Ian M's Spitfire Vb Tropical

[Ian M]

Took a while faffing with some of the small bits. Like a chump I fixed the aerial pylon. Like an even bigger chump I snapped it clean off again while handling the model to take a photo of it!

Arrrgh!

Well paint has started to fly.

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Primed and pre-shaded....
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A bit of colour on the bottom.
Ian M

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[Gern]

When I first looked I thought you were doing an experimental version where the RAF had fitted HUGE rocket launchers to the wings!

Looking real good though.

 

[Ziper_it]

Great Ian.

Lol, I tought the pic was of the spit with floats from Steve's thread.

 

[Ian M]

So mixed some paint, took a deep breath and went for it.

I masked the bottom edge of the wings, the tail wings and the demarcation on the fuselage. The rest....I just went for it. Free hand.

Had to correct it a bit here and there. Trumpeter's paint guide, shows a B on one side and A on the over.......Figured that out half way through the second side...Bum!

A few colour, well shine actually, differences in the places I touched up but I am hoping the next process will lose them.

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Camouflage!!
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The combo of pre shade and 'careful' use of the airbrush was working quite well.... note the "darker" grey at the top right of the picture Grrr!
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Not bad?
Ian M

 

[Dave W]

Nice Malta camo Ian.Im currently reading a very interesting book about Malta Spitfire colours.

 

[Wendall]

Not bad at all Ian!

 

[flyjoe180]

That is looking great Ian. There is something relaxing about the colour Sky.

 

[monica]

do like it so far ,looking good,

 

[Ian M]

Cheers peeps. Trying to find a 'usable' circle cutter. Bought a cheap one the other day, and very quickly found out why so cheep. Oh well if ever I need to cut ovals or egg shapes, I'm ready! LOL. If not its back to the old compass.

Ian M

 

[monica]

I have been looking for a compass type cutter one for along time,but just have not come across one,:rolleyes:

 

[Dave W]

I've got one of these.Does the job ok.

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[Ian M]

Looks like the one I got, but it was pink and very flimsy. X-acto is a known name so probably better made.

How small can that one cut Dave, dia. 1cm?

Ian M

 

[Ian M]

So Markings.

Trumpy decals are, or so I have heard, nasty. So they are getting painted.... Deep breath and grab the masking tape.

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Right then paper verse tape.. Paper much easier to locate. Tape much easier to airbrush over.. The result however are much the same.
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So using a copy of the airfix 1/48 Vb I extrapolated the size of the letters for the ID and cut them from paper. They where to big, width wise. So made another set in paper.... Big mistake. As the paper was not going to conform to the fuselage's curves.

So ended up cutting a third mask in tape. Tomorrow I will find the frisk film!

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So that sorted, I threw some paint at them and hoped for the best.
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Lucky again! ?
Ian M

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[flyjoe180]

Nice work on masking those markings Ian, particularly the letters. Not easy to do, I have tried and failed before.

 

[Ian M]

Thanks Joe.

With hind sight, it would have been much easier to have painted the fuselage white, where the markings will be and then mask the letters off with tape of the appropriate width.

Which is what I may have to do with the serial number... they are rather small to do a negative mask....Hmm

I'm leaving the white to cure a day or two as the roundel colours are enamel paints.. WEM to be precise.

Ian M

 

[flyjoe180]

Why not grab some serial numbers on a decal sheet? They do come in useful, I have a few sheets of black and white 1/72 8-inch letters for this sort of thing as well as some code letter sheets.

 

[Ian M]

I doubt if I will be building that many 1/24 scale birds Joe, so not worth it. Also the serials on this aircraft are far from a standard lettering type. So only one way around that and thats paint them ! Wish that you could get a white printing laser printer..

Ian M

 

[Ian M]

So after much masking, painting, unmasking and re-masking and painting...Which with tape is a total pain. (turned the room up-side-down looking for the frisk-film to no avail).

We end up with this.

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There's a load of places where the masking has left a tiny sliver of the white undercoat where the colours meet.. bugger. I can see that the next step will involve a very fine brush and some thinned down paint...... Yeah!

Still building up courage to go for the serial number.

Ian M

 

[flyjoe180]

Well Ian, that looks pretty good! 8 Inch serial at 1/24 is 0.33 inches = 8.46 mm in height. Rather you than me Mr Muddle

 

[BarryW]

Coming along beautifully Ian....