Mal! I'm looking forward to using the MiG-masks!

Ernest! Good luck with your deadline!

Joel! You're right, wheels are often a simple but effective upgrade! Should have ordered these earlier though...


I've been a great fan of Roy Sutherland's products ever since he started trading under the label "Cooper Details" 20+ years ago, my 1994 Me-262 has one of his cockpits. And these Spit wheels are no exception: simply lovely!


Mounted for priming...


...and primed...

Not the killer update I had hoped for but this is what there is on offer tonight !



Magnus

Magnus,
I see you've branched out to "Wheels on a Stick".
Joel

Its not just kit stencil decals that I cringe at using its all decals, regardless of producer! I do like HGWs "wet transfers" though, although I have yet to use them. they look like they are as "easy" to use but the carrier film is removed completely so they are like "dry transfers" in final look



I'm looking forward to see if they can be used!



I didn't realise that Roy Sutherland was "Cooper details" I have some of his Barracuda Spitfire stuff (of course) and it is wonderful

Been away skiing for a week and then some other things to catch up with but tonight I'm finally back at the workbench. Or rather, I am running back and forth between "the Sty" and the kitchen, combining baking bread with modelling.

Since I know how much my backwards masking preferences annoys you, here is another session of the same...


Black and white bands around the wings as well, easier to paint than to mess about with decals...


...fully masked...


...and painted white...


...tomorrow I'll continue with the black edges!



Magnus

Awesome work on the two Spitfire Magnus, the paint job looks beautiful. Thanks for sharing such an informative and well presented build log.

greetings ro

Magnus,
I do enjoy your "backwards" method as the results are perfect.

For my Spitfire Mk.IXc I'm not so sure I'll do them 1st either. In the real world the aircraft were already operational, and therefore had their Camo paint schemes. So the proper way to duplicate the invasion stripes would be to apply them after, rather then before. On the other hand, painting the invasion stripes 1st makes that task so much easier.

Joel

That is looking particularly good Magnus

I always use this method of painting stripes and other markings over the camo because, as Joel says, this is how it was done. The reason that I always do it this way is so that this sort of thing can be easily weathered to show a little of the underlying camo, if required. Actually I go a little further and would paint the black and white stripes totally seperately, ie I wouldn't paint the black over the white but would paint the 3 bands individually!

Robert! I'm glad that you like the blog! For myself, it is a way of keeping a diary for my builds that I sometimes go back to.

Joel! I've seen all variants. For neatly painted stripes it really doesn't matter in which order you do it. In other cases, with a generally sloppy painting, it is probably easier to do it over the camo paintjob.

Mal! You really have a thing for masking !

Got up early this morning (nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread to wake me up ) and managed to do a further bit of work before the rest of the family woke up!


Masking the white stripe, as you can see I use strips of tape to aid centering...


...a bit of bonus masking to avoid overspray...


...if you look at the wing root area you see why I did that full masking, I got quite a bit of white overspray the other night...


...that I'll take care of using polishing pads tonight.


Lover surfaces. I don't know if the buzz numbers were over-painted, Xtradecal's instructions show them like this but I don't find them very trustworthy nowadays...



Magnus

Beautiful paintwork Magnus, the extra effort you are putting in on the masking is definitely worthwhile!

Cheers, D

Magnus,
Outstanding painting effort. You really nailed it.Every line is crisp and sharp.

To be perfectly honest about the white over spray. I thought it was just a light reflection.

Joel

Joel! I knew I never should have admitted it, I knew! Apart from that, thanks to both Damian and Joel for the kind words!

Regarding that overspray (and other modelling accidents that seem to happen all the time): There was a thread started over at IPMS Stockholm asking something like "how professional are you?" when you do your modelling. I have never thought about it in those terms and I quickly came to the conclusion that my honest answer to that question has to be "not very".

I seldom have much of a plan for how to reach my intended result. I seldom have a clear view of what that result should look like either. And I do keep making the same mistakes time and time again, it is not exactly one of the big mysteries in this world that overspray goes everywhere. At least everywhere you don't want it !

This doesn't really worry me (only reason I even discussed it was that I would like to be honest in my answer) and I am not really sure if my modelling would improve that much either since I am generally happy with both the results and my life in the hobby but it is fascinating I think!



Magnus

Magnus,
Your personal modeling assessment sounds like you just described me. I have a kind of vision of how I want a build to look when it's done. Unfortunately, I change that vision and how to get there almost daily. Sometimes that even includes the paint scheme, and markings. And sometimes I get so lost in what I want to do, that I'm ready to bang my head against a wall wondering how others do it, and I can't.
Joel

Even if the photos don't show much, at least SOME work has been done. I ended up stuck in a serious bout of weathering phobia on these but I think I have managed to get out of it at least with the Mk 24, the weathering on the 22 has yet to be started.


Let's start on the subject of spares... To start with, I managed to do a cross-over when painting the spinners: the Airfix one was inadvertently painted for the Xtrakit Spit and the Xtrakit one for the Airfix. No bonus points for that manoeuvre...

After trying to assemble them (and then I even (OK, sort of, obviously...) dryfitted them before painting) I ended up with a beautifully assembled Airfix prop (for the 73 sqn Xtrakit machine) and an Xtrakit prop that refused to submit to no matter how much violence I used on it. Looking at them, I also realised that there are huge shape differences.

Without making any deeper analysis I came to the conclusion that I didn't like the look of the Xtrakit prop (even if the Airfix one looks a bit skinny) so after some thinking I decided that I'll buy another Airfix kit just to get the prop. After all, it doesn't cost a fortune and the rest of it can be used in any of my almost 15 Ventura Spitfire kits that are in the yet-to-be-built pile... So now I finally have two acceptably good-looking props for my Spits!


The Spit itself after som further weathering (washes and some pastels to break up the rather monochrome camo)...


...and a matte coat that as an added bonus gave me a bunch of white specks that I'll have to get rid of somehow. A stiff brush will probably do the trick!

For the Mk 22, I'll probably do more weathering with the airbrush after a basic wash to pick out a bit of depth.

I'm off for Easter now, will bring some modelling with me but that's a ground-bound thing on wheels in 35-scale (yes, I occasionally dabble in that as well...).



Magnus

Magnus,
Nice progress on the props. The differences in the two props just jumps right out at you. At 1st the massiveness of the Xtrakit prop seems right, but like you, once you really take a good long look, it looks just out of proportion compared to the Airfix props.

I've also got a few track gems in my stash from my Armor days. For a change of pace I'm leaning towards a Ebbro 1/20 scale 1960-70s F1 car ( my favorite racing era).

Joel

Very well done Magnus, excellent work on the stripes and the subtle weathering.
To be honest, the thing with overspray ...I always have to mask the whole model, even if the paint job is the smallest one. Sometimes I found overspray where it is technically impossible

kind regards ro

Friends! Thanks for keeping me company and your support during this build! I'm finally (almost) there! I've tried to spend my modelling time at the workbench lately, that's the reason for the updates being a bit thin on the ground.

Xtrakit Spitfire 22:









Airfix Spitfire 24:











And both of them together:




The differences between the kits look a lot more disturbing in the photos than they do in real life!

For those of you who have followed this thread it is probably clear that I am not very fond of the Xtrakit (or its Special Hobby reincarnations). The Xtrakit Spit looks "fat and swollen" over the nose while the Airfix kit might be a bit on the skinny side. I used Falcon canopies on both and the project ended up with me buying a second Airfix kit just to use the prop for the Xtrakit Spit (a bit counter intuitive really since I probably should have resorted to build the whole second Airfix kit and scrapped the Xtrakit but I was born stubborn !) The canopy- and prop modifications even out the most immediate visual references, combined with the camo that effectively breaks up the appearance - if I had done them in high speed silver I think the differences would have been a lot more apparent!

I also ran into more trouble than necessary caused by my own laziness (check the instructions so you don't have to break off and re-glue the covers for instance) and bad research (British camo isn't a mystery, I can find it in at least ten books right behind my back). I only wish that the guy who did the artwork for Xtradecal had done it to start with...



Models have now been added to the collection.

Ps. Regarding that "(almost)" in the first section: I'll need to add pitots and some more fuel and oil spillage before taking them to the next show. On the other hand, the Mk 24 won it's class at last weekend's Modellexpo 08-Open so I must have done something right at least !



Magnus

Bloody good job on both kits. Thanks for this update, I was curious how is it going. Xtrakit required real struggle as far as I see. Now have to find what to do with the remaining Airfix kit without the propeller

So, what's next? Tanks maybe?

Lovely looking Spitfire's Magnus , always enjoy reading your threads. Regards Phil.

Magnus,
Congrats on crossing the finish line not once but twice with your twin build.

Both Spitfires really turned out extremely well, and should be excellent additions to your growing Spitfire collection.

Joel

Michal! Thanks! No time for a tank (not even one on wheels), I'm tied up in all kinds of winged campaigns !

Phil! Glad you like the blogs! There'll hopefully be many more of them in the future!

Joel! Brother-In-Spitfires! Thanks! Current standings in the Spitfire collection: Mk IX, Mk XI, Mk XII, Mk XIV, Mk XIX, Mk 22, Mk 24. Not bad if I may say so myself but a bit thin on the Merlin-side...



Magnus

Great work on these 72-scale kits! They are very, very nice!
Your paintwork and decent weathering turns out great. Thank's for sharing your work and the very well done photos.
Thomas

Well, asking for Tanks I meant Kurt Tanks designs... I remember your Ta-152 and late Fw-190D double build blog.

Magnus,
You must be #1 on the Aeroscale Spitfire list.

Brothers In Spitfires,
Joel

Magnus, a very nice pair of Spitfires, well done; your construction, painting and decalling are top notch

Thomas! Thanks !

Michal! Aaahhh. now I get it! I thought you'd seen this! The two "Tanks" that you meant are still around and in good shape, they are on my "to finish"-shortlist for this year!

Joel! I'm sure that there must be someone who's got more of them. A Spitfire collection is probably not the most original idea (even if it is a very good one!!!) around here ! You're well on your way to one by the way !

Mal! I'm honoured!



Magnus