opus999 Posted September 21, 2019 Share Posted September 21, 2019 This next build will be a "two-fer". I'd planned to do the Mk. IXe for a while, but figured I'd do the XVIe at the same time because it seems like it would be much less than twice the work. If that makes sense.... The Mk. IXe will be the mount of Rolf A. Berg, a Norwegian ace in WWII, flying for the RAF. Being part Norwegian, I wanted to have a collection of all the fighters flown by Norway in WWII to modern times and figured Berg's Spitfire was a good starting point. IMHO, his Spitfire looks fantastic because he painted the pre-war Norwegian markings on the wings and tail. He ran afoul of RAF command because of it and eventually had to remove them. Berg had 7 victories and in a sad twist of fate, lost his life crashing into a barn after being hit by ground fire on a mission he volunteered for, taking place the morning of the day that he was supposed to be discharged. The Mk. IXe will come from this kit: The Mk. XVIe part of this build is part of my desire to make a model of each "major" Spitfire mark. So, for me that would be: I, V, VI, VIII, IX, XII, XIV, 21 and 22. I have kits for all but the XII and 22. I have already completed a Mk. Vc (Jan Zumbach) and a Mk. IXc (Garth Jared). Notice that the XVI actually doesn't appear on my wish list above. That's because AFAIK, the IX and XVI are virtually indistinguishable on the outside (Please correct me if I'm wrong... I'm still learning!). I thought that the presence of a bubbletop would be the feature to identify a XVI, but I've read that some late IX's had bubbletops and some XVIs had the regular canopy. Since I wanted to do a bubbletop, and needed another IX to do a different project, I picked up this kit: Which is where my XVIe bubbletop will come from. Here is the obligatory parts trees shot: I actually got started on this last weekend when waiting for parts on my P-40 to dry. I ordered the Hataka RAF paint set for this build and did some preliminary painting last weekend: I did a wash on these parts at the same time I was doing a wash on some of the external parts of my P-40M, but that's as far as I've gotten. @Corsairfoxfouruncle, this is my next project! 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 22, 2019 Author Share Posted September 22, 2019 Put the cockpits together yesterday. I did an Eduard Mk.IXc so I kind of knew what to expect. But I don't remember it taking as long as it did! Just doing assembly took about an hour for each cockpit. Lots of little fiddly bits. Plus, these kits came with PE parts and the Mk.IXc didn't, so there was a lot of time involved getting those cut out and glued on without losing them (which happened to one part). I was really torn about whether I should mess with the PE parts because the opening in the fuselage is so small that, with the canopy closed, I doubt anyone will be able to see them. It might be worth it if I made these with open canopies, but I'm generally not a fan of that. Still they make great photos! There are slight differences between the bubbletop and the... uh... "not-bubbletop" (not sure what to call it). Here's the bubbletop cockpit: And the other: Here's what I accomplished yesterday in one shot: 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 27, 2019 Author Share Posted September 27, 2019 So a bit of a recap of the week. Not a whole lot was done, but I may be able to get to the painting stage today Sunday I glued the fuselage halves together. It generally went well, except that on the XVI, one half slipped while it was drying so that the panel lines are slightly mis-matched on top. A minor thing, but something I thought I'd overcome. Ah, well... I also glued on the engine cover, which is in two halves. I have no idea how anyone could glue those on with out a step between the two halves. I dry-fit for 15 minutes and thought I could get it in place so there was only a minor step... but a step nonetheless. The IX turned out the best with only a minor step but the XVI's step wasn't great. I certainly didn't want to take it off and try again because I've found that never goes well, so out came the sanding sticks. It seems a shame because there is such exquisite, fine detail that any amount of sanding will make it disappear. On the bright side, however, that detail is so fine and shallow that it doesn't take wash and can only be seen in extreme close-up on the finished product (this is my experience from the Eduard Mk IXc I did) so I don't think anyone will notice the missing rivets on the top of the engine cover. Still... it seems like a shame. So by monday night the fuselages were together and sanded: Tuesday I only had enough time to put the landing gear bay parts on. It amazes me that Eduard's part trees have several versions of many of the parts because those parts are different between the various marks. And yet, I compare these parts and the difference is sometime hard to find because it is so minor. Which goes to show how much research and detail they put into these kits. I like that a lot! So, here's where I was at tuesday night: Close up of all the little bits that had to go together to make a landing gear bay: Wednesday night was too busy, but I had time last night to glue the wings on. First I painted the wheel wells the under side color. I probably could've painted them at the same time as the rest of the underside, but I wanted to make sure I got paint in all the nooks and crannies while the wings were still apart. Now, I don't remember having any trouble putting the wings on the IXc fuselage, but I do remember they were awfully tight. Maybe I blocked out how much trouble it was because when I went to put the wings on last night, this happened: I'm guessing that's about a millimeter of overlap? It was the same on the other side as well. My experience with the Eduard MiG-15 was