Smithy Posted October 13, 2018 Share Posted October 13, 2018 Hi all, Thought I'd start a thread for this build here. This was originally going to be part of the RAF centenary GB but unfortunately life and work got in the way and it never made it, but in the spirit of better late than never I've dragged it out and gotten some modelling done for the first time in months. When I had to stop work on this I'd only painted the interior cockpit so this is pretty much from the start. This is the new tool Airfix Spitfire Ia which many here are familiar with and I'm using the wonderful little 3-D Kits Mark II conversion set. The Airfix kit is great and the fit good. I used all the kit interior bits (I forewent using the replacement seat as I just couldn't be bothered going through the rigmarole of cutting/sanding the bulkhead lugs down to accommodate it). Seatbelts are good old Tamiya tape painted with a coat or two of Humbrol 121 and the rest is standard. A small hole was drilled and the Mark II blister was attached under the starboard side exhaust location. Some filler was then used for the upper cowling join and underneath where the wing joins the front underside fuselage. I also put the canopy on - tight fit! - which has been masked with Parafilm M and Tamiya tape and got a coat of Humbrol 78. I've just put two coats of Humbrol 90 for the Sky on the undersides so once that's dry I'll mask and get some Dark Earth on the topsides. Really lovely little kit! 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 17, 2018 Author Share Posted October 17, 2018 Not the greatest of photos to follow but I thought it was time for an update and I've just put a coat of paint on the Spit this evening. Another coat of dark green tomorrow and then onto masking and taping the Sky fuselage band. Paints are Humbrol 29 and 163 for the dark earth and dark green respectively. The spinner and propeller are painted and assembled and I've nearly finished painting the undercart and exhausts so I'm hoping she'll come together pretty quickly once the painting and decals are all done. Once again apologies for the dreary photo but the light wasn't optimal. I'll take another couple of snaps tomorrow in the daytime after finishing the last dark green coat. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Coming along nicely - seam lines are looking good. This is great kit - hoping to do my own fairly soon - brush painting I assume? Camo looks good so far. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 18, 2018 Author Share Posted October 18, 2018 (edited) 5 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said: Coming along nicely - seam lines are looking good. This is great kit - hoping to do my own fairly soon - brush painting I assume? Camo looks good so far. Thanks Kitchen Modeller, it is a great little kit. I used a little filler on the seam lines on the top and bottom of the cowling but apart from there nowhere else. One thing that I did find (and was warned by others) was you have to be careful to make sure the rear bulkhead sits nice and tightly when you close it up, otherwise the fuselage will be a bit fat and throw out the dihedral of the wings. I found a little light sanding of the bulkhead was all that was needed. And yes hairy stick all the way! I should also mention with the radio mast I removed the triangular prong but left the anchor points for it as the aircraft I'm doing (P7974) had the VHF set fitted. Should get some more green on it this morning and hopefully with some better light a couple of better snaps! Edited October 18, 2018 by Smithy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tempestwulf Posted October 18, 2018 Share Posted October 18, 2018 Looking great so far Smithy. My favourite kit and have 7 in my cabinet at the moment. Recently built Alan Deere's Kiwi II with this kit. It's my mojo/relax build kit. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 18, 2018 Author Share Posted October 18, 2018 (edited) 9 minutes ago, Tempestwulf said: Looking great so far Smithy. My favourite kit and have 7 in my cabinet at the moment. Recently built Alan Deere's Kiwi II with this kit. It's my mojo/relax build kit. Thanks Tempestwulf. It really is a cracking wee kit and I've found that I'm planning a whole number of future builds using it, which seems to me to be a great sign of its appeal. I've got another one in the stash but think I'm going to have to buy a few more! Edited October 18, 2018 by Smithy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 A little bit of progress last night and this morning... I did another coat of dark green and tidied up some of the the dark earth in places. This morning I masked the fuselage band and put the first light coat of thinned Sky down. Judging from progress she'll probably need another couple of coats which I hope to get done today and next step will be a nice coat of Pledge in anticipation of decals. All up I'm pretty pleased with things thus far. I'll put up some details about the aircraft and pilot in question when I get a free moment. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 (edited) Nice work - good call on painting on the white band on the fuselage - it’s an awful decal to try and put on properly. The end result looks so much better too. Edited October 19, 2018 by Kitchen Modeller 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 2 minutes ago, Kitchen Modeller said: Nice work - good call on painting on the white band on the fuselage - it’s an awful decal to try and put on properly. The end result looks so much better too. I know exactly what you mean! Often the colour register for the Sky band is awful too. I did a Spit Vb earlier this year with the Tamiya kit and the kit supplied decal was the most appalling colour and was a complete mismatch for the Sky code letters I was using. I ended up painting over the top of it. It's a bit of a kerfuffle masking the band but like you I think it's worth it. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 (edited) Well I've put another coat of Sky on the fuselage band but no photo as it looks much the same but in the meantime a bit of background about the aircraft I’m modelling and the chap who flew her… I’m doing my Spit as P7974 of 485(NZ) Sqn. 485 was established on 1st March 1941 under Article XV of the Empire Training Scheme as a New Zealand manned unit and equipped with Spitfires. Their initial Spitfire Is began to be replaced with IIs on the 1st June 1941 and my model is meant to depict one of 485’s IIas in the summer of 1941 and flown primarily by Athol Gordon McIntyre. McIntyre was a Battle of Britain veteran having flown Hurricanes with 111 Sqn whom he had 1 victory with, a Do17 destroyed on 13th August. He was born in Auckland (my old stamping ground) and was educated as a boarder at New Plymouth Boys High School where he excelled academically and on the sporting fields and eventually became head boy. McIntyre was one of the founding members of 485 and went on to a number of different postings throughout the war, ending on Tempests. Surviving the war he stayed with the RAF until 1959 after which he worked for Rolls-Royce ending up as the Military Representative of their Aero Division. He remained in England, settling in Cornwall where he passed away in December 2011. And here is Athol (third from the left) with some of the other first members of 485 at Driffield. If you're into RAF flying kit, this is also a great image of early war British flying clothing. Tomorrow I'll do a final Sky coat on the fuselage band and then I'll leave the kit for a couple of days for the enamels to cure before going to town with the Pledge floor polish Edited October 19, 2018 by Smithy 7 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 19, 2018 Share Posted October 19, 2018 (edited) Great work so far. Great piece of History, Thanks for posting that. Edited October 19, 2018 by Corsairfoxfouruncle 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 Many thanks Corsair! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 19, 2018 Author Share Posted October 19, 2018 The joys of a Friday evening. The kids are tucked up in bed fast asleep, no work tomorrow so I managed to do a little more work on the Spit. Last yellow coat for the prop tips, painted a coat of Sky on the outside of the undercarriage doors and did some work on the exhaust stubs. I'd painted these with Humbrol 113 Rust and then drybrushed with some gunmetal. I'm thinking I'll drybrush a little more 113 and then some very light aluminium and follow it with a dark wash. Here they are - a million times magnified from their actual itty-bitty 1/72 size! The colours are a tad dark but the lighting is not the best in the pic. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 20, 2018 Share Posted October 20, 2018 Great work on the exhaust - I have yet to settle on the best way to do these - I really like what you've done here - only thing is I don't use Humbrol enamels - I'm sure there's a tamiya acrylic equivalent so will have a look out for that. Thanks for posting the info on the pilot - I'm from Ireland originally but live in NZ now - New Zealand has a great aviation history doesn't it... lots of rich subjects for modelling... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 20, 2018 Author Share Posted October 20, 2018 8 hours ago, Kitchen Modeller said: Great work on the exhaust - I have yet to settle on the best way to do these - I really like what you've done here - only thing is I don't use Humbrol enamels - I'm sure there's a tamiya acrylic equivalent so will have a look out for that. Thanks for posting the info on the pilot - I'm from Ireland originally but live in NZ now - New Zealand has a great aviation history doesn't it... lots of rich subjects for modelling... Hi KM, I'm a Kiwi although I now live on the exact opposite side of the world. NZ has a very rich aviation history so plenty of subjects to keep us busy. And here's a little known fact, NZ produced more fighter aces per capita than any other nation in WWII 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 (edited) Bit of an update. Finished painting the fuselage band over the weekend and just this morning put on the first coat of Pledge Extra Protection Wax (what Multi Surface is sold as here in Scandinavia and on the Continent). I'll plonk another coat on tonight so hopefully will have some stickers on her on Wednesday once the Pledge has cured. I won't win any photography awards with the pic but it shows where we're at... The photo is picking up a bit of a gap under the front left of the canopy which in the flesh is hardly noticeable, so I'll blame the cynical eye of the lens on that Edited October 22, 2018 by Smithy 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 22, 2018 Share Posted October 22, 2018 Looking good smithy! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 22, 2018 Author Share Posted October 22, 2018 Thanks mate! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 23, 2018 Author Share Posted October 23, 2018 Started decalling the old girl tonight but only made it as far as putting all the stencils on the undersides, 17 of the things in total plus an aircraft letter on the underside of the cowling. Didn't bother to take a snap as it's not very colourful. Tomorrow I should get some roundels and other more interesting bits and bobs on so I'll endeavour to post a snap tomorrow. This is the first Airfix kit I've done since about 2004ish and I'm very impressed thus far with the decals, they've gone on beautifully well and surprisingly without the usual hassle and huge amounts of swearing that I usually do when doing teensy-weensy 1/72 stencil work. Top marks to Airfix so far for the stickers. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 Yep the decals are one of the best things about Airfix kits - they’re always spot on. When I did my first Tamiya kit I was really surprised how terrible the decals were in comparison to the much cheaper Airfix ones. Looking forward to seeing the new pics!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 1 hour ago, Kitchen Modeller said: Yep the decals are one of the best things about Airfix kits - they’re always spot on. When I did my first Tamiya kit I was really surprised how terrible the decals were in comparison to the much cheaper Airfix ones. Looking forward to seeing the new pics!! Tamiya decals are generally sub par, too thick and prone to silvering with me no matter what I do. I did Tamiya's 1/72 Spit Vb earlier this year and this pic of it is a good example. I used a combination of the the kit (Tamiya) decals, DK Decals and Carpena. Not a trace of silvering on the DK or Carpena ones but the Tamiya decals? Bloody silvering! 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 24, 2018 Share Posted October 24, 2018 I read somewhere that if you use Tamiya super softener decal solution, their decals work better... but still. They are pretty woeful. Doesn’t seem to be the case in all of their kits but when they’re bad, they really bad. All that said, that’s a very nice spitfire smithy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 24, 2018 Author Share Posted October 24, 2018 Thanks KM. The kit has some inaccuracies shape-wise but it's an easy, nice build. The Tamiya 1/48 Spit Ia I build back in 2010 or so had better decals, the codes went on well but there was still some silvering on the wing walkway stripes and the fin flash... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted October 25, 2018 Author Share Posted October 25, 2018 Stickers! Well she's starting to look like a 485 Spit now with codes and a few others stuck on. For a single seat WWII fighter there's a lot of decalling to do, around 40 odd in total I think. I've done about 20 so far (mostly on the underside) so about half way 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kitchen Modeller Posted October 25, 2018 Share Posted October 25, 2018 Ah decals - such a fun job. Long and tedious with the constant impending feeling of imminent disaster. But nearly always worth the effort - they always look so much better when dressed in their colours. She’s coming together nicely mate... did you acquire specific decals for the plane you’re building? (485 squadron) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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