Blackish!! Airfix 1/48 specialist Spitfire Vb

[janneman36]

Next to my Silver Spitfire I felt the urge to start another one as well and in this case is it a 111 squadron night fighter based at Debden in December 1941.

I always liked that specialist edition from Airfix ( box A82015 )and bought two of these in the past as I liked both schemes very much!

 

 

 

 

 

cheers, Jan

 

 

 

 

[janneman36]

Well during my work on the Silver Spitfire a chose to use the Hataka interior green although it looked nice I wasn’t convinced about that color!

In the past I always grabbed a pot of Humbrol 78 ...

Still not being very convinced by the hataka paint as it looked to greyish and dark I decided to open the old can of Worms.

I researched it online an came a cross a lot of threads about it and I decided to give it a go with the old Humbrol 78 and my RAF museum’s serie’s paint chart..

 

These swabs I made are several mixes of Humbrol 78 and Humbrol 97 which is Matt eggshell and the last one I made even had some forest green and white in it too correct a shift of hue in the paint that I didn’t liked..

I have no official recipe for this guy’s and I am sorry about that but it was a mix based on feel more than counting all those drops I put into it .

Though one remark about the dark colored green in the middle  and that is in fact the Hataka grey-green I had from thier RAF red line assortment box.

The bulkhead was on of my first attempts and after that I decided to go further and correct the paint as far as possible 

At least you can see how far those paints are off and I am pretty happy about my attempt..

 

This one shows what it does to the eye with a border between it ..

And the next  picture is with the last attempt in comparison to the pot with a test on the lid as well from a previous attempt..

 

 

 

cheers, Jan

 

 

[janneman36]

Been a while for a update  nevertheless the build has not stalled..I was being busy to draw a few things in Corel to make some new decals for my silver spitfire and designed a few masks for this black Spitty to make it a bit more ilustre 😉

I like the OTB version a lot but I came across this one ..

 

The cockpit is nothing really special except for the fact I used those weathering pencils from AK and in this case the silver and bronze for those metallic details.

I also put a Yahu panel in it as I like these a bit more then the Eduard (with the exception for those Löök panels those are superb)

The Yahu is really value for money I think..

As a first in my modelling life I bought the Finemolds nano seatbelts..you have to get used to them but in the end I do like em as you simply can glue them in as your kit parts and they are well posable with a lot of detail.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The radiators are painted Matt black and are highlighted with the silver AK pencil for a subtle looking finish which works for me as I find it easyer than drybrushing!

 

 

And finally the finished design for the red squadron codes and smaller type roundels..

The masking part of those roundels will be tricky as the roundel is just 9 mm wide!
 

 

The wheels were a different story, I made a composite from the Eduard tires and Airfix rims as the Airfix tires are a littlebit awkward!

The outer rim is a single loose part from Airfix and fits perfect in that tire but only the brake section of the rims backside needed to be extracted from the wheel.

I used the thinner wheel which is for the wheels up version as it is thin and provided me an easy surgery session..

The dark grey parts are the Eduard parts and the light grey are the Airfix items.

 

 

cheers, Jan

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[janneman36]

Also had the canopy installed, but never think that you are done and on the home stretch ..

During this what should be a uneventful dust off with a spraycan of air something disastrous happened as the gas inside the can came out and caused a wet spot and that caused it to craze ..

And even longer story short, I used a spare window from the other Vb I am building aside this one as that one uses another canopy..( the other spit is not in this group build though)

Did some painting today and I applied the the dull red squadron and insignia colors.

The color is from the gunze range nr H33 and was recommend in a old topic here ...boy it didn’t come close as it was too red.

So I started mixing by adding some brown colorizer from the local hardware store that I once bought to make a broken white ..this stuff can be used in whatever paint you have and I have three different tubes in black, blue and brown and though it was for some home improvement it comes in quite handy altering your hobby paints as well

I also added some gunze RLM23 yellow in it to lighten it a bit!

I certainly like the color and once it gets a Matt clear cote it will be very close with my paint sample for this color..( still a tad dark but acceptable🤫)

 

 

 

 

cheers,  Jan