Finished - my topical Spitfire

Looks great, shame about the decals though man, it sucks when that happens...

Its a nice 'un!

Mike

Cheers Mike

Yeah, it's a pain in the **** when the decals rip especially when i don't have any others :) Thanks for the compliments mate :)

Paul

Paul this is beautiful very nice paint job indeed, have to say you plane guys are making me want to try something like this, i love it keep up the good work sir.
scott

Stunning mate!

I have a particular soft spot for the North Africa spits as my gnand dad was a mac on them during WW2 and then over to Sisily with the SAAF.

Interesting how the air filter ,although extremely ugly by spit standards, extended the engine'slife from a handfull of hours to a few hunderd hours in the sand!

Well done

Theuns

Nice Spit, I'm glad (and relieved) that those colours have come out looking really good.The Azure underside is spot on. Theuns there is a theory involving all sorts of convoluted mis-painting of serials (BR for ER I think) and altered codes etc that AN-V came to the Canadians via one of the South African squadrons.
More aircraft ,including Mossie,to come I hope.
A tip for next time is you can make a good roundel blue (to touch up decals) by adding a little of a light blue colour to black and fiddling with the ratios. I know 'cos I've done exactly the same thing getting those underside decals to conform!
Cheers
Steve

Thanks lads!

Actually Scott I'm not a plane guy as it's my first one. I've done this Spitfire, will finish my Mossie sometime in the future but will focus on armour. But i did enjoy making the plane and there's a nice rewarding feeling once having completed a plane.

Theuns, that's interesting stuff. I opted for the ugly air filter just ebcause for my eyes it was unusual :) But yeah, it's amazing how it extended the engine's life :) What i mainly like about this Spit is the blue colour on the underside. unsusal but nice :)

Cheers

Paul

Cheers Steve and again thanks for your help. I'll give that ago next time when adding the decals on the underside.

Cheers

Paul

You've done a top-notch job there Paul! Lovely colours & just the right amount of weathering from where I'm sitting. Shame about the decals but had you not said, I doubt I'd have noticed. Good practice for the Mossie! What did you use for the washes, oils/acrylics or enamels?

Patrick

Cheers Patrick.

I used oils for the washes and it worked out quite well... at least in my opinion :) For the heavy grit between panels, i added a little more oil to the thinners than i usually would do for tanks. Then i cleaned off the excess with a tissue lightly dipped in enamel thinners. Surprisingly, i didn't add much to the underside because the pre-shading worked out better than i had hoped.

Paul

That Vokes filter slowed the Spifire down quite a bit,more because of problems with air flow to the supercharger than drag. A smaller tropical filter,the Aboukir filter was made and fitted locally in Egypt and won back a few mph. An interesting by product of the tropical specification was a larger oil tank. This enabled larger ferry tanks to be fitted ,for long flights, to these aircraft. A non-tropicalised engine ran out of oil before it ran out of fuel! British engineers hadn't moved that far away from total loss lubrication.
Incidentally some of the more "mature" members may remember that Vokes air filters were fitted to many great and many not so great, British motorcycles of the 50s and 60s.
The German tropical filters were much more clever. On the ground,in the dust/ sand the intake could be shut only allowing air to enter through a filter. Once above the dust/sand the normal intake could be opened allowing the engine to breath normally.The filter was outside the aircraft and inline so it didn't produce significant drag.The frontal area of a normal and tropical intake were the same.
Steve

Interesting stuff Steve! Typical Germans to get it right :)))

Paul

Looks great Paul , love the way you`ve picked out all the panels with your weathering , as for the decals I would not worry to much mate, for your 1st attempt at a bird it looks very very good , you`ve made me want to start my mk1 spitfire now.

Richy

Well, if that is your first plane, what excuse can I come up with when I finally unveil my Mustang????? It looks really good Paul well done mate, one to be proud of. All that you learn on this one will show on the Mossie.

Alright Richy, i'd love to see your Spit - such a beautiful plane. Graham, your Mustang looks the dog's B! I've been following your post with great interest! I'm really thinking putting the Mossie on hold because there's no where to it when she's done. In my new house, i'll have space in my new display cabinet... when i buy it :)

hi paul , nice looking spit! well done on a great job, looking forward to the mossie!,cheers tony

I like very much ! BUT nothing but nothing is better than chocolate hob knob !!! well perhaps one of those Hob knob bar things might!

Ohhhhhhhh Hob-Nob bars!!!!!!!!!!! I'm dribbling really badly... and at work :))

I can't believe i've missed this beautiful Spit Paul. Looks spot on.

A little bit of info for you.
No.417 Squadron
Motto: Supporting liberty and justice
Code: AN
Marks: II, V, VIII, IX
Theatres: UK, Med
Role: Fighter & ground attack

Story of No. 417
http://www.manitobamilitaryaviationm...17Squadron.pdf

Well done Paul, John

Cheers John

I just gave that article a good read and it's really interesting. People have been asking me about my Spit so now i can give some background info. Much appreciated mate and thanks for the compliment :)

Cheers

Paul