Big Spitfire MkI

[Matt]

This has to be a first for me. A project that got shelved in disgust finally sees the light of day.

I started this one soon after I got back into modelling. I originally thought I could be Mr Super-Detailer with it and started to scratch build an all new cockpit interior. Eventually my lack of talent and minimal reference material got the better of me and it got shelved in the 'someday' pile. After my techniques and references improved, I dug it back out, realized how badly I had done originally, and decided it was just too much work and shoved it back in the stash.

Wind forward to the recent Labour day weekend. 3 days of modelling time. I needed a project I could work on without having to worry about getting everything 'perfect'. Something that I could just keep making progress on, even if it ended up a '6fter'. So I pulled this one out of the pile and figured I could slam it together as an inflight build. That would hide the worse crimes in the cockpit and the lack of detail in the wheel bays.

A week later and its out of the paint booth.

This is the kit pilot and control column. Everything else is from the original scratch building effort covered in a heavy coat of Interior Green.

The pilot was slapped together and painted with Citadel acrylics in an afternoon.

The harness is masking tape, and disks punched from styrene sheet, remnants of the scratchbuild attempt.

I love painting with Tamiya Acrylics, but I rarely use them on my Spitfires because I don't get on with having to mix the colours.

As this was a '6ft slammer' I figured I'de go with the Tamiya mixes and practice my post shading. This scale is a good one for that.

The major construction was actually pretty straight forward considering the age of this kit and the molds. No worse than an ICM Spitfire. With some care and attention minimal filler was needed. The worse parts were some short-shot areas, the fit of the nose panels, and the ailerons. These were meant to be left 'loose' so they could be moved, so there were huge gaps between them and the rest of the wing, so I shimmed them out with some styrene sheet.

This project was always going to be N3249 in 92nd Squadron markings. Originally it was going to be as she was when she participated in the BoB, with all Sky undersides and coded QJ.P

Looking through some decal sets, I found some 1/48th markings for N3249 in late '40 when she was flown by R. Stanford Tuck over Dunkirk and was coded GR.P

The decal sheet had her as a half white/half black underside, but all the pictures I found of 92nd Squadron aircraft at the time looked more like Sky undersides with just a black port wing, so thats how she is.

There are no decals for this in 1/24th, so I'll be masking and painting the markings myself. Another fun thing to try out on a 'not too serious' build.

The best part of this kit is the surface detail. A mixture of engraved and raised rivets, just like on the real thing. Some of the engraved panel lines are overly large, but for the age of the kit they are passable.

Cheers,

Matt

[Lock n' Load]

AWESOME paint job!

I love the black, it has it's own preshading.

Btw.. didn't the spitfire had it's lower fuselage painted half black,half white entirely? or did that specific airplane had just a black wing?

[Jamie Cheslo]

Hi Matt;

For a six-foot slammer, I think that is a gorgeous build so far. I cannot believe you put the pilot together and painted in one afternoon. I have this kit in my stash, but I am scared to death to build it. I have no idea where I would put the monster, except maybe hang her from the ceiling!

Keep on posting your progress, I would love to see more of this build.

[LoganTLR]

AWESOME paint job!

I love the black, it has it's own preshading.

Btw.. didn't the spitfire had it's lower fuselage painted half black,half white entirely? or did that specific airplane had just a black wing?

Some early war SPITFIREs had their wings painted that way as a form of recognition.

Really nice job on a "classic" kit. Just goes to show that with some patience and skill, a great looking kit can be built.

Well done.

Tom

[Matt]

Btw.. didn't the spitfire had it's lower fuselage painted half black,half white entirely? or did that specific airplane had just a black wing?

Thanks for all the kind words.

The decal sheet I have for this subject indicated that the fuselage was painted half black/half white as well.

However, all the pictures I can find of 92nd Sqdn aircraft at this time clearly show the chin and rear fuselage are not painted half black, but at least half the carb intake is. In addition, the non-black colour looks too dark to be white and in tone is more likely to be sky. So, my 'take' here is that they went from a full sky underside, to painting just one wing in black up to the fuselage center line, but not forward or aft.

I didn't get as much done this week as I'de hoped, somehow work always gets in the way, but I did get an afternoon in today, so I did all the upper roundels.

This came out a lot better than the last time I tried it.

The red is a 30/70 mix of PS Panzer Red/Brown and MM Acryl 'hull red' (I forget the exact colour).

The blue is a 50/50 mix of MM Acryl dark blue (which is actually quite bright) and PS USN Weather Deck blue, which is dark grey/blue.

The end results are close enough for my liking.

All the masking was cut from 3M low tack Blue Painters tape using a circle cutter, except for the small dot on the fuselage roundel, which was hand cut, which is why it is a touch ragged.

Its not as fiddly to do in this scale as it is in 1/72nd, and the results are just so much better than decals.

