Kitchen Modeller

Evening all - pushed on a little more with this. I applied the remaining decals last night - stencils mostly - not a huge amount with this kit - I guess as the invasion stripes and other big decals take up most of the sheet. Fine by me, as I’m not overly fond of this job. I put on a gloss clear coat over the decals to protect them from the impending abuse I was planning to inflict. When this dried there was a little frosting around some the stinciled decals with I’ve not seen before - I painted more gloss over them and that seemed to fix them. I also cut out the wheel pieces from the sprue, trimmed and clued them together. They needed filler as I probably was over zealous with my sanding. Tonight I started the weathering process with some paintwork chipping - I’ve avoided doing this on the last few models I’ve done - tried to do it on the first few I built and it didn’t turn out well. But as I’m doing this build as a very weathered example, I had to give it another go. Looking at other tiffy models out there, I came across this on britmodeller And really liked what he did (the finished model is amazing) - he doesn’t go into detail on what he did so it still required some guesstimation - but basically using slightly lighter shades, thinned down versions of the base colours, applied with a detail brush. I would be doing this in a smaller scale so wasn’t sure if it would work or look terrible but gave it lash. Started out lightly and built it up as I went. I added a little more white as I went using smaller dubs of paint. I used about 50/50 paint / thinner so it was quite watery but lacquer thinner seems to make tamiya acrylics behave and dry nicely. I also needed to address my roundel problem and somehow make the fact that the circles are off Centre a little less noticeable. I wanted weathered roundels anyway so went at it. I just followed the panel lines and also the rivet lines - who knew these would come in handy? - so the decal issue is still there but almost looks okay. The other wing: I gave the cockpit area a bit more attention also - used the silver pencil here too but it didn’t really work very well - this being a gloss coat. Nice thing about tonight was I got to stay in the kitchen as it’s crappy weather here at the moment and quite cold in the shed. Thanks for reading..

Beautiful build and paint job - love the colour scheme and weathering is very well done - different and really interesting. Great work.

Love the paint job you put on this - gives a really nice weathered look - a great model over all - well done

Nice work - it came out great - nice job on the canopy - I built this a little while ago and gave up trying to mask it off as there are no recesses really to know where to trim - just painted it freehand with a neaten up with a toothpick. The "current" airfix release for this is exactly the same kit from 1975 - just reboxed with new decals. Looks like a nice day in Malta

I used the rivet tool from trumpeter - it's not the best tool out there but it was the only one I could find available - Using this comes down to technique - I think I was just about there near the end of the process on this build - but I only did the wings - need more practice before I tackle curves on the fuselage. This was the first time I used it so the rivets didn't come out perfect but hopefully I'll get away with it this time.

Thanks for the advice as always guys - The detail brush will fix up the Y easily enough - re. the roundel - I think I'm going to try and weather my way out of this one - it's one of those things where it's only noticeable from really close range - I didn't spot the problem until they were actually on the wing - The idea of removing them is unappealing as I'd have to wait a few weeks for replacement roundels - I live in New Zealand and it can take a while for things to get here. I always planned to go heavy on the oil washes and streaking so I'll try and disguise the issue as much as possible when I go to do that. I'm sure it will be fine (saying this more to myself than you guys!) Yes well, when you get gifted beer the man rules state that you are not allowed to complain about the brand. I still enjoyed them but honestly I was more excited about the model than the beer:) I'm from Ireland originally (Kiwi wife) so I don't mind the occasional Guinness - I'm more of a IPA man these days - though living in Nelson, you're probably spoilt for choice for locally made brews. Can't say I've tried Moteureka - I'll keep an eye out for it... Thanks for the encouragement on the typhoon...

