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Tears were once my only way back home (1/72 Eduard Spitfire IXs)


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Here's the current progress. Looks like the cannons and the blanking stubs will need some cleaning up before I can spray. I'm unsure why the stub tips are separate parts, but it's a little unwieldy and they're easy to lose.

 

32245347632_454a42166d_h.jpg2017-01-18_07-51-40 by Edward IX, on Flickr

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2 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

What a cool trio PC, I really like the lines of the Eduard kit all built up.  I'll have to figure out how to make all four cannons just stubs on my post war XVI, any suggestions?

 

I've been wracking my brain to figure that out myself! My thought, since I have six XVIs, is to use the spare blanking stub tips on some E-wing 0.50 barrels left over from IXc builds. Haven't looked into it closely, though.

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I thought about that too, but the 'barrels' molded on the wings are of different lengths - so the caps won't be even. I was sort of think of attaching the C wing cannon and clipping it to the right length, then rounding the 'stump' with a sanding stick. I don't know.

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7 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

I thought about that too, but the 'barrels' molded on the wings are of different lengths - so the caps won't be even. I was sort of think of attaching the C wing cannon and clipping it to the right length, then rounding the 'stump' with a sanding stick. I don't know.

 

Well dammit. Spare bits from any AZ IXs you have?

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Alclad Primer on.

 

32398740925_9b32ee5206_h.jpg20170119_003623 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

It's near the end of the bottle, and it came out a bit thick at first, so I thinned it with Gunze Self-Leveling thinner, which is in fact a magic potion from before the time of man, probably. In any case, the undersides look a bit gritty as a result and will need smoothing. Also, it looks like I missed one seam:

 

32248601972_ecc6b13342_h.jpg20170119_003630 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Arrrgh!

 

Well, 66% isn't terrible, as I always told my parents when report cards were handed out. So a bit of tidying up to do.

 

Anyway, I've fallen down a Proustian memory hole, as I often do, and so I'm going to sort of aimlessly stew in self-loathing until sleep claims me. I work from home tomorrow morning, then spend the afternoon with Winston, might get some more done then. We'll see!

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Nice trio PC and bad luck on the 'missed' seam but, in the words of the old song, 🎶 two out of three ain't bad 🎶 and you'll soon have it fixed I'll warrant :) 

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7 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

I believe I bought a bottle of Gunze Thinner a while back. I wonder what I did with it? :hmmm:

 

The correct answer is "built a little backlit shrine for it". The self-leveling stuff is useful for so many things: thinning Akan and Xtracrylics so they suck less; thinning Gunze Aqeuous; thinning lacquer-based paints; thinning enamels like Colourcoats; thinning Mr Surfacer to use as a primer; and thinning Alclad primers. In a pinch, you can also drink the bottle if life has become too much for you.

 

1 hour ago, Christer A said:

The seam that never dies...

I got one as well on my Spit VIII, but I happily choose to ignore it.

 

I'm sure you'll solve it perfectly Mr PC!


Visible seams there are something of an obsession of mine, akin to the Telltale Heart. Even when they were present in reality (eg the Bf 109), I can't leave them be.

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55 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

The Luftwaffe dreaded crossing the colorful Spitfires of Procopius' Circus.

 

The guys I used to fly with are reuniting as Dad Force ("That's IT: We're Turning This War Around!") next weekend to really stick it to the Nazis. In IL-2, anyway. We usually flew a Spitfire IX (me), a Corsair (my friend Jonathan, the inventor of the defensive stall, AKA falling out of the sky in a flat spin while trying to evade the enemy), and a P-51D (my friend Chris, who's very, very good) that uses this skin:

 

Hewitt.jpg

 

59 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

You'll have these done in no time PC, paper mask method?

 

That's the plan!

 

1 minute ago, charlie_c67 said:

Oh, and loving the Shrews PC ;)

 

Surely that's the Type 224.

 

Anyhow, bad news first:

 

32285783091_77a967e0b6_h.jpg2017-01-19_10-56-49 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Seams were still visible on all three. This is a weak point on every kit I've ever built of a Spitfire, but a one-piece (styrene, not resin, bloody chisellers) upper cowl would have obviated it to a great extent. Oh well. Little filling to do, and a much smarter wing fillet assembly than on most kits I've done.

 

Wait, what's this? Colourcoats on Skalski's machine:

 

32029319180_8b605d07f6_h.jpg20170119_113120 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

It seems my initial positive experience with this paint wasn't a fluke. Coupled with Gunze Self-Leveling, it's far more docile than even the best acrylics (Gunze, Tamiya) that I've used. I'm using a crappy Master G22 airbrush for enamels right now, and it's prone to intermittently spluttering at highly random intervals, blorting out little blobs of paint. With acrylics, this means probably some sanding and respraying. With Colourcoats, it smoothed out and vanished into the coat of paint during the 30 minutes it took me to prep, spray, and clean up. Sorcery. 

 

When I sprayed, there were huge blorted beads of paint on the carb intake and the tailplanes. See them now? 

 

31595675513_16c2099bcb_h.jpg20170119_113135 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Me neither. 

 

These are the best paints I have ever used. I'd already bought some more on spec based on my trial spraying earlier in the build, but now I think they'll be my go-to paints whenever possible. 

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Apparently the 224 was to be called the Spitfire (requested by Supermarine in 1933) and Mitchell wanted to call the Spit the Supermarine Shrew. At least according to one author. Apologies for a link to the Daily Fail...

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3132500/Designer-iconic-Spitfire-thought-damned-silly-wanted-call-SHREW-claims-new-book.html

 

On the paints, have you ever tried Hataka or Vallejo model air brands? If so how did you find them to use?

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Just now, charlie_c67 said:

On the paints, have you ever tried Hataka or Vallejo model air brands? If so how did you find them to use?

 

I have some Hataka paints for doing Have Glass Grey on the F-35, but have heard almost invariably nothing good about them. Something I've noticed: acrylics from the UK/Europe tend to have branded thinners that spray very poorly. This is true for Xtracrylix, Humbrol, Akan (made in Finland, anyway), and Lifecolor. Perhaps it's a regulation affecting their composition? Conversely, Testors Modelmasters acrylics, which few people have much good to say about, spray quite nicely with their thinners.

 

In any event, Vallejo Model Air (which I used on my Lancaster) sprays beautifully, but chips off if you even look at it and all of the colours are so wrong that I'll never bother using it again. I mask a lot, and I have (mild) colour perception problems, so I don't much want a paint that will look wrong and come up with the Tamiya tape or a stern glance.

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They look a lovely bunch mr P. The spitfire seam, or modellers bane, is a terrible thing and it disappoints me that this is still an issue with the eduard kit... I bet the would make more if the just did a one peiece cowl and put the price up.

 

Rob

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8 minutes ago, mackem01 said:

Without losing sight of the original project - I would like to see one finished in your PC PC personalised scheme. You know you want to.........

Keep up the great work.

 

Someone on here did a Union Jack Spitfire a while ago, and it was gorgeous. Always wanted to try sometime.

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Hmm I think I see a spot...if you squint your eye and look at it sideways...:P

 

No that's a seriously nice smooth finish you got there. Well done!. And such a fetching shade of blue...

 

As fun as enamel paints are though I'd just be guaranteed to get some finger marks on them due to my crippling lack of patience :D

 

 

 

 

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5 minutes ago, Squibby said:

As fun as enamel paints are though I'd just be guaranteed to get some finger marks on them due to my crippling lack of patience :D

 

 

When I finish painting, I use some of the leftover paint on the tin lid and use that to test if the model is dry.

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