1/72 Spitfire Mk1/Mk2a Quick build

[dominic_2005]

Airfix 1/72 Spitfire Mk1/Mk2a

 

Hiya.

I picked this up today purely to use for practice on. Specifically, doing the panel lines. I haven't build anything from Airfix for literally decades. It was suggested by my local bricks & mortar shop for what I needed, due to the new tooling by Airfix.

 

And they don't disappoint, the quality is great. Certainly better than how I remember Airfix being years gone past. So I got stuck right in, mainly just prepping the first few pars for the cockpit, and priming them.

 

I mixed up far too much primer, so I decided to grab a few more bits that I could quickly prime without needing too much work, insides of the fuselage and wheel bays etc. So now they all sit, drying...

 

 

I won't be putting a great deal of effort into this, so don't expect too much. It's just for me to get to grips with these panel lines which are starting to infuriate me now lol.


Thanks


D

[Booty003]

Nice little kit.  I personally just use either Halfords primer or plastic primer from a local motor factors.  Rattle can greatness!!

[dominic_2005]

Cheap auto primer used to be my goto...but after seeing the difference with priming through an airbrush, I can see the advantages.

Once the primer was all set, I mixed up by the eye some green that closely matched what I remember from previous spits, and gave all the internals few coats.

I didn't bother doing anything about the ejector pins, as this was a quick kit to practice a few things on.

Next I started on the wee pilot, we shall call him Bob. Started with his jumpsuit first, then the life jacket, leathers, boots etc.

 

And then finally glosscoated, added some lowlights, and a final matt coat to take the shineyness from the jumpsuit/leathers but left it on the life jacket and boots. At this close up the lowlights look pretty dire, but with the naked eye they look ok.

 

 

Same thing with the cockpit, green - gloss - pinwash - matt. All together doesn't look half bad.

 

Unfortunately during service, Bob lost both his feet during a seat fitting session.

 

And couldn't resist a quick dry fit in the still glossed fuselage...

 

 

Still need to work on my pinwash, but I am slowly getting there. I've notice it works better in grooves rather than just against a single edge.



Thanks


D

[Oldone]

Looking good to me,will sit back and wait for more. I will be following this build

[dominic_2005]

Thanks!

Made a little more progress. I decided to use some spirit to see if I could wipe off the pin wash on the inside of the cockpit, which came off really easily, and have another go at it. I made my wash a little thicker this time, and applied it with a severed cocktail stick. The result was much better this time.

So I gave it some more weathering, touch of oil and rust, dry-brushed with some silver, and matt coated to seal in. Looks much better now.

 

 

 

Thanks


D

[dominic_2005]

Good morning.

Done a fair bit to this over the last day or so. Starting with assembling the basic aircraft, so I can get any joins and seams filled and sanded.

 

 

Then I fixed the wings in place and left to dry. Got everything filled and sanded and masked off ready for a coat of primer. I was lucky when it came to masking the cockpit off as the kit is for two versions, which the canopies are different. On top of that, the canopy fits in nicely without any need for glue. I was able to use the spare one to effectively mask off the cockpit with very little fiddly masking needed. So that was all done and a few coats of primer applied with my airbrush.

 

As you can see there was still a little filling that needed doing...

 

 

Once that was sorted, and another primer applied, I started on a new technique (to me): pre-shading. This took a few attempts to get the hang of, and the right way of doing it. Initially, I pre-shaded the primer coat, then applied the colour coat over that. Due to needing a heavier colour coat to cover the primer, the effect was lost.

So, once that colour coat was dry, I pre-shaded that instead, then went over it again with a very light almost translucent colour coat. The result is subtle, which is fine for this scale, but I think for my first attempt, didn't turn out too bad. So far at least...

 

 

The affect is really hard to photograph. I need to find some way of turning all the auto filters off on my phone :/

 

 

Thanks


D

[dominic_2005]

Another update.

Time to do the upper side, but first, need to mask off the lower.

 

Then I airbrushed the entire upper surface with thinned Tamiya Flat Earth, as it was the closest colour I had to hand. (Meant to be Dark Earth - Humbrol).

 

 

And finally, I used IJN Green for the rest. I decided, as I was using this kit for practice, to have a crack at freehanding the green with my airbrush. Not an easy task given my unsteady hands and noviceness with an airbrush, but fairly impressed with my efforts.

 

 

Next task, gloss coat, pinwash, matt coat.


Thanks


D

[Winenut]

Looking forward to seeing how you go.

 

Great to see you having a crack at new techniques.

 

Cheers

[BIG X]

17 hours ago, dominic_2005 said:

Next task, gloss coat, pinwash, matt coat.
 

Great work Dominic - I'm very impressed with the freehand dark green

Are you doing any decals???  If so don't forget to get them on before the pinwash and matt coat

Cheers - Steve

[dominic_2005]

5 hours ago, Winenut said:

Looking forward to seeing how you go.

 

Great to see you having a crack at new techniques.

 

Cheers

Thanks. We're always learning.

29 minutes ago, BIG X said:

Great work Dominic - I'm very impressed with the freehand dark green

Are you doing any decals???  If so don't forget to get them on before the pinwash and matt coat

Cheers - Steve

Which I did forget lol


D

[Oldone]

Im still watching and learning. Your spitfire is looking good.