Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I

Urban Gardini
I thought that I should try n' see how it looks with the seat belt decals that is provided with the kit.

Urban Gardini
As you can see in picture #16-17 some of the sky lifted when I removed the maskin' tape so I had to sand it down carefully n' then respray it plust maskin' off n' spray the band over the fuselage instead of usin' the kit decal as I don't like decals at all...

Urban Gardini
Thanks mate! I've not done anything with it today as I planned. I hope I'll be able to put some decals in place tomorrow but time will tell...

Bill Gilman
Looking good so far, mate! You can't have too many Spitfires! Can't wait to see the finished model.

Urban Gardini
Spitfire is a beautiful bird indeed n' this isn't my only Spit as I plan to do some more in the future...

Urban Gardini
Decals finaly in place, all 26 of 'em complete with some buggerin' placement errors...

Holger Kranich
Hey Urban, are the seatbelts decals, too?

Urban Gardini
Yeah, they did come with the kit...

Holger Kranich
Looks fine, so far! But the modelsuface is a `lil bit rough, isnt it?

Urban Gardini
A bit yes...

Holger Kranich
This one went pretty fast from your hands, do you still build models so quick?

Urban Gardini
I don't consider myself a fast builder. I've got netfriends on some forums that would chew through this one in two days. This one was started at September 4th this year n' have been dormant for about four of those weeks due to work n' other must do's...

Urban Gardini
This bird is finaly done. It's my first completed kit in 2011 n' it ended up a total disaster...

Holger Kranich
Yeah, nice Spitty! I like that camo much. I´m facing the same problem than you. I began 3 Models this year but actually, no model is finished by me now... Its the lack of time and the fact that i ruined one of them...

Urban Gardini
On the plus side though. Absolutely no filler what so ever was harmed in the making of this kit...

Holger Kranich
Do you know why the left wing is coated in black? Was it to help to get identified by the own FlaK-crews?

Urban Gardini
It was one of many patterns on the Spitfire. This pattern in particular was from the battle of France but No.92 Squadron had this pattern on their Spits as late as December '40 when this particular aircraft was delivered to the squadron at Biggin Hill. Most of the squadrons though had dropped the Battle of France camouflage at the time for Battle of Britain but not No.92 Squadron. To bad it's not the QJ K Spit instead of the QJ B that Tamiya offers as that would mean that it's Geoffrey Wellum's Spitfire. If you haven't read his memoires "First Light" I do recomend you to do that. It's one of few books out there were the author doesn't paint a grander picture of himself instead of the naked truth.

Holger Kranich
Your describtion makes the book tasty for me! Thank you! Its a very interesting story about that Spitty and its camo!

Urban Gardini
I've put up some photos showing how the flat coat that went south for me back in the day have worsened over the years in spite of my "save" back in the day with a filter in order to tone it down. Watch and learn how not to apply a flat varnish. Always in thin layers, NEVER wet coverage as that may end up milky. And whatever you do don't use Tammys flat base in order to make a flat varnish out of X-22 as I did. Not only did I put it on too thick in one go but I used way too much flat base as well in the mix. I'm not sad of that fact today as it always can act as a learning example for someone and I've got no emotional feelings for my finished models.

Skyhiker
That is a very strange reaction that happened to your flat coat. It looks like an extreme example of what happens when you apply acrylic over enamel or oil paint. A heavy coat of Tamiya thinned with x-22 shouldn't do that unless you mixed in way to much thinner. How did you manage that? Can you reproduce it? Very curious to know what really happened here. Sorry to see all your work ruined.

Urban Gardini
I don't cry over a ruined work as I can always build a new one and I do plan to do so in the future. The problem was that I had too much Tamiya X-21 Flat Base in my X-22 Clear when I flat coated it. And that I also applied it too thick. I show this so people can see how it can turn out if you don't apply your flat coat in thin layers. I'm not afraid to show my mistakes when someone else can learn from it.

Живко Джаков
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. Too bad for the model.

Bill Gilman
If all you have are lemons, make lemonade! Now you have a process to reproduce an extremely weathered distemper winter camouflage. Cheers, Bill

Urban Gardini
ROFL