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One Spitfire in a year!


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Well, last year was a bit of a disappointment from the modelling completions point of view.  One!  I ask you, was I really even trying?  There were several other models started but none reached completion in the calendar year.

However I did buy the new Airfix Mark XIV a couple of its weeks after it came out, and built it within a month or so.  I just didn't get around to photographing the plane before.  Its come out very nicely,  a sensible prop (which works) and robust undercarriage mountings, nice decals with just a reasonable number of stencils, and no real complexity.  It was well received in the club and got a couple of certificates.

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Once I'd glossed over the decals, I decided I rather liked the glossy warbird look, so I chose not to satin varnish. 

 

I'd have a couple of criticisms about the kit, though I'd happily build another, if only I didn't have so many Spits waiting in the queue / stash!  The trailing edges are rather thick as two edges meet; the fuel tank armour - to scale it would be only need a thin layer of tape to achieve at 1/48, I found it hard to get the part to fit consistently with even overlap and there are also gaps which i used some sheet card to fill.  The exhausts seem too thick to fit under the cowling blisters afterwards, if set into the fuselage correctly (as per instructions) - its support needs a lot of trimming to fit (this is a similar problem I have had with Eduard VIII, IX and XVI, as its easy to pop the top cowling off those too when adding the exhausts).

 

Cheers

Will

Edited by malpaso
Grammar!
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3 minutes ago, Hobo said:

A very good looking Spitfire with beautiful airbrushing. Did you use masks for the camo? What paint did you use?

Thanks for all the compliments.  Paints are all Tamiya thinned with windscreen wash.  Masking is my usual blu-tak sausages (technically its Poundland white-tack on this occasion).  In the past I've infilled between the sausages with Copydex latex adhesive, but sometimes that's given a slight colour reaction particularly on the grey underside, so this time I used masking tape, a right old mix of 3M, hardware store, Tamiya and tamiya-like-copy!

 

I always wash the kit before starting, some say its unnecessary but i suppose its a sort of Zen process taking me back to the glory days of Airfix and Matchbox, the latters kits in particular objected to paint back in the day (for me).  I would point out that masking tape doesn't pull off earlier paint as others sometimes find so maybe there is method in the madness.  Primed first with Halfords grey and finished with two brushed coats of Klear, decalled then a final coat of Klear.  

 

I've tried airbrushing Klear (bought from local supermarket at least 5 years ago, two thirds of the bottle left!), but found it hard to get it on evenly without runs.  Brushing is much more successful, especially as it dries in an hour or so sufficiently to turn over and do the underside.  

 

When I do a matt or satin finish I would airbrush on a couple of coats of Galleria varnishes.  While they both give good finish, the Matt particularly has an air of tackiness for several days before I feel confident to handle the model safely.

 

Hope these notes help.  This is one of the best airbrush jobs I've done and it's been at least three years getting to this sort of finish standard.  Practice is the main thing, and experimenting to get the thinning right!

 

Cheers 

Will

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Very attractive Spitfire! It's got a warbird-like air about it, well maintained and polished, which I really like – that's how we see Spitfires these days, after all.

 

And I do like to see those drooped elevators… 😉

 

Kind regards,

 

Joachim

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