steh2o Posted March 4, 2021 Author Share Posted March 4, 2021 Thank you Cookie! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted March 25, 2021 Author Share Posted March 25, 2021 (edited) Small progress.... Finally I was happy with the weathering process and I applied the clear coat. I tried two different mixtures, both sprayed at 1.5 bar: 1part Gunze H102 (premium clear semi gloss) + 1part Gunze H20 (flat clear) +1part ethilene alcohol 1part Gunze H102 (premium clear semi gloss) +1part ethilene alcohol The first mix gives a very nice eggshell finish, while the second is an acceptable semi-gloss. I decided for: 2parts H102 + 1part H20 +2parts alcohol.... and, instead of a a "more shiny eggshell", I've got a "more than flat, less than eggshell" effect... At least I could remove the canopy masking tape: Nice! I like it! Mmmmmhhh... i forgot the top frame of the rear part of the canopy, I will paint it together with the sliding part's frame... The cockpit is nice-looking but I didn't spend much time in detailing it. Next time I'll do better. When I built the cockpit I followed the idea that the Sutton harness infamous Y stripe passed over the seat back, instead than through the seat back slot. While researching the Mk. XII I changed my mind about it, see so I will add the Y strap now, with a finished cockpit... I painted the wingtip lights and red/green downward identification lights under the wings. spray painted with one coat Clear Red (Green) + one coat Clear Gloss The fuselage Amber downward identification light remains somewhat of a mistery. According to the Pilot notes, Spitfire Mk.XIV an Mk.XIX (april 1946) should be there Looking at the photographs, it seems that RB146 and RB159 (wartime) didn't have one, while SG-57, SG-64, SG-108 in BAF post-war service had it Edited March 25, 2021 by steh2o 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted March 25, 2021 Share Posted March 25, 2021 This really is a stunning build. It's been said before, but you would never guess that it is 1/72 scale from the photographs. Love the detail and the weathering. And the wire in the rear of the cockpit that secures the seatbelt! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted March 26, 2021 Author Share Posted March 26, 2021 Thanks Johnson I'm nearing the end of this build and I feel much better! I've learned a lot about Spitfire-modelling and I'm confident that my next one will proceed faster and better than this! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 Feeling good! I managed to slip the Sutton Y-strap in place without damage to the cockpit! Now I'm going to spend some time with the canopy. The master is a complete Eduard canopy; I glued together windscreen and rear elements, then cut longitudinally in half this assembly with a saw (the saw blade is 0,13mm thick, I piled two for a a 0,26mm cut, which is good because I used a 0,1mm clear sheet for vacuum-forming the bubble) glued the two halves together then filled it with epoxy putty. When dry, I sanded it smooth to get a master that (in principle) should provide a canopy which is 0,1mm higher that the original, and 0,06mm narrower. I say "in principle" because I'm using a rather primitive vacuum forming machine (I really have to do something for that!) I took me just 22 attempts (no kidding) to get a fairly-shaped bubble; here below, I trace the contour of it with masking tape which is a perfect visual guide for cutting Nearly finished And here is adapted to a spare fuselage (the strange reflect is a ring neon light) 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 That looks pretty good! I have had good results by taping the clear material to a bit of card with a hole in it that has the contours of the canopy. That way if you push through the master shape the edges won't destrot as much. I also tend to mount the master on a base so it can be pushed in a little deeper. That said, your canopy looks the part! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted March 31, 2021 Share Posted March 31, 2021 Exquisite work Stefano. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted March 31, 2021 Author Share Posted March 31, 2021 Thank you! Yes I think that the biggest error is not using a frame holding the clear sheet. Moreover, this thin sheet cools rapidly down and this is not helping! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted April 1, 2021 Share Posted April 1, 2021 17 hours ago, steh2o said: I managed to slip the Sutton Y-strap in place without damage to the cockpit! That looks really great Stefano, superb cockpit. 17 hours ago, steh2o said: took me just 22 attempts (no kidding) to get a fairly-shaped bubble; here below Looks very good. I have made many Spitfire canopies using a similar method; the slam moulding technique which works well with a Spitfire due to the canopy shape. As the clear plastic cools it conforms to the bubble of the former (mould). But these days I tend to use the Rob Taurus canopies, they are excellent quality. Have you considered them? Then again, if you cockpit is open yours may work better. Best wishes, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 1, 2021 Author Share Posted April 1, 2021 Hello Charlie, thanks for the appreciation! My experience with Rob Taurus products is ups and downs- tipically with frames. Sometimes they are too proud of the tansparent parts; sometimes they are represented by "trenches" like in case of the 1/72 F-15 one. Generally speaking I like home-made ones because I can control the overall shape and thickness of frames. For this Spitfire I choose the kit windscreen which is a little thick but has a perfect shape; when I refine my vacuum-forming skill, I'll try use