Oh yeah just thought, anyone know what colour an RAF push bike would have been? cheers
Peter's Airfix Spitfire Mk.1a - 1:72.
- Thread starter pjgtech
- Start date
Google AI say this:
"During World War II, Royal Air Force (RAF) bicycles were typically black, often with a distinctive white section painted on the lower part of the rear mudguard for visibility during blackout conditions.
Wartime Colours: While often black, some bikes used on RAF stations were painted in "service brown" (similar to dark earth) or, in rarer cases, a blue-grey referred to as "RAF Blue" or "RAF Grey," particularly early in the war."
Anyone know if this is correct? If so, as this is an early mk1a Spit, I may go with the RAF blue.....
"During World War II, Royal Air Force (RAF) bicycles were typically black, often with a distinctive white section painted on the lower part of the rear mudguard for visibility during blackout conditions.
Wartime Colours: While often black, some bikes used on RAF stations were painted in "service brown" (similar to dark earth) or, in rarer cases, a blue-grey referred to as "RAF Blue" or "RAF Grey," particularly early in the war."
Anyone know if this is correct? If so, as this is an early mk1a Spit, I may go with the RAF blue.....
Thanks for that Steve, I have considered some clear plastic, I has some spare bits that may be suitable, how would you apply the heat, eg: hairdryer or similar? or place in very hot water? As I'm assuming a paint stripping heat gun or blowtorch or even a candle will be too much and just melt it! Cheers
Some very nice work indeed Peter.
Depending on the plastic. You could try a hairdryer. If that doesnt work I would get a piece of smooth bar with the correct curve on it. Heat it up and then just hold and shape the plastic by pushing it onto the heated bar. You may to try various degrees of heat before you get the right one.
Did a bit more...
Removed clamps and it seemed to be stuck ok.
Fixed rear tail bits, rudder, and the underside bits, vents, etc.
Couple of very slight gaps, so liquid filler applied and left to dry for couple of hours, then another very light coat of primer added.
Cockpit door (inner) painted up.
Will now leave it for a bit to harden up, etc before applying some top coat, as I'm brush painting and want to try to avoid losing panel lines, detail, etc, so they will be in several very thin coats, first coat usually look awful, but it all starts to come together with more coats.
Regarding the cockpit canopy, I have sanded down the edges of the middle part of the canopy, which slides over the rear canopy and got a better fit, but..... tried to push it down a bit too hard, so the edges meet up with the sliding groove and heard a tiny sound, I had cracked it, Doh!, But its a very, very fine hairline crack, hard to see unless you look very closely, and the actual canopy section is still in one piece.
So it may still be useable, we'll see.
If I need to then I can always try and knock up section in clear plastic, I'm willing to give anything a try once, Lol, but hopefully will not need to....
Removed clamps and it seemed to be stuck ok.
Fixed rear tail bits, rudder, and the underside bits, vents, etc.
Couple of very slight gaps, so liquid filler applied and left to dry for couple of hours, then another very light coat of primer added.
Cockpit door (inner) painted up.
Will now leave it for a bit to harden up, etc before applying some top coat, as I'm brush painting and want to try to avoid losing panel lines, detail, etc, so they will be in several very thin coats, first coat usually look awful, but it all starts to come together with more coats.
Regarding the cockpit canopy, I have sanded down the edges of the middle part of the canopy, which slides over the rear canopy and got a better fit, but..... tried to push it down a bit too hard, so the edges meet up with the sliding groove and heard a tiny sound, I had cracked it, Doh!, But its a very, very fine hairline crack, hard to see unless you look very closely, and the actual canopy section is still in one piece.
So it may still be useable, we'll see.
If I need to then I can always try and knock up section in clear plastic, I'm willing to give anything a try once, Lol, but hopefully will not need to....
Great progress Peter. Good luck with the canopy!
Hope the bike survives, it looks nice
And the Spitfire is looking superb Peter.
Looking good Peter. As for the canopy, if it looks at 2 foot, that would do me.
Yeah, I think I might just get away with it, we'll see....
