Supermarine Spitfire by Tim Moore - FINISHED - Guillow’s 403 - 1/16 kit, built as display model

[Paul Oberle]

Tim,

Thanks for posting these pics and also your construction tips.  Very helpful.

[mtaylor]

Paul, I suggest you open your own log on your build.  You'll meet other builders and also be able to get help as needed.

[Paul Oberle]

Thank you for the suggestion, Mark.  As you might guess, I'm a newbie.  Just stumbled on this site a few days ago.  I'll try to get myself oriented.

[Old Collingwood]

11 minutes ago, Paul Oberle said:

Thank you for the suggestion, Mark.  As you might guess, I'm a newbie.  Just stumbled on this site a few days ago.  I'll try to get myself oriented.

Just to  back up what  Mark  said  - would be cool  to  see  your  build log.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

back in the early days of model kits,  there were companies that produced all wood model planes.  during war time,  Guillow's and Comet even resorted to the use of card stock.  Strombecker was another.

[Egilman]

2 hours ago, Paul Oberle said:

Just stumbled on this site a few days ago.  I'll try to get myself oriented.

Any questions just ask away, that's what we are here for, to help.... Best modeling site on the net bar none...

[Slowhand]

A question for Tim, which I  forgot to ask when thread was previously alive was when I tried doing similar with a Guillow's Hurricane I found getting a finish on the in-filled wood incredibly frustrating. Applied a filler and sanded and found the finish was mostly good except for a few areas where filler broke away. So filled these and sanded again then another rough area had appeared and so on. One step forward and one step back. Being in Uk, filler was not exactly the same as yours but tried at least two and same problems. Eventually accepted would not get a prefect finish.

[Tim Moore]

4 hours ago, Slowhand said:

A question for Tim, which I  forgot to ask when thread was previously alive was when I tried doing similar with a Guillow's Hurricane I found getting a finish on the in-filled wood incredibly frustrating. Applied a filler and sanded and found the finish was mostly good except for a few areas where filler broke away. So filled these and sanded again then another rough area had appeared and so on. One step forward and one step back. Being in Uk, filler was not exactly the same as yours but tried at least two and same problems. Eventually accepted would not get a prefect finish.

Before airbrushing, I brushed on a thin coat of wood filler and water on the whole body, sanded with 400 paper, then used a rattle can to spray on a white latex primer. The final paint finish turned out pretty well with that prep.

Tim

[Slowhand]

Tim thanks, I must have been expecting the filler to do too much. You’ve probably seen David Duckett’s models,  your Spitfire is as good. 

[Guest]

Hi @Tim Moore, I was so impressed with what you did on your Guillows spitfire that i've followed your implementation with the paneling! The wings were tough to do, but I'm there. I've also carved out of balsa block the nose and spinner with a view to do away with as many of the plastic parts as possible. 

 

I've signed up specifically to ask you a question please... the coating you applied to the model in order to do a final sand, you wrote 'a latex filler watered down' in order to sand it like a clay model? What is this exact product please?? I'm struggling to find anything on the market to do this as I aim to do the exact same as you to give the model a fantastic pre-paint finish just like you did. Any advice around this, and, in addition, your paint process would be most helpful. 

 

Thank you in advance!

Edited October 24, 2023 by petelakeland

[Tim Moore]

Hi Pete, great looking job! 
I simply used Elmers pro bond wood filler from my local hardware store, applied first with a palette knife for rougher areas where I needed some fill, rough sanded, then more filler thinned out with water and painted on broadly with a wide hobby brush to blend everything together.  After very light final sanding I applied a spray can primer over the whole model. The grey primer I used is pretty thick which gave me a good base for final airbrushing.

Tim

[Guest]

Thank you, Tim. Really helpful. I've gone right ahead and ordered some Elmer's. Really appreciate the painting advice, I'll be hard pushed to get a finish as good as yours but here's hoping. Best wishes. 

[Gforcepdx]

I came here curious about the use of balsa sheet on a tissue kit. I'm building ww1 kits and gliders at the moment where tissue and or monokote looks correct but could never get past tissue skins over the advanced lines of ww2 aircraft. It just looks wrong to me. This balsa skin looks much better but I've got basic questions like getting flat sheets to conform over curved surfaces. Never tried it. Difficult or am i overthinking it?

[mtaylor]

I'm assuming these are "flying" models?   The issue with them was weight and wood skins would have created their own set of problems.   For WWI models, generally they were fabric covered so silkspan gives a more "correct" look.