Spitfire Mk. VIII "RCAF" [1:32 Tamiya]

[dennismcc]

Great work, it really looks like a proper Spitfire already, I have the same kit in the stash but for some reason have not built it yet.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Alex]

Couple of in-process photos.  Should have taken more but I've kind of been on a roll, just trying to make progress.

 

 

Lots more still to do but it's underway at least.  I still need to make the ignition harnesses.  I was out of 1mm styrene rod, so had to order it, since the sizes I did have were clearly either too large or too small to look convincing. 

[Alex]

There's the engine almost done.  I still need to attach the frames on the sides that the cowling panels mount to, and I have not yet started to paint the exhaust stacks.  This is by no means a paragon of either completeness or accuracy, but it is pleasingly busier than you'd get just assembling the kit pieces.

 

 

 

 

 

There's very little actually left to build now - really just the prop.  So soon on to painting the exterior.  I'll detour before that and test out some chipping techniques on scrap plastic before committing to the method I'll use to try and reproduce that seemingly ubiquitous trod-off swatches of paint on Spitfire wing roots... 

[LSP_Kevin]

Looking good, Alex!

 

Kev

[Alex]

Engine and prop are now complete - just dry-fit for these photos.  I've also got the landing gear built and painted, so it's only the final exterior paintjob remaining.

 

 

[ScoobyDoo]

Awesome build!

[Alex]

As I had mentioned, I want to use a chipping technique to depict the typical wing root wear and tear that appears in so many Spitfire photos (and models!).  Here's a good example from the RAF archive that Airscale linked to a few days ago...

 

The only way I've attempted to show paint chipping in the past is by dabbing silver paint on top of the camo layer, which never looks like anything except silver paint on the model.  So I'm determined to learn the better way of doing this, by actually wearing away the paint.

 

To try out a few options for this, I ordered three different chipping solutions: AK "Heavy" Chipping Fluid, Vallejo Chipping Medium, and Ammo "Scratches Effects" Chipping Fluid.  I have no independent way of knowing if the stuff in these bottles is exactly the same across all three or not, nor whether it is anything other than bog-standard hairspray from the corner market, cleverly repackaged.  But figured it can't hurt to try a few options.  I also decided to try two different paint underlayers (for the "metal" layer), Alclad Aluminum and Mr Color Silver.  I prefer the look of the Alclad but was worried that it might be too fragile to stand up to this process.  So to do this I set up a grid on some primed styrene sheet:

 

Sprayed on the metal layer (both proper solvent-based lacquer paints):

 

I then sprayed on the chipping fluids.  They went on gloppy, but finally dried acceptably level.  The AK and Ammo products were pretty thin in consistency, so I used them neat.  The Vallejo medium was thicker, so I cut it 50:50 with Vallejo thinner.

 

To try and hasten the chipping process I used a tiny piece of sponge to dab on some masking fluid, with the notion that this would come off easily and provide spots for the chipping process to nucleate.  I saw this done on-line somewhere.  Obviously on the upper left panel I got too much on.  Live and learn.

 

I then painted on the two colors I need to use for my Spitfire, Middle Stone and Dark Earth.  I had these left over from another model I did a while back.

 

I believe I bought them at the time to try out Mr Hobby's acrylic line, since their lacquer paints are a mainstay for me.  I now remember concluding at the time that:

 

1. The Middle Stone seems way too green, and 

2. I hate using acrylic paints

 

But, as I understand it, it's pretty essential to use them if you want to chip, since lacquers will create too water-proof of a layer. 

 

So, here's the basic scheme.

 

As you can see, I painted the Dark Earth over the Middle Stone, creating a thicker paint layer.  I'm glad I did, as this bears on the result.  You can also see here that I scribed some "panel lines" in the plastic before painting to see if they impacted the process at all.

 

I did this last night, and after waiting a seeming eternity for the acrylics to dry (realistically 30 minutes, but I'm used to 30 seconds with lacquer paints), I wetted a piece of paper towel and put it on one of the rectangles for a few minutes to try and "activate" the chipping layer.  I then tried gently, and not so gently, scrubbing with a soft toothbrush, both on the area that got the masking fluid and the area that did not.  After that I variously poked around with a wad of fine steel wool, and a much stiffer brush, and a toothpick.  I did four of the panels in total and then left the other two for today, when I wet them for a good 10 minutes and then chipped away.  This is what the final result looks like.

 

So what did I conclude?

1. The AK product does seem to release more easily and tend toward bigger flakes of paint coming off.  I did not see much difference between the Vallejo and Ammo options.

2. The masking fluid works a treat.  It releases almost instantly and provides a great starting point.  You need to use it very sparingly and only in areas where you want most or all of the paint to come off.

3. The Alclad Aluminum stood up fine, so I'll use that.

4. Paint thickness really matters.  You can see above that the brown areas look less chipped, despite my having spent considerably more time scrubbing away at them.  The difference of two layers of top paint versus one was very noticeable.  I'm not sure how I will deal with this, as the area I want to chip has both light and dark color in the pattern.

5. Soaking time matters.  Some of the panels I wet for only 5 minutes, and they were harder to work with than ones that were soaked for 10-15 minutes.

6. Waiting time matters a lot.  The two panels I did the following day (upper left and bottom middle) were noticeably harder to get going that the ones I did the same evening.  So if I want to get fancy with weathering my paint colors with filters etc I need to block off a big chunk of time so it can all happen in one day, and I need to keep the paint as thin as possible.  Ideally I even want to  apply the final flat coat before chipping, so I don't matte the metal parts, but that's a lot of layers and time.  I need to think more on this.

