**** DONE: 1/48 Spitfire MkVIII - Home Country Modern Aircraft/Spitfire Marks GB

[Wayne Little]

Done a good job with those masks Andy!

 

[Gnomey]

Nice work so far Andy!

 

[Wayne Little]

???...I was expecting something special tonight...

 

[Airframes]

Oh yeah? What's her name then?!!!

 

[meatloaf109]

Her name is Spitfire, and she dances in the clouds...
Boy, was that sappy, and I'm stone cold sober...
Lovely work on the roundels!

 

[Crimea_River]

???...I was expecting something special tonight...

So how was it then?

Lots to tell here. With this model, I decided to jump into trying out Tamiya paints as so far I have not been 100% satisfied with any product I have tried. My Pollyscale paints totally suck in the airbrush. Model Masters are good but I've found the bottle design to be poor in that the paper "seal" in the lid disintegrates after a while and the paint dries out. At the local model show in June, Spencer Pollard was doing a demo of paint techniques using Tamiya colours and I was impressed with their performance. Notwithstanding Tamiya's annoying habit of not producing premixed standard colours, I decided to give them a try.

Well, first off, I quickly discovered that mixing the assigned colours per the Tamiya instruction sheet is a mistake as the colours come out way off. The below pic shows my adjusted mix to get the Dark Earth right after having started with the Tamiya recommendation of a 1:1 mix of XF52 and XF64. The red tint of the 64 throws the colour way off and I had to add some yellow and white to get this result. Even so, it's still a bit too much on the red side for my liking.

It was at this point that I was also beginning to doubt the health of my airbrush as, despite meticulous cleaning of the parts, I was getting more splatter at the edges than I was accustomed to and I have a feeling that there's a slight bend in the needle. So I decided to try the technique of using Blu-Tac to get a soft edge of the camo demarcation. Below is a pic of the masking that I did.

And then, it was a matter of mixing up colours for the Dark Green which Tamiya recommend to be 1 part XF58 to 5 parts XF62. WRONG! Way too dark and too brown. So I lightened this with lots more XF 58 and some white and, after I thought that it looked good in the cup, squirted this mix on. Below is the result with the mask removed.

Well, I tell you, I'm impressed with how this stuff goes on but the Dark Green is still too dark in my opinion. However, I intend to give this model a pretty sun-bleached and dusty look so this darkness will be toned down. However, the Blu-Tac mask result was not what I wanted either. Here's a close-up of what it looks like and to me the soft edges vary too much and in some cases were too hard.

So I tried thinning down the left-over green and free handing an edge and here's what I got (see the edge on the green patch at top right). The apparent damage to the needle on my airbrush is causing too much of of a splatter so I'm going to do 2 things. First is to get a new needle. Second is that tomorrow, I will try to create a soft edge freehand by going back to my premixed brown and spraying as sharp and edge as I can using my trusty Paasche VL.

Overall, the results are a bit disappointing. My love/hate relationship with Tamiya continues but I'm confident that I'll get this model looking OK in the end. Stay tuned. And thanks again for your continued interest.

 

[meatloaf109]

Yeah, Tamiya don't know beans about colors. I have not had very much luck with their paint, so many things will mess with it; too much humidity, too little humidity, and the ratio of the paint to the thinner has to be exact. (not to mention that you have to use their thinner or it causes the paint to clump up.) Just throwing these things out there, unless you are sure that you have a bent needle, maybe its one of those that is causing the splatter.

 

[Wayne Little]

Oh yeah? What's her name then?!!!

So how was it then? .

I'm not telling!

The tamiya Mix is not the best mix....another mix I'm told is pretty good is equal parts XF-72 JGSDF Brown, XF-49 Khaki, and XF-55 Deck Tan, haven't tried it though.

 

[brucejscott]

Looks good Andy. You can fix the lines no sweat. Don't be to ready to blame a bent needle. I've never had much luck airbrushing Tamiya as the paint seems to dry coming off the needle and clogging up the tip. I stick with straight enamels anymore, usually Humbrol.

