Model in a Month - 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire VB - Mission Accomplished

Well I made it. It took the 4 weeks but I still had a week to spare before I go.

It was quite refreshing to build a kit and not obsess over every little detail. This model has a few flaws that I'd usually have tried and repaired. I'm not going to tell you where they are though ;-)

I finished the weathering off with a few more pastel chalks, some more filters which I streaked in the direction of the airflow to try and some mud pigments for the tyres. Chipping was done with varoius pencils , using 4H to 4B, along with a silver pencil.
Everything was tied together with a couple of coats of dullcoate.



For the record the details are as follows:

• Kit - 1/48 Tamiya VB Spitfire
• Decals - Red Roo The Away Team Part II
• Seat - Ultracast
• Exhausts - Ultracast
• Paints - Mr Color for the base coat. Various Tamiya and Gunze greens and greys for various shading and details (airbrushed). Vallejo for any detail painting done with a brush.
• Weathering - Windsor and Newtons Paynes Grey for the wash and filters. Various Artists Pastel chalks for shading and streaking. 

Onto the photos, which aren't up to my usual standard I'm afraid. Like the build this was rushed as well.

 

Spitfire VB - Part 3

With only 1 week to go I haven't spent much time photographing as I go. So there isn't any images of a lot of what I'm about to write.

Last weekend I got the decals on.

The Red Roo decals performed pretty well. I did have the usual problem with decals on Spitfire kits, that being decal the decal to conform over the fairings on the underside without damaging or getting crinkles in the roundel. I was fairly  successful but still ended with crinkle in each roundel. I decided to sand it flat and touch up with a brush, and then add some weathering to tie it all in

The next issue was the colour of the Sky Codes which on the decal sheet looked very close to Tamiya version of Sky.

However when they were applied to the model they were a bit lighter. I like to match the spinner and sky ID bands to the decal colour. Usually I'd repaint the spinner and band but in this instance I didn't bother.

Finally, I had to use the Tamiya Stencils, and quite frankly these are shite. They are so thick and they are prone to silvering. I solved the silvering by using Future as a setting solution but this did result in a bit more thickness to the decal. Even the subsequent gloss and satin coat didn't hide it.  Still the brief was model in a month so I pushed on through the AMS and got onto the weathering.

I've ordered some of Barracudacals Spitfire Stencils for the next few Spitfire builds.

I've been reading a few Armour modelling mag's and looking at some web sites. I really like the way they weather models. Looking at the photos I had of this machine plus others of VB Spitfires and I came to the conclusion that many of these aircraft were pretty beaten up.

Using a 2B mechanical pencil I touched up the panel lines through the decal. I then applied a filter using Paynes grey oil paint thinned with Mig thinners.

Once this dried I used various pastel chalks to add some darker patches on the skin. I also streaked the chalks in the direction of the airflow. I used the filter mix, with a bit more oil paint to do more streaking.

 

All that's left are the small pieces, some chipping and maybe a little more weathering.

1/48 Stug Build - Update 2

Although the Spitifre is the no 1 priority I have also been plodding along on the Stug.

I'm not armour modeller so I'm not sure if if the process I'm following is what is done usually, but that is half the fun.

I pre shaded some of the areas with flat black. The intent is a winter white wash so I don't know how much of this will remain after all the paint is on.




I then painted the model with the Tamiya XF60 which looked way to yellow to me. I don't know how yellow German armour was but it just looked silly to me so I toned it down by spraying Gunze 79 Sand Yellow over many of flat areas.

 TO make things a little more complicated I thought I'd try a 3 tome camouflage scheme, again I have no idea if this accurate but it seems that the operating units just did whatever they felt like to camouflage their vehicles.

I also wanted to weather this layer before I applied the white wash so I figured that I may as well give this hairspray technique a go. I applied a layer of AK interactive Worn Effects and let that dry. Then I used Tamiya Red brown (XF64) and Olive Green (XF58) to apply a really bad camouflage pattern.

I really didn't do as good a job as I'd hoped with the lines, as they are way to wide. But as I could remove most of what I didn't like I wasn't that bothered.

Once I clean the airbrush I used water to dampen the surfaces and a short brush to stipple the surface, I also used a couple of other brushes and a toothpick to do some scratches.

I can see why this technique has taken off, its simple, and fast to get a reasonable (to my eyes anyway) result. I then sealed the finish with a coat of Tamiya Satin, which makes it look a bit harsher than it really is.

 

Before the whitewash I think I should at least put some colours on the the stowage.. hopefully I'll get this done before I go away.

Model in a Month - Sptifre Progress

Been making steady and good progress on the Spitfire. Not sweating every single detail or flaw is proving quite refreshing.

I really like Mr Color (as opposed to Mr Hobby, although they are good as well) acrylic lacquer paints. They give a excellent hard finish with just a few thin coats, great when you don't want to drown fine detail. The downside is they can be tricky to get thinned enough to get through the airbrush, but not to thin.

I had picked up one their RAF Colour Sets, (No 2 ) a few months back so figured this was good project to try them on . I'm no RAF Colour Expert but I'm happy with the shades in the bottle. They are pretty close to the new Tamiya RAF colours with the exception of the Ocean Grey. The Tamiya Ocean Grey is much bluer than the Gunze one.

I didn't bother with pre shading anything, I just painted the underside with Medium Grey, then masked it up. Then I painted the Ocean Grey upper.

The Red Roo instructions, Tamiya instructions and my other reference material didn't quite match as to the pattern of the Camouflage. Rembering my brief, not to get anal, I decided to go with the Tamiya instructions even though I'm sure this scheme wasn't quite right for this aircraft.

The beauty of this approach is that I could cut the shapes out from the instructions and use them as masks. The masks were held of the kit with white tac blobs

In a few places I used white tac sausages, rather than mask. I've always had issues with blu tac leaving a oily film on the paint work. I'm not sure why or what causes it , perhaps its the oils from my hands or it's just the blu tac itself. Anyway I ordered some white tac from the UK as I've heard this doesn't suffer the oily film issue...

Well it did, but just little, not everywhere like the blu tac does.

Prior to removing the masks I added some random bits of green using some different greens I had lying around. This aircraft is quite beaten up so I've got to try and simulate that... to point.

After I removed the masks I had a few touch ups, then I applied some different greys in various spots.

The next night I masked out the walkways and yellow leading edges.

The other thing I like about the acyclic paints,especially the Mr Color ones is that they are semi-gloss. This means that you can apply an oil wash directly over the without a protective gloss clear coat.

Prior to the oil wash I rubbed everything down with wet 12000 micromesh cloth just to knock an roughness of any of the flat paints I used.

I then applied a oil wash of Paynes grey and Mig Thinners all over the aircraft and then removed the excess.

 Onto the decals........