Spitfire IXc early version

[Curt B]

I debated for some time which scheme I wanted to do on my 1/48 Eduard Spitfire Mk. IXc early version.  Figuring I have plenty of other Spitfires yet to build, and I'll probably make most, if not all of them, in British liveries, I finally landed on this US Army Air Force version, flown out of La Selaba Airfield, Tunisia, June 1943.  Plus, I thought it would give me a chance to really weather this plane quite a bit, with desert sand and dust.  For some reason, I seemed to have stalled when I got close to the end of this build, and I did not end up doing the extensive weathering I had intended, though superficially, there's a lot of dust and dirt evident.  I made one mistake, and somehow lost the rear part of the canopy (the clear part under the bubble top portion), and I had to create one from the 'closed' version of the canopy, by cutting off the rear portion, then sanding down the rough edge.  It didn't turn out too horrible, but it caused me a lot of angst, and a lot of wasted time looking for the piece that I never did find... 

 

The British roundel on the underside of the left wing was shown, in a photo of the actual aircraft, as having been worn away, and I tried my best to duplicate that, not sure it turned out particularly well.  And one thing that bothers me is the lack of a match between the yellow shade on the wing leading edges and the yellow around the US star insignia.  I've made that a lesson learned for myself foe future builds on any planes, to check for that kind of color match.  Oh, and one last thing...while I purchased the Eduard aftermarket one piece resin part for the top of the engine cowl, as I was not confident of my abilities in making the kit 2 parts look like a single piece, I think I was able to make the seam pretty much invisible, although I did NOT do a great job on the seam directly in front of the windshield. And, I messed up the PE part that was supposed to be just inside the sliding part of the canopy (the grab handle?) and thus it's not in place, as you can see in the second photo.  Oh well...

 

So, what do you think?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 23, 2021 by Curt B
Added cowl top info

[seawinder]

I think you've done a very fine job with it. I'm also considering doing the Eduard early IX in US/desert markings, although I probably won't have it quite as dirtied up, but that's just my building preference. What paint did you use to for the over-painted wing roundels? Were you after the US vs. British Dark Earth?

[Curt B]

On 5/23/2021 at 10:34 AM, seawinder said:

I think you've done a very fine job with it. I'm also considering doing the Eduard early IX in US/desert markings, although I probably won't have it quite as dirtied up, but that's just my building preference. What paint did you use to for the over-painted wing roundels? Were you after the US vs. British Dark Earth?

Thanks.  Normally, I don't go for as weathered/dirty as I made this one...and I've done a few desert planes, an Fw190 A-4 and a Hurricane, and those were made with 'more regular' weathering.  I had intended from the start to do this one pretty extreme, and it has been my practice to put a clear satin finish over most of my airplanes, but in this case, I left it in a complete matte finish, to emphasize the wear and tear.  By the way, the photos make the plane look somewhat more 'grungy' than it looks to the naked eye.   When you see it in person, it's not quite as dirty as the photos make it look.

 

Regarding the 'overpaint' of the roundels, the Eduard instructions show that that overspray was supposed to be just a slightly darkened version of the dark earth, simulating that the roundels had been overpainted with new, 'unfaded' paint of the same base color (dark earth).  I wasn't going for a US versus Brit color difference.  In my case, I used the dark earth color and added a few drops of 'rubber black'.  That was also the case under the 'W" and 'WD' markings on the fuselage.  Frankly, I overdid it, and hadn't wanted the contrast between the overall dark earth and the 'new' dark earth to be anywhere near as stark as it is, but once I sprayed it, I was too concerned about another layer of paint, plus the decals, starting to impact the surface detail, so I left it as-was.  I think it shows up a bit less stark after all the additional weathering, but before that, those 'overspray' areas were REALLY dark, relatively.  I think you could get away with adding rubber black, but with a drop of black into maybe 10-12 drops of paint, to get that just barely deeper color, as the instructions suggested; the instructions didn't give any guidance about a paint color or mixture for those areas, just 'darker'.    

Edited May 31, 2021 by Curt B

[Rob Mignard]

Looks great Curt!

[Curt B]

51 minutes ago, Rob Mignard said:

Looks great Curt!

I appreciate your thought, Rob!  Thanks a bunch!

[old_Tonto]

That looks very impressive and I love the weathering. Those desert birds became grubby very quickly.

[southwestforests]

Even with the things which turned out not quite exactly as hoped for it does make a quite attractive model.

[Falconxlvi]

Hi Curt,

 

  I like your work here!  The dusty/harsh weathering looks good and appropriate for a North African Theatre airplane.  Some of the dust effects could be blended in a little bit more (looks like you used pigments).  I think you identified the areas that you would like to improve upon pretty well in your initial post.  I might also add the seam on the bottom of the fuselage join after the wings.   Very nice improvement- I think each of your builds is getting better and it’s great to push the weathering like you did here!

 

Steve

[peter havriluk]

Just gobsmacking beautiful!.  Work of art! 

[Curt B]

On 6/28/2021 at 9:43 PM, peter havriluk said:

Just gobsmacking beautiful!.  Work of art! 

Peter....very kind of you, sir, greatly appreciated!