Avereda Posted April 14, 2020 Share Posted April 14, 2020 I can’t resist and it will make a welcome break from grappling with the Esci Storch canopy. I’m in with Airfix’s take on Clostermann’s Spitfire. First up the box and the bits. I got started with, unusually, an evening session (modelling with a glass of red - nice). The big parts are off the sprues and have been tidied up. The three-part pilot has been posed giving a jaunty Gallic wave to a passing pilot/member of aircrew depending on whether or not I go wheels up or down. I’m normally a strictly wheels down sorta guy but we are living in peculiar times. 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted April 17, 2020 Author Share Posted April 17, 2020 State of play after some time at the bench today. The interior green is going to be over sprayed with a slightly darker mix in an attempt to indicate some detail in the cockpit. I’m still toying with the idea of modifying an old stand retrieved from the spares box and going wheels up. 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted April 22, 2020 Author Share Posted April 22, 2020 The Tamiya Extra Thin was getting low so it was time to have a crack at mixing sprue goo, this is the first time I’ve done it so we’ll see how things have worked out post-sanding. I had time for some canopy masking tonight so I busted out the Canopy Survival Kit picked up from Rif-Raf models in Dundee some time last year. So far, so good - I like the idea of surviving canopies, let’s see what happens when it comes to the unmasking. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 That's some quick work, very nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TEMPESTMK5 Posted April 23, 2020 Share Posted April 23, 2020 Good morning Avereda Very good job so far nice to see another of Clostermann's Spitfire built in this Gb .. Best regards Patrice Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted April 23, 2020 Author Share Posted April 23, 2020 2 hours ago, Cookenbacher said: That's some quick work, very nice! Thanks JD, lockdown and low part count make for speedy progress 2 hours ago, TEMPESTMK5 said: Good morning Avereda Very good job so far nice to see another of Clostermann's Spitfire built in this Gb .. Best regards Patrice Cheers, you can’t have enough Clostermen in my opinion 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 9, 2020 Author Share Posted May 9, 2020 Ok then, the Storch has been trundled into the Nordic GB gallery so I can return my attention to Pierre and his Spitfire. The position this afternoon, the Spitfire has been supplied with some Aber armaments to replace lost parts. Like a lot of us on lockdown, Pierre appears to have gained a little mass and the canopy will not close. It took a fair bit of work to prise him out but eventually voila, and he was plonked onto the naughty step - the punishment will be brutal. 6 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted May 9, 2020 Share Posted May 9, 2020 3 hours ago, Avereda said: Like a lot of us on lockdown, Pierre appears to have gained a little mass Well it's not just me then? Oh good. Great work John. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 10, 2020 Author Share Posted May 10, 2020 Some harsh filing and Pierre is back in his office. Armaments have been fitted with only one moment of anxiety and strong language. I decided to put plastic card over the sag in the wheel wells and I’m going to have a play around with some plastic strip to add some detail (the, unfixed, stuff in the picture is probably a bit thick but you get the idea). 13 hours ago, Cookenbacher said: Well it's not just me then? Oh good. Great work John. Thanks JD, I haven’t stepped on the scales for a month. I think I’d take anything under 15 stone as a success at the moment. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 18, 2020 Author Share Posted May 18, 2020 Scribing hmm. Scribing is normally a disaster for me but this time some of it has come out ok, particularly the starboard side. Here’s a photo of the starboard side. Priming and painting will probably have to wait until the temperature has dropped a degree or two - so probably next week 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 24, 2020 Author Share Posted May 24, 2020 Priming went ahead followed by an attempt at the yellow ID stripes. The yellow was not a success, I may have overthinned and oversprayed, what I ended up with was a blobby mess which had to be removed. I’ll try again with the yellow (XtraCrylix RAF Trainer Yellow) after a suitable period of meditation. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 Ugh, yellow stripes are the worst - it doesn't matter if you paint them first and mask 'em, or mask them last and paint them, they're just a pain. Good luck with these John, I'm sure you'll get them sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 25, 2020 Author Share Posted May 25, 2020 9 hours ago, Cookenbacher said: Ugh, yellow stripes are the worst - it doesn't matter if you paint them first and mask 'em, or mask them last and paint them, they're just a pain. Good luck with these John, I'm sure you'll get them sorted. Cheers JD, having checked the instructions and had a cursory search of the web, it seems that the yellow overlaps the the blue of the roundel ever so slightly. If that’s the case than I’ll either have to paint the ID last or use the supplied decals - either way let’s kick the can down the road for a while... 