Clostermann's LO-D by Airfix, Spitfire LF Mk.IXc - Completed

[geedubelyer]

I know this question will be contentious but were the stripes painted differently on this particular airframe?

I don't remember seeing and painted so far inboard on any other Spits. 

I admire your precision. I opted for a subject that avoided the stripes 

[mozart]

On 5/14/2024 at 7:01 PM, geedubelyer said:

I know this question will be contentious but were the stripes painted differently on this particular airframe?

I don't remember seeing and painted so far inboard on any other Spits. 

I admire your precision. I opted for a subject that avoided the stripes 

That’s a good question Guy, I hadn’t spotted the stripe right up to the wing root. This was the AM directive:

 

 

How closely it was adhered to in the field is another matter. There is plenty of evidence that “in such a manner as not to compromise the squadron code letters or serial number” was ignored. 

Edited May 15, 2024 by mozart

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/14/2024 at 1:48 AM, dennismcc said:

Looking good, I love the moment when you start removing masking, but I hate it when it all goes wrong, which luckily does not happen often or require much repair work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Yes, mask removing comes with very high expectations that we've got it right.  Hopefully it's nothing more than correcting little bleeds.  The thing that bothers me most is removing masking from clear parts.  Any bleeds there can be very difficult to correct.

 

On 5/14/2024 at 2:08 PM, MikeMaben said:

Looks fine Mike 

 

Thanks Mike.  I'm looking forward to seeing it done as I'm very pleased with it so far.

 

On 5/14/2024 at 2:20 PM, mozart said:

Turned out very well from what I can see Michael, super job so far. I was reading something the other day about Typhoons which stated that once planes started operating from bases in France (not sure how soon after D-day that was), the stripes on the upper wings were painted over because it made them too conspicuous on the ground for German attackers. Could be relevant for your Clostermann time frame? 
 

 

It certainly is relevant.  Clostermann was transferred out of 602 Squadron before this order was made. 

 

On 5/14/2024 at 4:43 PM, Furie said:

Very nice work Michael, the end result will be splendid!
Here's a link to a Clostermann Spit au/48 with the same camouflage as yours.
The person who assembled it is really very experienced and writes articles in a French aircraft model magazine.

 

Maybe this will help you?

 

[GB EDUARD] 1/48 - Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX - "Clostermann" (forumactif.com)

 

Thanks once again, Furie.  I had a strong feeling that this would be the case after reviewing your pictures back on page one of this build.  So I've made the changes to my model.

 

 

On 5/15/2024 at 2:01 AM, geedubelyer said:

I know this question will be contentious but were the stripes painted differently on this particular airframe?

I don't remember seeing and painted so far inboard on any other Spits. 

I admire your precision. I opted for a subject that avoided the stripes 

 

Smart man in picking a stripeless subject.   I followed the scheme shown in the Xtradecal set.  It seemed to match up with photos showing the positioning of the stripes on the lower wing surfaces.  It seems that no photo's exist of LO-D in full stripe.  Measuring back in terms of 1/24 scale 18inch stripes seems to line up with both the instruction set and those pictures.  But I don't claim 100% certainty and have just done as best I can using the information I've found.  Here's a picture of the Xtradecal paint scheme.  The top and bottom views of this plane are in the bottom right of the picture.  And yes, the stripes were painted differently.  Have a look at @Furie's pictures on page one of this build and you'll see what I mean.  LO-C has the fuselage stripes applied further forward on the fuselage and the serial number is partially obliterated.  Given the haste with which the stripes were painted on, it's not surprising that there's little consistency.  Also, take a look at the box art and paint guide in the box.  The stripes on the Johnny Plagis surely can't be 18 inches wide.

 

 

6 hours ago, mozart said:

That’s a good question Guy, I hadn’t spotted the stripe right up to the wing root. This was the AM directive:

 

 

How closely it was adhered to in the field is another matter. There is plenty of evidence that “in such a manner as not to compromise the squadron code letters or serial number” was ignored. 