 

[Airframes]

I see what you mean about the mix Andy. Not sure if the green is too dark, or the Dark Earth a touch on the yellow side, and I suspect possibly the latter, but of course you'll be able to tell better seeing the actual colour, rather than a monitor image.
If you can't achieve the soft edge you desire, one method I sometimes use works quite well in this scale, and smaller scales. Make a mix of both the camouflage colours, at 50/50 and, using a fine brush, with the paint thinned probably around 10% to 30% depending on preference, paint - in the demarcation between the colours. It needs a relatively steady hand, and takes a little longer than airbrushing, but the results can be very good, giving the appearance of a narrow, soft-edged overspray. The 'width' of the 'feathering' can be controlled by the size of the brush tip, and will be more consistent than airbrushing

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks for the suggestions guys. Have done nothing with the build today as yet.

 

[jjp_nl]

Coming along nicely indeed! How are these masks working overall for ya sofar, through your topic I came across their site and at present I'm considering having a few custom masks made (for a Hurricane MK.IIC...I want to turn into a SEAC kite....for which there is surprisingly little in terms of aftermarket decals)

 

[Crimea_River]

The masks are brilliant. What SEAC bird are you doing? Skymodels does one SEAC scheme: Skymodels Decals 1/48 Hurricane Part II (RAF, RN Greek) Decals

 

[jjp_nl]

I'm looking to do this one Andy (research is still needed though...as I've also seen it depicted in the dark green/ocean grey over medium sea grey scheme) The thing is I like the combination of the SEAC roundels, fin flash and white bands and letters. I know there's similar scheme's out there, but either they don't have the white bands or just one letter...which to me makes it seem a little bare somehow.

I think Hasegawa released a MK.IIC 1/48 in this scheme...but well...you know the deal with these Hase MK.II's (I'm lucky to have a Hase MK.IIC, non-trop in the stash though)...next to impossible to find these days, and if found they cost an arm and a leg.

Fin flash and roundels aren't too hard to come by, but the letter are a different matter. Come to think of it I could try and print some though as I already have some decal paper (white and transparent) lying around somewhere and have already downloaded a bunch of appropriate fonts (from Il-2 game modding sites)

 

[Crimea_River]

The Sky sheet allows for two SEAC planes but neither have the white bands and both have the single letters. I find making white decals tricky myself but if it weren't for the G, you could have easily cut your own masks.

Anyhoo, back to the MkVIII. Just for interest, I took the Tamiya-finished model and my earlier Spit MkII which was finished in Model Master paints and went outside to photograph them side by side in natural light. Quite the difference.

So it was back into the shop for another try. I lightened both the brown and the green and completely resprayed the model, this time freehand. Somehow the pattern tightness improved this time around and I was able to get a decent demarcation without too much splatter. I Must have got the paint/thinner ratio just right this time. Anyway, the green turned out to be still a bit dark but it will have to do. I will be dusting up this model so that should help lighten it and so will the dullcoat.

The following set of pics show the model as it now looks with all the masks removed.

As you can see, I had a bit of paint separation at the port wing roundel but this is easily fixed. Everything else behaved quite nicely and I must say, I'm very impressed with how these vinyl masks worked out.

Here are the squadron codes and fin flash. A bit of touch up is needed on the 'D'

The dragon emblem turned out fantastic with every delicate detail sharply defined.

I'm letting this on cure for a bit before I mask and apply the serial number and start into the weathering. Thanks again for looking in.

 

[rochie]

Wonderful Andy

 

[meatloaf109]

Nice and sharp!

 

[Wayne Little]

Like it Andy!

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy. The green looks OK I think, but the Dark Earth looks distinctly like Ocean Grey in all the pics. But, the underside looks pale blue, so I'm guessing it's the exposure in what appears to be bright sunlight?

 

[Crimea_River]

Tanks everyone.

Definitely some colour issues there Terry. The brown definitely does not have a gray tone and the botton is definitely gray. Could be reflection form the blue backdrop.

As I said, the green is still a bit too dark for my liking but the brown matched the MM Dark Earth pretty closely. My hope is that all will be toned down once I add a dust effect and flatten the colours.