1:48 Revell Mk IX Spitfire

[stona]

Theuns I've never got realistic exhaust staining on 1/48 or bigger with pastels. That may say more about me than the technique! I airbrush thinned paint in the area I want to stain. I use thin layers of umber,black and sometimes grey. I often see exhaust stains in the wrong place,it's important to find a decent reference if you can,the airflow causes staining in surprising patterns on some aircraft,certainly not a straight line to the rear of the exhausts.Look at this humble Hurricane.

Cheers

Steve

[Guest]

Rats!

This might be a problem as I do not yet own an airbrush that can do fine work.Untill then I will try drybrushing.

T

PS I realy like that Hurri.

[Guest]

When you see pics like this the logic drops into place. That exhaust stain is in the exact shape you would get of a wind tunnel smoke trail going over the top of the wing.

Have to say Theuns, drybrushing is something that only comes with practice. The Mustang cockpit, the model before this Spitfire was really badly done as I had far too much paint on the brush and it was catching the flat surfaces as well as the edges, really just turns it into a scrubbed paint job. Also the paint was drying too fast so it was coming off the brush in blobs. When you get it right, it is very satisfying. My mantra on this is little and often. If you se the effect straight away, it is too much.

[Guest]

Bit of progress. Fuselage glued up and the wings fitted. Very little filler needed so I used correction fluid again. Masked up the canopy... I HATE MASKING CANOPIES.... why do I keep wanting to build aircraft... Anyway, I hope it works and that I can separate the parts of the canopy as I want the centre piece slid back in open position. rear wings not glued in but they fit so well, I hope to be able to make airbrushing easier with them out then fit them after painting. May live to regret it.....

Ready for primer and pre shading.. never tried that yet so potential disaster looming lol.

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[Guest]

All primed up and, for the first time ever, I am having a go at pre-shading as demonstrated by Phil on Promodellers. Being very new to airbrushing and being sooo scared of messing it up, you can see how I suffered from shaky hands lol No pain no gain so onwards and upwards. Should have tried something bigger though lol.

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[Guest]

lol who's not been taking their Prozac?!! Seriously though Graham, you should have seen some of my first airbrush lines-if I'd have been painting a ball of wool, it would have been excellent!

How about going over some of the more wobbly lines again, just to balance them out? Like on the port wing, just in case that shows through when you put on the main coats.

Patrick

[Guest]

Well, apparently Patrick, the less neat (within reason) the better as the idea is not to create a grid effect but just subtle shadowing that the wash in the panel lines will emphasise. I have done the underside and it looks great, very subtle but too subtle to get on camera. No matter what I do, it just does not show. However, the following shots show the amazing detail on the lovely kit. However, I will have to burn it when finished as it appears that it is 3mm too short.... deary me, how silly of me to buy it. WHO CARES?????

Anyway, sorry the shots don't show how shadowed the panel lines now look but if I did it so it showed on camera, it would be too heavy in life.... You can just about see it on the full picture right wing tip, or maybe you can't. Just wish I could capture it how it really looks, sorry guys.

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[Guest]

Right, it has been a long day but this has been one of those kits that once you start, you cannot put it down. Just like a great book, I had to keep going but time to call it a day while the Klear goes hard ready for decals. I only got this kit 4 days ago, it took me 3 months to get to this stage with the Mustang!!!! If anyone fancies a great later mark spitfire in 1:48, this is it. If you want to be accurate, you will need to insert spacers in the fuselage at various places to make the total length 3mm longer. Or not....

Anyway, the last boring pics of the day. Camo pattern again airbrushed freehand. i just cannot be bothered to design and cut masks over a 3D shape, life is just to short.

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[yak face]

this looks a great kit graham,coming along nicely. If you dont want to use masks (me neither) for the camo, try the blu tack sausage method, its easy if you want a harder edge to your camo. keep the pics coming , cheers tony

[spanner570]

Well done Graham...Why? For instead of just talking about things to have the balls to get on and do it and post pictures of your progress, good, bad or indifferent and saying so. People fall into the trap of trying to get things too perfect and thus the model becomes almost clinical to look at.

On the other hand Graham, you have the Gung Ho, up and at 'em attitude which I subscribe to. Please don't get me wrong to each his own though.

The panel lines look spot on to me, wobbly lines and all....More power to you mate. As you so rightly point out life is too short for messing around.

