Jump to content

Beggsy

Members
  • Posts

    396
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    1

Posts posted by Beggsy

  1. 17 hours and 20 minutes of clock-time in, and it's done. Admittedly, that time included a lot of walking around the park, eating meals, cleaning the kitchen, and a few interminable waits for various substances to be dry enough to continue modelling.  Anyway, here's my Spitfire Mk.I PR Type C.  Airfix kit with Pavla resin parts and decals.  Other than the canopy, which was unusable and replaced, the Pavla parts are very good.  No blemishes that I could find, and very easy to fit.  The Airfix plastic parts gave me more trouble than the resin.

     

    54461080174_d3f5d09810_b.jpg

     

    54460888961_f8cf4d04cd_b.jpg

     

    54461151973_2cd800911f_b.jpg

     

    54461151963_4e6104639d_b.jpg

     

    54460049912_0f3040923f_b.jpg

     

     

    • Like 30
    • Love 3
    • 100% 1
  2. Progress continues.

     

     

    I got everything sanded, then used a leftover canopy from another boxing of this kit as a mask.  You can tell by the colour that I've already done this for a Mk.I PR Type 1.

    54460136495_9c81859547_b.jpg

     

    The front canopy, unfortunately, decided to react with the masking tape.  I'm working on producing another as a replacement.

    54460136395_6741233d89_b.jpg

     

    The fuselage was painted with a mix of 3 parts Tamiya XF-18 Medium Blue to 2 parts XF-2 White.  These went on over a base coat of black.  I highlighted a few panels using a lighter tone.  To do this quickly, I cut a right-angle corner out of a piece of cardboard and held it up to a few panel-line corners, then sprayed the lighter blue mix.

    54459965099_6b2a2a6110_b.jpg

     

    I've just finished applying the decals.  I used some stencils from the kit to supplement the Pavla ones.  Pavla's worked very nicely, despite spending a few years ageing on my shelf.

    54458933572_84d07e406b_b.jpg

     

    Not far to go now!

     

    • Like 14
  3. It's fighting me a bit, but getting there.

     

    Painting the inside went well, very happy with these results.

    54459601950_87d4caa5c4_b.jpg

     

    54459245791_d275ef4b7c_b.jpg

     

    54458400657_b578eef110_b.jpg

     

    I managed to force most of the gaps in the fuselage and wing joins closed, but I've puttied it up, just to be sure.  I've also plugged the hole for the radio antenna and the guns.  The resin bits went on pretty easily.  The chin piece needed a 0.020" shim, which was easy to make as the mating surface was planar.  I glued evergreen sheet to the kit, trimmed it to match, then put the resin onto that. It fitted nearlty perfectly.

    54459601900_7ca11160cf_b.jpg

     

    54459245751_e785ec5726_b.jpg

     

    Just got to let that Mr. Surfacer dry now.

     

     

    • Like 12
    • Love 1
  4. Time for a breakfast break:

    54459284108_9ed6b89a93_b.jpg

     

    Then, onto the biggest bit of kit-surgery.  Removing the lower cowling in readiness for the Pavla replacement part.  On the real thing, I believe this housed a larger oil tank, since these PR spits had an increased endurance compared to the fighters.

    54459209549_16c73c4c4b_b.jpg

     

    54458181552_16381844cd_b.jpg

     

    Them, it was off to the paint booth for today's first session.  I've also started filling in the holes in the wings for the shell ejection ports.  Once the upper half of the wing is attached, I'll use Evergreen rod to plug the gun holes in the leading edge.

    54459381575_c0ed180d9c_b.jpg

     

    Next up is some hand painting of cockpit details, then closing up the fuselage.  Making good time so far!

     

     

     

     

    • Like 12
  5. Time to get going!

     

    54458875206_80789d77a2_b.jpg

     

    First up, that canopy.  Both the Falcon and Pavla canopies seem to be designed for an older version of the Airfix Mk.I.  Neither of them was remotely close to fitting around the windscreen area.  I almost gave up, but then I had a look in my spares box and got lucky.  I had previously built the Mk.I Early boxing of this kit, and still had a leftover canopy that didn't have the external armour plate.  It was quickly sawed off of the rest of the transparency.

     

    54458875176_44cac91252_b.jpg

     

    Yep, I think this'll do.

     

    54459230750_8b57c6c4ae_b.jpg

     

    I took some sandpaper and tamiya polishing compound to that frame and it turned out alright.  I used the back piece of the Airfix canopy too, leaving just the sliding section for the vac-form.  I found the Falcon one clearer, so that's what I'll use.

     

    54458875101_81ede0be3d_b.jpg

     

    I gave them all a dip in some acrylic clear gloss.  I think this has saved the build!

     

    54458875086_26d7d6c92f_b.jpg

    • Like 10
    • Thanks 1
  6. How hard could a modern Airfix Spitfire really be?  I've had this one, and the conversion parts, sitting on my shelf for a few years so it's high-time I built it. The all over PRU-blue should at least be simple to paint.

     

    Other than that, this may prove to be a bit of a challenge.  The resin bits look good, but the fit may or may not be easy. The vac-form canopy may be a challenge (I have both Pavla's one and the Falcon one from the Spitfire Special set).  I've interpreted the rules to mean that I can cut the vac-form piece out for a look, and it looks like it'll be a bit smaller than the opening in the fuselage, so some filling needed.  As a backup, I may use the front windscreen from the kit, sanded smooth and polished to remove the canopy framing that isn't present on this particular Spitfire variant.  Other modifications, courtesy of the resin, are a pair of blisters under the wings (one for fuel, one for camera), a slimmer oil cooler, and a bulged oil tank under the chin.  Oh, and there's an improved seat and set of wheels, so I guess I'll use those too.

