SPITFIRE GROUP BUILD 2007-2008

ModelMan8 wrote:

Frank, that prop looks good, and it is really hard not to stare at it. Here is my progress so far guys, it is just the IP, pedals, stick, and seat.  I drybrushed the raised parts with silver and did a little weathering.  Does anyone know the correct seat color of a MKII?  Let me know what you think. Chris

Chris,

THe cockpit colors were discussed just few pages back. I think we all agreed that the color was redish brown.

Greg 

John-

I recognize your website from my old R/C'ing days!  Really liked that Culver Dart!

gzt wrote:

Frank, the pitch on the fifth is off 10 degrees - just kidding Nice job Frank !  Greg

AAARRRGGGHHH!!!  That's what I was afraid of!  Which one is the fifth one?

Thanks for the compliments, guys!

razordws wrote:

jeaton01 wrote: ...the mind warp of learning AutoCad 8ft. long drawings?  I have to ask, what the heck are you building?  A B-29 like the one posted on the aircraft forum?

I've been drawing giant scale R/C planes since 1986 or so, here is a link to my website:

http://yolo.net/~jeaton/gems/gems.htm

Marc, if you get more into some of these drafting/drawing programs, get ready to have them take a big bite out of your modelling time.  Your drawing looked fine, by the way.  It got the point you wanted to make across just fine.

Frank, that prop looks good, and it is really hard not to stare at it.

Here is my progress so far guys, it is just the IP, pedals, stick, and seat.  I drybrushed the raised parts with silver and did a little weathering.  Does anyone know the correct seat color of a MKII?  Let me know what you think.

Chris

Frank, the pitch on the fifth is off 10 degrees - just kidding Nice job Frank !

 Greg

Holy cow this thing has a lot of prop blades!  I remember thinking 4 was a lot, this thing has 6!

Rastor? Vector?  Jeez I wish I knew how to use these programs for more than sharpening photos and drawing simple pictures.  Care to take a guess how long it tookme to do the drawing at the top of page 42.

I have Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop Elements.... is XXX For Dummies worth buying?

jeaton01 wrote:

...the mind warp of learning AutoCad

Oooo... I couldn't have said it better myself!  Like I said, we all have our own way of doing things and one isn't necessarily better than the other (especially if it requires learning a new program )  Raster programs do take a lot of memory especially with high resolutions but for most projects involved in making decals the actual image isn't very large to begin with so file size shoudn't be an issue. 

8ft. long drawings?  I have to ask, what the heck are you building?  A B-29 like the one posted on the aircraft forum?

Dave, I'm sure you are better with your raster based program than I am.  I've used AutoCad for years, but I've just learned the parts of it that I've needed, and the same is true for the Corel programs.  Since I have learned to use these programs I stay with them and probably am not using the best program for any particular task.  Most of my drawing has been in design instead of presentation.

And yes, your method of determining resolution makes perfect sense, since printers convert it to bitmaps in the end, and there are a lot of fills.  If lines are the main things on the page the file size is much more manageable in the Vector based types, as you know.  Some of my RC plans are 8 foot long sheets, and that is a pretty big raster file.  Some are still raster, because they were scanned from ink and mylar masters done before I went through the mind warp of learning AutoCad.

John it has been interesting reading your process for making art work.  It is not often that I hear the words Autocad associated with models .  As a Landscape Architect I spend most of my day drafting on the computer but the office I am currently in uses a program called Vectorworks instead of Autocad.  The nice thing about this program is that it allows you to use colour fills which is a real bonus as it allows you to quickly do presentation drawings without a lot of effort. 

Anyway, the program I use the most for art work is Photoshop.  It is a raster based program as opposed to vector based but the key with any raster program is resolution or dpi (dots per inch).  The higher your resolution the easier it is to manipulate and enlarge without loss of quality.  150 dpi is what I consider minimal for art work, 300-600 is preferable unless you plan to enlarge things more than 2-3x in which case you want to bump up the dpi even more.  A good rule of thumb is you want to end up with 150 dpi minimum so if you want to enlarge something by 6x then 6x150 = 900 dpi for the image that you start with.  Does that make sense?  In photo shop you can scale your art work and it is relatively easy to make letters with outlines and keep the quality of the image as long as you have good resolution.  Simply copy the letter or number, enlarge it to the size you want and then drop it behind your original letter and your done. 

There are many other tools in Photoshop (and other raster based programs) that allow you to manipulate scanned images (eg: nose art).  Everyone has their own way of doing things.  I just thought I'd throw that out there. 

Thanks John.

I have a license for CadKey, for 2D it might be just fine. For the graphics I use PaintShop Pro and for decals I get Testors software. Next step will be to figure out how to take your process into this set of programs - and first project for this might be a P-36 during Pearl Harbor attack. I do not have any decals for that time and nobody offers them.

Thanks for sharing your process with us

Greg 

wing_nut wrote:

Redo?  No way.... it looks too good the way it is to mess with it.

