{"id":6533,"date":"2015-01-13T19:53:52","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T17:53:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/?p=6533"},"modified":"2019-08-03T17:25:06","modified_gmt":"2019-08-03T15:25:06","slug":"supermarine-spitfire-fr-mk-ixc-eduard-1144-dual-combo-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/?p=6533","title":{"rendered":"Supermarine Spitfire FR Mk. IXc, eduard, 1\/144 Dual combo"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Spitfire FR Mk. IXc<\/span><\/h1>\n

by\u00a0Marcel Meres<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_8255_vyrez_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I decided to build a<\/span>nother Spitfire\u00a0<\/span>model kit from the eduard midget 1\/144 scale family, this time in the FR version. The\u00a0inspiration came from\u00a0Spitfire Recce Fighters<\/strong> decals No. 44014 made by the Czech producer<\/span>\u00a0JBr Decals<\/a>. These decals cover two machines\u00a0–\u00a0both from\u00a0the famous\u00a0Spitfires of No.\u00a016 Squadron RAF. Finally the MK716 (red) “X” was chosen for my project.<\/p>\n

\u00a01\/\u00a0Modifications\u00a0made<\/span><\/h2>\n

Camera Window
\n<\/span><\/strong>Since\u00a0it is a\u00a0fighter-recon airplane,\u00a0the original eduard Mk. IXc\u00a0<\/span>kit needs one slight modification – adding the camera window into the port (left hand) side of the fuselage. The window\u00a0was placed beside the cockpit in the radio compartment door. As one can read in\u00a0the decal instructions, an F.24 camera was installed in this area while the radio was moved closer to the pilot.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Picture from the JBr Decals instruction sheet, where you can find the modification into the FR variant.<\/em><\/p>\n

Decal producer suggests to carefully drill a hole into the radio compartment door and to create a “glass” inside the drilled hole inserting clear plastic, a piece of foil or using \u00a0ClearFix. I tried some less invasive method to avoid drilling \ud83d\ude00 . A small gray roundel from the box with old spare decals was my way. I was looking for the needed diameter which was calculated according to the photograph of a real machine but downscaled (into 1\/144 scale). The needed decal was finally found. This search might have taken the same time as the drilling plus creating a clear insert would take. Also, there was no need to solve any \u00a0problems with the opening in the RAF cocarde. The cocarde partly covers the door with the window inside and there is no cocarde on the decal sheet with the needed opening for the camera window. Thus you would have to try to make a small opening into a very thin decal film. Definitely nothing for me.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_8212_vyrez_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Pitot tube &\u00a0rear mirror
\n<\/span><\/strong>I\u00a0tried to enhance the\u00a0kit adding a\u00a0homemade rear mirror and Pitot tube like with the previous SUPER44 Spitfires<\/span>. Relevant\u00a0notes can be found in this\u00a0older post<\/a>.
\n<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

\u00a02\/ Decals<\/span><\/h2>\n

As mentioned earlier, t<\/span>he chosen\u00a0<\/span>decal version was<\/span>\u00a0FR Mk. IXc MK716 “X”,\u00a0Balleroy (A.12) France, from\u00a0Septemer 1944<\/span>. The decal sheet contains the fuselage and upper wing\u00a0RAF cocardes, fuselage red X letters\u00a0and tail RAF tricolor with number. To tell the truth I would be pleased by finding the b\/w invasion stripes\u00a0and a nose\u00a0letter X on\u00a0the decal\u00a0sheet too – this Spitfire wears\u00a0a\u00a0tiny red X placed on the lower side of the cowling just behind the propeller spinner:<\/p>\n

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You will only realize how small the red X letter is when you try to create\u00a0it\u00a0– the decal sheet does not contain it.<\/em><\/p>\n

My\u00a0mini-X letter was cut out from a piece of a red decal as\u00a0two tiny\u00a0bands. These bands\u00a0were applied\u00a0crossed one-over-another\u00a0<\/span>in appropriate angle and place. It all went better than it sounds now \ud83d\ude00 .
\nGenerally it can be said\u00a0that JBr Decals have pleasantly\u00a0fine and thin film with perfect surface adaptation abbility.\u00a0Mr. Mark Setter and Mark Softer were used for even better effect. Decals sat perfectly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"IMG_8261_vyrez_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