Hi all - Started to put some decals on the tiffy last night - it went smoothly for the most part. I've always thought that Airfix decals were great - well printed and thin but not too thin. But had a few problems with this lot for some reason. For some reason, they wouldn't come off the backing paper in one piece - part of the decal would fall away but another part would refuse to move - weird. This happened to the point where I had a breakage. One of the arms of the Y came off - I managed to place in roughly where it's meant to go... Thought I had it perfect but I think it moved slightly while drying... Putting the roundels on the wings I noticed a slight misprint in the the decals... The red circle is slightly off centre - this is the case with both of them. Not quite sure what do about this right at the moment... suggestions would be welcome. Thinking of maybe sanding it back a little so if anyone has done this before I love to hear what method you used... I put on the rest of the larger decals without too much fuss - so happy I didn't have to deal with the larger ones that come with this kit - large decals are my nemesis. Can never get them to behave. I'll put the stencils on later today - all the "big" ones are on. Was looking through some of the other parts of the kit and noticed an issue with the nose cone: The last coat seems to have pooled - I painted it yellow to act as undercoat for the red. However this was no good. This isn't the first time I've had trouble with the spinner - something about the shape means that paint doesn't want to adhere to it correctly. I realise that many very light coats is the way to go but sometimes this kind of thing still happens. I decided to strip it and start again. Into the ammonia with you my friend. The accrylic paint fell off quite easily leaving the lacquer primer intact underneath - that's when I saw what the problem was: You can't really see from this photo but basically it was primer that had pooled funny - which was going to mess with any paint on top of it so this had to come off. Used high grit sanding paper and finished with very high grit sanding sponge. You may have won this round mr spinner but I'll win the day. Thanks for reading!

Looking great - interesting that you seem to be leaving the cockpit for the end - no reason why not - everything looks great - well done

You would never know that this kit was so old going by these pictures - superb work. Well done.

Weathering looks brilliant and totally appropriate for the type and era. It’s done to a very high standard so not overboard at all. It’s a great model. I like that you included the crew - don’t see this very often. Well done on great work.

Thanks for the encouragement Smithy - In fairness, this build has been relatively crisis free compared to my past efforts where I seemed to hit huge problems at every turn - mmm - I shouldn't have said that - I'm a firm believer in famous last words!!! (now touching wood)

Had quite a busy weekend but still managed to squeeze in some Typhoon time... Next job was painting the yellow bands on the leading edge of the wings - I wanted these to have a heavily weathered look - as the yellow will stick out somewhat, I didn't want them to look perfect as the plane will be quite weathered looking overall. I've read that these yellow bits rarely weathered on the actual typhoon so this was a purely artistic decision. So did some masking: I used some liquid mask in creating chipping effects along the band - this is another new technique for me - I haven't really honed my chipping effects skills as of yet - haven't really been happy with what I've tried on other models so I'm trying something new once again... So I sprayed a few light coats of Tamiya white. For the yellow, I mixed Tamiya Lemon yellow with a little red which went on over it... So far so good - after a little wait time, pulled off the mask... The tape took some paint with it - this is never happened to me so was a little annoyed to say the least. I always try to be careful putting tape over finished paint - always apply it to my hand or arm a few times before putting it on the model - but the paint must have been a little weak here so this happened. Sh*t happens - So some touch ups will be required. I used the opportunity to put in some weathering in on this area - I mixed the paint a little differently - used white to lighten instead of cockpit green and streaked the paint over the holes. Hopefully subtle enough without drawing too much attention... It was at this point that I noticed another issue (maybe you spotted it in the previous photos) A dirty finger print right on the nose - you can see it here quite clearly but it's only visible when the light hits it a certain way - which is why I didn't notice it earlier I suppose... Another fix required. I gave it a sand to remove the offending bumps and mixed some paint - the paint job here has a faded effect effect which I really liked so repainting this area broke my heart - I was never going to be able to recreate the blended effect with a paintbrush so I just enlarged the green... So again, it not perfect - I'm hoping the clear coat and washes will blend it better with the rest of the paint scheme. As I was getting ready to put on a coat of gloss, I found a few other minor paint issues which were fixed. I also tidied up the cockpit area - painted the deck behind the head rest black. The yellow stripes came out okay after I removed the masking liquid... And then finally put on some gloss coats... Shiny! This will be left to cure for 12 hours before starting to slap some stickers on it - so not a hassle free weekend but got there in the end. Feedback and comments welcome! Cheers

Decals look like they're behaving - getting sucked into the recesses quite nicely... good work... Are you a micro sol guy?

Very nice - I also love the seatbelt hanging out of the cockpit - nice touch. Really nice mottling too. Great work.

It would have been a challenge getting those decals to look so good - it came out fantastic so well done...

This top notch work - very well done.

