Spitfire GROUP BUILD

[Lobbie]

Darren,

Great progress on your Aussie Mk VIII.

Humbrol equivilant enamel numbers for RAAF Foliage Green is 149, for RAAF Earth Brown is 186 [Humbrol say this is Matt Brown], it's a chocolate brownish colour. The under suface is a mix of Humbrol #89 and #130 mixed 50 / 50, this colour is a very pale blue, a washed out Azure is to dark.



Sorry this is a very poor pic, but it's the only one I have and one day I'll get a copy restored. I have other pencil drawing and info on A58-484 and A58-528, [which was the last Mk VIII Caldwell flew, in '45, it does not carry his 'kills', only his rank penant and his CRC initials aft of the roundal].

[tango1]

Thanks Greg! I wish I had your confidence, I'm really struggling with this one, hopefully it'll be OK when I finish it.

Rob, Thank you, and cheers for the colour references, I feel like I'm not doing very well with this one, but your encouragement really helps. I found some pics of the aircraft I'm building along with C.R. Caldwell. I might pose this one as a dio if I can find some Aussie ground crew to go with it. I'll see how this build turns out first. Thanks again for your help,

Regards,


Darren.

[gregers]

looks great Rob, nice work,

Greg

[Lobbie]

Darren,

Is the kit with ground crew ?, if so they can be used, but I'll put some pix up for you as a ref for the ground crew's

[seanrgb]

wow great work Rob
the mesh your using is that the same as the stuff you get for car repairs

[Lobbie]

Thanks for the kind words.

Sean,

The mesh is very fine lick pin hole stuff, I'm not certain about the car repair mesh though, it's a local stuff under the brand AMRI - a model railway organization somewhere in Queensland.
If you need some I can organize, it's great stuff or screens on any bird subject.

Darren,

The photo of C.Caldwell sitting in the cockpit is one of his Mk Vc's, there is a photo I have of him with A58-484 when wearing a beard [due to his leadership of 1st Tactical Airforce, he and his entire staff mutinied along with a lot of pilots].


I'm up to the cleanup stage on my build, the pix show the model, but the wings are a dry fit along with the undercarriage legs.
Note the gold line on the centre of the rear clear shroud, this is the canopy slide frame guide and is painted using a gold roller ball pen.

[tango1]

Rob,
you are making great progress on your build, she's looking good! Speaking of photo's, here's what I was able to dig up from my reasearch:

My other pic won't display here, so here's a link for it:
rongeorge.com/modules/Gallery/upload/CaldSpit2

My kit does have ground crew in it, but they are not the best poses in the world, perhaps I could modify them slightly. I have found a company that makes very good 1/48 figures ,some of them in shorts & bush hats. I thought I might get them if I can do a good job on the build.

See you later,

Darren.

[Lobbie]

Darren,

Thanks for the link to the second pic, this seems to be 484, but the 'kills' and rank penent are removed.

[tango1]

Hi all,

well I have not had fun today....I went to add the upper wing halves and they were way out of allignment. I stripped the model to pieces and after lots of cutting and sanding and filling I now have an airframe that resembles a Spitfire. I will do more sanding tomorrow to tidy things up-if it still looks rough, I will give up

see you later,

Darren.

[seanrgb]

know how you feel Darren
my kit was the hasewaga good kit , but being the cheap skate I am got mine off ebay
well to cut a long story short the upper wing and lower wing was cracked
so now i have had to buy a kit from hannants
soi can transfer the pit into that one

And Rob thats a 1/48 !!! man your the modelling God

[tango1]

Sean, sorry to hear about the greif you've had its a $£$%* when that happens, I will know tomorrow after a lot more clean-up if mine is worth saving or not.....

See you later,

Darren.

[Lobbie]

Darren,

My first intention for this build was a Hasegawa Mk IXe kit, but had to shelve it and fall back on something else, if your ICM kit does not work out any of the 48 th scale Hasegawa Mk IX kits, have the parts to make the Mk VIII's in the box.

If you have to change the brand of kit to continue, the ICM decals would fit the Hasegawa kit's, I have mostly the ICM Mustang kits and they seem to be hybrids, half of Tamiya [wings] and Acc Min's [for the fuselage].

Sean,

That's a pain with the problem encouted with your kit, I hope it works out when the replacement arrives.

[tango1]

Hi everyone, good news! I've managed to save the ICM kit. After butchering it to make it fit together, I've filled and sanded for most of the afternoon andI think its "getting there".
I'll post some pics later on to show you how it looks now. See you later,

Darren.

[seanrgb]

Cool Glad to hear you had some sucess with your kit
Hopefully i'll be back within a few days , just waiting for the postman

[tango1]

Hi Everyone,

here is todays progress-(if you can call it that!) I've been playing with the wing roots all day and there is a small crack still keeps appearing on the starboard side, however after more filling/sanding and a primer coat of paint its starting to smooth out. I've just put some more filler on the wings which should get rid of the "step" thats there. I'm hoping it will be ready for painting soon, in the meantime, I will start work on the dio base that I have planned.

Here's the pics:




See you later,

Darren.

[Lobbie]

Darren,

Your persistance is paying off, on this one it's progressing well.

[tango1]

Thanks Rob, I feel much more positive now I have made a little progress. In the meantime, I have started to do some artwork for the display base, tomorrow, I will look for a base and start to look at what I can use for my dio, i.e. figures and accessories. Tomorrow is my last day off work so I want to make the most of it.

See you later,

Darren.

[seanrgb]

Wow Darrren that is looking great
well hopefully today the postman will call with my new kit

[gregers]

great work Darren, can't wait to see the finished model.

Greg

[seanrgb]

POSTMAN CAME
its the same kit as i had the wings are good the fuselage has a crack
so I'm going to have a sort out today