Ron

[Guest]

Cheers Ron. I don't know about 'Gung Ho' but I have spent the last few months faffing around wondering if I can do this or if that would work and getting nowt done. So, when I got my airbrush and started reading about what I was supposed to be doing with the airbrush safely tucked up in it's box I suddenly thought, sod this, get it out the box and get on with it. At worst all I can do is ruin a kit! Not exactly life threatening is it. Anyway, that change of heart brought about by the support and confidence building of this forum is paying of in great dividends. So my advice is, "so long as it is safe, try it."

Spitfire Decals, here I come.

Tony. The blue tack sausages idea looks great. I did think that it may only work in larger scales but I have seen on another forum where someone used flat sausages (?) fairly thin to create the pattern edges with Tamiya tape infill. In fact the blue tack (or white tack really as it is reputedly oil free) may even have been rolled out and then cut to shape for each edge. I can see that working with a decent blade. Anyway, with the tamiya tape infill, the aircraft looked as though it had fried eggs all over it. The result was stunning I have to say, then I found out it was a 1:72 Tamiya kit!!! really amazing paint job. My freehand is a bit rough and ready and maybe too soft edged but it looks right to me in scale but I could not do it at 1:72. 1:48 and above looks ok to me though.. If you look at die-casts, they tend to be soft edged to and it is a look I really like accurate or not.

[yak face]

Cheers Ron. I don't know about 'Gung Ho' but I have spent the last few months faffing around wondering if I can do this or if that would work and getting nowt done. So, when I got my airbrush and started reading about what I was supposed to be doing with the airbrush safely tucked up in it's box I suddenly thought, sod this, get it out the box and get on with it. At worst all I can do is ruin a kit! Not exactly life threatening is it. Anyway, that change of heart brought about by the support and confidence building of this forum is paying of in great dividends. So my advice is, "so long as it is safe, try it."Spitfire Decals, here I come.

Tony. The blue tack sausages idea looks great. I did think that it may only work in larger scales but I have seen on another forum where someone used flat sausages (?) fairly thin to create the pattern edges with Tamiya tape infill. In fact the blue tack (or white tack really as it is reputedly oil free) may even have been rolled out and then cut to shape for each edge. I can see that working with a decent blade. Anyway, with the tamiya tape infill, the aircraft looked as though it had fried eggs all over it. The result was stunning I have to say, then I found out it was a 1:72 Tamiya kit!!! really amazing paint job. My freehand is a bit rough and ready and maybe too soft edged but it looks right to me in scale but I could not do it at 1:72. 1:48 and above looks ok to me though.. If you look at die-casts, they tend to be soft edged to and it is a look I really like accurate or not.

hi graham, the blu tack method can work fine on 1/72,giving a soft but not too soft edge , for larger scales you can make your sausages fatter,giving a bigger soft edge . im off now all this talk of fat sausages is making me want me tea!! pics attached of 1/72 blu tack camo job on my la 5 . cheers tony[ATTACH]21647.IPB[/ATTACH]

[Guest]

That does look very nice Tony. I will have to give it a try on one of my 1:72 stash

[Guest]

Right, todays update and what an evening it has been. It has taken me ages to put the decals on but what decals. I have been really spoiled with this kit, it is just beautiful, must by another and do the clip wing version. The decals went on with no problems apart from the red dot in the middle of the roundel being a separate bit.... why is that? A pig to get in the middle!!!! As the main wing roundels go slap over the top of a big bump, I was worried abut them settling down. Remembering the way the decal sucked down onto the 3D instrument panel, I went all forward, trusting in the Lord. After a few coats of Microsol, the decals look painted on. Every detail on the wings surface shows through.

My next concern was that there were loads of small but very readable information decals like "Jack Here" etc. These, as all the decals have, a slightly silvered carrier which disappeared when wet with Microsol but reappeared when it dried. Don't get me wrong, it was slight but it was there. So it was with baited breath that I setup the airbrush to do a thin spray of Klear to protect the decals while it gets its wash to pick out the panel lines. Slowly the Klear dried ad as if by magic, the carrier disappeared totally. The box has a flash in one corner stating "Super Decal" and they are not joking. For a beginner like me, this is what helps make a good model.

A few pictures tonight but the reflections from the now very shiny Klear make the pics messy. The bump in the roundel is not a bubble, it is surface detail on the wing.

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[Gern]

Good one Graham. Yet another really nice build from a kit at the 'cheap' end of the market. I know you mentioned some problem with the accuracy, but that looks like a Spitfire to me. I certainly wouldn't be getting the tape measure out to check. And I'll bet there are very, very few people who could spot the error without a tape!

Gern