Matt

From the last BoB Gb. Flight of Spitfires, 610 Sqn Tamiya 1/48th Mk Is and a mix bag of decals from the spares box. Cheers, Matt

I'm in, found some old AeroMaster decals at the bottom of my decal bin whilst looking for some other markings. Spitfire Mk II P7531 / L.Z I / 421 Flight Using Tamiya 1/48th Mk I as a base. Cheers, Matt

Something to keep in mind, but gloss black will show up every minor imperfection and flaw in the bodywork worse than any other colour. I had a friend that used to do these sorts of restores for a living, and gloss black was one colour he hated. The only time that he would use it was if a customer specifically came and asked for it. He never used it on any rebuild he was looking to sell on himself. As this is your own project that you plan on keeping, then this might not be an issue for you, but i thought I'd throw it out there. There's a reason why these showcars get 100's if not 1000's of

I use an old #11 blade to wedge the gap open a little more to make it easier to apply liquid cements and get them to capilliary down the join rather than deviate across the surface. Also I switched from using a touch and flow to a suitable brush, as it makes it easier to control the amount and placement of the glue. Hope this helps, Matt

Perhaps not quite the answer you are looking for, but, Absolutely you can mix metallic acrylics to get where you need to be and achieve a certain shade. I do this all the time with Tamiya and Citadels. You don't even need to stick to just metallics. Need something that has a slightly bronze sheen ? Add a little brown to an aluminium or metallic grey. Need a slightly metallic black ? Add a little aluminium to flat black. There is no correct mixture or ratio, you just have to experiment a little until you get what you are looking for. If necessary, use a clunker kit or scrap styrene to test

Agreed. I had pretty much made the same assumption, and if Edger says it, then far be it from me to argue. Sometimes these broad blanket statements get made and passed around and end up becoming gospel. I was just illustrating an example where I have had the use of a headrest on a late model Spitfire questioned, when the photographic evidence showed it to be there. Cheers, Matt

It is interesting. Especially with Spitfires as you can never say anything is 100%. PL775, a PRXI with a clear headrest, and very much post Mk V. Was this a pilot preference ?, a unit preference ?, a PR vs F mod ?, a post war mod ? , I have no idea. But I had a few comments on including the headrest when I built a model of this aircraft. (and this new Tamiya kit is so crying out for a PRXI conversion so I can build another.....) This rule of thumb is probably correct in the majority of cases, but as always, if you have references for a specific aircraft, check them. Cheers, Matt

Purely Post shading can be tricky. However, at the end of the day, both techniques are kind of the same, using various shades of paint with various levels of translucency to obtain an end result. With pre-shading, you have to work on an assumption that you can lay down a coat of colour over a shading pattern that will be thin enough to allow the shading effect to show through, but thick enough to leave a consistent finish. Whilst you can keep adding thin layers until you obtain the level of shading you desire, if you go too far, then you are stuck because you can never take a layer away. In

Don't get hung up on 'pre shading'. Its just one particular method of obtaining variations in colour and tone across a surface, one that tends to be easier done with an airbrush, and happens to require fine control over the density of the covering coat of paint, which may be harder to do with a brush. Consider a technique where you apply these colour variations after the initial base coat is applied (so, a post shade). That might be easier accomplished with the brush. As far as getting that 'blended' look you see from the airbrushed examples, look into brush techniques used by figure paint

Agreed. Although, it may be more noticeable with certain colours. As I do mostly WWII and Armour, I haven't really noticed this effect, but recently I did apply Future to a carefully shaded F-15 in Xtracrylics Gunship grey and I observed what you are describing. Either I've achieved much more subtle shading than in the past, or Gunship grey is particularly prone to this effect. To some extent the darkening is expected, but I was surprised at the way the shading just blended right in on this build. Cheers, Matt

I use it now and again. Mostly when working with their acrylic paints when working with figures. Occasionally for very specific pin washing and sometimes on Alu landing gear. I'm not sure I would ever want to try and use it as an all over wash. Cheers, Matt

I do this all the time with armour. Get it built 95%, paint it flat black, then lay down the base colours in light passes, as a sort of crazy preshade. Before After Details, tools etc are then picked out with a brush. I usually keep the roadwheels and turret off and painted separately. Cheers, Matt

Not specifically the new Airfix IX A few years ago we had a lively debate over 'accuracy' of various Spitfire kits. As part of that I had pulled out multiple 1/48th kits (ICM, Tamiya, Revell, Airfix Vb) to photograph and compare the various wings. During that time I looked at how easy/hard to cross kit the various wing/fuselages. The engineering of the ICM is very similar to the Tamiya, but even there, its not a simple 'bolt on'. In all cases, the match at the wing root was problematic, both in terms of chord, the gull wing area and the shape of the separation between the upper wing and the

