snapper_city Posted March 30, 2016 Author Share Posted March 30, 2016 The answer to Paul J's question post 33 is yes, the 17 sqdn Mk XVIs where the ones dressed as Luftwaffe aircraft for an RAF display at Farnborough in July 1950. The source is Spitfire At War Vol3 by Dr Alfred Price. I just came across the photo whilst looking for something else. Hope you don't mind me butting in like this. Cheers John Not at all. It's great to share the knowledge. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 2, 2016 Author Share Posted April 2, 2016 (edited) Not exactly a build update because I have no free modelling time until after the weekend. I have on the other hand been busy looking into paints. Instead of using the kit decals I am planning to mask the roundels and spray them. I have had to look into paint options for this so asked the good folk of the forum if they could point me in any direction. I popped into SnM Stuff this afternoon with kit decals in hand holding bottles up against them to see if I could find anything close. This is what I came away with. IMAG0405 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Under LED light IMAG0401 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Under normal lights IMAG0402 by Mark Inman, on Flickr IMAG0403 by Mark Inman, on Flickr I personally think the Model Air 090 Deep Sky is a very good match for the blue. The red on the other hand Game Color 106 Scarlett Blood looks almost flawless. A few other goodies to play with. Never used these but have heard and seen good things. IMAG0404 by Mark Inman, on Flickr All for now. Edited April 2, 2016 by snapper_city 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 That looks a comprehensive set of paints there Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 3, 2016 Author Share Posted April 3, 2016 That looks a comprehensive set of paints there Mark I will probably get a few more of the Xtreme Metals next month as I am building a B-58 Hustler alongside the Spitfire.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 (edited) I'm very interested in your experiments in finding a good paint for the roundels. I may follow your suggestions myself for a couple of projects, as Vallejos are becoming more and more my brand of choice and their catalogue system is not the best, watching direct comparisons is the best way to find the best paint. Edited April 4, 2016 by Giorgio N Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 4, 2016 Author Share Posted April 4, 2016 I'm very interested in your experiments in finding a good paint for the roundels. I may follow your suggestions myself for a couple of projects, as Vallejos are becoming more and more my brand of choice and their catalogue system is not the best, watching direct comparisons is the best way to find the best paint. I firstly used a few paint chart conversions to point me to a few options then did a physical check in my local paint supplier holding bottles up to the decals. Vallejo are one of my chosen paints. They spray well and are easy to get hold of. As are Tamiya but their options didn't match. My next option would be to try Gunze but they are mail order so you never know how things will work out until they arrive. I am going to airbrush them tomorrow to finally make up my mind but I can't see anything changing. Right on to today. It doesn't seem like I have done much so I will just show you. Firstly the cannons are removed on this Spitfire and replaced with aerodynamic covers. The kit tells you to cut down and shape the original cannon barrels. IMAG0409 by Mark Inman, on Flickr IMAG0411 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The lower engine cowling IMAG0410 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The undercarriage minus the torque link with added brake lines. IMAG0412 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The radiators have been cleaned up and the rear opening flap attached in the closed position. Every picture I have of this aircraft on the ground shows them cloased. IMAG0413 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The gun fairings attached. I will probably clean the joint up tomorrow. IMAG0415 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The wing tips attached using the clear parts option. IMAG0416 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Tail wheel attachment installed. I will add the tyre after painting. IMAG0418 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Prop, spinner and wheels ready for paint. IMAG0419 by Mark Inman, on Flickr I have also since found two more reference shots online. Cat# AB01008 by Mark Inman, on Flickr UK2 SL549 Supermarine SpitfireF16E RMontgomeryPhoto by Mark Inman, on Flickr Lastly I have scanned the decals and sent them to Mal Mayfield so he can start on making his miracle masks for me. I have also ordered a Barracuda Studios resin one piece upper engine cowl to replace the kit part. This comes in two half's and clean up will remove a lot of the detail. That is all. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PlaStix Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Very impressive progress Mark. The cockpit does indeed look excellent. Lovely work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted April 4, 2016 Share Posted April 4, 2016 Stunning work Mark, and the painted roundels will look better than decals. I hesitate to offer any painted roundel advice after mine came out too light, I used MM Insignia blue (just a little too dark) and mixed it with a light blue and went too far. In my defense, it looked perfect in the airbrush cup. In the Vallejo range, Dark Prussian blue is almost spot on, but again, just a tad dark probably, but that my be my roundel blue of choice going forward. It can always be desaturated with pastels afterwards. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 5, 2016 Author Share Posted April 5, 2016 Minor update for today. I have resprayed the seams to check how things are looking. Around the fuel filler cap in front of the cockpit still requires some attention. IMAG0433 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Only when taking this picture did I realise I had forgot to spray the radiators to check the seams. IMAG0434 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The spinner had a coat of Tamiya black also then a coat of flat white IMAG0435 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Last but not least the roundel. I sprayed a piece of scrap plastic card black followed by white. I made a simple yet quite crap roundel mask with a compass cutter then laid the red and blue down. Excuse my dodgy paint mixing as they were both too thin and bled under the shoddy mask. I was rushing a bit. Anyway results. The blue in the decal has a slight purple hue to it compared with the Vallejo Model Air 090 Deep Sky. What do you all think? Is this close enough? Should I go back to the drawing board? Should I try mixing a drop of something else into the blue? Natural daylight. IMAG0430 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Under LED light IMAG0432 by Mark Inman, on Flickr That's it for today. I'm back to work tonight so next building day will probably be next Monday. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 10, 2016 Author Share Posted April 10, 2016 No build update until tomorrow but I thought I would show you a few pictures of Duxford's F.24 VN485 that I took yesterday. Had a great day with my brother and father for the old man's birthday. I was mostly interested in reference shots of the overall paint scheme and the roundels. DSC_6703 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6705 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6706 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6707 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6708 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6709 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6710 by Mark Inman, on Flickr DSC_6712 by Mark Inman, on Flickr IMAG0430 by Mark Inman, on Flickr 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted April 11, 2016 Share Posted April 11, 2016 Those pictures are great, thanks for sharing ! Roundels.. to me the colours you used look very close but the red may maybe be a bit darker and the blue a bit more "brilliant". Mind, it may simply be that adding a couple of drops of gloss paint sorts them out. I also think that getting the colour perfectly right may not be easy, the blue in particular is one of those colour that is often hard to mix right and often ends up being too "greyish" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Those pictures are great, thanks for sharing ! Roundels.. to me the colours you used look very close but the red may maybe be a bit darker and the blue a bit more "brilliant". Mind, it may simply be that adding a couple of drops of gloss paint sorts them out. I also think that getting the colour perfectly right may not be easy, the blue in particular is one of those colour that is often hard to mix right and often ends up being too "greyish" I personally thought the red was very near perfect but its hard to tell from pictures. The blue I'm sure needs something mixing into it to darken it a shade or two still. Below is the one I have made up. The right side has had a coat of Aqua Gloss hand painted over it. IMAG0463 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Today I have been getting the final bits ready before the painting can start. Straight away I noticed one of the clear wing tips had a large chunk taken out of the front. This must have happened when the model fell out of a clamp while something was gluing. Without even thinking I hacked them off and replaced them with the standard kit plastic tips. In hind sight I could have possibly repaired it with Krystal Klear IMAG0460 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The Barracuda resin upper cowl was cleaned up and dry fitted. This took less than 5 minutes and looks great. IMAG0461 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Just a small seam that still needs attention and the fuel filler cap installed. IMAG0464 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Last few jobs before painting can start. Finish the seam and fuel cap. Mask the canopy's and install. Mask the pit if and where needed. Give the fuselage an IPA wipe down to remove any grease or contaminants. Also to remove the Tamiya black that has already been laid so the AK Xtreme metal black base has a uniform and clean surface to work from IMAG0466 by Mark Inman, on Flickr 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 11, 2016 Author Share Posted April 11, 2016 Almost ready for paint. IMAG0474 by Mark Inman, on Flickr 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 12, 2016 Share Posted April 12, 2016 Good progress Mark Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 12, 2016 Author Share Posted April 12, 2016 Disaster. SWMBO is off work sick with flu or something. There will be no airbrushing today. It looks like I will be carrying on with another build instead. The smell of TET is good for sick people right? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 The smell of any modelling related chemical is good for sick modellers, not sure about SWMBO though... In any case, best wishes to her for a quick recovery Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 13, 2016 Author Share Posted April 13, 2016 Good news. I have primed everything and sprayed the five aluminium colours on to a test piece. From here white aluminium looks the best match to who these were painted. Having a spot of lunch before cracking on with the real deal. Pictures to follow. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 13, 2016 Author Share Posted April 13, 2016 Today's update. Firstly the canopy was sprayed the cockpit colour. IMAG0488 by Mark Inman, on Flickr AK Black Base IMAG0489 by Mark Inman, on Flickr With the spare wing from the kit I tested the colours. Very difficult to photograph properly. I'm not impressed with the Polished Aluminium as it is no where near as shiny as I thought it would be. Two reasons for this could be it was the last to be sprayed and the airbrush had only been flushed through between coats so possible contamination. This area I flooded a bit unintentionally. Left to right. Matte Aluminium, White Aluminium, Aluminium, Dark Aluminium, Polished Aluminium. IMAG0499 by Mark Inman, on Flickr The nose cowl I might strip and spray again. The white Aluminium spat onto the primer and the drop stripped the black. It is quite obvious to me. IMAG0492 by Mark Inman, on Flickr All the odds and sods. IMAG0493 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Finally the airframe. IMAG0496 by Mark Inman, on Flickr IMAG0497 by Mark Inman, on Flickr IMAG0503 by Mark Inman, on Flickr Lastly the Miracle Masks turned up today. IMAG0504 by Mark Inman, on Flickr All till next week. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Col. Posted April 13, 2016 Share Posted April 13, 2016 The silver finish certainly looks effective Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miracle Paint Masks Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 Have fun with the paint masks but a word of caution. De-tack the masks before applying as NMF/silver can cause issues: it is more about masking over paint applied on top of the NMF/silver as the adhesion of that paint is limited by it. De-tack by pressing the masks on your hand a few times. Do this carefully after applying the transfer tape. Your build is looking very good but I do need to mention one thing: One of Edgar's favourite bugbears was red crowbars, never seen on wartime Spitfires, but as you're building a postwar aircraft you may be able to get away with it. Yep I heard this many times but I found out recently that red crowbars were used, from a man who should know, Geoffrey Wellum, the youngest pilot to fly Spitfires during the Battle of Britain. He lives here in Mullion and I was chatting to him in the Mounts Bay Inn about the 1/32 scale Spitfire MkI that I am building in his markings (K9998). I asked what the colour of the crowbar was and he said "red". I queried it and said that Spitfire experts recon that it was any colour but red. He said "what colour do these experts recon that it was?" I said, "natural steel or black". He said, "man-vegetables" (I asked him If I could quote him on that and he said no, so ignore that!) He went on to say, "they were a piece of safety equipment and were painted red". I then asked if they were only painted red on his flight and I got a withering look and he said, they were painted red on every Spitfire that I flew! I wish that I could have told Edgar about this conversation The crowbar was removed on later marks so it is likely that the Mk XVI didn't have one I also found out something else (about K9998), several things actually, that after a conversation with Edgar I had doubts about, but Edgar agreed that if Geoffrey Wellum said that it was so then it was, but That is for another blog. The colours of the roundels are Oxford blue and post office red 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Foghorn Leghorn Posted April 15, 2016 Share Posted April 15, 2016 A bit late to the party (life getting in the way).... that's a great finish with AK metal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 Today I have mostly been playing with paints. Otherwise nothing really to report. IMAG0522 by Mark Inman, on Flickr 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 The silver looks just great Mark, and I can't wait to see how the masking turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerbannog Posted April 18, 2016 Share Posted April 18, 2016 The NMF looks great. When I ran out of Alclad I will give AK a try. René Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snapper_city Posted April 18, 2016 Author Share Posted April 18, 2016 The silver looks just great Mark, and I can't wait to see how the masking turns out. Me too. I'm hoping to start on them tomorrow. I will probably start on the registration first as it's one colour and small. The NMF looks great. When I ran out of Alclad I will give AK a try. René They spray really well. Just avoid flooding the paint. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now