Gear looks pretty good Louis ! Nicely done!
Not always an easy thing on Spitfires!

Thanks gentlemen for the kind words on these planes. It's definitely been a fun adventure and I still can't believe how much I have learned about the Spitfires during this trip.

Pedro I use Tamiya X-21 from a bottle.

It's called "Flat Base" and is for use with Acrylics only.

It has to be mixed up very well or you will get a bunch of tiny little white specs all over the finish and that will destroy all of your hard work.

You can not use this stuff straight from the bottle. If you do your headed for a disaster.

What I do is I mix it with Future clear acrylic floor sealer. I use about 70 percent Future and 30 percent Tamiya X-21. You can experiment with the ratio but this works well for me.

Now that you have mixed up the X-21 into the Future, it needs to be thinned out for spraying.

I use it thinned out with regular medical use rubbing alcohol.

I mix it up at a 50 /50 ratio. You can add more alcohol and it will dry faster and spray easier. Do some experimenting and see what works best for you.

I spray it on the model in numerous thin layers. I allow it to flash dry between coats. It dried very fast. You can even "blow dry" it using your air brush to simply blow air onto the surfaces. You will see it dry right before your eyes.

If you want it to look more flat instead of shiny, keep adding more layers and before you know it, you will get the look you're after.

If you're going for a more "flat" looking finish then you can add a little more of the Tamiya X-21 into the future. I would really add too much because it seems to work better with less.

This is something that you can experiment with to see what you like best.

One minor drawback is that on occasion it can give your model a slightly off white look at certain angles. But it's really not very noticeable and I think that it gives your model a more scale effect that lightens up the colors just a little.

Hope this helps ...

This WIP - has been the bedrock of the GB, Louis. I can only guess at how big an effort this has been. With each post more education occurs and the Spitfires keeping looking better and better. Like so many I really want to see your final photo of them all together. I have been banging on about it for months - really exciting!

Your welcome Pedro. I hope you can use this successfully. Painting this mixture on a black surface could be a little tricky. It tends to lighten the colors up a little. I would highly recommend trying it on a test panel first before I used it on the BP Defiant.

This final photo with all of the Spitfires on one picture is going to take some creativity... and a lot of space !

This is quite the interesting WIP, Louis! Like was mentioned previously, I AM learning here. I'm sure others are, too.

Your Spitfires look VERY good. I have questions I'll ask "in person," however - I don't want to monopolize this thread. (As much "in person" as a phone call can be. LoL!)

Between postings of several of my 1930's decade builds in the headlines section, I managed to finish up the decals on the 222 Squadron Spitfire.

The walkway decals were added...as was the "Gas detection panel". That's the yellow looking square on top of the Port side wing.

All of the various stencils were added too. Now this one will sit overnight and possibly tomorrow it will get a clear coat using the Tamiya "Flat Base".

Next on deck is Alan Deere's "KIWI II" "KL*B"

as usual,
Comments are encouraged.

Thanks

Thanks Allan.

From what I have read, the gas detection panel was applied to various aircraft during this time frame. During this period in the War, it was believed that the Germans were going to be using chemical weapons over the U.K.

So these panels were used as an early detection method.

They're supposed to change colors when exposed to gas.