Dr Jimbo

Wow! That is properly awesome. I love the weathering. Stunning. I'm going to look more closely then post again. Top job. James

I'm very sorry I haven't posted anything recently. I am actually posting this from the poolside in France on 2 weeks hols with the family. I am coping admirably, mainly by starting to drink red wine at 11am and continuing until bedtime. I had a pretty horrific 48hrs before leaving, trying to fit the canopy and have something to show for it before we left, but alas it was not meant to be. Disaster struck as I was testing the canopy for size. I dropped the model, and in my attempt to stop it from hitting the floor I flung my knee against the table side to create a soft area to catch it in. Unfortunately, having just turned 40 this week, my reflexes have slowed and I ended up slamming the plane with the full force of my knee, into the heavy wooden side to our table. The next 5 minutes are a bit of a haze. The plane is in pieces. The fuselage has come away from the wings, the cockpit is trashed, the paint work is damaged. 4 months of work.... I have been drunk since then. I didn't even get around to saying thank you to will for the very kind canopy. The canopy is intact somehow and I will use it, I promise. Sorry and thank you. I am now deciding whether to make the same model again or move on. I'm tempted to try again. I've learnt so much and want to show something for it... James. PS I will post some photos when I get back, if I can stomach it.

I want to know the same. I bought some pastels and applied them giving an excellent effect, which promptly disappeared as soon as I misted a layer of future on top. I guess it dissolves the pastel or something similar. Any tips? Did you just leave it without sealing it? Thanks, James

I've just been scrolling back through previous RFIs, looking for something to drool over and I've found it! Fabulous build of an interesting subject. Nicely weathered too. Top job. James.

While I decide if I'm going to try moulding, I've been thinking about several other little details. 1. Does anyone have any convincing colour pics of hurricane exhaust stains for me to have a crack at? Links welcome. 2. Oil stains on underside I've got covered and am going to take a leaf out of Jacks book (excellent Malta Spitfire). 3. Radio antenna. Got some EZ wire stuff coming. Not seen it or heard how easy it is to use but am willing to give it a go. Don't know how to cleanly attach it to tail mast or to antenna. Have also got fine fishing line and permanent marker, but from previous experience the attachment points are hard to keep clean. I keep seeing antennae and cable appearing on everyones builds with no explanation of how they did it so well! It looks incredibly fiddly and I can imagine making a mess with blobs of glue everywhere. Any tips or links? Any threads where someone has explained how they've done it? Thanks for any help in advance, James

Most excellent!

Jack, I've just read your build thread again to get some tips, looking mainly at the oil stains, exhaust stains and wing roots. I've saved your thread as a reference for future builds. The oil stains I get, but please could you tell me how you did the exhaust and wing roots. You told us about the hairspray bit that went a bit wrong on the wing roots, but your final effect is excellent and looks like a combination of several techniques. How did you do it? Also how do you achieve the faded exhaust stain rather than the dark grey black stain that you commonly see? Thanks for giving away your secrets. James

But surely you can't directly wave a bunsen burner type flame directly at a piece of plastic without discolouring/melting it? How far away do you have to hold it? Do you have to be heating the plastic as you press it over the mould(existing canopy)? With no experience before I can see this going pear shaped in a serious way. I do actually have one of those fancy kitchen bunsen burner things to make your creme brûlés look caramelised, but with my culinary range ending at microwaved curries, I've never used it! Maybe this is the time to dust it off and see if it works. I tried it as a cigarette lighter once and nearly removed my eyebrows... James.

Lovely job Fozzy. I like the battered look. It's hard to pull off convincingly, but you've managed it well. I'm doing the same in 1:48 and will take some weathering tips from your build. Thanks, James

Both very nice. I like the simple but effective bases too. James

That looks fabulous. Lovely pics, nice clean build, great paintwork especially the mottling which is tricky to pull off properly. Top job, James

Nicely done.

