The Killer Destroyer (1/72 Xtrakit Spitfire XII)

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

There was a court case about Jaffa Cakes & whether they were biscuits / cookies or cake - I think because at the time there were different tax levels, believe it or not.  The court decided that the way to tell is what happens when they go stale: biscuits get softer, cake gets harder.  And that therefore Jaffa Cakes are definitely cakes.

 

Sorry, Winston!

[Stew Dapple]

Hey, who doesn't yike dacklate tookies, right?  Even those masquerading as cakes for tax-avoidance purposes.

 

That Spitfire cockpit does look beautiful mate, is it fundamentally the same set-up for the Mark IX kit?

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

Just now, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

There was a court case about Jaffa Cakes & whether they were biscuits / cookies or cake - I think because at the time there were different tax levels, believe it or not.  The court decided that the way to tell is what happens when they go stale: biscuits get softer, cake gets harder.  And that therefore Jaffa Cakes are definitely cakes.

Believe it or not, I'm conversant with that one, in my capacity as social media guy for a large legal not-for-profit.

 

2 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

That Spitfire cockpit does look beautiful mate, is it fundamentally the same set-up for the Mark IX kit?

Identical, except (and this is important) you don't have to do as much work on it, because everything after the seat armour is safely ensconced in the lowback fuselage.

[Beard]

I like the way his face shows his Road to Damascus conversion, from sceptic to true believer. Wait until he tries Cherry Génoises Cakes.

 

22 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Hey, who doesn't yike dacklate tookies, right?  Even those masquerading as cakes for tax-avoidance purposes.

I'm rather shocked that you're not conversant with LON/91/0160.

 

[Stew Dapple]

4 minutes ago, Beard said:

... I'm rather shocked that you're not conversant with LON/91/0160.

 

 

A man might draw his own conclusions even if they contradict the official line  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

 

 

[amblypygid]

1 hour ago, Stew Dapple said:

A man might draw his own conclusions even if they contradict the official line

 

Pfft. You're just upset because they ruled that chocolate dundees are chocolate covered biscuits, and thus standard rated. 

[CedB]

Wine gums? It was the Union Flag that got you, I know. Fearful patriotic marketing ploy.

Jaffa cakes… mmmmm.

Sorry, came over all Homer then…

Nice cockpit PC  

[Procopius]

2 hours ago, CedB said:

Wine gums? It was the Union Flag that got you, I know.

Always.

[Procopius]

Some 4mm tape has arrived, so I opted to apply some Gunze lacquer gloss white for the invasion stripes.

 

 

Now to let it dry for a day or two. 

 

Still puttering along on the Eduard XVI, which has the usual issues of the kit (poor lower cowl fit), but which goes together fast and is still probably my favourite Spitfire kit (and thus my favourite kit) to build.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Is that the one-piece resin upper cowling I spy there? I bought some of those for the Mk.IX but I read somewhere that they don't fit terribly well...

 

Good progress on both kits there mate  

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[Procopius]

4 minutes ago, Stew Dapple said:

Is that the one-piece resin upper cowling I spy there? I bought some of those for the Mk.IX but I read somewhere that they don't fit terribly well...

The 1/48 one apparently doesn't. This fit pretty well, maybe 20 seconds work with a sanding stick and a hobby knife.

[Gazontipede]

Late as usual to the party, but I must say those shots of Winston with the Jaffa Cakes are priceless.

I love corrupting people who have never tried Jaffa Cakes... Even hardcore Tim Tam fans here in Oz can be turned!

 

The Mk.XII is really shaping up nicely and an Eduard XVI too! Bonus material!

I've got an Eduard Mk.XVI bubble top in the stash, any advice along the lines of "watch out for that lower cowl fit" would be most appreciated.

 

 

[Pete in Lincs]

Jaffa cakes? that's nothing.

There is a chain of bakers shops in Yorkshire that sell...wait for it...

Chocolate Orange Danish!

Price to you is equivalent to about $1.20.

And you'd be a fool not to buy two!

 

Oh, nice Spitfire thread, BTW.

Now, is it cake time yet?

[Procopius]

On 10/10/2018 at 2:29 AM, Pete in Lincs said:

Jaffa cakes? that's nothing.

