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USAAF 4th Fighter Group Spitfire (Tamiya 1/48 Mk Vb) * FINISHED 30 NOV (+ few extra photo’s)*


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I love the restraint and subtlety on the weathering, on the mottling, and on the chipping. I love that you haven't used a black felt tip pen to color in the panel lines.

I'm with Bill, on all three of his comments

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The mottling on the nose was a little too subtle for the screen of my old iphone 6 but looks just right on the larger devices.

Have you missed the long oil streaks on the belly, or are they still to come?

 

John

PS it's fairly easy to do very dirty or clean but somewhere in between like yours is difficult to achieve realistically.

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On 11/20/2021 at 1:42 PM, Biggles87 said:

Have you missed the long oil streaks on the belly, or are they still to come?

 

I’m glad you mentioned them, John.

 

There’s an interesting discussion thread discussing the Spitfire belly oil stains, all the way back in 2013, in which the (sadly missed) Edgar and Gingerbob lead for the argument that the whilst there are some pretty dramatic photos in flight  of extensive oil staining on the belly, that it would have been cleaned off on the ground.

 

Edgar

 

Gingerbob

 

So - with this as top cover - I’ve not attempted to recreate those long streaks.

 

Instead Spittie is between flights and post ground crew clean-up (hence the red patches over the .303s) :D

 

Of course if one demands consistency I should also then recreate the red caps over the cannons.  But (i) consistency is dull (ii) my argument for Spittie’s status is obviously specious and self serving and (iii) who would want to waste the superb Master cannons by covering them up!

 

Anyway.  What I’ve done with Spittie is imagine what sort of moderate accumulated staining would be left over after the ground crew had cleaned up after the messy merlin oil fest:

 

8E4016C9-CC1F-4D32-9576-276C87755F71

 

Pipes various on the undercarriage from 5 amp fuse wire:

 

173E7436-FC05-4C00-9B33-B1C70C93BA73

 

5277252C-096B-4DB3-8CF2-46E987A52F5E

 

Legs attached in all the Spitfire spindlyness (and the cannons have acquired a coat of black): 

 

54FA5659-A21A-4153-A864-D29563246D4A

 

And so the great canopy unmasking.

 

Now I did say I was trepidatious did I not?

 

But that was cos I wos concerned about the canopies - not that paint would rip off the headrest!  P’raps I should’ve forseen the possibility seeing as it’s an etch piece.  But tbh I didn’t even think about the fact that some of the masking tape was in contact with the headrest….

 

BAD2CDF2-5CF5-42FA-9885-E25F03006786

 

What to do?

 

I decided that it was impracticable to try and fill/rub it smooth.  So out with a microchisel and scrape the rest off:

 

CF4D10C7-28EF-4692-ADB0-0B5E80E50E40

 

The quandary now is whether to brush paint it - easy but with probable highly visible brush marks - or to try a tricky masking/airbrushing job….  Probably the latter.

 

The better news is that the windscreen and rear canopy unmasked nicely :D

 

5A9AA77A-F353-41AA-BB84-DFE037D8AD00

 

Remember - there are no problems, only challenges.  Remember - there ere no etc. etc. (repeat as required)…

 

 

Edited by Fritag
typo
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6 minutes ago, perdu said:

B®gger.

 

‘S’funny - I said summat like that :D

 

It looks quite nice in brass…You don’t think that, p’raps, you know, it might’ve been, on some aircraft, like maybe this one…brass for real do you? :rofl2:  Thought not……..

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4 hours ago, Fritag said:

Remember - there are no problems, only challenges.

 

Exactly, and for a man of your caliber ...... etc

 

She looks wonderful with the wheels on, and notwithstanding said headrest challenge, the cockpit unmasked looks superbly awesome.

 

As for the underside and extent of oil staining ............ many opinions, one Spittie, and she's yours! And FWIW, she looks pretty fine under there to me.

 

Terry

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1 minute ago, Terry1954 said:

She looks wonderful with the wheels on,

Agreed 100%! :clap:  :clap: 

 

As for the headrest: I'd brush paint it, several light coats, so as to avoid brush marks. Also, it should probably look quite scuffed, shouldn't it? Some judicious weathering, and it will look like nothing has happened :winkgrin: :) 

 

Ciao

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I'm really liking catching up with this thread, it's nice to see what a beautiful model you're building there. I hope the headrest fix goes well, brave pills on standby?

 

James

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5 hours ago, Fritag said:

(i) consistency is dull (ii) my argument for Spittie’s status is obviously specious and self serving and (iii) who would want to waste the superb Master cannons by covering them up!

 

A man after my own heart - I knew I liked you for some reason!

