Cheshiretaurus Posted February 17, 2013 Share Posted February 17, 2013 (edited) This is my first build to be posted on here. Have 2 weeks off work so here goes :- There has been some debate on here on using HU120 for Spit interiors, I think it looks right. The instructions say silver for the floor bars, from some pics I've seen, green might be better with of course some silver detail. A short bit of sprue was attached behind the instrument as a handle. Instruments on the decal look a little chunky. Ready to close the fuselage up. Thought I'd spray the undercarriage bays HU120 too, as it was in the airbrush, I can always change my mind later, Does anyone know what colour the were on Spit 22s, green or aluminium? Ready to airbrush the red on the prop, yellow tips then black already done, for small amounts of paint I prefer to mix them up in small plastic test tubes available from ebay. Bit of discussion on here over the size of sprue gates on this kit, a bit on the big side but might be necessary evil in the injection mould process. Ready for main assembly, I've decided to put a piece of plastic card over the 3 lights behind the wing with the intention of painting the holes silver, then using coloured Humbrol gloss klear, clear fix, or PVA afterwards. See how this goes later. Maybe I did something wrong as it was very difficult to get the wing to root aligned. Prop complete. Hopefully get some more done tomorrow. Edited February 22, 2013 by Cheshiretaurus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPaul Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Looking very good so far. The interior colour looks right to me, just feels right. Nice to see this one progress further. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Hello Cheshiresaurus, thanks for taking the time to share your build. This is my first build to be posted on here. Have 2 weeks off work so here goes :- Instruments on the decal look a little chunky. Ah, but the good news is you can hardly see them when everything is buttoned up. Thought I'd spray the undercarriage bays HU120 too, as it was in the airbrush, I can always change my mind later, Does anyone know what colour the were on Spit 22s, green or aluminium? I've just completed this little kit and when I asked the same question I was told that they were green. Bit of discussion on here over the size of sprue gates on this kit, a bit on the big side but might be necessary evil in the injection mould process. Yeah, the sprue gates gave me the most headaches. It is imperative to take care when removing the parts otherwise they are likely to suffer damage. In truth, other manufacturers manage to use much smaller sprue gates without any noticable deficiency in their kits. Maybe I did something wrong as it was very difficult to get the wing to root aligned. Always a tricky area. Yours will be fine after you've sanded the putty off. If you apply your decals onto a gloss surface it can help them settle down and avoid "silvering" where the carrier film remains visible. Many folk use a clear gloss varnish on top of the colour coat to give a smooth surface for decalling followed by another coat of gloss over the top of the finished decals (once they've dried) to help flatten them onto the paint surface then apply a satin or matt coat to finish the model off. Keep up the good work, she's looking fine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 Thanks geedubelyer, Going to keep the green for the undercarriage, Decals on the prop look worse in the picture than they are in reality but yes, think I should have used a gloss surface, maybe next time. Now the wing root yes I've definatly got this bit wrong, on the left is just a simple gap to fill, but the right is a bit different, managed to create a step down onto the wing by a fraction of a mm, not sure what to do about it. I could smooth it out on the wing side with filler, milliput I think would be best as it wont crumble when I scribe(or attempt to) the panel lines back in, however keeping that raised fairing 1/4 along the chord might be tricky. Other option is to file/sand the fuselage side of the join down and re scribe. on the positive side of progress, wheels - needed a little clean up from the sprue gate and for a new kit the seam lines are a bit prominent. Humbrol 56 Aluminium sprayed, hopefully later HU67 next for the tyres. Is this cheating :- Time to do the tyres Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Doug Rogers Posted February 18, 2013 Share Posted February 18, 2013 Nice work Mark, those prop blades look really thin, nice scale look to them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 18, 2013 Author Share Posted February 18, 2013 (edited) Went for the file down to the wing root option, insulation tape was in case I slipped with file, and made an even bigger mess. Some scribing to do now! Bit late to run the compressor tonight so the tyres tomorrows task, Edited February 18, 2013 by Cheshiretaurus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 (edited) Cheshiretaurus/Mark, Very good nest start to your spitfire. It's pretty AWESOME looking and fast progress!! Edited February 19, 2013 by HOUSTON Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 19, 2013 Author Share Posted February 19, 2013 Made some more progress today sprayed the tyres 1st thing this morning & fitted the windscreen using Humbrol clear fix , had a go of re-scribing the panel lines back in on the wing join & fuselage seams, think I need to practice this a bit more...... but not on this model. masked the canopy and stupidly used maskol on the area left by the Eduard mask after dipping it in klear last night, eek! took the maskol straight off luckily it doesn't seem to have effected it. A summary of today's work, Sprayed HU120 on the inside undercarriage doors & the canopy to show on the inside, also used it to cover all the seams to see if more filling sanding work was needed. a bit more work to do there, but not a lot. Been trying to work out for the last few days how I'm going to hold it for spraying then a eureka! moment... solder 2 bent paper clips together and clip them into the recess for the exhaust stacks and Bobs your uncle........ Tomorrow is scribe the fuel & glycol filler cap back on the nose, a little bit of sanding and a coat of silver. Later... Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JosephLalor Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 (edited) 'Cheshiretaurus', My approach to the wing-fuselage joint on recent Spitfire kits has been to cement the upper wing surface to the fairing so that there are no gaps or steps, and then attach the lower surface once the fuselage is together. It's as well though to check by dry-fitting that you don't get too much dihedral. If there is too much, you might consider spreading the fuselage or shimming the wing root with plastic card. It wouldn't be an issue with this kit. I prefer to use dodges such as removing material and/or shimming because I don't like sanding down filler. Joseph Edited February 19, 2013 by JosephLalor Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPaul Posted February 19, 2013 Share Posted February 19, 2013 Looking good. Some good progress made there today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 20, 2013 Author Share Posted February 20, 2013 blue tac in the undercarriage bays & radiator guns n pitot.static ports fitted - airworthy, airbrush airworthy. A coat of humbrol 11 silver. nearly over did it at first as I've been using a Super 63 for all the stuff so far, and used the sprite for the silver and forgot about the higher flow rate on the sprite, test sprays are a must! few hours now for it to dry. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 20, 2013 Author Share Posted February 20, 2013 Missed a couple of bits so re-sprayed those areas, Moment of truth, masking tape off.. Yup missed a bit, didn't realise there was another window above the windscreen, well it wasn't on the Eduard mask that's my excuse, next time do more research, Exhausts have been sprayed HU70 going to dry brush some grey onto them. Tomorrow is decals, wheels, paint the gun tips HU33 & refit the pitot. Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) Was it just me that couldn't get on Britmodeller for most of the afternoon and evening? anyway yesterdays update;- Did the lights under the fuselage, as I said I had omitted the kit part and blanked off the lights with piece of plasticard. After silver had been sprayed on I mixed what I hoped would become transparent coloured Humbrol gloss cote, 1 part paint HU2,19, 69 and 10 parts gloss cote. This ended up not as transparent as I thought it would when I used it, need to experiment on this more sometime. So I left it at just 1 layer in the lights. Once dry I added a drop of clear gloss cote to fill the rest of the hole. Gloss cote shrinks as it drys so I needed to keep repeating this stage. From left to right 1 Obvious one, the empty lights 2 The coloured gloss cote freshly added 3 The coloured gloss cote & shrunk 4 1st layer of gloss cote still wet Hopefully that last pic will be how it get finished but as the gloss shrinks I will need to keep adding more until its flush with the surface. Ill see how this goes. While this was going on I dry brushed grey onto the exhausts & assembled the main gear. Oh yeah I added the decals too! (never using decal fix again!) & fitted the canopy. Today's tasks, Fit the undercarriage & exhausts, add more gloss cote to the lights underneath, and try to clear up the residue underneath from that damn decal fix, any hints? Mark Edited February 22, 2013 by Cheshiretaurus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FZ6 Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Looking good so far. It's a lovely little kit. I like your paint stand holding the model near the exhaust stubs. What sort of problems did you have with the decals? I thought Airfix decals had come on leaps and bounds in recent years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) FZ6, not a problem with the decals themselves cant fault them at all the problem is with the residue left by the Hubrol decal fix, just impossible to get rid off... see the roundel on the 1st pic and general staining elsewhere. But apart from adding a bit more gloss to the lights, its complete! Might add some dry brushing down stream of the guns & exhaust too, also may paint in the wingtip nav lights too in HU2&19 but not too sure how they will look Edited February 22, 2013 by Cheshiretaurus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisrope Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) Looks ace. Did you give it a gloss coat before putting the decals on? Could be the decal fix is grabbing on to the paint and won't wipe away. The old floor polish gloss coat works wonders. As a recent-ish convert I wouldn't go without nowadays Chris Edited February 22, 2013 by