Steve 1602 Posted May 13, 2020 Author Share Posted May 13, 2020 21 minutes ago, Valkyrie said: Lovely work, I want to do this next so will follow how you are getting on, spinner is class, really neat invasion stripes Thanks 🙏 If you have any thoughts on codes or markings please let me know. I think I’m going with 9N*R rather than 9N*B, but I’m still undecided whether to add the Czechoslovak roundels and scoreboard as he had not long taken over the Squadron before he was killed, so I’m not sure whether they would have been added or not. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 Vallejo model air Medium Sea Grey on the undersides. I’ll give it another light coat and then it will be time to move on to the uppers. Steve 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 19 hours ago, Steve 1602 said: Thanks 🙏 If you have any thoughts on codes or markings please let me know. I think I’m going with 9N*R rather than 9N*B, but I’m still undecided whether to add the Czechoslovak roundels and scoreboard as he had not long taken over the Squadron before he was killed, so I’m not sure whether they would have been added or not. Oh actually Standby, I’ve got 3 specific books here....il see what they say re 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 (edited) When Smik flew with 310 squadron in June 44 he had the Czech roundels under the cockpit. It was rare for 310 Czechoslovak squadron a/c to have the Czech Airforce roundels. p29 .....so I can only imagine he ensured these were present on the aircraft he flew. Smik was sent to command 127 sqn (2nd TAF) on 13th November 1944. He was killed 15 days later flying RR229 on the 28th November. p40 (Czechs in the RAF in focus, Zdenek Hurt, red kite). Surly time enough to have the roundels and victory markings painted on the squadron leader’s aircraft? Spitfire Survivors Facebook website has pictures of a spitfire in a scheme dedicated to Otto Smik. It carries roundels, victory markings, sqn leader insignia and code 9N-B. There is a blurb in Czech which states Smik flew his Spitfire RR229 in code 9N-B. Another source, Back to Normandy also quotes Smik as being in 9N-B, however also states later on that RR229 was also recorded as 9N-R. (His wingman Taymans, who was also killed that day, was flying 9N-Z RR227) 2 Books on 310 and 312 czech squadrons both Detail Smik as having been killed in RR227 as does the free Czechoslovak Air Force Website: fcafa.com Great Website! That website also says that originally Taymans aircraft was not found for many years and indeed Smik, whose body carried no ID was buried as an unknown Englishman. Taymans’ fiancé then had the body repatriated to Belgium after a mistake was noticed but it wasn’t until 1965 when Taymans’ spitfire and body were found that everything was set straight and Otto Smik’s body was returned to Czechoslovakia....perhaps adding to the mix... Think I’ve made it worse Edited May 14, 2020 by Valkyrie Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 (edited) Thanks - that’s really great info. I checked the Spitfire production pages and RR227 came onto Squadron strength on 19 Nov. It also lists 227 as Smik’s aircraft and 229 as Taymans. I think I will go with the roundels and scoreboard - as there’s unlikely to be a definitive answer, it seems better to capture the personal touches. I’m also still leaning towards 9N-R which is quoted in Listemann’s Spitfire 16 book covering 127 Sqn. It’s a real can of worms! Edited May 14, 2020 by Steve 1602 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 14, 2020 Share Posted May 14, 2020 True! Actually that Facebook site doesn’t have the roundel but a squadron leader insignia.... Why can we not pick aircraft that were certain! ive a few Smik ac before I get tho his last right enough.....but would be great to know for certain.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 14, 2020 Author Share Posted May 14, 2020 (edited) 30 minutes ago, Valkyrie said: True! Actually that Facebook site doesn’t have the roundel but a squadron leader insignia.... Why can we not pick aircraft that were certain! ive a few Smik ac before I get tho his last right enough.....but would be great to know for certain.. I’ve Just downloaded the ORB for 127 Sqn for Nov 44 and RR227 is not flown by anyone other than Smik (lots of rotation for other aircraft), so it’s definitely the Bosses aeroplane! I think that is enough to think that some personalisation would have been done. Enough for me anyway! Unfortunately nothing that clarifies the B or R. On the day he and Taymans are lost, the ORB records a line that causes reflection: “A sad loss to the Sqdn particularly as the CO was a good pilot and friend of all his fellow pilots” Edited May 14, 2020 by Steve 1602 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 Vallejo ocean grey on and I’m quite pleased with the effect of the marbling - a new technique to me, so happy with how it’s gone. I’m going to adapt some Tamiya camo marking guides I have for a Vb to make up some paper masks for the green. Steve 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Livingston Posted May 15, 2020 Share Posted May 15, 2020 That looks really good...the Ocean Grey colour is similar to the Tamiya I used...unlike your MSG which looks a lot better than the Tamiya I used. Vallejo again I see. I need to pick some up next time. I should imagine the contrast between the two works well. the marbling has come out really nicely, too. This is looking really good... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 15, 2020 Author Share Posted May 15, 2020 1 hour ago, Bill Livingston said: the marbling has come out really nicely, too. This is looking really good... Thanks Bill 👍🏻 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 17, 2020 Author Share Posted May 17, 2020 In my best ‘Fast Show’ Jesse voice: Today I have been mainly masking.... I’ve used paper templates adapted From the camouflage pattern guides in the Tamiya Spitfire Vb kit. It was rather more time consuming than I had hoped. I’ll finish off masking the other build (fuselage to go) and then I hope to get dark green on both of them this week. Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Some additional pre-shading and it’s now ready for the dark green! Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Tasty wee update, your masks look great. You made me buy this boxing last night, forced lol.