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Thanks CedB! Much appreciated!

Hello again, I'm running the risk of causing a lot of boredom by repeating every step of my RN Phantom build (this will only get worse when I start my Shark Teeth Phantom... ) but I'm afraid things will only be different when I get to the main painting stages... Anyway, this is a post regarding the work I did yesterday in parallel to both the RN and this Phantom. As said elsewhere, this will look to be a small update but, in fact, it represents several hours of work. As explained in the similar post for the RN Phantom, I decided to take the more difficult path and masked the cockpit tube to airbrush the matte black areas. Here's the cockpit tube already masked, waiting for being painted: IMAG2007 After painting and removing the masking, here's the result: IMAG2020 It turned out better than the RN one but also needs a few touch ups (with a brush...) I also painted the yellow handles on the ejection seat tops, which were used to initiate the ejection sequence. In this case I took pictures of one of the parts, after masking and after painting: IMAG2011 IMAG2010 After removing the masking, here they are, next to the other seat parts (sorry for the fuzzy focusing but my smartphone didn't manage to focus properly...): IMAG2022 I still need to paint the black stripes on the handles. That's all for now. Thanks for looking! Jaime

Hello again, This will look to be a small update but, in fact, it represents several hours of work. The work was done in parallel on this and on the Alcock & Brown Phantom. The cockpit side panels were black. The structures between the two cockpits and behind the rear cockpit were also black. For a while, I thought about painting them with a brush but I'm not especially fond of the finish of brush painting (my fault, I'm sure). So, I decided to go ahead and mask the cockpit tube in order to paint it with the airbrush. Since the side panels and other black structures are irregular, masking was quite complicated and took a few hours for both aircraft. Here's the RN cockpit tube already masked, waiting for being painted: IMAG2008 After painting and removing the masking, here's the result: IMAG2018 It's not too bad but needs a few touch ups (with a brush...) I also painted the yellow handles on the ejection seat tops, which were used to initiate the ejection sequence. Here they are, next to the other seat parts: IMAG2019 I still need to paint the black stripes on the handles. That's all for now. Thanks for looking! Jaime

Wick's aircraft has a very interesting camouflage scheme which should be a good painting challenge

Hello again, Yesterday I managed to paint the yellow wing leading edge stripes, and also corrected a small error in the dark green camouflage, near the tip of the port wing. First, I masked the aircraft in preparation for painting, leaving exposed only the leading edges of wings: IMAG2002 IMAG2003 and also the tip of the port wing, where the green camouflage should be extended: IMAG2004 The tips of the propeller blades were also yellow, so I had to mask and paint them as well. Here they are, with the white primer on the tips (I believe the extension of the yellow areas is true to scale, I did the math myself... 4 inch long yellow tips in 1:1 results in 1,4 mm long tips in 1:72): IMAG2005 They got masked: IMAG2006 painted and unmasked: IMAG2012 They're not too bad but need a few touch ups. The aircraft also got painted and unmasked. Here you can see the yellow stripes and the green camouflage corrected on the port wing tip: IMAG2016 Underside view: IMAG2017 Turned out quite well, I believe. Now I'll just make a few touch ups and then a bit of chipping. It should be pointed out that the D-Day stripes were applied in a rush on an operational aircraft, so they covered parts of the chipped camouflage, but I guess the ground crews didn't have the time to repair the rest of the camouflage. So, I'll try to figure out where it makes sense to have some chipping. After that, I'll apply a good gloss coat in preparation for decaling. Thanks for your interest. Jaime

No rivalry but fun for certain we can share some tips while we go along!

