That does look great Andy
**** DONE: GB-57 1/48 Spitfire MK.XVIe Low-back - WW2 Foreign Service
- Thread starter Crimea_River
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Like your work Andy...something very familiar about it....
Nice work so far Andy!
- Thread starter
- #184
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks for the support everyone. Last night and this morning were all about decal surgery/butchery and application. Happily, the patient did well and I'm relatively happy with how things are turning out.
Let's start with the underside where I decided to try the old ICM kit decals. Previous experience with these was memorable (not in a good way) but I decided to give these another shot as I like that they have a flat finish. This time they went on OK, though they remain bullet-proof with a tendency to shed even Solvaset setting solution without any sign of softening. After running a scalpel along the panel lines and applying Solvaset 3 times, they settled in place fine.
This is where I decided to stop with the ICM decals, since I had the codes and serials from Wayne for Darrow's mount. Also, the yellow rim on the ICM C1 type roundels is a very canary-ish rather than the deeper tone I'm used to and would not have matched the paint that I used for the upper wing roundels and leading edge strips. So, I went with spare Eduard decals for the roundels and Wayne's codes and serials. The latter were also a bit thick and impervious to Solvaset and I had to deal with a little bit of silvering. The black code letters are a little pale but will work fine.
With the first of these successfully on, it was full steam ahead with the intention of depicting Chuck Darrow's bird, as opposed to going with the fallback scheme 2I-V mentioned a few pages ago. The next step, and challenge, was to cut about 1mm off the outside of another spare set of Eduard C-type roundels for the upper wing. Recall that I had masked the yellow discs exactly to match the scale 56 inch outside diameter of the yellow edge, meaning that I would need to remove a bit of the blue outer edge of my C roundel decals. To do this, I placed three layers of Tamiya tape at the center of the decal, marked the center point, and used my Olfa circle cutter to score the decal.
It turns out the circle is very slighly off center but this won't be noticeable in the final placement. The cut edge came off cleanly and the decal looks good in place.
The above is before I put any decal solution on so the look will improve a bit after that. I cut the decal to fit over the small bulge - always a problem area on Spits.
With that done, the rest of the big decals went on quickly. Without supporting photos, I assumed that the serial number on the starboard side would have had the code "D" painted over it and so I cut off the "1"
Next, Darrow's machine is said to have had a series of yellow dashes along the base of the sliding canopy and these are included with the decals. However, they are not curved so I could see a lot of wrinkling happening. I therefore opted to cut the dashes on the curved parts and place them individually.
A bit of a fiddly application but it turned out OK.
The next issue was with the wing walkway stencils. ICM only included 1 strip and stencil for the inboard walkway so I had to find a matching "WALKWAY INBOARD" stencil. Try as I might, I did not have any spares - I recall messing this up on my Mk XIV and used some there I think - so I had to improvise. I did have a spare set of "WALKWAY OUTBOARD" stencils and a matching set of "WHEELS UP WHEN INDICATOR FLUSH" stencils. I surgically removed the word "OUT" and "IN" from these and created the needed wording. Talk about fiddly!!!!
That's it for today - need to rest my brain and hands. I'll add some more stencils in the next few days then start the weathering. Once again, thanks for the looks and likes.
Let's start with the underside where I decided to try the old ICM kit decals. Previous experience with these was memorable (not in a good way) but I decided to give these another shot as I like that they have a flat finish. This time they went on OK, though they remain bullet-proof with a tendency to shed even Solvaset setting solution without any sign of softening. After running a scalpel along the panel lines and applying Solvaset 3 times, they settled in place fine.
This is where I decided to stop with the ICM decals, since I had the codes and serials from Wayne for Darrow's mount. Also, the yellow rim on the ICM C1 type roundels is a very canary-ish rather than the deeper tone I'm used to and would not have matched the paint that I used for the upper wing roundels and leading edge strips. So, I went with spare Eduard decals for the roundels and Wayne's codes and serials. The latter were also a bit thick and impervious to Solvaset and I had to deal with a little bit of silvering. The black code letters are a little pale but will work fine.
With the first of these successfully on, it was full steam ahead with the intention of depicting Chuck Darrow's bird, as opposed to going with the fallback scheme 2I-V mentioned a few pages ago. The next step, and challenge, was to cut about 1mm off the outside of another spare set of Eduard C-type roundels for the upper wing. Recall that I had masked the yellow discs exactly to match the scale 56 inch outside diameter of the yellow edge, meaning that I would need to remove a bit of the blue outer edge of my C roundel decals. To do this, I placed three layers of Tamiya tape at the center of the decal, marked the center point, and used my Olfa circle cutter to score the decal.
It turns out the circle is very slighly off center but this won't be noticeable in the final placement. The cut edge came off cleanly and the decal looks good in place.
The above is before I put any decal solution on so the look will improve a bit after that. I cut the decal to fit over the small bulge - always a problem area on Spits.
With that done, the rest of the big decals went on quickly. Without supporting photos, I assumed that the serial number on the starboard side would have had the code "D" painted over it and so I cut off the "1"
Next, Darrow's machine is said to have had a series of yellow dashes along the base of the sliding canopy and these are included with the decals. However, they are not curved so I could see a lot of wrinkling happening. I therefore opted to cut the dashes on the curved parts and place them individually.
