Hi Jean-Luc

Pheww! I was starting to worry that I'd imagined it!

All the best

Rowan

Rowan, how did you get the nice flush finish where the ejector pin marks were? Could you take us through a step by step? Thanks for posting the photos, I'll be following along like everyone else. Your photography looks good by the way. Wingman out.

Hi Mike

It's probably the oldest trick in the book, and something I normally do using gloss enamel paint. This time I've used Mr. Surfacer to speed things along a bit.

Straight from the pot (or at least my pot...), Mr. Surfacer is a bit thick and gloopy, so I've mixed it 1:1 or 1:2 with Isopropyl Alcohol. This makes a quick-drying "paint-like" filler that can be applied with a fine brush or a cocktail stick.

For ejector pin marks you just add a drop of the stuff and let it flow to rim. It might take two applications and, ideally, you want to get the filler just proud of the surrounding surface. It dries pretty quickly - but make sure it is dry, because it shrinks. Then it's just a question of swiping over it with a fine sanding stick to level it.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Ok - this will please Terri, I've used the old WW1 rigging technique of stretching Q-Tips over a candle to tackle the joystick wiring. The real thing involves thin "stalks" that go through adapters to thicker flexible cables - cue the Q-Tips:



This is still at a rough and ready stage, but it's gone off to join its friends for a base-coat of WEM Colourcoats Grey-Green before more work.

Tonight has been all about pins and hinges. I think Jean-Luc gave them a miss, but I thought I'd better use them for our build.

They seem OK - if a bit loose. The elevators will definitely droop (which is correct for a parked Spit):



What concerns me more is the seam on the underside. It seems a bit mean of Tamiya to do this for the sake of two parts on such a prestige kit:



And pins again. The secret of how Tamiya managed to get the gear legs down to correct scale thickness - rather than mould them like tree trunks, they've learned a trick from resin producers and added metal reinforcements.



All the best

Rowan

Yes Rowan , I'm very pleased ! I can go to bed happy tonight

You just have to love the q-tip method . It has so many different applications where it can be applied to . Works great for spark plug leads as well .

Hi there

I've been tinkering away - rather scatter-gun effect on various parts of the kit - and I do promise to have some pics to show some proper progress soon.

Meanwhile, I think I've found a small error in the instructions; I'm going for the strengthened main gear with oleo scissors and Tamiya seem to indicate to remove the top one of two lugs. My refs show it in place - it's the lower one that should go:



With the scissors themselves, their appearance can be improved by drilling out the holes:



More soon.

All the best

Rowan

Hi there

I'm not intending to go crazy on the engine - it's so nicely detailed OOB, there's no need - but one obvious extra that I think will be worthwhile is an ignition harness. Tamiya include a fair amount of other pipework, so adding a few of the most obvious cables should give a really nice busy look.



All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Well, the basics of the engined are together:



Obviously, there's a lot more to do - more parts to add and shading and highlighting to bring it to life a bit - but I think it's going to look pretty decent.

All the best

Rowan

Hey Rowan, great work so far,it's looking real good. What paint did you use on the engine, I really like the colour and texture there ??

Cheers, D

This is exactely what I wanted to ask. It looks indeed very nice...

Jean-Luc

Hi there

It's Xtracolor Tyre Black, which gives a good "scale black", but I'm going to work on it a bit more to try to get closer to the original finish.

All the best

Rowan

Merlin, looking awesome.

Merlin, please do not exagerate. "Any more real and you would be eating fumes" - as one of the ads says.

Thanks all

But the paint at the moment is looking a bit too matte and dark grey (although it does look darker in real life than in the photo), while the real thing was gloss black. I wan't to try to get a "scale effect", so I won't go for either full gloss or full black, but it doesn't look quite right to my eyes yet.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan. I've found a fair scale black is a 50/50 mix of Tamiya Flat Black and Red Brown. I will see if i can dredge up a photo later, but give that a try sometime.

Cheers, D

Cheers Damian

I've dusted on a light coat of thinned Humbrol satin black which has given a nice sheen and made it slightly darker - I think it's a reasonable base to do some weathering to.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

Well, I thought a bit of quick progress would be nice, so I knocked together the wings tonight:



I have to say, they've gone together like a dream! Tamiya's engineering is outrageously good. I clipped together the empty fuselage halves and checked the wing-roots - the fit is basically perfect:



So... the next big thing to do is to go back to where I started and have some fun putting the cockpit together.

All the best

Rowan

Tamiya's fit is awesome!!

Your work too, keep going!!


Cheers Nick

Looking good Rowen! Your way ahead of me

Cheers Nick and David

As regards being way ahead - well, it's not often I'm accused of that! LOL! but looks could be deceiving... I've jumped about a lot, so there's plenty to go back and fill in.

All the best

Rowan

Hi again

It's been a while, but I'm back underway! My target is to try to complete the cockpit over the next few days. I've got the basics painted and ready to fit, and I'll probably add a bit of the more obvious wiring that's missing in the kit:



Those pesky ejector-pin marks again! These two were so obvious, I managed to miss them before painting the rudder pedals! They'll have to go, because the circular lugs are nowhere to be seen on the real thing. I'll simulate the grips on the pedals too:



Much more anon.

All the best

Rowan

And they only complaining about eduard

LOOK where are that pinmarks!!

And there are a lot of pinmarks in the cockpit sides

And that kit supposed to be "the best"!!!

In my eduard's brisfish (2005 mold ) There are only 2 pinmarks in the side of the cockpit 1-1

Keep going!



Cheers Nick

Very nice, Rowan! Glad to see you'll be wiring up that tasty engine- cheers!

chuk

Hi Chuck

Well, I'll certainly be adding some of it - it's too good an opportunity to miss.

Staying with the wiring theme, the instructions suggest building the cockpit as a complete assembly before adding it to the fuselage. That certainly will work, as you can see from the partial dry fit here:



But doing it that way will make adding the cockpit wiring much harder, because some of it crosses the join between the kit's fuselage side and lower cockpit sidewall. So, I've broken away from the recommended assembly sequence and cemented the sidewalls to the fuselage prior to adding the details and finishing weathering:



All the best

Rowan

Hi Rowan, your cockpit looks excellent. From looking at the pics, I'm assuming you did some shading with an airbrush--did you follow that up with drybrushing, or what process did you use? Did you also use a wash? I'll be watching this build with interest.

Regards;

Automaton