     

    Good luck everyone!

    54458176680_37b937d936_b.jpg

    • Like 12
  7. I've always liked the razor-back Mustangs, and I knew that Arma Hobby's was meant to be very good.  However, with a stash and backlog that will take years to finish building, the fighter version of the kit never quite justified itself in my collection.  Then I saw this boxing, and this paintscheme, and all rational decision making was abandoned.  Bold colours?  Check.  Bare metal? Check. Kit with no known major flaws? Check.

     

    And so, it followed me home from the model show.  Having brought a couple of second-place trophies home too, I figured I should give this one everything I had.  In the end, though, I reminded myself that this is a hobby, and I was better off having fun than chasing the chance of an award.  So, there are some seams not perfectly filled, lines not perfectly scribed and parts not perfectly aligned.  But, unless you're a model judge, I don't think they're worth bothering about and I had a great time putting it together and experimenting with a couple of new things.

     

    Kit:  Arma Hobby Expert Set 70040

    Paints:  Tamiya acrylics and Vallejo Metal Colour acrylics

    Weathering:  Tamiya panel liner for the interior, Abteilung oil wash (buff and raw umber mix), Abteilung oil streaking (engine grease), prisma colour silver pencil chipping

    Decals:  From the kit (lots and lots of stencils!)

    Additions:  Brass rod replaced the landing gear door actuator rods.  The originals broke off when trying to mask the gear bay.

     

    This is my second time trying oils for weathering.  Some good, some bad.  It was harder to completely remove excess paint after the wash than I expected, so I spent quite a while trying to un-grimy the panels. Overall, I think the wash has mostly disappeared.  Some of the streaking worked out well though.

    54407186503_080960c89c_b.jpg

     

     

    Overall, the kit went together really well.  Near perfect fit of every part.  I only needed filler in a few small areas.  Unfortunately, I've just seen that the fuselage seam has split right above the rear D-windows.  That area was always pretty flimsy.  I used the closed canopy part as a mask while painting, then replaced it with the open part at the end.  That took a bit of force to get it in between the windshield and the D-window, so maybe that's where the crack happened.

    54406072507_9a3a7684f2_b.jpg

     

     

    I probably spent 1/3 of the entire build time on the cockpit, there's so much detail in there.  Careful assembly was needed to make sure it was all aligned before the fuselage went together.

    54406072462_2e77339b8b_b.jpg

     

     

    The paint scheme really did sell me on the model.  I know very, very little about recconaisance Mustangs in China, other than that they looked pretty awesome!

    54406072432_3579526aa8_b.jpg

     

     

    No bombs fitted, as I've only ever seen photos of the recconaisance Mustangs in this squadron with drop-tanks.  No drop tanks fitted because I lost them.  Maybe they'll re-appear one day and be added.

    54407124599_ae56368a74_b.jpg

     

     

    The replacement rods attaching to the gear doors are visibly here.  Maybe I should go try to paint them sivler, the brass is a little more obvious than I expected.  Arma's detail in the wheel-well is phenomenal, and really does make it look like there are pipes and wires running off into the rest of the airplane.

    54406072452_c26faa51e0_b.jpg

     

    If you're at all wondering about buying this kit, do it!  You won't be disappointed.

    • Like 37
    • Love 1
    • 100% 2
  8. Heard this on the radio this morning.

     

    I met a man walking down the street in Paris, carrying a long fibreglass rod.  I asked "Are you a pole vaulter?"

     

    He responded "Nein, I am German.  And how did you know my name was Walter?"

    • Haha 6
  9. Here's my result.  A good fun kit with some very challenging decals.  Thankfully, I got those done before I was too sleepy!

     

    Kit: Tamiya 1/72 A6M2b Zero

     

    Time: 16 hours, 48 minutes.

     

    53698250537_b55a150654_b.jpg

     

    53699355283_b5f54c3d84_b.jpg

     

    53699143791_8da4c13d30_b.jpg

     

    53699355288_4f01b0622c_b.jpg

     

    53699483799_9a298c2c51_b.jpg

     

    I've done 8 blitzbuilds now and I'm starting to finish them eariler in the evening with better results.  Planning and experience are paying off!

    • Like 24
  10. Well, the paint went on nicely.  

     

    53698069625_5fd632db28_b.jpg

     

    The decals were another story.  The Tamiya ones took forever to let go of the backing paper and are super thick.  Any that were placed near an edge (like the propeller blade tips and the red stripes on the inboard trailing edge) kept moving around due to surface tension.

     

    Meanwhile, the Print Scale ones wer the thinnest, flimsiest decals I've ever seen.  The stripe wrapping around the rear fuselage took me 20 minutes alone to wrangel into position without wrinkels.  On the right hand side, it's got an edge folded over itself that I just couldn't fix, no matter how hard I tried.  I'm glad these are all done!!!  I'm also not convinced that the shade of blue is even remotely accurate.

    53697971204_c79e182910_b.jpg

     

    Time to let them set for a bit, but it's getting close to done.

     

    • Like 7
  11. 34 minutes ago, Tim Taylor said:

    Really impressive! That looks like a really nice kit too. OOB?

     

    OOB except for the decals and a canopy maks from Eduard (practically mandatory for a blitzbuild zero!).  I'm going to decal it as Saburo Sakai's airplane V-103.

    • Like 1
  12. 5 hours in.  Fuselage still to go together and I'd be a bit nervouse normally, but I've mad good progress on all the fiddly bits that usually drag on for a few hours at the end of one of these.  Wheels, gear legs, engine and propeller are all complete.

     

    53697409949_a8c5044085_b.jpg

     

    53697507555_aa6f09d425_b.jpg

     

     

    • Like 8
×
×
  • Create New...