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Cannon Spitfire - 1/72 KP Mk.IIb


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(Thread highjack, sorry Stew.)

They are available elsewhere for less.....

thanks

Mike

Hmmm, if there was any stock Mike! There they were, gone. At least I was able to resist!! :)

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That's looking great Stew, and glad you and Jack enjoyed your time by the sea.

I may have a KP Mk V on the way now, at it looks like the IB needs to be added to the collection. Dear KP, please make commission checks out to "Stew Dapple".

Thanks Cookie :) I've had a look at the Mk.Ib instructions and it looks, as you would imagine, pretty much the same as the IIb but with the kidney-shaped cannon bulges and the De Havilland propeller unit. Incidentally the cannon bulges are not the same shape as those provided with the AZ Mk.Ib which are a smaller elongated teardrop shape. I have no idea which is more accurate though. The markings options are the same in both kits.

Looking good Stew! And Jack... and the Spitfire :D Glad you had a good break.

I'm in two mids about the separate chin part - I had a lot of trouble with the Italeri... but if the fuselage fits well I agree the clean up should be easier. Perhaps I should buy one and try it out...

Thanks Ced; in this case the chin part fitted very well each side with a slight overhang at the front which may have been caused by my fitting the wings a fraction too far forward (or in my defence it might not) but it was easily sanded flush and I think it a small price to pay for not having to fix the seam :D

Ahhh that's how I get them, I was going to pm you asking stew as I the links to the site didn't work and couldn't find them under the Oxonian name! I will go look on eBay now....

Nice to see you had a great time with the wee fella

Rob

Thanks Rob, yes I'm not sure if the shop is still a going concern but they're here on ebay... and thanks, we had a great time, luckily Jack's a seasoned traveller as it was an 8.5 hour journey each way but we hardly lifted a finger the whole time we were there :D

Very nice work, Stew! Now if they'd only release the Mk.XII so that I can die a happy man (hopefully after finishing the kit).

Regard,

Learstang

Thanks Jason - I imagine that KP will make enough money from these kits to consider making a wider range of Spitfires so you may yet have your wish come true (apart from the bit about dying, I trust!)

The Peewit canopy mask set arrived from Hannants:

DSCN4694.jpg

Well what can I say? I prefer not to do the masking myself when there is an alternative. Peewit have been pretty quick off the mark with sets for the KP Mk.IIb and the Mk.Vb (Early) although in fact they are actually the same masks for the same part provided in each kit. Either of these will also fit the Mk.Ib.

I attached the canopy and added the rectangular mirror - I sanded the face of this part a bit as it was a bit chunky:

DSCN4699.jpg

I also, belatedly, returned to the instructions to find that I was already supposed to have assembled the undercarriage, so I quickly did it before anyone noticed. Here's one I *cough* made earlier:

DSCN4697.jpg

The little tie-down brackets are moulded on. If you are really really anal keen on detail you could drill the holes out. KP advise that the gear doors are interior green and the undercarriage legs aluminium and who am I to say they are wrong to suggest this? However I shall be painting mine Medium Sea Grey with the compressing part in silver. KP also advise the wheelbays should be interior green or Sky. I'm saying they are wrong to say that and mine will be MSG as well.

Cheers,

Stew

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Looking good so far Stew.

As an occasional patron of Heepdrut, I find he does have a great service,

and some great deals from time to time.

Also, you look exactly how I imagined you would,( not that I spend my time wondering

or anything.. :fraidnot: )

Sean

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...Also, you look exactly how I imagined you would,( not that I spend my time wondering or anything.. :fraidnot: )

Sean

Exactly how you imagined I would look? Well that is strange indeed. I wouldn't have imagined anyone could look like that. Funny how you do get a sort of mental picture of others on the forum though perhaps no stranger than the way you picture the characters in a novel.

Anyway I had a fairly lazy weekend but I did get most of the remaining parts fitted with the exception of the pitot tube and the wheels. The Coffman Starter bulge on the right hand side of the engine went pinging off into the distance when I removed it from the sprue and remains missing at this point: Luckily it is included (but not needed) in the Mk.Ib kit I bought the other day, so I carefully removed that one and fitted it...

DSCN4701.jpg

... and this afternoon I applied the primer; Xtracolor Matt Base Coat Light Gull Grey - I'm getting a bit low on this now and it's been out of stock for some time:

DSCN4703.jpg

Cheers,

Stew

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I always imagined you with a well trimmed beard to match Jack's.

I confess, I initially imagined him to look and sound a bit like Terence Stamp as Zod in Superman II (albeit less flamboyantly attired), but now I just get insecure whenever I see a photo of him, because he looks like he could have his own one-word-titled BBC series (FIXER - about Jim Fixer, ex-forces, ex-husband, ex-cop...the only thing he never stopped doing is caring) and I am starting to look like tapioca from the ravages of age.

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She is looking a treat stew! These kits do seem to be worth the money... My only issue is I don't currently have it and now I want two of everything in your link!! They will have to wait, I need to actually finish some builds this year before i go getting more...

