Bedders

After much thought my own approach was Hasegawa fuselage lengthened by approx 1mm before the fin, plus the AZ/KP wing. For me even the Hawkeye wing has panel lines around the ammo bays in the wrong place, which the AZ/KP wing has correct. WIP below for what it's worth: Justin

Great job on the stencils. Probably easier to see on the model than on the paper. And those Corsairs grow tastier by the day... Justin

Wonderful in every way. Justin

That's interesting info on the roundels. I used the ones from my Sword Seafire XV kit (my boxing of the MkIII didn't have them). The fuselage ones seem about right, and the wing ones, which are smaller, look similar to those in some photos and smaller than those in others. Seems there was some variation of application in the field (or on the water). The roundels on the Xtradecal Seafire sheet don't look right to me. Justin

Interesting project Cookie, and a gold star for your commitment to the hobby in the midst of a relocation. Really like the paintwork on your Helldiver, and am eyeing your Corsairs with a view to having a go at one myself. The 'easy-rider' location of the cockpit on those looks kinda cool... Justin

Very nice indeed. That matt varnish seems to have done a lovely job. Really like the in-flight pose and the very tidy mounting for the pole. Justin

Lovely.

Thanks for the kind words folks. Must say this is quite an enjoyable build. Cookie, the set is this: X72-064. Two sizes of BPF roundels (neither any good for Seafires I'm afraid - I found the large size too big, and the small one too small), and three sizes of numbers & letters. I used the smallest ones.

Hi folks, I made it to Telford for the first time yesterday but only after work intervened which meant I only arrived at 5pm. So I missed quite a lot. Oh well, over the past week I've done the decals on the Seafire. Cutting and locating those individual 4 inch serial numbers/letters was a bit of a task, but they went on ok in the end. Overall I found the Sword decals quite challenging to work with - very thin and rather brittle which meant I turned to Xtradecal for most of the stencils. The tail codes are also Xtradecal. As I was applying them I noticed on photos that the S should be slightly bigger than the 121, but I don't think it shows up all that much. The underwing roundel broke into 3 pieces but I managed to save it and it'll probably look ok after a bit of weathering. And there's a bit of touching up to do on the fuselage roundels too. I'm using this profile as a reference for Victor Lowden's aircraft: But it's a bit inaccurate as the top camouflage colours are erroneously reversed. But it enables me to do an alternative to S-146 (Reynolds) and S-112 (Murphy) which are often modelled. Justin

Gosh that's lovely. Beautiful job. Justin

Really nice job on that. Good to see that the kit goes together well and looks like nice moulding of the radiator ducting. Justin

I've learnt something. I always wondered how some images seem to 'pixelate' (is that the right word?) when enlarged, while others don't. I think this is the answer. Cheers.

Morning all, After a week with little opportunity to work on this, I've made a bit of progress this weekend. Made a couple of corrections to the paintwork including touching in where the masking tape had pulled up some of the paint. Still a bit to done on that, but in the meantime I've used some unlightened Dark Slate Grey to replicate where the original overwing roundels were painted over before the BPF markings were applied. Just enough contrast to make them visible, which was the idea. Soon it'll be time for decals! Justin

Phlipping lovely.

Oh dear. I must be getting old....!

Now that's just silly. I might need one.

Looking forward to this very much. Justin

Very nice indeed. Lovely paint job and interesting markings too. Looking forward to building one of these at some point but am trying to finish some off before starting anything new...! Justin

Lovely. Really like the paint job & finish. Justin

I wonder whether EDSG over Sky would look good on an Austin-Healey 3000. The Seafire's looking gorgeous. I'm sure the canopy can be sorted. Justin

That's looking really good. Quite envious of your precise work and photos. Those bits for the wheels wells are more trouble than they're worth - I've left them off my Sword Seafire. Will be following! Justin

Great progress. There's nothing like watching a Spitfire come together! Justin

That's looking really nice. Justin

I agree. But what I've just noticed on the restoration is that the camouflage pattern has the colours reversed. The EDSG is where the Dark Slate Grey should be, and vice versa. Compare it to this: And this: Justin

Got the top colours on yesterday. I used Xtracrylics Extra Dark Sea Grey and Dark Slate Grey, but lightened them both a touch with a couple of drops of white. Thinned with Xtracrylics thinner and a couple of drops of Galeria Fluid Retarder, they sprayed beautifully. I did the Dark Slate Grey first, and then masked off using the blu-tack sausage method, hoping to get a nice feathered demarcation: Here the EDSG has gone on: And with the masking removed, hey presto! Just a couple of spots on the left wing where the masking tape has pulled up some of the Dark Slate Grey, but that can be corrected and overall I'm pretty happy. Justin