dadgaddad

Not quite. There is no line on either the top or the bottom of the tab so I simply scribed across on both sides. I would never have noticed if a fellow BMer hadn't pointed it out to me. Once you see it it's really obvious.

One thing I did on mine was to scribe the top and bottom of the trim tab on the rudder. You might just be able to make it out in this picture. .

After the frustration of the first pieces of etch, the last piece went on first time with no trouble at all so with a little dab of CA to hold it place I got a coat of paint on it including my favourite pot of Crowbar Red These will be the last photos in this thread, I'm calling this one done. Thanks to all of you who watched and gave your unqualified support and encouragement. I hope you were amused and entertained and I'll see you all over in the RFI once I've taken some pictures. Cheers Dadgaddad

When I was boy there was a large chalk pit just outside the town. We used to go up there and play and often found fossils.

One job left to do, I thought to myself, shouldn't take long then I'm done. Several frustrating hours later here I am still trying to get this door latch done. This has to be the smallest pice of etch I've ever handled and there are two of them to put on with one left to do. I'm just going outside, I may be some time.

Probably not!

Well I was going to turn in early tonight as I was out most of last night but I couldn't resist leaving you this little teaser before I go. Today I fixed the canopy, attached the rear view mirror, added the pitot and some ridiculously small bits of etch. Paint has been tidied up in places and the exhausts done. Aerial mast is on and there is one last job to do before I can attach the propellor and call it done. A job so obvious I had missed it until I took this photo.

I wouldn't bank on it yet, Jason, I've got to get a canopy sorted before it's done.

Cheers, Rob. She's coming along, just a few small parts to fit now and she's done.

Topsy!

Right. Wake up at the back. Some progress to report. With work on my Mk IX currently taking precendence this little Mk I has had to take a back seat recently but as the Mk IX was getting its matt finish applied I thought it would make sense to do this one at the same time. I also managed to put the undercarriage legs in but the tail wheel appears to have broken off at some point so I have had to use another one from the other kit which means I will be down a tail wheel somewhere along the line and begging one off of you lot! Anyway, here she is. And here she is with her big sister.

Here she is with her little sister who also got her legs on yesterday.

A major step forward to report. Not only is the matt coat finished but she is up on her legs! I thought I had made a serious error at first because the legs looked way too short but then I realised it's just the presence of the slipper tank making her look a bit tubby. Edited because I just realised I posted the same picture twice.

I love these early Spitfires. I've built a couple and I've also got that sheet so I'll be watching this with interest.

Managed to get a bit of time this afternoon so I fired up the compressor and filled the airbrush with some Matt Cote. It went on very nicely and after a couple of coats it was done. So with that done I thought I would add a few final touches by painting some exhaust stains. First attempt was to spray a very light coat of Tamiya X-19 Smoke. It was ok but virtually invisible against the grey and green so next I thought I would try some black pastel dust mixed with a drop of Clear. This was much more visible. In fact it looked like some had taken a huge brush and painted a big, black stripe down the side. So I took that off and tried again with more success this time. It's still a bit lost against the green but looks ok on the starboard side against the grey. I'll need to put a little more Matt Cote over it. The exhausts have been given a coat of Tamiya XF-69 Nato Black and I'll drybrush them later with a little something.

Topsy.

I wouldn't normally weather my Spitfires too heavily but photos of this one show it to be very dirty so I have tried to capture at least some of that. I used a dark grey enamel wash to accent the panel edges and pastel chalks in varying amounts of black, dark red and orange in the wing roots and again in the panel edges. Black and brown oils were heavily diluted and used to wash the upper and lower cowls and around the cockpit as well as the oil stains on the lower surfaces. Cannon covers also had the white paint added. Jobs left to do include painting the exhausts and putting on the final matt coat then it's onto assembling the last pieces like the undercarriage, rear view mirror, aerial mast and radiator flap which absolutely refuses to stay on. Once that is all done I can put on the propellor which, for some reason I always like to do as the very last thing.

The decals are very delicate and require gentle handling but the upper surfaces are complete save for a couple of stencils. I have Saturday to myself this week so I am hoping to have it finished shortly!

A few more decals on and I have to say they are fighting me every inch of the way so far. They have wrinkled, crinkled, bubbled and torn at every opportunity. However, with a bit of Decalfix they have been persuaded to behave. Both upper wings completed and the port side codes are on. Still plenty to come.

We all look better with our teeth in!

I've started to put on a few of the decals. I'm using Xtradecal's Supermarine Spitfire F.Mk.IXc 48123 sheet and I'm struggling a bit with them although they look ok once they are on. The stencils are from the kit and they went on without any problem.

You're looking good, Topsy.

After a few coats of Humbrol Clear and a good polish I have managed to achieve a slight sheen to the surface so hopefully I can get some decals on without too much drama. The Clear was applied in several coats using both the airbrush and a wide, flat brush and polished with a nail buffer from Poundworld. I looked at a few different ways to fix the small area of grey that needed doing but in the end I just covered it with a bit of silver paint and it looks fine so I left it.

You need to talk to robvulcan he's built about 40 million of 'em.

Another tiny step along the way is made. Some of the green around the pilot's entry hatch needed retouching so with a bit of careful masking and a very low air pressure I set to work. There's a bit of grey still to be done yet but it's come out better than I expected.I also painted the canopy frame and the aerial mast while I had the green in the airbrush seeing as I missed them last time.