Brilliant work on all the Spits.  I don't believe I have ever built one, even in my younger years of assembling an entire kit and then slosh some paint on it.  Or just skip the paint altogether because it was my least favorite part. 

Something new for the bucket list I guess!

The Invincible has moved forward and the initial paint coats laid down, all hand brushed.

Just had some minor bleeding along the black waterline, I must remask those spots and touch up.

I need to do something about the monotone gray flight deck, I am not terribly pleased with the way it looks.  Some subtle gray washes or dot filters should help make it look a little more visually stimulating, but depending on the reference photo the deck doesn't seem to need much added to the neutral gray.

Hull looks good Robert. Those big flat decks would deffinetly look better with some variation.

Harold: She's lookin' great!!! Always good to get the fuselage sealed up and the wings ready to add. 

Robert: Looks good! The bootstripping looks good from here. 

Gamera

Harold: She's lookin' great!!! Always good to get the fuselage sealed up and the wings ready to add.

I worked on the wings last night and ready to start the landing gear next.

Harold

Looks sharp Harold, almost ready for paint! 

That is looking good Harold. Doesn't look like you had any fit issues.

Bish

That is looking good Harold. Doesn't look like you had any fit issues.

 

Bish I have taken some closeup photographs so you and Cliff can see the seams with my first coat of primer. I had a few places along seam lines where melted plastic from the Tamiya glue had to be removed with a hobby knife. And a few places that I filled with putty, but nothing major.

I am also trying a new technique with my air brush by using the needle limit to prevent me from getting to much paint in one spot. This forces me to spray a very light coat of paint which is what Vallejo recommends (several light coats) to achieve the desired color. It takes more time, but hopefuly more detail will be visable when I'm finished.

I used the closed canopy to protect the cockpit from overspray since I intend to have the canopy opened when I'm finish. I glued the closed canopy to the fuselage with a special glue from VMS in Poland. It can easily be removed, and the surface cleaned with another VMS product called Universal Weathering Carrier without damaging the paint.

I used these VMS products on my Matador windows with no issues. The glue remains soft for several days, but is strong enough to keep the canopy in place until I finish the exterior painting.

Harold

I spent my weekend modeling time masking and painting deck lines, how about you?  

Horizontals were on Saturday and lengthwise lines were on Sunday.  I used about a quarter of a roll of Tamiya tape masking and remasking this project thusfar.  

The end approaches though:

Not sure how well it shows given my arm shadow, but I added some neutral gray to the deck in some spots to give a mildly weathered appearance.  It's more apparent in person, and looks quite nice in person if I do say so myself.  It still needs some more tweaking though.

Robert, the effort has paid off. The amrkings look really nice and i do like how you have weathered the deck.

Those seams look good even in close. I always struggle and there is always at least one spot on an aircraft i have missed. Thats the good thing about armour.

I've built one Eduard 72nd Aircraft and it was amazing, a nice liitle Hellcat. They have earnt and very nice reputation.

Robert: That looks great! I know what you mean about driving yourself crazy masking but the results look fantastic! 

Harold: I don't see any seams on the nose just a small one on the lower tail. You're going better than I was. I had to putty and sand the krap outta my Hasegawa Spit. I think I assembled something the wrong way, I've built the kit before and didn't have the same problem. 

Thanks guys, it was well worth the effort.  The kit used raised lines for it rather than decals.  A more dedicated person would have shaved them off before painting, but that isn't me!

Robert and Harold,

Great work, both of you!

Gary

Gamera

Harold: I don't see any seams on the nose just a small one on the lower tail. You're going better than I was. I had to putty and sand the krap outta my Hasegawa Spit. I think I assembled something the wrong way, I've built the kit before and didn't have the same problem.

Cliff You're right there is a small seam that needs attention on the lower side of the tail. I didn't think it would show, but it does.

I applied two coats of Vallejo #71.302 Sky Type S to the lower surface of wings and fuselage, and it came out ok, but in the process of removing the masking tape I peeled off a little surface primer that will need to be touch up.

I gave the Vallejo #73.601 Grey Surface Primer 12-hours to dry, and I cleaned the plastic with 70% Isopropyl Alcohol before primer, but I think the primer needed more time to harden. My studio seems very humid today and we had a lot of warm rain the past few days, so that might have affected the drying time.

One afterthought is maybe I should have painted the entire airplane with Sky colour, then earth brown rather than masking off sections, but I have been trying to keep the paint buildup to a minimum to preserve as much detail as possible.

Harold

Looks good Harold, at least the chipped area is somewhere it isn't terribly visible. 

Seargeant, I usually paint the bottom of the airplane last, as it is is easier to have a loose mask at the edge when I paint the bottom so I get a soft demarcation between the colors.

jeaton01

Seargeant, I usually paint the bottom of the airplane last, as it is is easier to have a loose mask at the edge when I paint the bottom so I get a soft demarcation between the colors.

