thammond65

Hi Olivier, great build and really interesting thread. Not sure about your conclusions on these photos though. In the top one it is difficult to work out where the sun is and the position of the aircraft but it seems that the sun is behind and to the left of the photographer. The aircraft seems to be banked slightly to starboard and pointing slightly towards the sun. That means the fuselage at and behind the cockpit and the inner port wing is getting direct sun and the outer half of the port wing is not - from the point of view of the observer. The bright spot on the canopy suggests that too. You can't add satin and satin to get gloss, as gloss is the ability of a paint to produce specular reflection. Thus gloss can only look gloss if light is shining directly on a surface AND the observer is in the right position to see the specular reflection. A gloss surface can look glossy only in parts very easily - indeed unless the surface is evenly illuminated AND the observer gets specular refection from the entire surface it will not look glossy over the entire surface. On an aircraft with complex curved shapes that reflect light in all sorts of directions you should expect to see gloss, satin and matt in a photo even if it is fact all in gloss paint.

I think dark green is the way to go, and it is far more likely there was dark green around. But that's not logic, just an assessment of what's likely. But if there was extra dark sea green around, surely any RAF stores master would leave that behind before leaving dark green behind? And if some annoying Yank came along and asked me for green paint, I would give him the stuff I knew I wouldn't be using - extra dark sea green rather than dark green. The military in war-time and in peace is usually very reluctant to part with stuff that might be needed, particularly stuff that senior officers might require to spruce up things before even more senior officers visit. So IF there was a green around that wasn't dark green, wouldn't that be the one left behind or handed out? You wouldn't use limited space on a lorry fir paint you don't need and leave behind paint you will need if you are moving airfield. And if extra dark sea green was produced but little used, there might be a fair but around?

I 'd never noticed that - interestingly the box art of the Tamiya 1/32 Mk VIII shows exactly what you say, but I'd never noticed it. Like a Uruguayan, you see what you want to see!

Pascal It's a lovely model and really captures the look of the aircraft. However, I couldn't help noticing that in the picture you posted, at least the dark green goes below the line of the cowling panel - unusual for a Spitfire as far as I know (which isn't very far). You can see a somewhat soft line that covers the top row of fasteners. But it's still gorgeous!