Peterpools

Phil Normally, you just can't go wrong with Tamiya but in the case of the Spitfire, Tamiya's kits all have awesomely detailed engines which take a lot of work. Most of my Tamiya Spits have the engines fully exposed but I'm tired of all the extra work and now tend to close up the engine cowlings. If the RR Merlin isn't a main part of the build for you, go with the Kotare Spit - beautifully detailed, fits perfectly from all the builds I've followed and the instructions are by the same crew from WNW👍 The Kotare kit also costs a lot less then any of the Tamiya kits. I'll be building mine sometime this fall.

Thanks Kev So very much appreciated. At 75, seeing and working with such small parts is a trick unto itself now, let alone getting the paint brush to find the right spot 😉

Thanks Kev Very much appreciated

Kriss I completely agree understand a 100%, as photography is one of my passions in life. I also take great care and spend a lot of time with each image I post, all of which are focused stacked in Photoshop and all post work is done in Lightroom and Photoshop as well. All my lighting in my studio and model room are Daylight LED's, including my photographic lights. I'm with you in no matter how hard we try, delicate mottling is hard to show, especially when post JPEG files.

GETTING STARTED When I first heard Airfix was going to release a Sea Fury in 48th scale a number of years ago, I was ecstatic and bought the kit as soon as it was available. After my initial run through the box, reading a good number of online reviews and watching builds on You Tube, my enthusiasm hit the skids, as the kit easily reflected Airfix’s efforts of the time, just not very good. Over time while the Sea Fury resided in the stash, I purchased a good number of Barracudas resin upgrade sets and their brass landing gear detail set, as I hoped they would correct the major short comings that plagued the kit. Recently I purchased the Wolfpack decal sheet and was ready to dive in when the mojo called. With Scott and Carl tackling the Hobbycraft 32nd scale kit and all of us had already built the gorgeous Fisher kit, their Sea Fury builds charged up my enthusiasm to tackle the Airfix rendition. While waiting for my P-38 decals to arrive, I started to clean up the Sea Fury fuselage and front office. The two exterior fuselage halves were a mess: there were battleship sized rivets on one half in places and on the other half, some of the corresponding rivets were there, some were missing and some in different locations all together. Panel lines on each half were not the same, where one side, some of the panel lines were deeper and wider then on the other side; something I haven’t seen before or since. Both halves were cleaned up and now looked presentable. The front office was something completely something else. The separately molded upper wall details looked way too chunky, heavy handed for any type of scale appearance and of course, some nasty mold lines surrounded the parts. Time to break out the Barracuda cockpit set. Since so little will be seen once the fuselage is closed up, I decided to combine/replace a lot of the kit parts with the Barracuda detail parts, a few bits and pieces of my own, rather then go all Barracuda. All the side wall details, compass stand, compass and IP were Barracuda resin with the balance being re-worked kit parts. The harnesses and seatbelts are Eduard PE. In the end, the front office now looked pretty good. It's been a long time since I built a front office without using either an Eduard PE set or a Quinta set but for the Sea Fury: 100% hand/brush painted – felt mighty good to go old school for a change. Starting to add the Barracuda resin sidewall details The Office is complete and ready to be closed up.

Kriss Nice progress and the initial marbling looks mighty good. In the last photo after the light gray underside color was applied, I can't see the marbling but that doesn't mean in the flesh it isn't visible.

DONE AND IN THE BOOKS I’m calling my Tamiya P-38F Lightning, Done and in the Books. Pure Tamiya, through and through. No pitfalls, beautifully molded with an abundance of details. The only additions to the kit: a Quinta Resin Front office, Eduard PE seatbelts and about half the decals being Eduard with the balance being Tamiya. Instructions were as to be expected, easy to follow and clearly showing all the part locations and orientations. Only issues were in two places, I jumped ahead in the construction sequence and that proved to be ill advised. Finished adding the underwing landing lights, pitot tube, lower and upper nav lights and the center canopy. That’s it. Paints of course were MRP Black Primer and the correct shades of Neutral Gray 43 and Olive Drab 41. Tried using a light blue background and still prefer the dark blue so much better.

