Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 A walk-through of the kit (almost) SFTB, to show a few fixes and cheats, with a slightly different colour scheme.One thing to be watchful of are the sprue tags when removing the parts - these are quite chunky where they meet the fuselage halves, the remedy here is leave a small tag of sprue remaining on the kit part and then pare it back with a sharp blade. As this was SFTB, I gave the cockpit a coat of pale green and painted the instrument panels matt black. I sprayed these but they can obviously be brush painted. At this stage I installed the floor but omitted the seat and rear bulkhead. http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4776.jpgFor the wings you can disguise the open wheel wells by placing a "roof" of thin plastic card over the top. With the fuselage halves together you can attach the wings - a dry fit may suggest some slight gaps on the wing root but these largely go once the wing is "cranked" to the the correct dihedral. On my model any slight gaps were sealed with Gunze Disolved Putty left to dry overnight and then the excess removed with their own brand Lacquer Thinner - if you don't have access to or prefer not to use these products you can do the same with some thick enamel paint and thinner (that's what I used to do years ago), or even white glue and water. The thing here is not to smother the join with filler - there's a join line there on a real Spit so it doesn't need totally eradicating.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4802.jpgWing tips needed a smudge of filler and some gentle sanding.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4805.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Thus far we've not had to break open the tube filler - now we do, but its only on one small area, namely the underside join aft of the "gull" section. This is sanded and blended into the surface.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4811.jpghttp://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4854.jpgall the other joins were given a rub down and polish with Skotchbrite (or kitchen scourer), no need for filler anywhere else. The tail-planes were added and these are handed so there's no chances of getting them the wrong way around. The spinner and prop parts were cleaned up and tacked together using BluTac. The radiators can be added after painting so these and all the other remaining parts (cannon stubs, pitot, aerial, exhausts, wheels and tail-wheel) were cleaned-up and set aside. Starting to look like a Spitfire!http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4867.jpgThe canopy was masked using very thin strips of Tamiya tape - a magnifying eyeglass and a very sharp blade help here. The rest of the masking was done with Maskol. http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4877.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 We just forward a bit now - the undersides were painted Medium Sea Grey and the topsides Ocean Grey and Dark Green, using the same masking technique with BluTac as the Hawk.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/Spitfire/DSCF4973.jpgThe leading edge was masked and painted yellow and the model given a light coat of gloss the seal the paintwork.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4992.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 I was going to use an old Model Art sheet 72/037 which has decals for a Mk.IXc MK791 of CG 1/4 "Dauphiné", but several other sources, as well as chatting to some French modellers, point to MK 791 as being a clipped wing LF.IX, so...http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF4996.jpgOut with the razor saw!http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5000.jpgI eyeballed the reduction from some pics, sawed the tips off (thankfully they are one-piece on the kit), then sanded then then to shape. Masked them off, quick blast on the airbrush and job done, took all of about 20 minutes, its close enough for me. Its a pretty easy mod, might try it again - but before I paint next time!http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5013.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 Several light coats of gloss was applied (this was some old floo polish, similar to Humbrol Clear), the stuff seems to take a while to "take" onto matt paint, but once it does the build up of gloss is quite rapid and I gave the model a final buff with a soft cloth. http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5026.jpgThe decals went on but not without a few problems, least not a slightly transluscent white and a fragile varnish. Look, a French Spitfire!http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5047.jpgThe excess varnish from the rudder decals has yet to be trimmed, in fact I had to slice the latter almost in half so that the proportions between the colours looked more even. I removed the fuselage roundels once I realised the yellow was too small, so the port "K" code took a bit of a hit (easy fix with paint). Replacements were found in the spares collection. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jonathan Mock Posted April 10, 2015 Author Share Posted April 10, 2015 With the decals on, I gave the model a final coat of varnish. For this one I wanted a dead flat finish so used Humbrol Matt Cote mixed with a dash of pale grey to tone the colours down. I've read that these aircraft were really tatty but I decided to keep weathering a bit restrained. I kept the spinner glossy, to suggest perhaps a replacement from another aircraft. The paint chipping on the wing root was a silver artists pencil.Hopefully this build will show how easily the kit goes together and shows how easy it is to modify the kit into something different.http://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5107.jpghttp://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5104.jpghttp://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5101.jpghttp://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5117.jpghttp://i719.photobucket.com/albums/ww195/jonathanmock/DSCF5110.jpg Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Barfoot Posted April 10, 2015 Share Posted April 10, 2015 Excellent post Jonathan! :) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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