A very special Spitfire build, another Kotare Spitfire Mk1a (late)

[BarryW]

A quick follow up

I didn't need to challenge the sky band in the illustration, but I did. Here is a screenshot of its response. The key part anyway. It goes on to summarise the rest.

So as you can see caution always needed with AI. Even then it wrongly said the illustration was wrong. The illustration of the aircraft the picture was right, the text in the picture wrong, while the text description was right on this point. It can be confusing. As I said caution is important.

 

[BarryW]

I have masked and sprayed Dark Earth.

First stage was to stop just before I was happy with the contrast with the black preshaded areas .

Next I mixed some RAF Light Earth with the little bit of Dark Earth in the cup. I then added a little Mr Levelling thinner and sprayed lightly on areas that catch the light in the first instance. The spine of the aircraft, nose and the curve on the front of the wings in particular. I also sprayed the inside of panels but this is less important to the overall effect. One other thing. The fabric control surfaces I want to be very slightly lighter so I also sprayed them

The picture above shows the result after this bit it's still not finished as there is slightly more contrast than I want. This is easily corrected with the final stage.

I cleaned out the cup and went back to unadulterated Dark Earth but mixed with about a 20% Mr Levelling Thinner.

I then did several mist coats, between each I paused a couple of minutes to let it dry and checked the contrast. The contrast very gradually reduces.

I ended up with this

Time for a break. I am leaving this for an hour for lunch before returning to the bench to check it over and to decide if it needs more work. I am not sure just yet.

 

[Ron2]

Perhaps it's time I talked about research.

I find research to be a rewarding and interesting part of the hobby and I do research on my next build before I finish the one before.

I have always used a variety of sources and sometimes it might be to see photos of an aircraft I want to build, sometimes it's also to find an alternative scheme and aftermarket decals. Sometimes to check details or to add detail and often it's a mix of these.

For this specific aircraft it is a mix of these and for the first time I used Chat GPT AI as part of my research process.

I found the AI should be considered akin to that lazy teenager you might employ to do research. It is prone to provide the first answer it finds so you need to challenge it. In many ways you need to know your subject or, at least, have additional sources when using AI. If I simply accepted the first answer it provided the model would look very different.

Aircraft code - unknown, correct answer being R.

Spinner black - correct answer Red

No red lining to shell ejection ports - correct answer they were red

No IFF wires - correct answer yes, needed

B camo scheme- needs to be an A scheme. I erroneously mentioned the B scheme myself in my 'preview' post.

Only through challenging the AI did it dig deeper to produce a more accurate answer and it is so satisfying when it apologises, yes the AI apologises for getting things wrong….

In the end I got it to summarise the key details with a picture as attached

Ignore the awful depiction of a Spitfire, it really jars, it the text that's important.

View attachment 198130

Note that the drawing suggests sky fuselage band (without illustrating it, we all know the illustration is correct in this not the text) and points to the fuselage when referring to red gun patches!! It's odd that the written text description actually said the sky band doesn't apply, something I think we all know anyway.

Regardless of what I said, AI is a useful research tool to use but you really need to challenge it and have some basic subject knowledge and alternative sources to help. Always be wary of what AI tells you or illustrates. It's not that intelligent.

I've posted similar. Some of my "chats" are pretty funny. AI replies to my query and then I'm replying "No, that's incorrect" the. It comes back with another incorrect answer and so we go until it finally produces an answer I believe is correct or I get frustrated and do some googling. I've also had it tell me my model will look better "once you…" and then I reply back " I already did that" "oh, I just noticed you did do that- and what an excellent job you did!"what I find annoying is AI is so ingratiating and tries to present itself as human, I.e "whenever I airbrush the color black" and I reply "You don't airbrush, you're a program." I had a patient tell me he had fallen in love with his AI and how wonderful and understanding it was. Oi!

 

[BarryW]

I spent the whole afternoon masking up to do camo and don't have time left to spray it today. I should do this tomorrow though.

For this one I decided to use Tamiya tape for curves with the DE areas filled in with ordinary masking tape.

I have three ways that use to mask this camo, as above or white tac snakes or Panzer Putty. Which I use depends on my mood!!

Worth saying that the AI picture was useless for this. So I simply 'mirrored' the B scheme of the instructions.

 

[Edbert]

I've posted similar. Some of my "chats" are pretty funny.

I use AI almost every day at work, it is pretty ridiculous at times. Other than (what tech people call) "hallucinations" I get a chuckle when the AI tries to flatter you.

Also, Google still has the same interface as it it did, but there is AI behind all searches, be ware of that. AI has been caught reading what another AI said and spreading lies as gospel all the time.

 

[Ron2]

I use AI almost every day at work, it is pretty ridiculous at times. Other than (what tech people call) "hallucinations" I get a chuckle when the AI tries to flatter you.

Also, Google still has the same interface as it it did, but there is AI behind all searches, be ware of that. AI has been caught reading what another AI said and spreading lies as gospel all the time.

Yeah I've wondered how AI decides what is fact and what is fiction. It would be interesting to know how it filters information.