Eduard 1/48 Spitfire Mk. IX. Wing Commander Johnnie Johnson.

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 1:34 pm

It's coming along mate

felisbarcinonensis · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 4:05 pm

Nice piece of work Willem! Love Spitfires

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:15 pm

felisbarcinonensis wrote:Nice piece of work Willem! Love Spitfires

Cheers mate. Have to admit that I love the Spitfire, got quite a few in the stash.

Heard lots about this stuff (that it doesn't leave marks) not really had a problem with the blue stuff, but thought I'd give this a try. Strangely hard to find in my part of the world, so ordered a job lot off the web and worked out quite cheap. I'm not going to talk about my Play-Doh experiment (didn't end very well).

Almost forgot... I'm using this to mask the blown hood. Never been too confident with canopies but hey.....

Fingers crossed.....

So with the Eduard masks on, I used Tamiya tape and a new blade to mask the interior off. Previously, I've stuffed bits of sponge or wet tissue in here only to wonder why it looked like a hand grenade had gone off when I removed all the masking.

Onto the guns: I found the smallest drill bit I had for the pin-vice...

and then attacked the cannon muzzles.

My camera won't focus on the expertly drilled and meticulously researched muzzles so, you'll just have to take my word for it

Cannon and mg .50 fairings now in place with a tiny bit of tidying up to do....

She's armed and dangerous now and ready (with a final tidy up) for primer. Will have to wait until early next week now as I'm away working until Sunday night, but, the next update will include paint, lots of it.

As always, thanks for looking.

fly1ngdutchm4n · Post by **fly1ngdutchm4n** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 9:56 pm

armoured and dangerous....I like it!

Great work so far mate!

felisbarcinonensis · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:12 pm

Drill Master!

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 10:21 pm

fly1ngdutchm4n wrote:armoured and dangerous....I like it!
Great work so far mate!

Cheers mate.

felisbarcinonensis wrote: Drill Master!

My eyes hurt now.

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Fri Jun 27, 2014 5:36 pm

Looking great mate really top notch work buddy.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Mon Jun 30, 2014 8:53 pm

Nige201980 wrote:Looking great mate really top notch work buddy.

Cheers Nige.

Warning: Paint is included in this update.

After a busy four days, had an hour or so to kick on after work today. Outside of canopy and blown hood given a pass with cockpit green, hope the masking does the job.

Here is the model ready for primer.

I used Alad II Grey Primer & Micro Filler. I have to say that it is the best primer I've used so far. Sprays straight from the bottle just great at @15psi, and covers a multitude of sins.

Misted on in thin coats and dries super fast. The only downsides:-
Stinky.
Same shade as the plastic so hard to see coverage when still wet.

Will let this dry properly until tomorrow then I'll add some pre-shading.

Thanks for looking.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:37 pm

Paint update number 2

X18 Tamiya semi gloss black thinned to approx. 50/50 with Tamiya thinners and sprayed at 20psi.

I'm a bit out of practice, this is the first model that has reached the painting stage since last summer. I'd managed to get the lines a little tighter by the time I'd got to the starboard wing.

Still, it might make for some interesting tonal variation.

I'll get onto the underside colour later. I'm undecided which brand to use as I've got some Xtracrylic RAF light grey but no white in that brand. I've got the Vallejo RAF colours but they are a bit eccentric shade wise. I've also got a shed load of Tamiya greys ready for a Phantom so that may be the way to go.

More soon and thanks for looking.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 3:47 pm

Looking good, so far, Willem!

The Tamiya XF-83 looks like a pretty close match for the underside grey to me....that's the color I've chosen for my Typhoon underside, but that's if you have this among your Tamiya greys? I'll be using the XF-81 and 82 for the upper grey and green,

I mixed my own colors on my "Mossie", because I had nothing close enough to make me happy.

Look forward to seeing the camo go on this beaut

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 6:58 pm

Cheers Martin. Yes, I've just got in and had a dig around and found some xf-83. As an added bonus I've got some Tamiya white to lighten it a bit (and to use on the D-Day stripes). Just noticed I forgot to pre shade one of the radiators though.

Never mind. Break out the black again.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 7:06 pm

Willem wrote:Cheers Martin. Yes, I've just got in and had a dig around and found some xf-83. As an added bonus I've got some Tamiya white to lighten it a bit (and to use on the D-Day stripes).

Sorted then, innit!

