Academy Spitfire Mk XIVc - D-Day camouflage (picture heavy)

[jrlx]

Dear All,

 

This is also a model I'm nearly finishing, but still with some work to do. I started it back in December 2014. The objective was to consolidate my skills with two-colour upper camouflage aircraft of the WWII. I was also a bit worn out with seam treatment on the Grumman Duck I was building at the time (see RFI post here), so I guess an Academy kit with good fit would be a good change of affairs.

 

Here is the box and contents. This is the Academy double kit box commemorating the 70th anniversary of D-Day, containing the Spitfire Mk XIVc and the Typhoon Ib. For the Spit we have two grey sprues and a clear sprue. The decals are not shown but allow the choice of two different aircraft, either with or without D-Day stripes (which are provided as decals).

IMAG1146

 

The kit is highly detailed and has excellent fit, as can be seen from the following photos of dry-fit tests.

 

First, a dry fit of the cockpit parts and fuselage side, showing the excellent interior detail:

IMAG1153

 

And now, a dry fit of the main parts:

IMAG1154

 

Here it is, side by side with my completed Spit Mk I (RFI here):

IMAG1155

 

I started by giving the canopy parts a bath in Alclad Aqua Gloss, to improve transparency, and, after drying overnight, masked them with Tamiya tape:

IMAG1216

 

IMAG1217

 

IMAG1218

 

IMAG1219

 

IMAG1220

 

IMAG1221

 

I also drilled out the exhausts, to give them a more reallistic look. I used a 0.3 mm mini-drill:

IMAG1148

 

Then, I moved on to the cockpit. The instrument panel was painted: top flat black, bottom interior green (Gunze H312 Green). The dials were dry brushed in flat white, yellow and red (according to pictures of the real thing). Dry-brush with silver provided a worn look. Micro flat was applied to give a flat look. To finish with, a drop of Aqua Gloss was applied in the centres of the dials, to simulate the glass covers:

IMAG1286

 

A similar treatment, including a brown wash with Vallejo acrylic washes, was given to the cockpit sides:

IMAG1287    IMAG1283

 

Seat belts were made out of Tamiya tape and aluminium wire (maybe too thick a wire...):

IMAG1281

 

And then applied to the seat:

IMAG1288

 

The cockpit parts were glued together:

IMAG1296    IMAG1297

 

And then, glued to the fuselage side:

IMAG1301

 

That's all for now. Hope you like it.

Cheers

Jaime

[Hamden]

Nice start, I agree with you that the wire on the belts is a little over scale.

Looking forward to seeing this progress

Roger

[lunarhighway]

I build this kit along time ago,but i can already see this one will end up better than my effort. That's a very nicely done cockpit! The belts are especially well done considering how small they are,but I must also agree on the wire used being slightly to thick. But in the closed cockpit this will probably not look bad.

If you look for some really thin wire for detailing, get hold of any flexible electrical wire, like from a broken charger or headphones, stuff like that. If you strip off the insulation (cutting it lengthwise with a blade works well, although the insulation itself can be usefull to cut disks from) you'll likely find a lot of very fine metal wires possibly copper,inside.

I seem to remember having an issue with the flatspots of the keyed weighted tires not sitting flat on the ground.might have been something I did wrong buttake care when you get to that step.

[jrlx]

If you look for some really thin wire for detailing, get hold of any flexible electrical wire, like from a broken charger or headphones

Thanks for your kind words and for the tips. I'll leave the canopy open, so the belts will be quite visible. I'll look for a thinner wire and will try to replace what I've already installed.

I'll also be extra careful with the tires.

[jrlx]

Here's a second post on this WIP.

 

I cut all small parts off the sprues and glued them to toothpicks with a drop of super-glue. The idea was to prime them all at once and them paint them with the final colours. Here it is how it looks after priming:

IMAG1436

 

Please note that the main gear legs and the exhausts were painted with Alclad paints (aluminium and burnt iron, respectively), after priming with Alclad Grey Primer. The legs were painted aluminium all over, but only the oleos will be like than in the end. All the other parts were primed with Tamiya X-19 Sky Gray (acrylic paint).

