Model Kits

Hey, I've been getting back into model kits and given some of the tools and techniques you use can be carried over to doing Plarail and Tomy customs, I thought I'd start a thread showing what I'm working on at the moment however if anyone else builds model kits they are welcome to join in too.

My first ever model kit I had when I was about 7, an Italeri Spitfire Vb/trop in 1/72 scale, though the first I ever actually built was a Revell 1/144 F-16. Because the Spitfire was the first I had, I wanted to build another one now, 11 years later, to see how much better I could do and also to get me started back into the hobby because it couldn't hurt to learn some painting and scratchbuilding stuff for model railways.

There is 11 years worth of dust on that and yet I still have the box, sprues and decals.


I bought a brass cockpit etch for the kit too so I could have all those beautiful tiny details but looking back it was a poor choice as you can barely see inside without any of the glass.

Here are some pics.




The paint lifted a bit when I tried to apply a wash over the top of everything, even with a clear on top. This is because the only greens I had were enamel and even then I had to mix that shade myself.

Not visible in this pic but to act as glass, I spread some clear gloss over the back of the openings which gave a thin clear film.

Fuselage halves and wings assembled.

Painting a pale blue underneath as this is what I've heard the tropical spitfires were painted in. Varying accounts yield various shades and paint brands so I mixed this myself using acrylics. They spray much better than enamels, I find.

Same green as the cockpit.




And that's where I'm at so far. I have a lot of smaller parts painted already but I don't have pics of them in decent lighting.

So I'll keep updating this thread with my progress and I hope everyone else joins in with their model kit projects too!

- Tree