Revell 1-48 scale Spitfire MkXVI

[Neil Merryweather]

Well, I threatened it in my Scots Greys thread, and now I’ve gone and done it!

I‘ve broken my ‘One Job at a Time’ rule because I just needed an uncomplicated therapy build as a break from the ‘stress’(obviously not real-world stress) of wrestling plastic and Milliput, foil and brass.

So here are the box and the sprues.





It’s going to be strictly OOB with the exception of the added PE seat belts (Revell would have you use decals….).

The kit was a Significant birthday present from two members of my team at work (which was very touching, actually), and it’s been waiting nearly 3 years for me to start it.
It’s a good couple of years since I did a wingy thingy, so lets’ see how much I’ve forgotten!
cheers
Neil

[Guest]

That's a surprise Neil - I haven't seen you do a wingy thing for a couple of years. Looking forward to following along.

[Neil Merryweather]

Welcome aboard Peter. I'm hoping it's going to be a nice, straightforward build.
No challenges intended!

[homechild]

I'm watching this one too (along with about 100 others) to pick up some tips, etc, as I've only just returned to the hobby.
Also, looking at the sprue photos this looks like a fairly a similar kit to the 1:48 Airfix Hawker Hurricane I plan to start soon.

[Neil Merryweather]

Welcome aboard, Drew, but don't expect any kind of masterclass:tears-of-joy:
It's going to be a journey of (re)discovery for me as well. I've only done a couple of planes in my 'maturity', so it's all still uncharted territory for me, really.
But if it shows you what NOT to do that will be a help, eh?
So here we go !

Whilst the Scots Grey horse was languishing in Dettol I made a start on the office.

It seems like quite a nice kit. Scalemates says it dates from 2005, which makes it probably the most modern kit I’ve ever built! The panel lines are nicely inscribed, there are not too many ejector pin marks. As I don’t really know my way around a Spitfire cockpit I decided to paint all the bits Interior Green before assembly. Turns out it might have helped to join a few bits together first, but it wasn’t a fatal error.

I used the control panel decal from the kit, which wasn’t ideal but I’m being lazy. You don’t see much of it and I wanted to see how well Decal Set worked. Not brilliant but not too bad is the verdict, but then the moulded detail on the instrument panel is probably more extreme than in most normal decal situations.
And for the benefit of the uninitiated I gave everything a VERY dilute wash of Games Workshop Agrax Earthshade mixed with a bit of blue ink, before assembly, to bring out the detail. I suggested a bit of wear and tear with a 6B pencil
I’m sure I have painted some of the bits and pieces wrongly but the only reason anyone will know is because of these pics, because once the fuselage is closed up you can hardly see any of it!
I was very impressed with the pre-coloured PE. I have never used them before, and I didn’t realise that was what I had bought, but I have to say they look very good, and they weren’t too traumatic to work with.

So this is as far as I’ve got.








that's all for now
thanks for watching
Neil

[Neil Merryweather]

I cemented the fuselage halves together and inevitably was left with a step to deal with. I scraped it as much as I could but there was a still sink in one side so it needed to be filled.

In previous builds I have found that the texture of the filler shows through the paint no matter how much you sand it, so this time I thought I would try the dissolved sprue method, which would be the same plastic, so therefore should blend in better.

I used the sprue from the model and dissolved some in TET, and then painted it over the areas and left it for 24 hours.

For the benefit of the new people on here, you may notice that I masked the cockpit area to avoid getting dust from the sanding all over my ‘expert’ paint job.

I don’t know what I did wrong with the filler but when I scraped it back there were lots of bubbles which needed to be filled!
So I broke out the Games Workshop Liquid Green Stuff and patched it with that. (No endorsement, it’s just what I have and it kind of works).
It needed a couple of passes with primer before I was happy but we got there in the end.


I normally use Mr Surfacer primer but that involves taking the airbrush and compressor out to the garage because of the fumes, so in order to stay indoors I’m using Vallejo Surface primer. It is an experiment, so fingers crossed.

I had a little problem with the wing halves not sitting together properly, so I cut off the locating pins but I STILL ended up with a step. There must have been something else inside obstructing things.

The tail went together ok though.

There has been comment recently about ridiculously tiny parts and this kit is no exception.

I was puzzled by an entry in the instructions(ignore the pencil marks that's just me making sure I get the correct version)




I expect those of you who are fluent in Instructionese can make perfect sense of this,but I misunderstood it and thought that I had to cut the little corners off the undercarriage doors and glue them in place in the wheel wells…….
They are VERY small

It seemed excessive to me, so I grumpily decided that I wasn’t going to bother, I would just trim the corners out of the doors and be done with it. I’m building it with the wheels down anyway so it’s not going to notice.
But later on I discovered these,Part 27, as per the instructions......:rolling:

Chastened, I humbly cut them off the sprue and started to fit them, when one pinged out of the tweezers.

I didn’t bother looking for it, or trying with the other one.

Thanks for looking in

Neil

[homechild]

I’ve just started a Revell kit today and can attest that the instructions can be...mildly confusing!
I’ve never used the GW liquid green stuff is it good? I’ve used Squadron white putty in the past.

