Squadron leader Syd ford's Spitfire Mk Vb at dieppe, Airfix 1/48 spitfire MkVb

[Nxthanos]

I already started this project and am well along, but i had all the build shots of it, so if its alright I'll post it here, as its not complete yet.

The subject of the kit is the 1979 issue in 1/48 of the Spitfire Mk Vb and some aeromaster decals to represnt canadian ace Syd Ford's plane. He shot down two FW 190s covering the canuck landings and six during the war as well as sinking a german destroyer with a bomb, and was killed in 1944 and burried in holland.

Sid Ford

The kit:

And the sprue shots:

 

[Nxthanos]

The decal sheet is an aeromaster one, and is quite excellent:

 

[Nxthanos]

Assembly began with the cockpit which was quite nice for such an old kit, followed by some painting of the interior colors and a quick wash for some effect.

 

[Nxthanos]

Sqd Leader ford is painted

And teh wings and fuseage are joined.

there were no gaps on the wings and fuseale so no putty was needed.

 

[Catch22]

Looking good!

 

[Nxthanos]

Now that primary (although not complete) assembly was done and dried, painting began. I originally intended to airbrush it, but the paint I had was old polly S and would not allow itself to be, so it was hand painted instead.

 

[Nxthanos]

At this point I dediced to hand paint the green came as well as I only had enamel Modelmaster green, and I hate getting that in my airbrush as its hard to clean out!

 

[Nxthanos]

After that had dried overnite it was time to add the wing recognition panels, so these were first masked with tamiya tape:

Then an under cote of Humbrol flat white was applied and dried, followed by Tamiya yellow and finally some modelmaster engine red for the gunports.

I discovered I had used the walk-way decals from the aeromaster sheet on another spit, and the airfix decals didn't have them, so I masked them out first with tape:

then painted in the black..

and when the paint was pealed,I had nice lines!

 

[Nxthanos]

The model was now over-sprayed with Testor's gloss cote to even out the colors and prepare for decals.

 

[Nxthanos]

next the decals where applied and another cote was used to seal them.

The kit is now sprayed with testor's dull cote, and set aside to dry, and now we are up to date, the next posts will be when i do more work on her!

 

[Nxthanos]

Looking good!

Thanks catch!

Its a fun project to work on.

 

[ozhawk40]

You've made a neat job on this one Chris. Looks great!

Cheers

Peter

 

[Nxthanos]

You've made a neat job on this one Chris. Looks great!

Cheers

Peter

Thanks peter, she is a fun build and i'm nearly done now.

 

[Nxthanos]

Update;

Dull cote is dry, so its time to paint and add the canopy and begin some light weathering.

The gunsmoke trails are done by first taking some water based flat black, diluting it and adding a drop near the gun ports and then gently running my finger along the wing to make the trail. When that dries i take a stick of black lead and gently etch it into the smoke trail to give it a little depth, followed again by the finger (this is a trick i picked up in art class in school using charchol back then).

Next the engine exhaust is painted burnt unber, given a black wash and a similar procedure is used to make the engine smoke trails.

The canopy is attacked using elmer's white glue, a non toxic adhesive that sets up slowly but dries clear and is very strong when dry.

The undersides are given a similar smoke trail treatment to the upper wings, and a light wash is applied to show teh wing elevators and such, and some highlights are done with the black lead again.

all that is left now is to add the landing gear and do whatever touchups are needed!

 

[Crimea_River]

Well done.

 

[Nxthanos]

Well done.

Thanks.

Very clever username!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks! Every now and then someone gets it.

 

[Nxthanos]

Thanks! Every now and then someone gets it.

 

[Nxthanos]

OK, its done, outside of one small detail, i need to add the rearview mirror, but I already took the picks!

A fun project, now complete.

 

[Crimea_River]