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1/32 Tam.Spitfire "Kicked Up A Notch" Dec 20/18 DONE!!


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23 hours ago, AX 365 said:

 

Chuck - after my last post, I was looking through some photos I have here.  Regarding the notch at the muzzle of the cannon barrel, it's supposed to be there.  Although the photo I have is that of the cannon armed Hurricane of Vintage Wings of Canada, you can clearly see the notches in the barrel.  And, I asked a friend who flew Spitfires and your supposition for the notches is correct; to screw the barrels into the wings and to remove them.

 

Mike

 

Thanks for that Mike.  Since I posted that query I found some more pics of the cannon that show the notches, but also some other detail that is often missed.  Right behind the gun tip, which is gun metal, is an aluminum ring that should not be painted- at least not in WWII.  I'm trying to get that look right now, but had to make some changes, because paint doesn't like to stick to brass unless you do a few things to prep the surface.  More on that later.

 

 

12 hours ago, Chris L said:

 

 Chuck can I take you back to the IP. for a minute . I'm interested to know just how you assemble them and with what material.

 

Regards, Christian 

 

Hi Christian,

 

It's been awhile, but I just used the kit IP and some bits from the Barracuda resin cockpit set, like the compass and the gunsight, which also come with some corrected decals for the IP that are wrong. I also added some tiny decals from airscale (airscale), that looked almost identical to what I see in pics of the real deal.   What was really tough was painting the tiny rings around a few of the instruments, but they turned out OK, even in super close-ups like the pics below.  The wiring and other bits were all scratch built.  Also, the joystick ring at the top is rough because it's supposed to replicate wrapping like on the real aircraft.

 

h7QqwQ.jpg

 

d0y469.jpg

 

A few more, when plugged into the cockpit sides....

 

BfNIXR.jpg

 

 

hx3tam.jpg

 

 

X7PKyO.jpg

 

 

 

Update:  I have started painting the camo colors with "chipped paint", which is super fun, but also a bit tricky to get looking right.  I should have something to show in a few days

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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 Thanks Chuck .  Not actually what I was looking for .

 Building in 1/72 scale , what I normally see is the three part sandwiched IP. pieces but this does not appear to be the same.

 I was looking for the best material to glue those parts together .

 

 Cheers, Christian  

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4 hours ago, Chris L said:

 Thanks Chuck .  Not actually what I was looking for .

 Building in 1/72 scale , what I normally see is the three part sandwiched IP. pieces but this does not appear to be the same.

 I was looking for the best material to glue those parts together .

 

 Cheers, Christian  

 

Sorry about that, but it did give an opportunity to show my earlier work that is still over at LSP nonetheless! 

 

To glue the IP acetate or decals to the back of the clear plastic, I use Pledge/Future (PF).  Once that has dried, I glue the clear plastic to the back of the IP plastic face using white glue, because if I make a mess, I can clean it up easily with a damp Q-Tip or microbrush.  For the gauges, if they don't look like glass already, like when you use a decal within a brass bezel, I put a drop of PF within with the gauge in a horizontal position until it dries.

 

For example, here's the IP from my P-38L build, with the resin part on the left and the kit one on the right.  While the resin part is poorly cast, the kit one has at least 10 pin marks on the face! 

 

Bx16kS.jpg

 

After a lot of work sanding the face of the kit part, I glued the acetate to the back of it using PF.  To make the instruments really pop, I also painted the back of the acetate an iridescent green.

 

hP0bjC.jpg

 

My F-15C Eagle.  Lots of fiddly bits in this one.

 

t7gmPG.jpg

 

After applying the techniques above and a little paint, it looks the part....

 

Qo2bRD.jpg

 

 

 

 

Does that help?

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

Edited by chuck540z3
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 Much help Chuck . I have had some issues with the acetate popping loose from the the back of the kit IP  before . I was not sure if you had some other glue that I have not heard about yet (  LOL. )

 I think maybe some sanding ( of the plastic ) might help with that issue.

 I also, I  like the idea of the iridescent green . What do you use for that ?