There is a chain of bakers shops in Yorkshire that sell...wait for it...

Chocolate Orange Danish!

Price to you is equivalent to about $1.20.

And you'd be a fool not to buy two!

A big worry for me is that my 2019 Telford trip (god willing, at this point, that no more fiscal emergencies pop up between now and then, but I'm gambling that flights to England, the garden of the world, will be cheaper in November) will in no way be able to encompass all of the things I want to do while I'm back Lowestoft is on the other side of the country, as is Lincoln, and of course a million other places. There's more to England than you think. Whoever's in charge of tourism for the UK's largest constituent country can have that one for free.

 

On 10/10/2018 at 2:06 AM, Gazontipede said:

I've got an Eduard Mk.XVI bubble top in the stash, any advice along the lines of "watch out for that lower cowl fit" would be most appreciated.

• Lower and upper cowls protrude about 0.5-1mm further out than the fuselage at the nose unless some fettling and test-fitting is done.
• Be sure to keep the mating surfaces for the cockpit parts free of paint. 
• Test-fit the underwing radiators a few times, they're tricky.

 

 

Anyhow, a weird couple of days here at Hedgehog Manor. Last night, shortly after I clambered into bed around 1 AM after playing Rule the Waves for far too long, I could hear some crashing about in Winston's bedroom, and then him softly reassuring himself "I am a big boy". I thought nothing of it beyond a fervent wish he would immediately go back to sleep. Time passed. The door to our bedroom opened, and Winston, accompanied by the unmistakable smell of poop, drifted in wordlessly and tried to clamber into our bed. 

 

Now, we have a king-sized bed because Mrs P is an aggressive sleep kicker, but the bed could be a thousand miles wide and it would still be too small to fit our children, as far as I'm concerned. Mrs P, who they like and wouldn't dare try and kick repeatedly (an inherited trait, apparently, passed on down through the generations, in the absence of the more rugged forms of natural selection against such things) has a different view on the matter. But Winston is not allowed in the bed. So I wordlessly picked him up, and to my surprise, he was very clingy, unusual for him as he's generally not keen on either me or being taken away from his mom. But the smell was quite intense. It was clear he'd had an accident. So I took him back to his room to change his diaper, only to discover...the diaper was clean. 

 

Winston's legs and arms, and his butt, however, were not.

 

"Where's the diaper, Winston," I asked, with roughly the same tone and urgency an interrogator might use to demand the location where the bomb was hidden.

 

"In my bed," he replied, and indeed, there it was, along with...well, I won't dwell on the gory details, but you know how in horror movies you can tell something bad happened sometimes because there's a splatter pattern that looks like someone poked a hole in a garbage bag full of blood, dragged it a ways, and then blew it open with a controlled detonation? Sort of like that, but not blood. 

 

It soon became apparent that Winston would need a bath, and I sprang into action, while Mrs P (with a now-roused and alarmingly chipper Grant) took on decon duties for the horrific path of destruction Winston had left in his odoriferous wake. Poor Winnie was so clearly expecting to be in trouble, and had so obviously just been trying to be a "big boy" and change himself, that it was hard to be mad at him and I didn't try. We got him cleaned up and his room disinfected (I suggested burning the house down, with me in it, as a possible cleaning solution early on in the process), and got him and Grant back to bed no later than 2:30 in the morning. Consequently, I overslept badly today and missed not only my normal train but also my backup train that leaves thirty minutes later. Fortunately, I'm able to work from home once a week (in theory I could do it every day and never need to come in to the office, but my boss likes to roll deep to meetings, even when the meetings are, strictly speaking, irrelevant to what I do), and so I indulged, and had a lovely quiet day alone, with no other human beings around; I even went for a little walk at lunch. My office has been incredibly hectic with lots of stressed people yelling at each other lately about a project I'm not a part of and I'm just worn out in general. I'm in general a big civilisation guy, because hot dogs stands and pizza places* and Thai food and curry all tend to be better where the population density is higher, but intermittently I feel a deep need to be in a cabin by a lake with a stack of books and I am feeling it intensely these days. I almost always feel alone, even with other people, but so rarely get to be alone with my thoughts,. I feel sure some of them were good ones; I wish to become reacquainted with them.

