Spitfire GB

Oh hai!

Did some minor parts work last night. The only pieces I glued were the rear fuselage sections (different tailwheel from the Mk IX). The sort of slot in from the inside. The fit? Stupid good. 

Also started filing down some of the kit parts to accomodate the Eduard PE (seriously the best-executed PE set of theirs I've seen). The PE instrument panel is a thing of beauty, but it was still hard to do this:

Lastly, I started the long and tedious process of removing the Barracudacast seat from its pour stub. Why can't all resin be like Ultracast, with those thin stubs?

Got some progress pics to show...not much yet...the cockpit's still all over the place, but I think it should really start coming together in the next couple of days.

First...the Eduard IP. Have to say, as impressed as I was with the panel in their 109E-7, I think this one has it beat. Detail, depth, it just nails it.

Second, the Barracudacast seat. Aside from tapping at it with a silver pencil where some various metal bits attached, I haven't really started weathering this at all. The seat actually has some tears in the leather pad molded in, so I think I may try to play those up.

Lookin' good there Doogs. It appears I'm at the same spot you're at, cockpit and PE parts scattered all over in various states of assembly, painting and detailing. That baracudacast seat looks real nice, well done. The ultracast seat I have is the one thing I have got completed and I am rather pleased. I need to get some progress photos up here soon. Thanks for sharing.

                                                                                             Joe

P.S. Doogs thanks for the tip from the glue thread on gator glue. I picked some up but have yet to really test it but I beleive I'll try it on my cockpit.

JOE RIX

Lookin' good there Doogs. It appears I'm at the same spot you're at, cockpit and PE parts scattered all over in various states of assembly, painting and detailing. That baracudacast seat looks real nice, well done. The ultracast seat I have is the one thing I have got completed and I am rather pleased. I need to get some progress photos up here soon. Thanks for sharing.

                                                                                             Joe

P.S. Doogs thanks for the tip from the glue thread on gator glue. I picked some up but have yet to really test it but I beleive I'll try it on my cockpit.

Looking forward to seeing that Ultracast seat! Of all the resin makers, they're my favorite, both for sheer quality and for the ease of stub removal. Does your seat have the harnesses molded in or is it one of the blanks?

Also, you'll love the gator glue. Definitely my go-to for PE. Though the Eduard set for the big Spit is self-adhesive. I hate it...dealing with the backing paper while trying to clean up the fret tabs is a huge PITA, but it's made glue unnecessary for about half of the pieces.

Looks good indeed, Doogs

Hey Doogs, lookin nice! Sorry guys, havent been very active lately, havent had much enthusiasm to build lately. Summer is paintball season, and work kills me half the time. I do have the fusalage/wings together on the Vb, still working on the Mk I.

ww2psycho

Hey Doogs, lookin nice! Sorry guys, havent been very active lately, havent had much enthusiasm to build lately. Summer is paintball season, and work kills me half the time. I do have the fusalage/wings together on the Vb, still working on the Mk I.

Yeah, here, summer's the season when it's just too friggin' hot to do much of anything. That, and I've found if I don't put in bench time at night, I'm very crabby the next morning. 

I've been making pretty decent progress on the Spit pit. Lots of parts in this big Tamiya, and the Eduard PE isn't helping. BUT...I finally started gluing subassemblies tonight, and test-fitted the main sections of the cockpit:

So far, so good. Still need to drybrush a few areas, then hit the whole thing with a wash before I start locking in the assemblies. That, and the sidewalls still need significant work.

Well, Here be a rather substandard pic of some of my progress on my Vb cockpit. My Kodak EasyShare just does not do close ups. I also have the wings together and just continuing on with painting, weathering and PEing the cockpit. 

Doogs - The Ultracast seat I'm using is a blank with Eduard PE seatbelt. I couldn't agree more about the quality, in fact the seat snapped off the molding and required very little sanding. My only issue was mounting it which entailed cutting of the original mounting tab and gluing it, very carefully, to the Ultracast seat. Your cockpit is looking very excellent indeed.

Some really nice work going on here, really need to get started on my little Airfix kit soon.  Joe, if your camera won't do close ups, try this.  Take your pics on the highest megapixel setting, then crop the heck out of it.  Should work.

Finally getting a start on my Spit.  Looking forward to painting, this will be my first attempt at masking with silly putty.

Buckeye

Finally getting a start on my Spit.  Looking forward to painting, this will be my first attempt at masking with silly putty.

Nice! I'll be following this one closely. I very nearly pulled this kit out of the stash instead of the Mustang I'm working on.

A quick tip for masking with silly putty (or that poster tack stuff) - put the plane in the refrigerator for half an hour or so before you remove it. It'll make it easier to remove an ensure that no bits get left behind in the process.

DoogsATX

 

A quick tip for masking with silly putty (or that poster tack stuff) - put the plane in the refrigerator for half an hour or so before you remove it. It'll make it easier to remove an ensure that no bits get left behind in the process.

Thanks for the refrigerator tip!

Seeing some awesome work here and very nice after market parts.  Afraid mine will be a out of the box build.

Another tip, dont touch the silly putty while painting! haha did that once.

[quote user="lewbud"]

Some really nice work going on here, really need to get started on my little Airfix kit soon.  Joe, if your camera won't do close ups, try this.  Take your pics on the highest megapixel setting, then crop the heck out of it.  Should work.

lewbud- Thank You for the tip. Utilizing your advice here is a cropped version of my previous pic as a test

Stunning work on here!

I would like to join in with a little 1/72 Academy Spitty to go with the 1/72 scrathbuilt V-1 doodlebug.

