Spitfire GB

I'm impressed with this kit... it's simple but the fit is great. It may be the first time ever I don't use any filler at all.

Am I correct in thinking that the two muzzel extensions should be drilled out for a 1940 Mark I spit?

Of course, as with all of my builds, something had to go wrong. The back piece of the canopy snapped taking it off the sprue tree. Oh well this was never supposed to be a perfect build.

Yes, the protruding muzzles need to be removed.  These were flash eliminators intended for night flying but were removed just prior to or shortly after war broke out.

You will likely get a gap between the back end bottom wing and fuselage.  I addressed this issue couple pages back.

Tough break on the clear part,  odd to see it broken that way.  It is characteristic to be more brittle then the kit plastic itself and usually it shatters at the parts tree joint.

regards,

Jack

Thanks on the flash suppresors... absolutely no gap on the wing fuselage joint. I saw your discussion, so before I fitted the wing I filed down the inside of the wing right where it joins to the fuselage. worked like a charm.

Here's pic of the joint... a little Mr. Surfacer and good to go

Regarding the gap, there should still be a panel line there.  Might have to re-scribe it after sanding.

Hey, those panels are overlapping and rivets raised... doesn't Supermarine know they are all supposed to be recessed? Just kidding

Well I made a little progress in airbrushing on my Spit. I airbrushed all the Interrior Gray Green parts that I missed the first time, and then the seat, since I decided to go with the modified kit seat. I also airbrushed the 20mm cannons in Gun Metal and the exhaust stacks in Jet Exhaust. All colors today are MM Acryl. I did not take any pics of the guns yet.

the seat

and the exhausts- next step on them will be a wash or two to darken them up a bit.

More progress today

First off, I finished all the motor mount framing.

Then I build the prop. Each blade had a sink mark on the rear face so I had to fill with putty, wait for that to dry and then sand them before gluing them to the spinner back plate. Each blade also had a moderate amount of flash requiring removal... did I mention that I do not care for those props that require the builder toattach each blade individually?

and placed on that beautiful 1/48 RR Merlin

I painted the seat back cushion, but still need to paint the harness before it is glued in to the rest of the cockpit assembly. I just put it in place for this pic.

and I mounted the 20mm cannon in the wings

stikpusher: nice work. I don't like those individual blades either.

Got some work done. I repaired the rear portion of the the canopy.

Careful gluing and some Krystal Klear and the split is minimized.
I wanted to close this one up but with the center portion of the canopy in the open position the split in the rear portion will hardly be visable at all.

The masks I ordered won't be here until Tuesday so I'm going to go ahead and mask the clear parts with pinstriping tape and Micro Mask. I really hate masking canopies... what else is new. Should be ready for paint late tomorrow.

Nice save on the rear canopy JB. Fixing the sliding hood open to minimize seeing the damage is a good idea

It's (finally) here!!

So now because of my always fun schedule, I have decided to attempt to build this within a month timespan. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot faster than I've built anything so far.

Wish I could start on it tonight, but can't. So tommorow I will have 31 days to turn this....

....into this!

sub - Right on, now we got three 1/48 Mk.I Spits on the go.  Though you won't be able to make the PR as pictured (Tamiya kit hasn't the 4-blade prop nor the later mark wide chord /pointed rudder.  It's all good as it is for your daughter's bedroom.

Stik - good job on your prop - did you use some kind of jig to line up the individual blades or just eyeballed?

jbrady - you've caught up to me in the build progress, I too am at the canopy stage.  For  BoB era, make sure to use the one with an oval-shaped panel on the port side.

regards,
Jack

jgeratic1 - Yeah I got the right canopy... used the other one just to show the mitigation of the break in the rear canopy.

Ready for paint. First time no filler used at all. The only thing I used was some acrylic paint along the joins. Sanded it back and there are no seams.

I followed the discussion of the joint between the wing and fuselage. It let me avoid the hastle of trying to eliminate the step that others had to worry about. I made sure that the back of the join fit perfectly before gluing. I had to do filing down of the inside of the wing assembly and a little sanding of the fuselage but it worked. I had a very smalll gap that was filled with super glue and then I spent two minutes rescribing the panel line.

sub revolution

It's (finally) here!!

So now because of my always fun schedule, I have decided to attempt to build this within a month timespan. Doesn't sound like much, but it's a lot faster than I've built anything so far.

