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1/48 Airfix Supermarine Type 356 / Spitfire F Mk 21 - decals on, mostly


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This is a wonderful subject, and so many ways to go. The best thing was (and I have to repeat 'was'-which is sad) Airwaves SC48019 conversion, which allowed you put use it with the front of the Airfix Mk.XXII/XXIV. If only Hannants could be pursuaded to release it. It was only available for a very short time.

I have before warned against the Planet Models resin version which is expensive and based on the Academy including the thich fuselage. I have it--and the Seafire 45 as well, good grief. But will probably be able to use a lot of items from it--some day.

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My vote is for Airfix to produce a 1/48th scale Mk XIV low back with options for slicing a bit of the top off the fin and having a Mk XVIII rudder. If they do the same level of a job on it as they did on their XIX, and if they use the same jigs, we'll have and easy kit-bash to arrive at the early highback XIV as well (more or less). I have the Academy Mk XIV in the stash and I just can't get excited about it. It just looks fat.

Yes, that seems to be the general consensus regarding the Academy versions. I built my 1/72 XIV as an XIX (poorly) and now that I've been illuminated I bought a bunch of Fujimi kits to compensate for my errors.

The metallic finish looks great, this will be another nice build. :)

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  • 2 weeks later...

Still faffing with joints that won't disappear. So having got bored with that I started to look at what colour to paint it - or moreover, which paints to use.

The colour scheme will be standard RAF late war of Dark Green, Ocean Grey and Medium Sea Grey. I decided to review the various paints I had kicking around for these colours, and while I was at it, I through in Sky too.

Here are my choices...

Left to right: Xtracrylix, Phoenix Precision, Vallejo Model Air, Humbrol acrylics and Tamiya.

From top to bottom: Dark Green, Sky, Ocean Grey and Meduim Sea Grey.

All were sprayed on to white gloss coated card at the same pressures. All were thinned in order to improve spraying. Incidently, the worst paint to spray was the Humbrol acrylics. But I suspect I am just not using the right thinners.

Here's my results:

Spitfire21-94.jpg

 

I compared these self-made swatches against the colours given on the plate at the back of British Aviation Colours Of World War Two, The Official Camouflage, Colours and Markings of RAF Aircraft, 1939-45, published by Arms and Armour Press.

In my opinion (and there are so many factors here that can sway what I actually see that it can only be a personal opinion) here's what I see when compared in natural light:

  • Dark Green: Best match = XA1001 and M101. 116 and 71.012 are close and XF-81 is the worst. XF-81 appears too olive in hue to me.
  • Ocean Grey: Best match = XA1006 and XF-82 although both are a little too dark. M109 is close behind, but 106 and 71.051 don't have enough of that 'blue' tint.
  • Medium Sea Grey: Best match = 71.050 and M105 (Vallejo's 71.049 'Medium Sea Grey is way to dark). XA1003 is OK but lacks a slight 'blue' hue. Both XF-83 and 165 are almost 'green' in hue and don't look right at all.
  • Sky: Best match: M113 and 90, and then XF-21 is close behind. There's not much between these three. XA1007 and 71.009 are both too bright.

I don't wish to start off a debate here. This is just part of the process of making this F.21. If there are useful threads elsewhere on this subject, and I'm sure there are, then maybe just link to it rather than re-write lengthy comments.

My choice will be... a tough one. By my own review I should use XA1001, XA1006 and 71.050. But I used Xtracrylix on a Mk Vb (see here) and it didn't work out that well with my chipping method - although I do like the colours. The Phoenix Precision colours look ok and spray very well, but the enamel won't work with my chipping process either. Humbrol sprays really bad. When I do come to spray the model with its camo coat I'll be adding in white and yellow to the grey and green to get a faded look - so there's room not to be too critical.

I don't yet know which I'll use yet. I'll let you know when I get there.

Edited by CplPunishment
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On 10/07/2015 at 3:44 PM, Miggers said:

Good work Cpl.

Just paint your prop blades all black though without metal "chips",they were really wood with

a fabric sheath.....................

In quite a few of photos of 'wooden' bladed Spitfires, there appears to be what looks like metal cladding applied in a thin strip on the prop's leading edge. This gets chipped. As an example of what I've seen, here's a photo of Mk XIX... On that lower prop blade you can almost see the continuing inner edge of the metal running up the blade and at the tip you can see the edge where the chip stops. The effect is to limit the paint chips to the very front edge of the blade.

Spitfire21-96.jpg

Edited by CplPunishment
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In quite a few of photos of 'wooden' bladed Spitfires, there appears to be what looks like metal cladding applied in a thin strip on the prop's leading edge. This gets chipped. As an example of what I've seen, here's a photo of Mk XIX... On that lower prop blade you can almost see the continuing inner edge of the metal running up the blade and at the tip you can see the edge where the chip stops. The effect is to limit the paint chips to the very front edge of the blade.

11236160_10153704395077345_6957021096414

IIRC,it was a brass strip.

Do a search on here,I know we've discussed it a few times.

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IIRC,it was a brass strip.

