Spitfire Mk.Ia (Eduard 1/48) - In progress

Cockpit assembled and ready for installation into the fuselage. I have to admire Eduard's engineering, they really did a superb job out there, everything fits together like a Lego so far 🙂. 

All main kit parts glued together, only a minimal amount of putty and sanding was needed (which anyway, I think, was caused by a build error on my end..). 

Model got primed by Mr. Surfacer 1500, I fixed all minor errors I found after that and polished the whole surface. It also got a subtle marbling/preshading, ready for its livery now. 

Bottom surfaces finished in RAF "Sky". I'm using the AK Air Series acrylics (3rd gen) for the first time and so far the experience was "mixed" at first. But I finally figured it out, those paints are rather really thick out of the bottle and need a proper dilution (way more thinner is needed for airbrushing compared to the standard Tamiya or Gunze acrylics I am used to).

Also, I have a habit of diluting the paint directly in my airbrush cup, not the best idea for AK 3rd gen acrylics 🙁. You get a lot of clogging and other lovely problems if you do that... So, prepare your paint outside and fill the airbrush once you are certain you got the right mix. Also, I found out that a drop or two of Vallejo airbrush cleaner helps them not to dry fast on the nozzle/needle and will give you much longer work time on your model. When you lay thin layers of the paint on the model you will get a nice satin finish in the end (4 layers of paint on the picture) and you won't kill all of the preshading you did before.  

I searched the depths of the internet for some help with masking the upper surfaces of the Spitfire. All of the forums I visited recommended to go to the yolo.net website to get printer-ready Spitfire masks, but the site seems to be dead for quite a long time. Thankfully, we have the archive.org/"Wayback machine" and it saved the day 🙂. If anybody would be searching for the masks, go here --> web.archive.org/web/..plates/SpitTemp.html.

It's made ready to be printed in the 48th scale on a 8.5x11 inch paper, however it fits quite nicely the European standard A4 paper sheet as well. I tested it on the horizontal stabilizer to see if I have the scale right, it fits like a glove. 

Camo is finished, working on stencils and markings now. 

The Spit is nearing completion, I hope to get it finished tomorrow, next photo will show it hopefully on its own legs 🙂 

The Spit is finished, I'll be adding a proper gallery soon.