that it was so engineered that there was little to no tolerance built in and a layer of paint or glue could cause the fuselage to not fit together. So, I was very careful to make sure that everything in the cockpit and fuselage fit together tight. I inspected it again last night and really couldn't see a cause for such an overlap. So, out came the sanding sticks again! I was able to sand enough off the wing roots to get a tight fit so that there were no gaps to deal with. But I split some fuselage seams in the process and had to fix those. It took a lot longer than I thought it would and I gave up at midnight even though I wasn't completely finished with the Mk. IX yet. Here's where I'm at: I still have to glue the panels under the engine of the IX on, then sand the seams on those parts on both aircraft. After that I should be able to get the ailerons, wingtips and rudders on in short order. Masking the cockpit will take a little time, but after that I should be able to paint... More to come as events warrant.... 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Nice to see you doing Berg's PV181 😉 If you are very keen, volume 6 of Cato Guhnfeldt's incredible "Spitfire Saga" (his 7 volume history of 331 and 332 during the war) has a lot of photos and operational details about PV181. It's obviously mostly in Norwegian but chapter summaries and photo captions are also given in English. Looking forward to watching these builds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 27, 2019 Author Share Posted September 27, 2019 1 minute ago, Smithy said: Nice to see you doing Berg's PV181 😉 If you are very keen, volume 6 of Cato Guhnfeldt's incredible "Spitfire Saga" (his 7 volume history of 331 and 332 during the war) has a lot of photos and operational details about PV181. It's obviously mostly in Norwegian but chapter summaries and photo captions are also given in English. Looking forward to watching these builds. Heldigvis, kan jeg leser norsk (Bokmål)! I'll have to check that out -- thanks for the tip! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smithy Posted September 27, 2019 Share Posted September 27, 2019 Ingen problem og kos deg i helga med Spit'en! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 (edited) They're starting to look like Spitfires! Had a little trouble with the cockpit doors on the port sides. Had to do some trimming to get them to look right because they stuck out way too far. Plus, the doors stuck up so that the canopy wouldn't fit right, so a little trimming was in order, but everything fits as it should now. Besides the wing tips and canopies, the only thing different between the IX and XVI are the elevators: Kids are home from school now, so no more work until late tonight after bedtime... Edited September 28, 2019 by opus999 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 Had a little time before bed last night so I masked: And built the radiator boxes under the wings: Despite how well this kit fits together, it takes a lot of time to do each step. Those boxes were 6 pieces each and each piece was small and hard to handle. So, all told it took 45 minutes to an hour to get them both together. Despite being straightforward. I'm not complaining, but just acknowledging that my estimates are way, way off. I thought it wouldn't be much of a stretch to get it primered last night at the least, but I guess not... Something new for me is photoetched parts. My only experience with PE was on a Hasegawa Mi-24 when I was in High School -- it had PE windshield wipers and I stuck them on with Testors tube model glue, which crazed the canopy. After that, when I dusted my models (being in a desert the dust collects in our houses like you wouldn't believe) the windshield wipers would always get caught and bent or pulled off. These Spitfires came with extensive PE sets and I thought I'd give it a good shot to see how it turned out. My experience so far has been a definite "meh". All but a couple of PE parts in the cockpit aren't visible, but those that are look good. Which means I need to think carefully about what can and can't be seen before investing time in it I used lacquer on the PE parts, but it's no surprise that it scratches off very easily. Which actually adds an element of realism in the cockpit because it tends to wear and chip off the edges of things. I glue the PE on with a small spot of CA, but have found the parts come off awfully easily, so I need to be extra careful when handling. My biggest problem so far is I can't bend the parts well for the life of me! The tools I have that are small enough to handle and bend the PE are not strong enough and the tools that are strong enough are not small enough. I've mangled -- and thrown away -- 2 or 3 parts so far. Any insight folks have would be helpful! (Admittedly, I haven't done any reading on the internet on this topic b/c of time constraints. Well, and the fact that I don't remember to do it unless I'm in bed, in the shower, or driving to work! ) All of that aside, I have to say that the PE seatbelts are some of the nicest looking aftermarket parts available! In fact, I plan to order some for my upcoming builds. I made some by myself for the F2H-3 and they looked OK and I forgot to make some for the F-80 and P-40M, which I really regret now. I have no idea if I will get any time at the bench today. My wife is out of town and my boys have busy schedules all day (birthdays, school functions, etc.) so I get to play "Taxi" most of the day. 🤨 Kinda wish 7-year-olds could drive. 🤣 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 14 minutes ago, opus999 said: I glue the PE on with a small spot of CA, but have found the parts come off awfully easily, Do you use liquid C/A ? If so try one of the gel types it may stick better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 28, 2019 Author Share Posted September 28, 2019 3 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said: Do you use liquid C/A ? If so try one of the gel types it may stick better. On the PE parts I use the gel. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted September 28, 2019 Share Posted September 28, 2019 Hmmm I don't normally have that issue with gel c/a ? Hopefully you can sort that out. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 29, 2019 Author Share Posted September 29, 2019 Had only enough time last night to primer. My usual potion of decanted Mr. Surfacer 1500 black with a few drops of Mr. Color leveling thinner. This morning I got the marble coat for the green sprayed on. I started with Hataka RAF dark green, then did areas with Mr. Color FS34102 and Mr. Color RAF Dark earth for some varying tone. Then I put a little Mr. Color FS36495 on areas where you might expect some fading. The close up pictures make the light gray fading look a little extreme because of the flash, but I was actually very subtle with this. Now I'm off to spray the green top coat on. I'd hoped to get the two-tone camouflage on today, but it's beginning to look like that won't happen since the day is fading fast and still lots of chores to do before work tomorrow... Updates as events warrant! 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 29, 2019 Author Share Posted September 29, 2019 Green is on.... 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 30, 2019 Author Share Posted September 30, 2019 A little blu-tack and Tamiya tape masking... Spray some decanted Mr. Surfacer 1500 Black.... Apply some marbling (Mr. Color RAF Light Sea Gray with Mr. Color Aircraft gray for fading and Mr. Color RAF Dark Earth for tonal variation).... and ta-da! So, not as far as I wanted to get, but farther than I thought I would this morning. Still have to do the bottom on this one. The other one (bubbletop) is waiting for gray still. Gotta say, I really like these Hataka paints. They are easy to use and have a nice finish. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vlad Posted September 30, 2019 Share Posted September 30, 2019 Excellent work! I recently bought one of those Longest Day dual combos and was watching your cockpit build-up with great interest to see what to expect. I've built Eduard before, PE and all, but not a Spitfire and their cockpits are always fiddly. How is the fit of the painted parts? I'm terrified of painting cockpit parts on the sprue like you've done (and like most people seem to do) because usually the paint stops them fitting together properly, especially on something so cramped and multi-part as a Spitfire. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted September 30, 2019 Author Share Posted September 30, 2019 3 hours ago, Vlad said: Excellent work! I recently bought one of those Longest Day dual combos and was watching your cockpit build-up with great interest to see what to expect. I've built Eduard before, PE and all, but not a Spitfire and their cockpits are always fiddly. How is the fit of the painted parts? I'm terrified of painting cockpit parts on the sprue like you've done (and like most people seem to do) because usually the paint stops them fitting together properly, especially on something so cramped and multi-part as a Spitfire. Thank you! I tried very hard to make sure that the gluing surfaces were clean by sanding or using an exacto knife to shave off and the fuselage(s) went together fine. But as you can see in post #3 I had some terrible overlap at the wing root. I'm not entirely convinced that my cockpit assembly caused it, but I have a hard time believing that Eduard could make such an error. In other words, I wouldn't be surprised if it was something I did, I just don't know what. On the bright side, it was very easy to fix with some careful sanding of the wing root on both sides with a sanding stick. I just sanded a little and dry fit, and repeated this process until I could fit the wing on the fuselage tightly. This minimized the gap between wing and fuselage. The sanding stick helped me keep the wing root seam straight. After it has been assembled and painted, I can't see any defects in that seam. I don't recall this problem on another Eduard Spitfire I made, but I may have forgotten. I remember the fit being extremely tight. The only other thing to look out for is the fit of the two halves of the engine cover. They are finely engineered, but I don't think mortal man can glue them so they're completely flush. Everything else on this kit fits like a dream. Despite these couple of issues, I still would recommend this kit over dozens of others. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 4, 2019 Author Share Posted October 4, 2019 Had just enough time over the week to get the Bubbletop masked and set to painting it last night: After that, I masked the Mk. IX to paint the bottom and did the marble coat: I painted the bottom and then this morning masked for the invasion stripes. I first masked the outlines, Which I painted black, using decanted Mr. Color 1500 Black, Then carefully masked for the white stripes, though I didn't use white because I thought it would be too stark. I instead used Mr. Color Aircraft Gray, which is really an off-white. I'd hoped to get the bottom of the bubbletop painted, but it looks like that's not in the cards today because the stripe masking took so long! There were many protrusions and bumps to mask around, which took plenty of time. Heading out of town for the weekend, so I won't get to the Bubbletop bottom until Sunday night. I hope to also get the yellow identification bands and the sky band on the Mk.IX done Sunday night as well, but that may be a stretch. 