This is my finished Tamiya 1/48 spitfire Mk. 1a posed just after take off. The undercarriage is still retracting and shows the uneven way this happened. The kit depicts a spitfire flown by Eric Lock of 41 squadron.







I am not sure if the canopy would have open or closed at this point so I haven't stuck it in place yet. The pilot figure is an airfix one with a head from an ICM figure set. The oxygen hose is stretched sprue.





As you can see the prop has been replaced with a disc of clear plastic to hopefully give the impression of it spinning. I added the top part of an Eduard pre painted harness to depict it running from the pilot's shoulders to its anchor point in the fuselage. The chipped paint effect was kept to a minimum, just at the wing roots and bits of the engine cowlings.





The camo was airbrushed freehand, I know early spitfires had hard edged camo but when I applied some mask it lifted the paint too easily so I ended up freehand airbrushing and doing loads of touch ups. The black walkway lines on the wings were airbrushed using some card held flat on the surface, a mighty struggle that was! The panel lines were picked out with Promodeller Dark Wash and gun and exhaust stains are graphite powder.





Any and all criticisms are welcome.

Martin,

That looks really nice. Personally I'd leave the canopy open, its probably more accurate that way, and then one can have a look inside easier too. As for the prop disk, maybe spraying a coat of a tinted flat would make it look less "plasticy", or just deleting it all together?
Well done!

-Derek

Hi Martin. Very cool. Nice build. The lighting looks nice along with your backround. If you can, try chucking the plastic disc into a drill and on slow speed, take some fine steel wool and drag it across the disc from the center out. Do it lightly a few time so you don't over do it. I did this to my Tamiya P-47 T-Bolts in my "Watch Out The Wolfpack Is Coming" dio. You can see some photos on page 2 of my gallery. Good job, Wingman out.

Way Cool

wot more can I say

Chris

Hi Derek,

I will leace the canopy open, I was unsure if it would have been open for takeoff. You are right abot the prop disc looking palasticy but from a distance it isn't so bad. I am giving this model to my friend's son so I hope he won'y mind it as it is.

Wingman I wish I had seen yor pics of the P47 before I did this one, you have made the prop look excellent. I will keep your technique in mind, thanks.

Chris thanks for the complimemt.

Lovely job Martin.
Ive aways liked the way the undercarriage looked on Spits as it retracted and its great to see it depicted in a model.
Can you tell me more about how you mounted it on the base.
The paint chipping is particualrly impressive. Its something I cant get to look authentic.
Ive been using a silver pencil but to be honest it always looks as though,,well,,Ive drawn on the model with a silver pencil. How do you do yours?
Nige

Hi Nigel.

The base is simply a plastic box (that the wife got some perfume in) with a 5 inch nail in it. I cut off the point of the nail anddrilled a hole for it in the box lid. I pushed the nail through the lid from below, glued it with super glue gel and glued the lid to the box. When dry I sprayed the whole thing black and then added some static grass. I then drilled a hole in the underside of the spitfire (where the navigation light should be) and glued it onto the nail with superglue gel.

For the paint chipping I used aluminium paint with a thin brush. After decalling I dabbed lightly it along the panel lines and edges of the wing. When the wash is applied into the panel lines it makes the paint application look finer than it actually is.

Thought I would show you this link that I think is just as excellent as your model and is such an emotive picture of a B of B beauty.

Would it not be the preference of some pilots to have their canopies shut on takeoff. Unless someone could point to standing orders or training that might show otherwise.

Looks fantastic as is including the disc..

Nige

As I understand it, the Spit being a taildragger meant they couldn't see past the engine, therefore the reason they kept the canopy open was...

So they could look out the side and see where they were going until airborne...

Well it must have been a chilly day and he shut up quickly then,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, tee hee!!!

Just like I will before my ignorance of wingy things gets me in the prop!!!!

I still like his Spit though

Nige

Nice one !!! Good build and great idea.

Hi Martin -

That's a great job! One question though - What did you use for the insulators on the radio and the tail? Also - what did you use for antennae wire?

Steve

All I did was to superglue some fishing line from the tail to the mast and a smaller piece from the mast to the fuselage. When the glue set I painted the line black.

A tip for the hard masking, use a paper template. Outline the wing on a sheet of paper, draw the pattern on, then cut out the part you want to paint. Lay it on the wing, just hold it on with your free hand, and spray away. You'll get a slightly feathered edge, just enough to not look hand-painted.

..very nice work Martin - and some great ideas in this thread...especially novel use of materials for the base ..must try them...plastic box & five inch nail..?!!

Beautiful work Martin! Makes me want to build a plane this very moment.

HastyP

Hello, try this site for a simulated prop in flight, I’ve seen a few and they look pretty good.

http://www.propblur.com/Home_Page.php

Beautiful painting job. I love everything but the prop, and my complaint is not with the execution of it. I think that it's wonderfully done and it looks like it's in motion, but I've always viewed dioramas as displaying a captured moment in time, like a 3-D photograph. To me the prop would look prop-er (:P) if it was static, as if time had been frozen.