 

Very true.  I've seen many pictures of D-Day aircraft showing many inconsistencies.  In fact, if you look at many pictures of wartime aircraft, you'll see many variations in how squadron codes, serial numbers and even colours were applied.  I've seen other debates on the variations of the black and white underside paint applied starting in 1939 to RAF fighters, when it started and when they were supposed to be removed.  There's inconsistencies everywhere.

 

On a small update, as well as making the amendment to the D-Day stripes, I've also corrected all the little bleeds and added what the wing walk stripes, or at least that part of these stripes not obliterated by D-Day stripes.  I've also been painting propeller and undercarriage bits ready for assembly later.

 

 

Next step is to start the varnish/decal/varnish stage.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[geedubelyer]

Hi Michael, thanks for the clarification and explanation. She's looking sharp and crisp. I'm eager to see her with some markings on. Keep it up. 

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/16/2024 at 2:02 PM, geedubelyer said:

Hi Michael, thanks for the clarification and explanation. She's looking sharp and crisp. I'm eager to see her with some markings on. Keep it up. 

 

No problem.  This model has been the subject of a lot of research on my part, as well as a lot of help by those who have contributed to this WIP.  I find that when questions are asked, I go back and double check pictures or other's posts which has helped a lot.

 

As to the markings, here's a taster from last night's work.  Clear gloss has been applied over the whole model.  Then I needed to get the fuselage roundels on first, as well as the plane's serial number, as these need to be in place and dry to get the squadron codes on and spaced properly.  The D goes over part of the serial number as well.

 

 

The decals are very thin, and the left side serial number got badly tangled up when I tried to place it.  Thankfully I got that sorted after a lot of sweating and cursing.  The bigger decals seem to take a long time to come away from the backing paper too.  The other thing I'm having difficulty with is the machine gun covers.  These are not glued in place and are not a 100% fit and they come off very easily.  One does not sit down well and blows off as soon as I point an airbrush anywhere near it.  This made putting the wing top decals in place and lots of Tamiya's Markfit Strong was used, but the decals have laid down well.  I'm anticipating more heavy applications of Markfit with the lower wing decals as they have a couple of big lumps and bumps to go over, and that will be attempted later today along with the rest of the main markings.  Then all the stencils go on to be followed by a coat of satin clear.

 

That's for next time, which I hop will be in the first half of next week.  I'm hopeful that this is going to look really good.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[mozart]

Sounds like it’s fighting you all the way Michael, and good luck with those decals n’bumps! 

[Dpgsbody55]

20 hours ago, mozart said:

Sounds like it’s fighting you all the way Michael, and good luck with those decals n’bumps! 

 

It's probably as much about the way I've chosen to build it as much as anything, but recovering from a broken wrist and model building is also not an ideal combination.  Movement is limited and it gets sore after a while.  I haven't yet added the outer machine guns, so the covers can't be glued on, so they blow off.  The inner machine guns are in place and what I've found is that the covers can need a little grinding to clear the gun breeches.  The reason I haven't fitted the outer guns is that they might slightly protrude from the wing leading edge which can make masking difficult and they get covered in camo paint, which I don't want.

 

The good news is that the lower wing decals have laid down well.  All the main decals are on now, as are the under surface stencils.  I hope to finish off all the stencils today and get that last coat of varnish on it by Tuesday.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Another update, and sooner than I had expected as I've found a little more time for model building and the varnish/decal/varnish stage is finished.

 

This is the underside of the model as it is now.  I used Tamiya X-22 for the gloss varnish as the undersides were also enamel.  And I had plenty.  After all the decals had been applied and allowed to set, my own brew of satin acrylic varnish went on over the top.  I toned it down for this model as it was operated in a dusty environment in the open fields of northern France.  The decals took me four sessions, together with another four sessions of airbrushing for the various varnish stages.  While I was waiting for all of those stages to dry sufficiently to enable me to progress to the next, I also completed the tail wheel assembly which has just been fitted after the last varnish session.  Not quite all the stencils were applied as some of these were obliterated by the stripes being applied over the top.