Hi Geoff - thanks for those kind words though I'm not sure how nearly done she is - but getting there. My birthday was nice as I spent nearly the whole day working on the Tiff - so pushed things forward quite a bit. This sounds like a good way to do it - I've seen it done on some youtube videos - However I think I'll have another crack with the blue tac method on the next camo job - I really like how you can get the shapes on the plane before painting - next time I'll account for the snake girth and use skinny snakes and see if that improves things. Did a little more yesterday; Fuselage stripes went on without too much stress - though the masking did take longer - Tamiya yellow masking needs to be really skinny before you can bend it to your will so used the white stuff for the stripes which bends around curves nicely - not sure what size my tape is but it was about 2mm short of the actual stripes which is a shame - as I had to double up to get the widths right. Used the same paint as the wing stripes - a few coats and some drying time later: Not bang on perfect but I'm still happy enough - the effort required to do these is much more than slapping a decal on but I think it's definitely worth it - having little imperfections in there actually adds to the look somehow - as if they were done by a ground crew with another 19 planes to paint that day... The mask close to the tail held pretty well - I was worried as the mask went over the nobbley bit near the tail (I think these are staples holding the skin in place) but all was well. I just have to do the yellow stripe on the wings and the main paint job is complete... then a clear coat of gloss before decals. Hope this will happen over the weekend. Thanks for reading!

Make sure you post a few images showing the results of your hard work please! Thanks

Dirty birds are where it's at IMHO - your first attempt was spot on - mission accomplished. Really like your weathering - nice tones throughout and the staining around the swing wing is great. Makes for a interesting model with a story to tell. Well done!

That turned out great - beautiful work. I love the tones you achieved across the upper side... Really nice weathering too... Hey, slightly off topic but I recently read a graphic novel/comic based on this squadron - War Stories #19 - #22 by Garth Ennis - not sure if you're a comics guy but I really enjoyed this - it tells of the squadron formation and how they basically invented night fighting - it was very ad-hoc in those early days - no radar on the planes, flying in complete darkness, hoping to come across the enemy (like flying in a barrel of Guinness as one pilot described it.) The story is told in a very entertaining way. It's probably not 100% historically accurate but well worth a read. It's a comic for 'mature readers' - definitely not one for the kids You can check it out here.

Thanks for the advice guys - I really appreciate it - I'm glad you could tell I was fishing for tips - my last post was a little ambiguous:) I went ahead with the fuselage band (not sure what the proper name for this thing is) last night - I used Tamiya white masking tape for curves as @Roger Newsome suggested - cut into very narrow stripes - this stuff is quite stretchy and bends around curves quite nicely so this seemed to work well. Then followed up with strips of yellow tamiya tape as per @Smithy, @Christer A and @Courageous... It took a little while to work out the correct colour mix for the paint - I thought it was a cream colour at first but it actually has tinges of green - as I discovered when I mixed the first brew - tamiya white and a tiny bit of tamiya brown - a little cockpit green was thrown in and that seemed to close the gap. This was applied to the tail... Seems to have worked out okay (so far). I'll leave the masking on the tail in place until after the invasion stripes go on - won't be able to tell how good/bad this looks until the section is complete. Invasion stripes later today and maybe the yellow bits on the leading edge of the wings... It's moving along. Thanks for reading!

Very tidy model and great paint job - I like the RAAF decals and scheme. Makes it an even more interesting model. How was the build? Academy are great value for money but I haven't bought one of their kits yet - I'm wondering how they are in 1/72..?

Ah decals - such a fun job. Long and tedious with the constant impending feeling of imminent disaster. But nearly always worth the effort - they always look so much better when dressed in their colours. She’s coming together nicely mate... did you acquire specific decals for the plane you’re building? (485 squadron)

Thanks for the birthday wishes @Smithy, @Corsairfoxfouruncle, @Roger Newsome, @Christer A and @Sturmovik - I had a lovely day. I filled out the green bits a little more last night but also concluded that the decals are going to be taking up large sections where there's less green so it should work out okay. I'm now considering options on how to mask off the tail section for the cream coloured band at the end of the fuselage - its positioned right up next to the tail so it will be tricky... just some very careful masking required I'm thinking.

This is shaping up to be a very nice model. Great work throughout. Thanks so much for sharing your technique for the metal cowling and engine - I had wondered how this was done after seeing similar effects elsewhere. Tamiya clear smoke has so many uses!