New tool Revell Spitfire. 16th Aug, 2015. All done

[bdthoresen]

Geedub-

I have experienced this phenomenon with humbrol paints on a desert P-40 I built many years ago. I ended up rubbing the surface down with some 0000 steel wool before I applied my Gloss coat. I also allowed each coat of Gloss to dry for 48 hours, and rubbed them down with steel wool as well. When I applied my final thin coat, it was really smooth. The steel wool, as long as it was used lightly, was not terribly aggressive. It was a few extra steps, but allowed me to save what I thought was a doomed paint job.

I like your Spitfire- It looks great to me.....Keep the updates coming!

THOR   

[geedubelyer]

Hi folks, thank you all for the continuing encouragement.

 

How fine do you make the blu-tack sausages in oder to get the soft demarcation lines?

 

Carl

Hi Carl, I rolled the blu-tack under my fingers until it was about 3mm thick then pressed it onto the model surface resulting in a slightly ovoid cross section. I was careful to keep the airbrush perpendicular to the sausages when spraying to give the soft edge. The boundary between the cammo and undersurface colours on the real airframe are probably softer than I've managed to depict but I'll live with it.

 

Harv, Jim, Andy and Tom, many thanks for taking the time to stop by. Glad you like the paint so far.

 

Geedub-

I have experienced this phenomenon with humbrol paints on a desert P-40 I built many years ago. I ended up rubbing the surface down with some 0000 steel wool before I applied my Gloss coat. I also allowed each coat of Gloss to dry for 48 hours, and rubbed them down with steel wool as well. When I applied my final thin coat, it was really smooth. The steel wool, as long as it was used lightly, was not terribly aggressive. It was a few extra steps, but allowed me to save what I thought was a doomed paint job.


THOR   

Hi THOR, thanks for the idea. I forgot about steel wool.   Can you remember if there was any discolouration of the paint?

 

Cheers.

[bdthoresen]

Gee-
As far as using the steel wool, I did not experience any permanent paint discoloration- At first, it did kind of dull the colors before my first clear coat, making them appear lighter. However, once I sprayed the first coat of clear, the color "popped" back to life. I did have to do a small amount of touch up in a few spots, particularly on the trailing edges of the wings (I rubbed too aggressively there!) as well as a spot on the top of one wing where the "pebbly" texture was really pronounced. But it was effort well spent, as I almost binned the project. 

Oh- and when I did touch up the colors, I used lacquer thinner to thin the Humbrol enamels instead of their thinner- It allowed me to thin them a little further, as well as dial back the pressure on my airbrush.  I believe that I was shooting them at too high a pressure with not enough thinner originally. A lot of times the pebbly texture forms due to the paint drying partially before hitting the models surface. Atleast, that is what a mate of mine mentioned to me to try (He is a custom car painter, lot of airbrushing in his past!) It worked brilliantly! I now only use lacquer thinner for all of my enamel paint jobs....

HTH-

THOR   

[geedubelyer]

Hi THOR, that's good to know, thanks. I appreciate the help.

 

I managed to get a coat of future on the kit a few days ago so it has had plenty of time to cure. Also, I received my custom paint masks from Randy (sluggo) at StencilPal. http://www.stencilpal.com/

I could n't wait to see how they worked so spent some time yesterday having a play. The masks worked beautifully, even to the point that when I was forced to re-apply a set after I'd discovered that I was using the wrong shade of grey they stuck back firmly.

I had concerns about the masks ability to conform to the raised detail of the rivets but they worked great. Thanks Randy. I shall definitely be using your products again in the future. Highly recommended gang.

 

The next product that I was eager to try were the wet transfers from HGW. I bought a set of stencils for a MkIX Spit a while ago and decided that any differences would be unlikely to be noticable on the model so I could use them for this project.

My results are disappointing. It is almost certainly down to user error though. The concept of printing the design onto the back of the film so that only the ink is left behind when the decal film is removed seems perfect. In practice, I could n't get  it to work. I followed the instructions, left the decals for a few hours to allow the ink to dry and then peeled the film off but brought all of the ink with it. . I suspect that the pebbly surface of the gloss coat is the main culprit. If I had managed a smooth sheen the decals may have worked better.

I will try them again in the future as I suspect more practice will yield better results. For this project though I am going to revert to plan B and use the kit decals for the stencils. I've also decided to use the Revell decals for the roundels and tail markings too. This will save alot of time and help me get to the end of this nightmare build more quickly   (I'll still have to use some masks for the code letters though).

 

Have fun peeps,

 

Cheers.

Edited August 2, 2015 by geedubelyer

[geedubelyer]

After a few days away with work I returned to the Spit. I decided to press on regardless and just build it. I think I've been trying too hard. In my quest for an early Spitfire in Tamiya-esque style I pushed beyond my limits and the result was poor. Rather than attempt to rectify the issues I've made a conscious decision to get this one out of the way and get back to a model I might enjoy more.

 

I used the kit decals which behaved reasonably well until it came to the stencil data. They silvered badly (entirely my fault I hasten to add) so I've left most of them off. Thankfully there are n't too many on the upper surfaces of a Spitfire. One lesson I learnt was apply the walkway lines after the roundels on future builds. By applying them first I'm now left with a nasty ridge under the roundels....

 

One thing that actually went well was the code letters. These were masked using some generic Spitfire codes from Maketar and look ok. I will possibly do some slight touch-up here or there but on the whole, they're passable. The masks worked beautifully.

