Got a Flikr account!!!! Thank You all for helping me on this!!! Learning and Thank You all for the response and inclination to do so! Greatly appreciated and pics to come!
Got a Flikr account!!!! Thank You all for helping me on this!!! Learning and Thank You all for the response and inclination to do so! Greatly appreciated and pics to come!
You will still be relying on a provider (I own 3 domain names). Obviously it will be easier to transfer files to another one as you can transfer everything in bulk mode. To me nothing beats (yet) an online/offline combination for most private uses.
best thing to do IMHO is to get a domain name at your name with a personal hosting plan you usually gets free space on a FTP for a website which is more than enough to host your pictures.
And you get total control of your hosting solution being totally independent.
A domain name today is cheap and really for hosting pictures the name is irrelevant. just pick one remotely (or not) connected to you or your activity and book it
We should stress that message: NEVER rely on any cloud hosting provider as the single repository for pictures that have any value to you!!! Hard drives and even SSD ones are actually quite cheap and may easily store thousands of high quality pictures. Don't get me wrong, cloud solutions are still very useful to get access to your files from any device anywhere and back-up them notwithstanding posting on some sites such as LSP. However, I would not recommend any vendor-locked solution as the Photobucket mess clearly illustrated...
Ever since the Photobucket fiasco, I decided to not risk the free services any more, and signed up to a paid account with ImageShack. I can't remember how much it is annually, but not much - maybe 30-40 USD. Of course, I post a lot of images here, and some on other forums too, so I get my money's worth. This might not be the case for a more casual or occasional user. I think Imgur might still be offering a free entry-level account, but I can't be certain.
Storage has never been cheaper. Good point on not relying on any third party to store your pics and files. None of them will last forever. Same goes with websites (including this place). If I see a pic I like or may need for a future project, it’s “left-click, save as..”. I’ve got multiple 2 TB SSD’s. Not going to run out of space anytime soon.
Gorgeous!!! LOVE the Grumman Widgeon, Goose and Duck! Anything with the potential of wearing a USN 3/4 tone counter shading scheme or even Atlantic scheme is a plus in my book!
With my Tamiya F-16 Aggressor now finally put to bed, it’s time for another model and as usual, I follow every military jet with a military prop, because I love them both equally and I like the change of focus. I think that at least 2/3’s of this forum are prop lovers while the rest like jets the most, and that’s OK with me, because I love them both.
As discussed in my other threads, this prop build will be the relatively new Airfix 1/24 Spitfire Mk IXc, which came out in late 2022 and I was one of the first to grab one and put it into my stash, just in case it mysteriously disappeared before I had a chance to buy one. A bit of overkill I suppose, but I didn’t want to take a chance to not have my favorite prop of all time at a big 1/24 scale. Hopefully Airfix will also create a new P-51B/D at this same scale one day, in which case I’ll be there again early to grab one for the stash.
With 2 years since the launch of the kit for the aftermarket community to create a few improvements that I will use, I am also benefitting from some of the earlier builds of this kit in this same forum, to help me with some of the challenges that every kit has. I have gone through the excellent WIP threads by “geedubelyer”, “CraigH”, and “Shoggz” to name a few, who have paved the way. As a result, some of my improvements or methods of construction may not be entirely my own, so I thank these gentlemen ahead of time for their ideas which I will use a lot. I’ve also built the 1/32 Tamiya Mk IXc kit about 5 years ago, so Spitfire cockpit and other details are not new to me. I’ll also be using the Paul Monforton e-Book, Spitfire Mk. IX & XVI Engineered, so I’ll be referring to that as well.
Based upon my review of the instructions so far, I plan to stick to the build sequence whenever I can to help make this thread as easy to follow as possible. A few years ago, I built the Airfix 1/24 F6F-5 Hellcat and was very impressed with most of it, but also disappointed with a few items that could have been easily avoided, which I have already encountered with this Spitfire kit. Here’s a pic of that monster, with the build captured in e-Book form at KLP Publishing:
Building the Airfix F6F-5 Hellcat in 1/24 Scale
The first challenge is the fairly rough nature of the plastic on the large fuselage and wing parts, which can easily be fixed with sanding, because it doesn’t appear to have the stressed skin of the Hellcat that you want to retain, as shown above. The other issue is the overly tight fit of many of the parts, so careful attention to trimming and dry fitting of all parts is a must before committing to glue.
The aftermarket items I’ll be starting with, are the following:
- Airscale Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX Cockpit Upgrade (PE24 MKIX). Like the Hellcat kit, the detail and precision of this PE kit is awesome and as many have mentioned before me, a “must have”.