Bah.....Could not get the OEM cockpit canopy (middle cut section) to fit, despite fettling as much as I could!
Plus I cracked it previously by being too heavy handed with it, and although its only a tiny crack, its still a crack.
So I rummaged through my bits and bobs container, where I have some thin clear plastic sheet.
But it needs to be bent/shaped.
So out with the candle, rough cut of the plastic sheet, and held it over the candle, at a good distance away and it did start to soften, hastily placed it over a thin paint brush, which was approximately the diameter I need and it formed ok.
Then trimmed it to fit the plane, slightly larger than the original section and slightly longer in the sides so that it reaches down to the sliding groove.
Pics to follow....
Plus I cracked it previously by being too heavy handed with it, and although its only a tiny crack, its still a crack.
So I rummaged through my bits and bobs container, where I have some thin clear plastic sheet.
But it needs to be bent/shaped.
So out with the candle, rough cut of the plastic sheet, and held it over the candle, at a good distance away and it did start to soften, hastily placed it over a thin paint brush, which was approximately the diameter I need and it formed ok.
Then trimmed it to fit the plane, slightly larger than the original section and slightly longer in the sides so that it reaches down to the sliding groove.
Pics to follow....
With this one I wanted to build a slightly “different” Spit.
Doing a small amount of research, I came across three possibles that I liked, the G-Fire, love the red scheme, and there are two (Photo Recon Unit) eg: PRU planes in blue and pink.
I found a few pics of the blue one, but the pink ones seemed to be a lot rarer, I could only find a few photos of a pink one! Apparently only about 50 were ever produced?
Decision made, a PRU pink Spit it is...
Apparently, the Pink shade (also known as Mountbatten Pink), was designed for low-level reconnaissance during dawn and dusk to make the aircraft nearly invisible against low cloud cover. (I used Vallejo Model Air - 71.408 - PRU Pink paint).
Apparently, there was a mk1’s used as PRU, Serial number 7059.
History and Service of 7059.
Converted from a Mark I fighter by Heston Aircraft Ltd in February 1941.
Unit: Served with 'B' Flight, No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) Detachment at St Eval, Cornwall.
Appearance:
Famous for being painted in a distinctive shade of pink, which was effective camouflage for low-level reconnaissance missions during dawn and dusk.
Service Life: First flew on 1 February 1941, and was written off after crashing on 25 June 1943.
But, despite all the above…..I just wanted to paint mine pink! So there….
Anyway, here she is….
First coat of paint (brushed) is always cack, but gets better with each subsequent coat...
Also painted up the cockpit canopies, you can just make out the crack to the middle section, will later cause me grief!
I think this was second or maybe third coat, starting to look much better...
Undercarriege gear now installed, but no wheels yet....
Exhausts now in....
Prop now on too....I painted the tips white first, then went on with the yellow, and it does seem to make the yellow pop a bit more.....
/Wheels/Tyres now on too.... with flat bits in the appropriate position, obvs....
The middle section of the cockpit canopy was cracked, and was also too thick to fit over the rear section, to give the open canopy look, so.... I made a new one with some thin clear plastic, a candle, slightly heated the plastic then quickly moulded over an appropriate brush, with roughly the same dia as I needed and it seemed to set ok, then trimmed it up a bit to match (sort of) the original section.
Then painted the edges to make it look like a canopy....
Slowly getting there... more pics to follow....
Doing a small amount of research, I came across three possibles that I liked, the G-Fire, love the red scheme, and there are two (Photo Recon Unit) eg: PRU planes in blue and pink.
I found a few pics of the blue one, but the pink ones seemed to be a lot rarer, I could only find a few photos of a pink one! Apparently only about 50 were ever produced?
Decision made, a PRU pink Spit it is...
Apparently, the Pink shade (also known as Mountbatten Pink), was designed for low-level reconnaissance during dawn and dusk to make the aircraft nearly invisible against low cloud cover. (I used Vallejo Model Air - 71.408 - PRU Pink paint).
Apparently, there was a mk1’s used as PRU, Serial number 7059.
History and Service of 7059.
