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Got this kit on the cheap on Ebay and I really like it out of the box. Started in the pit and added some fiddley bits with hoses and wire. Used Pollyscale British Interior Green wtih a Burt Sienna wash. I also added some placecards on the right sidewall as seen in some refrence photos:

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Started putting the fusalage together. Used some strip styrene and superglue to reinforce the long seam.

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Its a start. Fun so far.

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Landing gear bay- all resin. Used the Dremel to cut off the big plugs of resin and this handy razor saw from John Vojtech for little bits. This thing is the duck's nuts for cutting.

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I used Tamiya aluminum for a basecoat in the bay and than picked off smaller details with Citidel Colors chainmail and boltgun metal. Did a wash inside also to add depth. Here I'm using clamps to superglue it all together. I got this tube of clamps at a recent raffle prize but 1/4 of them are busted out of the tube!

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Update: Time to put the wings on, but first- need some reinforcement as the fit isn't great and increased surface area will do wonders to help with this. Added strip styrene than the upper wings, finished off with clamping and lots of superglue:

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Do lots of test-fitting to get the lower wing on. If found the rear fit to be far too tight and rather cram the part in, which would be under lots of strain- I removed about 1/2mm from the rear fusalage part where the step is with my trusty razor saw.

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This resulted in what was the very best fit of the entire build so far!

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Than putting it all together- took some serious clamping and superglue. Started with the front section under the nose- lots of compound curves and parts comming together in this area, which will requrie lots of finishing work, lots of superglue used:

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Time for a beer and a good nights sleep :jaw-dropping:

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Great work getting the wings to fit so well.

Question for you - do you normally glue the upper wing sections in place, then fit the lower one-piece wing? I have started building a few WW II fighters lately, and the fit of the upper wings to fuselage has always given me trouble. Is your technique the solution?

I'm building a 1:24 Spitfire in this GB, and am right at the point where the wings and fuselage are about to come together. If you were me, would you try that on the Airfix Spit?

ALF

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Great work getting the wings to fit so well.

Question for you - do you normally glue the upper wing sections in place, then fit the lower one-piece wing? I have started building a few WW II fighters lately, and the fit of the upper wings to fuselage has always given me trouble. Is your technique the solution?

I'm building a 1:24 Spitfire in this GB, and am right at the point where the wings and fuselage are about to come together. If you were me, would you try that on the Airfix Spit?

ALF

yes- absolutely! Put the upper wings on first. This is an imprvement in assembly for most builds with almost no drawbacks. As I showd, this also allows you to do some serious reinforcement of the joint.

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  • 2 months later...

OK- I've been waaaaaay too busy this summer and not much has gotten done on my workbench. Got some updates coming here is a small one:

Rudder- oh Brudder! There is an insert for the lower rudder to choose from depending on what version you are doing. Well, this fits like a big snout and has to be blended in. After a little sanding, filling and priming this got to where it was acceptable for me:

Squadron Green Putty and superglue to the rescue. I let the tape create a natural rib here similar to the molded ribs above and below it:

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primed

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and the other side

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The tail planes fit together like two completely different spoons. Had to do some sanding,grinding, dry-fitting just for starters. I realized they also needed some good positive reinforcement so I drilled a hole and added a rod:

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pinned and superglue

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These things were now solid enough for a scale-maintainance crewman to stand on :worship:

I still had a seam gap on the underside but I figure few if anyone will ever see this and it will assist in masking them easier for the white/black undersides I will be doing. So I let the undersides be.

Edited by toadwbg
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Air scoops on the underside were pretty straightforward. The PE screens and bulkhead that fit inside of them don't fit well and had to be trimmed. The larger rear exhaust was a tricky fit with no real positive alignment. I screwed up and mine is not quite strait, but few will notice:

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Some more priming and spot-touch ups. I used Tamiya XF-20 as a primer:

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Wing roots and gun ports along the leading edges were problems for me and took a LOT of grinding, smoothing, filling, finishing

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Edited by toadwbg
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Finally to the fun part- painting! Did the while bottom in Tamiya Aluminum first than followed up with some masking and Tamiya White and Black:

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Had a little airbrush trouble with bubbles in the color cup. Did some tear-down and investigation and found my front nozzle assembly just wasn't torqued down tight to create a seal. I used the wrench provided with my airbrush to tighten it (gee...is that what it was for?) and finger-tight wasn't' doing it.

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Now onto the top camouflage! I am excited as this is usually the most fun part. I'll be using Tamiya mix for DARK EARTH:- XF52:1 + XF64:1

and Tamiya's newer Dark Green they just bottled for their Mk. IX Spitfire.

If my airbrush is behaving enough, I might try free-handing this. I will also be painting the markings with some roundel paint masks. If I'm lucky, it will turn out at least as good as my Mk. I Spitfire did I finished a couple years ago- see pic below:

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I'm interested to see how the Dark Earth mix turns out! I'm starting to have fun mixing paints. Oh and the underside of your hurricane looks sweet.

I started with a little experimentation, on the left is a Spitfire I did a few years ago using MM Enamel Dark Earth. The left rudder of my Hurricane I airbrushed Tamiya XF-52 strait from the bottle - looks too red and dark. On the right rudder is the Gunze Aqueous version of SAE Tan FS30219, a bit too light. I also have some good photos of real Hurricanes for reference and none of these seemed just right.

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I considered the Tamiya recommended mix if XF-52 + XF 64 (red brown) but concluded this would simply make things darker and redder, which is the wrong direction. Fortunately, I happened upon a timely thread over at Hyperscale in this very subject. I'd like to give due credit to the poster, but accidentally lost that, here was his recommendation:

I have been using the following for RAF Dark Earth: 

4 Parts XF 52 Flat Earth 

2 Parts XF 3 Flat Yellow 

1 Part XF 51 Khaki Drab 

1 Part XF 2 Flat White 

The important thing to remember about mixing RAF Dark Earth based on XF-52, is that when you add Flat White to the mix, the red tones in the XF-52 tend to make the color shift to pink. This can be balanced by mixing in some more XF-3 Flat Yellow

. Edited by toadwbg
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So I tried the above and gosh darnit this was a very good reccomendation. My bad, I left out the white as I thought it was already light enough but after it dried and I checked the references it does just need to shift lighter.

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another effect I did here, which doesn't show up on the photo, is I rather mottled on all these different experiments in color and as I added each corrective coat, I left a little of the underlayer show thru. This adds a lot of visual surface interest when you look at it up close. I hope it doesn't get lost under my Future coat before decalling or final flat/satin coat.

I'll be going back over the above now with a slightly lighter coat.

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I got around to painting the dark green cammo. I used Tamiyas new XF-81 Dark Green 2 they came out with for their Mrk Ix Spitfire. This stuff looks light in the bottle but does dry darker. Even after some initial drying, I found it a wee bit light compRed to refrences so I added a little XF-11 J.N. Green to it and somewhat randomly went over much of it to darken some more. Here's the result:

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in the background is my older Tamiya MK.I spitfire painted with MM enamels. Given some scale effect, these seem in the same ballpark. Further weathering and sealing coates may further darken my Hurricane also.

That's probably it for a little while, will be off for the next couple of weeks.

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