By next weekend hopefully I can get the underside roundels done. Then comes the fun part. Cutting out the squadron and serial codes.

Cheers,

Matt

[Jack-Swiss]

Really nice indeed!!!!

Following with interest!

Cheers

[Jamie Cheslo]

Looks fabulous, Matt. Your colours look spot on!

[smutz]

Very nice so far Matt, like the pre shade work as well.

Andy

[boscosticks]

very nice shading work along the panel lines. they look incredibly realistic! how big is a 1/24 in respect to a human hand? can you take a picture with your hand in it so i can use your hand as a reference to get an idea as to how big the model is? :P thanks hehe

keep up the great work in the meantime though!

-bosco

[Randy Wise]

Always a tough build, that Airfix kit. But it packs a wealth of detail. Very nice piece of work. Probably the finest Airfix huge scale Spitfire that I've seen yet.

Randy

[Matt]

Always a tough build, that Airfix kit. But it packs a wealth of detail. Very nice piece of work. Probably the finest Airfix huge scale Spitfire that I've seen yet.

Randy

Thanks Randy, although it looks better at a distance and doesn't stand up to close scrutiny. I was surprised how well it went together. I was expecting to have to fight it with a bucket of bondo, but it really went together pretty easily. It reminds of the Airfix Lanc a bit. Despite being an aging kit and lacking in detail in some areas, it goes together pretty easily all things considered, and just plain looks right when its done. If I decided to build another one in this scale, I think I'de stick with the Airfix rather than the Trumpeter versions.

very nice shading work along the panel lines. they look incredibly realistic! how big is a 1/24 in respect to a human hand? can you take a picture with your hand in it so i can use your hand as a reference to get an idea as to how big the model is? thanks hehe

keep up the great work in the meantime though!

-bosco

Thanks. I wasn't able to hold the camera and the Spit at the same time, so I shot this with the Tamiya 1/48th Mk I and a bottle of paint. Hopefully this sets the scale. Its not absurdly big (unless all you build is 1/72 I suppose).

I had a quiet evening last night, so I got the underside markings out of the way. Once you get the hang of measuring and cutting the masks, it goes very quickly. I took some risks, masking on Tamiya and MM after only 15-20 mins of drying time, but I got away with it.

Cheers,

Matt

[Matt]

Squadron codes are done.

This wasn't as bad as I thought it could be, but didn't go as well as it could have done. I think if I did this again I would pay for some professionally cut masks.

The basic steps were to draw out the letters and ink them in, then lay Tamiya tape over the top, trace the letters, transfer the tape to a cutting board then cut the masks.

The problem I had was that the 70mm Tamiya tape was large enough and transparent enough, but after cutting out, it was far too flimsy, it was almost impossible to get the mask onto the fuselage straight.

In the end I had to use multiple overlapping strips of 40mm tape which were rigid enough, but that was trickier to cut cleanly and didn't burnish down as well as I had hoped.

The end result is good enough for the '6ft-er' that she is, but doesn't stand up to close scrutiny.

Also, somehow I managed to get the starboard masks on crooked so the letters aren't parallel to the canopy line, which they really should be.

Cheers,

Matt

[Jamie Cheslo]

I think it looks splendid, Matt. :lol: You know, one has to wonder, these markings were all painted on using masks in real life, right? So, mistakes in placement had to have happened, right? So would the crews leave a crooked code alone, or would they say, "Hey, it's good enough for service?" I am no expert by any means, but I would imagine that there were a lot of aircraft out there that did not have perfectly set codes and roundels, etc. Anyway, I love your work.

[Aigore]

My thoughts exactely!!

Imperfection might lead to perfection !!

[Matt]

Its always the way. The 'quick' projects end up hitting snags that turn them into a headache. On this build the serials drove me nuts.

I knew I was going to have to cut them by hand from masking tape. That turned into a complete nightmare.

I'de draw them out on the tape, cut away, and either ballock up the cut, or find them badly scaled. I think I must have done it 4 or 5 times and I still wasn't happy with the masks. In the end, I had a chat with a mate who's a CAD engineer. We drew them in his CAD app. and then scaled them around until they fit. Once we had them right, he printed me off a bunch on his printer. I laid Tamiya tape down on the paper, then very carefully with a brand new #11 blade, cut them out and peeled off the paper. The end result isn't perfect, but its close enough for this build.

After the serials, she got a 'wash' of pastel chalk/water/dish soap, then a coat of PS flat. Upper wash was a dark grey, lower wash a lighter grey mixed with a little brown.

Getting close now. Just some detail work and some touch ups and she'll be done. I've decided not to do any 'chipping'. Purely an asthetic choice on my part.

Hopefully the next post will be in Critique Corner and I can put this build to rest.

Cheers,

Matt