Thanks for your interest Rob! The Do 17z will be a challenge, as it'll be my first bomber (though a "smallish" one...). Also, the huge amount of PE I plan to throw at the builds will be a first for me. Cheers Jaime

Rob, PlaStix, Winenut, thanks a lot for your interest and kind words. They really mean a lot! I've already painted the yellow wing leading edge stripes. Hopefully, I'll post some pictures by the end of today. Cheers Jaime

I'll be participating with Airfix's dogfight doubles edition of the Do 17z and Defiant. I'm waiting for it to arrive to my LHS. I've also ordered all the Eduard's PE frets for these aircraft. I'll also build a Bf 109 E4, as flown by Major Helmut Wick in October 1940. This is Tamiya's 1/72 kit and I'll use Eduard's PE zoom fret for this kit. I have both already. Jaime

I'm in! I haven't decided what I'll do but I have Airfix's F8, Tamiya's A3 and D9, and Dragon's Ta 152 with engine and PE. I have Eduard's PE for the first 3. Cheers Jaime

It really is the same kit being built three times. You'll see differences when I get to the main painting. Apart from the Phantoms, I' m also finishing an Academy Spit Mk XIV in D-Day camouflage and building Red Baron's Fokker triplane. Cheers Jaime

Well, it can get confusing at times but if the kits are similar, it can get pretty efficient

Matt, you can starta new build while you wait for the paint to arrive I always build two or more kits in parallel to make good use of the "dead" times of each build. Jaime

Welcome back to the hobby! I've also returned a year ago, and my first kit was the Airfix Spitfire Mk I. I have a soft spot for Spitfires and l intend to build one like yours some time in the future. So, I'll be following your wip with interest. Regarding your plans for cutting open the cockpit access hatch, may I suggest that you put the fuselage side over a "bed" of blu-tack and use a new, sharp, x-acto blade? This minimises stress on the part. You can also apply masking tape or labeling tape along the edges of the hatch, to serve as a guide to the blade. You'll have to work slowly and patiently. I've used this approach to cut the Revell Bf 109 G10 canopy and it worked well. Hope this is useful. Cheers Jaime

Excellent work Matt! I have several Eagles in my stash, including an Agressor from Hasegawa, so I'll follow your wip and keep it bookmarked for future reference. Cheers Jaime

CedB, thanks for the kind words but I still struggle with basic things like treating seams and making moulding marks disappear...

Roger, thanks for you interest! I really appreciate it. I'm quite busy with my two British Phantoms (I'll be starting a third one in the next few days...), so I'm afraid I won't be very fast finishing the Spit. But I intend to finish it until the end of the month. CedB, thanks for your words, kind as always. I use mainly Gunze Aquous paints and only use Tamiya when the Gunze equivalent is unavailable in my LHS. I use Tamiya's whites, blacks and also Sky Grey as primer. They cover well and can provide a really good finish but I find them more difficult to use than Gunze. The thinning ratio and pressure points are also different. Tamiya works best with 1 part thinner and 2 parts paint (33% / 66%), at about 12 psi, while Gunze works well with 2 parts thinner and 3 parts paint (40% / 60%), at 10 psi. I also find that Tamiya clogs easily at low paint volumes, while I must work hard to make Gunze clog the AB. This complicates using Tamiya for fine lines and mottling but I'm sure most of the problems are due to my inabilities... Hope this is helpful. Jaime

Excellent paint work! Really impressive! And great tips for getting the tonal variations within each colour. I'll try that as soon as possible in a future build. I've been trying post-shading but not as thoroughly or as consistently as yours. Congrats Jaime