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 18 minutes ago, Valkyrie said: Tasty wee update, your masks look great. You made me buy this boxing last night, forced lol.... Haha! Love it. Look on it as stimulating the economy! 😆 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Green on and masks off! I’m pretty happy with how the paper masks have performed. There’s a small patch to sort out on the port stabiliser - I had a bit of an airbrush explosion when pre shading and some of the black-green Got under the mask. There’s also some white bleed-through To sort on the invasion stripes and the sky tail band, but those shouldn’t take long to put right. I’m a bit disappointed with the leading edge stripes. The method worked, but I think I should have built the yellow up a bit more - it’s still a bit translucent. I’ll need to mask these again and get some more yellow on. Overall though I’m happy and the time it took to mask is now a distant and less-painful memory! Steve 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Livingston Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Thats looking excellent! I feel your pain when it comes to the masking. Its looking really good. The leading edge yellow looks good to me too... the size and shape look excellent, which is the hard bit. Only you can decide whether you want to add more yellow to it. If its even, I would leave it... if you want to correct anything, then I suppose that gives you another reason... 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 18, 2020 Share Posted May 18, 2020 Yes! That worked well. Someone told me to paint yellow well you need to undercoat gloss orange...certainly worked when painting larger yellow parts on Luftwaffe aircraft, but I think these look fine. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 19, 2020 Author Share Posted May 19, 2020 Thanks @Bill Livingston @Valkyrie I think I’m in danger of correcting a problem that only seems a problem to me! The curse of the modeler! Actually in the pics the yellow looks okay, on the bench it looks less well defined. I think I’ll try to touch it up (And cross fingers against Sod’s law coming into effect!) Great idea about the orange base coat - I will try that next time rather than just painting over primer. Thanks both for your comments 👍🏻 I am really enjoying this group build experience! Steve 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 20, 2020 Author Share Posted May 20, 2020 A bit more progress this evening. I corrected the overspray and also added a bit more yellow to the leading edges. This one is now ready for gloss varnish and decals. I think I’ll be pretty much complete over the course of the weekend. Although I’m looking forwards to finishing the builds, I’ll also miss them; they are such nice kits. I also did some work on the bombs - I downloaded the 127 Sqn Operational Record Book and they were involved in a lot of ground attack missions in Nov ‘44, so I thought this one should be carrying ordnance. First I painted the nose red and the body pale green (sky) and applied some thin strips of a Tamiya tape for the identification markings (I really must get some flexible tape). The bombs were then sprayed dark green (bronze green apparently - I used a dark green, but it looks okay I think) Then it was masking tape off.... I’m happy with that (Although the red band is better on the top one). They should look fine under the wings though - I might also have a dig through my spare decals to see if I have any appropriate stencils to add some more interest. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 21, 2020 Author Share Posted May 21, 2020 Gloss on and ready for decals! I’ll let the gloss coat harden overnight and then start applying the markings tomorrow. I have a day off work tomorrow, so once the list of home chores is completed I hope I can get quite a bit done with this. Steve 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 Some decent progress and all stencils applied this afternoon. I’m going to let these dry properly and then move on to the main markings this evening. I always enjoy this stage of the build - it’s when it really comes together for me. one ‘funny’ with this boxing is that the numbers for the High-back stencils don’t align to the instructions. There are two sets of stencil sheets - one for the low-back (which corresponds to the instructions) and a set of Mk IXe stencils for the high back (which doesn’t!). Cue trying to read some of the smaller stencils to ensure they are the correct ones! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 I admire the restraint at not starting with the main decals! Can’t wait to see this done, been a really great build so far! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Steve 1602 Posted May 22, 2020 Author Share Posted May 22, 2020 3 hours ago, Valkyrie said: I admire the restraint at not starting with the main decals! Can’t wait to see this done, been a really great build so far! Thanks @Valkyrie 🙂 I completed the decals this evening and it seems to have come together ok! The Eduard decals are really nice - very easy to use and I can’t see any silvering. I went with 9N-R in the end rather than 9N-B. The jury is out, but without any photos, I preferred the look of the ‘R’ (plus I thought it would be easier to turn it into ‘B’ than the other way around if new information turns up at some stage!) Plan is to get the other build to the same stage, then I’ll gloss coat both and start final details. Steve 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Livingston Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 (edited) Looking fabulous, Steve! These are going to be a really nice pair of Spitfires! Good to hear the decals work well. What did you use, Micro set and sol, or Mr Mark Softer and Mark Setter? I have both, but I haven't tried the Mr Hobby stuff yet... and I'm slightly nervous of trying something new again for a while... thats a path that leads to destruction and chaos as far as I am concerned this week. Good stuff... looking forward to seeing the other one, too. Edited May 22, 2020 by Bill Livingston 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Valkyrie Posted May 22, 2020 Share Posted May 22, 2020 Oh yes!! Looking sharp, very inspiring. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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