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Mother Needs A Spitfire


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Hi comrades

 

First thanks for looking:-

 

 

Stephen – Wow nope never considered producing these. Not even too sure how I would go about that.

 

These sheets have no opaque white backing, because there is no white available in the jet printer. The printer software will always make this a clear and relay on the substrate colour to fill it in. So I will be masking the areas and spraying a white.

 

To produce them as a sheet you would need to get them printed litho and it would more than likely be cost prohibited on such a short run. I will look into it but uhm! Not sure.

 

On the other hand if you are willing to live with the limitations and I can’t guarantee anything I have to print an A4 sheet so you are welcome to the spares that I don’t use at 1:24 scale. For the Spit 17mm or 16mm I am using the 16mm but will be printing the 17mm anyway.

 

If you and Kev or someone else can tell me how to use the PM message bits, thanks in advance. Then let me know Stephen.

Also have you looked at Empire City Decals – they did some Lend Lease decals in smaller scales.

 

Derek – I didn’t intend it to be a tutorial but just went that way as I described the process. Yep I am very good at producing pretty pictures. Just need to work on the modelling skills! But hay give it a go. I am quite impressed with results defiantly turned out fare better than I thought

 

So my update - Didn’t have much time to bend and misshape plastic this weekend. But I did find time to do my experiment with decals that I have made. And as I have already stated I am impressed with the result. If it had the white opaque backing you wouldn’t notice any difference to normal decals.

I marked and scratched then primed with an aluminium rattle spray paint two bits of gash plastic sheet.

Then cut masks and sprayed my white bits. After letting it dry wetted the decal and slipped it in to place.

 

 

 

042-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

 

I placed a couple more of the emblems to see how they reacted to Micro Set and Sol and no problems – reacted the same as usual decals. After that sprayed with a rattle can matt varnish. No reaction and once again no problems.

 

Also tried cutting and spraying Gold but real fiddle plus came to the conclusion life is to short. :rolleyes:

 

Mixed result with painting the stars – every thing was fine until the black. But the decal worked okay so I think for ease and my sanity that’s the rout for me.

 

 

Hope you like. Let me know your thoughts.

 

Taff

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  • 4 weeks later...

'And especially any information on the emblem is really welcome'

 

I hope I'm not too late. I was at Anderws Air Force Base Open House last month and, thinking of you, took a picture of this:

DSCN6081.jpg

 

It was painted onto this:

DSCN6082.jpg

I hope it is of some help.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

Edited by dodgem37
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'And especially any information on the emblem is really welcome'

 

I hope I'm not too late. I was at Anderws Air Force Base Open House last month and, thinking of you, took a picture of this:

DSCN6081.jpg

 

It was painted onto this:

DSCN6082.jpg

I hope it is of some help.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

Hi Mark - Thanks Yep that is spot on. :thumbsup: Just the kind of stuff I needed. Looks like I will revisit my Photoshop work and make it more ruff and painted.

 

And that sure looks like one very cool plane on a very very sunny day - unlike the UK at the moment 'longest day and back to winter and all that'!!

 

Been on hols past couple of weeks. So have now got some Modeling Brownie Points in the bank with the other half so should be able to move this one along. Been fighting with my first ever scratch build work. Mainly the flaps and trying to do the undercarriage and wells. Will post some picks of my efforts soon.

 

Once again Mark thanks very much for the reference. :D

 

Taff

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi comrades – Time for a bit of an update on progress :D

 

The landing flaps.

 

:blink: Uhm mixed results!!! But first time I have ever tried anything like this! So this after much trail & error and mor error fllowed by a bit more trail.

 

Started by rubbing back both the flaps and the area on the wings. I taped the area on the wings so that I had an edge to butt up to later.

 

 

 

045-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

046-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

 

 

I tried to make the ribs free hand :D And then gave up, and went & had a beer to help me think.

 

So back into the digital world I scanned in a traced outline of the flap with the rivet line marked on it. From this I was able to redraw the outline and draw the ribs to the correct size & hieght.

 

 

047-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

 

I then stuck together with Spray Mount 2 strips of plastic card so I only needed to cut them out once Then stuck on top my templates.

 

Then cut drill and rub them back to shape.

 

 

048-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

All finished – just need to do the easy part (Not!!!) And put it all together

 

049-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

050-SpitFlaps.jpg

 

More to follow

 

Taff

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Next I will attempt to build the Wheel Wells.

 

So after the failure to freehand the Flaps I went straight to Illustrator. First made a rough template out of paper. Got this to fit first than scanned this and redraw and planed up the bits I needed :speak_cool:

 

 

051-SpitFlapsWells0.jpg

 

 

Stuck the template down on to plastic card and cut out my bits.

 

Then using a technique I had seen somewhere by someone far more clever than me!

 

I scored and riveted the reverse side. I stuck some blocks down on to the wing so it gave me something to stick to and to give the wall some support. Also you can see the attached flaps in place.

 

 

052-SpitFlapsWells.jpg

 

 

Also filled in the spent cartridge eject as per the instructions and rubbed back (Not got a picture of this finished). I will do the barrel port when the wing is put together.

 

 

053-SpitFlapsWells.jpg

 

054-SpitFlapsWells.jpg

 

 

Then did the wheels – Like all the bits on the model these needed a good clean up. Then a bit more practise at the scratch thing. Quite pleased with the results. :rolleyes:

 

 

043-SpitUC.jpg

 

 

Then painted up and weathered.

 

 

044-SpitUC.jpg

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Okay next painted up the Wheel Wells and the bits that need doing inside the wings.

 

 

056-SpitFlapsWells.jpg

 

 

 

Of course there are no instructions with the colours to use. So looking around the tinterweb - they seemed to be a grey. The instructions use a dark grey under the wheel leg so I carried this colour over in to the Wells. Write or wrong, don't know but I am happy with it. I have done a bit of weathering but will do more when I do the rest of the plane.

 

 

Now to seal the wings up

 

 

055-SpitFlapsWells.jpg

 

 

 

I did have more pictures but must of wiped them or something!!! :BANGHEAD2:

 

The wings are not a good fit and had to do a fare bit of filling and rubbing back and then a bit more filling and more gentle rubbing back. I will take some more pictures and post them later.

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Big Massive thanks to Mark for the picture of the Guard Emblem. :beer4:

 

It confirmed my thoughts that it would have been hand painted. Might have used masks to get the shapes. But by hand after this.

 

So back into the digital world and revisit the artwork for this.

 

First up I need to make this a more of a rough painted effect.

 

For this I made a digital hairy stick, as you all seem to call them, I made the brush with hardish edges and quite stiff bristles. This will give me nice difined edges and streaks. I hope!!! :unsure:

 

Then because I am very happy with shape and colour of my first layout I decided to use this as the base. I duped my workings and flattened this to a single layer. After this with a rich black colour selected.

 

On a new layer I attacked it with varying brush strokes, sizes and pressure.

 

 

057-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

A carried this over the whole emblem. Don’t be to fussy just go for it! I just followed the shapes as if I was painting it.

 

 

058-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

Nice Look Uhm! Trust me I think I know what I'm doing! :rolleyes:

 

This layer becomes your master selection layer.

 

Next I needed to make an impression of 3D paint strokes.

 

Did this by selecting the master layer and making a new layer filling it with rich black. Then offset this selection up and left then delete. Then repeated but filling with white and offset down and right.

 

Then changed the settings and opacity to suit. Black layer to Multiply and white layer to Overlay.

 

Also made another layer in-between with a softer blurred effect. I used this to soften some of the edges. Then did some jiggy with these layers & mask layers

 

 

059-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

 

Okay back to my hairy brush stick thing - changed the pixel size to a bit smaller then a bit more painting just over the mid tone areas.

 

Then reselect this layer with the Magic Wand Tool I expand this selection a little bit, then feathered the selection and delete. Changed this layers blend mode to Multiply and played with the opacity. Then I repeated this with a bigger softer feather and a lighter colour.

 

 

060-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

Okay you still out there :coolio:

 

 

Repeated this stage on yet another new layer using rich black as my colour selection I painted just over the highlights. I just applied a very slight blur to the brush strokes on this layer and changed the blending to colour dodge @ 100%

 

 

061-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

Next duped this layer and blurred it quite a lot. The blending was set to Overlay @ 100%

 

 

062-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

Final bit – I pasted a copy of the base emblem in to a new identical document with the colour mode set to RGB. This allowed me to apply a filter from the Filter Gallery I used the Splatter filter to mottle and rough up the whole image especially the darker edges.

 

I copied this back into my original image on a new layer just above my original image. I duped this layer again and gave it a slight blur to make it soft. Changed both of these layers to blend in Pin Light. The hard version was set to 70 % Opacity.

 

I selected the softer version and with this selection applied a layer mask to the original image to rough up the outer edges.

 

 

 

063-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

 

Final Final Bit – Because of all this going on the colour died a bit so I put a correction curve layer in to pull up the magenta and yellow content.

