mozart Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Love it Guy, it looks "right" from every angle. Max geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted February 29, 2016 Share Posted February 29, 2016 Guy Fantastic progress and just love the front offcie. Just nothing like a Tamiya kit Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 1, 2016 Author Share Posted March 1, 2016 (edited) Thanks Dennis, it always surprises me how quickly these warbird models materialise once the cockpit is done. I can certainly see why folk enjoy building them so much. Thanks Carl. If I'd have taken more time and dry fitted the part first I might have realised why Tamiya have the builder remove it. Since I'm not bothered whether the rudder moves or not I would have left the part intact. As it is I shall adopt your idea and then re-introduce the rod using wire or somesuch. Thanks for the suggestion, much appreciated. Hello Max, thankyou for the kind words. I can be honest and explain that this is all Tamiya's doing though. All I'm doing is shaking the box and this is falling together. I love it! Hi Peter, I could n't agree with you more about Tamiya kits. Such a pleasure to build. I find myself grinning regularly as another part just fits perfectly. If Tamiya can do this, why can't other manufacturers? I will happily pay Tamiya prices if the kits are as good as these recent releases. I'd even consider building models of aircraft that I'm not particularly interested in just to experience the joy of seeing these things come together. Maybe I'll build a Zero or Corsair at some point. Or better still, a glass nosed Mossie. C'mon Tamiya San, you know you want to. I've had a productive evening of cutting and glueing but it's a smidge late here in blighty so pics will follow soon. Cheers for now. Edited March 1, 2016 by geedubelyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) Hello GBers, here is the update I promised a couple of days ago. This time we deal with steps 25-36. It sounds like quite a leap but a fair few of the stages involve options that can be skipped. Step #25 concerns the addition of the upper wing bulges and armament covers. I have chosen option "C" for this build which requires holes to be opened in the upper wing and two blisters added over the wheel bays. Once again the parts fit beautifully. With that complete we get to glue the wings together in step #26 and add the lower armament covers plus those pesky cannon mounts. As others have mentioned, fit on these parts is not absolutely perfect. I shall prime them to see how they look before I decide whether to use filler or not. If the fit looks tolerable I'll leave them as is as I'd prefer to avoid any sanding and lose surface detail. Step #27 relates to the underwing radiators. specifically the addition of the rear mounted flaps. Tamiya supply these as seperate components so the builder has the choice of posing them in the open or closed position. Before I glued them on I added the two internal braces Before we add the radiators we need to construct the clipped wingtips in step #28. These are, unusually, molded completely in clear plastic which might ease production but it is hard to work with. Normal plastic inserts are glued in place to allow correct alignment. Tamiya provide paper masks for the lights but I plan on masking them after I've painted them their respective colours later. One point to note, I was virtually forced to press on past this stage as the aft end of these wingtip parts protrude without the ailerons fitted and would surely get broken. I felt that it was imperative that I get the ailerons fitted to protect the fragile tips. After the construction of the wingtip modules we fit them along with the machine gun covers and the radiators in steps #29/30. One area where this kit has an advantage over kits like the recent Revell offering is in the radiator troughs. These are prototypically deep and have surface detailling molded in. The flash has highlighted the pastel dust which in normal lighting is actually quite subdued. In the past I've painted the radiator faces black and then carefully dry brushed them with silver to lift the mesh detail. In fact, the real deals are pretty black throughout. With that in mind, I chose to brush on some dark brown, grey and black pastel powders in an attempt to replicate the mucky radiator grilles. The next step (#31) requires assembly of the ailerons themselves. In standard Tamiya practice the builder is tasked with sandwiching etched metal hinges and metal rods between the plastic layers. It's a fiddly affair but in practice it works well. Tamiya have to be commended on the fidelity of the parts as the ailerons are very thin on completion. (see some of the above images). Now I got to skip a step or two as '32 and #33 deal with construction of the two 250lb bombs and the etched metal lowered flap edging. Moving on to #34 and #35 we add the closed flaps (fitted beautifully once again) and the ailerons. The ailerons are simply pushed into place and are free to move but I shall eventually glue them in a fixed position. Finally and to conclude this update step#36 simply adds the flap hinge covers. Without adjustment these are fractionally proud of the wing surface but I think I can live with it. Edited March 4, 2016 by geedubelyer Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Loving your detailed progress sir! One of these beasties will be on my bench before too long, so I'm soaking up any tips and tricks I can. geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Wow, great detailing, those radiators look great. Cheers Dennis geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 4, 2016 Author Share Posted March 4, 2016 (edited) Thanks Richard, thanks Dennis. Glad you guys are enjoying the progress. Richard, I confidently predict that you will love building one of these Tamiya beauties One thing that regularly has me smiling with glee and admiration is the fit of the modern Tamiya kits. Check out these wing roots. Just pushed into place with no glue. Fabulous! This makes modelling so much more enjoyable to me. Why can't ALL model kits be like this? Also, I got these in the post. The wheels look beautiful as do the brass cannon. I'm looking forward to using them later in the build. The next step, #37, fits the wings to the fuselage assembly for real so I'm excited about that but then I'll need to decide whether to begin painting or continue on with the landing gear which follows on from that. Any recommendations guys? Cheers. Edited March 4, 2016 by geedubelyer Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Very thoughtful and concisely detailed modelling and comments Guy, a pleasure to read and enjoy. Regarding the last question, I'd go with starting painting the assembled wings and fuselage, the landing gear can be done in short stages whilst you're waiting for paint to dry! Max geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaka HI Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 I agree, the fit at the wing roots is just sublime. How's the fit below where the wings meet the rear fuselage? There's a slight step which I considered correcting, but it was so slight that I just moved on... Very nice progress. geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BloorwestSiR Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Great progress Guy. I agree with Max anx would be paint the fuselage and then add the gear. You can actually get away with not gluing the gear legs in. They're held in place by a small block and a screw. So no worries about knocking them off while painting. Carl geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monthebiff Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Fantastic progress Guy, your cockpit looks sublime!! the Tamiya Spit is such a great kit to build isn't it........keep meaning to treat myself to building another but always get distracted by other projects Regards. Andy geedubelyer 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted March 4, 2016 Share Posted March 4, 2016 Lovely work, Guy! Not only are your build threads great to follow, but you're always there for the other guys too, and we really appreciate that. Kev geedubelyer and mozart 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 6, 2016 Author Share Posted March 6, 2016 (edited) Hi Max, hi Carl, thanks for the advice. I think I'll go with your suggestions and get some top coat on before I go much further. Painting the underside before the gear legs are installed should make things easier. I agree, the fit at the wing roots is just sublime. How's the fit below where the wings meet the rear fuselage? There's a slight step which I considered correcting, but it was so slight that I just moved on... Hello Shaka, there is a very slight step just at the rear of the wing/fuselage assembly but as you say, it's very small. When I dry-fitted the parts I sanded a little off the locating tab which helped to reduce it plus, I've yet to finish the fuselage seam so I'm hoping that it will help to minimise the step still further. With it being underneath the aiframe I expect I'll adopt your wise policy and move on. the Tamiya Spit is such a great kit to build isn't it........keep meaning to treat myself to building another but always get distracted by other projects Regards. Andy Thanks Andy. I held off and held off getting a Tamiya Spitfire in the vane hope that they might offer an early version at some point. Alas, no. Now I wish I'd stumped up the cash as soon as they came out. Go ahead and get one, you won't regret it. Hi Kev, many thanks for stopping by and adding your kind words, very much appreciated. Cheers. Edited March 6, 2016 by geedubelyer Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted March 6, 2016 Share Posted March 6, 2016 Guy Wonderful progress on the Spit and completely agree there is nothing quite like building a Tamiya 32nd scale WWII kit. I've built two so far and enjoyed every minute. Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted March 10, 2016 Author Share Posted March 10, 2016 (edited) Hi Peter, thanks for the kind words and support, much appreciated. I've been dabbling with the paint finish a bit. The airframe that I've chosen is a post war training bird which is predominantly high speed silver. Looking at reference photos this is quite a light shade. When I built a little Spitfire 24 and Revell Meteor I used Citadel's Mithril Silver for the colour. It gave a reasonable representation to my eyes but Citadel has changed the formula of their lightest shade and the current version looks darker on the gear legs that I've sprayed. With that in mind I have experimented with mixing my own version using a light grey and various drops of these..... I ended up with this. In these images the paint does n't look too bad (the rudder is intentionally a slightly darker shade) but in 1:1 there is a pronounced sparkly effect. I'd guess that this is probably through the use of the Vallejo metal medium. Close, but no cigar. The shade is nice and light but I don't think I can live with the candy effect paintwork. Luckily, I've had some great advice elsewhere on the forums so I'm turning to my secret back-up plan.... If you've seen Don's and Peter's Meteors in this thread http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=61203 and Kev's finished Meteor here http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=48526&hl=meteor you'll know just how good the Tamiya paint can look. (Also Big Tony's here: http://forum.largescaleplanes.com/index.php?showtopic=54155&hl=meteor ) Hopefully I won't get any adverse reactions when I apply this hot lacquer over the acrylic. Cheers. Edited March 11, 2016 by geedubelyer Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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