13 Spitfires, 13 BF109 and a Boulton Paul Defiant. Now with added P-51

[Antb]

Looking great James! 

 

Regarding your decals, I've recently acquired some from this chap here https://shop.miscmini.com/. Relatively cheap, well in the U.K. Anyway, and speedy delivery. They're Ok for the small scale and look the part. I'll post some images up of mine if you're interested. 

 

Im shortly to be ordering some mustang and zero ones from him too. 

[James B]

12 hours ago, Antb said:

Looking great James! 

 

Regarding your decals, I've recently acquired some from this chap here https://shop.miscmini.com/. Relatively cheap, well in the U.K. Anyway, and speedy delivery. They're Ok for the small scale and look the part. I'll post some images up of mine if you're interested. 

 

Im shortly to be ordering some mustang and zero ones from him too. 

Great, thank you. I was a little worried as the aircraft pictured on some of the decal pages look quite bulbous to my eye and I was concerned the decals would not fit as a result. I have placed an order for the mustangs and also the defiant, so we'll see how it goes. I'd love to see how yours came out. Did you have any fit issues with the decals, silvering or any else I should be aware of?

 

I've also changed the title of this thread, and as it says, we now have P-51s on the bench, after being cleaned up and receiving a nice hot bath to straighten them a little. Hopefully, they will get a coat of primer today. 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the spitfires, I again am in need a bit of help please, if anyone can assist? My references show that during the BoB, specifically late summer of 1940, the spitfires ran the small underwing roundel. However, the decal sheet has 1942 printed next to them and no date printed near the larger underwing roundels.  Wikipedia, on the other hand states that: "June 1940 to December 1940: As many Spitfires as possible had type A roundels painted under the wings, along with a pale green/blue camouflage colour. The under wing roundels varied widely in size and location depending on which Maintenance Unit (MU) prepared the aircraft before delivery to the squadrons." and "July 1942 to January 1945: 36 inch type C1 fuselage roundels. 32 inch type C lower wing roundels." Which definitely makes my reference photos wrong (probably incorrectly dated or researched by me originally, and the sheet correct. I will continue looking over the inter webs in the mean time, but the larger underwing roundel seems to be correct.  

 

Thank you to all the kind comments and help and advice so far. If anyone wants to chime in on the paint job, C&C is always welcome. I've not worked at this tiny scale before and I am open to criticism, it's the only way to improve. Would you recommend panel line washes? Should I try and mimic some exhaust weathering? What else should I consider? What have I missed?

 

Cheers

James

Edited May 5, 2018 by James B

[Antb]

2 hours ago, James B said:

Great, thank you. I was a little worried as the aircraft pictured on some of the decal pages look quite bulbous to my eye and I was concerned the decals would not fit as a result. I have placed an order for the mustangs and also the defiant, so we'll see how it goes. I'd love to see how yours came out. Did you have any fit issues with the decals, silvering or any else I should be aware of?

 

I've also changed the title of this thread, and as it says, we now have P-51s on the bench, after being cleaned up and receiving a nice hot bath to straighten them a little. Hopefully, they will get a coat of primer today. 

 

 

 

 

 

As for the spitfires, I again am in need a bit of help please, if anyone can assist? My references show that during the BoB, specifically late summer of 1940, the spitfires ran the small underwing roundel. However, the decal sheet has 1942 printed next to them and no date printed near the larger underwing roundels.  Wikipedia, on the other hand states that: "June 1940 to December 1940: As many Spitfires as possible had type A roundels painted under the wings, along with a pale green/blue camouflage colour. The under wing roundels varied widely in size and location depending on which Maintenance Unit (MU) prepared the aircraft before delivery to the squadrons." and "July 1942 to January 1945: 36 inch type C1 fuselage roundels. 32 inch type C lower wing roundels." Which definitely makes my reference photos wrong (probably incorrectly dated or researched by me originally, and the sheet correct. I will continue looking over the inter webs in the mean time, but the larger underwing roundel seems to be correct.  

 

Thank you to all the kind comments and help and advice so far. If anyone wants to chime in on the paint job, C&C is always welcome. I've not worked at this tiny scale before and I am open to criticism, it's the only way to improve. Would you recommend panel line washes? Should I try and mimic some exhaust weathering? What else should I consider? What have I missed?

 

Cheers

James

Hi James 

 

I'll photo them tomorrow and post the images for you. 

 

No major issues. The decals aren't the softest in the world and take some setting but in that scale they look the part. 

 

I'm getting some custom decals made for the p51s I have. The wife wants the duxfors eagles with the black and white checkerboard nose so they've been ordered. 

 

No issues with silvering2they do need cutting close to the actual decal.but they do react well to a setting solution. I use humbrol decalfix and there were no issues. 

 

Ill.post the pictures of mine for you to have a look at. 

 

Cheers 

🐜

[Antb]

@James B sorry for the delay in posting these this week has been mad so far! 

 

Anyway here they are. Ignore the colours and camo schemes etc. I've just put some paint on to represent the aircraft and wasn't overly concerned with being accurate. 

 

The wings seem to have warped again after being straightened out which is a nightmare so please ignore those too. 

 

The decals are from the link I sent you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Azgaron]

Looks cool with all the planes flying around!

 

Håkan

 

[James B]

@Antb, they look incredible. Can you tell me how you achieved such an amazing finish on them all please? Did you use an airbrush? If so, how did you mask the camo patterns? What did you use for the panel lines? What other weathering have you done?

[Antb]

8 hours ago, James B said:

@Antb, they look incredible. Can you tell me how you achieved such an amazing finish on them all please? Did you use an airbrush? If so, how did you mask the camo patterns? What did you use for the panel lines? What other weathering have you done?

Thanks James you're very kind. 

 

I don't have an airbrush so they're all painted using a brush. 

 

The 109s were painted using vallejo air colours in the Luftwaffe set for aircraft pre 41. I used tape for the straight ish lines for the tops of the wings but didn't worry too much about then being perfect due to the scale. 

 

The camo on the spitfires is free hand. Again due to the scale not too worried about it being exact just a representation will do for me 😁

 

109s weathered using a Flory wash but it was a bit too dark really. The spits were given a wash of army painter soft tone ink. And that's it really. 

 

Glad you like them thanks again for the compliment.