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Procopius Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 I'm surprised you did the black first, but it certainly looks very nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Duvalier Posted October 5, 2019 Share Posted October 5, 2019 Those Eduard Spits are splendid little kits. I also found it took longer than expected to assemble such nicely fitting parts, but ultimately it went together smashingly well. Your paint jobs are better than mine, one day maybe I'll muster the patience to mask rather than freehand the camouflage. Did you lose much of the rivet detail to painting and sanding? I chose to use most of the etch, a couple of the subminiature bits on the bottom got FUBARed (doubt anyone will ever notice) and the radiator faces were too wide by a small fraction of a millimeter but given the absurd precision of the plastic parts' fit, they had to be very very carefully sanded down to fit. One caveat as you head into the home stretch: be very careful affixing the clear dome atop the spine. You only get one, they're hard to hold onto, and the fit is tight tight tight. I'm presently attempting to build up a replacement with drops of clear acrylic gel. 😒 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 7, 2019 Author Share Posted October 7, 2019 On 10/4/2019 at 7:00 PM, Procopius said: it certainly looks very nice. Thanks! I like it quite a bit too. On 10/4/2019 at 7:00 PM, Procopius said: I'm surprised you did the black first How come? Frankly, I didn't really put any thought into which color I put on first. I think I just reached for the black first like a robot because that's my habit. 🙂 On 10/4/2019 at 10:42 PM, Jackson Duvalier said: Did you lose much of the rivet detail to painting and sanding? Sanding yes, painting no. The sanding was a bit of a painful affair because I knew those delicate rivets would disappear, and I was swearing at myself for not being able to get those engine covers on flush -- though really I can't see how it would be possible. The Hataka paints, like any lacquer, go on so thin with an airbrush that those rivets are still quite visible, even on the white stripes which have 4 coats on them! On 10/4/2019 at 10:42 PM, Jackson Duvalier said: radiator faces were too wide by a small fraction of a millimeter but given the absurd precision of the plastic parts' fit, they had to be very very carefully sanded down to fit. Oh my gosh! I forgot to mention that in my posts. I discovered that too, and ended up trimming some off the ends as well. That was an unpleasant surprise. On 10/4/2019 at 10:42 PM, Jackson Duvalier said: One caveat as you head into the home stretch: be very careful affixing the clear dome atop the spine. You only get one, they're hard to hold onto, and the fit is tight tight tight. I'm presently attempting to build up a replacement with drops of clear acrylic gel. 😒 Thanks for the heads-up! I hope your replacement comes out OK. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Corsairfoxfouruncle Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 On 10/5/2019 at 12:42 AM, Jackson Duvalier said: One caveat as you head into the home stretch: be very careful affixing the clear dome atop the spine. You only get one, they're hard to hold onto, and the fit is tight tight tight. I'm presently attempting to build up a replacement with drops of clear acrylic gel. 😒 Try using a toothpick with some blue tac or something similar to hold the clear pieces when glueing. You can leave the tack on until the glue is dry then peel it off. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 7, 2019 Share Posted October 7, 2019 3 hours ago, opus999 said: How come? Frankly, I didn't really put any thought into which color I put on first. Its become an accepted norm for many modelers, lighter colours first & darker last to get better coverage, in your case, your white has performed very well & covered most adequately, though with some paint, this may not have been the case. I can understand where @Procopius was coming from in this instance. Steve. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
opus999 Posted October 8, 2019 Author Share Posted October 8, 2019 19 hours ago, stevehnz said: Its become an accepted norm for many modelers, lighter colours first & darker last to get better coverage, in your case, your white has performed very well & covered most adequately, though with some paint, this may not have been the case. I can understand where @Procopius was coming from in this instance. Steve. Ah, I see. Good point! I guess I could put a little more thought into these things, but sometimes when I have limited time at the bench I tend to fall into habits (good or bad), which now that I think about it, may have actually wasted some time... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jackson Duvalier Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 22 hours ago, stevehnz said: Its become an accepted norm for many modelers, lighter colours first & darker last to get better coverage, in your case, your white has performed very well & covered most adequately, though with some paint, this may not have been the case. I can understand where @Procopius was coming from in this instance. Modern paints work well enough that I've tossed that old rulebook. Seems to make more sense to add paint layers in the same sequence as the 12"/1' prototype. But then again most of us aren't applying red, white, and yellow hobby enamels with a plastic brush anymore, praise be to God. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stevehnz Posted October 8, 2019 Share Posted October 8, 2019 1 hour ago, Jackson Duvalier said: But then again most of us aren't applying red, white, and yellow hobby enamels with a plastic brush anymore, praise be to God. Some of us still do, though I have graduated to wooden handles. Steve. 1 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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