Dennis_C Posted July 12, 2020 Author Share Posted July 12, 2020 Painting started! And in several minutes Next would be priming of the airframes as well as some external bits. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted August 2, 2020 Author Share Posted August 2, 2020 (edited) Hi, A little progress after vacation time (out of the country surprisingly for me in this unusual year). Priming of all three Spits and miscellaneous parts is complete: This is one of my favourite construction stages when the models look very clean and "sculptural". You clearly see the aircraft shapes! Next would be some painting with black, silver, white, red and then to the camo colours. Dennis Edited August 2, 2020 by Dennis_C 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted September 6, 2020 Author Share Posted September 6, 2020 Hi All, Not been posting here for a while. Some distraction caused by parallel projects and more importantly by some unrest going on here in Belarus recently. Painting is moving slowly forward. Painted mk.ix and mk.xix spinners white and mk.ix's red. Mk.IX propeller is fully painted now: Painted black the forward fuselage of mk.xix and played with some very basic pre-shading. I'll see how it works to make a difference to otherwise MSG and PRU blue surfaces. Today done first of the camouflage colours - sky for mk.I. I used Vallejo 71.009 Duck Egg Blue which should work okay with Hobby Color top side RAF paints. All for now. Kind regards, Dennis 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted October 24, 2020 Author Share Posted October 24, 2020 Hi all, Some more painting progress achieved. Mk.I is covered by gloss finish today and ready for decalling!!! Hobby Colour 72 and 73 are used for the top side. Mk.XIX is also waiting for gloss finish. Mk.IX is a bit behind as top side still to be painted. Dennis 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 24, 2020 Share Posted October 24, 2020 Looking good in some camouflage Dennis, great work Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted October 28, 2020 Author Share Posted October 28, 2020 Decals applied I did not use Tamiya kit decals. Firstly because I wanted a different aircraft, not the DWoO that is featured so often in RFIs. Secondly I was suspicious about thickness of Tamiya stencilling. So codes and serials are coming from Xtradecal BoB Spitfire sheet and roundels with all the stencilling is from KitsWorld set for BoB spits and hurricanes. I did not like xtradecal roundels because of too brownish red. At the same time kitsworld decals worked outstandingly, being thin and elastic creating zero cracks or silvering. Prototype that I chose is PRoJ flown by flight lieutenant Frank J Howell of 609th squadron. There are quite a lot of information about Frank Howell's career in the web as well as his close up photo in PRoJ showing four kill marks and some strange yellow shape on the port side of his Spit (xtradecal sheet contains both decals but does not mention on the instruction...) Other job done before I took shots is correcting red covers (sky leaked under the mask in some places), painting gun barrels and future'ing canopy. Next is panel lines, weathering, and final assembly before matt coat. Dennis 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted October 28, 2020 Share Posted October 28, 2020 Looks great with the decals on . Cracking job Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted October 29, 2020 Author Share Posted October 29, 2020 Wheels, exhausts, aerial mast, pitot on! Some light weathering and panel lines highlighting is done too. Also do not forget wearing mask before getting final finish! Couple touches with wash and some paints remaining. And then aerial after final coat. Dennis 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 1, 2020 Author Share Posted November 1, 2020 First of the three is finished!!! A quick shot now, full photosession to be made as soon as we have a sunny day here Tamiya Spitfire is a very easy model that gives you a great result with not much work and little aftermarket really needed. The main drawback is a canopy with high distortion but otherwise no real problems. Dennis 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 1, 2020 Share Posted November 1, 2020 Hi Dennis Looks lovely, great work. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 2, 2020 Author Share Posted November 2, 2020 Link to RFI for my Mk.I Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 6, 2020 Author Share Posted November 6, 2020 (edited) Hi all, Following up @keith in the uk comments on RFI thread on mk.I, I did several comparative shots of Xtradecal sheet that I had for BoB. First is comparison versus completed model and KitsWorld decal This actually confirms too dark blue on kitsworld sheet. Second point - maybe this brick colour of Xtradecal roundels could work okay on a model. Still it is more red than Dark Earth so there would have been some contrast. Next is comparison of two Xtradecal sheets. Left is a Hurricane sheet intended among other things for some aircraft that flew in summer 1940. Right is Xtradecal for BoB Spits. The last one is comparison to Cartograf-printed decals included in Eduard's mk.IX kit. Cartograf is above. Their red is a bit too dark to my taste but still it is more red than Xtradecal one. Other RAF WWII roundels that I have are even more inclined towards red. Honestly I do not know what should be the conclusion. Whose red is the best? Perhaps what matters - all roundel reds and blues in a collection should be at least more or less similar so that nothing jumps out and aircraft look to be from the same airforce. Cheers, Dennis Edited November 6, 2020 by Dennis_C 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
