Completed Review - Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (60756) - Part 2

Continuing from Part 1, let talk about decals. In fact, bear with me, I'm going to rave about a decal sheet. Yes really!

The decals in question are from Xtradecal, set X72187. I have never seen such a comprehensive set of decals with an equally comprehensive instruction sheet.


This particular set contains decals for a Spitfire Mark 5s only, there are a total of 12 options, from both the European and African theatres. As well as roundels and identification numbers there's a huge number of stencils and demarcation lines. I think, if you choose carefully, you can probably get five or six complete aircraft from this set.

Application was fairly straight forward although some of the long and very thin decals for the "don't walk" lines pushed my decal skills to the limit. It took me the best part of a week (in the evenings) to apply them, mostly, due to the number of them.

Now in previous builds this would be me about done, but with this build I'd decided it was time to raise my game. I wanted the panel lines to show and some weathering, especially as this was an aircraft in use and in flight.

After spraying the whole model with a gloss coat it was time to apply a wash. The wash I'd chosen was from Flory Models. After watching the tutorial video on their website, several times, I got stuck into the whole wash process. The actual moment of applying the wash is well captured in my Instgram post taken at the point where I was really wondering what I'd done.

However, it all turned out well and so the build was complete. For me it was most satisfying, the kit was excellent and I'd managed to move my modelling on to the next level. It's no competition winner but for me it marks a significant step forward. Take a look at the pictures below and see what you think.

With the final picture I'm reminded of something I'd forgot to previously mention. This kit doesn't allow for a "wheels up" option. The wheels you see actually come from an Airfix kit (the one I sacrificed as a paint tester) and they fitted perfectly.

And so onto the final matter of my score for this kit

Overall Build Score: 4.5 out of 5, another excellent Tamiya kit as to be expected. A good choice of variants exemplified by the 3 types of air filters and 2 canopies included in the box. If I had to pick a fault it's the lack of choice when it comes to portraying the aircraft in flight.

Build Review - Tamiya Supermarine Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (60756) - Part 1

Time to get back on track with my aircraft building, where better to start than with another Tamiya kit. The kit, Tamiya's 1:72 Spitfire Mk.Vb/Mk.Vb Trop (kit number 60756) in a North African colour scheme.

Assembly, as so often it the case begins with the cockpit and the two halves of the fuselage. For a change I'd decided not to use a photo-etch set, this model was going to be in flight and so a pilot would be filling the cockpit space. Having said that I think the interior of the kit was reasonably well detailed as is, you can see from the picture below.

The out of the box interior

Cockpit & (Airfix) pilot

The pilot figure was taken from my spares box, in this case an Airfix pilot. Tamiya, for some reason, don't include pilot figures in their 1:72 kits (although this may have changed since their latest F-16 releases at this scale). I find this a little odd, as the 1:48 scale kits, of which some of the 1:72 scale kits are scaled down versions of, do contain pilot figures.

With the insides painted, using a home-brew interior green mix, it was time to assemble the two halves and the cockpit.

This was done by gluing the two halves together and pushing the cockpit assembly up through the bottom. This works well and prevents an uneven cockpit. By comparison I was building an older Airfix Spitfire at the same time. This model used the typical method of trying to glue a floor piece in-between the two halves and it sank leaving it uneven and consigning the model to being used for testing paint colours.

I decided that as this was a model in flight it would need to look used and so wanted to use the hairspray method of weathering and so selected areas were sprayed silver.

To be honest this didn't really work and I'm at a bit of a loss as to why. Not enough hairspray? Too much paint over the top? Either way, in the end only a small part of the wing roots weathered but it look OK. The rest was touched in using a Citadel silver paint.

On to the painting, starting with the underside. I used Vallejo's UK Azure (71.108) but felt that this was too blue. I over sprayed that with a 50/50 coat of UK Azure and Pale Blue Grey (71.046) and this seemed to be a better match.

I've written before about problems with the accuracy of Vallejo's colours and once again this proved to be an issue. I had bought the Vallejo RAF Desert colours box set and that was why I'd chosen a desert colour scheme. However the colour were, once again, not even close. I tried mix after mix with no success before giving up and deciding to use Tamiya paints. This for me wasn't a decision taken lightly as I'd had mixed success with Tamiya paints, finding them too watery, especially combined with my masking.


However my fears were unfounded, I managed to use them and use them well (for me). No paint leaked under my masks which was result! So Vallejo's loss is Tamiya's gain, in the future I won't be quite so afraid of using them.

Colours were straight from instruction sheet. Middle stone sprayed over the whole upper surface, this was a 1:1 mix of XF-59, Desert Yellow and XF-60, Dark Yellow. I then masked of the areas that were to retain this colour and over sprayed the Dark Earth colour. This too was a mix, 1:1 of XF-52, Flat Earth and XF-64 Red Brown.

With the painting done, the next step was the decals, which I'll write about next time.

A Re-Review - Vallejo Model Air

A while ago I wrote a review of Vallejo's Model Air range of paints. I stand by my comments that they work really well and from a technical point of view they are still the best paints I've used with an airbrush. However a few months on and I feel I really need to add something to that review, a disclaimer if you like.