Rob

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Looking very smooth Stew - I mean the primer this time :)

You know it's occurred to me that one problem of this GB is that, afterwards, most of us are going to be building things that are far less pretty.

I'm still waiting for my PRXI to arrive so I might build a Bristol Freighter while I'm waiting, just to keep a sense of perspective...

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Thanks Cookie and PC, sadly since all my beard bristles turned white I have to shave pretty regularly just to avoid being mistaken for the late Wilfred Bramble. That said if I did grow a beard at least it would match Jack for colour...

Thanks Tom, good to have you here :D

Thanks Rob, I do apologise, but I think we all set a bad example for each other in that respect.

Thanks Ced... I understand your point but I can't help but think with a Bristol Freighter that you are going to far the other way, like falling on your face to avoid leaning too far back...

Cheers,

Stew

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Thanks Ced... I understand your point but I can't help but think with a Bristol Freighter that you are going to far the other way, like falling on your face to avoid leaning too far back...

Cheers,

Stew

Good point Stew... perhaps I should re-think... :D

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Thanks Cookie and PC, sadly since all my beard bristles turned white I have to shave pretty regularly just to avoid being mistaken for the late Wilfred Bramble. That said if I did grow a beard at least it would match Jack for colour...

Thanks Tom, good to have you here :D

Thanks Rob, I do apologise, but I think we all set a bad example for each other in that respect.

Thanks Ced... I understand your point but I can't help but think with a Bristol Freighter that you are going to far the other way, like falling on your face to avoid leaning too far back...

Cheers,

Stew

That is a delightful way of putting it stew.

As for apologising, no need... I would get there myself just fine!! 😃

Rob

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I haven't been totally idle this week, I sprayed the Sky Rotol spinner, painted the propellers and sprayed the Sky fuselage band and masked it:

DSCN4705.jpg

Then I sprayed the Medium Sea Grey on the undersurfaces:

DSCN4710.jpg

The cannons look a bit wonky on the second picture, but that must be some kind of parallax effect as they are aligned to the line of flight* and to each other. Honest.

Cheers,

Stew

* ...but not this line of flight

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That looks like a nice kit, shame it's only in 1/72. Seriously though, there's something about the early slim long barrelled cannon fairings that seems to be more difficult ( to me anyway ) to make them symmetrical.

Nice work.

John

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Thanks gents :D

Only way to do it, really.

In fact literally the only way to do it, as KP do not provide the fuselage band as a transfer.

I slopped a rough coat of dark grey around the removable panels; I'm not sure why as I doubt it will show through the camouflage even faintly... I also scruffed a little grey and aluminium paint on the wing root and dabbed on a little masking fluid; once the camo is finished the mask can be rubbed away to imitate the wear on the paintwork where the pilot and groundcrew walk...

DSCN4716.jpg

... then masked the demarcation line for the camouflage and sprayed the Ocean Grey uppersurface colour.

DSCN4719.jpg

Next I'll add the Dark Green, I will probably brush paint it to avoid some more tedious masking...

Cheers,

Stew

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Very nice Stew, looking forward to seeing how the panel shading turns out (although I'm much too lazy to do it myself!)

I admire your brush-painting the camo... all those little bumps and bends on the Spitfire templates make me shake - I don't think I could do it! :)

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... all those little bumps and bends on the Spitfire templates make me shake - I don't think I could do it! :)

Thanks Ced :) - it is actually all the little bumps and bends that put me off masking it although it would of course be quicker with a vinyl camouflage mask but I do find brush-painting quite therapeutic (particularly once you accept that you will never exactly replicate the pattern) - I used the drawings in the Ducimus Camouflage and Markings book as my guide and in two easy sessions completed the first coat of the disruptive dark green pattern:

DSCN4721.jpg

I'll give the green another thin coat just to be sure, and it will need a touch-up here and there, but overall I'm quite happy with it. It's been so long since I painted a Spitfire in the Day Fighter camouflage scheme* rather than the Temperate Land Scheme that it looks a little odd to me, but pleasingly so :)

Cheers,

Stew

* So long in fact that it was probably in the old Airfix paints M2 Slate Grey, M3 Dark Green and M13 Light Aircraft Grey if my memory of the numbers and names serves me correctly :lol:

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You've every right to be pleased with that paintwork Stew :goodjob:

Airfix paint; now there's a blast from the past! Think I still have a couple of tins somewhere in the paint box although the contents is likely unusable now.

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You've every right to be pleased with that paintwork Stew :goodjob:

Airfix paint; now there's a blast from the past! Think I still have a couple of tins somewhere in the paint box although the contents is likely unusable now.

I opened a tin of Airfix matt black last year, it was the nicest paint to brush ever. Smooth, thin and Matt - better than old or new Humbrol or revell. Not sure when airfix stopped making paint (early 80s?) but I would have bought this tin before Feb 1978!

Cheers

Will

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