Greif8

Beautiful build and great diorama setting Kent. I think it is fine to build at your own pace to keep the Mojo level up. Ernest

This looks magnificent Niels! I am looking forward to the RFI photos. Top work! Ernest

Simply awesome masking and airbrushing! Given how complex the curves are you did a fantastic job masking. Truely exceptional man! Ernest

Gary I know you did not ask for the following info so please disregard if you think it is not useful. Also this topic has probably been covered in some detail earlier on the forum, so again, please disregard anything I write below if you already know the information. I won't bore you or anyone else with all the details, but one of the capstone papers I wrote for my undergraduate degree covered the development and functioning of Great Britain's air defense system; and during my research I dug out the information below. The undersides of both Spitfires and Hurricanes went through several changes to their paint schemes and the mid-production version that the kit represents could have had any of the different schemes in effect during WWII. As an aircraft recognition measure British fighter undersides were very frequently painted with the port wing black (actually a very dark grey probably similiar to something like Tamiya's NATO Black) and the starboard wing painted white with the colors meeting at the centerline. A great many (majority) of the Spitfires and Hurricanes had this scheme from outbreak of the war through early June 1940. From early June the Air Ministry ordered that the undersides of fighter aircraft would be painted Sky Type S. Like nearly everything for all combatants during WWII there was a time lag between a directive being issued and it being implemented fully - or mostly implemented. In this case a lack of enough Sky Type S until sometime after mid-August 1940 led to a great variety in color tones as units often mixed their own versions of Sky. Tones varied from more grey towards more blue and everything in between. By the way the "S" in the color designation stands for "Smooth"; as the rough texture of the original camo paints caused drag through air resistance due to their slightly rough texture. As the Battle of Britain ended, many within Fighter Command recommended a return to the earlier black/white scheme as it was found to be very useful for air recognition. The usefulness of this measure was not universally embraced and it was decided that due to the massive amount of work required to repaint the undersurfaces of all fighter aircraft that only the port wing would be painted black. A type of coating similiar to the whitewash many of use are familiar with for armored vehicles that are modelled in a winter setting, called a DTD 441 standard, was used. This could be fairly easily removed using hot water leaving the original paint underneath intact. Many fighters, but undoubtly not all of them, had their port wings painted a black tone with the above mix sometime during the fall months of 1940. In early April 1941 yet another Air Ministry directive was issued ordering that the black would be removed from all fighters by the middle of the month, though that very likely took a bit longer to make the change for all fighters. By the time the RAF began its own offensive operations over Western Europe in the May/June 1941 time frame the vast majority of its fighters had Sky colored undersides. As to the silver undercarriage, that is just as accurate as any (IMHO). Undercarriages could have been painted, repainted or left natural metal on an aircraft for a variety of reasons at different times during its service life. TMI I know Gary, but I hope you get something useful out of the above. Ernest

This well look brilliant with the top coats on it. Very nice work man! Ernest

Dang, that is some top work Jay! Great perserverence dealing with the paint lifting as well. Ernest

I think the squiggles look quite nice Tolga. I agree with Kevin that you are skilled with an airbrush; it is tough to get the density the same and to avoid making the squiggles too fat or too thin on the ends of them, but you did so brilliantly. Ernest

Looking good Gary. The fits seems to be quite nice and you are certainly doing the kit justice! Ernest

Hi Joachim, I think the ignition harness / and the rest of the engine looks great. I find that the Tamiya metal primer works pretty well. As an aside I rode on my gravel bike today and got caught in one of the damn small storm cells that began passing through in the early afternoon. The last 25 kms of the ride was unpleasent to say the least. I will be glad when spring finally arrives for good! Ernest

Very good start Stefan! Like Brad, I think the resin exhausts look great. Ernest

Good luck on the squiggles Tolga. You did a wonderful job spraying the soft demarcation lines between the upper and lower paint colors. Ernest

Very nice airbrush work Jeroen. I hear you on mixing the right tone of light gull gray. I had to try several mixes of simple red until I got the tone I wanted on the Dr.I I just built. Who would have thought mixing a primary color could be so hard! Ernest

Kevin's advice is very good Denis. Another technique using sprue is to heat stretch a section over a candle until you have a very thin length. Cut that to size and place it onto/into the area you want to fill and run a small amount of Tamiya Extra Thin glue along its length to set it in place. You can than use successive applications of the glue, always using very small amounts, to soften the sprue enough to cover the seam you want filled. You can use a toothpick, tip of a Xacto blade or something simliar to shape the softened sprue and get the coverage you want by gently pushing it where needed. Let that harden for a day and sand it smooth. Ernest

Thank you for the photos Gary, this is a really well engineered kit. As to the seam, I agree with Iain that a bit of work to smooth the joint line down (very little actually) and I think it would look fine. Ernest

Thank you for the compliments guys! The red took a few efforts to get the tone I wanted but it worked out in the end. Ernest

Very sharp looking Zero Tim! I learned a lot by following your build. The end result looks great! Ernest

I enjoyed following your build of this aircraft Mike. It is a real eye-catcher. Ernest

Supereb build Johnie! The weathering looks fantastic as does the removed engine. Beautiful work man! Ernest

Very nice work on the MG-17s Denis. I built the Hasegawa Bf-109 F4 a few years ago and the kit had the same panel line problem that the Revell kit apparently does. I used a combo of streched sprue basically melted into place usinf Tamiya Extra Thin glue and after it had cured for a day touched up the spots that needed them with super glue. Ernest

Same here man! I had to throw 3 complete 23ML bottles that I had mixed - painful to say the least. I keep my paints in drawers so I know exposure to UV light was not the cause. Ernest

You are making good progress Denis and are obviously thinking through construction steps to minimize potential fit issues. Very well done indeed! Like others, I too enjoy your writing style and how you document the build. Ernest

Your pre-shading really adds to the septh of the top coat. Well done Tolga! Ernest

Really nice work Mike! You did some neat scratchbuilding using the P-47 ammo, very clever! The camo scheme really stands out compared to the grey scheme on the right. Ernest

A belated Happy Birthday from me Gary! Thank you for taking the time to show some of the nice engineering that went into the kit. The cockpit looks great, you did a very nice job painting and assembling it. I don't have any suggestions to answer your questions but Paolo's recommendation sounds like it should work quite well. Ernest

Nice progress Niels. I have had the smae issue with mixed clear coats turning yellow; in my case Tamiya X22 with Mr. Color Thinner. I now only mix as required. Ernest