7. The steel wool abrades the paint rapidly.  You need to be careful, but it has a lot of potential for fading paint or wearing away one layer to reveal the paint underneath.

8. The Middle Stone is too green.  I need to look at some other acrylic brands for better options.  

9. I hate using acrylic paints.  But I'm kind of stuck with them here.

 

So this project will pause for a few more days while I try out some other paint brands to look for a better Middle Stone (or at least one more to my liking).  But I now feel pretty confident that I can make this chipping thing work and get a result that looks heaps better than dabbing on silver paint.

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent test procedures there, Alex! A couple of points if I may. Firstly, while lacquer paints are definitely more difficult to work with than acrylics when it comes to chipping, it can be done. So that might be something worth your while to test with as well. Secondly, those Mr. Hobby aqueous paints really are among the best of what we generically refer to as "acrylic paints". One of the reasons is that they're alcohol-based (same as Tamiya), rather than water-based (like Vallejo, etc). This means you can thin them for airbrushing with lacquer thinners such as Mr. Color Thinner or Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. This improves atomisation, airbrush flow, and (ironically) adhesion. You get the airbrush performance of lacquer paints with the on-model qualities of an acrylic. They were my mainstay paints for years (and I still have a ton of them), but I've mostly switched over to lacquer-based acrylics like SMS now.

 

Kev

[Alex]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Excellent test procedures there, Alex! A couple of points if I may. Firstly, while lacquer paints are definitely more difficult to work with than acrylics when it comes to chipping, it can be done. So that might be something worth your while to test with as well. Secondly, those Mr. Hobby aqueous paints really are among the best of what we generically refer to as "acrylic paints". One of the reasons is that they're alcohol-based (same as Tamiya), rather than water-based (like Vallejo, etc). This means you can thin them for airbrushing with lacquer thinners such as Mr. Color Thinner or Tamiya Lacquer Thinner. This improves atomisation, airbrush flow, and (ironically) adhesion. You get the airbrush performance of lacquer paints with the on-model qualities of an acrylic. They were my mainstay paints for years (and I still have a ton of them), but I've mostly switched over to lacquer-based acrylics like SMS now.

 

Kev

Great observations, Kev.  Thank you!  I will give the lacquer top coat idea a try.  I have MRP Middle Stone and Dark Earth, so I can do that right away.  Maybe the addition of the masking fluid trick will make it more feasible?  I thinned my Mr Hobby acrylics with the Mr Hobby thinner they sell (presumably alcohol-based), but perhaps I’ll give it a go with lacquer thinner at some point too.  

[LSP_Kevin]

4 minutes ago, Alex said:

I thinned my Mr Hobby acrylics with the Mr Hobby thinner they sell (presumably alcohol-based), but perhaps I’ll give it a go with lacquer thinner at some point too.  

 

The Mr. Hobby thinner you used is probably similar to Tamiya's X-20A, which works fine, but you'll be amazed how much better those paints (both brands) perform when you switch to lacquer thinner. Just don't use the generic hardware store stuff, as they're generally too hot (chemically) and also highly variable in their quality and fomulation.

 

Kev

[Alex]

Just now, LSP_Kevin said:

 

The Mr. Hobby thinner you used is probably similar to Tamiya's X-20A, which works fine, but you'll be amazed how much better those paints (both brands) perform when you switch to lacquer thinner. Just don't use the generic hardware store stuff, as they're generally too hot (chemically) and also highly variable in their quality and fomulation.

 

Kev

Fortunately I have a lot of Mr Color Leveling Thinner on hand, since I still use a lot of Mr Color paint in addition to MRP.  Hardware store lacquer thinner is strictly for cleaning the airbrush!

[LSP_Kevin]

2 minutes ago, Alex said:

Hardware store lacquer thinner is strictly for cleaning the airbrush!

 

Exactly! There's a reason we call Mr. Color Leveling Thinner "Unicorn Tears"...

 

Kev

[Shoggz]

Love your build AND your chipping experiments Alex.

 

I'll definitely be referring back, as chipping is an area I'm still trying to perfect - and I'm sure as hell not there yet - but this is great stuff!

[Alex]

Back to this project for round 2 of chipping experiments.  I've obtained the below:

 

With the following goals:

 

1. Try out some different acrylic Middle Stone options to find a better shade.  I have here Vallejo and AK offerings.  In the bottle both look less green than the Mr Hobby stuff, so that's promising.  For this test I'll just use the Mr Hobby Dark Earth with them.

2. Explore the possibility of chipping with MRP lacquers, so I have both Middle Stone and Dark Earth here.

3. Do a paint job more like the actual plan for the model - i.e. add some light layers of whitened color or just dilute white to simulate oxidation/photobleaching of the paint.  The final product needs to look like it's been baking in the North African sun for a while.  I want to do this to practice the look, and also to see how much harder it is to chip with additional paint layers there.  I already have white Vallejo paint, and Vallejo thinner, so I didn't need to order those.  Ditto for the MRP.

 

So far I've flipped my sheet of styrene over, primed it, covered it with Alclad, and then with the AK chipping solution.  I'm now waiting for that to dry.  Stay tuned.

[Alex]

Also took some time this morning to design masks for this project, and slipped in some wheel masks for my DC-8 while I was at it.