Absolutely! Don't you DARE do anything else to that paint job! Looks fantastic, Greg!

darson wrote:

Greg that looks absolutely fantastic .  I wouldn't bother touching it at all, nice job. Also, how about posting a before and after photo of the kit. Cheers

Darren: Here we go !

THis is Mk Ia painted with a can (my first aircraft painted (not with a brush )

this is what it was after I stripped a paint (some damage has been done )

and here is the same model painted with correct RAF colors and using pre and postshading according to Swanny's DVD a lot of help from you guys patiantly answering my stupid questions

Spitfire Mk IIa flown by Mike Gladych and Jan Zumbach on the May 09, 1941. First Gladych was attacked by a bunch of Hurricanes and later that day Zumbach had to bail out while focused on the target ... lost his attention to the rest of the world and some Me 109 shot this Spit down .  

I used AM landing gear and spinner and prop. I added a mirror after I took those pictures.

Greg 

John:

So you did it all pixel by pixel ? WOW amazing job !

Autocad you used to build the outline (fillets and radii) and than you filled it with color ?

Its a very good idea  !

Greg 

Thank you Marc !

I will go to the store tomorrow (they may be closed by now )

BTW: I just got another challange - I am working on a P-47M (besides Mk. Vb ) and they painted this plane with some strange unusual color- some kind of faded black - so I am asking myself now: why do I pick something easier to do :) or every project has to have some tricks :)

Thanks again

Greg 

John,

what fonts did you use ??

Greg 

Thnaks Jon.

Jon-that mask it great.  I wish Iknew how to make them for other aircraft.

Greg... DO NOT use the stuff the they sell at Staples.  It is greasy and will leave mark on the paint.  There are a bunch of good brands.  this is the one I got at Bed, Bath & Beyond...

When I 1st got I put some on a modlel as a trest and forgot it was there.  Peeled it off after more than a month and not a mark in the paint at all.

I'm glad the masks are working out OK.  What I do on the edges is bend the paper down a bit.  Itr also helps to use 24 pound bond, or some other paper that is stiffer than the usual copy stuff.

Well, Hallelujah, I finally found all the right words to say and the cables to run to all the right spots, and the decals are printed with the ALPS.  It's a neat printer, but it's also cranky.  You never get something for nothing.  I also have to admit that I spent some fair amount of time getting smarter with CorelDraw.  If AutoCad would handle colors as well I'd never go near Corel.

Here is a jpeg of part of the sheet.  You can't see the white outline on the reg numbers too well but they are there.  I hope I did them wide enough.  It's a judgement call because I think the effect of the white border has as much to do with the contrast between the white, the light blue of the paint scheme, and the black of the letters as it does the actual width of the white.  The big 2's are because I found a picture of the airplane at Duxford in 1937 with that number, and I like it.

darson- That's a good idea- hadn't thought about that. Does make you wonder why someone hasn't done it, especailly as an option in a Mk. I.

jeaton01- Thanks for that tip- I'll see if I can track that down.

Marc- great looking work! 

Greg-

I would agree!  That Spitfire of yours looks awesome just the way it is!  There has been a debate over the years whether the camo on them was hard-edged or soft, and the debate will probably go on for years.  I think it looks great just the way it is!

wing_nut wrote:

Redo?  No way.... it looks too good the way it is to mess with it.

THanks, I feel better already I think I reached a max at this stage and asking for more would not be poolite . Maybe next one

One more thing however, what is the thing you used and where did you buy it ???

I went to a LHS today and they do not carry this kind of masking ... "silly putty" ? What is it ?

Greg 

Hello all!

I've just got home from my shift and I'm completely knackered! I have one more shift to do then I'm off for three days. 

I can't wait for my rum ration........I think I will need it.

Marc-

very nice work fella! I may try that method myself.

jeaton01 wrote:

Here are some pictures of the templates.  I put scale rulers on both so those who download and print them can size them accurately.  These are for the bubble canopy fuselages, but I put a cut line on the only tempate that is affected.

THANKS John !!

Greg 

THANKS Marc!

This makes a lot of sense, however, I think I will leave my Spitfire as it is for now and I am not going to strip the paint again in order to fix the sharp camo edges

unless you convince me that it is horrible and I HAVE to do it :) I will gain an extra experience with paint stripping process , but seriously, I think I am going to use this technique on my next Spitfire.

Thanks again 

Greg 

Greg, John has the pattern back on page 13.  Right click it and save it to your PC.  What kind of putty?  filler or the poster tac stuff?

The graphic below shows the concept of what happens with the poster tac stuff.  This white one I used is Called UHU but I have the yellow stuff form Bed Bath and Beyond that works just as well.  Fun tac and Blu Tac are other brands/names.

This pic, an old SPit build,  shows what it looks like if you put the tac down first and then fill in with tape.  It is very time consuming with dozens of little piece of tape. And you have top make sure the tape seals the edge but does not overhang the edge.

Both do the same thing but the way I just did it with Johns mask is easier.