Converted from a Mark I fighter by Heston Aircraft Ltd in February 1941.
Unit: Served with 'B' Flight, No. 1 Photographic Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) Detachment at St Eval, Cornwall.
Appearance:
Famous for being painted in a distinctive shade of pink, which was effective camouflage for low-level reconnaissance missions during dawn and dusk.
Service Life: First flew on 1 February 1941, and was written off after crashing on 25 June 1943.
But, despite all the above…..I just wanted to paint mine pink! So there….
Anyway, here she is….
First coat of paint (brushed) is always cack, but gets better with each subsequent coat...
Also painted up the cockpit canopies, you can just make out the crack to the middle section, will later cause me grief!
I think this was second or maybe third coat, starting to look much better...
Undercarriege gear now installed, but no wheels yet....Exhausts now in....
Prop now on too....I painted the tips white first, then went on with the yellow, and it does seem to make the yellow pop a bit more.....
/Wheels/Tyres now on too.... with flat bits in the appropriate position, obvs....
The middle section of the cockpit canopy was cracked, and was also too thick to fit over the rear section, to give the open canopy look, so.... I made a new one with some thin clear plastic, a candle, slightly heated the plastic then quickly moulded over an appropriate brush, with roughly the same dia as I needed and it seemed to set ok, then trimmed it up a bit to match (sort of) the original section.
Then painted the edges to make it look like a canopy....
Slowly getting there... more pics to follow....
And on we go....
On one of the photos I found of the Pink PRU spit, it had the black sections on the wing where the pilots/crew walk, so decided to go for that too...
Cockpit canopy, complete with new middle section now installed...
Tricky bit now, as this is supposed to be a PRU plane (Photo Recon Unit) so it needs a big hole in the side for the camera, so....
Bit of careful drilling and we have a hole...
They presumably have some sort of window, glazed panel, which I did not have and could not find nanything suitable, so another piece of clear plastic sheet was cut to size and attached over the hole. I did try a bit of clear sprue first, but could not get it to look ok.
On the photos I saw of PRU's, they have a sort of black ring around the camera portal, so did that too...
Then it was on to decals. Now again with the photos I found, some PRU's had different decals, but I found one I liked and used that as my template. But the decals I got with the kit were not the ones I needed. So I did a bit of googling and found a set of suitable decals online, one set of Xtradecals arrived within couple of days and the ones I needed were then applied to the plane, and we now have this:
NB: I had now also added the red surrounds to the gun ports.
On one of the photos I found of the Pink PRU spit, it had the black sections on the wing where the pilots/crew walk, so decided to go for that too...
Cockpit canopy, complete with new middle section now installed...
Tricky bit now, as this is supposed to be a PRU plane (Photo Recon Unit) so it needs a big hole in the side for the camera, so....
Bit of careful drilling and we have a hole...
They presumably have some sort of window, glazed panel, which I did not have and could not find nanything suitable, so another piece of clear plastic sheet was cut to size and attached over the hole. I did try a bit of clear sprue first, but could not get it to look ok.
On the photos I saw of PRU's, they have a sort of black ring around the camera portal, so did that too...
Then it was on to decals. Now again with the photos I found, some PRU's had different decals, but I found one I liked and used that as my template. But the decals I got with the kit were not the ones I needed. So I did a bit of googling and found a set of suitable decals online, one set of Xtradecals arrived within couple of days and the ones I needed were then applied to the plane, and we now have this:
NB: I had now also added the red surrounds to the gun ports.
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This build is now done.
Last touch I did was to add the very small red and green dots (lights) to each wingtip, and the aerial wire, made from stretched sprue, I am getting good at stretching sprues now, Lol....but she is now complete.
So couple of pics here, including a couple on the diorama I made for this build, before I put some more pics on a completed thread, cheers.
Last touch I did was to add the very small red and green dots (lights) to each wingtip, and the aerial wire, made from stretched sprue, I am getting good at stretching sprues now, Lol....but she is now complete.
So couple of pics here, including a couple on the diorama I made for this build, before I put some more pics on a completed thread, cheers.
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