1/32 Spitfire VIII

[Biggles87]

The soft demarcation is excellent, I use a similar method using heavy duty printer paper.

John

[Suddensky]

Thanks chaps, much appreciated.

I tried it with 120gsm paper John, but couldn't see through it to get a reference on the wing of where I was drawing the lines... It took me absolutely ages, still shuddering at the memory.

[Suddensky]

So it was all going pretty well... almost too well...

In the words of that hallowed sage and poet of the outback, KBW, 'Everything that could go, could go wrong...'

It's like those war films where the grizzled old timer shifts his cigar stub from one side of his mouth to the other and mutters 'I don't like it, it's too quiet.'

So in the last update you can see that there is a gun cover missing:

Of course this is no biggie, I mean it was sure to turn up pretty soon, I mean it must be on the bench somewhere, it probably just fell out and I must have put it in a little pot or tub somewhere to keep it safe...

Yeah... about that...

So after having stripped the bench and been through the bin - yes, the proper big grey smelly outside bin - there was no sign of it. Working under the well known premise of 'as soon as I order a replacement it'll turn up' I placed a call to The Hobby Company Limited in Milton Keynes for a replacement sprue, this was at about 14.22 on Friday. The original never surfaced but by midday of Saturday the replacement had arrived and the offending panel had already received a light undercoat. Outstanding service from the vendor.

So that's one problem overcome, I mean what else could go wrong?

Well quite a lot as it turns out.

In my last post above I mention that I'd ordered a set of national insignia masks, this was because having attempted, and failed, to make my own, I tried the kit decals, and was not impressed:

And that's after a lot of Microsol. Also, with the US insignia on a weathered aircraft I prefer to have the ability to fade the blue and dirty up the white a bit.

I ordered the P51 Mustang set from Pmask for about six quid, and on first sight they are a right bargain, There are four of the 30 inch stars with white bars and four of the white stars with no bars, plus the same in 35 inch markings as well as two 40 inch stars with no bars. That's enough for four airframes at least, and given that I've got a Dauntless and a Mustang and a Corsair in the stash then I'd say I was on to a winner.

So on I went, the underside came out OK, the fuselage ones were fine enough, I muddied down the white a bit and lightened the blue, then went over them with a bit of micromesh when they were dry to blend them in a bit more... so far so good...

And then, on the upper wing, in full view of the crowd, this happened: (warning, the following image contains scenes of a distressing nature)

I don't know if it was a sneeze from the airbush or twitchy finger on the trigger but the result was the same: Awful. Even Susan was distressed when I showed her.

Stripping it or overpainting didn't seem to be an option, so my preferred solution will be to turn the whole thing in to a little vignette, with the engine cowlings off, and a tarpaulin draped over that part of the wing, that'll work right??... The internet has told me to make a 'tarp out of tissue and diluted PVA glue, I've had a bit of an experiment and am quietly confident. I did toy with the idea of a diorama involving a couple of chaps up ladders arguing over whose fault it was that the painting had gone wrong, but decided that as I've not tried to paint a figure in thirty years, that simpler options would be better.

After that trauma I decided to use the kit transfers for the squadron codes, and they just will not settle, despite numerous applications of Microsol throughout the day.

So that's where we are for now, I'll slap on some more Microsol in the morning when things are fully dried out and we'll see what happens.

On a more positive note, I think I've managed to not go too overboard on the chipping:

And also, when I told Susan about my idea to use a tarpaulin to cover the mess and have the cowlings off and leaning up against a bench or some oil drums, look what she brought back from her shopping trip this morning:

What a gal!

Sorry this one's been a bit depressing, but thanks for looking, I've got social duties pretty much all this week and then I'm in Jordan next week so the finishing touches will have to wait.

More to follow as soon as I can,

Regards,

Peter

Edited July 10, 2016 by Suddensky

[Leonl]

Youch! That is painful.... But we've all been there!

I've had some very nervous masking times recently on the CL215 luckily all has turned out to plan... Well near enough anyway!

[spitfire]

That is a pain, I have had some disasters with masks on a couple of my builds, when I have had to do some repairs to the completed markings, maybe you could use some Tamiya tape to mask off the blue in the marking and touch up the camouflage and the white.

