Spitfire Mk Ia: 610 Squadron, May 1940

[EmperorKai]

Nick- I know how you feel, but hey, no kit and no build is perfect.  Heaven knows my shelf of doom is standing room only at this point...

Of course, after starting the paint, I noticed that I missed the gun camera port on the left wing root.  And like you and the landing gear, that will probably be the first thing I notice now 

I'm debating whether to do the new Revell Spitfire kit or stay with my France 1940 theme and do an early Hurricane next.  I usually get bored doing the same thing back to back (Spitfires in this base), but it would be interesting to compare the two kits.

Thanks for looking in on my build!

Kai 

[EmperorKai]

PAINTING UPPER SURFACES

I originally started on the undersides, but the paint peeled up when I went to start masking, so I had to strip all the paint off and start over.  I don't remember ever running into that problem with Tamiya gloss black before, but I think I'll stick with Gunze for the black base coats.  After lots of back and forth over the last 3 days, I've got the upper surface colors airbrushed in.  Using Vallejo colors here and finding it to be a very pleasant experience, though I did find that the Model Color doesn't mix will with the Model air- the airbrush spit clumps when I tried to lighten the base colors.

Looking forward to working on the undersides next.

Kai

[harv]

Oh yeah !!.......harv

[GazzaS]

That camo looks great!  Uneven enough to look right, but not so uneven that it looks like it was done on purpose.

 

 

[Drifter]

Superb. The cammo is spot on. Well done. 

[Wingco57]

This is turning out extremely nice.

[Peterpools]

Kai

Cammo looks great - smooth and even.  Model Air has been my go to acrylic for years and no problems at all. I thin it only with Vallejo Thinner with no problems. I’ve never tried mixing Model Color and Model Air but always assumed MC was just a thicker version of the same paint. Looks like it’s not.

My vote would be for a Hurricane for your next build.

Keep ‘em Comin

Peter

 

[Clunkmeister]

Good grief!

How did I miss THIS?  

Beautiful build, Kai, you’re showing us again that you’re a true Master builder.  Those scratchbuilt extras are stunning, and your camo?  Just WOW!

[Martinnfb]

Smooth as silk, love it !

[EmperorKai]

Have been distracted with the holidays- I hope very much that everyone had (or better yet, is still having) a wonderful and safe Christmas.

Thanks very much my friends for the encouragement!

Kai

[EmperorKai]

With all the merriment and festivities, I managed to get squeeze in some time at the workbench. 

For the undersides, I used Vallejo Model Air Insignia White and Black, though I toned down the black with 6:1 mix with insignia white to leave some room for tonal variations.  White was laid down first followed by panel lines and dabbing with grey and light tan oils.  A thinned white mix was then airbrushed over this to tone down and blend the overall effect.  The night black side was done in similar fashion. 

I've also started decals, but I'll post more on that shortly once I take a few more pics.

Thanks for looking!

Kai

 

 

[Martinnfb]

Lovely build my friend, I am stunned by your attention to fine detail.

Cheers

Martin

[EmperorKai]

Thanks Martin!

[Grunhertz]

Excellent work 

[GazzaS]

Painting up nicely!

 

Gaz

[Peterpools]

Kai

Some mighty fine air brush work .. looking so good

Keep 'em comin

Peter

[EmperorKai]

Thanks my friends-  will have some more pics in the next day or so...  almost done now!

Kai

[Peterpools]

Kai

Looking girward to your Spit crossing the line

Keep ‘em comin

Peter 

[EmperorKai]

Couple of updates- the build is starting to move faster, but also running into a challenge or two...

DECALS

Initially, I was a little intimidated at getting the very large decals to all fit in the relatively small space that the fuselage sides provide.  So, to start, I cut out pieces of paper and fixed them to the sides using Tamiya tape.  This turned out to be a very fortunate as the roundels ended up needing to be shifted forward to accommodate the "DW" right side.

The Eagle Edition decals went on very nicely and laid down nice and snug with Tamiya Mark Fit (under) and Solvaset (on top).  I did run into one issue where it appears I had applied too much Solvaset which burned through the upper wing roundel decal.  Ugh...  I considered removing the roundel and replacing with another roundel, but I didn't have another suitable replacement set of decals and really didn't want to stall out or run the risk of screwing up the paint work I had already done.  Ultimately, I cut a patch of blue from the unused underwing roundels and applied it over the top of the blemish.  Not a perfect solution, but it's not very noticeable at this point.

The decal instructions didn't provide much guidance regarding the order in which the decals should be placed.  At one point, I applied the walkway stripes on the upper wings over the top of the roundel before realizing they should have gone on first.    In the end, I let them dry and then scraped them off using a fresh blade, which worked out well enough.  After pouring over internet pics, it also appears that early Spitfires had fairly minimal stenciling or were covered over by other markings.  I ended up skipping most the the stencils and just applied the ones that reconciled with Mk.I images I was able to find. 

Applying the decals is my favorite step of the build, and usually have little or no trouble.  In this case, considering how smoothly this project has gone so far, guess I was about due for something to go sideways.

 With the decals squared away, I started on the panel wash which I will cover as a separate post.

Kai

[EmperorKai]

PANEL WASH

For the second part of my update, I wanted to share some pics of the finishing process.  I used Mig Dark Wash for the most part, though I did stray with some grays where needed.  Aside from that it was mainly and exercise in applying the wash and trying my damndest to NOT break the antenna and pitot tube off.  I'll let the pics speak for the rest.

Hope you enjoy and thanks much for looking in on my build.

Kai

[Martinnfb]

I just noticed the river being punched by beading tool. Wow. 

[GazzaS]

Kai,

    The Wash and decals look great.  The large fuselage markings are my favorite Roundels on any aircraft.  I always thought little roundels ugly.  Looking sweet!  would hardly know it was such an old kit.

 

Gaz

[Wingco57]

Blimey!!! That's fantastic. Those codes really fight for every inch available on the fuselage.

[Grunhertz]

Lovely work sir. A friend of mine has just released insignia masks for 610 sqdn but looks like you did just fine without them 

[nmayhew]

looks wonderful

never had solvaset do that to eaglecals but you made a good recovery!