- Eduard BRASSIN Spitfire IX Exhaust Fishtail Exhausts (624003). The kit ones look a bit chunky to me and there’s nothing quite as good as well cast resin exhaust tips.
- BarracudaCast Spitfire Mk I-IX Five Slot Main Wheels (BR24449). There’s no point dealing with a tire seam if you don’t have to and Barracuda resin is always one of the finest.
- BarracudaCast Spitfire Late Control Columns (BR24502). The original prototype of this kit, which I’ve seen in person, was created by my modeling friend Mike O’Hare here in Calgary. Like anything Mike creates with his 3D printer, the detail is incredible, so I just have to use it.
- HGW Spitfire Mk IX Seatbelts (124515). I used the 1/32 version on my Spitfire build and although fiddly to assemble, they turned out really looking the part, so they go in again.
- 1ManArmy Paint Masks (24DET016). I want to paint as many of the markings as possible without using decals and these come highly recommended by Guy Wilson (geedubelyer), so that’s good enough for me!
I might add a few more items as the build moves along, but this collection should get me started in the right direction. I don’t have a subject yet, but I’m leaning towards Canadian squadrons for obvious reasons. My Tamiya Spit was from 401 Squadron that my father served in from 1943-45 as an airframe mechanic, but this time I think I’ll do another Canadian squadron for a change, so time will tell what it is. I have the book, “Spitfire, The Canadians” by Robert Bracken to give me some inspiration, but in any case, it won’t have D-Day stripes on it, which I think ruin the clean lines of this iconic fighter.
One last point before I get started, is that while I will try to build this model as accurately as possible, I’m sure to make some errors. There are so many versions of Spitfires that continually morphed over the course of the war, it’s not only hard to tell them apart, but a lot of changes in the cockpit and engine occurred within each Mark, so what is “correct” is sometimes a blur. In any case, I just want to build something that’s pleasing to my eye and if something’s wrong, so be it!
Here are all the parts of the first 9 Steps on page 5, including a few of the Airscale upgrade PE parts.
While all the kit parts look really good, the seat back is way too flat for scale and needs to be “puffed up” a bit.
To do this I turned to my bottle of Gator Grip glue, which is a type of PVA glue that I use all the time, when strength isn’t as important as not making a mess, since it is easily cleaned up with water before it dries.
I painted each of the 5 seat back sections with Gator glue one at a time, letting each section dry for about 30 minutes before painting the next, so that clean-up of imperfections was easy. As expected, the glue conformed a bit to the minor relief underneath and dried a bit lumpy, which was exactly what I wanted for a worn leather seat back.
The seat back sections were built up with 2-3 coats to create some relief, but not too much, to match reference pics I have of war-time seats.
Meanwhile I assembled the Airscale parts that are glued onto bulkhead part D11 on the left, while removing the raised detail to ensure a flush fit as per the Airscale instructions. I also drilled out the lightening holes to create more realism. The seatbelt rod on the armored plate was made from 0.75 mm styrene rod, which appears to be the right size for scale.
On the back of part D11 there are 7 almost perfect holes that look like lightening holes, but are really pin marks that are not replicated on the front. Since you can see at least the top ones through the rear glass, I filled them with CA glue and sanded them smooth.
The Airscale parts were then glued onto bulkhead using thin CA glue, leaked into the sides with a microbrush, using capillary action to suck the glue underneath and then held tight for a few seconds to dry. Any blemishes were easily cleaned up with Great Planes CA Glue Debonder. As you can see, the Airscale detail is beautiful.
I usually paint my cockpits with Model Master enamels, because after spraying them you can touch them up with a brush with the very same paint. Now that these paints are no longer made in the full line of colors, I turned to my favorite overall paint, which is MRP acrylic lacquers. While they spray beautifully right out of the bottle, brush painting with them is a real challenge. You need to dab small amounts of the paint rather than stroke them, which can create a mess. The key is to spend extra time masking the parts carefully, so that brush painting touch-ups are kept to a minimum.
Here’s a head on shot of the seat after painting and assembly, showing the raised black leather seat back. Not bad.
The kit instructions call for most of the seat to be painted in a “Leather” color with interior green on the sides, which I think is wrong. Like all Spitfires made after May 1940, the entire seat should be sort of a rust color, to replicate SRBP (Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper), sometimes also called Paxolin if my references are correct. To get this shade, I painted the seat Black first, followed by Rust, which seems to have captured the right look. Although you can find many Spitfire seat photos with a brown leather seat back, these same references suggest that during the war they were black, so I painted mine accordingly, which looks a lot better than a light brown that’s almost the same color as the seat.
