Xtrakit 1/72 Mk22 Spitfire

[Guest]

This is supposed to represent the Spitfire mk22 piloted by Jeffrey Quill in the 1951 Kings cup air races. This race was abandoned due to bad weather. Having never tackled a short run kit before I didn't find it too bad although it seemed to fight all the way.. Things mostly fitted and those that didn't only needed a little bit of adjustment to sort things out. I used acrylics on this one and had great trouble with airbrushing them. The nose portion ended up being brushed. I used Humbrol silver on the main part of the fuselage and wings and chrome silver on the engine cowlings although there does not seem to be a great deal of difference. I had drilled a couple of small holes in the position of the nav lights and put in a blob of oil paint. However this seemed to react with clearfix and bubbled up neatly removing the little slivers of perspex over the lights. These of course vanished into the carpet in the twinkling of an eye. If you look carefully you will see the wingtips a bit bare.This was also my first attempt at a wash. After decaling I gave the whole thing a couple of coats of future and then did a pin wash of diluted oil paint in the panel lines. I found that no matter how careful I wiped it down it removed most of the wash from the lines even after leaving it to dry for a couple of days. I gave up after several attempts. I was getting a bit disheartened by this time so decided to call it a day. This of course left it with a stained and grubby look, so I'm calling it 'After a hard race in bad weather'.

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Also I knocked the outermost port cannon off and it seems now to have a bit of a droop, a bit like me after this one.

[Guest]

Built this one as well, but not as Red 2. Don't worry about the grubby look as only the first and last staged photos ever witnessed a pristine aircraft, the rest of the time it was fuel, throttle, fuel, throttle and little else. Great build.

[Guest]

1/72 you say,eek!!!!!!!! looks good especially the grubby look,1-0 to you

[Guest]

It looks great to me! Had you not mentioned the problems, I'd never have guessed.

What were you using for the wash? Sometimes they do get wiped off a little, but it sounds that perhaps yourselves was a little too thin?

Other than that, what a top job & in braille scale too!

Cheers Patrick

[yak face]

Nice job Barry , looks like you beat it. I know how you feel with the wash , I usually struggle to get it to stay in the panel lines , especially if theyre quite shallow. The best results Ive had are with poundshop water colours , the advantage of these (apart from theyre only £1 !!) is that being entirely water based you can re apply and clean off endlessly until you get the look you want , cheers tony

[Guest]

Thanks for the nice comments, the wash was a mix of black and brown oil paint, which for each successive wash got thicker. I must have done it about five or six times. It settled in some of the panel lines but not the majority. Still, we keep learning onward and upward as they say...

[flyjoe180]

Great build Barry, that is a fine looking Spitfire.

[eddiesolo]

I saw this made up and the modeller had done it just too clean and shiny, didn't suit the model at all, your weathering is subtle and looks the part, well to me anyway.

I like this Barry and in 1/72 and the issues you have pulled off a blinder.

Si

[Guest]

Very nice little build Barry.

Cheers

Polux

[Ian M]

Well we don't see to many 22's and yours is a good one. Oil washes can tease at times can't they!

A great little bird there Barry!

Ian M

[Guest]

I have used Flory's wash for weathering. It is water based and clay based. You brush it on everywhere on to a glossy surface. When dry (45 minutes) use a slightly wet (lick it) paper towel to remove as much as you want from the flat surfaces. The panel lines will remain weathered (unless you scrub hard with a very wet paper). However, on my 1/48 Spitfire, the depth of the panel lines varied a lot so some got no weathering at all, making the result very messy so I wiped it all off. With good panel lines it worked very well.

If the varnish is a mat one the weathering sticks much harder and is therefore more difficult to control by wiping.

[Guest]

Thanks for all the info on washes. I will try it out again on the next one. The panel lines on this one were very fine so probably some of them got filled up with paint and future and were not deep enough to hold very much in the way of a wash.