Grunticus

Great to see you working Max! I've eyed one of these as well, gorgeous looking plane. It would take of my "Dutch" path, but to be honest, life is too short. A Belgian one would not look too foreign between my Dutchies I also bought the turnbuckles but haven't used them yet. Awaiting release of the new 1/32 Tiger Moth. So not too great these turnbuckles? (I bought the metal ones)

Sorry, couldn't resist

She is done. Too cheap? Maybe. Bang for buck? No question! Would buy again in a heartbeat (but with AM instruments, exhausts, wheels, and canons. I present you "Mother's Fear", MK632, a war-time veteran with a few victories on it's account. It came to the Netherlands on 30 July 1946, made two crash landings after it ws re-registered as H-13, and wat taken off charge in 1950. I had a lot of fun creating masks for the roundels, serials, and the aircraft name. I suppose I can sell my Dutch Decals stash now

Looking great! There is a lot of debate (still) going out about what colours Jongblad and Oudblad actually were, and this will probably never be settled. The best description I have ever come across was a statement from a veteran who said that "from a distance the colours looked the same (so one colour overall), and only from a shorter distance you could distinguish that they were in fact, two colors" . Personally I think your darker color looks pretty good, but the lighter one is a tadd too green (if you don't mind me saying so).

You can do all of that and more. If you scan in decals the software can trace them in multiple ways and then cut them of you. It creates vector graphics, so if you prepared one roundel you prepared them all! This is the plotter I use. There are may videos on YT.

Max, I do remember it was at the lowest or near lowest settings, one pass. I will check later and edit this post with the exact values. I saved the file and last used settings are saved with it. I used this foil, which I like but wouldn't mind if it was a tad less sticky.

I have been playing around with the plotter some more today. The serial number was no game for the plotter. But, to my surprise, neither was this; "Moeders Angst". "Mother's Fear". And how right she was! MK632 crash-landed twice after it was re-serialled to, what else, H-13 . This is as delicate as it gets, so I am very happy with my plotter.

Thank you Sir!

Yes quite astonishing, but ever so more welcome to find out! The foil itself is great. Cuts very sharp, tacks very well, is see-through. Wish it would not leave any resudue though.

@mozart You weren't exaggerating, what a wonderful addition the plotter is to this hobby, opening up new areas and being creative in new way. Plus it saves money for decals and masks normally purchased (or so I keep telling myself ). I can't describe the joy it gave lifting the final mask from the roundels, seeing the total picture and the rivets as if it was bare plastic. This comes out of the Silhouette plotter: First, I sprayed the white disk with Tamiya white (the only flat white I have at hand today): Next I airbrushed the red and then the blue segment after replacing the segment-mask over the red. This one had a slight mis-alignment near the leading-edge: Next I re-sprayed the center dot with Tamiya white, and then masked the middle dot for the final orange circle: To my horror there was a residue left behind by the masking foil! The foil stuck quite firmly too, but the Hataka Medium Sea Gray didn't budge. I always felt Mr. Surfacer was a very good primer, and today it proved itself again. The Hataka paint is a trooper too in this respect, nothing lifted. Normally I would remove the residue with ethanol, but I already found out Hataka paint dissolves in that. Luckiliy it turned out the glue residue could be removed with a damp cotton-swab, so it must be water-solluable. Residue gone and alignment repaired: It was a tedious job but it gave me a lot of fun and fulfillment when it turned out like it did. The amount of detail preserved by airbrushing them instead of using decals is significant and no worries about conforming to bulges etc. I think it will show once I start weathering. I used these paints below. I think the red and blue are spot-on for period-roundels. The orange might be a tad too light, but overall it works for me. For the upper wing and fuselage roundels I chose a different appraoch. First I sprayed the orange dot's position in white. I did this in the approximate position for the wing, and in the precise postion on the fuselage sides, only bigger than needed to give me some leeway in mask-placement. Will post end result. I changed my mind and left the gear off for now beacuse I need to handle the kit a lot in this phase. Even happier than before!

The base-coat is on. I used paper masks, cut from a blown up pattern I found online: Some touching-up to do left and right, but it's turned out okay. I used Hataka Orange line lacquer paint for the first time. The handle very very well and have good coverage. The landing gear has been painted too, and is dryinf after a gloss-coat. Next is wheatering and attachinf the gear. BTW, I have also used MR Paint for the first time. Wow...just wow... I will order all I need from their line. It's just awesome stuff. Hataka is very good as well, just not AS good as MR Paint.

It arrived today, and within half an hour I had four perfectly fitting wheel hub masks. What a great toy.....Can't wait to start on the serial number.

I've managed to spend some more time on the Spit, this is where it is at now, after a coat of Surfacer 1200. Ready for a scan of imperfections that need to be addressed. I have already airbrushed and masked the spy fuselage band. The prop and spinner assembly have received a coat of aluminum which I will try to use for chipping-purposes (first time I do the reverse of post-chipping with silver by brush). The fish-tail exhsausts (both fish-tail and round ones are provided) have recieved a coat of a rust-color. They still look a bit rough as they didn't fit very well. I know there was a weld-seam in the middle, but not welded by my blind grandmother. I will need to clean that up. My conclusions about this kit so far is that it is very good value for money. Next time I would replace the following with aftermarket: Instrument panel Exhausts Wheels Gun barrels That would still make it a bargain, but with a bit more satisfaction in construction. But hey, I'm still happy! In the mean time I am awaiting delivery of this little toy, so I can start making my own masks instead of using decals. For this one, I will make the Dutch roundels and some of the serial numbers. I already installed the software and it is more than adaquate for the design job. You can even scan and then trace the decals 1:1 (all right then, 1:32).

Thanks to you and this site my "walkaround" bookmarks folder is growing out of proportions! Thanks!