I find Tenax and Ambroid to be 'hotter' than Tamiya thin. So they work really well when you are able to get the parts together or close together before applying them. The Tamiya will give you a little longer working time (may 5 secs or so) to get it applied and the parts brought together and aligned. As a result, the Tamiya will need a little longer to set up before it will take a strain. Tamiya thin also comes with a great applicator brush built in, and the bottles are pretty spill proof. I keep my old ones and transfer the Ambroid into them. Cheers, Matt

Hi Dave, Thanks for the update. I wasn't disputing it, I just hadn't heard that claim before, (although I oft suspected the colours may have been very similar), and the first page I found that made that claim yesterday didn't attribute it, so it wasn't something I was prepared to offer as fact. Subsequent research does make for a stronger argument. Cheers, Matt

What specifically do you need to know ? It was a colour for high altitude PR work developed by Sidney Cotton, and initially applied to the very very early PR Spitfires (as well as other PR aircraft used by Cotton). It was a very very light green colour, possibly close to what we call Sky Type S. (I found a suggestion that it was what the RAE based their recommendation for Sky on, but that's internet hearsay and you can take it for what its worth). If you could clarify what specifically you are looking more I might be able to dig out more information when I get home. Cheers, Matt

Did you see this build on HS ? http://hyperscale.com/features/2002/spitfireviicbs_1.htm looks like there may be an Aeromaster sheet in 1/48th Cheers, Matt

Not generally. Depending on the specific cases, sometimes I'll put down a light grey base coat if I have a lot of PE / Resin / Putty / Styrene in one place to get a consistent colour base to make it easier to work with thin colour coats., but I don't do this for any adhesion purpose. Cheers, Matt

I can do you the following. 6 (P7966/DB),20 (BL336/RST),32 (BS410/PKE),39 (MB882/EBB) and 41 (RM787/CG) It will just be the serials, squadron codes and special markings. The sheet didn't have a full set of roundels/fin flashes for every aircraft, so I've already used most of them up. You can source those from other places, like Xtradecal. I can do you B/W photocopies of the instructions and the profiles if you need them. PM me with which of that list you'de like and a mailing address and I'll get 'em in the post to you when I'm next at the Post Office. Cheers, Matt

Do you have any specific subjects in mind ? I have most of that sheet still. There are a number of subjects I'll probably keep, but I'm happy to send one or two your way if you have a particular need. Cheers, Matt

There are a number of cheaper alternatives for the various masking needs. For hard masking, you can head to your local DIY store and look at the various tapes in the painting/decorating department. 3M do a range of low-tack tapes (blue tape) that are good. You'll want a good sharp knife, a metal rule and a clean cutting surface in order to cut the bigger tape into more manageable strips. Hard masks can be used, even for brush painting, to separate colours. Small strips can be used to mask canopies and the like. You'll need to practice how best to bring the brushed paint up to the masking in

If I'm understanding the pictures, it looks more like the entire paint finish has developed a slight sepia tone to it (comparing the fin to the fuel tank), and not just the decals. Is that the point you were trying to ask about ? At a guess, I would have to say that you might have some bad gloss or flat coat, or a bad reaction between the gloss coat and the decal solution. Other possibilities are the solution itself. The staining looks to be all over, do you really spread the decal solution all over like that, or just in spots for the decals ? If the staining is all-over and not just where

It very much depends on the colour being applied. The darker colours (especially the basic Red and Blue) lay down really nicely. As with all paint, the thinner the mix the smoother it will go on. The down side though is that thin coats are hard to get a nice consistent colour. Laying down a solid primer colour first is one way to tackle this. One of the other options with Tamiya specifically is that they pretty much do a flat version of all their basic gloss colours. Rather than try and lay down a consistent solid gloss right off, lay down one or two thin coats of the corresponding flat

I had a go at this a few years back. I don't claim any great expertise, but I'll share what I did in case it helps. I personally wouldn't replace airbrushing with this technique, but about 5 years ago we were selling our house, so my 'paint barn' had to be packed up. To pass the time I went back to brush painting, and this is one of the end results. Nothing special, and I apologize as its been sitting on the shelf collecting dust, but hopefully the pictures show the results. This was done with PollyScale acrylics. Because of the fast drying time, I didn't use a blending technique that you

It could be either, but ultimately it doesn't really matter. There are so many variables involved in airbrushing that we can never really talk in absolutes. If someone reports having a certain success at 20PSI, then all you can take away from that is a general idea. Even if you have the same model airbrush, the same paint type, the exact same thinner, the exact same paint/thinner ratio, you'de still need the exact same pressure regulator, gauge and probably even airhose and even then, you don't know how accurate that gauge is, so you could be +- a couple of PSI. And finally, even if you'de g