I love the desk lamp. There is no limit to your imagination. James

I've already futured it, micro meshed it and buffed it, but to no avail. I think I ruined it with some cellulose thinners that I was using to clean up the canopy frame and the plastic isn't just surfaced marked, but that the thinners have reacted with it somehow. It's either that or lots of small stretch fractures from forcing it over the fuselage to see if it fits. Any way, Anthony, thanks for the toothpaste tip. Ive stored it away for future use... Started a separate thread to get help if anyone interested. Canopy help thread... More later, James

I've managed to mist up the canopy irreversibly. Does anyone know where I can get a replacement? Squadron do them, but can't find a supplier in the UK. Help please. James

Lots of words and few pics recently, so here are some pics. BM down yesterday(well I couldnt connect anyway). I added a couple of washes, oil lamp black and burnt umber mixed with white spirit, let it dry for 30mins then rubbed it down with paper towel. Sealed it with a thin layer of future. Micromeshed it to give a nice surface for decaling. The decals went on nice and easily and settled well with micro sol/set. Then realised I'd forgotten the sky strip on the rear fuselage, so masked and ABed that next. Then a light wash again to blend it in. Then added some tamiya tape for the walkways, masked and Abed them black. End result - After all the schoolboys errors, I'm happy with the result. Now the thread is up to date and just some detailing to do, including doing something about the red tape over the gun ports which looks rubbish. All thoughts and constructive criticism actively encouraged (this is a step learning curve for me and I need to know if there is anything I could do better). Happy days. More later, James

More court action today, so more time to catch up. I couldn't face repainting to whole plane, so gently micro meshed the borders between the dark earth and green. I then touched up the edges with a hairy stick. I'm not used to using a brush and know that tamiya acrylics are not the best for this purpose, so thinned them a bit and got going. I made a bit of a mess and needed a couple of layers. The difference in texture when it had dried was very obvious so out with the micro mesh again, making more of a mess sanding some of the airbrushed areas. More touching up, more sanding. Eventually was happy enough. No pic again, sorry, but it was obvious that mistakes had been made and covered up rather badly. I then mixed a bit of earth and green together and sprayed all over to lessen the contrast between the 2 camo colours and hide some of the brushed areas. I then sealed it all with a layer of future, getting ready for decaling. I must have gone to sleep while I was doing this, because I managed to get massive overspray without realising until it had dried a couple of hours later! I was furious with myself and had to sand large areas of the port wing to get rid if it. Future doesn't sand well it turns out and in the end I had to scrap some of it off with a blade to reveal the hidden detail underneath. This again ruined the paint job on that part of the wing, but an area too large to touch up with a brush. More thinking. I was quite tempted to cover these areas with some tape or thin plastic sheet and pretend they were patches riveted on to cover battle damage. Then I thought in real life back the day they would have replaced the damaged panels, not put patches over the damaged ones. So I masked off the damaged part of the port wing and resprayed it. Aluminium, a bit of salt chipping, pre shading(light), flat earth, then masked it with tape only and finally added the green. The result was not bad, although the colour match was poor because of the thin layer of mixed green/brown over the rest of the model. Anyway, a bit of variation adds interest, so I left it at that and I think the end result looks good when the number of mistakes and repair jobs are taken into account! More later, James

I watching every post, amazed each time at the level of care and skill you are applying. You work by the same principal that I do, namely two steps forward then one back, 2 forward, 1 back etc until eventually it all over and there are no more mistakes to make. You need the backward steps to keep you on your toes and stop you getting bored! You must be able to visualise the end now.... James

