First model I’ve made in 40+ years (well…maybe the second but who’s counting)

About Dec 2018 I started watching Phil Flory videos and figured it would be a good time to start modeling again. I haven't done so in at least 40 years (several models between 1979 and now but only two or three) and I've never used an airbrush. I spent about $1,000 to get started and figured I'd start with the 1/32 Tamiya Mosquito. After getting my new tools in and starting to work the kit (plus some Brassin parts) I quickly figured out I was in over my head...WAY over. So I did the next best thing and bought a "starter" model...the 1/48 Tamiya Spitfire MK1. I watched 40-50 hours worth of video builds and how-to's. I used mostly Tamiya paints and products w/Flory washes, an Iwata HP-CS airbrush and a California Air Tools compressor (I also have some Vallejo paints): Here's some of the progression.

I had never used weathering washes, or pin washes or anything other than Testors paint with Testors brushes and Testors glue. I had never sprayed on a “gloss” coat or “flat” coat…I didn’t know people sanded down their tires to make the model look heavier in dirt/sand…i was as virginal in this new hobby as you could get.

That said…

I was decent w/brush and could draw reasonably well and my work as a video level designer taught me skills I felt would translate here…and I was patient and devoured hours and hours of YouTube video’s from Flory, to Plasmo, to Doog, etc…and they were so good at explaining things it wasn’t that hard to apply them.

The work you see here was my very first, ever, use of an airbrush…the interior green of the Spitfire was my first applied paint using an airbrush on a model I was going to build.

April 2d, 2019

You have to start somewhere

First time I ever used panel liner…i really had no idea what I was doing

Everything I did on this model was, more or less, a first for me outside of gluing parts together…and even that was new here in the how department.

First airbrush use
First Panel Liner Use
First thin glue use
First PE use (Yahu instrument panel)
First primer use
First decal solution use
First oil-wash use
First Flory Wash use
and so on…literally everything a modern model maker does…I did for the first time on this model

Here’s the sequence and progression of painting the entire airplane…at one point, I peeled off large sections of paint and primer (I didn’t wash the model down w/alcohol)