EDIT: this is the third of three entries I made in the Phantom STGB back in 2015. I wasn't able to finish any in time and then this build was stalled in the WIP area. I'll try to finish it now here in the 70's NATO vs Warsaw Pact in Europe GB. -------------------- Hello, Yesterday I received this: IMAG1997 I guess I still have some time, so this will be my third entry into this GB. I'll do the aircraft in the box art: XV 495 from 41 Sqd, with shark teeth painted after having its nose gear repaired, while detached at Akrotiri, Cyprus, at the time of the Turkish invasion, in 1974. This kit has exactly the same mouldings of the "Alcock & Brown" version. It comes with rubber tires (which I won't be using) but with no photo-etch fret. The differences between the two kits are the armament sprues. This one comes with the following sprues: IMAG2000 These sprues provide the proper loading for the Recce and ground attack squadrons. The one on the top of the picture has a recce pod (on the left in the sprue), which was installed on the centre line hard point. The sprue on the bottom has the parts for building the Matra rocket launchers, which were installed on the inboard under-wing pylons, as well as a recce camera, which was installed in place of one of the front Sparrow missiles. The decal sheet is this: IMAG2001 There is the choice of four different aircraft, from four different squadrons, all in combat camouflage (Dark Green / Dark Sea Grey / Light Aircraft Grey). As said above, I'll do the "Shark Teeth" version. The sprues got washed in warm water and dishwasher detergent and are already drying up. I'll start working on this kit on the next few days. Since I have two British Phantoms already under construction, I hope to be able to be very efficient with this one. Thanks for looking. Cheers Jaime

Hello again, I've been busy finishing my Bf 109 G10 and starting my British Phantoms (here and here) for the Phantom GB, so I haven't had the time to work on the Spit. However, over last week end, I managed to do some work on it. I've been doing some picture research to determine exactly how the yellow stripes in the wing leading edges were in D-Day striped Spits, and found that the yellow stripe end nearer the cannon was covered by the outer white D-Day stripe. As can be seen in this WIP, I painted first a normal camouflage and then the D-Day stripes over the camouflage, in order to achieve a more realistic look, since this aircraft had its stripes painted in the field. As such, I masked the areas of leading edge yellow stripes prior to painting the camouflage, and left the masking on while painting the D-Day stripes. I also had primed the leading edge stripes with white primer, to achieve a brighter yellow later. When I removed the masking from the leading edges, I found a thin line of accumulated white paint against the edge of the masking tape, across the outer white D-Day stripes. This occurred on both wings, on the top and lower surfaces. I had to remove these accumulations by scrapping them out with an x-acto blade. This, of course, damaged the painT job, as can be seen in the following two pictures: IMAG1979 IMAG1980 In order to repair these damages, I started by masking around the affected areas, being careful to perfectly align the edges of the masking tape with the edges of the outer white stripe: IMAG1981 I used the opportunity to also mask the tail area, since I had to fill in the dark green camouflage between the sky band and the tail fin. This problem resulted from following the painting instructions of the kit which, wrongly, tell us that the sky band edge nearer the tail fin followed a diagonal panel line. After having painted the camouflage according to this, I found, in period pictures, that the sky band always had vertical edges. So, I painted the sky band like that and a small gap in the green camouflage resulted. Here is the masking in the tail area: IMAG1982 IMAG1983 Next, I diluted white matt paint in a 75% thinner / 25% paint ratio, reduced the pressure to 10 psi and closed the paint volume of the airbrush as much as possible (same settings as used for mottling) and applied many thin layers of white paint to repair the outer D-Day stripes. Here's the end result: IMAG1984 IMAG1985 You may notice that, though the damages have been repaired, there's a tonal difference between the whites in the leading edge and on the wings' upper and lower surfaces. This should be expected because the D-Day stripe was painted over the darker camouflage on the upper and lower surfaces of the wing, while the leading edge was a lighter colour. This was the effect looked after, as it adds to the realism of the model, hopefully. The dark green camouflage on the area between the sky band and tail fin was also painted, using the same settings for paint, thinner, pressure and paint volume as above, resulting in the following: IMAG1986 IMAG1987 That's it for now. The next step is masking the leading edges of the wings and painting the yellow leading edge stripes. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Great modelling work, CedB! Looks really impressive and your WIP will be a great source of information and advice when I start my "Belle". Like you, I returned to modelling after a long time away and this kit was just the second one I bought, after deciding to return. It still is in the stash, waiting for my abilities to improve. Like I said in my last reply to your WIP, you're being too harsh on yourself, because the end result is very good Cheers Jaime

Great result CedB! I think you're being too harsh on yourself because the model turned out beautifully. However, I know what you feel... We all end up thinking we should have done a few things better, but as long as that contributes to making our next model better, that's all right. Regarding decals, I always apply a gloss coat to the model before decaling. Then, I apply Micro Set on the decal location, apply the decal, put some more Micro Set on the decal and let it dry. Then I use a cotton bud to remove all excess liquid and press the decal on the surface. After this, I apply several coats of Micro Sol, letting it dry between applications. This is a lengthy process but it works with great results. Here's a great video tutorial. Congrats Jaime

Over the weekend I did some progress on the RAF Alcock & Brown Phantom. After being left to dry, I sanded the excess putty applied to the parts that had moulding marks. Unfortunately, after applying another coat of grey primer, the marks were still visible in the main air intakes and in the right rear cockpit panel. I applied putty again to these parts, left them to dry, sanded the excess off and applied grey primer to check. The right rear panel was ok but the marks in the main air intakes were still visible and the primer finish was uneven. So, I removed all the primer from the intakes with isopropyl alcohol and applied putty to a clean surface. I won't bother you with additional pictures which look just like some previously posted. When these parts are ok, I'll show them ready. Moving on, I rescribed the detail of the left cockpit panel part, lost to the putty / sanding process. I used a magnifying glass and an x-acto blade to rescribe the detail. Here's the result, which is better than the one for the Royal Navy (RN) kit I'm doing in parallel to this one: IMAG1971 This panel and the one for the opposite side were glued in place. I should mention that this was done with the cockpit tube dry-fitted in place, in order to ensure that, in the end, everything would fit. I found that I had to trim the right side panel part, as well as the rim of the rear seat cockpit on the same side. Since I did this previously in the RN Phantom, this time it was a quicker process. The following photos show these parts glued in place: IMAG1977 IMAG1978 Then, I painted the main colours of the small parts (seat parts, cockpit parts, ...) IMAG1994 Here are the seats. The instructions show two different colours: olive drab for the head rest and khaki green for the rest of the seat. The instructions for the RN kit indicate only one colour: olive drab for the whole seat. I searched the web for pictures of these seats and found all types of colour combinations, so I stuck with the instructions. IMAG1993 Here's the cockpit tube (detail colours still need to be applied to the side panels): IMAG1995 The inner grey (FS 36231) was also applied to the cockpit sides: IMAG1996 The next step is applying the detail colours to seats, instrument panels and side panels. Thanks for looking Jaime

Over the weekend I did some progress on the RN Phantom. After being left to dry, I sanded the excess putty applied to the parts that had moulding marks. Unfortunately, after applying another coat of grey primer, the marks were still visible in the main air intakes and in the aux intake doors. So, I removed all the primer with isopropyl alcohol and applied putty to a clean surface. I won't bother you with additional pictures which look just like some previously posted. When these parts are ok, I'll show them ready. Moving on, I rescribed the detail of the left cockpit panel part, lost to the putty / sanding process. I used a magnifying glass and an x-acto blade to rescribe the detail. Here's the result (could be better, I'm afraid...): IMAG1972 This panel and the one for the opposite side were glued in place. I should mention that this was done with the cockpit tube dry-fitted in place in order to ensure that, in the end, everything would fit. I found that I had to trim the right side panel part, as well as the rim of the rear seat cockpit on the same side. The following photos show these parts glued in place: IMAG1975 IMAG1976 Then, I painted the main colours of the small parts (seat parts, cockpit parts, ...) IMAG1989 Here are the instrument panels (detail colours still need to be applied): IMAG1991 And the cockpit tube (detail colours still need to be applied to the side panels): IMAG1990 The inner grey (FS 36231) was also applied to the cockpit sides: IMAG1992 The next step is applying the detail colours to seats, instrument panels and side panels. Thanks for looking. Jaime

Great paint and decal job, CedB! Looking forward to seeing it finished.