Wish I could start on it tonight, but can't. So tommorow I will have 31 days to turn this....

 

....into this!

 

31 days to make it 1:1 scale WOW... thats awesome 

jgeratic1

Stik - good job on your prop - did you use some kind of jig to line up the individual blades or just eyeballed?

Jack, the prop blades are one of the few parts in the kit that have locator pins.. go figure. But I had no jig. On the spinner back, each blade has a cradle with a slot in the center. This keeps the blade fairly well alined and ends equidistant from the hub center. I took my time fitting each one and used a fast "hot" cement to attach each blade. Once the first one was set I attached the one opposite to make sure those two were straight and use that as a baseline to work off for the opposite pair. Here is where my workbench came in handy. The tabletop is my deceased Step Father in Law's old hobby table (he was a ham radio operator) that he built from a door and covered on one side in linoleum tile. Well his craftsmanship there was excellent and the tiles have nice squared edge lines that I used to check alignment with the prop tips. All I had to do was center the shaft hole over a four corner joint and check where each prop tip lined up on the tile line joints.

So back when I was painting my Spit VIII, I used strips of tracing paper to mask the camoflage. These were about 1/4" wide, taped on the "inside" edges so the mask edge could flap a bit for a "tight hand-sprayed" effect.

I know a few people asked for more detail, but I neglected to take a pic at the time.

Well...I'm using the same masking technique on my Fw 190A-3 WIP and thought I'd show y'all what the tracing mask looks like in action:

Neat trick there Doogs

Have a question for you (or if anyone else wishes to tackle it).  I've looked back at threads regarding attaching canopies, and it was said the bond does not need to be strong.  Would one paint the framework before attaching?  I'm using one of Squadron's vacu-form canopies and need to do some filling to get a better fit once attached.  That would mean masking and painting after attachment, but am I risking pulling the canopy off when lifting the masks off?

regards

Jack

Got the main painting done. I did get a bit of overspray on the wing bottom... oh well

I did the camo free hand... tedious and very nervewracking but I'm sort of happy with the result.

Clean up the overspray on the bottom of the wing, a bit of touchup on the green, and clear coat. All depends how late I want to work on this tonight.

It has begun....

Not too much exciting to report, just wanted to check in. At the end of the second day I have the cockpit, main gear, propellor, and wings built. I also have the first color of paint on the pit and pilot. I was about to start masking the canopies when I decided I did not want to torture myself with that tonight.

So here we are:

The detail on this thing is astounding! At least on the interior. Only a couple of things that bothered me, though. One thing that I seem to be noticing on these foreign kits is that the color guides are difficult at best to figure out. Since the guide for the cockpit area didn't seem to be making sense I just decided to use the "what looks right" method. So if you see any discrepancies in my cockpit forthcoming cockpit painting, that is why. Also I have noticed a trend in modern kits is that they don't show a "gear up" option. Not that it is a difficult mod to do, I just remember kits when I was a kid having it as an option, which was nice. I did have to cut off the locater tabs on the gear in order for them to be up.

jgeratic- Thanks for the info. That photo was actually just a nice one I got from a google search. The website I'm using for reference has the three bladed prop. It doesn't have the invasion stripes either, but I haven't found anything saying it would be wrong to add them. I like the stripes, but it may depend on how I feel towards the end. I did want to ask you though, you mentioned the bubble vs non-bubble top to someone earlier. Would a bubble top be appropriate on a PRU Spitfire or not?

Furyan- Your comment about made me fall out of my chair laughing. Thank you for your humorous addition to my day!

jbrady- Nice camo job! You did that without a mask? My hat is off to you!

Regarding PR Spitfires, here is a good site on a quick rundown of the various marks.

Invasion stripes were used both during and after the D-Day Landings (Normandy invasion of June 6th 1944).  Since you are converting  a Mk.I it is highly doubtful it was still in service after four plus years. 

Bubble canopies, I'm not sure if they were utilized for photo recon - at least I don't recall seeing any photos as such.  I do know they did have special ones made with a bulge on either side for better viewing.  Check out this conversion review.  Again bubble tops appeared late in the war starting with the Mk.XVIe.