chrisrope Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 22, 2013 Author Share Posted February 22, 2013 (edited) No didn't give it a gloss, wasn't sure how it would go with the silver, A lot of things I'd do different next time, but thats what this is all about, its a learning game! Have a PR19 in the stash, going to have a different approach to that one, including glossing before decals & fitting the upper surface of the wings 1st. Going to do this kit again in different marking or convert to mk24 somehow. Going to test some methods on a scrap kit 1st. The Klear I have is the UK scented one from ASDA, not sure if this is any good for spraying on models, I know its great for dipping canopys though. Edited February 22, 2013 by Cheshiretaurus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chrisrope Posted February 22, 2013 Share Posted February 22, 2013 Its all good practice and its all good fun. Plenty of chat about Klear/Pledge new Klear, seems it all does the same job. Theres also Quickshine, the new Humbrol Clear and I sometimes use the Astonish floor polish from the pound shop. Does the job and smells off orange and cinnamon . I always aim to try something new or different with each build, some work some don't. Currently on kitbashing (fun)and vac canopies (not so much fun but it was a necessary evil). Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted February 23, 2013 Author Share Posted February 23, 2013 2 more pics Old & new Airfix, Original 1950s Mk9 Mark 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miggers Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Nice Mark. Just put a dark wash on those three spoke wheels though,the difference will astound you. Always put on a Kleer coat before decalling,whatever the underlying colour. Don't bother with any decal sovents,just use wet Kleer(remove paper after soaking the decal and sit it on a few spots of neat Kleer and let it settle)it "pulls" the decals down into any detail and you'll never get any silvering. I always do the no filling the wing roots dodge on any aircraft that has the two upper panels/single lower panel type of wings(so that's most WWII fighters/trainers). BTW Mark,where abouts in "God's County" are you?,I'm a near to Congleton lad married to a Sandbach lass and living on the South Chesh/North Staffs border. I work in Sandbach too. rs2man is also a Cheshire lad,he's in Northwich. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murdo Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Very nice Mark, I like the silver. As Miggers says, a dark wash on the wheel hubs will make a huge difference. It might also be worth putting a coat of Klear (or your fav varnish) over the spots, It might really hide them well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JOAN Posted March 2, 2013 Share Posted March 2, 2013 Very nice Mark ! inspiring work and great to see the step by step. thanks for sharing. O. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cheshiretaurus Posted March 3, 2013 Author Share Posted March 3, 2013 Have given it two brushed coats of the perfumed klear on the underside, this seems to have cleared up the decal issue. not washed the wheels yet might do this once the klear has set, had a bad experience in the past doing washes over enamel paint. so just want to be careful with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The wooksta V2.0 Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Nice Mark. Just put a dark wash on those three spoke wheels though,the difference will astound you. Always put on a Kleer coat before decalling,whatever the underlying colour. Don't bother with any decal sovents,just use wet Kleer(remove paper after soaking the decal and sit it on a few spots of neat Kleer and let it settle)it "pulls" the decals down into any detail and you'll never get any silvering. Cockney Col told me that trick, or rather a variation on it, last year and I tried it for the mass build for Telford last year. Very little silvering so it really does work Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miggers Posted March 3, 2013 Share Posted March 3, 2013 Have given it two brushed coats of the perfumed klear on the underside, this seems to have cleared up the decal issue. not washed the wheels yet might do this once the klear has set, had a bad experience in the past doing washes over enamel paint. so just want to be careful with it. Simples,just coat the bits you want to wash with Kleer first. My trick to doing wheels. 1.Take the wheels off the sprue and clean up(sprue gates/mould lines,WHY) 2.Mount the wheel on a cocktail stick 3.Paint the hubs your favorite shade of "alloy" first,don't worry about getting it on the tyres. 4.Paint a coat of Kleer over the entire wheel/tyre combo and leave 24hrs to go off solid. 5.Make a mix of your favorite "Tyre"(or Tire)grey/black,thin to the consistency of milk and using a small brush,put a drop on the tyre letting good old capilliary action draw the paint around the tyre bead(nice tight clean demarcation for the tyre/hub see)then using the cocktail stick "handle", carefully rotate the wheel and paint the rest of the tyre.Leave to dry thouroughly. 6.Put a dark wash into the hub detail,spotting any wheel nuts separately. 7.Blow over with matt varnish. 8.Sit back and admire your blingy Spit(other aircraft types are available)wheels. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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