The Bobby Oxspring Spitfire Mk1 build....

[Steven000]

That's a lot of warping indeed!
I didn't have any warped wings in my build, but I remember issues with the ailerons too, lost a lot of time on those.

The rest of your build looks great Barry, goodluck fixing the wings :thumb2:
Steven

[Ancientmariner]

Gas mark 4 in the oven and then clamp when cementing may help?

[Guest]

Could it be persuaded with a hot bath?

[BarryW]

Could it be persuaded with a hot bath?

I was thinking just that as a last resort.

[Guest]

Are the main wing pats glued together yet? Because if not, I would try to bend them back with some carefully applied pressure from my fingers. Put the two halves together, see where the problem is, and try to bend the plastic there to get it back into the proper shape.

If they are glued already, I wouldn’t be surprised if you can pry them apart fairly easily again if you glued them within the last few days.

[BarryW]

Well, I boiled a kettle of water and first dipped a sprue to test it out. Then the wing, I held it in the water for about 10 seconds and then laid it flat on the table and pressed down to flatten the offending curve, pushing the aileron into it position to check. Success. It’s not perfect and I do have a spot of filling and sanding to do but it is acceptable.

I then cemented the aileron in place.

[BarryW]

I am working on seams and joins using Mr Dissolved Putty, Vallejo Plastic Putty and sanding sponges.


It is slow going due to having to let the putty cure.

[stona]

But do the wings fit?

[BarryW]

But do the wings fit?

A dry fit shows there will be some filling and sanding to do. There is a root/wing gap and an issue at the back. I have known worse.

[BarryW]

I have been doing a lot of work on surface preparation and have now primed the fuselage. There are a fair few flaws to deal with that it shows up but, all in all, it does not look bad at all.



I will run over the seams and other areas with Mr Dissolved Putty and after sanding I will apply another primer coat.

in the meantime I have been spraying some other parts.


Above are done and just need weathering. Parts below, some need priming and others re ready for base coats. I am awaiting some Eduard canopy masks as the ones with the masking set I have do not fit and, besides, are vinyl and as such are crap for canopies.

[Steven000]

Looking good Barry :thumb2:

[BarryW]

I have finished the mainframe surface prep. After applying Mr Dissolved Putty to the seams and allowing it to cure I sanded it back and then did some re-scribing. I finished with an overall light sanding with a 1500 grade sanding sponge. Finally I wiped it all over with damp blue roll to remove any dust.





The another primer coat. Often I find a further treatment of some seams is necessary, or a re-scribe, but not this time.



A Spitfire in black undies is almost as sexy as Eva Herzigova in hers......

I will run over the model with a polishing sponge before I lay down a base coat. errr, the Spitfire that is, not Eva, mind you...

[BarryW]

I have been getting in with my favourite parts of a build, the painting.

First up I painted the underside Sky. It is the underside where the black basing really helps most in modulating the colour. The effect I want is fairly subtle and I am pleased with the look.



After some masking I went on to paint the Dark Earth.


The lighting has somewhat ‘washed out’ the picture but you might be able to make out the colour modulation, again the black basing did its job. Again I managed quite a subtle effect.

Next I went on to mask up for the camo. For this I used Panzer Putty, a brilliant material for masking flowing camo schemes and here is how I use it.

First I apply a snake of the material just inside the area being masked off in roughly the right shape. Then I start working the material with a finger, pushing and pressing it into shape.


Then I do the same at the opposite side of the area being masked off.



Above the snake is just paid down in roughly the right place.m Below is after working the edge by pressing and pushing. It is very easy to make small shape adjustments with this material.


Then I fill the area between these snakes with more material.






you do need to be careful about making sure there are no gaps.

Here is the camo done.



The great thing about this is how it sinks into the detail so you don’t get any paint seeping underneath. Capillary action is great for extra thin cement but is a pain when painting.

I have, in the past left this on overnight before painting, as long as 24 hours later. This is OK but you will find that the material will ‘run’ and it will need some tidying up before spraying. It’s not a problem and just takes a few minutes to do so. in this case it was not an issue as I had time to spray immediately after a final check of the masking.

After I sprayed the RAF Dark Green, I used some RAF Light Green sprayed inside panels and on highlights to modulate the colour. The result looks wrong, a bit patchy and the lighter green’s tone does not look quite right. See below...... No problem, there is another stage.



I loaded some more RAF Dark Green and went over the model with a mist coat, it helps ‘blend’ the look and I then go over the model again in a more targeted way in areas where I felt the contrast remained too much.

I then finished off by a mist coat of MLT, loaded straight into the ‘dirty, airbrush cup and do another mist coat. Effectively I am spraying a very thinned Dark Green as a final ‘blending coat’. It also serves as the first stage in cleaning the airbrush. I end up with this. A much more subtle modulation.


this way it is very easy and controllable to get the effect that you want. If building a desert based aircraft you can have a more ‘sun bleached’ effect....

It is important to note that the Panzer Putty reacts to the lacquer thinner so don’t remove it too quickly after spaying. You need to wait for the paint to dry and then the putty to settle first or you could have some problems.

In all I waited for 15 minutes after spraying the MLT coat before removing the Panzer Putty. Note that this putty sticks best to other putty, so any residual bits left on the model are easiest remove by being dabbed by Panzer Putty.

All in all this is the best material you can use for masking wave style camo schemes.

Here she is, I have just got to remove the hard edge tape masking off the Sky


I am still waiting for the canopy masks in the post, hopefully they won’t be long...

[BarryW]

Panzer Putty is also particularly good at localised masking for touch ups. On removing the tape I found just two places that needed touching up, an area of Dark Earth and an area of Sky

Below I spent just seconds positioning two pieces of PP to spray the Sky touch up.




The DE next and all done.

I am leaving the model for a bit to cure off and tomorrow I will apply some tape to spray first the red gun patches and then the no walk lines. I might even have time to mask and spray the roundels and fin flashes. I am going to need those canopy masks soon.....

[BarryW]

By the way, I did not mention it, the Panzer Putty is reusable.
Somehow it seems to absorb the overspray. When taken off the model it goes straight back into the tin until next time. The current batch has been used more than half a dozen times and there is lots of life in it yet.