Revell Supermarine Spitfire MkIIa 1:32

[RicRodrigues]

Hi all!!!

I would like to say this is my new project but it isn't. I started this kit over a year ago. I love the Spitfires and I was really excited about this kit, so excited that I went for the PE set Big Ed from Eduard. It was my first time working with PE and only after started the kit I realised that probably I took a step too far and my skills were not that good in order to embrace a project like this. That turn out to be a real mojo killer, specially the flaps PE, and this kit ended up in the shelf of doom for several months. Recently, I felt sorry for the poor Spit and decided to go back to it and finish it, no matter what the final result would be. There's loads of mistakes done throughout the building, loads of super glue all spread through the PE parts, extreme dry-brushing weathering on the cockpit and some gaps on the bullet-proof windshield and so on (trully a paradise for the rivet-counters!!! )
But in the end, it's a Spit, is a winner, an hero of many battles, and even if not in pristine condition or final result, it deserves a better faith that the shelf of doom!!!
This kit is well-known, no big issues with it, good fitting, no major flash and no ejection pin marks on visible areas. I was not sure if the landing gears would be solid enough to support the weight of the kit, so I decided to go for after market parts in metal (not sure the brand tho). I went for after market resin exhausts: the ones in the kit were composed by 2 parts and I was afraid the seam line would be really hard to deal with (once again, not sure the brand). As I said, went for the Big Ed PE set from Eduard that included interior detail set, landing flaps detail set, exterior detail set and canopies pre cut masking. Finally, bought aswell a AML Camouflage Painting Mask set. Loads of investment on a kit that couldn't be left on the shelf of doom!!!
But enough of talking, let's go for the photos!!!

The Kit
176240-11681-96-pristine by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

Instruments panel
20151125_160446 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Side cockpit walls
20151125_160455 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151125_160505 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Rudder pedals
20151125_160516 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Control column
20151125_160544 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Fuselage Interior
20151125_160723 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151125_160742 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Side Door
20151125_160838 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Seat with the PE seatbelts
20151125_165930 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

And then, the wild dry-brushing made its apperance!!!
Floor and rudder pedals
20151201_103322 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Cockpit side walls
20151201_103349 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Seat
20151201_103427 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickrl]
Floor and Instruments panel
20151201_103444 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

And start the assembly
20151201_112040 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_112115 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_131748 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_131805 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_131813 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_131827 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_131935 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_132330 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_132346 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr20151201_132512 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20151201_132536 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

Fuselage closed and putty applied. As you can see from the photos, putty was required pretty much in all the junctions, fuselage halves, wings roots, you name it, there's putty!!! Not like there were big holes needing filling, just to smooth the junctions.
20160116_194510 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20160116_194439 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20160116_194517 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20160116_194544 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161019_154554 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

After this, I was so demotivated with this build (specially with the flaps PE) that I just threw it into the shelf where it stayed until a couple of weeks ago. When I decided to bring it back to the bench, mojo was back and everything started to go really quick and smooth!!!
Everything was primed with grey Stynylrez, fuselage included.
Pre-shadding (sloppy job, I know!)
20161114_140005 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161114_140057 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

And some detail painting. In this photo, you can see how bad it was the PE gluing job: glue everywhere!!!
20161114_140046 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

The Exhausts are painted in Tamiya X10 Gun Metal. I know it might not be the right colour, but I absolutely love this colour on metal parts!!!
20161116_141251 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

Base colour apllied (Revell Aqua Color Dark Earth 36182)
20161116_102233 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
The underside was painted in Revell Aqua Color Himmelblau 36159 (Sky matt)

Using the AML Camouflage Painting masks, applied the second colour, Revell Aqua Color Dunkelgrun 36168. In order to achieve (kind of) smooth camouflage lines, I've used the method of applying small strips of Blue Tack (the white one, actually) under the masks. I'm really happy with the result!!! Plus, and because I went a little heavy on the painting, the sloppy pre-shadding is gone under the painting job.
20161116_174935 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161116_175013 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161116_175022 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161116_175032 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161116_175245 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

Exhausts in place and a little bit of weathering (smoke and guns stains)
20161202_153006 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153024 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153037 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153048 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153106 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153121 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20161202_153721 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
On the left side, tried to dry-brushed a little bit of Tamiya XF16 Flat Aluminium to create the effect of heavy using: once again, the dry-brushing was too much!!! Sprayed a little bit of Tamiya XF1 Flat Black heavely thinned and with low pressure (almost misted) and the result is almost decent.

