Clear the Bench! It's Kotare Spitfire time.

[Kagemusha]

There are quite a few profiles here, which might pique your interest - though obviously you're limited to P9/N3 serials, there are a couple of suitable examples on this decal sheet, one on this one, and another here, not to mention a couple on the Fundekals sheet.

 

You're doing a great job on the kit, it's a real joy to behold.

[Gazzas]

1 hour ago, Kagemusha said:

There are quite a few profiles here, which might pique your interest - though obviously you're limited to P9/N3 serials, there are a couple of suitable examples on this decal sheet, one on this one, and another here, not to mention a couple on the Fundekals sheet.

 

You're doing a great job on the kit, it's a real joy to behold.

 

Thank you!   For both the compliment and the references. 

[MikeMaben]

21 hours ago, Greif8 said:

 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)

 

The underside 'black' (and spinners) was actually called 'Night' and was carbon black with ultramarine blue pigments. Night fighters and bomber undersides were  painted Special Night which was carbon black with larger pigments giving it a much more matt appearance with 2 problems. Induced more drag and came off easily. It remained the  official night fighter color until 1942.

Don't 'ya love these rabbit holes ? ...

 

                 

 

[is it windy yet?]

Been watching this build with interest, while I wait for mine to arrive.  The spine fit has me a little worried?  I see the radio hatch door is a separate piece.  Can it be left open without having to scratch build the sill and back of the door?        
I know anything is possible but in this case how hard will it be?  The instructions do not mention it being intended to be left open. 

[MikeMaben]

On 3/26/2023 at 12:54 AM, Talon said:

               The exhausts were made of Inconel alloy, which did not rust and was usually a dark metallic grey/black colour

They started out that way but fuel and heat left deposits of reddish brown oxidation and a cream to white color from lead bromide.

Some color wartime photos show this.

[Chris_B-1B]

I received my kit today and am a little curious about the color of gray used for the fuselage identification letters on the decal sheet. It seems very dark with a bluish tint to me. Very different than the gray the artist used for the boxtop art and darker than what EagleCals used for the same subject. 

 

Chris

[Uncarina]

I thought the same thing!

 

Cheers,  Tom

[Dpgsbody55]

On 3/26/2023 at 5:35 PM, Greif8 said:

 

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            

 

One thing to note here is that Supermarine built Spitfires were painted in a slightly different shade of Sky to those planes built elsewhere.  Supermarine's version of Sky was a more blue colour than the rather insipid green that was used on Castle Bromwich built planes.

 

Enjoying your build, Gazza.  Looking forward to more progress.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Gazzas]

6 hours ago, is it windy yet? said:

Been watching this build with interest, while I wait for mine to arrive.  The spine fit has me a little worried?  I see the radio hatch door is a separate piece.  Can it be left open without having to scratch build the sill and back of the door?        
I know anything is possible but in this case how hard will it be?  The instructions do not mention it being intended to be left open. 

 

The spine fit is modeled if you look at the picture provided by Uncarina on the previous page. 

 

 

The  hatches don't have any remarkable detail that I remember...   and certainly no hinge stuff to see. or use to keep them open.  Only the canopy hatch has that.

 

[phasephantomphixer]

Thanks for sharing - showing, looking sweet.  If you are up to it after the cockpit is accessible again,

you could remedy the rear view mirror issue by extracting one of the thin "foil" strips from one of those

rectangular plastic anti-theft things they attach to pricey items at stores, cut to size with sharp scissors,

glue it on with canopy glue. HTH

[MikeMaben]

     ... or aluminum foil, or any foil found on numerous packaging/labels.

[Gazzas]

On 3/28/2023 at 4:15 PM, phasephantomphixer said:

Thanks for sharing - showing, looking sweet.  If you are up to it after the cockpit is accessible again,

you could remedy the rear view mirror issue by extracting one of the thin "foil" strips from one of those

rectangular plastic anti-theft things they attach to pricey items at stores, cut to size with sharp scissors,

glue it on with canopy glue. HTH

 

1 hour ago, MikeMaben said:

     ... or aluminum foil, or any foil found on numerous packaging/labels.

 

It's already in a very precarious position.   And it's the only part on the whole kit that doesn't have a locator pin or structure.  Just flat clear plastic to flat opaque plastic.   I don't know that I will mess with it.  i can already imagine it falling into the bowels of the model never to be seen again.

[williamj]

On 3/27/2023 at 3:24 PM, is it windy yet? said:

Been watching this build with interest, while I wait for mine to arrive.  The spine fit has me a little worried?  I see the radio hatch door is a separate piece.  Can it be left open without having to scratch build the sill and back of the door?        
I know anything is possible but in this case how hard will it be?  The instructions do not mention it being intended to be left open. 

I have test fit the spine, and it is fine, has a very subtle overlap on the lower fus.(like the real Spitty) dont sand it or add plastic strip or any of the other ham fisted "It doesn't look right" aproaches, just dont paint the mating surfaces and it fits beautifully, if you try to alter it you'll find a forward gap will appear and then you're in trouble.

Edited March 30, 2023 by williamj

[Talon]

On 3/15/2023 at 10:10 PM, quang said:

Do not confuse injection sink mark with intentional rippling effect on the skin. That is what Italeri tried to make us believe with their 1/32 F-86F 

You no longer have to take my word for it - listen in and you will learn why it was done, straight from Richard and Darren at Kotare, including "deliberate sink marks".

 

I'm sure you'll try and refute the wording, but trust me, they are by design, and they are sink marks.

 

https://spruecuttersu.buzzsprout.com/1776945/12688972-episode-43-unicorns-and-rainbow-farts-featuring-richard-and-darren-from-kotare-models

 

 

Edited April 21, 2023 by Talon

[Talon]

On 3/31/2023 at 5:14 AM, williamj said:

I have test fit the spine, and it is fine, has a very subtle overlap on the lower fus.(like the real Spitty) dont sand it or add plastic strip or any of the other ham fisted "It doesn't look right" aproaches, just dont paint the mating surfaces and it fits beautifully, if you try to alter it you'll find a forward gap will appear and then you're in trouble.

You have nailed it exactly. It fits exactly like it is supposed to. Don't paint the mating surfaces. But that should be true of any styrene join where you use solvent cement