Filo387 · Post by **Filo387** » Tue Jul 01, 2014 9:31 pm

Great build

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:00 pm

Filo387 wrote:Great build

Cheers mate, you are very kind. Many thanks for looking and taking the time to comment.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 3:23 pm

A quick update. I haven't had much time to move on with the painting yet but, as you'll see, I got distracted by the undercarriage construction. I wondered why the scissor-links are included in the kit but no mention is made of them in the instructions. I did a little digging online and found that they were included on mid to late mark IXs and, as this is an 'e' wing decided to fit them.

I got the pin vice out and drilled the lightening holes then attached them to the u/c legs facing forward.

I also decided to add the hydraulic line that services the wheel brakes and runs down the rear of each leg.

I'd originally planned to use some nail art tape to secure the fuse wire (this is a great tip I picked up from ChrisandAlexmodelling on youtube and you can pick this stuff up online for a couple of quid for about a dozen rolls). Unfortunately, the tape isn't tacky enough to hold some 15 amp fuse wire in place so I resorted to some Aizu Micron tape 1.5mm.

Here are the results, a bit clumsy perhaps but I'm glad I took the time to add the details.

The tape on the clamps is to stop me getting the parts confused.

Tomorrow, I finish my teaching work until September

and apart from some gigs, I'll have lots of time to spend at the bench.
Think I'll celebrate with a cold beer or two and some football on the telly later.

Thanks for looking.

Kookaburra · Post by **Kookaburra** » Tue Jul 08, 2014 8:22 pm

Had the pleasure of meeting him about 20 years ago. Like every other pilot of that period, regardless of nationality, my strongest memory was his humility.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 2:00 pm

Kookaburra wrote:Had the pleasure of meeting him about 20 years ago. Like every other pilot of that period, regardless of nationality, my strongest memory was his humility.

I never had the fortune to meet him but your description doesn't surprise me. He did a lot of work setting up social housing post war and you have reminded me that I need to include some of that information in future updates.

Thank you for taking the time to comment.

rodrant · Post by **rodrant** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 8:43 pm

Enjoying your build , about the Blue tack , I can't find it here in Portugal also , there is something sold by chinese shops but do not risk to use it , I buy now something called 'Tank Putty' , it is a sort of dark tack , it is German and I buy it online in a German shop , will test it soon on a Spitfire for painting the British Camo , I will then post something on it , I saw it in some YT video and seems very good , you cn use it a lot of times and paint that doesn't loose properties , let's see ...

About your build , great , and like the work so far , nice thread Willem !

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jul 09, 2014 11:44 pm

Cheers Antonio. Look forward to your future Spitfire build.

Thanks for taking the time to comment.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:05 pm

Paint update 3 (I think).

A bit of inactivity of my part. I've been too busy catching up on some reading, listening to cricket on the radio and general loafing, faffing and pottering about (I love the summer holidays).

Got some more paint on the Spit. Sprayed the invasion stripe areas in a couple of coats of flat white followed by sky for the fighter command stripe on the rear fuselage then used 10mm tape to mask off for flat black with a few drops of light grey added. All paints used were Tamiya as I find these easy to use and fairly forgiving. I then masked the whole lot ready for camo.

I then applied to under surface colour using medium sea grey and added a few drops of flat white to hi-light the centre of the panels.

This was given 24 hours to harden and then I masked off the underside this morning.

Looks like a toddler has attacked it with a roll of tape.

So she's ready for her top colours now. The good thing about invasion stripes is that there is not too much surface area left to cover.

More soon. Thanks for looking.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:22 pm

Looking really good so far, Willem....the pre-shading shows through nicely.

You covered those stripes up before showing them off

Ahh well....it will leave more to the suspense and impact from the pealing of the tape!

Look forward to the next reveal

Hope you're enjoying your time during your "School's out for summer" period!

Cheers,

Martin

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 2:24 pm

Yeah, sorry for covering up the stripes, I was on a roll (groan) and forgot to get the camera out.

Thanks for looking.

jbellos1 · Post by **jbellos1** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 3:19 pm

Very nice looking so far Will. Can't wait to see the final reveal on this one.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:28 pm

Me too Jon. Grey camo has just gone on to the top. Reaching the final furlong on the Spit itself and it's been a very enjoyable build so far. Still got the figures and the little diorama base to do though.

Thanks for taking a look.

felisbarcinonensis · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:46 pm

Excellent work Willem! Yeah, there is nothing better than looong summer

FishBowlMan · Post by **FishBowlMan** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 8:22 pm

Great stuff, Willem. She's coming along nicely

And you can't beat listening to TMS. Its what radio was invented for

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:01 pm

felisbarcinonensis wrote:Excellent work Willem! Yeah, there is nothing better than looong summer

Cheers Felis and thanks for looking.