Theuns

Have been working on the Tamiya 1/48 Mk. Vb.  Have had no issues so far, typical of a Tamiya kit.  I'm building out of the box, pretty much have the inside fuselage done.  Did a gray dry brush on the instrument panel to bring out the details and added some color on a few buttons and instrument faces.  Will do a pin wash on the fuselage sides and dry brush some aluminum to show some wear and assemble the fuselage.  Also have the wing assembly done.

The panel looks very good,  just the right amount of dust.

On the seat, the back had a leather pad but the rest was either metal or bakelite so the colors usually vary between those two parts.  The Tamiya Spitfires are really fun to build.  Too bad they haven't done a Mark 9, for those the dread ICM kits await.

jeaton01

The panel looks very good,  just the right amount of dust.

On the seat, the back had a leather pad but the rest was either metal or bakelite so the colors usually vary between those two parts.  The Tamiya Spitfires are really fun to build.  Too bad they haven't done a Mark 9, for those the dread ICM kits await.

I have an ICM VIII and IX in the stash. Not much desire to build either at the moment. I've seen them made up pretty, but after starting on the ICM LaGG-3 (lost a cockpit window, so it's on indefinite hold until I find it), ugh. Reminded me of everything I don't like about the old Eduard/Gavia kits, with not much of the good.

Some solid progress on the VIII tonight! The cockpit's very nearly done. Waiting for the harness anchor to cure before I bend down the shoulder straps. Got a few small details I forgot to paint that I need to go back and touch up, and need to give the cockpit a wash to dirty things up a bit, but it's close, and I couldn't resist showing a few pics. 

Everything's closed up in the fuselage right now to ensure that the pieces all cure in proper alignment.

Better pics to come once the cockpit's done, but so far, WOW! I'm in absolute love with this kit. There are so many bits in the cockpit that you really have to pay attention, but seeing it come together is making it all worthwhile!

That cockpit looks awesome Doogs.

jeaton01

The panel looks very good,  just the right amount of dust.

On the seat, the back had a leather pad but the rest was either metal or bakelite so the colors usually vary between those two parts.  The Tamiya Spitfires are really fun to build.  Too bad they haven't done a Mark 9, for those the dread ICM kits await.

Thanks.

Not knowing much about Spitfires I've been doing lots of searches on the web.  Seems the more research I do the more confused I get.LOL  Tamiya instructions did say to paint the back of the seat black but most pictures I found were like this.

I've also seen various colors for the main gear struts and inside the main gear doors.  Does anyone know what the correct colors should be for these areas?

Thanks,

Mike

Thanks Mike! Can't wait to finish out the 'pit and get some real pictures of it! 

As to the seat, I've seen both natural and black leather padding in pics. If you want to stick with the natural leather (I went with black only for the visual contrast...so far as I know there are no existing interior pics of the exact plane I'm building), something I found very useful in my recent biplane build was working in some raw umber and burnt sienna oils. Just literally dots applied with a toothpick and then worked in. It'll help give some of that leather look, and provide a subtle difference from the bakelite seat.

 I too encountered the same issue when it came time to paint my seat. I had found that same pic Mike yet found others with black padding. Thus, like Doogs, not having any photos of my particular subject I opted to paint it black simply for the contrast and to attract the eye to the cockpit.

                                                                Joe

Another variation I do is use "leather" to paint the leather area and Tamiya Hull Red for the seat pan.  It provides a different contrast than black for the leather areas.

Wheel wells:  aluminum dope was the coat of paint over the first coat of primer in early Spits.  Alternatively, and generally more widespread, was underside color for the wheel wells because it required no masking and sped production/maintenance.  Unless you can find a photo that makes it clear one way or the other, it's not an arguable point so you get to choose.

Struts & wheels and inside of main wheel doors: aluminum dope.

Of note, Supermarine used a slightly greener shade of interior grey-green for the cockpit.  Tamiya XF71 is actually pretty close.  The remainder of the aircraft interior was aluminum dope, in all cases over the initial coat of primer.  Use of a second color indicated during manufacture that both required coats had been applied.

The breaker bar on the left-side door should be cockpit green, not red, unless modelling a post-war machine.

ww2psycho

...End date still to be determined...

 

Good! I may just have something to add inside of that timeframe! Just want to make sure this stays in my favourites list, I have several Spits in my stash, I'd love to add one if I get the chance.

A progress update on my 1/72nd Airfix Mk IXc (early):  DG applied after masking.  Touched up a few places and put the first coat of Future on it.  Found a couple of areas that still needed touching up.  Another coat of future will go on later today and hopefully this weekend I'll decal it.  Dangly bits are getting painted and prepped for final assembly.

Not part of the GB, (already well underway when GB began) but here are some photos of recent completions:

72nd Hobby Boss Spitfire Vb EP312/D-K, W/C Dereck Kain, Edku Egypt, 1944.  I had to scrounge the wheel well doors from a Revell kit and the prop is the Quickboost resin.  Paint scheme is probably not DE/DG/Azure as I depicted it, but DE/MS/Azure.  I liked the profile this is based on.

Second is 72nd Airfix / 3D-Kits Spitfire IIa, P7308/XR-D, 71 Eagle Squadron, P/O Bill Dunn, August 1941.  This is the new tooling Mk Ia kit with the prop and Coffman starter bulge from 3D-Kits. Bill Dunn was the first American ace of the war, achieved in August 1941.

Tim

Greenshirt

The breaker bar on the left-side door should be cockpit green, not red, unless modelling a post-war machine.

Good to know! I was all set to paint it red...

Thanks for the tips and info guys!

Here's a photo of a pretty ratty seat.  This and the one posted earlier are PR seats, regular seats did not have the fixture with the round holes on the front of the seat pan.  As as has been said, the leather pad varied in color.

So a regular old Mk.VIII wouldn't have had the flare rack installed? Rats. Now I need to figure if I want to try to remove it this late in the game, or just say screw it...