1/48 Tamiya Mk.I : My First Spitfire - Finished

[Hockeyboy76]

Looking good Jeroen. 

[Steve 1602]

Nice work. I’m intending to build this kit for the Battle of Britain group build, so it will be good to watch you with this.
 

It looks like the instructions need some careful study! 

 

Steve

[JeroenS]

Second round of detail painting, still only black. 

 

 

8 hours ago, Steve 1602 said:

It looks like the instructions need some careful study! 

Steve, you're absolutely right about that! Each step contains a huge amount of information regarding decals, painting and cutting instructions. I keep missing stuff, especially with the painting, and striking the callouts which I've completed. I've now resorted to carefully counting the number of colour callouts for each step first, putting down the number and then count the ones I've finished. 

 

The kit is beautifully engineered so it's a joy to build. However I think the engineers also had a hand in the instructions 🙂 ... They could have done some usability studies first with normal people like myself haha

 

By the way I normally do my brush painting with Vallejo paints, but since the colours are called out so nicely by Tamiya using their own paints (of course) I thought I'd give it a try. I use a liberal dose of their paint retarder to thin the paint and I must say it works quite well, it's pretty easy to apply like that and it dries nice and tight without brush marks. 

Edited June 19, 2020 by JeroenS
Added remark about paint

[JeroenS]

While the paint on my other build is curing I thought I'd have a go at getting the cockpit finished. I went through the remaining steps and am amazed at all the different paints I'm still going to need!

 

 

So let's get cracking. 

[Johnson]

Looking good.

 

And looking at your cockpit green/silver boundary has made me realise that I've started the silver too far back in my fuselage! But not to late to change.

[JeroenS]

19 minutes ago, Johnson said:

Looking good.

 

And looking at your cockpit green/silver boundary has made me realise that I've started the silver too far back in my fuselage! But not to late to change.

Glad I could help 😉

[JeroenS]

Basic interior painting finished. Some small touch-ups and then decals. A little bit of weathering, but only to break the even paint surfaces. Then final assembly of the cockpit after which I can install the seat harness. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Johnson]

That's a lovely cockpit Jeroen, in fact a much better colour than mine. I used Xtracolor X010 BS283 A/C Grey/Green which is a shade darker than yours.

 

A minor point about the seat. I believe that the seats in Mk.1 Spitfires were made of some sort of plastic material and were a red/brown colour and left unpainted, the padding on the back of the seat usually being a black colour. Others may be able to be more definite on this.

 

Cheers,

[JeroenS]

5 minutes ago, Johnson said:

A minor point about the seat. I believe that the seats in Mk.1 Spitfires were made of some sort of plastic material and were a red/brown colour and left unpainted, the padding on the back of the seat usually being a black colour. Others may be able to be more definite on this.

About the seat, yes that could very well be, I have no idea. I just followed the instructions 🙂 ... As usual Google has different opinions, I see them all green without padding (that must have been nice), all red brown with padding and also as you indicated, red brown with black padding.... 

 

Like you said, some expert may be listening in, I'm sure there are people here who know more about this than Tamyia does. 

[Max Headroom]

This looks like a superb kit and I’ll watch with interest. 
 

As for no padding, the pilot would sit on his parachute (not sure that is any better).

 

This won’t be your last Spitfire though! 

 

Trevor

[JeroenS]

34 minutes ago, Max Headroom said:

As for no padding, the pilot would sit on his parachute (not sure that is any better).

Right, yes, that I did know. But no padding on the seat back, pretty tough

 

 

[JeroenS]

Oh dear, on the seat colour... Half t'interweb is filled with discussions on this it seems 🙂  (by the way I don't really wish to start another one)

 

Even one on this great site of ours. 

 

 

This one is also rather comprehensive. 

 

https://imodeler.com/2019/01/detail-notes-for-builders-of-the-new-tamiya-spitfire/

 

It would seem that the all metal seats were standard issue for the early spitfires and that the red/brown resin seats were introduced in the second half of 1940, as an alternative and not a replacement. So basically, the metal seat appears to be a valid option for this build. Which is a good thing as I would really like to finish this one in time and there's still quite a bit to do. I know you guys bang these things out like it's nothing but my going is slow. Mainly also because building trucks takes up a sweet bit of time... I'll have to shift my focus me thinks, for the coming weeks. 

 

But wow... all the details regarding which options are valid on which aircraft in which period and more how and what and when... I see the charm in it but it would drive me nuts 🙂 

 

I'll just stick to trucks, you can never go wrong, there's always something out of whack or modified or whatever. Suits me better 😉 

[Max Headroom]

Wait until you delve into the rabbit hole of late war Luftwaffe camouflage!

 

Trevor

[Johnson]

Hi Jeroen,

 

I feel guilty for mentioning it now !

