SPA Modeler

More please!

KSaarni wrote:

No one having a Heller, Revell, Academy, Matchbox in 1/72 in their stash, to show the sprues and join the unofficial 1/72 Spitfire group activity build !

- Kari

I can do you a Matchbox... (obviously)

- Kari

LyleW wrote:...crack open the box and have at it.

Yeah that's pretty much me

It's been really interesting seeing the differences between the three kits. The Airfix offering has some really poor surface detail in comparison, and excessively deep panel lines. I know EVERYBODY says that about their kits, but it's certainly true in this case.

I've never built a Spitfire either. May have to get mine out after I finish some other stuff.

You know you want too!

That I do. My wife has a big art festival that she's part of in the middle of November. It's an all weekend thing too. I'm going to paint up a couple of kits so that most of everything that I have to do is build them. The Spitfire was on that list.

Taco Tuesday. Listening to a song by a Madonna... “Like a Prayer?” on restaurant speakers. It is hotter than blazes. Above is a collage. Greatest hits based on last night’s investigations. Lyle, I find the more time I spend with the sprues at the beginning helps at the end, but the technique comes from my Dad who “processed” kits by taking all parts off their sprues, grouping the parts in baggies after meticulously cleaning them. Must be in the DNA or in being indoctrinated by him to his approach. The big black and white photos are the parts ready for silver base. Once I read about the Japanese fella who paints everything silver first the approach vector just clicked for me. Silver is merciless to paint and highlights every defect. Also above the sketch means I will have to drill out the remaining bit of platform for the landing gear leg to rest within the wing in its closed position.

A lot of great ideas come from Marius’s “Ancient Airfix” build, which features raised panel lines.



Here you can see what he did to create the wheel wells. Lots of plastic card! Kari, yes the plastic is smooth and very hard. It is not crumbly though, thankfully. Must have been good storage or just really really really lucky that this is so. Stuart, your Spitfire builds are enormously important. You are our resident Spitfire Doctor. I take it your review of the relatively new tool Airfix is something of a mixed bag. I would like to know more. Ultimately I am excited to be building... ain’t that the whole point? I posted this on the forum before, but I believe this anecdote about Rod Serling hits home to many of us:

My dad loved building model airplanes. He would sit at a wooden table and, although not very mechanically minded, assemble these tiny warplanes, gluing and painting them.

His brother remembered: “I was visiting Rod in California and [he] was building a replica of the Red Baron’s Fokker triplane. He couldn’t get the glue to hold on the top wing which kept flopping. Rod finally lost his patience, threw the model on the floor and stamped it into a few hundred pieces. ‘Rod,’ I asked, ‘why the hell do you build those things if you get so frustrated?’”

“I do it to relax,” he responded in perfect seriousness.

Anne Serling (Rod Serling’s daughter)

speedgraflex wrote:

Bruce, you are a Maestro in visualisation !

- Kari

Maestro to Maestro, Kari, I salute you with a silver based wing! PS if I recall correctly those are ammo chutes that ought to be drilled out.