A bit of a fiddly application but it turned out OK.
The next issue was with the wing walkway stencils. ICM only included 1 strip and stencil for the inboard walkway so I had to find a matching "WALKWAY INBOARD" stencil. Try as I might, I did not have any spares - I recall messing this up on my Mk XIV and used some there I think - so I had to improvise. I did have a spare set of "WALKWAY OUTBOARD" stencils and a matching set of "WHEELS UP WHEN INDICATOR FLUSH" stencils. I surgically removed the word "OUT" and "IN" from these and created the needed wording. Talk about fiddly!!!!
That's it for today - need to rest my brain and hands. I'll add some more stencils in the next few days then start the weathering. Once again, thanks for the looks and likes.
N4521U
Colonel
Looking topps there mate!
Always stressful.
Always stressful.
fubar57
General
Beauty
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Is it me or is that a really pebbly finish?
le_steph40
Chief Master Sergeant
Excellent !!! 
Nicely done Andy.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Looks brilliant, a true master at work.
- Thread starter
- #192
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks very much gents.
Combination of ICM's rough plastic, my less than perfect gloss finishes, and 3x magnification on my phone.
Combination of ICM's rough plastic, my less than perfect gloss finishes, and 3x magnification on my phone.
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
That'll do it.
Bustedwing
Tech Sergeant
Beautiful job !
very nice indeed, hope to reach a similar stage in the next couple of days
Airframes
Benevolens Magister
Lots of fiddly work very well executed. Good stuff Andy.
- Thread starter
- #197
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks so much everyone. Your comments are appreciated.
In looking over the model, I noticed a couple of spots that needed attention. I mixed a thin batch of Dark Green once more and adjusted the demarcation lines in two spots. At the nose, the green previously intersected the spinner on the top of the cowl but most pics and profiles of Spitfires have it wrapping around the vertical surface and intersecting the spinner much lower so I sprayed some more green there (see circle below).
On the starboard root fairing, I had a small notch in the demarcation line that I didn't like so I straightened the line:
With that done, I found a set of resin 4-spoke Ultracast wheels to use and glued those to my Eduard struts that I had installed the other day. The struts feature the correct length, rake angle, and also the canted axles so I made sure the wheels sloped like they should. The wheels were painted and weathered beforeheand and I added tiny decals to represent the slip indicator tape.
I also found some spare Eduard covers which correctly depict the curved surface rather than the flat ones included in the kit. I discovered these after I had already painted the kit ones but will use the Eduard ones anyway.
Then it was on to adding some panel wash. I started on the underside and kept it on the cleaner side (for me), since this aircraft arrived on 416 Squadron very late in the war.
A similar approach was used on the uppers, though I kept it very restrained:
The wash is a mixture of water, dish soap, and powdered black and brown artist pastels. I find this stuff to be much cheaper and more forgiving than commercial washes. In particular, the Tamiya panel line washes are very agressive and react with the gloss coats I use so they don't wipe away easily, leaving unwanted marks in the finish.
Next will be the application of a matte coat and the addition of some final weathering and fiddly bits. Thanks again for looking in and for the kind words.
In looking over the model, I noticed a couple of spots that needed attention. I mixed a thin batch of Dark Green once more and adjusted the demarcation lines in two spots. At the nose, the green previously intersected the spinner on the top of the cowl but most pics and profiles of Spitfires have it wrapping around the vertical surface and intersecting the spinner much lower so I sprayed some more green there (see circle below).
On the starboard root fairing, I had a small notch in the demarcation line that I didn't like so I straightened the line:
With that done, I found a set of resin 4-spoke Ultracast wheels to use and glued those to my Eduard struts that I had installed the other day. The struts feature the correct length, rake angle, and also the canted axles so I made sure the wheels sloped like they should. The wheels were painted and weathered beforeheand and I added tiny decals to represent the slip indicator tape.
I also found some spare Eduard covers which correctly depict the curved surface rather than the flat ones included in the kit. I discovered these after I had already painted the kit ones but will use the Eduard ones anyway.
Then it was on to adding some panel wash. I started on the underside and kept it on the cleaner side (for me), since this aircraft arrived on 416 Squadron very late in the war.
A similar approach was used on the uppers, though I kept it very restrained:
The wash is a mixture of water, dish soap, and powdered black and brown artist pastels. I find this stuff to be much cheaper and more forgiving than commercial washes. In particular, the Tamiya panel line washes are very agressive and react with the gloss coats I use so they don't wipe away easily, leaving unwanted marks in the finish.
Next will be the application of a matte coat and the addition of some final weathering and fiddly bits. Thanks again for looking in and for the kind words.
Ralph Haus
Tech Sergeant
My style of weathering...subtle but there. And an 'so-that's-what-those-are' coments/questions; the slip tape decals on the tires/wheels. Were those there (on the actual craft) to indicate if the tires were slipping on the wheel?
- Thread starter
- #200
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks again all.
Yes indeedy. Sometimes white, sometimes red, sometimes yellow. Sometimes one, sometimes two, sometimes even four.
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