Cheers

Dennis

[Grey Beema]

For my Fulmar I used tracing paper and blu tac as the masking. Clear enough to see through - slightly thinner than your plastic.

As for the decals - if you run a new scalpel blade along the panel lines cutting through the decals - this will allow your Microsol under the decal as well as on the surface and will help the decal conform (well it worked on mine anyway)... If you don't want to slice the decal you could try small pin holes to achieve the same I guess..

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

HI - I think you might need a little help here!!

First up, and forgive me for being brutally honest here: You really really needed a high gloss coat on that excellent paint work before you added the decals - it really helps with the decalling, and with using paint masks - as in both cases it provides a nice smooth surface to put your decals or masks on.

I think what's happened with the masks is that the paint has bled underneath them because the matt paint underneath has thousands of tiny irregularities in it ( which is what makes it look Matt). No matter how much you smooth the masks down the paint will still creep under. You can also try pushing the mask down into panel lines using the tip of a cocktail stick or your nail.

For decalling the gloss surface also really helps - it stops silvering of the carrier film ( again the uneven nature of the matt painted surface traps air and the decals adhesive locks it in). Tamiya decals really don't like Microsol either - it just doesn't work on them. What I do (and actually it used to be there in Tamiya's instructions) is use a little Microset under their decals, which acts as wetting agent and aids in their adhesion, then use a cloth soaked in VERY hot water, wrung out, and pressed over the decal. This heats and softens the decals and it goes down into all the detail really nicely. You can repeat this hot cloth process a few times too until the decal conforms. Trust me - it works very very well. But be warned - you need HOT water, so be prepared for some 'warm"fingers. I use water from a recently boiled kettle - hot enough to put your fingers in without a trip to casualty, but only just!

But as I said - the key is the gloss coat before hand. if you want a matt or satin final finish - you can apply this afterwards of course.

I hope this helps - and you can get your Spit back on track, as it looks lovely.

Cheers

Jonners

[The Spadgent]

That engine is outstanding, and I think that masking idea is inspired. The Baron used something similar on our dual build but with sticky plastic sheets. This looks more forgiving, I'll be nicking this idea if you don't mind. on a gloomier note I'm really sorry about the paint on the insignia, what a pain. I'm sure the tarp idea will work a treat. Even better I should think as the whole thing will have a real sense of purpose. Good luck sir. Looking forward to the next update.

John.

[Suddensky]

Evening folks,

Thanks for the comments, commiserations and pointers, and now I'm calling it done.

It was good to have an enforced break for a couple of weeks, as I as was pretty cheesed off with myself after the mask and transfer debacle.

So I was back to it this week, the weathering was done with a thin coats of Vallejo dark grey wash for the exhaust and smoke stains, and then quite a heavy dose of pastels pretty much all over to try for the duty look. Oil and fuel stains were a mix of green and grey washes, mostly applied with a cocktail stick. The last few sticky out bits were put in place and then I took a few pics.

As you can see, I ducked out of trying to fix the masking mistake for now, and have opted to just hide it instead...

So that's another one done, at some point I'll fix it up in to a little vignette with a 'tarp over the port wing, but for now it's on the shelf above my desk where I can see the engine, which I'm pretty happy with to be honest!

And Jonners; many, many thanks for the comments and advice, I think it's the KUTA I needed to finally make me gloss before transfers, I've sort of been dodging it, but now it's time to bite the bullet and make the effort.

So thanks for looking, and thanks for all the comments, it's all very much appreciated!

I'm in France at the end of August, so the next victim will be a Hasegawa FW190-A based en Francais in 1943. Hopefully I'll be able to get that finished in a couple of weeks as it's Berlin again in September and I really think I should be doing the HKM Mossie in night colours around that time.

Many thanks for looking,

Regards,

Peter

[Steve27752]

A great build, a shame that the decals let you down

[Biggles87]

It turned out nicely in the end despite the glitches, I'm glad you didn't give up on it.

Looking forward to the Fw 190.

John

[jenko]

Now that really looks the part.

Nice one.

[Leonl]

Very nice build....