Stripes! Well, some of them, anyway...

Nice, almost done. Keep up the good work.

I finished shooting the stripes and a coat of clear gloss last night. The stripes aren't bad, but they're not great either. They'll probably look a little better when I do some weathering and touchup prior to the final flat coat. For those of you who are doing this kit and thinking of painting the stripes, watch out for the little teardrop shaped fairing near the inboard end of the aileron. It's a bear to mask around.

Started on decals this morning. Most of the main ones are on. They're very thin, and even with an extra white patch under the wing roundels, you can still see the stripes through them. Fortunately, there aren't any roundels on the lower wing on this scheme. On the fuselage, I just shifted the roundel down a bit so the blue was just in line with the color separation, so I didn't have the problem there. Follow the directions when applying the underwing serial numbers to make sure you get the right pieces in the right places. They're cut out to fit around the gear well and there are sections to cover the gear doors as well. Walkway stripes were a pain in the empennage to get on - every one of them broke and had to be gently coaxed into place.

I have to ask - why in the world are the red centers of the roundels printed separately? You haven't lived until you've tried to center one of those things...

She'll sit now for a few days while I go back to work, then I'll see if I can't get her done by next week...

3 attached images. Click to enlarge.

Almost there Jaime,I have got to do the stripes on my Horsa glider,I'm not looking forward to it.
N.

Jaime , take a look at my two Seafires,look closely at the head on shots ,on the authentic FAA seafire the props went together fine and look great but look at the other one the fit was terrible so it's nothing you've done.

I had an interesting conversation about D Day stripes ,my mate Dave Foxall made the point that the vast majority of aircraft would have had the stripes painted on with only hours to spare so they would have been done hastily and would have looked it ,but the gliders were prepared well in advance and would probably have been very neat ,of course we'll never know for sure but I think it's a good argument and the way I will go with my G/B project.

Looking forward to seeing your Seafire .

N.

Guillermo and Paulo, thank you for the kind words, I appreciate it! It's been a difficult build, but it's near the end now, so all will be well. The Griffon engine Spitfires are my favorites, I just like the agressive look the bigger engine imparted to the airplane.

Neil, I've seen dozens of photos of ground crews brush painting invasion stripes, especially on the tactical aircraft - light and medium bombers and fighter bombers. Some stripes are better than others, but they are all different and impart a bit of personality to the various aircraft. My favorite is the P-38 below, whose stripes were obviously applied with the greatest of care and attention to alignment!

I never thought I'd get this far, but final assembly is in progress. She's still fighting me tooth and nail, though. Landing gear went on last night. The locating hole for the tailwheel was a bit too far forward, which required a little creative engineering to adjust. Main gear wouldn't go into the slots in the wings because of small extensions on the fore and aft sides of the struts. I ended up trimming them off, only to find that the locating holes in the wings were too big for the pins on the struts. Trying to get the struts to stay in place while the glue set almost resulted in the damn thing flying out the garage door again. Leave the strut covers off while doing this, it's easier. Don't ask me how I know.

At some point during the above process, I noticed that the letter "P" on the left side of the fin was gone. I know I put it on there, so I'm guessing it departed while I was handling the model before I shot the dullcoat on. I now have a semi-peeless Seafire. Would anyone happen to have an extra one lying around? I had full intentions of doing all the service stenciling until I noticed that there were twelve microscopic ones that were supposed to go on the prop spinner. Even I'm not that crazy, so I just added the major ones and left it at that.

At this point, the whole project came to a screeching halt for several hours when I noticed coolant dripping from underneath my truck.

Spent nearly an hour painting the wrong windscreen. Read the directions.

Neil, my friend, you have my greatest respect and admiration for having built two of these things. If I have a lapse of sanity and decide to try another one, please call and talk me out of it... 🙂

I'll post photos in the headlines section when she's done...