 

But that's very useful research and shows that you seat is not wrong for the period.

 

Aircraft colours and details drive us all nuts, but don't go back to trucks yet!

[JeroenS]

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

I feel guilty for mentioning it now !

Nah, don't worry! I do plenty of research for truck builds as well, but I never depict an actual truck, I just combine a lot of (self made or Googled) reference pics and go with what I like. I can see the difference with aircraft modelling, as there is usually historic reference to and documentation of the aircraft you're depicting which adds a lot to the process of modelling of course. 

 

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

Aircraft colours and details drive us all nuts, but don't go back to trucks yet!

I promise I will do everything I can to finish this one in time, it should be nice to have an iconic aircraft in the cabinet! My truck builds last forever anyway so they can be put aside easily and usually are a couple of times, pending inspiration 😉 

[JeroenS]

Progress! I've finally finished the cockpit. 

 

 

After I took these photo's I realized I had forgotten to paint the PE that's resting against the seat back. It has been painted in the meantime. Also, I pushed the harness against the seat some more.

 

 

A shot before closing up, one fuselage half already attached. 

Too bad you're not able so see much of this once everything is closed. I noticed there are 1/24 scale versions... hmmm... 

 

Anyway, the fuselage has been closed, this feels like a milestone. 

 

 

[janneman36]

Those cockpits can be time consuming but at least it is closed up now!
Great build so far  Jeroen👍
 

cheers, Jan

[JeroenS]

Well, that was fun. Just like that we have an aircraft. It all fits beautifully. There's a minute gap on one side where the wing meets the fuselage, nothing on the other side. 

 

 

A little bit more work needed on the fuselage seam and the leading edges of the wing. And on the underside where the wing part meets the fuselage. All minor stuff really. 

 

 

 

 

 

[Hockeyboy76]

Looking good Jeroen, keep the updates coming. 

[JeroenS]

Well, the aircraft and I have been ready for paint since yesterday, but the weather is not co-operating. I have to paint in the shed and it's very very humid in there right now. So I'll have to wait a bit for some dry weather and a little bit of sun for the shed to warm up and dry out some. 

 

In hindsight, leaving the antenna off till after painting would probably have been better. But I don't want to risk breaking it now when taking it off, so I'll just leave it. 

[avro683]

On 6/21/2020 at 6:30 PM, Johnson said:

That's a lovely cockpit Jeroen, in fact a much better colour than mine. I used Xtracolor X010 BS283 A/C Grey/Green which is a shade darker than yours.

 

A minor point about the seat. I believe that the seats in Mk.1 Spitfires were made of some sort of plastic material and were a red/brown colour and left unpainted, the padding on the back of the seat usually being a black colour. Others may be able to be more definite on this.

 

Cheers,

You are correct about the seat. Also, the flare rack (the thing with the holes at the front of the seat) needs to go as it wasn’t fitted to Mk. 1’s. The transfer for the middle pair of gun openings needs splitting in two; make sure there is a gap between them. I have a feeling that the middle two gun openings are too close together.

[reini]

@JeroenS It seems I forgot to follow your little venture into airplanes. Looking nice so far, really good cockpit. And it's always satisfying step to have the plane ready for paint.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

7 hours ago, avro683 said:

Also, the flare rack (the thing with the holes at the front of the seat) needs to go as it wasn’t fitted to Mk. 1’s.

Thanks I was wondering that as Im about to start a Mk.I in the Battle of Britain build. 

[JeroenS]

Finally, some painting weather today. The shed was warmed up and dried out sufficiently after luch so I spent the afternoon painting various builds, starting with the Spitfire. First I primed in black to make sure I covered all the grey plastic. I use Mr Surfacer 1500, thinned 50/50 with their Leveling Thinner. You can really lay down a thin and smooth layer of paint with that stuff. Then I went over it with grey primer, again Mr Surfacer. I decided to try my hand at a bit of preshading as well... obviously, this was the first time I did that and it kind of shows 🙂 

 

 

Ah well... 

 

Finally, the underside was painted in XF-21 Sky. 

 

 

I did some preshading on the underside too, but probably not enough, or maybe I just put too much of the Sky on. Anyway, the coat looks good. I primed a bunch of other assorted stuff as well, the remaining panels, landing gear, spinner etc. The panels for the underside were also painted Sky so the next step will be the two colours for the upper fuselage... I see masking in my future... 

[JeroenS]

Well, the first topside colour is on. Wow, masking the underside took forever. I hope I did it well enough 🙂 

 

 

Maybe, if I feel like it, I'm going to mask and spray the second colour tonight. Tomorrow is a warm and dry day again, so I'm aiming for clear coat tomorrow. After tomorrow, more rain so best have the painting ready. The decals will take a good deal of time as well. I must say, I am starting to get curious for the painted look.