The Killer Destroyer (1/72 Xtrakit Spitfire XII)

[CedB]

Very nice PC - those stripes look pretty perfect to me  

[Max Headroom]

2 hours ago, stevehnz said:

not as good as the XII, just 'cause I really like XIIs.

Steve.

Wasn’t the XII Geoffrey Quill’s favourite Mark too?

 

Got to say that it does have the air of a pocket rocket about it.

 

PC! Have a restful weekend of intensive inactivity (Spits excepted of course!)

 

Trevor

[Bedders]

The underside of the XII looks great with those stripes. Makes me want a Mk XII enough to start thinking lustfully about carving up a Sword XV...

 

Justin

[malpaso]

Those narrower stripes look very smart.  And avoid masking over and round the rads which is a bonus.  What width did you decide in the end?

The low 16 was my first Eduard and I now have 10 or so of the various marks in the stash as well as two so far built so you can tell I like the kit too.  Are you going HSS or BMF?  I always assumed F-JWL would be weathered HSS, but I just read a caption in a book suggesting natural metal.  It's quite a good print of the photo but hard to decide if dull silver paint or unpolished aluminium (I still would say the paint option myself if presed, either way it's well-used airframe and whatever finish for once virtually every panel line has been given a dark-wash finish by the erks. 🤔

Looking forward to seeing how both planes turn out.

More of a fun question is why Heller thought the Central Gunnery School was in SE Asia?

https://www.scalemates.com/kits/148603-heller-282-supermarine-spitfire-mk-xvi-e#

Cheers

Will

[bigbadbadge]

Great work so far,this is looking lovely especially with the stripes.  Fantastic job.

Keep up the good work 

All the best 

Chris 

[Whofan]

As Ced wrote, an event that will go down in your family history, no doubt shared increasingly at Winston's increasing embarrassment as he gets older! 

 

And there's no doubt this build will have special significance for you, too. 

 

[johnd]

51 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:

Wasn’t the XII Geoffrey Quill’s favourite Mark too?

I believe that was the VIII. There is a Jeffrey Quill story involving the XII though. He was invited to bring a Spitfire along to a demo for bigwigs. He suspected something was afoot and took a XII. It turned out to be a race, which he won, with a Typhoon coming in second and a captured FW 190 in third, the exact opposite of what was supposed to happen, apparently.

 

John.

[Beard]

2 hours ago, Max Headroom said:

Wasn’t the XII Geoffrey Quill’s favourite Mark too?

As already said, it was the VIII with normal span wings.

 

1 hour ago, johnd said:

There is a Jeffrey Quill story involving the XII though.

I think it was DP845 - a much modified airframe, originally built as a MkVIII, which was the prototype XII - rather than a production one.

 

[Procopius]

It was indeed DP845, There's a fairly interesting thread on the race in these very forums.

 

Good old Spitfires. They'll come through for you every time.

 

Anyway, the Ocean Grey is on. 

 

 

Tomorrow I may watch Key Largo with my brother-in-law/cousin (well, step-cousin, but it doesn't feel any less weird to me with the prefix), so possibly it will be a day or two before I get to mask and spray the dark green, always one of my favourite moments.

 

Also got some more done on the XVI.

 

 

 

 

 

[John Masters]

I am back from the conference and will at the bench this evening!  Your Spit is looking very nice.

[Cookenbacher]

They both look great PC, you definitely have to post in the 2018 Yearbook section here on BM this year, so many wonderful builds so far.

[Procopius]

Tonight I begged off Key Largo on account of being exhausted after going with Mrs P and the kids on a 3-mile (six hundred of your kilometers) round-trip death march to and from my parents' house, which began with Mrs P confidently asserting that nobody would have to carry any of the children and ended with my carrying Winston approximately two miles out of the total. Also Winston has the unfortunate quirk of becoming extremely hyperactive when tired, whereas I inexplicably become extremely tired when I'm tired. Much of the rest of the day consisted of me weakly yelling "don't do that" from the couch as he committed a series of escalating outrages. Not one of my favourite days as a parent.

