nickdanger

Decals have begun

Got the detail painting finished up now as well - sky spinner and fuselage band, yellow leading edges and prop tips, and final edits to the fuselage D-Day stripes.

D-Day stripes are done: And she's all covered in Future so decaling can begin soon (couple of small paint corrections to make):

Coming along nicely. So do you think that the AM control surfaces were worth the extra trouble? If they don't come separate I usually do surgery on the kit parts. Granted on this one I didn't do the ailerons and the elevators are just a little dropped.

Uhu-Tac worms to get the topside camo painted: Voila: Didn't really need to do the camo in its entirety since the D-Day stripes would cover a fair amount but rather than try and figure out EXACTLY where the green and grey would show through, just blasted through it. Got the masking for the white stripes on: And threw on some (scale) white:

Underside radiators installed Nice detailing on the radiators but once again edging towards over-engineered. One radiator is made up of 7 parts (!). I left out the inside actuator arms since they are A very small and B completely invisible: Ready for painting: But first....Siths and Jedis, Conservatives and Liberals, Cats and Dogs....To preshade or not is a question that divides us into two distinct tribes. I am a preshader. Bottom is underside RAF grey and ready for masking to hit the top:

My brother has a model S and goes between LA and Phoenix (365 miles) to visit our dad. There are super chargers along the way so it very much is a road trip car. It's insanely quick, super fun to drive, economical, stylish, and good for the planet. I'd love to have one too.

Nicely done with the landing gear controls wiring ! Definitely a sharp looking cockpit.

Getting close to painting. While I'm very hapy with the kit in general, there are a couple of things that leave me scratching my head: Why make the upper and lower (not shown) cowl into two parts and running the risk of a seam line? With so much smart engineering and planning it seems strange for Eduard to add extra work for little or no model building fun. The tail is another story. Very cool parts layout, elegant solution to the control surfaces back there: Same things goes for the wing root join. I've done more than a dozen Spits mostly in 1/48 and this one is hands-down the best in

Congrats on starting this new phase and the Spit is looking great. Decals look like they settled nicely.

Looking good. You're looking like you'll be first to the Completed Builds thread.

Looking good - you might be the first past the finish line.

@Bigasshammm - I'm not sure how Eduard printed the color on the PE but it's really durable. Didn;t have any issues at all. While I'm really liking the Eduard kit there are a couple places that are verging on over-engineered. Here is one side of the wheel wells, showing 8 different parts.... Nevertheless parts are exceedingly well machined and fit together like a glove A quick dry fit of the wing root join makes me shake my head at the precision. An excellent kit. Like it a lot.

Cockpit is done except for the gunsight - usually like to leave that till final assembly. PE seatbelts went together pretty quickly: And fuselage is buttoned up as well:

Cockpit is mostly done. Just need to do the PE seatbelts and then I'll close up the fuselage:

Oh man. That will be difficult. Good luck getting that all trimmed and fitted.

The nice thing about the Italeri is that you can take the engine and still have a complete model. I didn't do any additions but it seems like a good base to detail from:

Smallish update again. Just getting all of the cockpit subassemblies ready for a quick dirty wash, then to put it all together: So I don't know how many of you all suffer from losses to the carpet monster but I have a great solution to lost parts. While dry fitting the spade grip trigger, an insanely small PE part, the tweezers lost grip and SPROING ! Part was....somewhere. Fortunately I work on a Korean/Japanese bamboo mat. They're cheap (maybe $30 - $50 USD) and last a loooong time. Best of all, you don't lose anything in them! No fibers to get lost in, just horizontal bamboo slices he

Great progress. Personally, I like the red crowbars - I must've done a dozen Spits with them. I blame IL-2, the best combat flight sim series of all time. I spent so many hours in a virtual Spitfire that they had modeled with a red crowbar that NOT having a red one just doesn't seem right. Here's their (inaccurate) but amazing cockpit:

Hang in there man. You're really close at this point. When you crack open that Revell it will be a breath of fresh air.

Thanks for all the kind words. The model itself is only a couple dozen pieces so it can go together pretty quick. While the masking is a pain, it doesn't take all that long since it's mostly straight lines. Couldn't resist the 60s filter. Reminds me of some of the pics I found online to use as reference: One final sunset themed pic....in the evening, when the day is done.

From Amazon. That's a steal.

Not an enormous update but got some of the cockpit details dealt with.

I've built that kit OOB and didn't have too much trouble with the decals. I've always liked Academy's plastic though - very easy to work with.

Ahhh, ICM. While they do tend to fight you, they can make for some really nice finished models.