I mentioned earlier that you should always check the fit of the parts before gluing them. I didn’t with the seat to bulkhead fit, which is impossible without widening the bulkhead notches by quite a bit. Although doable after painting, it sure would have been easier with plain plastic, where I didn’t have to worry about scratches. Note to self: Dry fit everything from now on! Also note that the seat tabs don't slide into the notches completely, because the vertical supports hit the cross braces. Those rough looking glue marks on the right have since been repaired.
While I painted most of the green parts separately, some small bits on the seat were painted this color then masked off with small bits of tape and liquid mask. Touch-ups were then made with a brush which are tricky to do with MRP paint. Not perfect, but definitely good enough, since the right side of the seat will not be visible when the fuselage is closed.
Notice that I haven’t weathered anything or added any chipping or grime. After building a super clean F-16 Aggressor, it crossed my mind that I might build a restored Spitfire rather than a beat-up warbird. Building a clean model is quite a bit harder than weathered model, where you can hide imperfections and flaws with grime and 95% of the Spitfire builds are understandably dirty. Any thoughts out there? Clean or Dirty?!
As usual, my progress will be slow on this build. Besides my new challenges with my right arm due to recent surgeries, my wife has big plans to travel a lot this next year while we still can. Thanks for your patience if you want to tag along for a long ride.
I have always liked this airplane, so I figured I would make one in 1:32 scale. I have drawn up and 3D printed the parts and put some of the preliminary pieces together to see how it looks, happy with the results, it is a very diminutive model even in 1:32 scale.
Wanted to share some images.
Pat
Thanks guys! My previous supply of lead wire was from a fly-fishing set and maxed out at 0.035". When I did a search on Amazon for 0.040" lead wire, I got hits for solder wire so that opened up a better supply of thicker wire. The wire should be coming some time today.
Since I'm still waiting for the solder wire to arrive so just doing little odds and ends. Here is the Aircraft in Pixels replacement for the horizontal stabs.
In addition to the more realistically subtle fabric and sag effects, the AiP stabilizers have the correct number of stringers. Eight not seven. Very lazy of you, Italeri!
The control surfaces are glued into place in the neutral position with CA glue. For the upper side, I've cut the kit PE parts in half and mounted them on the movable part only. This is per the suggestion of a very helpful modeler's guide to the Italeri MC.202 kit by Maurizio di Terlizzi.
The undersides received some very small PE parts at the hinges courtesy of the kit PE fret.
This is the AiP vertical tail surface. Again, another lazy error by Italeri by only putting six stringers, not the correct eight.
I took a look at AiP's Detail Set #2 next. The AiP stuff is incredibly well rendered but they come with absolutely ZERO instructions. On some parts like the control surfaces, it's no big deal but on these engine parts, some sort of instructions would be helpful. As it is, you have to play detective, looking at the photos on the AiP website as well as photos of the real Folgore engine.
I'm much more comfortable removing 3D-printed parts from their support trees. Typically, it is best to work from the outside towards the middle, cutting the thin attachment point with the FLAT side of cutters and then cutting at the base of the tree to remove the support completely and get it out of the way.
The two bigger AiP parts are mounted on the firewall. These are definitely visible from the wheel wells so I consider them a good upgrade.
The third major part is the vapor oil tank and is mounted on the upper right side of the engine. This one will probably not be visible from the wheel well but I'll add it anyway.
Finally, I decided to replace the balls of the canopy release levers with slightly smaller balls to be more in-scale. These came from the filter elements of a Brita water filter.
Kaeone57 got a reaction from Thunnus in Italeri 1/32 Macchi Mc.202 Folgore
Kaeone57 got a reaction from JayW in 1/18 Scale P-51B 3D Print Build
Kaeone57 got a reaction from chuck540z3 in 1/24 Spitfire Mk IXc, Kicked Up A Notch, FINISHED!
Kaeone57 got a reaction from John1 in Best "Free" picture hosting site to date
Kaeone57 got a reaction from Shoggz in Best "Free" picture hosting site to date
Kaeone57 got a reaction from patricksparks in Grumman Widgeon
Kaeone57 got a reaction from Furie in Tempest Mk.V “Hi-Tech” 1/32 Special Hobby - P.CLOSTERMANN but not the JF-E !!!
Kaeone57 got a reaction from Martinnfb in 1/24 Spitfire Mk IXc, Kicked Up A Notch, FINISHED!