Spitfire Mk.IX (1/48 ICM)

[Steven000]

Hi guys,
Today I started masking the green camo with blu-tack...


I had a hard time figuring out the camo in the instructions, it just didn't work. Then I suddenly noticed that the Left and Right camo-drawing was simply MIRRORED, so no wonder it didn't work! I took a Revell drawing from another kit to fix a few lines and then sprayed on the dark green...


The guns have a hard camo line, I tried to put them half-way into a piece of blu-tack to mask them out...


I removed the masking and blu-tack oop:


I'm happy with the result, didn't have to fix anything so that's great...


Then I did a bit more masking for the white-band (fuselage) and yellow leading edge (wing)...


Yellow sprayed on... (white base color)


The band is a mix of white and duck-egg...


Next is a gloss coat and decals :thumb2:
Thanks for reading,
Kind regards,
Steven

[AlanG]

Loving it Steven. Blu-tac is great stuff for masking. I use it alot.

[Guest]

That method with the guns semi submerged in blu tack is genius!

[Steven000]

Thanks Alan & Andy :thumb2:

AlanG: Yes it's only the second time I used it but it does the job very well indeed. I wondered how many times do you re-use it?
I kneaded it back into a ball but I'm not sure if any 'uncured' pigments might cause a problem on a next build?


I just sprayed on the first gloss coat (Lucky varnish),
so tomorrow I can hopefully start adding decals oop::thumb2:...


Kind regards,
Steven

[AlanG]

I wondered how many times do you re-use it?
I kneaded it back into a ball but I'm not sure if any 'uncured' pigments might cause a problem on a next build?

Been using mine for about 8 years now. I just take it off the model. Roll it up into a ball. Then pull it apart and re-roll it a couple of times to 'mix in' the paint. Considering how many times i've done this it is only just starting to lose it's stickiness. 8 years for £1? I'll take that

[Steven000]

8 years for £1? I'll take that :smiling3:

That's a bargain indeed :smiling5:, good to know I can re-use them a while, thanks :thumb2:


So ... 'Decal time' oop:
I'm using Micro Set & Sol...


Unlike the ICM-decals for their Bf109, these decals seemed to respond very poorly to Micro Sol.
Especially the large roundels on top of the wings wouldn't drop down into the panel lines...


I spend 2 days applying Micro-Sol again and again but the decals were very stubborn.

I once read the Micro Sol is diluted Acetone, so I even tried pure Acetone to make them soft!
Because I didn't know how the decals would react to Acetone I first tried it on a bottom wing,
it didn't caused any problems but when I started rubbing harder with my brush the ink started to blend...
So it was a bit tricky but I actually went over all the decal-panel lines with Acetone...


Then eventually I gently pushed a sharpened wooden skewer into the decal and it turned out they were softened but needed help dropping down...


So very carefully I went trough all the panel lines with my stick and that worked out great!




I sprayed a second gloss coat to protect the decals.
With all it's markings it starts to look like a Spitfire now :nerd:


The remaining decals were put in a plastic bag for other projects.



So that's all for today, next is a panel line wash!
Thanks for reading and kind regards,
Steven

[Guest]

Superb!

[Guest]

Wow, scary stuff, but the decals look superb.

[Steven000]

Thanks guys!


I drilled holes in the wings for the MG guns...


Then made a mask for the red seals...


I painted the red-seals with a brush, then took of the masks and got this horrifying problem ...
It's not clear to me what happened :

• It might be the 'gloss coat' that came off ?
• Or a 'protective layer' of the decal ... ?

I was able to take off the rest of this 'weird thing', it was the exact same surface of the decal, so after the matt-finish it was no longer visible ...


The landing gear, tail wheel, Antenna, pitot tube and guns were glued on.
I added a panel-wash (Tamiya black) and than sprayed on an 'Ultra Matt' finish (Lucky Varnish)...


Underside...


Then I removed the masks from the clear parts...


And made sure the pilot was still in there!


This is what I have at the moment, she's almost done!
I will add some weathering in the end and still have to make a mirror too (the kit one is too big)...



Thanks for reading and kind regards,
Steven

[topgazza]

Great great job Steven. I'm about to airbrush my first proper build, a MK1 Spit over the next few days. So I have bought some blutack. Did you spray from directly above to get those lovely sharp edges ? Love the colouring and I'm doing mine in standard 1940 colurs so more brown and green on top and Sky S underneath. Will do a bit of panel washing but I prefer the more clean look. But if mine is half as good as yours I'll be happy

[Steven000]

... So I have bought some blutack.
Did you spray from directly above to get those lovely sharp edges ? ...

Thanks, well in theory you should spray very straight to the surface, however, I'm new to this technique as well and had a few problems when I did it the first time on my 1/32 spitfire... See this link

So this time I started to spray straight but changed the angle to get in all the blu-tack corners, if you spray very thin layers then you will still get soft edges...

Make sure you make the blu-tack not too thick, this was the main problem on my 1/32 Spitfire.

And goodluck!
Steven

[Komedy]

Can I ask which green you used for the camo

[Steven000]

Can I ask which green you used for the camo

Yes, Vallejo 'BS Dark Green' 71324.
Steven

[AlanG]

With blu-tac you can either push it down flat to the surface and thus get a hard edge effect or if you have it raised a little then you can get the faded effect.

[topgazza]

I don’t want to divert from Steven’s super build but are faded or sharp the norm ?
My build is a MK 1 as I say and Steven has given me a nice “target” :thumb2: