Spitfire Mk VIII 'Pauline' - Tamiya 1/32

[flyjoe180]

Condolences for the loss of your mother Barry.

Your Spitfire is looking fantastic, very nicely applied painted markings and decals.

[stillp]

My condolences Barry, it's never a good time to lose a parent but this time of year is perhaps the worst.

Pete

[Guest]

Condolences for your loss Barry, it's tough losing your mum, and very hard on your father.

[Guest]

Those markings look fantastic! I can clearly see the advantages of the MRP here, I reckon it's thinness is what makes this look so realistic. I've always been aware of the scale thickness of paint, and this stuff gets closer to reality than most. I'm guessing that those masks may be very similar to Frisk Film, that we used to use back in the day for doing technical illustrations. Have any of them to go on a compound curve yet?

[papa 695]

My condolences for the loss of your mother Barry.
Nice work with the painting of the roundels and stencils.

[stona]

Sorry for your loss Barry. There's not much more I can say.

As for masks, I thought Mal had retired! He did do me a set for my 1/24 Spitfire floatplane a while back and claimed to be knocking it on the head then

I've used masks from Maketar on a few recent efforts, they do kabuki tape and vinyl versions of which I find the vinyl best.

The Spitfire looks superb, looking forward to the finished model.

Cheers

Steve

[BarryW]

Mal has retired Steve. I got those done about a year ago and he told me then that he was restricting the number of masks he was producing. I agree with you about Maketar, they are excellent as are Montex.

Last night I finished a panel line wash with the AK product. I then did the first matt coat. I will be applying pigments and some dirt streaking before the final matt coat.

here is how she looks now.

[ATTACH]291543[/ATTACH]
Dark Earth is one of those colours that is really good to weather. For some reason it seems to respond to washes, dry brushing and pigments taking on a depth of colour that greens and greys dont seem to quite manage. The photo does not capture it as well as I hoped.

[papa 695]

Love the tropical colours on the Spitfire Barry, looking good.

[Guest]

Another HGW failure. When I was unable to get their fabric seatbelts to work I thought I could at least make use of the canopy masks in the set.

Well, the canopy masks are no use at all.
They comprise of an inner and outer set, something I consider to be an overkill. Well here is the set.
[ATTACH]290965[/ATTACH]

You can see that I removed a piece from the ‘outer’ set of masks. Well it did not fit. Indeed I have placed it beside the Tammy masks to compare and, for good measure put the ‘inside’ element next to it as well. You would expect of course the inner one to be smaller but the outer should be the same size as the Tammy.
[ATTACH]290967[/ATTACH]
I did not bother to try the other elements in the set. I threw the HGW masks away and used the ones supplied by Tamiya instead.

Do not bother with HGW products. Clearly the issues with this brand is not limited to the difficulty in putting together their fabric seatbelts, they are incapable of actually supplying masks that fit. Perhaps the failures with their seatbelts is not all down to me.

been away for a bit and saw this. Just from my experience, the eduard/hgw fabric seatbelts, in my opinion are fantastic, however, vinyl masks are not ideal. They tend to shrink and pull away. Montex masks tend to do this as well. I only use them for insignia masks. The best masks in the game in my opinion are the eduard masks. They have zero shrinkage and are very user friendly.
This is my 1/32 Bf 109G-2 Black 2 Gunther Rall build in the pit with HGW/eduard fabric seatbelts. As you can see, they can bring out some fantastic results with patience
[ATTACH]291584[/ATTACH]

Btw, great job on your spit mk VIII. it's looking amazing so far. I would like to see you do a Grey nurse Australian Mk VIII Spitfire one day. Those schemes look fantastic
Cheers, John

[BarryW]

Well she is done....
I applied pigments over the first matt coat along with dirt streaking. For the first time I used various shades of MIG Oil Brushers for this which worked very well. I then applied the final matt coat on top of which oil and kerosene leaks were done and paint chipping using Uschi Metal powders.
[ATTACH]291601[/ATTACH]
[ATTACH]291600[/ATTACH]
The SAC uc legs fitted perfectly.
I will do a Completed thread as soon as I get a chance.

[BarryW]

I missed a photo that gives a better view of the streaks.
[ATTACH]291602[/ATTACH]

[dave]

Looks great

[Guest]

Fantastic work Barry!