FishBowlMan wrote:Great stuff, Willem. She's coming along nicely

And you can't beat listening to TMS. Its what radio was invented for

I once heard TMS described as a bunch of ex-public schoolboys plus Phillip Tuffnell talking about cake. Radio gold.

Thanks for taking a look.

Post by **Lee** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:56 am

Nice work Willem - Interesting watching yours build up while I'm doing mine

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 3:03 pm

Lee wrote:Nice work Willem - Interesting watching yours build up while I'm doing mine

Thanks Lee. It's a really nice kit to work on.

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 3:37 pm

Paint update errr... 4.

The grey camo went on yesterday. I used XF-66 as I like the bluish tone. Added a drop of white and sprayed this into the centre panels.

I mentioned white tack earlier in the thread and decided to use it as a mask.

I sprayed XF-81 dark green RAF and again lightened the centre of panels with a drop or two of flat white added.

There's a little bit of underspray on the starboard wing so a touch up will be needed but, on the whole, I'm quite happy with the camo colours. The two green areas on the port wing should meet but this will be covered by the roundel anyway. Sorry for the blurry pics.

Time to unveil the D-Day stripes. (Fingers were crossed at this point).

Hmm- not sure. There is a bit of bleed through here and there but to be honest I was expecting this. I've tried to make them look quite smart as befits the CO's aircraft and recently applied so as to represent the aircraft on D-Day or just after but I'm not 100% happy as to me they look just a little bit clumsy especially on the fuselage. Will blame the 'Erks'.

The black mixture was obviously a bit too thin and ran under the masking as these shots on the wings show.

Again, sorry for the blurry pic.

So a little bit of retouch needed but getting closer to the end of a fun build.

Thanks for taking a look.

rodrant · Post by **rodrant** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 8:06 pm

Paint Job done Will , it is very nice , think it is hard to paint those Black and white stripes , yours are very good , pitty that black on the white .
The camo paint is very good also ! That Tak work very well !

Your Spitfire is going nicely , a Great Build so far ! Very nice thread !

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:08 pm

Thanks Antonio. But I keep looking at those stripes and thinking they could be better.

Either way, I'll sleep on it and have a look tomorrow.

Thanks again my friend.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:22 pm

Looks fabulous so far Will. Pre-shading comes through nicely, the camo color selections look great and the highlights give depth. The, the stripes just make it look so cool.....I have to do a kit with full D-Day stripes like this....they just look so cool to me.

Looking forward to the next update!

Cheers,

Martin

felisbarcinonensis · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Wed Jul 16, 2014 11:15 pm

Stripes! They look great!

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:03 am

looks cracking mate.

Goose · Post by **Goose** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:31 am

Hello,

I love this build,

just on opinion, if I were you i won't do anything for those stripes. Be sûre they weren't straight and nicely done, moreover for the blach that came on your white, let it so, it gives a "natural" weathered effect that will be nice.

See you and have a good continuation

Goose

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 1:24 pm

Hi Martin, Felis and Nige. Thanks for your kind words chaps.

Hi Goose. Thanks for stopping by and saying hello. I think I'll end up taking your advice and leaving the stripes as they are but I'm going to tidy up the white stripes as I don't want to weather this too much. Your comments are greatly appreciated mate.

Either way- the Lords test started this morning so I'm going to be distracted by the cricket. Further progress may be slow.

jbellos1 · Post by **jbellos1** » Thu Jul 17, 2014 3:11 pm

Nice Will! Invasion stripes (recognition markings) were haphazardly applied just before the invasion on almost all aircraft except four-engine bombers.

They were applied with large brushes and were only meant to be temporary markings, so your fading to show the underlying camo is spot on.

I've been debating for my build - neat stripes or somewhat messy...not sure yet.

At any rate - great looking build so far.
Jon

gaz45 · Post by **gaz45** » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:29 am

I agree and would leave them as they are mate

Navcom · Post by **Navcom** » Sun Jul 20, 2014 2:24 am

My first look at your thread. Awesome job! LOVE your paint job! I have to try that putty trick.

Keep it up!

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 5:24 pm

Hi Jon, Gaz and Jeff. Thanks for having a look and leaving a comment. I did decide to tidy up the white sections and did that over the weekend.

Decaling in progress.

