Model Geeks Podcast

Making good progress on the Hasegawa 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Vb with the “Aboukir Filter”

Making good progress on the Hasegawa 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Vb with the “Aboukir Filter”

Hey Geeks!  I hope you all are doing well.  I had every intention of finishing the Mk.Vb for March Madness, but sometimes life just won’t allow it.  Oh well, just have to push through, stay positive, and keep modeling.

This kit has been mostly OOB, with just seatbelts from Eduard that I added.  The kit cockpit was awesome and didn’t need much.  Just some careful painting and weathering was all.  Once the cockpit was completed, the build progressed quickly to the panting stage.  I had to repair a few raised panel lines before I could begin painting, but it was easy enough.

I started painting with a foundational weathering layer (aka: pre-shade) which really is a lot of fun.  I went pretty heavy, because I wanted the pre-shade to just barely show through once the base layer was sprayed.  Once that was finished, I sprayed a thin base coat (70% Thinner, 30% Paint) starting with the underside.  The Azure Blue was custom mixed Tamiya Acrylic paint.  I’m super happy with the shade; not too much purple, not too blue… just right.  After the base, I shaded and faded the paint and applied some extensive weathering; all with the airbrush.  The top camo colors were Gunze Aqueous Middle Stone H-71 and Dark Earth H-72.  Similar process to the top, as the bottom.  All paints were thinned with Tamiya X20A with just a touch of MLT, sprayed at about 15 psi through an Iwata Neo airbrush.  I’ll tell ya, I have airbrushes that are over $400 and this Iwata Neo sprays damn near as good.  And for $40 at Hobby Lobby, everybody should have one.  It’s a great workhorse airbrush.

Anyhoo, I’m just about ready to start painting the markings.  Hopefully I’ll have her done for the Northern Virginia IPMS show at Fairfax HS in April.  Thanks for looking and hope to see you all at the next show!

-Nemo

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Nemo

2 responses to “Making good progress on the Hasegawa 1/32 Spitfire Mk.Vb with the “Aboukir Filter””

  1. Richard Acosta Avatar
    Richard Acosta

    Beautiful work Scott! Can you explain a bit more about what you mean by “shading” and “fading” and how you did that. Also, did you use and of the AK real Color paint markers to make the cockpit job easier?

    Reply
  2. Scott Samo Avatar
    Scott Samo

    Hi Rick, thanks for the questions. It all started with the underlying pre-shade which provided the foundational layer for weathering. Shading/fading was done after the base colors were sprayed on. I mixed the base color with just a small amount of a lighter color, then I sprayed the lighter color in areas that were subject to the sun, which faded the paint. If you look at the Spitfire pics, you can see the lighter shades in the center of the panels. Sometimes I’ll randomly mask and paint smaller panels just to add some visual interest. Once the lighter fading/shading color was sprayed, I sprayed a very thin (80% Thinner 20% paint) Tamiya Black/Brown Acrylic mix in areas that accumulated dirt, grime, etc. such as wing roots and underside centerline fuselage areas. Post shading/fading and weathering really helps provide a deeper finish, which for me, is much more visually appealing.

    As for the AK Markers… no, I used the old tried and true dry brushing technique. Its just so much fun to do and yields a nice blended look. I haven’t used the markers yet, but I hear they are great.

    Hope that makes sense Rick, and thanks again for the questions.

    Reply

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