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

[Biggles87]

I agree with Ced, it's great and in 1/72 scale! I am very happy if I can achieve anything like that in 1/48

Well done

John

[jrlx]

Ced, John: you're both being very kind. Thanks a lot. I really appreciate it

[Val]

I also think this build is amazing! Looks great, and I really like the chipped decals. Top work

[jrlx]

Val, many thanks for your kind words

[PlaStix]

That looks seriously good. As the others have said you're making it look far bigger than 1/72! Well done.

[jrlx]

Thanks PlaStic! Your words mean a lot.

[jrlx]

Hallo, this is the last post in the WIP, since I've finished the Spit yesterday.

 

In the previous post I had chipped the painting and applied a good coat of gloss varnish for protection of the decals and in preparation for the wash.

The setup for application of the wash is shown in the following picture. I used a "greased earth" acrylic wash by Vallejo:

IMAG2086

 

I applied a sludge wash and let the model dry for 10 minutes. Here it is, while drying:

IMAG2087

 

IMAG2088

 

After that, I removed almost all the wash using cotton buds soaked in water. The model became quite clean:

IMAG2089

 

IMAG2090

 

Only a subtle enhancement of the panel lines and a slight superficial dirtiness remained, as can be seen in the following detail pictures:

IMAG2105

 

IMAG2107

 

IMAG2109

 

I was a bit afraid of overdoing the wash, so I left it as it is shown above.

Going forward, I glued the small parts in place, starting with the main landing gear. First, the legs, glued with CA for strength:

IMAG2115

 

Then the wheel wells doors, also glued with CA:

IMAG2116

 

and finally, the main gear and tail wheels, as well as the tail wheel doors:

IMAG2117

 

The main gear wheels in this kit are pre-weighted, which is a nice touch, and come with locating slots to ensure they are glued in the proper position (there are mating pins in the gear legs). However, they didn't fit in the proper position (with the flat spots aligned with the table top). I'm not sure this was mines or the kit's fault. Anyway, I had to cut the locating pin in the gear legs and adjust the position of the wheels in order to make them stand properly on the table top.

 

After this, I assembled the propeller. I had to glue it directly to the aircraft's nose, instead of using the small part that allowed it to spin, because I didn't manage to keep the propeller's back plate flush to the nose otherwise. Since this isn't a toy, that's really not a problem. I think I won't bother any more with these attempts to make spin-able propellers in future models.

 

Here's the propeller fit in place:

IMAG2118

 

and a detailed view:

IMAG2119

 

I left the canopy's moving piece, the exhausts and radiator flaps to be glued in the end.

 

Then, I applied several good coats of Micro Flat, in crossed directions, to ensure a good matte finish, and left the model drying for several hours.

 

After that, I glued the exhausts in place and applied black and brown pigments to simulate exhaust and cannon / machine gun stains, dirt, airflow/rain streaks. I used Vallejo's pigments rubbed with a small nº 1 detail brush. The pigments were fixed with flat varnish diluted in a 60 thinner / 40 varnish ratio, airbrushed at low pressure (10 psi), at least 10 cm away from the model. This was done to avoid blowing the pigments away or diluting them in varnish.

 

After a few more drying hours, I removed the masking from the canopy pieces and found that some overspray of the cockpit interior green managed to go under the tape. This affected all canopy pieces. The following picture shows an example for the rear fixed piece:

IMAG2126

 

The overspray was scratched away with the tip of a toothpick, followed by the application of a few drops of Aqua Gloss (also with the toothpick) in order to restore transparency and brilliance. Here's the moving piece of the canopy:

IMAG2127

 

To finish with, the moving piece of the canopy, the radiator flaps and the access door to the cockpit were glued in place, all in the open position. The bar on the inner wall of the access door was painted cockpit green to be historically accurate.

 

Here's the final result. More photos are posted in the RFI post here.

IMAG2128

 

This model took me about 6,5 months to complete but I did it in parallel with various other models. It was built almost completely OOB, except for the seat belts (made out of Tamiya tape and a bit thick aluminium wire) and the bar on the cockpit access door (made out of stretched sprue). I also rescibed some panel lines missing on the aft of the lower wing part. The most notable points of the build were the highly detailed OOB cockpit and the D-Day stripes, which I painted with correct widths and positioning, instead of using the decals provided for that effect.

 

I'm pleased with the result, as I managed to learn a few techniques and consolidate others.

 

I hope you liked the rather long posts and found them useful. Thanks for all the comments and encouragement along the way

 

Cheers,

 

Jaime

 

EDITED: link to RFI added above

[Hamden]

That really is a show stopper, outstanding work well done

Roger

[jrlx]

Roger, thanks for your kind words. Much appreciated.

Jaime

[Jockster]

A lovely looking model, well done!

[rob85]

Really beautiful work jamie. Great attention to detail, it's really paid off!

Rob

[jrlx]

Jockster, Rob, thanks for your kind words