Tamiya 1/48 Spitfire "One Year On"

[Tim Marlow]

Good luck with that...perhaps detacking the mask will help? I know what you mean About decals though, Tamiya decals are by far the weakest part of their kits. I’ve had cases where parts of the decal have been floating around in the dish while some of the decal is still stuck fast to the backing paper! On the other hand, I’ve found Italeri and Airfix decals to be excellent....thin, flexible, and easily applied.....

[Si Benson]

Hi Andy,
Just been having a read through and catch up. Good to see you’ve managed to rectify the ‘incident’....what a bummer that was!

I think learning how to deal with things like this are all part of model making, nicely dealt with:thumb2:

[Guest]

nobody except anyone that's seen this topic or the 11,000 members of the Facebook group I've posted in :smiling5:

11,000 on 7.8 billion is practically nobody

[Guest]

Thanks Si - I'm finding there's always something new to learn, which is good.

Tim - yes, plan is to see how sticky the stencils are once they've arrived, de-tack if need be, and maybe test them on an area that's easy (er) to rectify if it all goes wrong. I'm happy with the rest of the paint as it's practically bulletproof, but the area near the wing root / cockpit where the hairspray is and the lettery bits (sorry!) would go might be the problem.

I keep seeing all over that decals are Tamiya's Achilles heel, and in my limited experience I'd definitely agree with that, although for me it's less about the thickness and more about the silvering underneath, which is more my fault I feel than the decals.

[flyjoe180]

Looking good Andy, very nicely recovered

[Guest]

Cheers Joe.

I had an email yesterday saying that my masks had only just been dispatched, despite ordering them last week. I can't complain given the current situation but it would have stalled the build and I have nothing else stashed away to keep me busy. Coupled to my comments above, I decided to have a go with the lettery bits and roundels on the side.

Over 2 hours of careful cutting, soaking, teasing, poking and prodding, several coats of microsol, and gently easing the softened decals down by rolling a cotton bud over them. With a final mist coat of Mr Levelling Thinner left overnight, they seem to have sunk down reasonably well. Hopefully a few coats of gloss and a light sanding should hide the edges a bit.

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I never thought I'd dedicate so much time to a few stickers, but if that's what it takes to get acceptable results then fair enough.

By the way, that's the spare antenna just blocking up the hole while I'm painting, so no issues that it's broken. There is supposed to be another hole to the rear of it though for a clear part to pop into. I didn't see anywhere in the instructions about opening it out, the hole just appears in one of the final illustrations, so I've shaved the locating pin off the tiny part and will take pot luck on getting it into the correct position.

[Guest]

This has taken a bit of a back seat as we're cracking on with some landscaping that we've been putting off since our house was extended, but I'm getting close to finishing.

Still a few bits to add including rigging hopefully, and a bit of weathering / streaking.

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[Guest]

I think I've lost most of you along the way lol, but the finished pictures are here if you'd like to take a look.

Thanks :sick: