Finally, the host enters the build thread with something to report.
Now my builds start quite slowly, as I like to prepare all the parts by washing them in soapy distilled water in an ultrasonic bath. The bath was very cheap, but it's really meant for cleaning glasses and jewellery, so it's not very large. That's okay for me, because I mostly build 1/72 single engined prop fighters and WW1 biplanes.
For this kit I have some resin bits and bobs from Pavla. The radiators will be replaced, as the kit ones are currently residing on an Academy Spitfire XiV. The new exhaust stubs are very, very nice, and look a lot better than the very spindly efforts in the kit. Some resin upgrades can be summed up with "What's the point?", but the exhaust stubs are a definite plus point. In addition, the Diddyman pilot will be replaced with one from the Monogram F-82 kit. At least it's a late 40's -early 50's vintage pilot figure. The monogram pilot gets one arm which is positionable.
I have to cut the sprues up to fit them inside the bath.
As you can see the bath is about the size of a pair of glasses. Funny that.
When it's on, you get a nice but weird purple light glowing and a gentle buzzing sound. Quite restful, actually.
After cleaning, the parts are dried on paper towels. I then did a bit of priming. I'm now using Vallejo acrylic primers, which come in a variety of colours. I'll be finishing the model with Vallejo Air and Model Colour paint, which is nice stuff, but is fragile if you don't prime first.
One advantage of the different colours is that you can mix and prime with a base coat close to the top coat. I've mixed a home brew British Interior Green Primer here from Bronze Green and Light Grey. The interior components have been painted this colour. The seat I think I'm going to leave as green. I've seen a photo on the web where the brown seat was overpainted with interior green. Besides, with Juan Armed-Bandit sitting in there, you won't see much!
I've also painted the wheel's up components with the dark grey primer, because it's a nice colour for tyre rubber, so I don't need to put a top coat on.
So that's it for the evening. I did do a bit of dry fitting, and the wings and fuselage seem to go together well. The big sprue gates were a bit of a nuisance to clean up, but no real disasters so far, he says, tempting fste.
cheers
Andrew (The host with the toast)
PS I forgot to mention, I found a Falcon canopy in the stash cupboard for this mark of Spitfire.
Don't forget to paint the back of the seat, as you can sort-of see it through the canopy.
