Another Hobbyboss Spitfire

[spitfire]

And a small update, I was less than confident that the serial mask would work out as it was in the form of a stencil, I de tacked the mask with my fingers and then crossed them, this was the result and I was over the moon with the result. The result was in doubt from the start as when I opened my tin of Xtracolor "Night" there was only a very small amount of sludge in the bottom of the tin but it worked.

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

I've had a day off, the boss went out with a friend for the day so I spent an afternoon in the study and left the lawn alone, I can cut it on Saturday.

First up had to be the code letters, so the Montex masks were trimmed so they did not overlap anything so that I did not pull off any more paint, some Tamiya tape was used to try to make sure that I got the masks level and away we went, I nearly got it wrong by painting them in Sky and not white !

Here's the masks in position, I did add more masking to prevent over spray on the fuselage but I did not take any pictures of that, I did cheat by not overlapping the codes onto the cockpit hatch though, the W should really just clip the hatch.

After airbrushing I removed the masks straight away and this was the result, I was very impressed (and relieved)

Then onto the prop and spinner, I did buy a Grey Matter resin replacement but the kit spinner was just as good, the prop blades though are a different matter the Grey Matter ones are certainly superior. The spinners were painted with the same red that I use for RAF roundels WEM (now Sovereign) Colourcoats RAF/FAA Matt Red ACRN22.

Then the prop blades were painted black, I had previously painted them yellow and just masked off the tips, on the real thing the yellow tips were 4" which is about 3.1 mm in 1/32 scale, I tried to stick to this but they ended up a bit longer, about 4mm but they look good enough to me. Kit blades below.

And the Grey Matter Figures blades below.

Hopefully tomorrow I will be able to do the decalling and then it's just a case of matt coating and adding the bits and bobs.

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

All was going very well, I spent last Friday and Saturday applying the stencil decals, the kit ones are very good, in fact some of them were better than my AM Talyho Merlin engined Spitfire stencils.

I finished off the prop, did the touch up that was required on various parts of the airframe and generally got everything ready for one final push to get it finished.

But just as I was finishing off airbrushing the satin varnish I dropped it, I was standing up at the time so it had quite a way to drop, the damage is not too bad, one engine panel sprung off but the rear wing to fuselage joint has popped, and a wing seam has popped as well.

Here's the wing/fuselage joint that popped.

Luckily it popped right back when I pressed it, though it has left a faint line.

The wing seam will require a little bit more work, here it is glued and clamped prior to sanding and repainting.

Cheers

Dennis

[Jake Moon]

Looks really sharp, those insignias look great!

[SPARKER]

That's some great work, looks awesome

Si

[spitfire]

Thank you Si and Jake, progress is slow but sure, the wing seam has been sanded, polished, and repainted, I just need to give it a coat of satin varnish and I can add all the bits and bobs still missing and hey presto she will be finished, though this time I will do the varnish in sections and not drop the model due to a dodgy handle!

Cheers

Dennis

[Pete in Lincs]

Just caught up on this.

Great build and paint/markings.

Good recovery from the drop!

[spitfire]

Just caught up on this.

Great build and paint/markings.

Good recovery from the drop!

Thanks Pete, it's nice to see it coming back together, I just finished the satin varnish without dropping anything so I'll leave it a couple of days and then finish it off.

Cheers

Dennis

[spitfire]

Well I did not give in but I was rather demotivated for a while there, but in a burst of energy I rapidly finished her off, I did not take any more photos but here is what I have been up to .

The exhausts (Quickboost) were painted with Humbrol 113 rust, allowed to dry, and were then coated with finely sanded pencil lead, this gives them a nice metal brown colour.

The radio mast had the triangular “flag” removed and was painted Middle Stone, the pitot was painted Azure blue with a silver probe.

A disappointment for me was the discovery of a photo of the real thing showing that the wheel hub covers had white stars painted on them, this would be beyond me to try and replicate so I left well alone.

The wing and tail lamps were painted red green and silver as appropriate.

The Barracuda resin door decals were added as was the crowbar (painted silver), the latch details on the door were picked out in silver.

The fuel cap for the tank forward of the windscreen was fitted this needed some sanding before it was a good fit.