Disclaimer:

While the paints are excellent the colours are not. If you buy one of their themed colour sets expecting to be able to use them straight out of the box then you are likely to be disappointed. Simply put, the colours are not even close to what they claim to be.

RLM colours? Not even close.

So far I've investigated both their RLM and RAF colours and found them both to be some way of what they are meant to be. Greens in particular seem to be nowhere near the shades they should be. Want an RAF green? You'll probably need to use their Russian green. Luftwaffe greens? I've no idea where they've got the colours from. Light blue undersides for your Luftwaffe aircraft? You'll probably need to mix in more grey into the supposed blue than blue, and so on.

You can probably see where this is going, when I refer to my Academy 1:72 Me 163B build and as to why there's been little in the way of progress. Yes you guessed it, I sprayed it in RLM 81 and 82 straight out of the bottle and now it looks like something from a cartoon. The undersides are fine so now I've got to find a way of removing the topside colours without ruining the rest of the paintwork or the interior.

It's times like this when I find this hobby less than enjoyable. The kit is excellent, for once my skills haven't let me down, just frustrating paint shades from Vallejo...

What's On The Workbench? #4

As you might have guessed by now, my "What's On The Workbench" posts are mostly filler posts when not much progress has been made on my current projects.

So what's on the workbench?

To start with, Academy's Me 163B is now assembled and has been base coated in Vallejo Model Air's silver. I had a bit of trouble with the horizontal join around the nose, which took a couple of attempts to fill to a point where I was happy with it, but it's now there.

Why a silver base coat? Well I intend to try the hairspray technique of weathering so I want the silver to show through the paint scheme. I believe the wings of the Me 163 were wooden but I decided to keep a uniform base colour so when I add further layers they too stay uniform in colour.

However I'm not going to try a previously untried technique on this model so I've quickly mocked up an old scrap kit, in this case an Airfix Spitfire, with a two colour camouflage scheme to practice on.

Again I used a silver base coat followed by a coat of Tamiya semi-gloss clear from a spray can. Once this had dried I airbrushed hairspray over the whole model, let it dry, before over spraying the camouflage scheme.

So now I just need this to dry before applying warm water and attempting to rub off some of the paint. If it works, then I intend to repeat the process on the Me 163.

Review - Vallejo Model Air

RRP - £16.99 (8 colour set), £31.99 (16 colour set)

Time for something a little different, a paint review. Vallejo's model air range are specially designed for airbrushes and to be honest I'm lost for words...!

Overall Score: Incredible, so easy to use, just perfect!

 
OK so in all seriousness I tried these out of curiosity, partly because I didn't feel like mixing Tamiya paints to get RLM (Luftwaffe) colours when I could get them ready mixed. Typically the 8 colour set consists of 6 colours, a matt varnish and thinner.

I've tried the Model Colour range, for brush painting, and I was not impressed so wasn't expecting much. The Model Air paints themselves seem to have a resin like texture which means they flow nicely and are not too wet. For me they've been an absolute revolution and have had as big an impact on what I can do as changing my airbrush did.

I've found that camouflage patterns are much easier to do with paint that is less "wet." And just to show, the picture below took me very little time to do.

The more eagle-eyed amongst you will notice that the model in question is Airfix's 1:72 Bf 109E-4, I'll write more about that later. I'm making plans to retire my Tamiya paints and starting to replace them with the Vallejo Model Air range so I'll leave you with an interesting video on airbrushing with Vallejo paints.

19/03/2015 - There's more that needs adding to this post, a disclaimer!

A Bad Workman Always Blames His Tools (Or Does He?)

I have a confession, until today I've not really enjoyed airbrushing. The prospect of getting the airbrush out has filled me with dread but I know I have no choice as brush painting isn't an option either.

I've been using a single action Badger airbrush and despite thoroughly masking I found that the airbrush tended to blast lots of very wet paint over a model and that usually resulted in paint seeping under my masks. Experimenting with different amounts of thinner in my paint didn't even help and to be honest I just couldn't see how I was ever going to be able to do camouflage patterns or indeed anything more than simple colours.

Little did I know the answer to my problems was sitting forgotten in a cupboard. A while ago my father had given me double action airbrush that he didn't need. However at the time the top feed didn't appeal to me (I couldn't put it down once it had paint in it) so I'd decided not to use it.

The old...

... and the new

So earlier I decided I had nothing to lose and I gave it a go. What a difference! First of all it atomises the paint so much better so I get that fine mist of paint which I could never get with the old one. Also I can control the flow much better and paint much smaller areas. Finally, the top feed works well and I find myself using much less paint.

It made such a difference and I feel really optimistic now about what I can do in the future. Camouflage schemes will, (with a bit practice), be achievable!

So just to show what a difference it makes, here's two aircraft painted in an afternoon. One is my Tamiya P-51D build the other started out as a practice but will now be completed. A review will hopefully follow but until then see if you can guess what it is.

Finally, this may not seem like much to the more experienced modellers out there, but I'm quite pleased with this this. My first ever airbrushed canopy, unthinkable until now!