Do a search on here,I know we've discussed it a few times.

Thanks, good point, here's a one such good link... Rotol Equipment for Spitfire Mk VII, VIII, and IX plus (X, XI & XVI) Aircraft

I'd better be back to some joint filling and sanding.

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Painting-proper has started; the real fun bit...

Images are not that interesting but show the following layers:

  1. Cockpit canopy sprayed with grey-green to show correct colour from the inside.
  2. Primer layer - Alclad 2 Dark Aluminium all over.
  3. Sealing layer of Klear.
  4. Tail surfaces primed with Dark Grey (Tamiya).
  5. Thinned Microscale masking fluid on key areas to simulate chipped paint (not that much done).
  6. Rubber Black (Tamiya) used for pre-shading all the panel lines and tail surface ribs.


Spitfire21-97.jpg

Spitfire21-98.jpg

Spitfire21-99.jpg

Edited by CplPunishment
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And then Dark Green....

Spitfire21-103.jpg

Spitfire21-104.jpg

Spitfire21-105.jpg

 

Things have not gone well:

  1. I chose to use Xtracrylix again for the Ocean Grey and Dark Green. I love the colour. This time I sprayed very thin coats in the hope that I wouldn't create a solid 'plastic' coat of paint that wouldn't come off where mask was applied. It didn't work well. I managed to get some paint off to create the chipped effect but where it came off it came off too much and in most places where I wanted little scrapes and odd patches, it stayed stuck to the model. I had thinned the masking fluid down and I think this is part of the problem too.
  2. I tried something new, for me. I used salt on the base Ocean Grey layer followed by a lighter coat to create a mottled and faded look. It looked fine. Then I added the Dark Green and my Blu-tac snakes left their mark contouring the Dark Green. You can see this on the images. Fail. They might disappear with a coat of varnish. We'll see. I should have waited and used the salt after the Dark Green was applied. The staining from the salt alone would have given me the effect I was after, I think.
  3. The Tamiya masking tape pulled off the Ocean Grey from the gun barrels. Nothing wrong with Tamiya masking tape, it's great stuff - I obviously didn't clean the parts of grease before painting. I fear if I mask off again to re-spray I'll pull off the Medium Sea Grey from the undersides. Hmmm.
  4. I did find that attacking the Dark Green with an oven pad (in an effort to get the chipping to work) caused a very pleasing faded look as some of the Ocean Grey was exposed.
  5. While I was scrubbing off the Ocean Grey and Dark Green I ended up removing some of the pre-shading before I had added the Medium Sea Grey undersides. This meant I had to re-do some of the masking. The result after scrubbing off the Medium Sea Grey is that I have exposed the Rubber Black. Another fail. Should have sprayed the MSG before attacking the upper surfaces.

Undersides were sprayed with Vallejo 71.050 and look Ok to me, mostly...

Spitfire21-106.jpg

Next task - fix my mistakes.

Edited by CplPunishment
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After a bit of a tidy-up, Klear coat and wing-walkways...

Spitfire21-107.jpg

Spitfire21-108.jpg

Spitfire21-109.jpg

Spitfire21-111.jpg

Spitfire21-110.jpg

 

Next; yellow leading edges, decals and tone down.

The rudder fell off! But that's fixable.

And something has fallen off inside and is now rattling around!!! :banghead:

The main remaining issue is (assuming there isn't something else I have missed?) .... I should have used masking tape rather than blu-tac worms. On my best reference the Ocean Grey to Dark Green demarkation lines are very solid, no blurring at all. Fail! :banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead::banghead:

Edited by CplPunishment
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Very inspiring Cpl P - I'm trying to do one of these in 1/72 (using the Airfix 22 plus the spine from a 19) but it's slow progress and my mojo is flagging. So its nice to see what can be achieved if you keep on going!

Justin

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Bit more work... wing leading edge yellow identification markers and decals on. Well, the main ones anyway:

Spitfire21-112.jpg

Spitfire21-114.jpg

Spitfire21-113.jpg

I'm off to research F.21 stencils.

Edited by CplPunishment
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The paint chipping looks great, and the decals seem to have gone on very nicely. Great stuff.

Justin

Yes, they did sit nicely, thanks. They are from Freightdog Models applied on Klear coat with applications of Microscale Micro Sol. Then once dry I've run a sharp blade down the panel lines. As you see them, they have yet to be sealed with Klear. Once that's done I'll be toning them down a bit with some weathering.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Stencils... Created my own decal sheet - with enough Spitfire stencils to keep me going for a while (this includes the ones I made for my MkXIX. Hopefully I'll get the stencils added to the Mk 21 tonight.

Spitfire21-115.jpg

Edited by CplPunishment
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  • 6 months later...

Couple of months shy of 2 years and...

Supermarine Spitfire Type 356, Spitfire F Mk 21 of 600 Squadron (County of London) RAuxAF, Biggin Hill, 1947.

100% Airfix, almost.

Spitfire21-130.jpg

Spitfire21-116.jpg

More photos on Ready For Inspection.

The End.

Edited by CplPunishment
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