CLEAR COATS AND THE GEAR Panel line washes have been applied, which help bring out the very petite details. If anything, I wish there were more engraved panel lines and as Rob’s build demonstrated, there is a lack of rivet detail. Yup, I could have added some but my modeling these days is firmly in the OOB camp and I tend to shy away from such work. Two additional light coats of Tamiya LP-9 sealed in the decals as well as the panel line washes, followed up with a few final coats Alclad Sheen ALC 311. I’m not a fan of full flat aircraft finishes and prefer a slight metallic sheen, which the ALC 311 does wonderfully. The gear was next up to be finished, being primed and then air brushed with Tamiya LC-38 Flat Aluminum. I wanted to try doing the oleos this time around with Bare Metal Chrome Foil rather then the Alclad route I normally do. The oleos pistons were measure with a pair of calibers, transferred to the Bare Metal Chrome Foil and very carefully cutout with a brand new Olfa blade in a Tamiya knife (just wish I could find a US vendor for the Olfa blades), as the slightest miss with the blade and the foil was ruined. The BMF oleo’s required a bit burnishing and some persuasion with a Q tip, the job done. In the end, they looked good but the Alclad chrome finish does look better; just a bit more work. At this point, the gear went on, the tires and wheels added and fit very well. The gear doors had been completed and painted much earlier in the build and following Tamiya’s instructions, went on for the most part without a hitch. I discovered that the plumbing in the gear bays needs to be left somewhat flexible so the gear door attachment flanges could slip into place easily, rather then a struggle. For the life of me, the seat just didn’t want to play ball and took a lot of fussing to fit in correctly. Has to be my error somewhere along the line, just can’t figure out where I went amiss. The canopy masking was removed and the P-38 only needs a good day or so to add the remaining parts and glass and she will be ready to cross the finish line. OOPS ... Late last night's bench session (1;30 AM) required some fine tuning with sanding and I forgot to dust and clean off the P-38 this morning before taking the photographs ... SHAME ON ME🧐

Hi Chris, much appreciated. The ability to peel off the carrier film on the new Eduard decals was a happy accident that Eduard never thought of, just worked out that way as they designed a new approach for their digital decals. I've just never been able to remove their carrier film completely without pulling up some of the decal itself. But when their new decals are applied in the normal way and the carrier film left alone, the results are as good a Cartograf. I normally apply two light clear coats over the decals to blend everything together and that's it - the model is now ready for the final clear coat which I normally use Alclad Sheen. In the home stages now and an update later today.

Peter I remember your Sea Fury build like it was yesterday - epic doesn't come close 🏆

John Perfect advice for Phil ... can never have enough built spitfire in the collection.

👍

John Nice progress on the Tamiya Spit. Prop and spinner look mighty good.

👍

Perfect timing🏆

Scott Looking forward to a build thread of the F-35 - sure is going to be epic.

Good luck with the airbrush - excellent warrantee.

Always thinking of Harv and always in my prayers.

John This to this 🏆

John Nice decision and a thumbs up 👍 on the scheme: MTO. Of course, it's a Tamiya gem and the cuss level should be zero - going to be nothing but an enjoyable build fora change.

Oliver Good decision on not rushing any part of the build simply incredible work. Peter

Thanks Carl, sometimes I just have to be in the mood to decal as I need to really concentrate, as so much could go wrong. You're so right in just holding off until the time is right.

Phil Much appreciated and right on the money. Decaling is now done, plus the gloss seal coat and top semi gloss clear coats are also done. Gear should go on in the next few days and hopefully by the weekend, the next progress update.

Always a good feeling when using quality tools and the results speak for themselves.

Carl For the past half dozen years or so, my arsenal has been comprised of: Two H&S Infinity CR Plus AB's An Iwata Eclipse HP-PC and an Iwata Revolution AB's. I use all four almost interchangeably and they are the perfect tools for me. Couldn't ask for any better.