**** DONE: GB-62 1/48 Spitfire Vc Trop - Spitfires

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Thanks all. Dabbled here and there since last session with an experimental Middle Stone mix and masking then painting the Dark Earth. The desert camo will be over-sprayed with Dark Mediterranean Blue so I'm not too fussed about the colours. The DE is a proven mix I've used before but the MS is 10 parts of the new Tamiya XF-88 Dark Yellow to 3 parts XF-3 Yellow. Despite its name, XF-88 is very sandy in reality and looks nothing like the colour swatches one finds on line so I felt that adding some yellow would be in order. That said, I think it turned out too "mustardy" and a bit on the light side so this mix is one that I would need to tweak in the future. The masking was done with a combination of Orimask and Tamiya tape, both yellow and bendy. Some overspray has occurred but all of this will largely be covered anyway, though I hope to have some subtle desert shades showing through the blue.



The next step will be to come up with a decent mix for the Dark Mediterranean Blue and then apply that in very thin coats, leaving much of the spine desert scheme still visible. I'll be back when I dive into that.
 
Thanks Geo. Yes, I have all those noted but the MS mix predates the new XF-88 so I thought I'd experiment. The Blue mix is weird if you think about it since it starts with a very dark gloss blue (X-3), then adds a flattener, then lightens it. No mention of XF-8 which I have plenty of. I thought that I'd start with XF-8 then try adding some black or dark grey and see how close I get to that swatch

 
Just had to go back and look at the original pics to refresh my memory on what your trying to achieve. You sure have a nice bright looking paint surface to cover so good luck with the gentle over sprays.
 
Thanks Vic. I will have to dull down the rear fuselage desert camo though because you can see in the reference pic that much of it is exposed and seems to have missed receiving the hastily applied blue. You can see the BR301 serial and the DE/MS demarcation there and also the spine visible just after of the canopy is very light which tells me that it's not blue either. The question then becomes where does the blue stop....
 
We have the blues.

My version of Dark Mediterranean Blue was mixed as 20 parts Tamiya XF-8 Blue to 1 part X-1 Black and I think it looks close. I wanted to start with a small sample area first so concentrated on building up the cowl area and spinner after having first applied some hairspray. The reference pic on page 1 shows definite chipping on the spinner and cowl which are otherwise quite dark with no camo demarcations seen. This gave me the opportunity to see if I could build up the blue and still have the camo show through an effect which I intend to achieve on the wings and upper cowl. Here's the overview as it currently sits:



I did the chipping on the spinner to match, as best as I could, the wear pattern seen in the reference pic. First, water was brushed on and the chips were removed with a toothpick. The hairspray allowed the blue paint to be removed easily showing the desert colour underneath and it all went well.



I did the same with the wing fairings in the traffic areas:



A bit of water staining can be seen but I think this will disappear - the surface was still wet when I took the pic.

Well, so far so good. The rest of the paint job will be pure speculation as very little of the other areas can be seen in the one and only pic of this bird. Thanks for watching and constructive comments would be most welcome.
 
Looks really good. The chipped effect is nice and realistic. I like the way you can still see evidence of the base camo on the cowling section. The blue looks good too. A bit of strong contrast with the desert yellow still showing on the rest of the model. Looking forward to the next update.
 
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