Pirate/mercenary Spitfire

[pyro-manic]

I'm going to enter this one - who knows, maybe I'll even finish this time! My entry will be based on a 1:72 Airfix Mk.Vc I picked up last week. I'm going to do a pirate/mercenary Spit, based in the South Pacific some time in the 1950s. It will have numerous field modifications, including a replacement prop, a tropical air filter, and modified armament. I'm undecided on how to dress it yet, but I'm thinking possibly black, heavily weathered and faded from the tropical sun.

Construction has started, and I'll post some photos up soon.

EDIT: Here's a couple of pics, showing the basic build. Fuselage and wings are together, and in need of filling and sanding. The propeller is just mocked up with blue tack, showing how it will look. It's a prop from the Airfix NF/J.30 Mosquito, and the spinner is the Spit one cut down slightly. I've used the original Vb wing on this, as the "c" wing has recessed details, and would look odd on the raised-detail "b" fuselage. I am using the "c"'s air filter, though, as this is a South Pacific build, and is meant to be a bit of a mongrel using parts from various marks. I'll also be deleting the .303 machine guns, and adding extra fuel capacity with drop tanks and wing tanks in place of the outer gun bays (represented by fuel filler caps maybe? )





There won't be much more on this for a few days, while I try to get one of my Profiles builds finished in time (no hope of doing both!). Please comment, though.

[Daryl J.]

Pirate?  Mercenary?   



Daryl J.

[pyro-manic]

Well, this didn't get anywhere near finished for the GB deadline, but I've now made some decent progress on it. I decided to go for a heavily weathered black finish on this build, as it's not something I've ever tried, and I thought it would be a useful thing to experiment with. Prop is from a Mosquito, and I replaced the radio mast with a dome-type fairing. The canopy fit is awful on this kit, and I've yet to try and remedy it.

Anyway, here are the pics. They're not very good, but it's the middle of the night so I can't do it outside. The flash has made the contrast between the black and not-black areas rather harsh, I'm afraid. The blues and greys are a bit more subtle in reality.






The base coat was a layer of dark grey, followed by lots and lots of irregular washes of black, navy blue, light grey and a few spots of brown, applied to the different panels and areas of the aircraft. some light drybrushing to add paint chipping, and brown and orange washes on the exhausts to show rust/staining. I also brushed on small amounts of thinner to various places, and then scrubbed/polished with cotton buds to vary the finish, and blend some of the different colours together a bit better. I think it turned out quite nicely, though I need to refine the technique.

What do you think?

Also, I'm completely at a loss with regards to markings. I intended to do this as a pirate aircraft, but doing skulls and crossbones etc. seemed a bit naff, and I don't really have anything in my decal stash that jumped out at me. Any suggestions will be welcomed.

Additionally, if a mod could move this to the Current Projects section, that would be great.

[Weaver]

Well it's a minimalist finish, so how about a minimalist skull and crossbones, i.e. a plain circle and two crossed lines, in a slightly lighter shade of grey or blue? Something like this:

[Cobra]

Very Cool! in Regards to Markings, how about doing like 2 Diamonds next to each other? make it Interesting & Different!

[Mossie]

It looks pretty good to me.  That prop looks enormous too!

As for markings, you could go with pretty much anything for a pirate, the Jolly Roger wasn't used by all. Images associated with death tend to be the strongest theme.  I've always thought VF-101 'Grmi Reapers' tail markings would go well on a pirate aircraft, if you can find decals that don't clash with the background.  There have been some special markings in white & some in paler greys IIRC, but you could always paint a white background if you can only find darker decals.

Pirate Flags for inspiration:
http://www.kipar.org/piratical-resources/pirate-flags.html

VF-101 Standard marking: http://www.air-and-space.com/20031018%20Miramar/PICT0049%20F-14%20VF-101%20136%20right%20side%20tail%20l.jpg

VF-101 Special marking: http://high90.com/wp-content/gallery/erik/tomcat/VF-101.jpg