Supermarine Spiteful F Mk.XV - FINISHED > PAG.4

[Wardukw]

So far ..so good matey 👍

[DogfighterZen]

Did a bit more but not much... busy days are busy so...
Drilled the exhausts cause i just didn't like the way they looked and also sprayed some XF-1 on the prop...

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[NARSES2]

Wish I still had steady hands that could do that 

[Old Wombat]

I don't think there's an excuse for modern kits in 1/48 not to have hollows moulded into the engine exhausts - just laziness.

Slide moulding makes it pretty simple to achieve for gun barrels!

[NARSES2]

I don't think there's an excuse for modern kits in 1/48 not to have hollows moulded into the engine exhausts - just laziness.

Slide moulding makes it pretty simple to achieve for gun barrels!

True, but this is 1/72 

[Old Wombat]

I don't think there's an excuse for modern kits in 1/48 not to have hollows moulded into the engine exhausts - just laziness.

Slide moulding makes it pretty simple to achieve for gun barrels!

True, but this is 1/72 

Good point!    

[DogfighterZen]

And there's another detail that actually impressed me in this kit, the gun barrels already had something like a millimeter hollowed out OOB, i simply drilled them a bit more to look more like a hole but, a drop of black wash would've probably been enough to give the "hollow" impression.
The exhausts were bad, lots of flash that i'd already cleaned up, horizontal mismatched mold lines that had to be leveled out so they'd actually look like pipes, mating surface had to be sanded flat and also had to remove some excess material inside the slot for the exhausts on the left fuselage half... Lots of imperfections although the details are there but, this kit does need a bit of work.

Gonna do some work now, decide if it's better to glue the canopy on before masking to ensure it looks straight when i take the masks off. The canopy's framing is very faint and it's gonna be fun to mask...

[DogfighterZen]

So, i ended up gluing first and masking later... it's not 100% symmetric but it'll do.
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After that, i was thinking of a simple scheme at first and it was supposed to be a Olive drad on the top and light grey on the bottom, much like early P-47 Thunderbolts were painted but, it's been a while since i had something shiny and i had some paint to test so, i chose metal.

First, i gave it a coat of Tamiya X-1 gloss black...
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Then i got my Molotow chrome paint pen and got the paint in the airbrush with some Mr. Levelling thinner and sprayed it...
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Not sure if the paint is still in good condition as i've had this pen for quite a while and maybe it's lost the "chrome" property and it's just a metallic paint now... or maybe it was the black undercoat that made it too dark... but it got quite a few passes and was well covered so...

I ended up resorting to trying the Ikea silver home deco spray can. It's acrylic lacquer so, the same as Tamiya and thus, no problems with compatibility...
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This is much closer to what i was looking for and it was a rather sloppy job so, i'll have to decant this spray paint to see how it comes out airbrushed. The surface of the model wasn't really prepared for a NMF job so i'll just take this one as it is and learn the lessons for a more serious attempt in the future.
Now, let's see what a coat of X-22 gloss varnish does to the shine and specularity of this paint.
It's already touch dry but i'm giving it a few more hours before i test how it holds up to being handled.
If it seems tough enough, maybe i'll try the markings without a gloss coat to protect the paint but i will test on the landing gear doors first before i do anything on the airframe.
No further updates till next weekend cause i'm going on a road trip with my family...

 

[2996 Victor]

   

Have a great trip!

Mark

[Rick Lowe]

ROAD TRIP!!! Always a cool idea! 

Safe travels.

And yeah - model is looking great. ;-)

[DogfighterZen]

   

Have a great trip!

Mark

ROAD TRIP!!! Always a cool idea! 

Safe travels.

And yeah - model is looking great. ;-)

Thanks, guys! 
Just got back and everything went smooth but, i'll have more details on the road trip on my blog thread.

Now, regarding the Spiteful, i've managed to ruin the paint job... i'd already started applying markings and forgot that when the temperatures start rising my hands get sweaty very easily and did not use gloves so i left two big fingerprints on the fuselage after a few seconds of handling the model...    
I'm stripping the paint to try again but this was frustrating...

[2996 Victor]

   

Have a great trip!

Mark

ROAD TRIP!!! Always a cool idea! 

Safe travels.

And yeah - model is looking great. ;-)

Thanks, guys! 
Just got back and everything went smooth but, i'll have more details on the road trip on my blog thread.

Now, regarding the Spiteful, i've managed to ruin the paint job... i'd already started applying markings and forgot that when the temperatures start rising my hands get sweaty very easily and did not use gloves so i left two big fingerprints on the fuselage after a few seconds of handling the model...    
I'm stripping the paint to try again but this was frustrating...

Glad the trip went well  Sorry to hear about the paint troubles, that's really frustrating. Hope it strips off cleanly for another try!

[Rick Lowe]

Yeah - lost track of the amount of times in my youth, that I touched the paint to see whether it was dry...   
Which doesn't explain why I still do daft stuff nowadays... older ain't always wiser.

[NARSES2]

Which doesn't explain why I still do daft stuff nowadays... older ain't always wiser.

Oh so true 

[zenrat]

You are using enamels aren't you?  So if you repeat the same paint job then make sure you let the various stages gas out properly before putting down the next one.  Your post above read like you went black/chrome/clear very quickly.