 

Tonight, however, I managed to get down to the grotto and mask the Spitfire. 

 

 

I use these free 1/48 paint mask templates, resized for 1/72 in Photoshop and printed out. They're one of my all-time favourite modelling tools and I wish more good samaritans were out there making stuff like this. 

 

Then on went the Colourcoats Dark Green:

 

 

And them, with indecent haste, I unmasked, because it's my favourite bit. 

 

I accidentally broke a cannon off (EVERY FREAKING TIME), but it was easily fixed. 

 

 

Oops, left a bit of tape on the Sky ID band. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Beard]

It looks splendid.

[Rob G]

40 minutes ago, Beard said:

It looks splendid.

 

It do rather. If only we could get him to use his powers for good (ie Messers Hawker's products.)

[John Masters]

Looks really wonderful Pro...

[amblypygid]

Looking great, PC!

[CedB]

What they all said - and thanks again for the ink to the templates, now one of my favourites too  

[GrzeM]

Not bad, really not bad!

The children... At last they grow up and bring you completely new realms of problems. Stefan (9 years old) got surprisingly bad mark from English test lately. He was so self-confident that he completely didn't notice that the test sheet had second side, and as he made the first side correctly he was convinced that he should get very good mark... As a result he became furious and torn the test shouting that all is s#1t - we are now asked to visit school psychologist.

Edited October 16, 2018 by GrzeM

[Max Headroom]

That’s looking rather neat that is, PC! Never built a XII or a XV in 1/72....must put that right someday.

 

Kids....I’ve just become a granddad for the first time (in my case I’m “Taid” - pronounced ‘tide’, as a nod to my Welsh heritage) and it’s amazing seeing your kids become parents themselves - their whole demeanour changes. I now remember saying to my daughter “just wait until your a parent, then you’ll see how hard it is!”. Those chickens are well and truly roosting now!!!!

 

Sorry, thread drift.

 

Trevor

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Congratulations Trevor @Max Headroom ... Its only a matter time for me (my daughter is 22). 

 

Dennis

[Bedders]

Excellent job on the masking & spraying. 

 

Justin

[Procopius]

On 10/15/2018 at 1:28 PM, Max Headroom said:

I now remember saying to my daughter “just wait until your a parent, then you’ll see how hard it is!”. Those chickens are well and truly roosting now!!!!

Yes, that's the fear. My youngest sister and I both ran away from home, and I don't fancy having to deal with Winston doing that (though some days it might be easier).

 

 

Anyhow, last night I masked off and sprayed the prop blades (not smart enough to do the XVI blades at the same time...idiot) and did the interior colour on the XVI canopy:

 

 

 

I'm not a huge fan of individual prop blades for the same reason that I dislike roundel decals where you have to add the red center yourself: they pass the buck to the modeller, and I'm a frustrated, lazy man who struggles with his own inadequacy every day. I don't need my hobby piling on.

 

Tonight I used my Prop Master tool for the first time to put the blades into the spinner, not without trepidation, but I believe I got them right. 

 

 

The more blades I got on, the more difficult the process became, as the attached blades interacted with the tool. Kind of annoying, given what it cost. 

 

I also primed the Eduard Spitfire with Mr Surfacer 1500 thinned with Gunze Self-levelling, and it worked well:

 

 

And lastly, after much, much masking, I sprayed the RAF Yellow ID bands on the XII's wings. Kudos to Colourcoats, I got great coverage.

 

 

 

Home watching the kids again tomorrow. 

 

 

[06/24]

Beautiful !

[Stew Dapple]

1 minute ago, 06/24 said:

Beautiful !

 

+1

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

[malpaso]

Until I saw your top view of the XVI I wondered what the point and fuss was about those AM resin cowlings!  Still I'm too tight, I mean fiscally responsible to fall for that.  On which note I see MJW has the Eduard 16 twin pack and the Royal class at prices that work out less than a tenner per Spitfire!  But I need to build the stash ones before buying more - see I'm cured?

Cheers

Will