Pete's Airfix 1/72 Spitfire

[stillp]

Well, the Panzer is in the garage while the matt coat cures, so I'd better make a start on the Spit starter set. Here's the sprues:


Moulding isn't too bad, the detail is quite impressive, but there is some flash and some awkward ejector pin marks. The plastic is rather soft, so cleans up easily.
The quality of the brush leaves a little to be deired:

I've cut that down.
Now, the paint. I used the supplied paints to airbrush a Me109 starter kit some time ago, and found them OK when well thinned. This green however is horrible. No covering power at all, and pulls up if you go back over it. Maybe it'll look better after a couple more thinned coats.

Pete

[stillp]

Well, it looks better after a second coat.

I tried to paint some of the details on the cockpit walls, but it wasn't easy now I've trimmed the brush as it's too wide. I then put a coat of Sky on the underside:

The Sky seems to be covering better than the green, or perhaps it's just nearer to the colour of the plastic so the brush marks don't show so much. With hindsight, I could have mixed some sky with the green to get a better interior green, but I'm not going to strip it and start again.

Pete

[stillp]

A little more progress:
The pilot and cockpit interior are in, fuselage glued together, propellor on. I had a problem fitting the pilot - if I put his feet on the rudder pedals he either sat too high or pushed the seat too far from the i/p bulkhead. After debating whether to amputate his feet I decided to cut the pedals off, glue the pilot in, then glue the pedals to his boot. I might as well not have bothered as you can't see anything below his knees anyway.

Since taking the photos I've added the wings, which fit perfectly - much better than the Eduard Spit I built last year. You can see I used the tube glue as a filler, there's a small but noticeable gap between the fuselage halves.
Thanks for watching.
Pete

[Guest]

Nice to see I'm not the only one on the amputate theme Peter !
Maybe the thin coverage is caused by not having a primer ?
John .

[stillp]

Maybe the thin coverage is caused by not having a primer ?

That doesn't help John, but the main problem is that some of the paints don't seem to be properly mixed in spite of a good stirring and half an hour on the shaker. I's almost as if they didn't mix the paints before filling the little pots, the pigments seem to have clumped up like sand. The Sky is not bad, the black is usable, but the green is awful. Haven't used enough of the brown (sorry, dark earth) yet to make a judgement, but I'm not hopeful.
Pete

[stillp]

Looking like a Spit now!


Pete
ps other coffee shops are available!

[Jim R]

Hi Pete
That looks rather good. I am sure your thoughts on the green paint is correct because usually really thorough mixing does the trick. You have managed to get some nice joins.
Jim

[stillp]

Thanks Jim. The credit for the joints belongs to Airfix not me - I've hardly done any cleaning up to get things to fit, except for the pilot/pedals problem.
I'm really looking forward to building another one without the GB restrictions.

Pete

[Guest]

looking very nice :smiling2:.

[Jim R]

Hi Pete
Airfix has got things right with my Vampire as well. The fit just could not be better.
Jim

[stillp]

Just looked at the paint instructions for the first time (!) and I notice they show the underside of the port wing in black. Now I know that early WW2 fighters had one black underside and one white, but black/sky?
Pete

[Guest]

Just looked at the paint instructions for the first time (!) and I notice they show the underside of the port wing in black. Now I know that early WW2 fighters had one black underside and one white, but black/sky?
Pete

Hi Pete.
It was used from 1938 up until June 1940, half white half black, for observation of friendly aircraft from the ground. Remember that there was no country-wide ground control radar. Radar only worked looking out to sea, or at higher altitudes, initially only being placed on coastal sites . Tracking over the land, friendly or enemy, was down to the Observer Air Corps.

It was replaced by Sky undersides, but in November 1940 the black wing was reinstated. I'm not sure when it finally disappeared, possibly not until the introduction of the Day Fighter Scheme, with undersides of Medium Sea Grey.
Pete.

[stillp]

Thanks Pete. I knew about the black/white scheme, but didn't know they'd reintroduced the black wing after the instruction to paint the undersides Sky. So Sky/Black would be correct for Nov 1940 onwards for some unknown time? I'll have to do the black wing, as they've included the roundel with the yellow border, so I'll have to go with the box scheme. Airfix are a bit inconsistent though - the instructions say to pain the spinner black, the box shows it Sky!

Pete

[stillp]

The decals are being as awkward as the paint - Airfix have supplied the tail stripe as a decal, which split as I tried to wrap it round the fuselage.


It doesn't match the Sky paint very well either! The wing roundels don't want to settle over the bulges and raised fasteners, but the fuselage side roundels and squadron codes went on well. I'll let all those dry off before trying to add the serials. I suppose I could remove the tail stripe decal and paint it instead, if I cheat a little and use masking tape, but I don't know if the supplied sky will cover the brown and green well enough.
Pete

[peterairfix]

if I cheat a little and use masking tape

Masking tape is allowed and I have this to look forward to.