Revell Spitfire Mk IXc 1/32

[oldnovice]

Good afternoon.

I've been working on this for a few weeks so far but have been photographing my progress, so will create this log bit by bit and catch you up to where I am currently.

Kit is a stop-gap, while I take a break from other builds, and to experiment with methods new to me. Sadly I didn't photograph the box or parts etc, so will just dive straight in.

So, first parts for the cockpit ready to be primed.







For the colour coat, I didn't have the specific colour, and I wasn't too worried about accuracy for this build, so I mixed my own by the eye from my Tamiya range.

X-8 , XF-61 , XF-53. Roughly 33% of each, + 50% X20a thinners on top. The result was near perfect, and went through my airbrush an absolute delight.









Once that was dry, I started adding some of the basic details. Semi-Gloss for the control panel, and I picked out the dials with a quick dry brush. I didn't bother with the decals for this one as I knew it would be a waste of time, on this occasion anyway.

For the rudder pedals, I first coated them in some Alclad Chrome before the green, then chipped them off a little. I assembled the rest of the forward section of the cockpit.









And finally a coat of gloss ready for a light wash...



Next post will be the rear section of the cockpit, seat, etc.


Thanks

[oldnovice]

Not sure if I have misunderstood the child forums, I posted this in Prop Aircraft but it seems to have been moved to pre 1939? (Unless I posted in the wrong place to begin with...pretty sure I didn't lol)

The version 9 wasn't seen until June 1942, please correct me if I am wrong there, my knowledge is sketchy at best lol

[oldnovice]

Good morning.

So moving onto the centre and rear bulkhead and the seat, well bucket as it really wasn't much more than that.

The low-cost of this kit starts to show through, as the fit of the seat parts were terrible. 5 pieces made it up, and none of them fitted well. In all honesty I'd have preferred it to just be a single piece.



The frame for the seat however, was a different story. Fitted together nicely, to the point it would hold itself in position the way a Tamiya kit would.



So it was primed and sprayed, and fitted into position on the rear bulkhead.



The seat was given a colour of brown, I forget which one I used off hand now. Would have preferred it darker though.



Whilst that was all drying, I made up the rearmost bulkhead:



And the seat fitted into position on it's frame and centre bulkhead:



And finally, after glossing I washed and weathered the centre bulkhead and tried, quite nicely I think, the get a worn leather look to the seat itself:



In-between doing all that, I also added a little extra interest to the front of the cockpit, using some old speaker wire primed and sprayed copper, and glossed over.



Next will be the sidewalls and putting everything together.

Thanks

[oldnovice]

Just a thought, I trust everyone is ok with me doing this as seperate posts? I have over 80 photo's and counting and I didn't think I would be too popular if I dumped everything into a single post.

So, with that in mind, some more work on the cockpit.

First, making up the side panels. I skipped a few photos here but same old process:







And finally I got everything together, so a few glory shots here

















I'm quite happy with that. Ok so it's not massively detailed, no where near up to the same standards as some are able to get, (#jealous ), but for me it is a step up.

Next I will quickly show that I added some seatbelts made from masking tape and a bit of thin wire. Again no where near amazing but just adds a little extra.


Thanks

[shortCummins]

looks good to me

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[oldnovice]

looks good to me

rgds
John(shortCummins)

Thank you.

Just a couple of quick photos of my scratch built seatbelts. Not the greatest, but scratch building is new to me and I lack a lot of source material.







Thanks

[oldnovice]

Good morning.

Cracking on with this as I am taking too long between posts...fuselage next.

Again, no point me discussing what most of you already know, but for those that don't, primer, then colour coat gradually built up in fine mist coats. Again using my own by-the-eye mix.









Once I was happy with that I checked the fit of the cockpit and two halves, and assembled them, then masked off the cockpit. Which by the way was a total pain in the proverbial. And would end up being re-done half a dozen times.







A little filling and smoothing the seam lines, nothing major.





Following this, I assembled the main wings and control surfaces, along with the horizontal and vertical stabilizers.







Next will be priming and pre-shading.


Thanks

[oldnovice]

Hi again.

Following on, once the fuselage and wings had all dried in place, I could start painting.

Coat of primer as usual.



Next, the bit I always dread, and am still learning. Being new to airbrushing, I don't have the steadiest of hands, but good thing about pre-shading is it doesn't need to be perfect.





I added some aluminium for future scratching where the pilot would enter and exit the air craft etc, although this didn't turn out that great, mainly due to my inexperience of the technique





Whilst that was drying, I had assembled the air intakes and sprayed the interiors of them, along with any visible interior surfaces on the rest of the aircraft. I did this without masking so was quite chuffed with myself.













And finally, a coat of Light Sea Grey for the lower surfaces.











And finally finally, put the air intakes in place along with the now hidden radiators.




Thanks

[shortCummins]

looking good so far

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[oldnovice]

Thanks again John.

Before I began airbrushing the upper surface with the camo scheme, I wanted to get the wheels made up. Pretty straight forward and OOB, only thing I added was a representation of the brake lines.







Then back to the plane. Dark grey to start with. It is dark, trust me. I am still fighting the auto lighting adjustment whatsitcalledthingy on my camera.







Now the Dark Green. At first, I did this free-hand as I had done it before with surprisingly impressive results, on a wee 1/72 Airfix Spit, as shown here:



It didn't however, go so well this time



The transition was too blended. I didn't wan't crystal sharp as, to be honest I don't like it, but I didn't really want it this blended either.

So I let everything dry overnight, then went back over it, masking with blue-tac, which didn't like sticking at all.



Still not amazing, but certainly an improvement. Anyway, following that, I added the yellow leading edge stripes which I almost forgot about, and went over the whole thing with a few coats of gloss and started adding the decals.





That's all for now else the post will get too long photograph wise


Thanks

[oldnovice]

Hiya.

More decalling now, not really much to say although I did have some issues with the lower wing roundals but once I re-located my Revell decal soft they went ok.







I managed to totally screw up the vertical stabilizer decals, so ended up having to mask and airbrush them on. Not fantastic but will work ok once the weathering is done







Next will be the weathering, which I can say in advance didn't go to plan, but turned out ok in the end...


Thanks

[oldnovice]

Hi again.

This post will have a lot of photo's, just to get you caught up with where I am at currently on this build. Apologies in advance lol

Fitted the door (?) Hatch (?) (Can you tell I know loads about aircraft lol)



Followed by the flaps and undercarriage.









Now, weathering. A few pics here to show it being built up gradually...









As you can see, one of the flaps kept falling off, so I removed it to refit later. Bloody thing. Good old British Engineering huh

At this point, I forgot to take photos, so we skip to pretty much the weathering complete, along with my poor attempt at scratch/chip marks using a ripped up sponge...









Finally its a matter of all the other little bits to finish off. Pylons for the bombs/drop tank, oh and the spinner













And this is how she currently sits...




That's it, this log, and you guys, are all upto date to where I am currently at.


Thanks

[oldnovice]

Final entry for this log.

Canopy next. Now, somehow, I managed to lose the rear section of the canopy. It was there one second, then gone the next Not so much of a problem as the canopy will be open so the centre section would be over it anyway, but still a royal pain!

Anyway, masking:



Sprayed and fitted in place using Revel contacta clear:





And that is pretty much it really. I didn't take any photos of the exhausts, to be honest I do forget as I get swept up in what I am doing. Aside from snapping the undercarriage there was very little else I did, just some minor touching up here and there, bit of weathering on the spinner, etc..

No idea how I am going to display her now as that undercarriage will be too weak to support it












Thanks

[SEBa111]

Can I ask for the quality of the plastic? Details, fitting, little details,etc

[oldnovice]

Can I ask for the quality of the plastic? Details, fitting, little details,etc

For the most part it was ok. About what you'd expect from Revell. The panel lines/rivets were a little faded around the top of the rear fuselage. Fit was ok, not perfect, but then it's not Tamiya pricing either. But certainly nothing Mr Surfacer wouldn't fix.

Only thing I would watch out for is the undercarriage is a weak point after its made/fitted, as I found out.

A tip to make painting easier, the rear undercarriage, despite the instructions, CAN be fitted after the fuselage is glued together. It just slides in and locates perfectly.

[shortCummins]

Eduard (Brassin) have a set of brass undercarriage legs for this kit however Hannants have them at £14.99 which is about half the price of the "full" kit

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED632109

they may be cheaper elsewhere?

rgds
John(shortCummins)

[oldnovice]

Eduard (Brassin) have a set of brass undercarriage legs for this kit however Hannants have them at £14.99 which is about half the price of the "full" kit

https://www.hannants.co.uk/product/ED632109

they may be cheaper elsewhere?

rgds
John(shortCummins)

I've bought from Hannants before, generally they are hard to beat on price.

For the moment though it seems to be ok. It's been sat for over 14 hours so far and seems to be ok.

I might look into this or another set I came across the other day for when I do my Tamiya version.


Thanks for taking the time to locate this though.

[sheppsea]

I've bought from Hannants before, generally they are hard to beat on price.

Do you think so? I've always found Hannants expensive, but their main advantage is that they seem to have everything one could ever need

[Totalize]

Nice!

[Twokidsnosleep]

Lovely Spitfire
Great work on the scratchbuilding