Right now, the Spit is waiting for the clear coat in order to start the decaling process. Other small parts, such as the propellers, those damn flaps, landing gear covers and wheels are already painted, just waiting for the decaling process to be finished to be assembled.

As always, opinions and suggestions are welcome, feel free to comment!!!

Cheers!!!

[Davethepitch]

Very nice attention to detail

[RicRodrigues]

Very nice attention to detail

Thanks, mate!!!! Except, I didn't pay attention to the dry-brushing!!!

[Davethepitch]

It looks very good to me.

[NorthernModeller]

looks to be a nice kit, may have to get one myself one day

[RicRodrigues]

looks to be a nice kit, may have to get one myself one day

It is indeed a good kit, 1:32 scale and for around 30EUR (I think that was what I paid for it) it's a lot of kit for the price. Not sure how old is the kit, but it's very detailed even if you built it OOB. The only problem I found was some minor fitting issues (wings roots, vertical stabilisers) that can be easely dealt with some putty; the most problematic part is the fitting in the engine cover area (the sanding almost wiped the details in that area) and the fitting of the canopy, particularly the bullet proof windshield. Apart from that, cracking kit, and it has loads of aftermarket parts if you really want to do an extremely detailed build!!!

[AdamLuscombe]

Very nice work

[RicRodrigues]

Very nice work

Thanks, mate!!!

[RicRodrigues]

After a few more months on the shelf of doom, decided to bring back the Spit and have some more work done on it.
First, I glossed it with the classic Alclad Aqua Gloss in preparation for the decals. The decals were kind of ok. I just messed up a little bit the roundels under the wings: beside being slightly misplaced, they won't conform properly and they wrinkled a little bit. All the rest of the decals went down very smothly and with no problems.
Another coat of Aqua Gloss to seal the decals and a full wash of Ultimate black dirt brought up the panels details.
Then, I assembled pretty much everything: landing gears, radio antena (and the wiring, using Uschi thread) and the propellers.
And I couldn't avoid it anymore... The job that I was fearing finally had to be done!!! Those flaps had to be placed sometime and somehow!!! It was fiddling but in the end, there they are, in place and looking decent!!!
Right now, The Spit looks like this.
20170606_123300 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170606_123242 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170606_123314 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170606_123326 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170606_123437 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
Next, I'll give it a final coat (I'm thinking about going for a Alclad Klear Kote Semi-Matte instead of the Flat Kote, any thoughts?) and then the final details, as my plan was to display it with the access hatch to the cockpit and canopy in the open position.

As always, suggestions and opinions are welcome, feel free to comment!!!
Cheers!!!
Ricardo

[RicRodrigues]

Finally, and after almost 2years, I'm calling the Spit done!!!

It was a long build and I definitely was too ambitious when I decided to go for such a big scale and with so much aftermarket being so inexperienced. In the end, I guess it's normal for the learning curve.

Another issue I had was related with the wings ailerons. I built the Spit with both ailerons on a down position, as you can see on the photos below. When I posted in Facebook the latest developments from this build, a member of ISM page kindly pointed out that mistake. In the end I managed to sort out this issue and now the Spit looks much better with both ailerons on the neutral position! I don't consider myself as rivet counter, but defo I should check some reference (even if it's about the basics of aviation!!! ) in order to avoid this mistakes.

Also, I managed to fix the links for the photos, as the previous photos were in Photobucket.

Final Reveal Photos can be found here: viewtopic.php?f=45&t=23679

20170714_230413 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170714_230455 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr
20170714_230455 by Ricardo Rodrigues, on Flickr

As always, opinions and sugestions are welcome, feel free to comment!!!
Cheers!!!