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A while back with my Mosquito PR.XVI RFI, I alluded to a Spitfire Vc was working on and this is it. I had no issues with the kit, but I did have issues with the decals ... I ran out, kinda. 🙂 While it's mainly OTOB (a lovely kit), I did use the blunt spinner from my meagre parts box (source: Sword Spit V) simply because I felt it was better shaped than the Airfix option. I also added a mirror to the windscreen framing (something I think Airfix should have provided - others have been known to do this) in the form of a cut-down P/E 'jet mirror'. It may not be perfect, but at least it's there. The main issue was my own doing with the decals. I was sure I had two remaining 56" B-Type roundels from the Xtradecal generic RAF B-Type Roundel sheet (X72043) but after I applied the roundel to the stbd wing, I found out differently. An order to Hannants wasn't possible at the time, so I found myself improvising a B-Type roundel by taking one of the kit's SAAF B-Type roundels and with some red mixed to 'match' the same brick-red in the 'real' B-Type roundel, I painted over the orange centre of the SAAF roundel. Less of an issue was mixing the AK Middlestone paint to match, if not approximate, some colour(-zed?) 417 Sqn. Spitfire V photos. Personally, I feel the AK Middlestone is far to intense and 'golden', anyway. It took a former art student to correct my previous attempts at mixing and in the end, she had me first add a little flat white to lighten the AK Middlestone and then follow that with some Dark Green (in this case FS34079) to nullify the 'golden' appearance of AK's paint. I'm told that, any dark green would've worked, but the darker the green, the more immediate and drastic the resulting effect. Apparently it has something to do with 'hot' and 'cool' colours. Build Summary: Kit: Airfix Spitfire Mk.Vc Paint: AK 'Middlestone' (mixed) and 'Rubber Black' (for the tires), Aeromaster 'Azure Blue' and 'Dk. Earth' (both old jars, but still as good as the day I bought them), MIG 'Afrika Korps' wash Decals: Xtradecal X72043 - generic RAF B-Type roundels and X72069 - generic RAF C and C1 roundels/Fin Flash Sword 417 Sqn. Spitfire Vc (codes and serial) kit decals (stencilling) Now the photos: Scott

Hallo Here I represent you the second P-38 Lightning out of a series of 5 aircraft. P-38G-15LO, 43-2475, 48th FS/14th FG El Bathan, Thunesia, second half of June 1943, Babe, flown by Edgar L. Yarberry The kit is from Eduard. In my WIP I described all the working steps, my decisions and all shortcomings in every detail. I will here only explain my paint job and final assembly. The BIG difference are decals and stencils. Here I used EXITO Decals of superb quality. Also from Hobby Decal the dry transfers. During my build I improved some steps from my first P-38. Specially the cockpit. The worst thing like last time is the Revi installation. This time I failed, the armor glass is in position. The painting was done with a mixture of OD 1 from Gunze C12 and some brown C79. Highly diluted of course. The neutral grey also, as C13. The shading in brighter and darker shades with white or yellow for OD, for neutral grey with white and darker with some black added. Again all highly diluted. The weathering I did with salt. In detail explained in WIP. At the very finish I used black highly diluted as overspray. So have a look: Happy modelling