Spitfire Mk.IX (1/48 ICM)

[Steven000]

Hi guys,
My first new project for 2020 is another Spitfire, this time in 1/48 scale from ICM...



I cleaned up the largest parts and put them in boxes.


The decals are very dark (blue), I'm not sure if they are usable, this should be a flat-blue no? Like the Bf109 there is no decal for the instr.panel.


I bought a resin RAF pilot, I glued the control-stick in his hands.


It took me a few evenings but I got him painted, I used reference pictures (google) for the color of his gear.


The cockpit is painted too, again I had to paint the instrument panel as there is no decal for it in the kit. I used a very fine brush to get some gauge-needles in and then a bit of dry-brushing...


Dry-fitting the pilot...


A melted sprue was used to add some cables in the cockpit.


To make the pilot a bit more visible I opened up the hatch in the fuselage with a small knife.


1) hatch cut out, thick walls
2) walls thinned down with knife
3) edge thinned (inside view)


The cables on the right side were added with melted sprue.


This evening I glued the fuselages together.
View attachment 369917

Now on the train for work ...
Thanks for reading and kind regards,
Steven

 

[scottie3158]

Steven,
Love the office and pilot.

 

[AlanG]

Looking great Steven. Many moons ago i bought this kit but had to sell it when i had my mental breakdown and was out of work. Nie to see soeone doing it.

Still have no idea how to paint figures like that. I have a few 1/35 ones to do but i'm lost lol

 

[Deleted member 6559]

Excellent modelling, and very fine painting Steven - beautiful, rich colours.

The same Spitfire as the original Airfix 1/72 kit, as flown by Johnnie Johnson.

 

[Steven000]

Thanks Scottie, Alan & Peter


@ Alan : Sorry to hear about that breakdown, hope that's far behind you ; )... I think it's a nice kit, especially because it comes with a lot of 'options' to make different Mk's...

I too find it very hard to paint figures, I always need to gather all my courage to get me started... I always start with the eyes, then attempt to paint the darker shades in the face and paint lighter and lighter tones... sometimes I mess it up and then I go back in with a corrective-color... The face is definitely the hardest part, after that I paint all the clothing and in the end I try to add some shading etc.
But it feels like one big experiment each time...


@ Peter : Thanks, your paintwork is always very smooth and inspiring .
Looks like you're right about the airfix kit indeed.

Cheers, Steven

 

[Jakko]

Looking good, and it seems to be a well-detailed kit too.

The decals are very dark (blue), I'm not sure if they are usable, this should be a flat-blue no?

According to this thread, the blue should be a colour called “identification blue”, and from about 1941 on, “dull identification blue” on light surfaces. Apparently, these are equivalent to BS 381C No 110 and FS 15056 for the former, and FS 35044 for the latter. (The red is BS 381C No 538 or FS 11136 for standard identification red, and FS 30109 for the dull variant.)

melted sprue

The English name for this is “stretched sprue”

 

[Steven000]

Hi guys,
Well although the kit seemed to start off pretty good, I'm quite disappointed at the moment ...

I painted the area underneath the cockpit with a dark color because some spots were visible,


Then I started getting fitting issues, the bottom-wing was almost 1mm wider than the fuselage...


The upper-wing part didn't align correctly, I had to sand and scrape 1mm from the fuselage fit (both sides)...


When I got the wings aligned these sink-marks became visible (both sides)...


Then I glued the bottom-cowling for the engine,
I glued some pieces of stretched-sprue inside to give more strength when sanding...


And then when I fitted the cowling the fit was horrible...


As you can see on the real aircraft this should be such a smooth fit that you hardly can't resist touching it...


So at the moment I'm still sanding and squeezing my putty-jar...


I'm pretty frustrated with this kit, already lost so much bench-time today fixing things...


Kind regards,
Steven

 

[Jakko]

That seems like there are some serious design issues with that model. Nothing unsolvable, of course, but must be frustrating if it looks like a good kit when you begin, only to find mistakes like these.

 

[AlanG]

That's a strange one. All the reports i saw about this kit said the fit was good and it was lovely to build. Maybe the moulds are getting old.

 

[topgazza]

Thats a shame. The rest of the build mirrors my own and its interesting to see the difference between ICM and Tamiya. Great paint job on the pilot. The pilot is far superior to the one in the Tamiya kit More detail and oddly the head of the pilot on mine was a separate part. I couldn't get his head straight so it looks like he's glancing right which is OK.

