Author Topic: Spitfire mk VIII Sharkmouth (Read 1733 times)

Robomog · « **on:** July 03, 2022, 08:47:10 AM »

Hi all

Always had a plan to build a sharkmouth Spitfire but never had the excuse.

Here's the starting point

The decals from the kit are inaccurate, battered and suspect, but I have an Almark set which covers a couple of Austrailian examples so I'm going for it.

It's a pretty old tooling so there are a few sink marks to fill and I know the fit of the kit is not particularly good as I used this kit as the basis for a pink PR11i built last year, also the propeller is deformed so I have ordered a resin replacement.

A boring real world build but nonetheless it has a mouth !

More when it happens......

Mog
>^-.-^<

PS I have switched to Imgur for my photo hosting so the posted pictures may be a bit erratic, basically I've got fed up with Flickr moving the goalposts and trying to force me into paying for an account I can't afford.

Sport25ing · « **Reply #1 on:** July 03, 2022, 05:55:28 PM »

A OTL model - a excellent start

Old Wombat · « **Reply #2 on:** July 03, 2022, 06:07:41 PM »

From one of my posts in the Inspirations thread, 'Mog; these are from the squadron in question (the first one is worth a closer look, as you can see the shark mouth has been modified):

Robomog · « **Reply #3 on:** July 03, 2022, 06:41:45 PM »

Thanks OW

interesting set of pics the top one has two sets of eyes and the third has a completely different mouth (as you pointed out)

Gives me some possible variations, (tempted by the four eyes

)

Sport25ing :- please define OTL not familiar with that one (I'm not very good with TLA's

)

Mog
>^-.-^<

Sport25ing · « **Reply #4 on:** July 03, 2022, 07:23:52 PM »

Quote from: Robomog on July 03, 2022, 06:41:45 PM

Sport25ing :- please define OTL not familiar with that one (I'm not very good with TLA's )

OTL - Original Time Line
ATL - Alternative Time Line

Robomog · « **Reply #5 on:** July 04, 2022, 03:23:14 AM »

Thx all makes sense now

Mog
>^-.-^<

Robomog · « **Reply #6 on:** July 17, 2022, 08:57:12 PM »

Hi all

Progress on this was delayed because I contracted something that gave me a hacking cough that went straight to my chest, which meant i had very little sleep for around four days. just getting back into the saddle now.

Here's the story so far

There will be some filler involved but the fit of the wings is not bad, especially compared to the previous one I built lets hope the rest fits OK. There were a few sink holes i had to deal with also.

more when it happens......

Mog
>^-.-^<

Robomog · « **Reply #7 on:** July 25, 2022, 09:34:15 AM »

No pics at the moment but the first phase of construction. Is complete and the spitfire is ready for its primer coat.

Tamiya paint has let me down again testing two relatively new bottles of paint the dark grey refuses to finish matt despite repeated stirrings and the light grey is drying to a lovely gloss which is also useless.

I have ordered the Hataka RAF colour set to see how those colours come out, I have used hataka colours before and was pleased with the results.

More when it happens......

Mog
>^-.-^<

Robomog · « **Reply #8 on:** July 31, 2022, 07:14:14 AM »

Hi all

The spitfire is in the paintshop now and the Hataka paint has arrived so I have got the first couple of coats on.

I'm impressed with this paint, it is described as formulated for brushes and it does just that with very little streaking, which Incidentally disappears in natural light .....curious.

I'm interested to see how the dark green go's on top of the grey.

Thanks for looking.......

Mog
>^-.-^<

Aeroplanedriver · « **Reply #9 on:** August 01, 2022, 01:13:26 PM »

That really went on beautifully. I like Hataka acrylics a lot.

Robomog · « **Reply #10 on:** August 02, 2022, 07:36:03 AM »

Hi all

The green is not going on so well, probably because its more fiddly than blanket colours.

After two coats It is showing a lot of streaks and cannot decide wheather it is matt or semi gloss.

It could be user error, i'll try thinning it a bit and add some retarder

Mog
>^-.-^<

Robomog · « **Reply #11 on:** August 07, 2022, 10:10:32 PM »

Hi all

Had some interesting results with the Hataka paints, thinning it Little bit (and i mean a little) with water is ok but it didnt make an appreciable difference to the finish, it is also quite at home with Tamiya thinners.

A drop of Tamiya retarder did work but it had some kind of reaction which caused gritty bits to form in the mix.

ISO is a no-no that turned the mix into a sludge !

So in conclusion, I haven't yet found my holy grail paint that works every time, but this one comes close, it is a lot more robust than vallejo and revell paints which damage easily, it is more consistent than Tamiya with the added bonus of the correct colours.

I will be using Hataka paints a lot more in the future.

Here's the story so far:-

The top is done and I have masked it off for the first coat of light grey .

Will be getting on to the decals soon, just discovered that the Altmark decals have a continuous film over the whole sheet. That's gonna make it easy to cut out the small stencils ...... not !

More when it happens ..........

Mog
>^-.-^<

Robomog · « **Reply #12 on:** August 24, 2022, 08:59:54 AM »

Hi all.

The Spitfire is finished.

Had a bit of a mare finalising the painting. The Altmark decals were very glossy and didn't look, right on the dull Hataka finish so I decided to give the Spitfire a coat of rattlecan matt varnish.

Before that I ran some tests to see if Humbrol acrylic worked OK with the Hataka paint and the test pieces worked fine.

Spraying the final object was a disaster, the varnish reacted badly with the ocean grey which crazed badly and went white in places. The upper surfaces fared a lot better but the finish was still a little 'snowy'.

Fortunately after walking away from it for twenty four hours the crazing disappeared much like a decal treated with Microsol, the patchy grey remained but was in the range of 'acceptable ' .

So here is the finished article