3\/\u00a0Colour and painting<\/span><\/h2>\n

The right\u00a0“pink” selection<\/span>
\n<\/strong>Reading the decal instructions, one can find a\u00a0short consideration about the pink<\/em> camouflage colour applied onto the fighter-recon Spitfires from No. 16 Squadron operating in low altitudes – how this colour may look like and how to mix the right pink<\/em>\u00a0for your kit. The whole thing is a bit more\u00a0complicated in this midget\u00a0scale since\u00a0every colour has to be lightened according to\u00a0the scale. For instance, the black invasion stripes (or propeller black) have to be lightened\u00a0into dk. grey. The\u00a0question is what\u00a0should the light pink<\/em> colour look like in your\u00a0(1\/144) scale\u00a0if the real camouflage colour (in 1\/1 scale) is described as a very light shade of pinkish colour close to off-white<\/span>. In the end,\u00a0I tried to mix only few drops of Mr. Color 327<\/span>\u00a0red colour into the\u00a0off-white\u00a069.<\/span>
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"IMG_8210_vyrez_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0It turns out that the “pink” camo colour is easy\u00a0<\/em>neither\u00a0<\/em>to be mixed nor photographed.<\/em><\/p>\n

Invasion stripes
\n<\/b><\/span>According to the decal instructions the remains of the invasion stripes on the lower wing surfaces bleed\u00a0through the light pinkish coat. Old b\/w photographs of the real plane\u00a0confirmed this fact to me. I\u00a0only\u00a0left the black stripes to bleed\u00a0because the white stripes should be obscured\u00a0completely by the upper\u00a0pink <\/em>layer.\u00a0Using\u00a0highly diluted gray colour I<\/span>\u00a0airbrushed the\u00a0<\/span>stripes onto the masked out pink<\/em> wings. Very thin film of dk. g<\/span>ray colour was sprayed unevenly in several layers<\/span>. After removing the masking tape the pink<\/em> base colour was used to suppress the stripes in some places while\u00a0the gray colour was used to enhance the stripes where needed. To save time,<\/span>\u00a0Post-it sticky notes were used instead of\u00a0\u00a0masking tape.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8248_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The fuselage invasion stripes were sprayed using dark gray onto the white base. There was a problem\u00a0to keep equal distace between the masking tape stripes\u00a0and to allign all of the stripes\u00a0accurately – especially in those areas where the wing trailing edge meets the fuselage. Even\u00a0minimal displacement looks intolerably bad. You can use this\u00a0trick: Precisely cut out stripes\u00a0of masking tape can be applied onto those places where the colour will\u00a0be applied too – i.e. not 3, but all 5 bars are placed side-by-side. Thus the masking stripes\u00a0hold precise\u00a0distances and allignement too. After placing all 5 bars, those two of them representing the black colour are\u00a0removed. The whole erea around is\u00a0masked-out subsequently. The black stripes can be airbrushed then.<\/p>\n

\u00a04\/ Weathering and\u00a0patina<\/span><\/h2>\n

The degree of weathering\u00a0used on the model kit is a matter of the modeler’s liking and of historical reality – a\u00a0new machine can always be imitated. However, you may like to build an\u00a0operational machine used in field conditions. Everything\u00a0depends on whether your particular machine got enough service time to be weathered or if it would have been damaged earlier.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8244_1200\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have found this plane\u00a0on\u00a0the photograph nearly as clean\u00a0as freshly\u00a0painted<\/span>. The second\u00a0machine from the decal sheet (MK915 white “V”) and more\u00a0planes from No. 16 Squadron were photographed\u00a0much more\u00a0weathered. I like a patinated finish so I decided for\u00a0a\u00a0small mystification:\u00a0I\u00a0used the same patina also on my<\/em>\u00a0red “X” – even though I do not know if it\u00a0survived long enough…<\/span><\/p>\n

If you enjoyed this post, I\u2019d be very grateful if you\u2019d help it spread by\u00a0sharing it on Facebook<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

For more finished model-kits please see the\u00a0Built Kits<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0category.
\nModels, Images and Text Copyright \u00a9 2014 by Marcel Meres.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Spitfire FR Mk. IXc by\u00a0Marcel Meres<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[6,22,3,1],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3opQF-1Hn","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6533"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6533"}],"version-history":[{"count":33,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9028,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6533\/revisions\/9028"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/modeltalking.hobbyart.sk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}