 

 

As I mentioned previously, the decals all settled down nicely on the model thanks to Tamiya's Markfit Strong.  Here's the roundel for the lower wing which has to go over a ridge in front of the shell ejector, as well as a fairing over the gun breech.  Also please note that the gun is not grey; I put masking tape over the inside of the gun cover which will be removed when I get back to fitting the last of the guns.

 

 

Here's a picture of the centre section undersides showing radiators, wheel wells and the now unmasked recognition light.  To get the light to look as it does, I painted the reflector AS12 before it was installed into the wing, then painted a couple of coats of clear orange over that, and later the clear lens was masked and glued into place.  The D-Day stripes were deliberately sprayed badly where they enter and exit the radiators which were stuffed with sponge as my way of trying to add some appearance of rushed application to the stripes.  The wheel wells will be subjected to a little wear later on.  Again, you may notice missing stencils due to the hasty application of the D-Day stripes.

 

 

Also receiving both types of varnish are the propeller parts, spinner parts, canopy and whichever door I choose to fit in the end.  The prop decals were all installed before removing them from the tree to help get each decal in the same place on each blade as the following picture of the prop may show.

 

 

Here's the top side with all masking removed.  I did have a little bleed under the windscreen, but that was carefully scraped away and polished to a shine.

 

 

The cockpit door that I temporarily installed for painting has been removed here.  My present thinking is that I will display it with the door open and I've painted all the optional doors so I can make up my mind when the time comes.

 

T'other side.

 

 

Finally, I've started assembly of the prop, and the painting of the 3D printed exhausts.

 

 

My next step will be to complete the installation of the soon to be painted exhausts, then put it on it's own three legs with the installation of the rest of the undercarriage.  Hopefully I'll have that done by the weekend as I have a busy week scheduled with life stuff, including two hospital appointments tomorrow for my broken wrist.  Is it still broke??  It's still a bit sore and since I've never broken a bone like this before, I have no idea how I'm going.  Xrays last Friday, surgeon's news tomorrow, so digits are crossed where possible.

 

All being well, I may even complete this by the deadline, which was very much in doubt a few weeks ago.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Shoggz]

Splendid update Michael - you're making me want to build another of these!

 

..and good luck with the hospital appointments..

[dennismcc]

Looking great, I'm slowly building up supplies for my build of this kit, hope it goes as well as yours.

Good luck with the wrist.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[MikeMaben]

Looks great Mike, especially for a handicapped person. 

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/21/2024 at 5:09 PM, Shoggz said:

Splendid update Michael - you're making me want to build another of these!

 

..and good luck with the hospital appointments..

 

Thanks.  I'll probably get another too, but I want to do a clipped wing example and haven't seen many decal sets for that.  The hospital appointments went well, thankfully.  the surgeon is happy with my progress and says I can discard the thermoplastic "cast", and the upper limb therapist has given me more tortuous exercises and says I can now ween myself off the cast.   Don't you just love it when all the medicos are on the same page??

 

On 5/21/2024 at 6:39 PM, dennismcc said:

Looking great, I'm slowly building up supplies for my build of this kit, hope it goes as well as yours.

Good luck with the wrist.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

I didn't use much aftermarket with this one, but I may well try out more if/when I do another.  Thanks.  The wrist is getting better, and I feel just like Frank Spencer.  Every day, in every way, I'm getting better and better .

 

On 5/22/2024 at 3:52 PM, MikeMaben said:

Looks great Mike, especially for a handicapped person. 

 

Thanks Mike.  How's your injured ribs and thumb going?  Fully healed I hope.