home-made elements only because they are thinner (0,1mm as I said above) and give a much more realistic result than most aftermarket products- for an example, here below I'm posting a photograph of my 1/72 P-47C which has a home-made windscreen and canopy 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 Slowly approaching the end of this work.... I don't like the rear view mirror that is provided in the kit as a clear part; the shape and dmensions are good but the bracket is really too thick to represent the real thing so I decided scratch buiding it. The kit provides a good basis for the mirror fairing in part A33 (one of the gun fairings), it has almost the right diameter; I reshaped it a bit, etched a groove for the mounting bracket, and built the bracket itself with 0,1mm steel ribbon filed to shape. the base of the bracket is a grooved 0,1mm plastic triangle It was painted Dark Green overall; then I punched a disk of a mirror film (I found it in a magazine years ago, it is a real mirror surface made of laminated clear plastic with an alluminum flash deposition inbetween, and is very thin) and glued it to the assembly Now little Colin Gray will have a chance to see that sneaky 1/72 Fw190 on his tail! Obviously the rear view mirror will be the very last part to be glued. 6 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 More stunning and very delicate work Stefano! You must have good eyes and a steady hand. 7 minutes ago, steh2o said: then I punched a disk of a mirror film (I found it in a magazine years ago Great idea. I've seen some of this, or similar material - but didn't keep any! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 (edited) Thank you Charlie. Another step, painting the exhaust traces. I do that in two distinct steps one with the airbrush, and a second phase with brush to add detail and complexity. The position, shape, color of the exhaust trace must be determined from period photographs. It is interesting to note that even different airframes of the same type can show a difference in the exhaust traces (I believe it depends on the mixture/power settings and speed so two different Spitfire Mk.XIV could have different exhaust traces according to the way they were used operationally). I tried to reproduce the pattern seen in the wartime photograph of RM787 representing it on a profile drawing and creating Frisket masks for it. The exhaust plume will be painted in the central area defined by this mask; the mask is kept wide enough that it will not produce sharp borders in the painting stage Painting itself is done with oil paints diluted with white spirit, 0,7 bar pressure. A first pass is done with Ivory black+ Warm grey (Winsor&Newton) in the area closer to the exhausts; then a second layer is done with Neaples yellow+Titanium white, trying to make small vertical strokes and adding color to areas that in the picture show more build up of soot. Removing the masks I noticed I had to modify some area (breaking too neat borders is typical). this is easily done with a fine brush and white spirit, while the oil paint is not totally dry. The result (see below) is this I think it's good but some more work is required. This will be done with a fine brush at the final stage of work. Please note some point of general interest: -with fishtails the first exhaust tube has almost no grime at all, the last has a lot; the exhaust in front puts grime on all the following ones... -on the fuselage side, the grime follows the most frequent airflow direction, and fixes more on surfaces wetted more by airflow (so a wavy skin surface will have a wavy grime deposition). this is what I will take care of in the final brush phase. I did some work on the wheels too, adding dust and dirt-caking again with oil paints, here a couple of pictures Edited April 12, 2021 by steh2o 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 Some details: IFF MkIII antenna (scratchbuilt from photoetched parts, Eduard part is tapered while the real antenna is not) Pitot tube, Eduard thinned mast+ hollow microtube Rebecca antenna 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robin-42 Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 On 1/14/2021 at 7:14 AM, steh2o said: I decided to keep the cockpit detail rather simple because at the end you can't see too much. Thats the understatement of the year! Your detail painting would do credit to a 1/32 cockpit! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fritag Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 Gosh, I’ve really enjoyed reading this thread from the start, Stefano. Exquisite craftsmanship and attention to detail and beautiful painting and finishing skills too. I’ve just come across the Jumpei Temma Spitfire plans, so I’m interested to hear that you think them accurate; there are positive comments about them on other forums too. Thanks for the pleasure of the read! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 12, 2021 Author Share Posted April 12, 2021 I thank you very much for your kind words gentlemen, it's a real boost for my morale! Thanks again.... Fritag: about JT Spitfire plans, they seem to be very accurate. JT and Monforton's for Mk VIII-IX- XVI match 1:1; and I believe he had access to factory plans for both early Merlin and Griffon variants. His work on Mk.I is excellent. To me the really unvaluable source is the Monforton's book. It's a pity he didn't follow with something similar about MkI/II/V or Griffon variants. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted April 12, 2021 Share Posted April 12, 2021 That mirror is amazing Stefano, top notch work for sure. I also really enjoyed seeing your technique for the exhaust stains, I can't wait to try it out some day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted April 13, 2021 Author Share Posted April 13, 2021 Thanks Cookie, airbrushed oil paints are wonderful because their pigment is the finest you can imagine. If you painted your model with acrylics, you can airbrush oil paints then use white spirit to remove them or blend other oil paint with a brush to get very nice effects. My favourite color is Van Dyke brown which I liberally use for washes (together with Raw umber) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted May 28, 2021 Author Share Posted May 28, 2021 Definitely the "decanting phase" of my model building activity is fundamental! In the last few weeks I was looking at the almost completed Mk.XIV with suspicion.... something seemed wrong with the look of the nose area but I couldn't really undestand what! In the meantime, I started the build of the Mk.XII variant reported here and while working on the revised four blade propeller I found out what was the annoying factor... the spinner In the photograph above you can see together the refined Mk XII spinner and the Mk.XIV as built. Actually, I remember correcting the baseplate diameter but not shortening the 0,6mm excessive length. The Airfix spinner is slightly too long. If you compare the two spinners above the excess length reduces the curvature of the tip so that it ends up with a long and blunt look that doesn't match the cowling profile. Obviously my maniacal personality required to correct it ASAP. The poor, finished propeller was then coupled to a powerful engine.... will it run? RRRROARRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! I noticed no propulsion but that would happen with a 373.000 times denser atmosphere, isn't it? We're not here to play! Let's work! The spinner is shortened on the lathe with a scalpel blade acting as cutting tool. Correct length is checked with a caliper. The shape is adjusted with sandpaper of progressively finer grade, the final polishing is made with the faithful woolen jumper... all of this with the five blades turning at a fearful rate at a couple of mm distance. ...not perfect, but rather good... I didn't want to damage the locking fasteners area so I restricted the intervention to the foward part and this revealed itself a big error later in the work..... masked by the boundary between the original paint and the reworked area, the spinner had now a discontinuous curvature that was revealed only after paint... ....blades and fasteners masked.... ...paint on again.... But I wasn't satisfied. The underlying paint remained visible as a discontinuity in curvature (barely visible in the photograph) so I tried to adjust it another time by sanding again, this time removing the fasteners. This time I damaged the paintwork of the blades, so I thought -what the hell, I'll remove all of the paint, adjust the spinner curvature once and for all and while at it, adjust the blade width (they are not wide enough)...................................... ...here we are: the spinner is adjusted and I added two 0,1mm strips to the blade leading and trailing edges.... ...all five darned blades.... ...sand smooth until an almost invisible, presumably <0,1mm thickness x 0,1mm is left.... .... then paint everything Sky and smooth carefully the blades, then paint yellow tips then mask yellow and Sky,,, ....black... ....finished..... Finished?? I'd say not yet...... ....the propeller was installed again on RM787.... ...blade width is there, but the spinner now looked too pointy, jut a little bit. I compensated this by spraying the spinner tip with a lot of Sky paint to get some thickness there, then I turned it to sand it even with the spinner, then repainted it. Finally, I was satisfied with the result!... I then added again the blade and spinner markings. Now the finish line is very, very near!! 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Johnson Posted May 28, 2021 Share Posted May 28, 2021 That's a lot of work Stefano, but I know the feeling when something isn't quite right and it has to be fixed. Well done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted May 29, 2021 Share Posted May 29, 2021 Beautiful work Stefano! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Thompson Posted May 29, 2021 Share Posted May 29, 2021 Wow! What an excellent model - it looks like the real aircraft! That's it for me - I'm going back to stamp-collecting... Can you post a link to the Jumpei Temma drawings you used? Thank you! John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted May 29, 2021 Author Share Posted May 29, 2021 (edited) Hello and thanks for the positive comments! John here's the link http://soyuyo.main.jp/spit5b/spit5be-1.html#drawing Today I officially finished the assembly and I hope tomorrow to post some photographs of the manufact. I' m happy with the result even if it took tooooo much time! Edited May 29, 2021 by steh2o 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steh2o Posted May 30, 2021 Author Share Posted May 30, 2021 I started from here. RM787 at Lympne, 1944. Spitfire Mk.XIVe, assigned to Wing Commander Colin Gray. A clean airframe, with residual underfuselage invasion stripes, hand-painted "787" and "CG" letters. My first Spitfire I'm happy with it, still I see things that could have been done better but shape- and accuracy-wise it is very good. I'm working on a Mk.XII now; I have more experience and a little more knowledge on Spitfires; moreover the Mk.XIVe experience teached me where I should improve my skills. Thanks for following this thread! Stefano 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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