Revell 1:72 Spitfire Mk V diorama idea

[timmah]

Hi All

When I got back into modelling my girlfriend said she would like to have a go at building a model, I wasn't prepared to let her get a kit out of my stash so she bought a Revell 1:72 Spitfire Mk V, she glued the cockpit parts in and put the wings together and it's been left under the bench ever since. Well as I'm waiting on some decals and washes to finish a couple of my builds I thought I would do a quick build to finish it off and finally get it out from under my feet.

I have an idea for a simple diorama that I want to do with another kit and this seemed like a good practice.

This is the kit.....

The cockpit was quickly painted and the fuselage closed, the kit allows for a normal wing or clipped wing version, my girlfriend put the elliptical wing ends on but the kit parts and the main wings were totally different in thickness and just looked wrong so I pulled them out and put in the clipped wing ends. I also drilled a hole in the middle of the wing........

I've always wanted to model a Spitfire just after take off, with one undercarraige leg lower than the other as in pictures I have seen. so I used some araldite and glued a bicycle spoke nipple to the inside of the fuselage and with a spoke in the nipple I clipped the wings on to the fuselage to make sure it set at the right angle. There was a gap where the middle of the wing meets the back of the fuselage, the fuselage was also paper thin on one half at this point and rather than filling it after I glued the wings on I really should have taken the time to re-inforce this area with some sprue and plasticard as it has caused major problems that I didn't want of a quick build of a cheap kit.

A standard bicycle spoke is 2mm in diameter, it's probably a bit thick in 1:72 scale but as it's only a practice for my normal 1:48 scale idea I'm not too fussed, I threaded the spoke at both ends so I can screw it into another nipple glued into the base of the diorama. I should have checked where I was putting the hole in the wing as I have had to chop the back of the air filter off!

This pic shows the start of the problem with the fuselage behind the wing, I started using some of the Revell plastic filler but when I tried to sand it flat again the whole area just flexed so I collapsed the entire part inwards and filled it with squadron filler which just made the problem worse as the solvent in the filler started melting the wing edge! I knew this part of the kit was going to be a problem but I chose to take the "I'll sort that later" attitude and created more work than the kit is really worth. More haste less speed as my Dad says!

In the end I carved out the whole back part of the fuselage where it meets the wing and filled it with cut sprue and then used plasticard to create a flat edge and surface, I just need to file and shape it back, oh well, more lessons learnt....

And this was supposed to be a very quick build

More to follow.........

Tim.

Edited August 29, 2008 by timmah

[timmah]

Hi

More progress.....

Primed and ready to paint.

Silver enamel applied to enable me to scratch it when I start weathering it

Preshading, yellow on wings and sky fuselage band added

Underneath painted

Top grey coat applied

Masks added

Dark green applied

Ready for a gloss coat before decals

Thanks for looking

Tim.

[timmah]

More progress...............

Gloss coat done, decals applied and gloss top coat added, now waiting for wash, weathering and final matt coat

Thanks for looking

Tim.