, but at the same time a double decal could cause some loss of surface detail underneath. 

Just supposition here, but it is possible Tamiya  originally intended to have just a white decal when using the roundel on the black underwing scheme, but then decided to provide them for all the coloured insignia. Whatever the case, it was a nice gesture on their part as it is rare to see a model company provide this extra bonus.

regards,

Jack

Ahhh - jgeratic is probably right: white circle for "backing" on a black surface. And if you use a white background on one decal, you'd need to use it everywhere that the roundels are going to make sure the colours match. Nice touch from Tamiya.

undersurface round two...

Did another pre-shading and main colour coat.  For future projects will not be using weathering powders for this technique.  Upon closer inspection and better lighting can see a rough look to where it was applied.

regards,

Jack

Joe: Great looking plane, well done build and weathering, great subject.

Stik: excellent detailing, looks real enough to work.

Jack: Thanks, I was thinking the same thing about further impeding the handling. I need a guide on how much to remove, dont suppose you have a template? There isnt a lot of info on these prototypes. They didnt make many (3?) and they weren't anything that seemed special to them at the time. I just think this kit includes the things for several different marks. Four Blade prop and a bulgy nose, pointy tips, retractable tail gear, and symetrical intakes on the underside.

Wow some quality looking builds here.

Joe: Top job mate, youre Spit looks great!

Noah - I back tracked a few pages to look at your sprue shots for the float spit. From what I can see, the wing tips look normal, no need for surgery.  Also, since the underside have identical size rads, this makes it a Mk.IX .  I think the supplied decals are from a regular kit, as photos don't show any squadron codes, but only regular markings (roundels and fin flash), yellow P for the prototype models and those 3 sent to Egypt had their own fuselage serials.

From what I've read briefly on the net, all told 5 Spitfires were converted... one Mk.1,  three Mk,V and one Mk.IX:

Mk.1 - intended for the fjords in Norway, but the German campaign ended quickly so further interest dropped in the project.

Mk.V - three of these were converted and arrived in Egypt.  Plans were to have them operated from tiny islands along the Greek coastline to attack German transports. A few weeks before this operation was to be implemented, it was learned the Luftwaffe had reinforced the area so the floatplanes were moth-balled.

Mk.IX - intended for the Pacific,  the pace of the war never realized the potential of this one, and it too joined the others in the storage shed.

regards,

Jack

Thanks Jack you're a wealth. I think a floatplane subset in my collection will be cool. Ill get an Arado, Kingfisher and a Rufe to round it out..

Checkmate and Noah, thank you for the compliments. Today I made a run by the LHS and picked up the Ultracast resin exhausts. Those will really make the engine shine I think. Nice and flared with hollow ends. I had just enough time between my hobby shop run and getting ready for work to get a coat of Humbrol primer airbrushed on the exhaust stacks and the now modified kit seat. I ought to be able to get the remaining areas that need Interior Grey Green airbrushed tomorrow or defintely Friday.

Noah T

Thanks Jack you're a wealth. I think a floatplane subset in my collection will be cool. Ill get an Arado, Kingfisher and a Rufe to round it out..

^^ google is my friend  , besides Tim had already had the same reply way back when.  I just condensed things.

stik - I've got a set of Ultracast exhausts as well - any idea what kind metal they were made of?

regards,

Jack

A SWAG on my part says some sortof ferrous metal, due to teh fact you see them rust a bit but not horribly so. Perhaps a very thin gauge steel of some sort?

Memory tells me inconel was the alloy used for the exhaust stubs, stainless alloys of various types are also used.  Inconel is a ferrous alloy that can be welded. 

Thanks guys  ... I'm trying to figure out what colour to paint the exhausts.  From what I understand, it isn't as much rust as it actually is burnt iron that gives them that brown look.  So far I've sprayed a flat back on them.  Next will try some burnt iron metalizer.  Not sure what the grey is on them - metal or exhaust soot.

regards,

Jack

I think Doogs a couple of pages back went into some great detail on this with another member, was a good read.

I like using Testors MM "Jet Exhaust" or Gunze "Burnt Iron" for the base color. Then very thin washes of Burnt Sienna or Rust for some more discoloration, and Tamiya weathering compac Soot for the stains.

Or if you can find some Moskit exhausts.... Those are sweet!

stikpusher

, and Tamiya weathering compac Soot for the stains.

Ohh I love Tamiya weathering compac's!!   Actually Im in the throws of doing the wheel housings of my 1/32 Hellcat right now in fact (waiting for a top layer to dry then back in), check the weathering GB if you wish. Ive sprayed a couple of layers of flat white for the under colour and will use the soot compac to dirty it up. Works wonders, very happy with this product!

Furyan

I think Doogs a couple of pages back went into some great detail on this with another member, was a good read.

Yep, somewhere aways back there. 

Long story short, I used the following on my exhausts:

The exhausts were painted with a 50/50 mix of Alclad Steel and Exhaust Manifold. Everything got a raw umber oil wash, followed by some selective pigments…mostly Black Smoke, Africa Earth, Europe Dust, Russian Earth, and Burnt Steel Blue, all by MIG.

Been following this GB for a while now and I'd like to join in. I've got a Tamiya 1/48 MK I to be build OOB (couldn't find the Cutting Edge cockpit anywhere).

I should have the fuselage buttoned up later tonight... Some touchup paint, lap belts, and got to figure out where to attach the shoulder harness and should be good to go.

I tried something different (for me) I sprayed all the cockpit components in flat black then built up thin layers of grey-green until I had the depth I wanted... not bad but doesn't show well in the photos.

I've got a lot of questions about Spitfires... know next to nothing about British aircraft. From what I've seen so far you guys are the ones to ask.

Good to "see" you again, jbrady!  You will find a lot of information here.

Well here is where I'm at with the exhausts.  Thought I'd post for opinions before rendering the crap out of them.
First pic is flat back followed by Steel metalizer and then Burnt Iron (both non-buffing brand from MM).

2nd stage started with a light wash of blue and then red.  Next used weathering powders rust and white.  Used a bit of black powder with these to darken, but no application of the black itself.

Third,  added some pencil crayon details - purple, browns and blue.

regards,

Jack

Nice work guys!

I think Im going to trash this build and do another spit, there were multiple things I was not happy with that I know I could have done better. I'll be taking a break from this GB for a bit but I will keep checking up on you guys.

I have you added Jbrady, welcome aboard!

Well no more progress for me yet. Today went in directions to where I had no real time to get the airbrush going. So I just took some pics to show how the seat and exhausts look under a coat of primer.