Devilfish, wait! Don't do it. I haven't finished yet. What sounded like a good idea turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. I put the 2nd camo colour - Gunze 309 Green (I think), on next. I then mixed in a bit of dark yellow and resprayed bits again to get a bit of variation. I let it dry overnight and then removed the masking. The nice clean lines I was hoping for didn't happen. The results, which sadly I don't have a pic for, was an irregular cracked untidy line between the 2 layers. Also the areas that were covered by the masking liquid were marked/stained compared to the clear/pristine tamiya taped areas. I'm not sure what my mistake was. If anyone has used this technique safely, please tell me what the trick is? I guess you have to take the masking off before the paint dries, but that risks blurring the edges. The result was ugly. I had 2 options(well, 3 if you include throwing it in the bin). The first was to soldier on, the second was to repaint the whole thing. I'm not brave enough to strip the paint off, so would have to put on another few layers on top of the several that are on there already, thus risking losing detail. So soldier on... Called again, more later... James

Devilfish, wait! Don't do it. I haven't finished yet. What sounded like a good idea turned out to be more trouble than it was worth. I put the 2nd camo colour - Gunze 309 Green (I think), on next. I then mixed in a bit of dark yellow and resprayed bits again to get a bit of variation. I let it dry overnight and then removed the masking. The nice clean lines I was hoping for didn't happen. The results, which sadly I don't have a pic for, was an irregular cracked untidy line between the 2 layers. Also the areas that were covered by the masking liquid were marked/stained compared to the clear/pristine tamiya taped areas. I'm not sure what my mistake was. If anyone has used this technique safely, please tell me what the trick is? I guess you have to take the masking off before the paint dries, but that risks blurring the edges. The result was ugly. I had 2 options(well, 3 if you include throwing it in the bin). The first was to soldier on, the second was to repaint the whole thing. I'm not brave enough to strip the paint off, so would have to put on another few layers on top of the several that are on there already, thus risking losing detail. Called again, more later... James

Nothing wrong with that. What are you worried about? Share, then we can tell you you're wrong and we can congratulate you again! Top job. James.

There is nothing lame about this build. It looks top class. James

No need for mercy here. That looks top class. Tidy build, well painted, good job on the decals, esp the nose one, nice faded panels and the panel lines look spot on. Top job. James

False alarm. The judge is having a nap. I sprayed XF52(70:30 with thinner) firstly into the centre of the panels and then generally all over. I then got out some Gunze 72 flat earth (I think from memory. It's that or 309), which is much the same colour, but different enough to give a bit of variation in tone. I sprayed this, mixed 50:50 with XF 52, in various areas. The pre-shading still came through well. I was happy so far... I let it dry overnight and then masked it for the 2nd camo colour, using tamiya tape and masking fluid to get nice well demarcated lines between he camo colours. I've used just tape before but struggled to cut the tape cleanly and easily when on the model, using a sharp scalpel but trying to do it lightly so as not to damage the paintwork already on the plane. Cutting to the camo pattern before putting the tape on never worked for me either. I always cut it wrong and after wasting a couple of rolls of tape I decided to try the masking fluid idea. It was easy and relatively fast. All looking good. I was surfing the wave of modelling enthusiasm and optimism, thinking this could look really good when finished... More later, James

Sorry for the long delay in the next post. Camera trouble and been busy. I'm doing jury duty for the next fortnight and am writing this from the 'High Sheriff's Room' at the court. There seems to be a lot of waiting around, so I've brought my laptop and hope to catch up with the thread and post my progress. I've managed to do a fair bit, mainly by taking a couple of step forward, then one back, repeatedly. I have a few questions as well. This may come in chunks and seem to end abruptly if we're called to go into court. Its been a month since I posted last but hopefully I can remember what I've done. Leaving off from the last post, I masked the underside and added some table salt to various bits, rivets, the gun access hatches on the upper wing, wing roots. I have found that for 1:48 rock salt grains are too big and look odd and table salt does a better job. I then pre-shaded the upper wings and fuselage. That bit was easy. As an experiment I had Abed the fabric part of the fuselage red to see if it made any difference to the shade/tone of the camo sprayed on top. Waste of time as it turned out! It doesn't show. I then painted the lighter of the 2 camo colours, Tamiya XF52...... Duty calls. Here we go. More later... James