Spitfire PR.IG Diorama ( with a twist ) 1/72 Scale

[corsaircorp]

Hello AAF,

Oh what a pleasure to see kids involved in modelling !!

She did great and brilliant !

Congratulations to the Young lady !!

Can't wait to see the job done !

Sincerely.

Corsaircorp !

[Army_Air_Force]

It is great! Last Summer holidays, we made a small model railway which was completely "My Little Pony" themed, with all the main characters and buildings in "Ponyville" shown below. In addition to finishing this Spitfire thread, I've also got her "Snoopy verses the Red Baron" build to show which we finished a little earlier this year.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

A week later, the rest of the aircraft was painted.

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

There was another long pause on the project until the beginning of July. Life can be very busy when you're 5 years old!! Now she's 8, her life is no less busy!

 

So on July 7th, after school and a short play in the park, we came home to do some decalling. It had been a long time since we did the Red Arrows Hawk, but I was sure she would manage. I held the Spitfire still while she dunked the decals in the water until they were loose. Then using a small paint brush, she gently held the decal still as she pulled out the backing paper, just needing a little help with the location, at least to start with!

 

 

We weren't too fussed about the roundels being the correct style, and used a combination of kit decals and some from the spares box. The bottom of the wings came first as a practice in case it went wrong, then the top before a pause to let them dry in place a little while. Then came the centre red dot.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[k5054nz]

Her red-centre placement is already better than mine was when I was at her age, what witchcraft is this?! Fine work, AAF Jr.!

[Army_Air_Force]

At first, the alignment of the red dot needed some assistance from me, but by the later ones, she was getting quite good at centering them.

 

 

Just the serial to go.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

With the serial on, and over an hour passed, it was time for a couple of quick photos before we had to clear away. The wind even gave us a gust for the prop!

 

 

Other than perhaps the canopy, that was the Spit done for the time being. We left the landing gear and other fragile parts off until nearer the final assembly of the diorama. With the school summer holidays only a week and a half away, we hoped to make more progress.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

There was another long pause in the project until the beginning of November 2015. Wifey was away again for the weekend, I think with her Girl Guide unit, so it was just me and little legs for two days. So after some episodes of Danger Mouse to start the day, we got all the stuff out on the dining room table and carried on from where we left off.

 

We'd painted the wheels, legs and exhausts on the sprue, so these were ready to be cut sanded and attached. She's now generally safe to be let loose with a scalpel, 'though she knows she's only allowed to touch one when I'm there to supervise. So the wheels were cut, and the cuts sanded smooth, followed by the legs and exhausts. I did a little scraping of paint where the gluing contact area was to be.

 

 

The wheels were glued to the legs and left to dry a little while. In the mean time, we attached the exhausts.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Happy with the progress so far!

 

 

The glue joint on the wheels was still hardening, so we moved on to the small Bedford fuel bowser kit. There were two bowsers in the kit, the Bedford and AEC Matador. We separated the small bowser parts and left the Matador in a plastic bag, to use in a future diorama. So we started off painting the tyres.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

Painting the inside of the cab.

 

 

We'd done about an hour and a bit, and I could see that was about enough concentration in one go, so left the painted parts to dry, and before we stopped, got the Spitfire landing gear attached.

 

 

The legs were left to dry with the model inverted for a while, before being turned over and supported on some small blocks of balsa for a quick picture, before being turned back over for the glue to completely evaporate and the joints to harden.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

The work done above was at the start of November 2015. There was another long pause in the project and a change of location, following the completion of the customer's model railway project. That cleared my workshop, which although is 23 x 12 feet, was somewhat taken over by two eight feet long sections of railway!!!

 

 

So we finally got back to the diorama in mid May 2016. I gave the aircraft a sprayed matt coat over the decals and we got the canopy on. The frames were painted, masking a few at a time ( I did the masking ). There was still a few touch ups to do like the wheels where they were cut from the sprue and a little pink from the spinner that got on the prop. There was no further progress on the tanker.

 

The Spit's gun ports should have been filled, but that escaped my attention. Modelling seems harder when you're not actually doing it, just telling someone else how to do it!!

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

We move on to the June half term holiday and we got a bit more work done to the diorama. We started by painting the concrete dispersal. The grey was a little thin, so it took a couple of coats. It still needed some weathering to dirty it up a bit.

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

So, back to the tanker, starting with the chassis. I placed and held the pieces in position while my daughter did the gluing. I'm sure many adults have found that grown up fingers aren't the correct size to work in 1/76 scale, so perhaps she should have done the positioning and I should have applied the glue!

 

 

The tank went together next after some internal filling, to allow the top detail to be sanded off. This is because the kit is a copy of a post war tanker with booms for the refuelling hoses. The wartime tanker wasn't like this, so we were going to do a little modifying.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

While the springs were drying on the chassis, we assembled the wheels, and glued them to the axles. The tanker starting to take shape.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

In early July, the Bedford chassis was mated with the axles and wheels.

 

 

The original tank detail was sanded off, the area filled and the main body of the tank sanded, while I turned a new dome for the top on my lathe.

 

 

It was all placed together to see how it was looking. Progress was slow over the Summer as we were heavily involved with building the "My Little Pony" railway.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

It was early October 2016 when we got back to the diorama, having being distracted by the "My Little Pony" railway for pretty much all of the Summer. Most of the construction work on the tanker was done, just leaving the painting before final assembly. While my daughter was working on the tanker, I was painting one of the converted ponies for the railroad.

 

 

First coat of green applied.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

After a couple more coats, the green was covering nicely.

 

 

The tanker was given a matt coat before going any further and we paused for a "His and Hers" diorama shot! My 1/48th B-26 hangar queen and her 1/72nd Spitfire.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

My daughter quite liked the idea of the "Mickey Mouse" style WW2 camouflage, so we applied that to the tanker. Some bits were a bit too tricky for her, so for those, I painted the outline and she filled in the rest. The tanker body is still unattached at this point. I gave the concrete a dust over in a few dark greys and blacks to mottle the surface and then drew the tar joint lines with a fine line pen while squinting through a magnifying glass so I could get them as fine as possible. Since the photos, I also glossed the tanker for the decals.

 

 

We were both very pleased with the way it was looking.

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

A few days later, I fitted a radiator guard made from thin copper wire rather than the plastic kit part, then we applied the decals. 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[Army_Air_Force]

There was no further progress for the rest of 2016. However at the start of January 2017, we got back to it. We finished off the figures and began to work out where everything should go. I didn't want it to go overboard, so eight figures seemed about the right amount to fill the space. We placed everything out to make it look like everyone there had a reason for being there.

 

 

We tried a few different layouts, photographing each so they could be compared. Once we'd settled on an idea, I cut the bases off the figures that were to be used. There's nothing worse than a bunch of figures all standing on a metre square slab of concrete!

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[John Masters]

This all looks great!  What a fun time!  Any more images of the railway layout? 

[Army_Air_Force]

Which railway? The My Little Pony one, or the N scale WW2 layout?

[javlin]

She has been watching Daddy to long and some of his abilities have rubbed off.They grow up way to fast. Kevin

[Army_Air_Force]

On 07/12/2017 at 13:31, John D.C. Masters said:

.....Any more images of the railway layout? 

Here's a few pictures and videos of the N scale railway, set during WW2. Liberty ship and destroyer in port/drydock, goods yards, country station and airfield.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited October 22, 2020 by Army_Air_Force

[John Masters]

That's great fun indeed!  Thanks!