 

John, I should have asked before going ahead with the Sky colour, but I remembered someone saying to paint the lightest colors first, so my lightest colour was Sky and then Dark Brown and Dark Green.

I do understand what you are saying about a soft demarcation between upper and lower surface colours, so at this point I will see what happens by simply masking the Sky colour when applying the Dark Brown and Dark Green. If necessary I can create a softer demarcation after the darker paint is on by very lightly sanding the demarcation with 1,000 grit sand paper and then apply an addition coat of Sky if necessary.

The satin varnish I apply to seal the paint and decals may also help to soften that transition. Another idea that was given to me is to apply a small line of masking putty to the edge of the Sky colour areas. The painted edge created by masking putty tends to be softer than masking tape.

Thanks for your suggestion John, as I mentioned before this is my first aircraft model in a very long time.

Harold

Harold> Good idea about the putty.  I've used it to soften the demarcation line and it works.

As for me, I'm doing fine.  I'm taking 3 blood thinners so I have to watch an accidental cut.  It's amazing how much blood a small cut can leak out, which mean being careful about the x-acto!  Thanks for asking!

Gary

GAF

Harold> Good idea about the putty.  I've used it to soften the demarcation line and it works.

As for me, I'm doing fine.  I'm taking 3 blood thinners so I have to watch an accidental cut.  It's amazing how much blood a small cut can leak out, which mean being careful about the x-acto!  Thanks for asking!

Gary

Cliff, I worked on the lower tail section, but depending on the lighting the seam still shows a little. I will let the paint dry overnight and decide in the morning if I want to keep working on the seam. Sometimes I can do more harm than good if I keep messing with a painted area.

Harold

Harold, i know what you mean, sometimes its better just to leave as is. I know if that was me, i would leave that seam, especially given where it is. The colour looks reall nice.

Hi Bish,

I'd like to enter with an Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk 1a please.

Cheers

Tony

Today's progress.

I have to get cracking as I would like to finish it by 31 December.

I have the intention of building a collection of RAF and RN types that were piloted by Australians. 

Cheers

Tony

Got you added Tony.

Harold: That looks good! As the guys said, not sure I'd try to fiddle with that or not since it's not really visible.

Piers: Sure you don't need to invest in more clamps? All joking aside she's lookin' good. And probablyworking better than the jury-rigged stuff I've done with rubber bands, clothes pins, and tape.

Tony: You're making great progress, sure you'll have her done by the end of the year.

alot of impessive builds going on. I didn't realize that I haven't visited this GB in almost 2 months, I have got to do better about posting.

Anyway I was able to get started on my Mk IX.

The cockpit went together well but some of the PE is ridiculously small so I opted to skip alot of it.

Shot the primer this morning but don't have any pics for that yet.

Nice progress there JB. I do like Eduard aircraft kits.

Given that everyone in my family was working on Thanksgiving, it gave me some uninterrupted model time.  

And it is currently setting up on the stand. 

Construction is mostly wrapped up now, just a couple small bits I was holding until it was on the stand.  The Harriers and choppers of course need to be added, as the last step.  Hoping to seal it tomorrow and start decaling on Sunday.

jeaton01

Seargeant, I usually paint the bottom of the airplane last, as it is is easier to have a loose mask at the edge when I paint the bottom so I get a soft demarcation between the colors.

 

I wanted to show some progress I made the last few days. I would like any feedback on the transition between the Dark Earth Brown and Sky colour at the wings edge. Please see closeup picture below.

In an earlier post John mentioned softening the demarcation (transition) between the dark top colours and Sky colour underneath the wings. I have never done this before, so I would like some feed back on how it looks compared to other modeler's painting?

The next major step on this project is camouflage paint with Dark Green. I have the colour tested and ready, but the camouflage design will be my real test. The few times I have tried to paint camouflage have not gone very well. This time I will use a combination of small masking putty strings about the diameter of a pencil and masking fluid to fill the Dark Earth Brown spaces. The masking putty creates a softer line between the two colors compared to masking tape and that is the look I am trying to achieve.

Harold

For the question on demarcation lines between colours (concerning Spitfires), will start with a quote from Edgar Brooks and his research:

Supermarine used "stencil mats" from 1937, right through the war, so hard-edged, but not every M.U., or C.R.O. company had them, so camo, from them, could have been soft-edged. Anecdotal evidence gives a maximum of .5"-1" permissible overspray on top colours, with a maximum of 2" between upper and lower.

https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234940809-spitfire-camo-demarcation-question/page/2/

So generally at 1/48 scale,  2 inch overspray is 1mm and half that for top surfaces.  There could be variations due to some circumstances as mentioned, but note too that early war tend to be very hard edge.  I'd suggest looking at photos from the squadron being represented in (1941?) for more definite idea.

Not sure the year of this photo, but Harold, looks close to what you have done on the leading edge;

regards,

Jack