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Revell (née Matchbox) Spitfire 22- finished


BloorwestSiR

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I love the detail of Aires cockpits, they're real works of art and look very convincing, but they rarely fit well! I put one into a Bf110G4 but had to hack and thin it to within a breath of existence. I reckon you've got away lightly there Carl.....looking good.

Max

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Moulding techniques. The Matchbox Spit seemed to be broken up in such a way that they could get the kit into a limited sized set of moulds, while I suspect the Aires parts don't fit because they multiply up their original masters (which probably DID fit!!) as sub-master castings. There is ALWAYS some distortion in a casting , including some expansion depending on the resin and processing parameters, so copying a copy of a copy is very unlikely to result in an accurately dimensioned part.

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks Maru!

 

Here's what I mean by almost getting sucked into even more Spitfires.

 

IMG_20170102_200354.jpg

 

One thing that was missing from the Aires set was the crank to close the canopy. I scratched one up from styrene c channel, strip and rod.

 

IMG_20170102_201241.jpg

 

I also dry fitted the wings and fuselage together.

 

There are some gaps but they're manageable ones and everything seems to at least line up.

 

IMG_20170102_203234.jpg

 

IMG_20170102_203242.jpg

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Nice, Carl..you're gonna do anything to enhance the surface detail? Those panel lines look like craters and there's no rivet detail!

 

Thanks Shaka! At this point, I'm thinking I'll try to knock them down a bit but otherwise I'll just leave them alone. The amount of work needed to re-do them, I'd almost be better off starting with a Tamiya XVI kit and converting it instead. 

 

Great work so far...ignore those other Spitfires. :wicked:

 

Richard

 

 

Thanks Richard!. It might be hard to ignore them seeing that there, well, right there on my bench  :whistle:  :D

 

Funny thing is, I thought I had three Spitfires on the bench, but on closer inspection, it would seem I'm working on four.  :doh: 

 

This could get interesting...

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I guess the real reason the Aires cockpit doesn't fit is that it's not made for the Matchbox Mk. 22...  Having said that, Aires do not have the best reputation, and I wouldn't want to risk trashing a £100 Tamiya Spitfire by trying to fit that cockpit set - gorgeous as it may seem.

 

The boxart of the Matchbox kit made me want an 80 Sqn Spitfire Mk.24 really bad back then, but my ambitions exceeded my skills back then, and now I think I will settle for a 1:48 scale version.  Looking forward to seeing you improve this kit.

 

Jens

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