Looking great so far Barry, keep up the great work!!
-
-
Looking Good Barry. Shame about the seam on the canopy I'm really surprised that Tamiya haven't worked out how to produce a canopy with out a seam!Comment
-
Those seams are on their Mustangs as well as this Spitty Vaughan.
Anyway, more progress last night.
I painted the wing lights on the inside of the transparencies ready to cement to the wing.
No worries about the capillary action on the clear paint - that will end up painted over, its only a small area at the tip that will show and I will be masking that off before painting the airframe.
Speaking of the airframe...
I did a test fit of the engine and panels. While the taped up panels look as if some filler might be needed in places, that is not the case. I will have no need to fill any of the joins as long as I take my time over getting them in position.
I did manage to get on with the canopy and first of all used some of the masking putty to give it some strength and avoid cracking it during the process:
I am not sure how well the pics will show what I did but I have a series of pictures starting with the scraped seams then running down various grades of sander through to polishing sponges to finish off...
I then got to this...
Not bad but not perfect.
I have never dipped canopies before though I know that it is a standard practise for many to make the canopies look more glass like. Anyway I used this AKI material which is made specially for dipping and here is a pic of the canopy drying.
No final pictures yet as I dipped late at night and I had a 4.30am start to today.
I will check them over tonight and get some picture uploaded Monday. I do suspect that I might have to clean them off and re-dip as I think they were left uncovered too long allowing dust to lay....
This is how it was left.
I might get a chance to post over the weekend but more likely Monday. Have a great weekend everyone....Comment
-
A bit more progress this weekend.
I had to dip the canopy three times in all before I got this result:
It does look pretty good. The messy looking bit at the end was where the tweezers held it and all of that is frame that will be painted.
I did my first batch of priming,
As you can see I am 'black basing' again.
I did the spinned in white primer. I covers much better than other white paint.
Stynylrez is a superb primer but it does take a lot of clean up!!!
Some areas needed dry brushing with metallic pigments to make the detail pop out though how much will be seen is a bit doubful.
I laid down a base coat on the exhausts with this, AKI Burnt Metal, before attaching the engine panels. There will be other treatments to do after the main painting. The panels fitted well but, surprisingly seeing how well the dry fit went, there was some filler needed in places. While the panels can be made to be removable I really cannot see how that would give a satisfactory appearance given the issues around panel fitting. These really are a complex series of shapes to get right and you cannot see the knock-on effect of a minor misalignment until too late. I am sure the problem is not with the kit itself but I think it is best built either with or without the panels.
Finally I have been sorting colours and started masking ready for the next airbrush session. Tonight I will get on with more masking on the main airframe and canopies.
Comment
-
I have been getting on with masking, painting details and airframe preparation
Canopies masked
wheels and other bits painted
The prop still has a lot of work needed. The right red shade was a problem and I worked on the assumption that it would be the same red as on the roundels. Fortunately I found an exact match between the aftermarket decals I am using and Vallejo MA 71.129 Light Rust. I did not use the decals for the tips and painted these. Yellow is always a problem for coverage and the solution is the Stynylrez yellow primer as it covers beautifully in a couple of light coats and all you need is a coat of the actual yellow shade that you are using over the top.
I primed the airframe and I am using black basing again.
I love this stage as once the primer has dried all the wonderful surface on the model detail is brought out. The qualities that enable this also helps show up the flaws in the build so they can be sorted.
As you can see there are not many flaws. I have sanded in various places and run a bead of Mr Dissolved Putty along a seam. Tomorrow I will do a little more sanding then another primer coat which hopefully will show the flaws sorted. With luck I will have the airframe ready for painting by Monday.Comment
-
Barry mate
Your work is of a very high standard. Super job on the cockpit and even better work on the canopy.Comment
-
Is that primer as smooth as it looks. It sure looks silky smooth to me.
The photo got me thinking.... Has anyone on here done one of the few night fighter Spitfires?Comment
-
Smooth as a baby's bottie Ian.......
got a bit more done. Finished dealing with the flaws and applied a final primer coat.
also applied some of the Tammy decals to the prop. They did splinter a bit but managed to piece the splintered ones together.
Tried applying decals to the bombs. Had a bit of a failure what with splintering Tammy decals and their inability to conform to the curves of the bombs.
I spent ages trying to work one into place with it eventually falling apart. Choice now is either to try masking to paint these coloured stripes, leave the bombs off and just have the bomb cradles empty as in a picture I have seen of the aircraft or fit them without the stripes. I am inclined to the latter but I will play around trying to get some masking laid down accurately.Comment
-
Certainly coming along nicely now mate. Looking forward too some camo on it.Comment
-
I have been getting on with some painting:
First I went over the model with a sanding sponge, specifically a very fine polishing sponge more like. I do this between all coats of paint to smooth out any small irregularities. You can feel the difference with your finger before and after.
The model is wiped of dust with a damp piece of kitchel towl after. The pic above is before the wipe showing the dust.
I sprayed the underside MSG with my usual method, buyilding up in light coats and then mixing a few drops of white into the cup, thinning it down and spraying the lightened, thinned mix into the centre of panels and on any areas that would catch the light when looking at the model. I finish with a mist spray of the base colour to bring it all together and reduce the contrast to how I want it to look. This gives a good modulated appearance.
I masked the underside where necessary.
And sprayed RAF Ocean Grey on top, applying my usual modulating method. The picture looks a bit bleached out under the light and lighter than the underside - it is not... It really is a bit darker...
I have also been applying some washes to the dangly bits. I will produce pictures of those when I have progressed them some more.
Hopefully tonight I will have a chance to apply the camo masking and paint the dark green.Comment
-
-
I've just primed my second model with this stuff, it is staggeringly good, just waiting for Badger to release a whole range of colours like this - they'll kill off all the competition.
It seems also, to be unbelievably tolerant of conditions - I had a bit left in my cup, so played around with it on a bottle, doing all the things we shouldn't do, and it still ends up a perfect surface!!!
edied to add: Ah, it appears that they do, it's just impossible to find them without being sent around in circles...Comment
-
John, - John at SMS has them all in stock in the 120ml bottles and most colours in the smaller bottles.
The couple of the smaller bottles John does not have are available here:
Comment
-
Stunning work Barry. Absolute text book example of how to paint and finish a model.
Have you thought about reverse masking the stripes on the bombs? I.e. Paint the stripe colour first then apply a thin stripe mask then paint the bomb colour. Might make masking a little easier?
Again, superb stuff.
PaulComment
Comment