Tamiya Spit MKXVIe 1/32

[paddy]

Hot work there Paddy!

What paints do you use Acrylics or Enamels - if Acrylics (water based) would the adjusting/washing off the washes affect the Acrylics?

I only use acrylics and once dry they are impervious to water. no worries there

 

[paddy]

I had a change of heart over the gyro gun-sight as its so small it wasn't really recognisable as a sight. I have now gone with a std reflector sight. Macro photography doesn't do me any favours but bear in mind this is only 2mm so it looks fine with the naked eye.

These are the kit side walls OOB

lots of detail to play with and with some paint they look fine. No need for PE in this pit

Once assembled, well balanced together, the effect is quite busy and given the limited access to the pit anyway will do fine.

Thanks for looking

 

[SA Dave]

Damn thats Beautifull Paddy

 

[moon puppy]

Really nice! Love the cable to the site, something that's often overlooked. The kit Pit is really well done, not much needed after a good paint job.

 

[MrT]

Very cool!!

Terry

 

[jknaus]

Fantastic Paddy Everything just awesome
James

 

[paddy]

Really nice! Love the cable to the site, something that's often overlooked. The kit Pit is really well done, not much needed after a good paint job.

Its easy when you have this sitting on the table opposite

This is quite an interesting one actually. It works the same as a std reflector sight, you dial in a wingspan and a range and wait for the target to fill the projected ring sight. This variation has a tilt on the reflector glass that allows you to compensate for the trajectory drop of PRG's. This version was developed in the field by Roland Beamont by adapting the stock sight . It was some years later that the RAF acknowledged the idea worked and a purpose built version was put into production. I dont have a complete thing to show you but i have a top section which shows how the RAF managed to over complicate an original simple design.

It was found that the std projected ring and cross wire image was so large and bright it was almost imposable to make out a small target like a tank through it so the later versions just had a orange dot as an aiming point the same as a night fighter sight.

 

[phantom II]

I'm way short of words here. Hope this will suffice.

Cheers, Christian B)

 

[paddy]

As it might be of interest to others.....

Here are a couple of my std sights. The one on the left has two adjustments. top ring is set to range, ie the point at which your guns are harmonised to converge . the bottom ring is the wingspan of the enemy ( fighter/bomber etc) these adjustments alter the width of the projected graticule so when the enemy fills the ring you know he is at the range your bullets are set to converge.

The other site is a night fighter version with one adjustment of open/shut, this would give a ring and bead projection but by selecting shut the ring would go out and you would just have a the bead shinning thus preserving night vision and enabling you to see a dark object past the bright ring on the glass.

This is the pre 1941 version. simular to the later models but with an oval glass.

 

[paddy]

I wonder if Tamiya had further plans for this kit or maybe were helping Aires and Eduard They certainly went to a lot of trouble to supply removable panels in the wings without and interior detail at all ? May be its a way of making the moulds more interchangeable between versions.

Needless to say fit of all parts is pretty near perfect....no filler needed here

I was reading the article in the review bits about the hairspray method a guy had used on a tank... I wonder if it would work for a heavily weathered and battered Spit ... would it be white over silver or silver over white, bit of a risk on an expensive model if it doesn't work :woohoo:

 

[moon puppy]

Nice, I noticed that about the Mustang, you can see a lot of future options being there.

Thanks for posting those Sights Paddy, nice reference to have sitting around.

 

[paddy]

As usual i don't really have a clue what i am doing here but this is my inspiration...

Its a fine example of why its best not to use old pictures for colour (apart from it being Black and white) :laugh: as we can see here as i do a little more research

This is a Spit MkXVI (16) its number is RW396..i checked RW996 and it wasnt built..

this Spit has an entry in my copy of "Spitfire the History" (Shacklady and Morgan) and states the following:

RW396 XVIE CBAF (stands for Castle Bromwich "Built" Aero Factory), Assigned to 29MU (No. 29 Maintenance Unit) 24-7-45
CGS (Central Gunnery School) 2-4-46
eng fail cd f/lndg West Skipsea Ranges 6-1-49

cd = category D which is insurance speak for write off.

So basically it was built mid 1945 and assigned to a Maintenance unit. not unusual while it was waiting to go to a Sqn. She then spent all here life life with the Central Gunnery School until she crashed due to engine failure on the 6th Jan 1949. at West skipsea
This was a coastal range which edged the North sea, the airfield used was nearby RAF Catfoss. this might explain the worn and rugged look as these aircraft would have flown up and down this section of the North Sea coast which would be pretty bleak in winter.
This picture is unusual as the markings seem a bit odd as it has a yellow outer ring to the fuselage roundel which i guess is still there from its war days at the MU and the wing roundels have a white ring and are full size...
My model will be halfway between this aircraft and the kit aircraft decal wise so a bit of a what if but then there were not ant really hard and fast rules with markings regaurding war built aircraft that served on post war it seems.

My model has a coat of white

then a coat of silver

Next it will get its decals while its still shiny then a flat coat to turn the silver into a whitish Grey. followed by a ton of weathering. (can you tell I'm making this up as i go along )

I tried this out with normal silver and it didn't really work so i bought some of Tamiya's alclad copy paint but didn't use the black base...ie i used a white base and it seems to work better as the alclad type paint is not as metallic and gives more of a chalky weathered aluminium/silver dope type finish with a flat coat applied..

M<ore soon if i can find some decals !!

 

[moon puppy]

Sure looks like a 9 in that top pic.

 

[paddy]

Well it is basically a IX. the only reason it got its own Mk number was it had a Packard Merlin instead of a RR. The pointy tail and bubble canopy would not have been enough on their own to stop it being a low back MkIX. Even so it was a bit of anomaly as the Mk XIV (14) was already using the RR Griffin engine.

 

[Paulw]

this is going to be smashing Paddy. I cant wait to see the end.

 

[paddy]

Cheers Paul
Quick update on the Decals i have gone with which are a mix of War and Post war but apart from the Wing size roundel are not far off the pic above. still awaiting its flat coat and some tweaks I have used the "closed cockpit door" to make it paint tight but i will be posing it open when finished .

 

[MrT]

Looking good Paddy!!

Terry

 

[jknaus]

James

 

[moon puppy]

Looking good Paddy

 

[paddy]

I'm quite pleased with this so far, having given it a gloss coat of silver i placed the decals, then using Humbrol maskol and a sponge i dabbed on strategic areas of wear. Quite a subtle amount as its quite easy to put 1:1 weathering on a 1:32 model . This works quite well if you use the edge of the sponge so you have a little control then dab it with a clean sponge to flatten out the effect.
After that i gave it a coat of Tamiya flat coat and then rubbed the masked areas with a cloth to remove the maskol and leave shiny areas of wear on the matt surface. Its a technique that needs a little refining but i will use it again with colours as the maskol gives a good random pattern and is more controllable than the Salt method. Now its got a clear coat on i will experiment with some pastels as they can be washed off between attempts to get the soot staining right