I'll check those resin pilots out, very nice

 

[Steven000]

That's a strange one. All the reports i saw about this kit said the fit was good and it was lovely to build. Maybe the moulds are getting old.

It might be the old molds yes, I don't know but I would never recommend it as a beginners-kit ...
I think a lot of problems can be avoided if the firewall-part (I marked in yellow) is left out, or modified when you're displaying the engine.
Ironically this part fitted well and I glued it in without the engine to give the fuselage a bit more strength in that area...



So after a lot of putty and sanding I think it looks acceptable again,
After sanding I re-did the bolts (above the white putty) by melting the plastic with a hot nail, it's a bit rough but the best I could do.




I heated a piece of aluminium to give the wheels a bit of a 'heavy weight' look, something I picked-up here at the forum.
Tried not to over-do it, I can always sand a bit off if necessary.


Clear parts...


Masking the canopy with Tamiya 6mm tape...


I painted the gun-sight with a bit of black and white primer, then installed it in the cockpit...
(I did not paint the upper-highest-point black, this is caused by the thickness of the plastic and refraction)


Last look before the canopy...


The canopy was fitted with Micro Kristal Klear, and then I masked the rest of the open cockpit...


I sprayed interior-green on the canopy and then a light coat of grey primer...


And as usual I put the rest of the parts on sticks for ease of painting...


That's all,
Thanks for reading and kind regards ; )
Steven

 

[Dave Ward]

This is one of ICM's early production of models, - last century 1997, I believe, and has been reissued in many different boxings, but with no mods to the tooling. ICM stepped up their game in about 2010, and now produce some of the finest 1/48 aircraft models ( and 1/35 softskins ) available. I made the 1/48 Mig-25RBT a couple of years ago, and it is, to date, the best model I have ever laid my hands on!
Dave ( no connection with ICM!! )

 

[colin m]

A very nice job Steven. It's sometimes nice to kick an older kit into shape.

 

[Steven000]

Thanks for the intel Dave, yes it's not a very modern kit indeed.
But for it's age it's quite extensive, all types of wingtips and armament are included, then they like to release it in different boxing/versions.

Thanks Colin, true that

I had a few hours 'home alone' so I was able to paint a bit more.


I sprayed the underside Medium Sea Grey...




That's all for today...
Cheers,
Steven

 

[Steven000]

Hi guys,

Today 1 hour of masking the underside...


And ... 5 minutes spraying on the first camo color (Ocean Grey) ...


If everything goes well I can mask and spray the green tomorrow ...
Kind regards,
Steven

 

[Steven000]

Hi guys,
Today I started masking the green camo with blu-tack...


I had a hard time figuring out the camo in the instructions, it just didn't work. Then I suddenly noticed that the Left and Right camo-drawing was simply MIRRORED, so no wonder it didn't work! I took a Revell drawing from another kit to fix a few lines and then sprayed on the dark green...


The guns have a hard camo line, I tried to put them half-way into a piece of blu-tack to mask them out...


I removed the masking and blu-tack


I'm happy with the result, didn't have to fix anything so that's great...


Then I did a bit more masking for the white-band (fuselage) and yellow leading edge (wing)...


Yellow sprayed on... (white base color)


The band is a mix of white and duck-egg...


Next is a gloss coat and decals
Thanks for reading,
Kind regards,
Steven

 

[AlanG]

Loving it Steven. Blu-tac is great stuff for masking. I use it alot.

 

[Deleted member 7181]

That method with the guns semi submerged in blu tack is genius!

 

[Steven000]

Thanks Alan & Andy

@AlanG: Yes it's only the second time I used it but it does the job very well indeed. I wondered how many times do you re-use it?
I kneaded it back into a ball but I'm not sure if any 'uncured' pigments might cause a problem on a next build?


I just sprayed on the first gloss coat (Lucky varnish),
so tomorrow I can hopefully start adding decals ...


Kind regards,
Steven

 

[AlanG]

I wondered how many times do you re-use it?
I kneaded it back into a ball but I'm not sure if any 'uncured' pigments might cause a problem on a next build?

Been using mine for about 8 years now. I just take it off the model. Roll it up into a ball. Then pull it apart and re-roll it a couple of times to 'mix in' the paint. Considering how many times i've done this it is only just starting to lose it's stickiness. 8 years for £1? I'll take that