They are a slightly different height to the real bird's codes but that may be due to them representing war time letters rather than this contemporary version. I also had to adapt the "J" as the two versions on the Maketar sheet differed from the full sized bird again. No biggie, just a smidge of masking tape over the left hand side of a "U". Easy.

 

With the decals applied I covered the model in Valejo satin varnish which I buffed lightly with a cloth to add a light sheen.

 

After all of that I used some LifeColor Tensochrom to add a subtle exhaust streak. These warbirds only get gently weathered before they are buffed up again so subtlety is the key.

 

Here's how she looks now.....

 

 

 

Next up, the windscreen and canopy before tackling the landing gear.

 

Cheers.

Edited August 7, 2015 by geedubelyer

[zak]

Smashing stuff

[Shoggz]

I think that looks superb.

[ClumsyDude]

If that's what you produce when you're overextended and bummed out then you needn't worry too much as it looks great.

 

Maybe you can get back to your tomcat now!

 

Cheers

Jim

[geedubelyer]

Hi Zak, hi shoggz, thanks for the support guys. Glad you like the way the Spit looks, cheers.

 

Maybe you can get back to your tomcat now!

Cheers
Jim

Hi Jim, that's the plan. I just bought a recently published magazine on the Bombcat in an attempt to re-kindle the desire to progress on the big Turkey. I also got a sheet of plasticard stock to help with building the bypass vents which is where the project stalled so watch this (or rather that) space.

 

For now, I still have a ways to go with this build but I am making a little progress.

I spent hours creating the canopy pull handles and had them nearly complete when they caught on the rough skin of my thumb and I accidentally squashed them   Luckily, work took me away for a few days so I've had time to catch my breath and I'll have another go over the next few days.

Two steps forward, one step back. At least I got the canopy set in place and added the entry door plus, the drivers arm (remember him?) too.

 

 

(yikes! that macro really shows up the orange-peel finish of the paint )

I've decided that I don't particularly care for the separate windscreen approach. I struggled to get a good fit and would have preferred the two to be one.

 

Additionally, I managed to add the antenna and it's wire so the next big job is the gear.

Initial impressions suggest that the gear legs will be a challenge to fit neatly. They are loose in their mountings and some thought will be needed to fathom a suitable way to attach them. Any advice from those who have tackled this already is most welcome, cheers.

 

Anyhoo, onwards and upwards.

Edited August 13, 2015 by geedubelyer

[monthebiff]

Looking good geedubelyer, Decals settled nicely over your Archer rivets....... a pain but well worth the effort aren't they.

 

Regards. Andy

[ClumsyDude]

Just love that pilot. One of the best I've seen in any scale.

 

Cheers

Jim

[dodgem37]

Bravo!  Great stuff.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

[allthumbs]

Guy,

 

I just love your Spitfire.

 

The rivet work came out great...look's really good under a coat of paint - no carrier film apparent, even when zoomed in close with the camera.

 

And the pilot's sunglasses...that is so cool!

 

Rich

[Guest]

Outstanding build! Everything looks fantastic... Harv

[geedubelyer]

Hi guys, many thanks for stopping by and adding your encouragement and support. It certainly helps to keep the spirits up when this build is battling me at every turn.

 

Hi Jim and Rich, glad you enjoy seeing the little dude. I don't always include a pilot figure but there are so many cracking resin versions on the market today that it seemed rude not to. I know that I only used a resin head but that is what makes all of the difference and is why the figure works so well I think.

 

Hi Mark and Harv, thanks for the kind words guys, much appreciated.

 

I had a day off yesterday and managed to get a little more done but not without a fight.

 

For a start I thought I'd add the rear view mirror. A simple job one would think. Oh no, not if this kit has any say in matters! The piece itself is tiny and is on the clear sprue. I succeeded in removing the part without breaking it, cleaned it up and applied a drop of adhesive before positioning it on top of the screen. At this point it promptly drooped into the cockpit opening. No problem I thought, just persuade it into place with the tip of a cocktail stick. Yeah, right. Like that was going to happen. No. On this build it fell off at the slightest thought of adjustment and disappeared into the open cockpit never to be seen again.....

 

So now I've got to scratch build a new one. Oh joy!    A half hour later I had a new mirror made out of foil, mirror confetti and stretched sprue.

Next up, I had another look at the squashed canopy release pull mechanism. As it turned out it was allbut salvageable so although it is n't quite as sharp as it had been it is passable (for this project anyway).

Great, another box ticked.

 

Things were looking up.

 

I could n't get much further without attaching the landing gear so that was the next challenge.

The kit parts are pretty crude and lacking in detail so I spent a while with more foil and wire trying to replicate some of the bits on the full sized gear. It looks ok from a distance. I had a pair of wheels from an old Hasegawa Spit so used them instead of the skinny kit parts. Not perfect but perhaps closer in shape to the real deals. I ditched the plastic outer gear door part nd cut one out of foil to give more of a scale effect. Now that I've glued them on I think the shape is inaccurate but I'm going to live with it. Comparisons with reference photos suggest that the line of the bottom edge of the door itself is wrong. Never mind, it's just another example in a long line of examples.

 

The gear legs are a very loose fit in their mounting holes. I shall have to be careful how I plop the finished model down in the cabinet for fear of buckling them.

 

To give myself a bit of a boost and since she's on her legs now I took a couple of quick snaps in the sunshine.

 

 

 

 

 

I'm lefet with a number of small, fiddly jobs to see this build out. There's every opportunity for it to bite me in the a** again so keep your fingers crossed for me.

 

More to come soon.

 

Cheers.

Edited August 15, 2015 by geedubelyer