 

 Regards, Christian 

 

  

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Hey Chuck...As to the brass gun barrels, check out Ya-gabor's Mig 21 in progress build here on page 6 where he gets sidetracked on making a Master WWI machine gun. Apparently Master make a "blackening" agent which may be a good starting point for your barrels and help with adding paint afterwards...HTH Bruce

Edited by RCAFFAN
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18 hours ago, Chris L said:

 I also, I  like the idea of the iridescent green . What do you use for that ?

 

 Regards, Christian 

 

  

 

Nothing fancy, just white paint with a touch of green.

 

18 hours ago, RCAFFAN said:

Hey Chuck...As to the brass gun barrels, check out Ya-gabor's Mig 21 in progress build here on page 6 where he gets sidetracked on making a Master WWI machine gun. Apparently Master make a "blackening" agent which may be a good starting point for your barrels and help with adding paint afterwards...HTH Bruce

 

Thanks Bruce, I will look into that.  My only reservation is that it etches the brass a bit to provide some bite for the paint, but that also makes it slightly rough.  For a gun barrel, that's OK, but for a smooth aluminum cannon shroud, maybe not.  In any case, I'm glad you found that for me for future reference!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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18 hours ago, RCAFFAN said:

Hey Chuck...As to the brass gun barrels, check out Ya-gabor's Mig 21 in progress build here on page 6 where he gets sidetracked on making a Master WWI machine gun. Apparently Master make a "blackening" agent which may be a good starting point for your barrels and help with adding paint afterwards...HTH Bruce

 

 

 Please note that the blackening agent is actually manufactured by Uschi Von Der  Rosten and can also be purchased from their website .

 

 Regards, Christian 

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Chuck I have used Blacken It on brass and I thought it worked pretty good. I got it at a hobby store that carries model railroad supplies.

 

However a word of warning, you have to be careful with the container you use to soak the parts. I made a boat of aluminum foil and I found the Blacken It ate right through it. Now I use a plastic container and that works fine. By the way I use it to blacken my antennas on my armour then I do not have to paint them.

 

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Thanks everyone!

 

November 4/18

 

In my last few posts I discussed how I was having some difficulty getting paint to stick to the smooth brass cannons and some of you found a “blackening agent”, that slightly etched the brass to allow paint to bite into the surface better.  While this is a great idea, I thought of one of my own, which doesn’t make the surface the least bit rough.  I use Tamiya acrylic X-22 quite a bit to gloss my models before the application of decals, which, my father used to say, “Sticks like snot to an oven door”.  I have no adhesion issues with paint to X-22, so if I spray the brass parts with X-22 first, I should be OK, right?  Since I need to mask the cannons, I stripped the paint off of them with Tamiya lacquer thinner, then sprayed them with X-22.  There’s no need to worry about overspray, since the X-22 is completely clear.

 

 

Vgyotk.jpg

 

 

Before I paint the camo scheme on the top, I masked off the entire bottom to prevent overspray from above, while providing the fairly sharp demarcation line between upper and lower paint colors.

 

 

60cttV.jpg

 

 

My last two models (F-15C and P-38L) were kept very clean on purpose, but for this wartime Spit, it’s time to get dirty again!  Weathering, like art, is very subjective and what somebody likes, somebody else will hate because they think it was overdone, underdone, or maybe poorly done.  All that should matter, is what I like, so I did a little research on the wear patterns on the wings.  Everybody chips up the wing root on the port side where the pilot enters the aircraft, but I found the entire wing can be chipped up on both sides with ground crews servicing the engine and gun bays.  Let’s take a look at the museum Spit I took pics of again.  While the wear pattern is sort of random, it’s also sort of organized along panel lines and raised rivets, providing a perpendicular wear pattern.

 

 

AHy4RZ.jpg

 

 

Looking through a few of my reference books, this wear can be very significant and occasionally much less so, no doubt due to the age of the aircraft and where it was operational.  At this risk of catching some copyright heat, here’s a few more pics for reference.

 

ttGvSE.jpg

 

ThrsE2.jpg

 

t7dWAx.jpg

 

 

You can use the salt weathering method to create this wear, but you can’t create deliberate patterns very well, so I used Mr. Masking Sol masking solution, diluted with water and painted on with a brush.  This stuff dries nice and rubbery, allowing you to easily remove it after painting.   I would not use MicroMask, because it can dry hard and is often hard to remove from tight spaces.   As you can see, this bird is going to be heavily chipped.

