I am building Tamiya's 1/48 Spitfire Vb. It has been a learning experience. Originally I thought I had the paint job all done, but after taking off the masking, I discovered 2 huge problems - peeling and underspray. Pictures below... Bottom peeling because I primed with Acrylic???





So I used thinner to remove the paint job and tried again. This is where I am at now...





But the questions I have are:
1) Should the upper and lower identification lamps be colored? The instructions don't give any indication.
2) The gun barrels are divided into 3 parts, which parts should be painted with the camo scheme and which should be painted like a gun barrel?
3) An antenna goes from the post (?) to mast? but I have seen other models on the internet that have from the (I don't know what you call them) tail wings (?) to the fuselage around the national insignia...is this true?
4) Where can I get good pictures of weathering that aren't models? When I do searches on the internet I always seem to get models, restored aircraft, or pictures that don't really show the weathering that well. Is there a trick to searching?

Thanks again for all the help.
Leon

Hi Newtothegame, beautiful paint job you have ended up with, excellent. As for your questions ........
1. As far as I know the lower lamp is red, the upper not coloured.
2. I've checked my reference pics, they show the gun barrel fairings painted up the final section which is the gunbarrel itself.
3. The later type of radio introduced towards the end of the Battle of Britain [replacing the TR9 HF set with a VHF set] didn't require a wire to be used, simply the mast itself. To see if the spit you are modelling needs this wire look at the mast, if it has a triangular piece pointing towards the tail then it uses a wire antenna connecting from the top of the rudder to the mast. If there is no triangular piece then no wire is required. The VHF set hadn't been completely replaced until 1942 so there were stil some about when the MkV was at its peak.
The wires you have seen going from the tailplane to the fuselae roundel are the IFF antennas, not all spitfires had them so again reference pics help to see if they are required.
4. To be honest most of the pics I use for reference are in books, a good place to look for info online is model build reviews as sometimes they give their reference material. If you look at the features section here there is an excellent article on weathering a spitfire.

:-) A pitty about the problems with peeling and underspray, apart from those a good paint job. There are many reasons why paint will peel off with the masking tape. Finger oils on the primer, or the paint not fully cured to name 2. The cure for under underspray is a) make sure your masking is adhering tightly, at the transition point b) spray away from the masking edge. If you do get underspray you can mask of the colour last sprayed (when it's dry) and re-spray the first colour, just where the overspray is.

I agree with Martin in his answers to your questions, mostly the antenna would retain the bracket, but not the triangular insulator piece when the new radio was fitted. The attatchment point on the tail plane would not be fitted though. Just for information, IFF stands for, Identification Friend or Foe.
Mal (:-)

Hey Leon,

I went through some of the detail issues you did with my Tamiya Mk. VB build (see https://armorama.kitmaker.net//features/86)

As far as I could tell from a slew of Mk V photos of the period, the light covers were clear with colored bulbs.

Bob Swadding did a great summary of detail characteristics of operational Spitfire Marks about two or three years ago in FineScale Modeler, and he says the aerial wires are pretty infrequent among Mk V's and basically non-existent after that.. If you're doing the SN-coded example from the kit, a photo of that in Squadron's Spitfire in Action shows no radio OR IFF aerials and no sign of the fuselage insulators for the IFF rig.

I also deal with some weathering issues in the piece above.

HTH

Thanks everyone for your replies.

I put it to use and made the lower light red, upper clear and decided to go with no Antennas.

This build has given me many headaches, but I have stuck with it and knowing all the problems that I have had, I am proud of what I am getting.

Thanks for the help!

BTW, your Spit looks pretty sharp

:-) It's these little misshaps that actually help lower the learning curve. I used to build 1/72 modern and had built an A 7 Corsair, in the wrap around 3 colour scheme. I air brushed this on free hand and I was very pleased with the result This model was also the first where I managed to get decals to snuggle down and did a very good wash. I was over the moon with what I had accumplished. I then masked off the wheel wells and painted them white. When I removed the masking tape it removed all of the paint with it. I was devistated and Have kept the model as a reminder of how a disaster can be turned into learning. I now always paint wheel wells before any camo colours, plus I make sure the plastic is spotlessly clean, before applying paint. I am also very carful with masking tape and have learned which works for me. That paint scheme taught me alot about using an airbrush aswell. Stick with it, having had these little misshaps you are much nearer to not repeating them :-)

Thanks Holdfast.

This is the attitude I have really strived to have. It would be nice if we were perfect right from the start, but I realize that it's a pipe dream and the mistakes are good. So I will keep making the mistakes and probably keep bugging all of you for ways to fix them

I can't image having to do it without everyone's help. I don't know how people did it before the internet and sites like this.

:-) Yes, NTTG, the internet is a wonderful thing, you can get answers to specific questions. The problem with most books on modelling is that they tell you what to do, but not how to do it. More importantly they don't warn of what can go wrong or why. Another model I have kept, an SAS pink Panther, which was the first model I built when returning to the hobby. Reminds me of how easy it is to ruin a model by trying out something new. Of course sods law also dictates that you spent a zillion hours on it before ruining it. I learn't about washes from that experience Of course my misshaps where before the WWW, I kept going because I new I was learning and I was determined not to repeat those mistakes.
Don't give up, remember the next one is always easier :-)
Mal