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bill Livingston Posted May 25, 2020 Share Posted May 25, 2020 I picked up on this as I have just this moment finished adding the main roundels on my MkIX... I also did a fair amount of research on the yellow indicator strips. So after reading your post I did a more in depth search online... making the search for wartime photo's of Spitfire MK IX rather than restored aircraft or models, and its not true to say that all of them have the yellow ID leading edge encroaching on the roundel. Very few had... although a lot came very close. Pretty much all of them had the red 'tape' over the leading edge which then encroached on the roundel in a lot of cases... but even then, some did not. You do find it a lot with models though... mainly because a lot of modellers paint the leading edge far too wide... and it tapers very rapidly, so towards the wing tips (where the roundel is) the yellow is actually very thin... again, quite a few restored aircraft have yellow ID bands a that are not tapered... With this amount of variation when restorers are researching, you can be fairly safe to think that during the war, there was at least the same amount of inconsistency. So, short of matching a really great set of contemporary photos of the actual aircraft you are modelling, no-one will be able to say whether your interpretation is right or wrong... and of they did, you could challenge them pretty easily... As it happens, from wartime photo's, I could only find one Spitfire MKV with leading edge yellow stripes that encroached on the roundel. The drawing above suggests the yellow is the same width all along its length... it is absolutely not. Not in all cases certainly, most wartime photos show this tapering as you get to the wing tip... So I wouldn't rely totally on the veracity of the Airfix instructions... think of them more as a reasonable guide. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted May 29, 2020 Author Share Posted May 29, 2020 @Bill Livingston , many thanks for the above information, I’ll bear all that in mind as I come to the end of the build. My main current concern is colour. I’ve mixed up some colours using the iModelKit app*, the Sky, Ocean Grey and Dark Green are probably ok but the Medium Sea Grey is way off beam so I may stick with Vallejo’s standard colour for that. I’ll put up pictures of the mixes so you can all see the issues later. For the time being the Sky band and silver wheel wells have been added. * the app won’t necessarily get you more accurate period colour results but it is kind of fun to play around with. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 On 5/25/2020 at 4:26 PM, Bill Livingston said: You do find it a lot with models though... mainly because a lot of modellers paint the leading edge far too wide... and it tapers very rapidly, so towards the wing tips (where the roundel is) the yellow is actually very thin... again, quite a few restored aircraft have yellow ID bands a that are not tapered. According to this it ought to be 4" wide total (2" and 2") . Maybe that gets interpreted as 2x 4" ? Then again, Spitties are known for their deviations from prescribed markings (try doing the standard 18" invasion stripes within the confines of the other markings ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted May 30, 2020 Share Posted May 30, 2020 (edited) On 5/29/2020 at 9:00 AM, Avereda said: My main current concern is colour. I’ve mixed up some colours using the iModelKit app*, the Sky, Ocean Grey and Dark Green are probably ok but the Medium Sea Grey is way off beam Vallejo's ocean grey is OK. The MSG is a bit dark for me, I usually use Tamiya's XF 83 for that. For greens, it's a toss-up between Vallejo's 324 (bit too lemony for me) and Tamiya XF-81. Edited May 30, 2020 by alt-92 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted June 5, 2020 Author Share Posted June 5, 2020 @alt-92 thanks for the information on the ID and the MSG. Vallejo’s MSG is indeed a bit dark, as we shall see. A multi update to follow as I’ve been a bit slack in recording progress of late. First up, on with the Ocean Grey (the undersides having already been painted MSG). The Ocean Grey is a custom mix of Vallejo paints 70.870 (Medium Sea Grey), 71.273 (Ocean Grey), 71.108 (UK Azure Blue) at a ratio of 8:7:1. Then on with the masking tape, white tac and Panzer Putty before a coat of custom mixed Dark Green. The mix for the green was all Vallejo again: 70.897 (Bronze Green), 71.137 (US Light Green), 71.307 (Medium Sea Grey), 70.872 (Chocolate Brown) at a ratio of 5:4:3:1. And the money shot, I’d have preferred the camo to be a bit more wiggly in places but I think it will do. Also, the contrast between the greys is a little limited, I should have listened to the advice of @alt-92 regarding the darkness of Vallejo’s MSG - you live and learn. The Sky band could have been a little further forward as well now I look at it. Another crack at the yellow may be next once I’ve built up an appropriate reservoir of nerve. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 That's looking great John! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alt-92 Posted June 7, 2020 Share Posted June 7, 2020 Interesting mixes btw As an alternative to the Ocean grey, there is also the Mixed Grey consisting of 7x MSG & 1x Night(black) that was used due to shortages in pigments. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted June 11, 2020 Author Share Posted June 11, 2020 I’ve gone for very thin ID markings on the wings, a bit of touch up required but I think I can live with it. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted June 11, 2020 Share Posted June 11, 2020 Nice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted June 14, 2020 Author Share Posted June 14, 2020 I’ve had one of those irritating days when everything goes back a step. I knocked a bit of strip out of a wheel well when removing the masking, I decided to CA the strip back in and..... ...strong words were spoken. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted June 15, 2020 Share Posted June 15, 2020 bah! I hate when that happens, especially at the end of a build. I'm sure you'll have it sorted in no time though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Avereda Posted June 21, 2020 Author Share Posted June 21, 2020 On 6/16/2020 at 12:03 AM, Cookenbacher said: bah! I hate when that happens, especially at the end of a build. I'm sure you'll have it sorted in no time though. I hate the ruddy stuff, gets everywhere. Corrected now and we’re all glossed up ready for the decals. With a bit of luck I’ll be done by the end of the month then I can, belatedly, join in the Journey’s End GB. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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