 

 

So, a little more progress despite this being a very busy week.  But first, a word of caution to anyone who has one of these models.  If you pick it up by one wing, don't apply any sort of pressure to the wing tip when you do.  Ask me how I know..... 

 

 

Thankfully I managed to glue it back on without much touch up needed.

 

I started working on the exhausts over the last few days.  I'm using Eduard Brassin  parts for this, and they're well worth the money.  The kit parts are awful.  I painted mine in steel, the dry brushed burnt iron over that, the dry brushed a bit of rust over that.  Here they are going in.  I've also added some exhaust stains before I added the now painted exhausts.

 

 

Done, almost.  I'll be adding a little exhaust soot later, more heavily as it progresses along the exhaust stack.  I've tried to do the same thing with the dry brushing, to make each pipe more worn as the rear pipes would get progressively hotter as we go further towards the rear of the engine.

 

 

I've also attached the spinner back plate to the prop, and made up the cockpit door.  One minus point on this kit is that Airfix do not provide any stencils for the inside of this door.  They're clearly shown on the picture on the first page of this build, so a bit of a miss here, Airfix.  I rummaged through my spare decals box and found something suitable, at least in real size.  This pic is about twice the size of the model's door.  No idea what it says, and don't want to know.  But it looks the part.

 

 

Here's a picture of how it looks now.  The outer wing guns have also gone in.

 

 

Next will be the wing lights, machine gun port leading edge patches made from cigarette paper that you can see painted at the top right of the picture, add the prop spinner, undercarriage, pilot's door and canopy.  I'd also like to add petrol staining to the tank cap area, but I've no idea how to do that.  Suggestions happily received.  And then it might be done.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[MikeMaben]

You're really racin' thru this one Meegel 

My ribs fine but my thumb still hurts whenever I

grab something with my right hand. I'm right handed of course. 

I think it's gonna be a long time before that one's back to normal ... if ever 

[Dpgsbody55]

On 5/24/2024 at 3:29 PM, MikeMaben said:

You're really racin' thru this one Meegel 

My ribs fine but my thumb still hurts whenever I

grab something with my right hand. I'm right handed of course. 

I think it's gonna be a long time before that one's back to normal ... if ever 

 

Yes, I'm definitely making better progress than I had expected a month ago.  Sorry to hear the thumb's still a problem.  I suppose there's a reason why the dominant hand gets damaged more than the other one.  Same for me with my wrist, which the surgeon tells me will never be as good as before my accident.  Cheerful b@st#rd... 

 

My Spitfire edges closer to the shelf of done and I expect this will be the penultimate update.  I've added the wing nav lights, gun port patches, pilot's door and the canopy, and the undercarriage is on but not yet complete.  The spinner has also been glued on and the prop finally attached after having received a little weathering.

 

First of all, the undercarriage.  I've added the oleo vent tubes made from 0.5mm wire, attached by making a loop from 0.3mm wire.  Here they're on the plane together with the wheels, but no doors yet.  I'm thinking of adding the hydraulic brake lines which run down the back of the wheel well door if possible, but I suspect they're not really visible so I may not bother.

 

 

Some scratching has been added to the wheel bay, though some of it is not that visible in these pictures.

 

 

Here is a full view of the model as of now.  I drilled an indentation into the wing nav lights and dropped a touch of the appropriate colour into these.  The gun patches are made from cigarette paper, painted the red dope colour and glued on with PVA.  The canopy was given a final polish and glued in place with a little MicroKlear glue.

 

 

Not a lot left to add in terms of parts, both of which remaining parts are behind it in this picture.  First job is to fix that tail wheel which has come off it's "axle" as soon as I put it down.   I'll also punch some holes through the machine gun port patches.

 

Jobs remaining are the possible brake lines, undercarriage doors, more weathering, gun covers to be glued or not glued as the case may be, and one last attempt at getting the cowlings to stay in place.  The pins keep breaking off.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[geedubelyer]

Looking good Michael. You're on the home stretch now.