All that being said, it's up to you if you want to mix and match things that are not historically correct - and if GB leader is fine with it.

regards,
Jack

sub revolution: I did the mask the bottom. I used pinstriping tape to outline the green pattern to give it a hard edge. Some of demarcation is softer than it should be but I think I'll let it go as it is on this build.

jgeratic1

Regarding PR Spitfires, here is a good site on a quick rundown of the various marks.

Invasion stripes were used both during and after the D-Day Landings (Normandy invasion of June 6th 1944).  Since you are converting  a Mk.I it is highly doubtful it was still in service after four plus years. 

Bubble canopies, I'm not sure if they were utilized for photo recon - at least I don't recall seeing any photos as such.  I do know they did have special ones made with a bulge on either side for better viewing.  Check out this conversion review.  Again bubble tops appeared late in the war starting with the Mk.XVIe.

All that being said, it's up to you if you want to mix and match things that are not historically correct - and if GB leader is fine with it.

regards,
Jack

Im fine with it, I wouldnt expect anything from anything that I wouldnt do. Probably none of the few models I've completed are 100% historically accurate. Modeling is also about having fun right?

Sitting here looking at the paint I'm trying to figureout how to fade both of the top colors together. Any ideas? This is the first time I've painted a two color camo scheme. I'm thinking a very dilute overspray of light grey or white.

jgeratic1

Neat trick there Doogs

...but am I risking pulling the canopy off when lifting the masks off?...

I generally use good ol' Testors "clear parts cement", which is basically white glue in a pointy-tipped bottle. I routinely glue the clear parts in place, then paint & remove the masking after. I've yet to see a piece pop off. (And even if it did, a quick dab of glue, a quick touch-up & you're back in business.)

I've only used white glue (usually Elmer's since cheaper stuff doesn't seem to work as well; maybe it's just me), and have never had a canopy pull off either.  But then, I've never used vac canopies for cockpits--just the nose cones and astrodomes on B-17's.  There's a little more "grab-area" on injection molded than vac-formed.

Painting after installation tends to hide the join-seams, too.

jbrady - about fading the paint colour - is this for weathering purposes or scale effect?  I have seen your suggested method of a light grey sprayed mist used to good effect on WW1 German aircraft to tone down the iron cross markings as well as the "lozenge" type camou. 

I've never tried it, but you can also apply the grey as a light glaze over top.  There is also weathering powders.

I have this bookmarked as an example of over the top weathering: 1/32 Spit

Your's would be an excellent question to ask the current weathering group build.

regards

Jack

I did this one for the weathering group build.

I used the overspray method on the Wildcat and it worked very well. The problem I see with doing it that way is the two different colors... I decided that this Spit is DW-O in Early August 1940 soon after it came into service. Didn't have time to fade. I want to do another Spit for this GB and will try to figure out how to fade it in that one.

jbrady - I like your Wildcat, looks way cool.  Was it just a random spray or did you focus on the centers of panels?   Was directional airflow taken into consideration?  It is so subtle it is difficult to tell just how you approached the application.

Yea I can see how a two tone camouflage might pose a problem.  Best approach I think would be to use an overspray colour that is common to both dark green and earth brown, so perhaps yellow?   Mixing a pale yellow with a hint of grey (not too much as then it would turn green) might  just be the answer.  Maybe I will try this.  The roundels also need to be addressed as they are so prominant, particularly on the upper wing.

Vance & Cmk02 - thx for the input about the canopy attachment.  I do have a bottle of Testors clear parts cement.  Even though the vacuum form canopy is flimsy, it still has a mind of it's own (the fact it was designed for a Revell MK I/II did not help) and I had to use some tape to hold it in positon while it dried.  Still a huge gap at the front glacis plate - was hoping to apply the upper colours this weekend but will have to tackle this problem first.

Just a little note on the area behind the fuel filler cap, there are two vent holes that on the kit appeared as mere dimples.  Took a pin vise to the location.

filler cap detail on the real deal:

regards,

Jack

JGeratic: The FR XVIe flew a bit at the end of the war in Europe; all were bubble canopies.  Right after the war both those and the very similar FR XVIII were operational.  Generally 1 oblique and two vertical cameras, very similar to the PR XIX configuration.  

Tim

The decals are on. I will never use Tamiya decals again. I hit these with 5 applications of straight vinegar and they still won't settle down. I'm going to try one more time if that doesn't work I'll cut along the panel lines and zap them again. The decals may take longer than the assembly and painting combined.