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1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk. I


JackG

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Hello everyone... finally took some time to post the build progress on this one. Thanks to all those who responded to my specific queries on the forum.

Cockpit: made two pieces representing the pilot armour from a sheet of brass 0.1mm thick. Luckily I had an unbuilt Tamiya MK.Vb and used the kit parts as a pattern, sticking the two pieces on masking tape and cutting out with scissors. Then the tape pattern was placed onto the brass sheet. This too was cut with scissors. I did not bother with adding any detail to the brass as the canopy will be fixed shut.

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Interiors and pilot: The crowbar on the door should of been removed as these were associated with the Mark V and onwards. I left it since it will be hidden with the figure seated in place.

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Decided to scratch build part of the sutton harness before finally putting the fuselage halves together. Belts are made from masking tape, painted a shade of brown. Grommets are just dabs of aluminim paint followed by and even smaller application of black.

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The armor plate behind the pilot has a "mail slot" opening for the harness to pass through. Making a neat hole in the brass would be impossible, so I just painted a black strip to represent this. A piece from a 1/35 Aber "buckles and straps" PE set came in handy as a connecting point between the belt and tension wires.

Just a quick detail fix on the rudder control arm:

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On to the landing gear...

Plan is to have the wheels in the up position. As luck would have it, the fit is not flush with the wing surface. Could be just the struts, but something scale wise is certainly out to lunch. The shape of the doors do fit nicely in the bay.

There was a couple questions I had about this area:

1) - how much of the strut is seen past the door edge

2 - and at the opposite end the door falls short of covering the bay

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Thanks to the folks here at Britmodeller they were quick to reply and provided links to photos. Edgar also added this tidbit; depending on the pilots, the port strut might be a tad more visible as they tend to pump up the oleo pressure in the port leg to compensate the engine torque which pushed the port wing down.

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.p...c=76210&hl=

http://www.primeportal.net/hangar/mark_hay...ire_mk1a_p9444/

Several hours of cutting, sanding and dry fitting followed. I was able to use part of the strut to create the swivel arm that can be seen in the landing bay. The tires still need a bit of sanding to create a better fit. The doors and both remaining pieces of strut were also sanded for the same reason.

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Fuselage: there is a gap, and seems more pronounced towards the center. To address this problem area I think some thin plastic card to build up the fuselage end will do it. That way once the wing is popped in no filling or sanding required as there should still be a visible line here.

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Was able to find a spare section of plastic card (think it was from an Airfix historic figure kit used to create reins and straps). One piece was cut to fit the whole width of the gap, followed by another only about 2/3 wide and glued center. Some liquid surfacer and then sanded everything down as even as possible.

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A sheet of brass was used to make the two gun-bay vents. Cutting a piece triangular in shape to the required size, I used a scriber to "forge" the roundness - first by rolling it on the table. Then with the aid of an exacto blade, gingerly curled up the narrow end as best as I could - finger nail worked too as the metal was fairly plyable. Then with a phote-etch file and sanding stick did the final shaping, again mostly at the narrow closed end.

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1. file___ 2. sand stick ___3. brass ___ 4. scriber ___ 5. blade ___ 6. finished vent

I opted to scratch build these as the molded ones from another kit are quite shallow compared to period photos. Don't know why the vents are of two different sizes, but the warm air from the radiator was fed into the gunbays to help the brownings from freezing.

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Didn't plan on adding detail to the rad, but when the cover is in place one can still see daylight through the opening. The screen is a leftover from an Airwaves set.

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regards,

Jack

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Joachim - thanks for your comment.

Was never that much into pre-shading so tried another approach. I mixed water with a grungy grey weathering powder, focusing mainly on detail running in the direction of airflow.

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I mixed my own paint to represent BS 381 (1930) No.1 Sky Blue. The formula called for white mixed with 4% yellow oxide and a hint of prussian blue. Not exactly sure what yellow oxide looks like (google images ranged from normal yellow, deep yellow to ochre). I used Tamiya flats for the first two while the prussian blue was from Andrea. It didn't look quite right, so added some deep sky blue and finally some RLM 65 Hellblau to tone it down.

Too heavy with the airbrush as most of the pre-shading is gone. Viewed in daylight I'm quite satisfied with the colour. Might try another round of pre-shading now that the base coat is set.

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regards,

Jack

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Thanks everyone...

This is sort of the breakdown I use for painting faces (larger scales though will spend more time detailing on the eyes):

1]- airbrushed a desert colour over the whole figure, utilized as both a primer and as a base coat for his face

2]-once dry I applied a fairly thin wash of raw sienna over the whole of the face, this wash is not as strong as one usually uses, really just want it to bring out details like the lips, brows/eyes, etc.

3]-next are applied the highlights, I mix both Andrea's light and dark flesh together on some plastic card(or glass - whatever is handy) as well as a hint of red until i have the desired tone and apply it like one would use the dry brush technique (but with a very small tipped brush), hitting the following areas: forehead, bridge of nose, upper cheeks, small area just below the eyes, chin

4]-another wash is made of a shade red/brown and is applied only to the cheeks, lower lip and the end of the nose

5] -for the finer details, I sharpened up some pencil crayons and very carefully drew in eyes and eyebrows with a dk brown, a lighter red brown for a shadow line that extends from the inside corner of eye to cheek and a dk pink shade for his lower lip

6]-also added some highlights with lighter coloured pencils

-at this point if I feel it needs more contrast, I will repeat any or all of the above steps

regards,

Jack

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  • 3 weeks later...

Did another pre-shading and main colour coat. For future projects will not be using weathering powders for this technique. Upon closer inspection and better lighting can see a rough look to where it was applied.

