The Revell 1/32 Spitfire Mk II converted to a Mk I to represent the first Spitfire flow by Geoffrey Wellum; who was the youngest pilot to fly Spitfires during the battle of Britain. I have painted the underside in sky, masked that off and painted the upper surface dark earth.

This next bit is for Joel I applied my camouflage masks and painted the exposed areas dark green. I used Mr Paint RAF colours.





The camo masks and underside masking removed:

Mal,
I'm more then just impressed with both your masks, and the execution.
Joel

Thanks Joel, I actually applied the masks and painted the dark green within the hour. I've applied the masks so often during their developement I didn't even need to refer to the instructions!

Nice going Mal

I was hoping to do something for the Battle of Britain Campaign too, but I'm wary of starting anything that'll distract me from the AEG.

All the best

Rowan

Looks great Mal

Later

I might try doing the Airfix 1/48 Spit for the campign as I am too far advanced with this to qualify for the campaign I really ought to do something for it You are right to build the AEG, that is really necessary




Thanks Bruce, more to come later

The kit antenna is wrong, both in overall shape, there should be kink in the trailing edge, but I haven't corrected that. I did try and scratch build it but after several tries I gave up, on this one. It is also missing the pulley that supports the antenna wire; this long wire is necessary for the HF radio. When the radio fit was upgraded to the VHF set the wire didn't need to be so long and it simply went up inside the antenna, so the pulley wasn't required. For ease of manufacture though the same antenna mast was used, which still retained the fixing bracket for the pulley but the pulley wasn't fitted (or manufactured). So even without the pulley the antenna is wrong as the bracket should be a scalloped shape with 2 rivet holes!
I did scratch build the pulley, which is simply a triangle cut into a piece of plasticard, then shaped and glued to the post. I drilled a 0.3mm hole before shaping the pulley, so that the antenna wire can pass through it into the fuselage. Before gluing to the post I removed the ridiculous representation of the "fixing bracket", which was just a small rectangular projection!



I have also allowed for the fixing of the IFF (Identification, Friend or Foe) wires which are fixed between the fuselage, where the position is correctly marked on the fuselage and just requires drilling open, and the tail planes. On the actual aircraft there was a bracket with a tube fixed to it with a clamp arrangement, which was attached to the tip of each tail plane. I simply cut a piece of Albion Alloys tube for each one and CA glued them in place, before painting began. They can just be seen.

I had forgotten that I have changed the way that I paint models and I had started applying the paint masks for the markings when it struck me! So back to the paint both to try my hand at post shading





I'm undecided as to whether I should knock this back a little or leave it as is as further weathering might do that and if I do it now I might lose any effect totally?

I used RLM 71 dark green over the BS dark green areas and added a tiny drop of the same to the dark earth, just to darken it slightly.

Looking at this now, I think that I have come down on the side of leaving the post shading as is, its grown on me So today I will start adding the masks for the markings. I would like to make a video of this but so far my attempts have failed miserably!

Paint masks for the cocades applied:







Masking around the Miracle Paint Masks applied:





The white areas have been painted.

Mal,
Your weathering technique is close to the overall look that I've been striving for. So I'm glade that you decided that you'll leave it as is for now.

Joel

Yes Joel for me too It was after jamie Hago popped in for lunch and a chat when he was down at RNAS Culdrose for a week end that I decided to try pre-shading. He "hates" pre-shading and we talked mostly about the technique. Although I like the effect of pre-shading it is very difficult to make it work worth dark camo colours. It will work but it is so easy to apply just a fraction too much paint over it and the affect is lost or just too subtle and is then lost after further weathering! Anyway the post shading affect has grown on me and I will experiment more. Something else that Jamie mentioned is that he never bothers with primer coats and that used to be the case with me, but I gravitated to white primer to enhance the pre-shading that I applied. On this model I didn't apply a primer coat so, to check the seams, I painted them with the cockpit green when I painted the internal colour on the outside of the canopy. I noticed that when I applied the dark earth I could have allowed the interior green colour to show a slightly darker shade of the dark earth because the MR Paint is so thin. This is something that I am planning on exploiting in future builds

I forgot to take the photos of the white applied, here are the ones after the white mask elements have been reaplied to mask the white and the red has been paited:









I'm just having a coffee then I'll be painting the blue

Blue painted and the masking removed except for around the fuselage roundel, where the blue mask element will be replaced and the yellow mask element weeded to allow painting of the yellow:





More pictures soon

It was a loooong coffee. You must be using a very big mug. Anyway, it's good to see the blue painted on.

Magnificent, Mal!

LOL Michal however my point was that I am able to paint the blue not long after painting the red. I am using MR Paint wihich is an acrylic, akin to Tamiya paint but very like Alclad II! I didn't take the pics until the following day. When using enamels I would leave the paint to cure for at least 24 hours.

Thanks Chuck, its always nice to know that you have dropped in for a gander

Mal,
Your stenciling as always is just amazing to someone like me.

As for priming, I use to prime every model when I painted with Model Master enamels so the paint had a good surface to bite into. Naturally, checking for errors is also the job for a good primer, but I only air brushed it on over seams and trouble spots.

With acrylics I only prime when laying on a base coat of a light color. Just seams to take less paint that way.

I see your point with the undercoat of interior green darkening the color coat. I do that as post shading by darkening up the base colors as needed. Unfortunately, that often takes more skill and patience then I have these days.

Looking forward to your next update.

Joel

Mal, cheers to you...with a cup of coffee.

Michal,
Now that's a cup of coffee
Joel

Mal,
The post shading you did was just right IMHO, without any markings or other weathering effects the post shading can sometimes look way too strong but after markings, weathering, and the final flat clear coat are sprayed on what was once feared to be too bold turns out to be just fine.

Matrixone

Hi Joel, I assume that you mean the masking? It is actually very easy, the hardest part is probably the positioning, but my instructions walk you through that as well Using paint masks is just a matter of aquiring the skill set and knowing what you are doing; the reason that my instructions are very comprehensive. If you think about it applying decals also required that you aquired the knowledge of how to do it correctly and now that you know its easy. One of the differences between masks and decals is that the method of using paint masks doesn't change but with decals you have to take into account the different paper, inks, glue and therefore the different setting solutions that need to be used, so esentially new decals need to be tested! On that score, and others, decals are much harder to use than masks, its just that you have already aquired the skills




In the long distant past I didn't use a primer but started to then went from grey to white to enhance my pre-shading technique. If I'm not using preshading then, after talking to Jamie Hago, it seemed unnecessary to use a primer but to check the seams I did apply the interior green colour when I painted the the canopy frames. Because MR Paint is very thin it allows underlying shades to be allowed to darken, or lighten the camo colours. This also suggests that pre-shading should work a lot better but thats for another time. My point being that, much like applying different shades of Allclad, this could be used to "shade" camo colours?

Update coming up

Thanks Michal, that is one very large cup of coffee!




Thanks Les, my thoughts as well, the effect has grown on me and now that I have got my head around using these paints the next pre-shading will (should!) be better

The blue mask element replaced and the yellow one weeded out and the yellow painted.



Masking removed.





The masks for the codes applied.



Codes painted medium sea grey.





Serial number and wing walkway masks applied.

Great work on the insignias with your masks, Mal! I must admit it looks far better than decals.

Torsten

Thanks Torsten and I agree

Mal,
your wing walkways really do look good painted on, rather then applied via a decal.

Joel

Thanks Joel, but I haven't posted the picture of them painted yet I just went to load the pictiures and realised that I haven't taken a photo of the wing walks! here are the ones of the serial numbers though




A small amount of paint was lifted from the last 9 and the 8 but that is not a problem as all it needs is a touch up.