Matt Posted January 2, 2009 Share Posted January 2, 2009 (edited) I figured I had enough green/gray/brown Spitfires on the shelf so I thought I'de go for something a little different. This build will be a pair of silver Spitfires. Both are from 601Sqn, a MkIXc MJ250 coded UF.Q and MkXVIe TE395 coded HT.D I've raided the last of my ICM stash for IXc and the XVIe is also ICM from the spares bin of failed projects. Markings will be courtesy of Iliad Designs. Step 1: A quick dry fit to make sure I had all the salient parts and decide what I'll use from the kit/spares and what will get replaced by fine products from the good folks at Ultracast. MJ250 IXc Ultracast for the prop and spinner, exhausts, seat, wheels, cannon covers, elevator,rudder and chin/carb intake. TE395 Ultracast for the prop and spinner, exhausts, seat, wheels, cannon covers, elevator and chin/carb intake. Both will be done as closed cockpits, so other than the replacement seats, the cockpit will be OOB. Trying a new 'quick' technique. Assemble the cockpit as far as possible, paint everything black, Then lay down a light coat of PollyScale Br Int. Green, finally picking out the details in Citadels. 2hrs later the cockpits are done other than the seat. Whats interesting is that the fastback fuselage interiors appear to be complete remasters rather than duplicates the original high back. They look very similar, of course, but if you look closely they are very different. Now we just have to wait for Mr Postman to deliver the resin bit and we can move forward. Cheers, Matt Edited March 11, 2009 by Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted January 17, 2009 Author Share Posted January 17, 2009 Resin has arrived so we can make some progress. Basic assembly is done. A bit more of a struggle than usual, even for an ICM. One set of fuselages were warped to a banana shape, so it took some not so subtle coaxing to get the wings on and aligned. The low back fuselages are slightly short in chord at the wing joint, so there are nasty gaps at the trailing edge to deal with. MJ250 TE395 Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jimz66 Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Nice job so far Matt. What scale are you building? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Hurricane363 Posted January 18, 2009 Share Posted January 18, 2009 Looking good!!!!! I like the idea for painting the cockpits! Keep it up. Mat Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted January 25, 2009 Author Share Posted January 25, 2009 A very quick update. All major construction is done and the first pass through the paint booth. MJ250. As she is meant to be a stripped war weary bird, I did base of Citadel Mithral Silver then noodled on some Citadel Chainmail to breakup the monotone of the silver. At the moment she's still drying. Tomorrow I'll have to decide if she needs more or not. TE395 As she's meant to be a post war example, I'm going to keep her much cleaner, so she got just an overall coat of Citdel Mithral Silver. Thanks for looking. Both are 1/48th scale. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
RKic Posted January 25, 2009 Share Posted January 25, 2009 They both look beautiful Matt. Are the Citadel paints acrylic or enamels? I never saw an ICM spitfire at any shops around here, but if I ever do I'll make sure to pick one up. Based on your build, they look like nice kits Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 Thanks Ralph. Citadels are acrylics. Come from Games Workshop. They are designed for the fantasy figure painting markets, so they brush well, but they also airbrush pretty good. They don't match specifically to any given FS number, but they have a good range of metallics. The finish isn't as good as some of the lacquer based paints, but better than Tamiya. I'm not sure what the availability of ICM Spitfires is these days. My LHS no longer has them in stock. The last few I ordered online were odd balls. The box art would show a high back/ small rudder version, but in one box I had a high back with only the large fin, the other had a low back fuse with large rudder and only clipped wings. Seemed to be a case of stuff any old sprues into a box, add a set of decals to match the box art, and out the door it goes. Overall quality is variable. Early ICMs were notorious for short shot parts and a nasty mold release agent. More recent ones seem to avoid those 2 problems. Quite a bit of flash though. Fit needs some effort. Quite a few sink marks here and there. Some parts are poor representations of the real thing (wheels and prop especially), hence the large number of replacement parts in the Ultracast line. Kits used to be really cheap which made up for some of the defects. Assuming you can work through these though, you do get a decent looking MkIX/XVI. I think they also do a VIII as well. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrallman Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 (edited) You can get them online for about $10 each for the IX and VIII kits. I would say where but the forum controls dont allow it Edited January 26, 2009 by jrallman Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 You can get them online for about $10 each for the IX and VIII kits. I would say where but the forum controls dont allow it Yeah, the only problem with online is you can't pop the shrink to see if whats in the box actually matches whats on the outside. Which is why I'm building a low-back XVIe for this GB Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rodney.cross Posted January 26, 2009 Share Posted January 26, 2009 Looking really good, can't wait to see it complete regards rodney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted January 26, 2009 Author Share Posted January 26, 2009 Another really quick update. Whilst I was waiting for paint to dry I gave the wheels, exhausts and undercarriage legs a quick wash and drybrush. I've run into some odd issues recently with acrylic washes over Future. They bead up and won't settle properly. So, as this was Citadel on Citadel, and I must have washed 100's of figures before I'de even heard of Future, I figured I'de get this step out of way before the Future coat. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted January 27, 2009 Share Posted January 27, 2009 This pair is gathering pace nicely. I'm looking forward to seeing how you weather the silver finish - I'd like to try one of those myself one day, and have no idea how it's done. The stripey-nosed bird in your other thread sound like it's going to be fantastic - you'd be amazed at how much fun you can have scrounging together bits of old PE to make new interiors... Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted February 1, 2009 Author Share Posted February 1, 2009 Time for decals. Decals for me are the best of times and the worst of times. I love the way it brings the subject to life, but for some reason, there's always something that doesn't go quite right. This build would continue that streak. Both sets of markings are from an Iliad Designs sheet for 'Silver Spitfires'. The decals are a little on the thick side, as they are printed over white. This makes them very opaque and gives good colour. They settle down nicely. My set was very very slightly out of register between the white and the rest of the print run. As a result some markings had a very slight white 'edge' to them in places. Fortunately it doesn't show on the Silver enough to cause a rethink, but on a dark camo, I think it would show worse. For some reason, The 'B' wing roundels on MJ250 reacted oddly to MicroSol. They wrinkled up but then didn't smooth out afterwards. All the other decals on both birds didn't exhibit this phenomenon, they settled down perfectly. I don't know what caused this, and after 5 coats of 'Sol I'm not 100% sure how I'm going to get around it. MJ250 Close up of the wrinkles. TE395 Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
thom Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Shame about the wing roundels, but there is a possibility if you're willing to take the plunge. Heavily weathered silver Spits sometimes show the roundels flaking off in places. If you go over with flat coat (to 'harden' the decal), you could lightly sand the area and get (probably) quite a convincing effect of heavy wear. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jrallman Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 id go with something stronger first, like solvaset, then maybe some Mr. Decal softener. If nothing stronger works, perhaps strip them off completely and paint the roundels on that wing. or go with the chipping idea, thats cool too. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted February 2, 2009 Author Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thanks for the suggestions. I did hit them with Solvaset last night. It helped a little, but then one of them got discoloured (its got a kind of crazy/cracked light blue finish on parts of it) almost as if the Solvaset removed some of the ink. I think time has come to pull them off and hit the spares bin for some replacements. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Rocat Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 nice work! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
johnsan Posted February 2, 2009 Share Posted February 2, 2009 Thanks for the suggestions. I did hit them with Solvaset last night. It helped a little, but then one of them got discoloured (its got a kind of crazy/cracked light blue finish on parts of it) almost as if the Solvaset removed some of the ink.I think time has come to pull them off and hit the spares bin for some replacements. Cheers, Matt If you haven't yet pulled the sticker off, there are a couple of things you can try first. You can a heat treatment, either steaming them with a very hot moistened q-tip or melting them using a small bit of lacquer thinner (Tamiya's works very well for this). Quote Link to post Share on other sites
old_Tonto Posted February 3, 2009 Share Posted February 3, 2009 Very nive Matt :) I do love silver Spits. Keep up the good work. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted February 6, 2009 Author Share Posted February 6, 2009 Because of the discolouration, I had no choice but to remove the decals and apply fresh ones. Unfortunately, whilst 90% came right off with a bit of tape, the patches that had discoloured wouldn't budge. They appeared to have welded right through the decal, the Future and the paint, and bonded right to the plastic. Nasty stuff that Solvaset. My guess is that it might have puddled slightly and that gave it more time to softens and eat all the way through. Anyway. Those parts had to be sanded back, and with a pretty aggressive grade at that. That meant I had to re do the paintwork around those areas, which has taken me a little longer to get done. Anyways, replacement decals are from Xtradecal, the last 56"ers in my box (unless I want to risk stock Tamiya ones) This is after letting them sit overnight without any decal solution what so ever. A small bubble to take care of, and I should be ready to start making progress on these aircraft again Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
David Koktavý Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Matt, I see you have big problems with decal. Well , sometimes the things (especially work with decals and solutions) are wrong (without reason) and you must make an extra effort to correct it. And in this case it is worth to fight against it, because your Spitfires look very nice. I especially like the MJ 250. Good luck . .. David Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted March 8, 2009 Author Share Posted March 8, 2009 Finally a weekend I can get some time to myself. Both aircraft got a chalk wash. TE395. As this is meant to be a fairly clean post war aircraft, I kept to a mid grey and cleaned it up pretty good. MJ250. As this meant to be more war weary, I mixed up a dark brown wash and let it streak a little more. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
old_Tonto Posted March 8, 2009 Share Posted March 8, 2009 Really nice Matt. I do love silver Spits. If I ever clear some space on my workbench I will have a crack at an Airfix 1/48 F.22. It won't be up to the standard of yours though. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
rodney.cross Posted March 9, 2009 Share Posted March 9, 2009 Awesome looking Spitfire's, how did you get the sliver looking so great? Rodney Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Matt Posted March 9, 2009 Author Share Posted March 9, 2009 Awesome looking Spitfire's, how did you get the sliver looking so great? Rodney Thanks Rodney, The silver is an acrylic from Citadel/Games workshop. Its not quite so great up close, silver really shows up every minor flaw and scuff mark in the plastic. At the time of these pictures, there's also a protective coat of Future which makes it look smoother. Cheers, Matt Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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