I did a bit of tidying up over the weekend and masked in the yellow leading edge markings. Then everything was given a couple of coats of Alclad Klear Kote Gloss on Saturday then left to dry as I was away on a gig yesterday.

I started putting on the decals today. I'm using this pack of decals.

Lot's of choices for various marks and several for aircraft that Johnson flew. There is a lot of conjecture and contradiction regarding MK392 so I've decided that I'm going to go with what I think will look good and if it's not 100% accurate then so what. Unfortunately these decals are quite thick and shiny but I'm ploughing ahead with the help of a pint or two of micro set and sol.

So far I've managed to get main markings on the upper sides and then I'll add stencils that won't be covered by D-Day stripes then onto the underside. I'm taking my time with this as I really quite enjoy decaling lately.

As always, thanks for looking.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 8:20 pm

Looking gorgeous, Will! Fab paint job so far....can't wait to see her finished now

Nige201980 · Post by **Nige201980** » Mon Jul 21, 2014 9:07 pm

Brilliant paint work mate

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 6:14 pm

Thanks Martin and thanks Nige.

Decaling on going but nearly there. (Fed up of tiny stencils though, don't know how I'm going to cope with a 'thud' or a phantom).

I've got some playing work for the next few days so progress will be slow but I'm definitely looking forward to a bit of light weathering.

Thanks again for the comments, they are really encouraging.

felisbarcinonensis · Post by **felisbarcinonensis** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:32 pm

Wow man

It's an amazing paint job, that's the real thing!

Goose · Post by **Goose** » Tue Jul 22, 2014 7:40 pm

Your job on this plane looks awesome.!!

congrats, i love it, hope to be able to do so well on mine (well it s a tamiya one but love that plane)

Keep doing great work mate

bye

Goose

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 11:14 am

Thanks for your kind words Felis and Goose.

Goose, are you going to do the Tamiya 1/32 Spit? I'll look forward to seeing it mate. Thinking of going up a scale as my eyesight isn't what it once was. Trouble is- I've got a sizeable stash of 1/48.

Anyway, here's where the model stood at 9am today.

All the decals on and another clear coat (Alclad) to protect them for the beginning of the weathering process.

Spitfires have a black walk forward line on the wing upper surfaces and I like to paint this on rather than use a decal. Two reasons for this- the decal is usually a bit tricky to get straight and you're likely to get a ridge under the wing roundels unless you can meticulously measure and cut the decal to size. (I'm far too lazy to do this).

Wings masked up ready for paint. I'm pretty confident that the roundels will be ok as the last clear coat went on three days ago.

Whilst the airbrush was loaded with black I painted the prop. (A somewhat unfortunate image for an RAF fighter).

Removed the masking on the wings and ouch

roundels lifted off. To be fair they both came off cleanly and nearly in one piece.

I was using Victory Models aftermarket decals and I'd not been too happy as I'd used a lot of setting solution to get them to settle down. No real drama as I've got plenty of spares, it's just an annoying little setback and hopefully I've learned a lesson about expensive and shiny aftermarket stuff.

More later. As always, thanks for taking a look.

Goose · Post by **Goose** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 12:23 pm

Hey!

Unfortunately my name's not Rockfeller so I don't have money to buy the 1/32 TAmiya spitfire. it's a 1/48th scale

This one here---> http://www.super-hobby.com/products/Sup ... gures.html

I intend also to build a little Tilly truck and make the plane in maintenance, the Tilly bringing the two O2 bottles for the welding machine or for the raloading in the Aircraft?

Still fan of your work so far.

See you

Goose

Willem · Post by **Willem** » Fri Jul 25, 2014 2:31 pm

Goose wrote:Hey!

Unfortunately my name's not Rockfeller so I don't have money to buy the 1/32 TAmiya spitfire. it's a 1/48th scale

This one here---> http://www.super-hobby.com/products/Sup ... gures.html

I intend also to build a little Tilly truck and make the plane in maintenance, the Tilly bringing the two O2 bottles for the welding machine or for the raloading in the Aircraft?

Still fan of your work so far.

See you

Goose

I've built the Tamiya mkV before (not with all those lovely extras though). It's a great kit.

UKguyInUSA · Post by **UKguyInUSA** » Sat Jul 26, 2014 2:24 am

Ouch! Sorry about that Tamiya tape pulling up the decals! Frustrating when you get this far and at the last hurdle things don't go good. Other than that, she's still looking gorgeous! Good luck for a speedy recovery when you get the new decals.