2996 Victor Posted November 6, 2020 Share Posted November 6, 2020 Hi Dennis, While I can't confirm the "correct" shades of roundel red and blue, with regard to the Hurricane I understand that (some) Gloster-built examples were turned out with their national markings in brighter shades of red and blue that have been referred to as pre-War. So maybe the muddy red and darker blue are correct? Excellent Mk.I, by the way Kind regards, Mark 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 Mk.XIX is sprayed with gloss finish. Next one rolling to the decalling workshop. This will be a well known PS852 as stationed in Hong Kong. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 8, 2020 Share Posted November 8, 2020 Looks lovely in this scheme, great work Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 8, 2020 Author Share Posted November 8, 2020 1 hour ago, bigbadbadge said: Looks lovely in this scheme, great work Chris Thanks! Always liked this scheme. Quite unique and I think it fits Spit very well. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 18, 2020 Author Share Posted November 18, 2020 (edited) Decalling job is done. Decals are from KitsWorld PR.XIX set for stencils and letter codes. Roundels are from the kit. The blue in Kitsworld set was too light. Like Finnish flag blue. And also oversized with 48" wing roundels being 19 mm instead of 17 mm in diameter. Airfix decals' blue is slightly purplish but roundels are spot on size-wise and colours compare fine with roundels of other post-war RAF aircraft I have. Kitsworld decals worked excellently again. Airfix is cranky being brittle when you try to make them into panel lines. So no surprises basically. Edited November 18, 2020 by Dennis_C 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 18, 2020 Share Posted November 18, 2020 Looking good with the decals on Dennis. Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted November 19, 2020 Author Share Posted November 19, 2020 Masking job in progress on mk.IX as well. Hope to end tomorrow and spray dark green on weekend. Cheers! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 A quick update. Good progress on finishing Eduard's mk.ix. painted, finished with Tamiya clear, decals applied. Decals are a mix of Eduard's native stencils and Sky Decals for Israeli roundels, codes, squadron badge and rudder stripes. Eduard's decals worked excellently. Thin, elastic, did not curl at all. None was lost or destroyed. The only problem is that the smallest letters are not really printed well so 'JACK HERE' or 'ELECTRICAL' lettering are useless. Sky Decals worked fine too. However rudder stripes is something I will paint in the future probably. The decals had excessive size so removal of edges was painful. Also they were not really elastic so completely broke out on hinges leading to pretty disastrous collapse of the whole decal on the starboard. All returned back but some touches with brush will be needed to fix the created problems 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted December 12, 2020 Author Share Posted December 12, 2020 Another update - mk XIX is finished some time ago already. I managed a photosession thanks to some sunny days last week. Need to complete an article now to post into RFI. Couple shots as a teaser More to come in RFI 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted December 12, 2020 Share Posted December 12, 2020 Great work Dennis, they look fantastic. Chris 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted December 21, 2020 Author Share Posted December 21, 2020 (edited) Posted my Spitfire mk.XIX to RFI today: Also I thought it might be interesting to see a cost summary for the project. I did not go crazy calculating paints costs and depreciation of my table and chair. Just added up what I bought for each three kits. All prices are in £. Spitfire Mk.I Tamiya kit: 12.10 extras: 3.67 (PE fret) two decal sets: 12.91 TOTAL: £28.68 (£15.77 without aftermarket decals) Spitfire Mk.XI Eduard kit: 12.49 extras: 6.25 (exhausts, barrels) Sky's Decal decal for early IDF fighters: 16.25 TOTAL: £34.99 (£18.74 without aftermarket decals) Spitfire PR.XIX Airfix kit: 11.69 extras: 24.90 (PE fret, canopy, exhausts, resin control surfaces) KitsWorld decal: 8.5 TOTAL: £45.09 Something to highlight - Tamiya and Eduard kits already provide nice decals, while with Airfix offering stencil's are really missing and should be sought on the aftermarket. As a result Tamiya and Eduard without decals pass below 20 quid while Airfix turned two times more expensive. And even at that cost I reused undercarriage and wheels from Eduard kit! Cheapest (not so much) kit is not always the cheapest Kind regards, Dennis Edited December 21, 2020 by Dennis_C 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted December 21, 2020 Share Posted December 21, 2020 Interesting comparison Dennis and great work they looks wonderful. Chris 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dennis_C Posted December 22, 2020 Author Share Posted December 22, 2020 (edited) Hi folks! Project is done! Very engaging project, learnt a lot about Spitfire development history, technical changes over time. Fortunately there is a lot of information on Spitfires. My main sources of information were the book on the photo below, The Spitfire Site (spitfiresite.com), and of course this forum. I always thought it is not very interesting to build several models of the same aircraft. However with Spitfire it is not the case!!! Perhaps this is because of strong evolution of the model over time, varied purposes and operational theaters with extra mods and different camo types, varied users. And after all there are many-many heroic pages written by the pilots of this aircraft. It was not a sunny day today. So I just took a few group shots turning camera settings on maximum. Will do a dedicated photosession for LF.IXe when the weather is a little bit better. What is next? At some point I will probably get back to Spitfires - at least five are in my mind already: mk.V with tropical filter, HF version with pointed wing - probably an HF.VIII, low-back merlin or griffon version maybe in non-RAF markings, an early Seafire and a late FR.47 Seafire for Korea conflict. Also the idea of mini-group builds of several (at least three) aircraft of the same type is quite fascinating too. I'm now thinking about Phantoms, Bell 204/205/212/412 choppers and Mustangs. Dennis. Edited December 22, 2020 by Dennis_C 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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