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Tamiya Spitfire Mk1 - 1/48 - Battle of Britain


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Hey all - this is one I finished just after Christmas - I bought this as a present to myself at the NZ IPMS Nationals - and a very nice present it was too :) Built 100% out of the box - it's a beautiful kit - as good as you've heard - though I would go for after market decals if I was doing it again - As always I really struggled with the Tamiya Decals - so after this I've promised myself that I'll never use Tamiya's kit decals again... lesson is well and truly learned. 

 

 

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Thanks for looking :)

 

Cheers

 

John

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That’s a beauty! I’m definitely getting this kit though there’s no way it’s turning out as well as this. What paint did you use for the sky coat?

Edited by GRK
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7 hours ago, Newbie(kinda) said:

Just stunning! And absolutely no evidence of any decal disasters. What is it you don't like about Tamiya transfers; they seem to behave perfectly OK for me?

Thanks mate - I didn’t have any disasters with the decals this time round - more lamenting the quality - they’re just so thick and are difficult to get to confirm to the surface 100% - on this model, you might be able to see actual bumps On the upperside roundels from the walkway lines. The fuselage decals also didn’t confirm as well as I would have liked. They are useable and I know plenty of people think they’re fine but I just think any other make of decal is preferable. I’m happy you didn’t notice any problems but I know they’re there! Only bad(minor) issue with this kit and if you’re okay working with their decals you can discount everything I just said 😊

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  • 2 weeks later...
On 25/02/2020 at 06:10, Kitchen Modeller said:

- more lamenting the quality - they’re just so thick and are difficult to get to confirm to the surface 100%

 

 

  

On 29/08/2016 at 23:26, Gary C said:

The best way to get all Japanese decals ( Fujimi, Hasegawa, Tamiya etc)to work as they're supposed to is use hot water and the correct setting solutions. You'll need a bottle each of Gunze Mr Setter and Mr Softer. Micro sol and others won't work as they're formulated differently. Do not use Gunze on Microscale or Cartograf decals as it will chew right through them.

Dip the decal in hot water, it doesn't need to be boiling but it does need to be fairly hot. The temperature of a drinkable tea will do. The glue is heat activated and is what makes up most of the thickness. If you dip it in cold water you'll spend the rest of the day waiting and cursing.

Lay down some Mr Setter, this is in the blue bottle. It acts as an additional glue. Slide the decal onto it and into postion and leave it alone. The decal should wrinkle a little.

Give it 10 mins or so and go over the decal with a brush with a little Mr Softer (green bottle) on it. Use sparingly as it is extremely hot. Too much and it will damage the paint, especially the weaker acrylics. The decal will now wrinkle a lot. Do not touch it as it is almost liquified at this point.

Once it is dry it will have smoothed out and will lay down beautifully over just about any raised or recessed detail you care to think of. Used properly it is probably the best conforming decal process in the industry. Used incorrectly and you'll be just another guy complaining about crap Japanese decals.

 

Not tried it, don't have Mr Softer, but  worth mentioning, as this comes up time and time agin.

 

HTH

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44 minutes ago, Troy Smith said:

The glue is heat activated and is what makes up most of the thickness.

That's interesting - I've heard advice along these lines before but not as detailed as this. Since doing this model, I've bought some Gunze setting solutions - which I used on my hurricane trop - and have to say they seem to work much better than the microsol / microset that I've used up until now. I think the Mr Softener is much more "hot" than a lot of other solutions - it works really fast. I've tried using warm water on Tamiya decals but not as hot as described above. I think I'm a little cross with myself in this case, as to me the way the decals came out on this model were disappointing - they didn't ruin the model for me, but they do take away from the overall finish. The other thing about Tamiya decals is sometimes, they're actually fine - I have obtained some good results with them - but they always seem like gamble - sometimes they work, other times they don't. I have aftermarket decals for most of the tamiya kits in my stash at this point but if I do decide to use the kits ones again, I'll follow this advice to the letter. 

 

Thanks Troy :)

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Outstanding John!!!!!  You have captured the essence of why the Spitfire Mk. I is so famous.  Your Spitfire is a beautiful replication of the real thing.  :worthy:

 

Mike

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