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1/48 Tamiya Mk1 Spitfire


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So, this bird is my 2nd one since I was a teen, about 23 years.

(I posted an in progress thread here http://www.arcforums.com/forums/air/index....owtopic=219891)

I cut the elevators & positioned them dropped, scratchbuilt a harness, and replaced the solidly molded (rudder actuator?) with stretched sprue.

It's brush painted (Tamiya), and weathered with oils & pastels. Finally, because santa brought me a compressor this year, I was able to airbrush with a Future topcoat (flattened with Tamiya flat base). Most techniques used are basically new to me, so I took my time over it. I managed to break one of the legs, and had to pin it, so it is a little bit wonky. I also put a crack in the rear part of the canopy, but It's pretty much hidden by the main canopy.

The only thing I think that is left is the antenna wire, which I'll try to tackle with some monofilament fishing line, when I get some. In the meantime, I consider it finished.

I decided to post it in here, rather than the display case, so please go ahead & let me know what you think. Off the top of my head, criticisms of my own that I can see:

- Some of the paint finish is a bit grainy, and a bit rough at the various demarcation lines. I think this comes down to brush painting without thinning. Future projects should be airbrushed, so hopefully it won't happen again

- One of my fuselage roundels has the white underlay peeking out

- Slightly wonky undercarriage leg, where it's been pinned

- Cracked canopy

- Scratchbuilt harness straps are a bit too wide

- A mark where the crowbar was scraped off of the cockpit door.

A lot of this stuff only seems to show up on the photos, so I'm happy to pop it on my shelf to be admired :thumbsup:

Chris

DSCF1483.jpg

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She's a beauty- especially considering your just back into the hobby.

What colors (specific paints jars or mix) did you use?

Thanks -the camo is XF58 Olive Green & XF52 Flat Earth, the underside is XF21 Sky. I didn't try to mix up more accurate colours, I'm more of a TLAR kind of guy!

Chris

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Thanks -the camo is XF58 Olive Green & XF52 Flat Earth, the underside is XF21 Sky. I didn't try to mix up more accurate colours, I'm more of a TLAR kind of guy!

Chris

Colors look great in the photo, if a hair dark overall but that may be due to lighting/exposure or my display.

I sweated these colors to color-Nazi obsessiveness when I did mine LOL! I did a pretty complicated mix for the Dark Earth to match some reference photos I had. Here's a pic of mine:

SpitfireMkI002.jpg

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  • 4 weeks later...

Very nice, if I was going to be REALLY picky, the fuselage roundels have a slightly obvious carrier film round the top of the fuselage, not sure if you glossed the model before decaling, but that, plus a little softener, will help them snuggle down a little more and look more "painted".

I'm not entirely convinced by the size/position of the fuselage lettering, it looks a trifle oversize to me, but I may well be wrong about that :jaw-dropping:

Otherwise, its a brilliant build and you should be pleased as punch with it, I know I would be :jaw-dropping:

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Very nice, if I was going to be REALLY picky, the fuselage roundels have a slightly obvious carrier film round the top of the fuselage, not sure if you glossed the model before decaling, but that, plus a little softener, will help them snuggle down a little more and look more "painted".

I'm not entirely convinced by the size/position of the fuselage lettering, it looks a trifle oversize to me, but I may well be wrong about that :)

Otherwise, its a brilliant build and you should be pleased as punch with it, I know I would be :thumbsup:

Cheers for the feedback Matt.

I gave the spit a coat of Klear before decalling, and I used Klear to set the decals too. When you look at the actual roundel close up, it looks more like the top camo coat has been pulled or cracked by the edge of the decal. It's not the edge of the carrier film itself that is showing, but the undercoat of silver paint. Very odd, and I don't know what caused it. The other decals don't seem to have behaved like that. :huh:

The decals are OOB, they do look pretty huge to me too, but there is a famous picture of DW*O that I tried to copy - that included reversing the fin flash, as it looks like it may have been that way in the picture too

610.jpg

Chris

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Got to agree on the letter codes on the decals, I suspect the error (if there is one) is that the "DW" is lower in relation to the "O" on the decals in comparison to the real deal, but as I said, its a minor thing which I wouldn't worry about myself, it just sort of caught my eye, but its always difficult to evaluate a build from photo's, I guess thats why we build models rather than having pictures of models on our walls....

Well, not plastic models anyway.

Errm, well maybe thats not quite true, some of the "models" I had posters of on my walls in my youth contained a fair amount of plastic :bandhead2:

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