 

 

3lGeFE.jpg

 

 

I then sprayed some fairly random pre-shading with gloss black, to create a bit of a mottled look to the paint, but also what I can sand down into after painting.

 

 

WgvDS4.jpg

 

 

Since the demarcation lines between the Ocean Grey (Tamiya AS-31) and Dark Green (ASA-30) is usually quite fuzzy, I used the traditional poster putty method of creating the camo pattern according to the kit instructions, which match many reference pics of wartime Spitfires.  I added a bit of white to both colors for scale effect and sun bleaching.  I always spray the lighter color first without masking the darker areas, since light overspray will be hidden with the darker color.  The bits of masking tape are to remind me where I should be painting in the confusion of orange worms all over the place!

 

 

vG2yk5.jpg

 

 

The first very light coat.  Since I already know that I will be painting many touch ups, I start off thin to help prevent subsequent paint build up, that fills fine detail like rivets.

 

 

JwkNUf.jpg

Edited by chuck540z3
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For the dark green, I did mask off the lighter grey to prevent overspray.  BTW, with strong lights and a bit of a white balance shift, the green looks browner than it really is.  I'll have to tweak things in my next post to correct that.

 

 

lUog6D.jpg

 

 

Now the tricky part, where I repair and change demarcation lines over, and over and over until I get them looking the part.

 

 

eLRZbz.jpg

 

 

 

Now the moment of truth as you can see the masking solution under the paint. 

 

 

rEZv0V.jpg

 

 

For most of it, I removed the masking solution with a rubbing motion with my bare finger, but for some of the tougher bits, I used an ordinary pencil eraser, that worked quite well.  Yes, it looks overdone, but I’m not even half finished with it yet.

 

 

C8jwG7.jpg

 

 

Using very thin paint, I sprayed over much of it, then lightly sanded much of it back to light, but not all.  This provides a layered look of variable wear, rather than just chipped paint.  Later, when I apply weathering, it will knock down the shine and abruptness of the contrast even more.

 

 

9p8Nuz.jpg

 

6HuXdg.jpg

 

 

Here’s why I needed to mask the cannons.  Besides the dark gun end, I have pics that show there was an aluminum colored collar directly behind it that wasn’t painted.  I have no idea if this was always the case or not, but I like the look.  Note the new yellow identification stripes that I painted on, much as I will be painting the insignias later.

 

 

pQdmLb.jpg

 

 

And now, just for fun, I plugged in the engine to get a feel for where this build is headed.  A weathered engine needs a weathered fuselage!

 

 

CYuvZt.jpg

 

 

0x7YIl.jpg

 

XL1kTZ.jpg

 

 

Lots and lots of work left, but this is the most fun part of modeling to me.

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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As a great fan your work you brought me back to my first model I started when I got my modelling hobby  back on track  in Thailand, almost four and a half years ago. Following your build of the Spitfire with great interest and picking up tips to get mine fixed. Although in 1/48 scale, it's finally closing the finish line now,  since winter came to your part of the world. 

Thai have winter too, approx. 19 Degrees Celsius during nighttime will be a freeze, but rain stopped, so time to get the airbrush out. Building a Dutch Spitfire during "Politionele Acties" in Indonesia, 1947 / 1948.

Keep up the good work.

 

Kind regards and greetings from Thailand,

 

Robert Jan

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"Using very thin paint, I sprayed over much of it, then lightly sanded much of it back to light, but not all.  This provides a layered look of variable wear, rather than just chipped paint.  Later, when I apply weathering, it will knock down the shine and abruptness of the contrast even more."

 

Great technique and results, Chuck.  You're right.  It's a more realistic appearance of paint chipping and fading.

 

Mike

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Thanks a lot guys!  This is the stage where my OCD really comes into play, because I will literally take at least 30 more trips to the paint booth to add more details and fix stuff I don't like.  I already see some things to change and I will start painting the insignias which I've never done before, because I've always used decals.  After applying stencils and other bits, I'll start the weathering process, which I've already sort of started with the mottled paint and light sanding.  The key to weathering is to make it look realistic, without overdoing it, which is a very fine line that is subjective.

 

Also, something that I should have mentioned, is that I have never done this paint chipping method of aluminum under paint before!  I just made it all up, but I'm sure others have done something very similar, because it's so obvious.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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