Spitfire GB

Wow - I've missed a bunch! I've been in a pre-Christmas rush at the office trying to get things wrapped up, working on some freelance stuff at home + fighting off a bugger of a cold recently. Sorry I haven't been around & contributing - I'll have to poke my head in here to get caught up.

Jack that sucks. I've had the same thing happen on occasion that's why I use Pro Modeler washes almost exclusively. Comes off with little effort even if you use it on a flat finish.

Oh boy.

I think I may have really screwed the pooch this time.

Then again, maybe I should not have attempted my first pre-shading and my first hand painting on the same model.

So after reading around on the forums here, I noticed people saying that to hand brush you should really thin the paints down, which I thought made sense. But I never applied that sense to the pre-shading, which I just kind of slopped on, figuring (hoping) that the final color would cover up the sloppiness.

Oh boy.

Exhibit "A" is my X-plane that I use to test out new paint ideas/colors (why I didn't try the preshading on this first, I have no idea!) This model has really only ever seen an airbrush, so it has a nice smooth finish:

You can see the spots where I lightly brushed on the homemade pink paint mixture and, well, it looks pretty good.

Exhibit "B" is..... is..... Bleh:

While my preshading might make a convincing whitewash, it does not seem to be doing what I wanted. The wing on the left hand side (the right wing) has been painted pink over the pre-shading. Once I saw what it was doing, I decided to only do one wing and see if I could rescue it. I'm wondering if maybe I can just do multiple coats until it looks "good enough," or if it is so far up river that I just need to strip the whole thing down.

Oh boy.

What do you guys think?

Before you strip it down, try adding more paint to the mix and a couple more coats. I've had the same thing happen when I brush on paint I've thinned for airbrushing... it can be done just takes a lot of coats.

sub - very brave,  this is the first I've seen of using hand brushing on a pre-shade technique.  I agree, try adding a few more layers on that one wing and maybe some light sanding on each successive coat.  That red on the panel lines looks stark enough to handle a few more coats.

regards,

Jack

So I've managed to get her back to the stage before my mishap.  I painted in reverse order this time.  First a dark grey and then masked the ports before applying the dark earth.  Followed with the dark green and lastly the undersides.

I didn't have much of my home brewed sky left, so instead of mixing more, opened a new bottle of "official" Sky Type S for the first coat.  A second layer of pure white in the panel areas and thirdly, my home made N*1 Sky Blue.

-Merry Christmas! everyone-

regards,

Jack

I give up.

I don't know how you brush-painters do it. And I really don't understand people who say you can't airbrush until you learn how to handbrush, because I can do a decent airbrush job, but I can not hand brush to save my life!

I tried several different ideas before I gave up completely and just stripped the whole thing down. Tommorow night's project will now be figuring out where the heck I can set up an airbrush here.

Hopefully I can still get this thing finished up soon.

Gotta agree with you. I can brush some enamel colors... mostly flats. For the most part, though, my brush painting efforts look like crap. Not too bad with an airbrush though.

The key is the cornerstone of our hobby: patience. I thin the paint, not as much as for airbrushing, and the slop on the first coat. After a day to dry I then put on the second coat, a bit thinner than the first. If it needs more paint to get that smooth look, I wait another day and put another thin coat. I also use a trick learned recently for acrylics: take an old tshirt and rub the cured paint (give it at least a day to dry) with some spit. Take your time in front of a good movie and some of the brush stokes will smooth out. 

Another technique I use is to "prime" the entire model in a flat coat of the lightest color, then hand brush he other colors. This works better for enamels. 

Tim

I'd like to add a build to this GB. Tamiya 1/48 Spit Mk V in the livery of the 4th Fighter Group. Just about to button the fuselage.

The saga continues... two steps forward, one step back.

Monday I had all the decals on.  After comparing to some period photos from 609 Squadron, the Xtradecal generic 30" codes looked a bit lean. 

So I decided to beef them up.  First thought was to just cut strips of decals from the same sheet and widen the letters, but the edges were too noticeable.
So broke out the masking tape and sprayed some medium sea gray.

Removing the masks I find all kinds of underspray occured and on the starboard side a section of the fuselage roundel got torn off.

The lettering now needs touch up, but as seen in this photo does not have to be all that pristine.

A quarter section of a spare decal was cut and placed over the torn one.  In this image the roundel looks wrinkled, but both decals cracked and light reflection pronounces it that much more.

Next up is a flat overspray so that touch ups with a paint brush will adhere better.

Best of the New Year to everyone!

regards,
Jack

Nice recovery, Jack.  Looks good.

so, is this GB build still going on? if so, throw me in. Italeri 1/48 Mk.IX with BS273 markings. high altitude spit. 

You're a brave soul to mask over decals Jack. Good recovery from the minor mishap. Just curious, but do you know who's mount that is from 609 Squadron that you are building? I am doing a 1/32 build (the old Revell kit which I am dressing up with scratch built details) for Red Tobin's Battle of Britain mount. Since he was a local boy from L.A. here that joined the RAF, fought with 609 and died with the Eagle Squadron before the US entered the war.

