I’ve been obsessed with Spitfires lately and really wanted a die-cast or a plastic model, but since I’m a broke student who doesn't even get an allowance (couldn't really ask for money for hobbies since I f-ing suck at studying), I just made one myself using materials I had lying around. This is my 3rd project.
Total production time took about 4-5 days if I'm being generous. Finished it using only sandpaper, a utility knife, glue, and one brush. The main material is popsicle sticks.
Process starts below.
I cut and carved popsicle sticks I yoinked from the art room to get the basic shape. Making the big chunks first and then attaching the small parts... I don't have power tools like a Dremel, but a master shouldn't blame his tools, so one smooth-ass Daiso file, a sheet of 150-grit sandpaper, and a 500-won utility knife were enough. (I used every last drop of the 1/3 bottle of super glue I had left to pull this off.)
Since I don't have fancy stuff like putty, I melted some paper clay—also yoinked from the art room—in water and used it like putty. Because it's paper clay, it's weak and falls off easily, so I had to sand the surface and apply it in layers while pressing down. Once that's done, it looks like the photo above. In plastic model terms, it's in the 'dry fit' stage. Getting to this point took a bit over a day (working on it whenever I got home from school).
I used photos from Google to do the base painting for the camouflage, underside, and propeller. Since there's no way I'd have professional paints, I used the watercolors I've been using since 5th grade. Even when fully dry, the bottom layer bleeds through when you apply another color, so I had to overcoat it multiple times (I'm an idiot so the surface got a bit lumpy because of this). Since I only have that one tiny-ass brush, even the base coat took hours. (Real planes back then had high color variance anyway, so I just went for a similar vibe.)
Now for the hardest part: decals. If it were a plastic model, it would come with dry or wet transfer decals like stickers, but I don't have those, so I had to draw everything. I don't even have masking tape, so I just painted them directly and covered up the messy edges with the base color. For the roundels, if you're not confident in drawing circles, you can do what I did: use a ruler to lightly sketch the aspect ratio and then draw along it. While doing the decals, I also painted the yellow tips of the propeller, the exhaust, and the canopy. The antenna wire connected to the vertical stabilizer is made of my hair. (Failed a few times so I had to pull out quite a bit.)
Honestly, between the skill issue and the proportions being slightly off, I only did a little bit of weathering. I mixed dark brown + black + beige watercolors, thinned it out, and painted it while wiping some away.
"The community is blown away by the student's 'MacGyver' skills, especially the part where he sacrificed his own bed guard and 'borrowed' supplies from the art room to finish his masterpiece."
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