 

After painting with final colours, we got this:

IMAG1586

 

The gear legs are already Medium Sea Gray and the oleos are masked. Most other parts were painted also with this colour, except the spinner cone and back plate, which were painted Sky (Duck Egg Green). The tires still need to be painted Tire Black. All colours are Gunze Mr Hobby Colour, which I find to work superbly with an airbrush.

 

Then, I glued the fuselage halves and the wing parts together. Fit was very good and I used just a bit of putty as a safety measure to ensure perfect seams:

IMAG1477

 

Note the cannons painted with Alclad gunmetal. In the end, only the tips will keep this colour, as the "tubes" were Ocean Gray.

 

I then found out that the panel line detail was lacking on the underside, in the area were the back of the wings meets the fuselage. Using technical diagrams for the Mk XIV (available in the web), I scribed the missing panel lines:

IMAG1480

 

The gap between the back of the wings and the fuselage was the biggest fit offender of this kit. Here it is already filled in with super-glue. Later, I applied a bit of putty, and had to sand this area a bit, to ensure a smooth transition.

 

Just before priming the aircraft, I glued the fixed parts of the canopy in place. I had to apply a bit of putty in the frontal area. I also fixed the cockpit access door in place with blu-tack, to ensure tonal continuity in the camouflage (though I'll build it in the open position). Note that the canopy parts are already painted with the interior colour.

IMAG1509

 

This is all for now. Hope you enjoyed it. I look forward to your opinions. Even considering the build is almost finished, it is always good to know what could I have done better.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[PlaStix]

That's coming along really well.

[jrlx]

Thanks! It really takes longer than it seems. I started this model in December and have been building it in parallel with one or two other kits. I'm nearly finishing it now but still need another week or so.

[PlaStix]

I know it takes a while - I've had two 1/48 Spitfires on the go since the beginning of October and it's still going to take a while! Let's face it there's no rush! Just enjoy the process!

Kind regards,

Stix

[jrlx]

Hello again,

 

Another work progress post. This one's about painting.

 

I primed the aircraft with Tamiya XF-19 Sky Grey, my usual "primer" for acrylic paints. I use mostly Gunze Mr Hobby Colour and some Tamiya acrylic paints. Next, I pre-shaded the panel lines with flat black:

IMAG1566

 

IMAG1568

 

I painted the underside with Tamiya XF-83 Medium Sea Grey. When it was dry, I painted the top side of the aircraft with the lighter upper camouflage colour: Dark Sea Grey (this is how Gunze calls their Ocean Grey for RAF aircraft of the WWII). For the first time, I decided to paint the complete top side with the lighter colour, instead of painting only the areas that should be painted with that colour (like my Bf 109, WIP here).

 

Next, I delimited the separation lines between the two upper camouflage colours using blu-tack:

IMAG1665

 

The grey areas where masked with a combination of kitchen cling film and masking tape:

IMAG1668

 

After painting the second colour (Dark Green) and removing all protections, the result was this:

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Some important details about the painting:

 

• right after pre-shading, I applied Mig's chipping fluid in the areas that should have worn-off painting, and applied silver paint over those areas. This should provide a more realistic chipping effect in the end.
• though this will be a D-Day striped aircraft, I opted to paint a full camouflage first for various reasons:
  • consolidate my 2-colour camouflage painting abilities
  • achieve a more realistic effect, since the stripes were painted in the field over the existing camouflage
  • allow me to decide about using the decals for the stripes or painting them myself
• the discontinuity of the camouflage near the tail is for application of the Sky-coloured tail band
• the wings leading edges were primed with flat white and then masked before priming the rest of the aircraft with grey. I did this because the leading edges were yellow and white primer works better for light and bright colors. The following picture shows the white primer in the leading edge of the starboard wing:

 

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The delimitation between the upper camouflage and the underside turned out quite good:

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That's all for now. Thanks for looking.

 

Cheers

 

Jaime

[CedB]

Wow, that looks great Jaime and some great tips - thanks!

If you're doing a lot of Spitfires, Procopius uses these templates for masking. Just like the mats that were used on 'the real thing' they come in two patterns and, once you've cut them out, are a lot faster than blu-tak.