 

Anyway. The Spitfires! Amazingly, the cheapo masking tape I ordered from Amazon has worked a treat, and the XII's D-Day stripes are on:

 

 

 

I used Gunze lacquer white and black for the stripes. As you can see, I cut out a little of the masking covering the Sky recognition band around the tail to enable me to replicate the staggered arrangement seen in the photo. I then went over it again after masking off around it, which was a mistake as it created a big ol' step in the paint. I tried to smooth it out as best I could using a brush dipped in Gunze self-levelling thinner. We'll see if that helps. 

 

 

I'm trying to wait a long time in between coats of paint, because I'm worried about negative chemical interactions. Once I feel like these have all dried sufficiently, I'll mask them off fully and it's out with the Colourcoats to start on the camo.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

* Not always, though, New York is a very densely populated city, and their pizza is only fit to be dried out and used as a plate for other, better pizzas.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Looking good on the XII 👍

[06/24]

Excellent Spitfire progress, and how I wish I could write as well as you, even if it’s about poop! 

 

[Bedders]

That's looking very nice indeed. 

 

Justin

[stevehnz]

57 minutes ago, Procopius said:

(I suggested burning the house down, with me in it, as a possible cleaning solution early on in the process)

Nah,bad idea

57 minutes ago, Procopius said:

a lovely quiet day alone

Yup, good idea

57 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I feel a deep need to be in a cabin by a lake with a stack of books and I am feeling it intensely these days. I almost always feel alone, even with other people, but so rarely get to be alone with my thoughts,. I feel sure some of them were good ones; I wish to become reacquainted with them.

Excellent, best idea of them all.

Hang in there, they'll grow up & leave home one day, failing that, you can run away from home, it increasingly suggests itself to me as a splendid idea.

Steve.

Bugger, forgot, stripes looking good. 

Edited October 12, 2018 by stevehnz
stupid comma.

[CedB]

Ah, more joyful childhood tales to keep in the 'do you remember when…' diary. Life is full of such rich memories  

Nice stripes PC, good job.

[Pete in Lincs]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

We got him cleaned up and his room disinfected

Been there. Done that. I recommend Grand Children. So much easier.

No bed is big enough at night for adults AND kids. Morning snuggles are fun though.

Lowestoft? Hmmm, maybe not such a good idea. Lots of History to see in Lincoln though.

I've been home alone all week during the day. Bliss. Aside from the Manflu.

 

[Max Headroom]

Ah small children. By some form of osmosis, mine learned to creep past me at night if they (infrequently it must be said) came into our room and wake up Mrs H instead.

 

Trevor

 

(Spit is coming along nicely too👍🏻)

[Cookenbacher]

A harrowing tale indeed PC, the stripes look great and I'm sure you acquitted your aspired to homeland well in RTW (I check the RTW2 forum everyday in anticipation).

[Procopius]

11 hours ago, Cookenbacher said:

A harrowing tale indeed PC, the stripes look great and I'm sure you acquitted your aspired to homeland well in RTW (I check the RTW2 forum everyday in anticipation).

I was trying it as Japan this playthrough, and I've mostly occupied my time by sinking the Russian navy, bit by bit, in a series of long wars. Thank heavens for night destroyer attacks.

 

I'm a little tired today, okay, a lot tired, so this will be brief, but I got Colourcoats Medium Sea Grey out, masked off the stripes, and let fly.

 

It's been so long since I've painted a Spitfire, it just felt, and I know this sounds weird, but very right, like seeing an old friend again. This week has been pretty emotionally draining, so I really appreciated it.

 

 

Next step is to let it dry and then mask off the underside, and then time to begin my favourite part, painting and masking the upper surface camo.

 

Almost in passing, I also sprayed the turtledeck on the XVI prefatory to putting the canopy on and closing her up. I used Alclad's High Speed Silver.

 

 

 

 

[Stew Dapple]

Those are both coming along swimmingly mate  

 

Hope you have a pleasant and restful weekend, sounds like you could do with one...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[stevehnz]

Looking good, very good, 'specially the XII, sexy as with those stripes. I'm sure the XVI will look pretty damn nice too but not as good as the XII, just 'cause I really like XIIs.

Steve.