The clear light lens behind the radio mast was fitted, like the fuel cap this needed a small amount of sanding to get a good fit.

The decals for the red gun patches were a bit odd, Trumpeter have done them with holes in as if the guns have been fired, this was not good so I cut up the red section of the fin flash decal and made my own.

Then on to my favourite (not) bit, fitting the aerial wires, in this case it is only the IFF wires which run from the fuselage to the tail planes. Holes were then drilled into the fuselage and the tail planes using a very tiny drill bit and some stretchy Aeroclub thread was glued into the tail plane holes. This was allowed to dry and then the thread was pushed into the hole in the fuselage, stretched and trapped in place with some thin plastic rod (Aeroclub again) . The plastic rod had a tiny amount of CA applied to it and was then pushed into the fuselage until it was flush with the fuselage surface. And that was it, all done, it wasn’t actually that simple as it took a couple of attempts to get it right, but I am please with the result, the plastic rod is a reddish colour and does look a bit like insulating material.

I nearly chickened out with the Barracuda canopy release handle thingy and was not going to fit it, but thought that I would give it a go, using another tiny drill bit I drilled a hole in the two handle type thingys and then threaded some 5 amp fuse wire between them. The using some Formula 360 PVA type glue I attached it to the canopy, job done thought I, but I dropped the canopy and the handle sprung off into space.

After the fun and games I had putting it together I was not going to give up so I dropped to my hands and knees and crawled all over the study floor which luckily is wood laminate. I gathered up all the dust and bits and pieces but it wasn’t there so using my little hand held vacuum cleaner I cleaned up the floor and gave up. Later on though curiosity got the better of me and I emptied my little vac onto a piece of white paper and routed through the little pile of debris and hey presto, miracle of miracles there it was safe and sound.

I kept looking at the model and thinking that it looked too shiny, but I kept saying to myself that it looked fine but eventually I had to change it, so I mixed up a batch of Xtracolor matt varnish and thinners (1.0:1.5) and went over it again.

This time I held the model with a wingtip, airbrushed it all, then put it down on the shelf and airbrushed the wing tip, no crunching noise this time as a model hit the floor, and I am happier with the finish.

And that was it, all finished, and very happy I am with it, though once again both of my cameras have given the finished article a green tinge which I had to edit out, so here she is, more pics in RFI.

Cheers

Dennis

[Biggles87]

Hi Dennis, you've done a great job. I 'm glad you persevered with the canopy handle/latch, which is not often seen on Spitfire models. How did you fit the IFF wires after all the painting and decalling had been done?

Cheers

John

Edited July 16, 2016 by Biggles87

[spitfire]

Hi Dennis, you've done a great job. I 'm glad you persevered with the canopy handle/latch, which is not often seen on Spitfire models. How did you fit the IFF wires after all the painting and decalling had been done?

Cheers

John

Thank you John, the canopy handle was a pain but it was well worth it, I have never seen one on a Spitfire model before but once seen on the real thing it had to be fitted, so I was pretty determined to find and fit it.

For the IFF wires I used a very tiny drill and very carefully drilled holes in the appropriate place on the fuselage and tail planes, then I glued the stretchy Aeroclub thread into the hole in the tailplane left it to cure and then stretched it and inserted the end in the fuselage hole (three hands required). I then trapped it in the hole with some fine plastic rod, put a small amount of CA on the rod and pushed it into the fuselage until it was flush. On my other build I pre drilled the holes before painting which is the easier way to do it.

Here's the same method used on a Hurricane.

Cheers

Dennis

[Blitz23]

That's a fantastic looking spit, the paint job is outstanding.

[Parabat]

Fantastic build and great recovery, good thing it was a minor seam crack. Excellent work on those stencils too, very impressive results.

[spitfire]

That's a fantastic looking spit, the paint job is outstanding.

Thank you very much, the paint is Xtracolor I find it very easy to work with and get a nice smooth finish.

Fantastic build and great recovery, good thing it was a minor seam crack. Excellent work on those stencils too, very impressive results.

Thank you, I do seem to have a habit of creating "challenges" on every build that I do.

Cheers

Dennis