Here are the final pics of my submission for the Battle of Britain GB 2006. My goal with this build was to practice some weathing techniques by making a Spitfire as it would have looked during the darkest hour of the Battle of Britain. This aircraft has been put through some serious use as England desperately tried to fend off the Luftwaffe.
My weathering was a bit heavy handed (this is only my 3rd aircraft in about 25 years). I tried some new techniques and it was a great learning experience.
I lost 2 parts to the carpet monster. The mirror that goes on top of the canopy glass was lost last night, and the clear lense that goes just behind the aerial mast vanished this morning. I watched it drop in my spray booth, but it just vanished. ![Sad [:(]](/emoticons/icon_smile_sad.gif)
This was a great kit, the fit was excellent and required only minor filling with crazy glue for the seams. The decals were great! Tamiya provided a sheet of white decals to go underneath the roundels and insignia on the rudder, so the white in them wouldn't have any color from the camouflage be seen through it. The downside to that arrangement is that it's tough when there is a big piece of raised detail that you need the decals to hunker down on. I had that problem with the two roundels on the upper wing surfaces. It took many applications of Micro Set to get the white roundel to hunker down. I had to do the same with the actual roundel repeatedly, but I guess because it was on top of another decal, they wouldn't hunker down all the way and have the slightest wrinkles at those spots that I just couldn't get to go away. Oh well.
All in all I'm satisified with my Spitfire, although next time I'll go a little easier on the weathering. Thanks for this great GB, I really enjoyed it. You guys all do amazing work and I'm glad I was able to participate. ![Big Smile [:D]](/emoticons/icon_smile_big.gif)