 

Cheers,

Bill

 

PS. Go on, spray that headrest. You know you want to.    :)

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16 hours ago, giemme said:

As for the headrest: I'd brush paint it, several light coats, so as to avoid brush marks.

 

Yes.  But I’m truly rubbish at brush painting G - I’ve no doubt you could do it; but me, not so sure….

 

15 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

PS. Go on, spray that headrest. You know you want to.    :)

 

Does that make it your responsibility then Bill?

 

So - end of prevarication - just do it.  What’s the worst that could happen?

 

15 hours ago, 81-er said:

I hope the headrest fix goes well, brave pills on standby?

 

Brave pills swallowed,  ta James

 

78FFCA7A-2759-4B35-9D75-BB0325D04C92

 

Followed by primer, interior green, matt coat, very light application of a Flory wash - just to highlight the rivets/screws and a tiny bit of staining.

 

And to my relief and mild surprise I think I got away with it:

 

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Think I’ll call that a save.  Morale is now higher than it was on Sunday.

 

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I thinned the cockpit side and windscreen edge as much as I thought sensible and it looks a bit better than at kit-supplied  thickness.  I reckon I could have been bolder still tho’.  Over-thick edges at smaller scales are inevitable but still one of my pet dislikes :blush: (note to self - in which case don’t take unforgiving photo’s of your work!).

 

3E0409F0-F9C7-4655-A13A-9B89B4356FA1

 

So now I’m caught up with where I thought I’d be yesterday :D But rather relieved to be there…

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fritag
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Thanks chaps.  Shan't fib - I was moderately pleased to have successfully refurbished the visual disaster that was the de-masked headrest.....

 

Anyroadup.  The last remaining major painting task was the fishtail exhausts.

 

I previously primed them and gave 'em a base coat of alclad aluminum and these then were my colouring weapons of choice.   Bit excessive perhaps...:blush:  But it was an opportunity to muck about. 

 

DA47DDC6-3423-4949-9129-0E5953572199

 

One of several reference photo's handy.  How did I manage without an iPad?

 

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Post airbrushing and pre-weathering powders.

 

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And here's where we're at:

 

ECF730C8-3376-44F3-8B7C-0130467A8735

 

CED70D4F-7C64-4146-A7B9-4422A86B7A39

 

 

They're presently sealed with a light airbrushing of Tamiya semi-gloss clear.  Which I ended up using a bit like the 'save' function in a 'Word' document.  Whenever I thought I'd got to a state which I might want to preserve I sprayed on a light coat of clear....

 

I think that's how they're gonna stay.  It's quite hard to stop tinkering once you get going with oils or pastels dontcha think?  And I might just blacken the front section a bit more....

 

Bit OTT devoting a post just to the exhausts - sorry :blush: - but I spent a pleasant few hours last night doing these whilst binge-watching the first 4 episodes of  'Inside the Spitfire Factory' on All 4 so there we are...:whistle: :D

 

So - not much left to do now.  Stick these blighters on - bits and bobs such as nav lights various, radio aerial, pitot tube, prop and sliding canopy.

 

And then the thing I'm least looking forward too - the pesky IFF aerials from the fuselage to the horizontal tailplane.

 

I did drill some fixing holes in the fuselage before painting; but they were covered by the fuselage decals.  Dunno why I thought that a hole only about 0.2 or 0.3mm in diameter would be visible through a decal.  So I've got to do them again...

 

I've got some 0.1mm diameter nickel rod that might do for the aerial - but I'd have to paint it and I also don't fancy relying trying to fix it in place.

 

I'll probably use good ol' fashioned stretched sprue.  The kit sprue stretched nicely and evenly and I should be able to get some decent lengths that will be just as thin as the nickel and I can tack in place with some Tamiya Extra Thin Quick Setting.

 

Edited by Fritag
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10 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

Brilliant work with the eye makeup packs

 

I'm trying to remember if I knew anyone who used a rust or burnt iron flavour of eye makeup, but I'm drawing a blank...    :(

 

*****

 

Any who, Mr. Friday, that's a phenomenal job on the exhausts. I can almost smell them.

 

Cheers,

Bill

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Away for most of the weekend - hoping to do a bit more before work next week.

 

In’t meantime.  Sneaky peak of how she’ll look.  Exhausts fixed.  Prop just dry fitted. Cockpit door to go (obvs.).  Rear view mirror yet to be fitted. Cannon barrel yet to be weathered.

 

I’ll have to do some exhaust staining but the photo of XR-A that I have shows it to be minimal - must have been cleaned off regularly.

 

 

FullSizeRender.jpg

 

 

Edited by Fritag
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