Kotare 1/32 Spitfire Mk Ia mid

[Merad]

This build has been in progress since March, but stalled for a while.  It's my first large scale build since returning to the hobby and I went all in on the aftermarket.

 

 

Cockpit is Quinta Studios, with a few pieces of Eduard PE, and HGW belts.

 

Added Eduard PE flaps.  I've read that RAF pilots were trained to retract flaps as soon as they left the runway so you wouldn't normally see them extended on the ground.  We'll just pretend they're getting maintenance or something like that.

 

The build was smooth overall except for the wing to fuselage fit.  I think this was my fault, but not sure what I screwed up. The fillets were just a bit too narrow to seat in place on the fuselage and I had to do a good bit of sanding and scraping on the right side to make them fit.

 

After priming I realized that the right fillet had collapsed a bit - I guess I took too much material in working on the fit.  I didn't take pics of the damage, but the fillet was sitting a good 2-3 mm lower than the side of the fuselage.  I used green stuff putty to fill in most the sunken area and Tamiya putty to fill in the top layer.  It took about 4 rounds of sanding and priming to get the edges even and the shape reasonably correct.

 

Finally yesterday and today I have been painting.  All MRP paints - I marbled the top camo with RAF light earth and light green, then finished with dark earth & dark green.  The camo was done freehand with the airbrush.  I'm not unhappy with the result, but if I had it to do over I think I'd mask it.  The bottom was marbled with white, and then the white side got some additional marbling with earth yellow before a top coat of white, and the black side got additional marbling with haze grey before a top coat of "black night".

 

Going to put a gloss coat on tomorrow so the paint has some protection, then this weekend I will be trying out those 1ManArmy stencils.

[DocRob]

Nice work overall, and also well photographed. I like your cockpit with all the details. PE flaps can be fiddly at times, but they improve the look a lot.

Cheers Rob

[crazypoet]

Gorgeous!

[Merad]

I got the main stencils done.  There are a few dozen fastener markings that still need to be added, and taking these pics I noticed overspray on the wing roots, so that needs some touch up...

[BlrwestSiR]

Lovely work there. 

[Martinnfb]

Fine attention to detail, me like ! 

Cheers

Martin

[Merad]

I ended up using the kit decals for the fasteners as it didn't feel worth the effort of all the masking to paint them.  The fasteners for the outer gun's access panel on the upper wing were part of the roundel decal so I couldn't use them, so I improvised and hand painted them with a single bristle held with tweezers. 

Sealed the decals with a coat of Aqua Gloss, then did an oil wash - dark brown on top, light brown on the bottom.  Mixed feelings about the wash on the bottom, it's not terrible but I think I probably should've stuck with dark brown all over.  Covered the wash with a MRP matt varnish, I think I did too heavy a coat because the paint looks a bit faded (especially noticeable on the black) but I think it actually works to my advantage because I want to depict a plane that's been run hard during those frantic months early in the war.

On now to some oil weathering and final assembly.

 

Minor disaster on the PE flaps, they were on a stick with some blu tac for the matt coat.  I though they were just barely attached but when I pulled one off to do the other side it totally pulled apart.  I was able to straighten it up pretty well, hopefully won't be noticeable.  These things have been a pain, if I do PE flaps again I think I will try soldering them.

[KevinM]

A beotch about the flaps but she does look very Nice!I see the two of us basically like to use the same technique when spraying the camo colors light pressure,small tip and the gun is always moving for that irregular pattern gives it a natural worn look.

[Merad]

Did some chipping and couldn't resist getting her on her own feet with some of the details installed.  Getting close!

 

[Merad]

1 hour ago, KevinM said:

A beotch about the flaps but she does look very Nice!I see the two of us basically like to use the same technique when spraying the camo colors light pressure,small tip and the gun is always moving for that irregular pattern gives it a natural worn look.

Yep!  I have to give all the credit to Doog's Models, I learned the technique from his excellent videos.

[DocRob]

I like the slightly faded paintjob. There is no black in reality, there is always a hue or shine or reflection in it and I think pure black on aircraft or armor models looks wrong.
The markings blended perfectly into the camo and that makes it look great.
The (sponge?) is looking a bit to strong in places for my liking and you may have used more different pieces of sponge and less color, but that´s just me .

Cheers Rob

[Merad]

4 hours ago, DocRob said:

The (sponge?) is looking a bit to strong in places for my liking and you may have used more different pieces of sponge and less color, but that´s just me .

I agree, I wanted the wing root under the cockpit to be almost bare metal so that was intended to be heavy, but I don't think the pattern looks very natural and the chipping on other areas is really too heavy.  I need a lot more practice with sponge chipping and I still haven't found a type of sponge that I really like and feel like gives good control of the effect. 

[DocRob]

32 minutes ago, Merad said:

I agree, I wanted the wing root under the cockpit to be almost bare metal so that was intended to be heavy, but I don't think the pattern looks very natural and the chipping on other areas is really too heavy.  I need a lot more practice with sponge chipping and I still haven't found a type of sponge that I really like and feel like gives good control of the effect. 

Sponge chipping is simple and effective, but what is not natural about it, is that you add layers instead of removing them. It can be done very good, but I like sponge chipping only as a quick method.
I prefer the hairspray method, spraying first the bare metal aluminum color, followed by hairspray, then primer color, again hairspray and finally the camouflage. 
When you dampen the area to chip, you can use varying tools to do the actual chipping, tweezers, toothpicks, stiff brushes, fiber pencils and even sandpaper.
If done carefully you will achieve a very realistic worn look, where more chips went through to the primer and some even deeper onto the metal surface.
It works like the real thing abrasing through the different layers.

I once built a Tamiya F4-U, utilizing that method. I the WIP, the process is described more detailed.
 

Cheers Rob

 

[Merad]

There are two reasons I haven't tried hairspray chipping yet.  I'm pretty committed to using MRP paints - colors already ordered for my next 6-8 builds - plus they're excellent.  From what I've read chipping only works with acrylics?  Also, I really like the effect that black basing gives and not sure how well it would mix with chipping.  Although now that I do some research I see that Doog has an article on the subject.  I have been eyeing a 1/48 A6M5 Zero to build in the near future, so it would be a good candidate to try some heavy chipping.