This has become more of a 'start/stop' build than I originally thought. However, I'm back at it again and just thought I'd better post an update, otherwise I'm going to fall way behind the Spitfires still being built in the last Group Build. The aircraft is still in it's matt grey/green camouflage pattern but now has the yellow leading edges added and the sky band was masked and painted on the fuselage.
Pictures 1 2. The underwing radiators have been added now and detail of the painted leading edge.
Picture 3. I scratch-built an ammo hatch from plastic card and strip. It needs a finished layer of paint. It will be eventually posed in a hanging down position.
Pictures 4, 5 6. The topside with details of the leading edge and the Sky fuselage band. The Sky is Tamaya Sky lightened with a little Tamiya White.
Picture 7. This is where I am with the landing gear at the moment. The covers have been added, Holes drilled and brakelines made from thin wire have been added.
Pictures 8 9. The spinner has been assembled and painted. This is resin from Grey Matter Figures, as the kit only included the earlier de Havilland propeller. I ended up using only the spinner and blades from the resin kit as the backplate and integrated propeller boss was very crudely cast and also was smaller in diameter than the spinner
(picture 9). The blades also didn't fit into the locating holes in the boss. I used the backplate and boss from the kit and sat the blades in position on the boss rather than in it. This caused problems with the blade pitch and spacings which were positioned from photographic refs and the aid of a protractor! I think I got it about right.
Pictures 10 11. A couple of shots of the prop loosely placed in position, just to check it out.
No weathering, apart from a little on the landing gear, has been applied yet. I think the next stage will be to give it a couple of coats of Klear to prepare for the decals and take it on from there.
Thanks for looking,
Gerry