CANicoll

Rob, I cleaned my airbrush again after spraying the topcoat, and cleaned it again and even MORE stuff from previous sessions came out! Here is the first spray of the top camo color - Ocean Gray. This gives you an idea of the effect I'm looking for - a worn paint job. I'll see how it looks tomorrow and before I spray the dark green. I may need to do another coat before the next step and might need to respray some of the aluminum once I get the camo masks on, to achieve a similar effect. This is a place-holder door and am hoping not a lot of spray got into the cockpit. That would not be fun.

Ok, after doing some research having some problem definitively finding the color of primer which was used on the later Spitfires. Best I can find (@Britmodeller) is that there was a light gray primer used on the airframe and back part of the wings. I've applied the color to the lower surfaces and was moderately successful in getting some 'wear' to show through. VERY hard to see in photographs so will have to work on that. Just realized I forgot to take pictures of the painted underside. oops. Here is the silver coated underside. I don't expect to show a ton of wear here, more some dirt and oil stains. Amazing the detail, like the actuators for the radiator flaps. Definitely overscale and hard to see, but they are there. If I had the thought, I'd have seen about doing PE actuators. SuperBowl Sunday here in the states, but planning on getting some bench time this morning/early afternoon. Have the canopies masked already, so will do the gunsight and get that installed, then the canopies, door and topside camo painting. For paint I was hoping to use MRP but realized I have RLM and US SEA colors in abundance, but not many of the RAF colours, at least of the colors I need. So using my Vallelo Model Air paints which are spraying well so far. Did a major cleaning session of my Grex airbrush last night. OMG. How was it even spraying? I always take my Iwata HP-C apart after a session, but usually only do the "blow-back" cleaning of the Grex. I need to do better, especially with the acrylics. I think the lacquers clean more thoroughly directly than the acrylics.

Rob, Beautiful Color and the paint looks amazing. A couple of small bits to cover is fantastic for that size kit. No popcorn bits made it in, so success!

Thanks Rob! I'll be letting everyone know how it goes.

Aircraft Primer...Of course..... Doh..... Rob, Your Corsair wing looks terrific. Having to rethink my plan of attack here. Think it might be, black primer, Aluminum, aircraft primer color (whatever that ends up being), hairspray/chipping medium, camo colors... Thankfully this is 1/48 and not 1/32 scale! Mike - Yeah, I never was very good at the manual painting method.... Will see how this turns out. Now to run to the store and buy a can of hairspray to practice on my paint mule.

Thanks Mike and Martin, I do like the kits - easy to build and nice detail as Martin said. NIGHT FIGHTER SPITFIRE (Just kidding) Slow progress but put down a primer coat, finally. Going to try a different tack to the weathering. Going to put down an aluminum coat on top of the black primer, then seal it and do the camo coat over that. The idea is to 'weather' the camo coat down to the aluminum in places. We will see how it works out... Exhausts have an initial coat of Rust but that will be toned down with subsequent dry brushing and chalk. Nice detail, with open hollow ends Of course, once I cleaned everything up, I found some parts I didn't put into today's paint plan. Blast. Too many bins trying to make sure I don't misplace smaller parts...

Me too. I'm glad to see Tim getting parts out there. Nice to support one of our own! I'll have to check his catalog and see what's new. That resin piece he did looks terrific.

Nice Carl, I'm interested in how you like the Eduard seatbelts. I always had problem with the paint peeling off of them when I bent them. What's the secret?

A VERY supportive terrible bunch!

THis was $30??? Damn, I have to see if it is still on sale...

Amazing work, Rob both on the intake funnel issue and then the doors and magnets. Just superb. Love following along with your work. Agree with Hubert, the fit is better than the original!

Nice work! Love both the Tamiya and Revell 1/32 Mustangs - super kits and lots of fun to build. Do you have build threads for your planes?

Slowly making progress and planning for the camo scheme. The wings are together and tried to take my time to minimize the need for filler, especially along the front of the wing. While that fit was really good, the wing root fit was a little less precise, but not horrible. Underneath, the gap between the fuselage and the wing was kind of large. The intake cover underneath had a major seam to address - the attachment points were not very distinct. But a bit of Vallejo filler did the job. The bottom is supposed to be all one piece so no seam. Will spray some primer to check for the seam. Slow progress!

Mike, I'm sending you my radial engines for your excellent work! Cool!!! Love the camo. A .18 needle? I have to see what my finest needle is, but super job on the green blotches. They look amazing. PSI please? Also, the 129 camo is lovely. You ended up using the Vallejo masking agent (just checking!)? Great how you did that work. I bet it did take hours, but the results speak for themselves. I cannot imagine any other way to achieve that result. I MIGHT see about using that technique on a 1/72 Japanese Hien. On second thought, looking at my existing build of that aircraft (using the Tamiya decals!). Nope. I think I would 1. go blind. 2. go crazy trying to make that work. Do you think its easier on a larger (1/48, 1/32) scale? Sucks about the SOL trucks. But the Tamiya kit sounds like the answer, along with the SOL figures. Can't wait to see all of this come together. Hang in there, Mike!

Sorry to be absent for a couple of weeks. Time flies! Making some progress, slowly, but hope to catch up here pretty soon. The Caps are doing well, as are the Commanders so those games are fun to watch. Working on the wheel wells and there are LOTS OF PARTS! Part placement was not perfectly clear in the instructions, but the fit of the actual parts was pretty clear. I really had to work to make sure G16/G46 and G15/G47 were assembled correctly. Again, the fit was perfect and very clear. The little lugs made sure these two critical parts were perfectly aligned. The square holes inside is where the landing gear is attached to the wings. Painting to come. I was not as careful putting the fuselage halves together as I should have been so had to fix my error with a bit of filler. I used Tamiya Extra Thin and thought I had the halves together smoothly. A view of the seat in the cockpit.

Ditto!!!

Don't see the ugly, looks terrific to me! Nice work!

Sorry to blow up this thread, but aside from the great P-40, I'm in awe of Scott's organizing in the background! Labeled bins for everything!!!

That is really cool!! What is the pad it is sitting on?

That's what I was going to suggest. White as an underlayer. Or, sometimes, Silver/Aluminum/Steel also works. Great work on the mask!! Something I'd never have even thought to attempt... I thought you had a Cricut machine as clean and complicated as those cuts are. Nice work!

Carl, Thanks! I am VERY happy not to have to try and negotiate the Wako belts. Wow. Very thorough instructions, however. The most complete I've seen. The "double Y" is what I don't understand. Fortunately, I'm not having to actually create the belts from component pieces, just figure out how to place the various parts. Best as I can tell I think I'm reasonably close.

Making progress and here is my interpretation of the Sutton Harness question. I always leave the gunsight off until I'm attaching the canopy as I have a good history to knocking them off while masking or whatever.

I think the general answer is: in absence of a clear corrected color picture from the period (HA HA HA HA!!!), you can kind of pick and choose the colors you think are close and nobody can really call you wrong. Wartime paint production was not exactly exact and even 'standard' colors were not consistent batch to batch. And all were subject to fading, esp in the desert/Med. Have fun!!

Crazy how easy it is to get caught up in trying to figure out some small detail, huh? Found these images online which help with the placement of the various pieces. Whew! Also figured out the image from above and below is from Radu's OOP set.