As the re-touched areas are still ever so slightly tacky, I decided not to spray the first coat of clear matt until tomorrow. Meanwhile, I got on with masking and painting the windscreen and canopy frames, after first adding some detail to the canopy lower frame, and prepared and painted the resin cockpit door.
Not a lot to show, but this little lot has taken 5 hours so far, and there's still more work to do !
Pic 1. The windscreen masked, ready for the first coat of paint, which is the Cockpit Grey Green interior colour, painted on both sides of the frames.
PIC 2. I decided to attempt to add the Martin (Martin Baker) canopy jettison system, which consisted of rods, holding the the runners in their tracks, with wires attached to these, running up the inside of the forward frame, to a rubber ball. Pulling hard on this ball withdrew the pins on the end of the wires, releasing the rods, which fell away, suspended from the wires. A quick 'bang' with the elbows freed the canopy, when, in theory, the slipstream would whisk it away. If it jammed, the crow bar attached to the cockpit door could be used to prise it free.
This photo of the Duxford-based MkV shows the rods, painted red, and the curve of the wire running to the upper sleeve, attached to the rods. I don't think the rods were red on wartime Spits, from what I've seen so far, but I'm still checking.
The red 'rubber' ball, and the canopy latch, will be made and added towards the end of the build, when the canopy is ready for fitting.
PICS 3 to 6. Fitting the rods and wires to the canopy lower frame, which has been 'deepened' slightly by masking. Humbrol 'Clear Fix' was used to attach the rods and wires, made from different thicknesses of stretched sprue.
PICS 7 and 8. The 'Quickboost' resin door, showing the nice detail (the crowbar fits into the clips on the inside of the door). The two moulding 'flanges' on the outside of the door had to be removed very carefully, to avoid damage to the door edge.
PIC 9. The windscreen and canopy frames, and door, have been painted in Cockpit Grey Green, the screen and canopy frames on both sides.
PICS 10 and 11. The windscreen and canopy frames have had a first, thin coat of Xtracolor RAF Dark Green gloss enamel brushed on. The 'lumps' around the front of the canopy lower frame are excess 'Clear Fix', which will be scraped off, and the area re-painted with the second coat.
PIC 12. The interior of the door has been painted. This will receive a gloss coat, and the instructions/warning decal added from the HGW decal sheet, and then a matt clear coat applied, and the crowbar clipped into place.
With luck, I should get the model itself sprayed with the first coat of clear matt tomorrow, and then start on some subtle surface detail and staining, before fitting some of the remaining parts, including the windscreen and exhausts.