**** DONE: 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire Mk.I DW-O 610 Sqdn BoB GB

[Crimea_River]

Thanks everyone.

Glenn, yes, I plan to use Future. Might consider brushing it on like you did but spray worked fine in the past.

 

[tigerdriver]

the whirring you can hear is me deleting all signs of my tamiya spit ... totally not worthy

top work though

 

[jamierd]

looking good there mate

 

[Wurger]

I echo Terry's post.

 

[B-17engineer]

Fantastic work Andy!

 

[vikingBerserker]

Well done!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Tiger, I hope you're not serious.I wouldn't want to discourage anyone.

Pics below have just been taken. Touch ups have been done on the letters and various other areas and a coat of Future applied. I'll take close-ups when the decals are on. I decided to spray the Future like I usually do. I chickened out on trying something new on this kit so left the brushes in the drawer. Final pic shows the finished prop.

Thanks once again everyone. I'll probably do the decals and dullcoat this weekend and have her done.

 

[Airframes]

Great stuff Andy. I love that hi-tech, easy access, multi-pose painting jig - a nail, stuffed up the prop shaft hole, and held in a table vice - brilliant !!
With a few professionally executed modifications, you could market and sell those mate - you'd make a fortune from the gadget gatherers !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. The vice is a hand me down from my Dad who did wood carving as a hobby for many years before he went blind. It does have its uses.

 

[Airframes]

Useful bit of kit. I've got a small one which clamps to the edge of the bench, but nowhere near as good as that one looks.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice bit of kit that nail Andy, Spits not bad either.............just joking

..........about the Spit that is, it looks great.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

Despite the code letters turning out pretty good, if a little on the light side (appears lighter in pics than live), it now appears I may wasted my time a bit. When I look at the decal letters that I used as a template and compare them with the ones that are still stuck on the backing there's a noticeable difference. The letters may be a little transparent and the blue backing paper gives the colours a wierd tone but once they are off they become more light gray. Conversly, the transparency may have led to issues with the camo colour demarcations showing through the decals.

Maybe I was being a bit too picky. I'd be curious to hear what others who built this kit thought of the code letter colours.

 

[Airframes]

I've found a similar situation with some decals in 'Sky', where they look too green, or with a brownish cast. I've normally used them anyway, with a view to then over-painting in the correct shade once in place, then found they've been fine once settled and dry. I recently bought some Xtradecal 'Sky' code letter sheets, in 48th and 32nd scales, and was a little miffed to find they looked an odd colour, and different (in shade) between the scales. The latter is a good thing, as it's the 'scale colour' difference, and the odd-looking colour was fine once off the backing sheet and on the model.
I guess it's one of those situations where you don't know until you try them, but can be a bit irritating !

 

[Crimea_River]

Good insight Terry, and precisely the situation that caused me to decide to paint my own. I'll post a pic of the decal sheet tonight. You should see the "Sky"" band colour.

Signing off now, back to work.

 

[T Bolt]

The lettering looks great Andy. I made the Tamiya Spit Mk.I with the kit decals about 5 years ago and they seemed fine (see pic) I used an underside roundel from that old decal sheet on my Spit in this GB and they look the same , only a greenish backing paper instead of blueish. I did notice that the old decal had to be soaked an awfully long time before it wanted to slide. Could have just been the age.

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

Your plane looks great Andy...

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys. Glenn, that looks great and I think spot on. My painted ones will turn out a tad lighter. I also noticed the decals took forever to slide off.

Now take a look at the below pics of the decal sheet and compare the QJ-B colours to your DW-O. Seem different? Also note the odd colour of the Sky band in the second pic. Anyway, I'm committed (or should be!) and there's no turning back now.

Here's a shot of the finished oleos with brake lines added. I found a lack of reference shots and only found one walkaround of a modern Spit with the stainless steel fixed tube running the length of the leg and black flex hoses at the locations subject to movement. If anyone has better data, let me know, although I've now glued the wheels on after flattening the tires a bit.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work on the brake lines mate. They're spot on BTW, but if you need Spit detail pics for future reference, let me know. I'm about to make a CD for Glenn, with some Spit books and other details, so I can do a copy for you too, and throw it at a passing pigeon, for Air Mail delivery ......

 

[T Bolt]

The difference between your decal sheet and the codes on my Spit could just be lighting. I took that pic out doors in direct sunlight. The pic below are my two decal sheets. The one on the left is the newer one and the one on the right is the older one I used on the Spit in the pic. They look a little different, but I think that's mostly due to the different color backing paper, and I think they are essentially the same as yours.

That said I don't think there's anything at all wrong with the color of the codes on your Spit. Looking at old photos it looked like the tone of the codes had quite a lot of variance, and who's to say the tone Tamiya used for their decals is more correct than yours.

I agree that the Sky stripe is way off. The sky color used for most decals seems to be off, and I think I would always paint it on, otherwise if you have an aircraft with the under-surfaces painted Sky, the band would not match.

I love what you did with the break lines, and I think I'm going to base mine off what you did there. I was thinking of using a single strand of stranded telephone cord. What did you use?

 

[Crimea_River]

Terry, good to know, thanks. If it's not too much trouble to run another copy for me that would be fantastic. PM me if you've lost my address.

Glenn, thanks for the comparison. It's definitely deceiving and if I'd known these would lighten signifcantly once applied I'd have avoided the painted ones. Nevertheless, it was a first for me and I'm happy with knowing that I can do it again if I ever need to. As for the brake lines, I have a knotted up ball of stainless steel wire that I kept from somewhere I no longer recall. It measures 0.3mm (0.012") thick on my dial calipers. The flexed part is 30ga copper wire painted black and is about the same diameter.