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Replacing the kit's exhaust stacks with a pair from Ultracast. Painted with burnt iron metalizer followed by various shades of weathering powders ( dirt, rust, black and white).

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Squadron's vacuum form canopy - flimsy but still has a mind of it's own (the fact it was designed for a Revell MK I/II did not help)- had to use some tape to hold it in positon while it dried.

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Just a little note on the area behind the fuel filler cap, there are two vent holes that on the kit appeared as barely visible dimples. Took a pin vise to the location.

Filler cap detail on the real deal:

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To help make the canopy more clear, it was buffed with six different grits of sanding pads before brushing on a coat of future. The insides were also done before attachment.

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I've added an ultra cast propeller and was able to attach the original kit part to the back. To help stengthen the assembly, a small hole was drilled at both the crank and back plate and a short piece of brass rod inserted. Painted flat back for now until I get the yellow tips sprayed. Afterwards might gloss it up a tad.

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For the uppers I'm trying a fellow modeler's suggestion of the three layer blend. First is a coat of dark earth. This is followed by white and yellow mixed with the base coat filling in areas between panel lines. Then finally, to tone down and tie everything together, another light overspray of the base coat which is very much thinned.

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In hindsight now, I think if after step 2 I had masked the green camou areas before applying the final brown overspray I could have skipped a step. The dark green camou will now require the same three steps but with masks covering the brown.

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Camou is now complete, followed by two liberal coatings of future (hand brushed). Up next is a panel wash and decals.

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regards,

Jack

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well ran into a bit of a snag a few weeks back. Applied a pin wash to the panel lines and such, made of just water and a drop of dish soap. In the past was able to wipe off the excess with a wet cloth/tshirt, but not this time. Went in with straight thinner and that removed it along with the protective future coat and paint. Not sure why the wash was so resistant this time. Perhaps Tamiya has changed their formula, or maybe the city is adding a different chemical additive in the local drinking water during the winter months.

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So all the surface paint was stripped off with a chemical cleaner and then repainted. This second time around, I sort of reversed the order of painting the colours. First a dark grey and then masked the ports before applying the dark earth. Followed with the dark green and lastly the undersides. I didn't have much of my home brewed sky left, so instead of mixing more, opened a new bottle of "official" Sky Type S for the first coat. A second layer of pure white in the panel areas and thirdly, my home made N*1 Sky Blue.

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Xtradecals 30" squadron codes were applied, but after comparing to some period photos of 609 Spitfires, decided they looked a bit lean.

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So I decided to beef them up. First thought was to just cut strips of decals from the same sheet and widen the letters, but the edges were too noticeable.

So broke out the masking tape and sprayed some medium sea gray.

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Removing the masks I find all kinds of underspray occured and on the starboard side a section of the fuselage roundel got torn off.

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A quarter section of a spare decal was cut and placed over the torn one. In this image the roundel looks wrinkled, but both decals cracked and light reflection pronounces it that much more.

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With a paint brush and some old European craftsmanship, managed to clean up the squadron codes. Have also removed the masks; canopy looks pretty grungy and the rear section had lifted off. Tried to buff up the outside of the canopy and give it a coat of future, but there was still dirt and fog on the inside - likely from when I stripped the paint. It will be removed and replaced with a spare vacuum form.

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The wheel wells fared much better. Just a few specs to touch up and some paint chipping happened on the well edge of the port wing.

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regards,

Jack

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This is an interesting build and very educational. Congratulations on the pilot figure! I was intrigued by the masking tape around the wheel wells. What's going on there?

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I know this was unintended but the result, at the wingtip end, is amazing. It's the kind of heavy weathering I've been after on some Lancs and other 'outdoor aircraft' for years. Much too heavy for a fighter of course.

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Keep it up.

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Thanks for the comments everyone.

The photo of partial tape around the wheel well was an in progress shot. After which the whole well was masked as the interior was sprayed with aluminum.

The "hiccup" photo on the wingtip - this shows the exposed panel shading of lighter dark earth and dark green. You could possibly get the same results, and better control, by using a fine grit sandpaper.

regards,

Jack

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  • 2 weeks later...

This should by my final update for building. Just waiting for tomorrow to get some daylight shots for the completed photos. So here are last bit details done over the weekend.

A new pitot tube was required - lost the original when the paint was stripped. Old Airwaves set to the rescue. At the top end I left the tab from the attachement point on the PE fret and glued a section of 1.0mm hollow brass tube for better adhesion to the wing. The whole thing is flat so I cut off the bottom and attached a hollow 0.3mm tube.

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For the scuffing on the wing roots I used a light grey pencil crayon followed by a few areas with a silver pencil.

I was able to drill out a hole in the antenna to pass some light weight EZ line through. Actually the hole was a bit off center so the bit came through on one side which made it easier to attach the line. Just had to hook it in place instead of trying to pass it through the hole.

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For the patches on the gun ports my plan was to mimic this photo:

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Originally was going to use some kind of cellophane sprayed with the appropriate colour but I wasn't able to tear them up to look like in the photos. The paint would flake off and they also did not stick well. Tried paper but looked out of scale and tearing the centers out just made a fuzzy mess.

So just painted portions of red on and scraped with the exacto blade to get some sharper looking tears. Added a bit of thin grey lines to represent the frayed edges of the patches.

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regards,

Jack

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Seriously great work, Jack.

I especially like the pilot, the exhausts and of course the ripped apart tape at the gun ports. I have to try that once!

Also nice to see that others are having the same kind of small problems that I do B)

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