[Neil Merryweather]

I’ve never used the GW liquid green stuff is it good? I’ve used Squadron white putty in the past.

It's ok,Drew, but I only use it for small shallow areas which is what it's intended for. I usually have to apply it twice,though. It's not very strong either so I usually start sanding with 360 grit and finish with 600 or 800. But it does stick better than the Vallejo .
I was going to get some squadron stuff but apparently there is a new formula which people don't like very much.

[Jim R]

Hi Neil
I'm not surprised at all that you needed a break from the Scots Greys model - that is a real test of patience and skills.
Can't go wrong wth a Spitfire, most appropriate with VE Day focusing our minds.
Looks a nice kit although the fit issues mean more work. That cockpit looks superb. Itty-bitty parts seem very common with modern kits. I've not tried that dissolved sprue idea but a lot seem to find it useful. Don't know why there were bubbles. In your photo it looked smooth. Maybe the bubbles came with the shaking or stirring.
Jim

[Neil Merryweather]

Cheers Jim.
My theory is that the small parts issue is a phenomenon of digitally created masters.
I see it at work all the time where the architects work in CAD, in great detail. They expect their designs to be replicated precisely in miniature, not understanding that at 1-1000 scale a window bar at 60mm will be 0.06mm thick - or in other words- INVISIBLE!
When you design something in CAD and you can see it perfectly on your screen, often magnified or zoomed in many times, and it is actually very difficult to visualise how small it is in real life. I always encourage them to print a view at the correct scale to help understand what they are likely to get. They are usually surprised.....
In the OLDEN DAYS when they had to draw at a particular scale,WITH A PEN- if they couldn't draw it they didn't expect us to model it- that's all changed with CAD.
I also think injection moulding technology has moved on so far in recent years that it is now possible to make these nano parts as a matter of course, forgetting that the target demographic is often optically and digitally challenged!

[Neil Merryweather]

Here are some more tiny parts, but at least these are legitimately separate.

These are the port & starboard wing tip lights, which are optional and you have to cut the corners off the wingtips to fit them. It was a nice challenge, but I got away with it using one of those photo etched sawblades for scalpels.


I painted the lights with Tamiya Clear green and red

Whilst waiting for the filler to dry I painted all the separate bits I could think of


I left the radiators off so it would be easier to get the paint inside, and to avoid masking the black bits

Paint is next, I think.

Thanks for looking

Neil

[Neil Merryweather]

So I broke out the hissy stick today.

I’m showing the cockpit open so I masked the opening. That was fun….



I remembered at the last minute to attach the filler cap thingy, which I had left off deliberately in case I damaged it with all the filling and sanding.

I gave it a coat of primer which, thankfully, revealed no hidden horrors. Just before I went in for the light grey underside I remembered the concept of pre-shading, so I thought I would give that a go. I have tried it before without much success, but you never know, one day it might work out alright.

Remember I’m quite a novice with the airbrush so every step is a voyage of discovery…….

I loaded up with black and off I went.


And here it is after the top coat.

Possibly too subtle?

Well I’ll leave it there to dry overnight before I mask it for the wheel recesses, which are aluminium, and the topsides.

Thanks for watching

Neil

[stona]

I also think injection moulding technology has moved on so far in recent years that it is now possible to make these nano parts as a matter of course, forgetting that the target demographic is often optically and digitally challenged!

And resin, and photo-etch! I seem to spend a lot of time with a 2.5 magnification on my head. It used to be 1.8, and my eyes are no worse now than they were then (at least with the specs on).

I have had similar experiences with stage sets, rigging plans and other systems designed with CAD. Now I have the ability, at considerable expense, to open the files and manipulate them on my laptop, which means I can spot potential problems before we attempt to build them in the real world.

Spitfire looks really good too.

Cheers

Steve

[Neil Merryweather]

thanks very much,Steve :thumb2:

[Neil Merryweather]

Welcome to another installment in the voyage of (re)discovery that is my Spitfire build.
I masked the underside and sprayed the wheel wells aluminium.


Here is the pre-shading of the top sides



I decided to try and spray the camouflage free-hand to avoid obliterating the pre-shading with two coats, so here is the Dark Sea Grey



Then the green......



Didn’t go so well. I thinned the paint too much so I ended up getting a huge amount of overspray on the grey. So I had to retouch the grey.



That’s a bit better, but I clearly wasted my time with the pre-shade!

I de-masked and to my great relief there was no lifting and no paint was pulled off. For the record and if anyone is interested I used Tesa yellow masking tape which is CRAZY expensive but worth it, I am happy to say. At least that’s one less area of anxiety for the next one. It also means that the Vallejo surface primer worked ok, which is good to know, as I was worried about that.

I gave it a coat of Klear which really showed up the sorry state of my spraying-there’s so much overspray some areas are like sandpaper! I think I will leave it a few days to harden off. Does anyone know if you can sand Klear?

I’m not going to break my heart over it and I’m certainly not stripping it. If I were to do another aeroplane next I might have a fighting chance of remembering these lessons , but I like variety ,so history will probably repeat itself next time I do a wingy thing! Maybe I will at least think to read through this blog to refresh my memory!

But I WILL remember to get masks for the canopy and maybe even the camouflage!
Thanks for watching
Neil