 

Hope that’s not to boring? And not to much snoring going on!

 

 

 

And as the Meerkats would say “Simples!”

 

 

064-GuardEmb.jpg

 

 

Next Moving on to the cockpit.

 

 

Thanks for looking, any comments welcome - Hope you enjoyed. :speak_cool:

 

All the best - Taff

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Ta very much for the compiment Kev. :speak_cool:

 

Master uhm! My be a black belt :ph34r: but still lots to learn - isn't that always true.

 

Just need to get my modling skills to match my digital but still on a massive learning curve there. But am loving the return to this hobby.

 

:beer: Here is to many more years of plastic bending and glue sniffing!!!!

 

All the best and thanks for looking in and your encouragement.

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Just need to get my modling skills to match my digital but still on a massive learning curve there. But am loving the return to this hobby.

Well you haven't got far to go Taff!

Welcome to the world of AMS. Cutting out individual ribs for the flaps qualifies you to join the ranks

of those with ever dwindling eyesight who have to buy bigger and bigger magnifyers to get the job done!

 

The work on those flaps makes you a definite crazy Welshman! :evil_laugh:

 

keep up the good work mate!

 

Phil :thumbsup:

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hi Comrade Taffski with an update

 

 

Cheers Phil – Yep could have done with just leaving them damn wings alone! Eyesight plus fingers and hair loss would have been less. :rolleyes:

 

Thanks for looking in and for your comment – its half Welsh and half English always interesting at the Rugby internationals. Especially with a broad West Country English accent – answering to the nickname of Taff. Far to complex to explain, just say it’s a Rugby Club honorific or hangover! Uhm hangover and Rugby - Yep they usualy go together. :beer4:

 

 

So on to my update

 

Now that I have finished the Guard Emblem, or as much as I am going to do on it, I will lay-up the final artworks, sized and colour corrected ready for the final printout.

 

To get the sizes I took the small window behind the canopy as my reference.

 

From this in Illustrator I first made a rectangle and then a grid of this rectangle overlaid on to the reference picture.

 

From this I can see how many rectangles or bits of rectangle it takes for each element. Then measured the one on the model. Times it by my rectangles this gives me the width of the graphics. I then did a test printout, cut out the bits and tacked them in place with Blu Tack to see if my theory was correct.

 

Looks a bit big in the picture. Think thats the angle and lense distort. When you look at it flat on its close enough for me.

 

 

065-SpitDecals.jpg

 

 

Then set the colour and other parameters on the printer and did the final printout. This was sealed with a couple of light passes of varnish from a rattle can and left to dry completely for a couple of hours.

 

 

The final printout.

 

 

066-SpitDecals.jpg

 

 

Back in sec with some more :D

 

Taff

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Hi Back with some more.

 

I have also been working on the Cockpit. I did say at the beginning of this project that this would be OOB but inspired or could it be said ‘led astray’ :P by some of the wonders produced around here! I decide to try and spruce the front office up a bit.

 

You can tell this is a very old kit because the detail in here is not good – but then am I going to improve it? :huh:

 

Mainly I am taking the Airfix bits and given them a bit of an overhaul, to the best of my limited ability and some scratchy things. So bits of plastic shaped and some wires and masking tape strips plus bits of silver foil from tea light candles. Chuck some filler in and a lot rubbing back and shaping. Plus the rubbing back of the instrument panel ready for the Airscale bits. After all this and some bad language as bits ping across the room from the tweezers. :frantic:

 

I was left with these bits.

 

 

067-Spitcockpit.jpg

 

Thanks for looking back in a mo with some more

 

Taff

 

 

Next came the painting and then my first ever attempt at putting some of the wiring in – so please be gentle with me with any comments – you see and read some of the builds around here and you all seem to make this bit sound so easy!

 

So after much swearing and walking away and back again I finally got the pit into some kind of shape and order.

 

I also added some weathering to everything. Plus I made some decals in Russian for the Warnings and Caution signs.

 

So here is some pictures of my final efforts with the cockpit hope you like.

 

 

Showing my Warning sign in Russian. I hope that’s correct its what the translator at Google gave me!

 

 

068-SpitCockpit.jpg

 

 

069-SpitCockpit.jpg

 

 

And here is the IP with Airscale instruments. This went together quit easy but next time I will rub back the panel a lot more. Chickened out on this one but think it should be a bit thinner.

 

 

070-SpitCockpit.jpg

 

 

071-SpitCockpit.jpg

 

 

And the other side with may door - with release maps and crow bar in place.

 

 

072-SpitCockpit.jpg

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