Spitfire serial N3280 was the mount Canadian pilot Keith 'Skeets' Ogilvie was flying when he achieved his first kill.  I will post more info once the build is complete.  Coincidently, here is a photo of him with Eugene 'Red' Tobin on the right.

regards,

Jack

With a paint brush and some old European craftsmanship, managed to clean up the squadron codes.  Have also removed the masks; canopy looks pretty grungy and the rear section had lifted off.  Right now the aircraft is drying with a final application of future.  Tomorrow will try and buff up the clear parts and give it a coat of future, hopefully this will clean it up to satisfaction.

The wheel wells fared much better.  Just a few specs to touch up and some paint chipping happened on the well edge of the port wing.

regards,

Jack

I like it a lot!

jgeratic1

Spitfire serial N3280 was the mount Canadian pilot Keith 'Skeets' Ogilvie was flying when he achieved his first kill.  I will post more info once the build is complete.  Coincidently, here is a photo of him with Eugene 'Red' Tobin on the right.

regards,

Jack

Thats an awesome photo, thanks!

Well, it's pink:

It's far from perfect, but it's MUCH better than any of my handbrushed attempts, and given my time constraint, I don't have room to be overly picky. As long as I get the decals on tommorow, I should still be able to finish it before I leave.

And my airbrushing solution? Painting in the bathroom with a sheet thrown over the toilet and a fan blowing out the window!

Also, thanks to Doogs for posting this excellent website talking about the pink Spits (with video) on Facebook:

http://io9.com/5872484/why-world-war-ii-spy-planes-used-pink-camouflage

And done! Just in time too (I leave tommorow!)

Showing the camera ports, which I cut out with a hobby knife and then filled with clear glue. Hard to tell here, but they look pretty convincing!

I'm amazed at how much cockpit detail is still visible. Even the oxygen tanks!

Looks right at home flying along.

And it actually fits in with her room very well!

I think she approves!

Well, thanks for looking guys, I had a lot of fun and learned some things. Not my best work, but alright for as many issues I had this last month. Feel free to critique!

Sub - I like the overall look and the pink appears quite a bit lighter since your last post.  Did you apply another coat of paint?  Main thing that stands out for me is some seams on the fuselage.  Congrats on the completion.

regards,

Jack

Very nice!

Well Done Sub. Sharp job on an interesting Spit. Thanks for building and sharing that one with us.

Jack - Really Nice work! Especially well done on your touch ups and recoveries.

Nice looking Spitfire, sub--with an eye-catching and unusual paint job.  I wish I'd thought of this when my daughters were little.

Finally got the major painting done. It will be the last time I use masks to paint a camo scheme... way more trouble than they are worth. Should have it on its wheels and gloss coated for decals later tonight.

Looks a lot better than mine did!

Yes, making your own masks is time consuming.  I think I spent a good 6 hours starting with the printing to cutting them out and sticking them on.  Even though John supplied profiles as masters (btw thanks for those), one still have to create the areas that join top and bottom from scratch.  The second time around went faster as everything was there and just had to cut out new ones. 

Weekend at the bench was spent fitting on a new canopy, masking and painting the framework.  Yea, now that needs touch up as well.

Also got the resin exhausts on along with some very light staining using Doc O'Brien's weathering powders.  First a white was applied then a mixture of black and grungy grey (actually looks brown).  It was difficult to get the darker area with the powder in a dry state, so added some water and built it up that way.

regards,

Jack

jbrady - Regardless your efforts came out primo. Have to agree with you onthe masks. I, like Jack, tried using John's masks but it became such a hassle lining  em up that I went back to the good ole standard Silly putty in conjunction with masks. I find Silly Putty so much faster and easier with excellent results.

                                                                    Joe

What are you using for masks? 

I've been extremely happy using thin tracing paper, cut to about 1/4 to 3/8", taped on the opposite side. It's extremely easy to line up the thinner pieces, the tracing paper handles curves pretty well, and taping on the opposite side lets it "flap" a little for that tight hand-sprayed look.

Not as effective for hard-edge camo, but that'd be a simple matter of replacing tracing paper with frisket film or Tamiya tape or something similar. And I personally find it immeasurably preferable to silly putty masks, which I can never get to behave quite the way I want.

Masking's time-consuming, sure, but the upside, I find, is freedom to concentrate on the paint job itself, not getting the edge just so. Just my $0.02...

The masks were created from regular hardware store tape (beige colour) using Checkmate's method - laying strips of tape across a sheet of wax paper followed by taping printouts of the camou onto this and trimming.  That was another thing, peeling the wax paper off was a chore to get a corner started, and many times it would rip.

Same type of tape was used on the canopy, but definitely need to find something better as it tends to leave frayed edges on close inspection.  Next aircraft project will try some Tamiya tape.

regards,

Jack