Another Softscience Spitfire (Mk Vb)

[jssel]

Terrific interior work Ralph. That kit is a step above the Hasegawa kit, I think.

[Softscience]

Jeff,

A few years ago I built a Hase spit in 1/48, and I can say that I think Tamiya has a slightly nicer interior, and the fit is less problematic, but it doesn't capture the gull wing shape and general gracile looks of the spit as well as the Hasegawa kit

[Softscience]

Progress on this bird is going slower than expected, mainly due to a wing misalignment gaff perpetrated by me.


But I have the major elements together now

First a shot of the cockpit, which is nowhere near as nice as what you get in the new Airfix spitfires in this scale




And here is the overview shot. I decided to go with the full wingtip afterall. The clipped wings didn't fit particularly well (see comment above), and I have a Airfix Mk XII with clipped wings waiting in....the...wing.




The standard wing tips didn't fit all too well either, as they were thinner in cross-section than the rest of the wing. Some fairing in and rescribing were necessary to get things looking more or less right. Oh, and the wing dehidreal had to be reset as well, as straight from the box, the wing looked like it had a slight curve to it when viewed straight on.

Quite surprising given the ease of construction in the Tamiya Spitfire I

[Dirkpitt289]

I don't know Ralph it looks pretty good from where I'm sitting. However I bow to your expertise in this matter. I look forward to seeing more

[Softscience]

My expertise? You won't be doing much bowing then


Your guess is as good as mine, and since yours sounds more positive, I'm going with it!



Tonight I masked and fit the canopy. One of my favorite things about working in 1/48 is that canopy masking is SOOOO much easier.

I went to a local gaming store which still carries Polly Scale paints (my favorites) and got some Ocean gray and Medium sea gray, so tomorrow after work I can start getting paint on plastic. Woohoo!!

[Dirkpitt289]

I'm with you, I hate masking canopies. i whish there was a better way. I look forward to seeing the paint work. Keep us posted.

[Softscience]

freshly painted green and gray spitfires are a common site here these days


But you can never have too many spitfires, so here is one more

[flakmonkey]

freshly painted green and gray spitfires are a common site here these days

It does look nice Ralph. But which green? Humbrol 30? Tamiya XF81? Were they green at all or metallic blue? And what WAS that cockpit colour? Do we need to send a UAMF member back in time, Schwarzenegger style naked, to approach a band of burly modellers and demand their sunglasses, clothes and enamels before carrying out a colour matching mission? And then what happens if they accidentally kill their own grandfather? I think I've been exposed to too much Plastic Weld today.

[AndrewR]

freshly painted green and gray spitfires are a common site here these days

It does look nice Ralph. But which green? Humbrol 30? Tamiya XF81? Were they green at all or metallic blue? And what WAS that cockpit colour? Do we need to send a UAMF member back in time, Schwarzenegger style naked, to approach a band of burly modellers and demand their sunglasses, clothes and enamels before carrying out a colour matching mission? And then what happens if they accidentally kill their own grandfather? I think I've been exposed to too much Plastic Weld today.

Yesssssssssssssss! You'll be claiming you never inhaled next...

[Softscience]

It does look nice Ralph. But which green? Humbrol 30? Tamiya XF81? Were they green at all or metallic blue? And what WAS that cockpit colour? Do we need to send a UAMF member back in time, Schwarzenegger style naked, to approach a band of burly modellers and demand their sunglasses, clothes and enamels before carrying out a colour matching mission? And then what happens if they accidentally kill their own grandfather? I think I've been exposed to too much Plastic Weld today.

"Your paints, give them to me, right now"

[flakmonkey]

There sure are some laugh out loud moments on the forum today

[Softscience]

Is my piss being taken?



no wonder I feel a bit dehydrated

[flakmonkey]

No, not at all. In fact I would stress that no piss was harmed in the making of these messages.

[Softscience]

Interesting crowd at UAMF.... :cheesy:


In any case, I began the decaling process today. I painted on the fuselage band and yellow leading edges (naive me, I thought the decals would work) last night. This morning I sprayed on some Future/Klear and then went on to do some extensive home-improvement projects. This evening I started to apply the small stencil decals. I thought I would get the whole job done, but after nearly 20 stencils I got bored. Hopefully the codes and roundels can go on tomorrow.

[AndrewR]

Is it fin....

I always put the large decals on first and leave the stencils until last. When boredom sets in with the decalling process (and it always does), then I can always leave off a few unimportant stencils.


cheers

Andrew