Great stuff and thanks for sharing

[jrlx]

If you're doing a lot of Spitfires, Procopius uses these templates for masking.

Thanks for the kind words and the link to the templates. In fact I have a few more Spits planned for future builds and two of them are the Eduard Mk IX 1/48, which I intend to build as camouflaged aircraft.

[Hamden]

That is really coming to life now that the colour is being applied.

Nice work looking forward to more of the same

Roger

[jrlx]

Roger, thanks for your words and interest. Tomorrow I'll publish a rather long post explaining how I masked and painted the D-Day stripes. Yes, I decided to paint them myself, instead of using the decals...

[jrlx]

Well, this will be a lengthy and, possibly, boring post... Hopefully it will be useful for someone.

 

After finishing the main painting, I had to decide whether to use the decals or paint the D-Day stripes myself. After taking a hard look on the decals and reading a few references, I concluded that the decal stripes for the wings were too narrow. On the other hand, the roundel over the fuselage stripes didn't seem to be accurate, because it lacked the external yellow rim. So, I thought I should paint proper and accurate stripes myself...

 

From my reference [Camouflage and Markings, Nº 1 (Supermarine Spitfire), pags. 12, 23, link here] I found that:

 

• D-Day stripes were applied on 4 June 1944, since D-Day was expected to be 5 June. However, due to weather, it was postponed to 6 June.
• There were 5 stripes on each wing and on the fuselage aft of the cockpit, painted in the following order: white - black - white - black - white
• Every stripe was 18 inches wide (45,72 cm), which translates to 6,35 mm at 1/72. The 5 tripes occupied a total width of 90 inches, which translates to 31,75 mm.
• On the wings, the outermost white stripe should be 6 inches inboard of the roundel's rim, which makes the stripes extend up to the wing root.
• On the fuselage, the outermost white stripe closer to the tail should be 18 inches forward from the tail plane

 

To properly mark the stripes' areas, I cut two templates from masking tape, the first one corresponding to the width of one stripe and the other corresponding to the total width of the five stripes.

 

Starting on the wings, I marked the stripe limits on the wing roots, using narrow stripes of masking tape. From these, I applied the "total width" template. At the end of the template, I applied another fine stripe of masking tape. The photo shows the process, which delimited the area of the stripes on the starboard wing:

IMAG1686

 

The same procedure allowed me to delimit the stripe area on the port wing:

IMAG1687

 

Before prolonging the delimiting pieces of masking tape over the undersides of the wings, I had to install the wheel well covers and radiator flaps in place, since they were partially covered by the stripes. First I applied blu-tack:

IMAG1688

 

And then fixed the parts in place:

IMAG1689

 

Finally, I could finish the application of the delimiters on the wings, using the template to ensure the correct width:

IMAG1690

 

Here's the end result:

IMAG1691

 

Moving on to the aft fuselage, I marked the beginning of the stripe nearer the tail by applying the "stripe-width" template (because the distance from the tail plane coincides with the width of a stripe):

IMAG1692

 

Then, I marked the width of the 5 stripes with the corresponding template:

IMAG1693

 

After delimiting this end of the stripes, I moved to the other side of the fuselage and repeated the procedure:

IMAG1694

 

Since I would also have to paint the sky (duck egg green) band just forward of the tail plane (which was partially overlapped by the last white stripe), I marked its end with a thin stripe of masking tape. I´ll paint white up to this delimitation and the pale green over white, after finishing the D-Day stripes. I also found, in my reference pictures, that the tail band was vertical, instead of slightly leaning towards the tail along the panel line, like shown in the kit's instructions. So, I'll have to correct the camouflage later:

IMAG1695

 

With these delimitations in place, I masked all camouflaged areas that should be protected:

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IMAG1699

 

After applying matt white to the stripes' areas, this was the result:

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IMAG1712

 

IMAG1711    IMAG1713

 

I left it to dry for a few days and then started masking the white stripes in order to paint the black stripes. I used the "stripe-width" template to ensure the proper width for all stripes. Here's the first white stripe masked, the template serving as a spacer for the black stripe and the middle white stripe being masked:

IMAG1757

 

Moving to the other side of the fuselage, we have here all white stripes masked and the inner stripes left unprotected to receive black paint. Note the smaller width white area nearer the tail, corresponding to the sky coloured band (this was also masked before applying the black paint):

IMAG1758

 

A similar procedure was used to mask the white stripes on the wings. Here's the end result:

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After painting with matt black, this was the result:

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I removed the protection of the tail band:

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And painted it with Sky (Duck Egg Green):

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After removing the protections, we got this:

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As can be seen, there is a gap in the camouflage between the green band and the tail, due to the error in the painting instructions, which I'll correct later.

 

Here's the D-Day striped Spit:

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There are some problems with over-spray, which I'll take care of latter. Probably, the stripes are too perfect, considering that they were applied in the field to an operational aircraft, without any masking, as can be seen in the following period picture:

 

Sorry for the lengthy post... I hope it can be of use for someone contemplating this approach...

 

Cheers,

 

Jaime

[CedB]

"Well, this will be a lengthy and, possibly, boring post... Hopefully it will be useful for someone." Far from boring and useful to me - thanks Jaime!

I admire your accuracy here. I would have been tempted (and have been before) to just use Tamiya 3mm tape and just forgotten about the odd few mm!!

They look great and I've bookmarked this as a reference. Thanks again!

[jrlx]

Thanks CedB! You're really too kind... This took me several days to complete.

[turnerdad]

Looking good! Can't wait to see it finished.

[Old Green Eyes]

Great work Jamie, a not only useful but also very interesting build thus far. I'll be using this thread as reference for when I try the same scheme on a 144 Spit.

Quick question, did you not have an issue with removing the blu-tak from the wheel wells without leaving trace behind?

Keep up the great work!

[PlaStix]

Great progress and very interesting guide to stripes!

[jrlx]

Thank you all for the kind words and for your interest. It's much appreciated.

Quick question, did you not have an issue with removing the blu-tak from the wheel wells without leaving trace behind

I still haven't removed the blu-tack but my previous experience is that it leaves some marks behind. However, since I usually apply a dark wash after, it really isn't a problem. I've read there's a white-tak variety which is better regarding residues, but I haven't tried it yet.

Cheers

Jaime

[Hamden]

Nice looking D-Day stripes this is really coming together now!

Roger

[rob85]

This is great work. Really great day markings, and brilliant reference PIC.

Cheers

Rob

[jrlx]

Roger, Rob, thanks for the kind words

[jrlx]

Well, with this post I'll be up to date with the works on the Spit.

 

As said, there was some overspray when painting the white areas, because the cling film masking got slightly loose. This picture shows some white overspray outboard of the stripes, on the under surfaces of the wings:

IMAG1800

 

And here we can see overspray outboard of the stripes on the upper surface of the port wing:

IMAG1801

 

To correct this, I started by masking the white stripes on the leading edges, as can be seen above (these stripes will be painted yellow later).

 

Then I thinned each of the colours (Medium Sea Grey for the under surfaces, Ocean Grey for the upper surface) to a 75% thinner / 25% paint ratio, reduced the pressure to 10 psi and reduced the airbrush's paint volume as much as possible. This setting is the same I use for painting mottled camouflages. It allows a great degree of control for free-hand painting with the airbrush.

 

After correcting the oversprayed areas, the results look quite acceptable, as shown in the following pictures:

IMAG1805

 

IMAG1806

 

OK, I'm up to date with this one, now

 

The next steps are correcting the dark green camouflage between the Sky-coloured band and the tail fin, and painting the yellow stripes in the wings' leading edges.

 

Hopefully, I'll get back to this model during the weekend.

 

Thanks for looking.

 

Jaime

[Magua87]

Wow, that looks great Jaime and some great tips - thanks!

If you're doing a lot of Spitfires, Procopius uses these templates for masking. Just like the mats that were used on 'the real thing' they come in two patterns and, once you've cut them out, are a lot faster than blu-tak.

Great stuff and thanks for sharing

Do you have another link for those templates? I can't seem to access that site.