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Tamiya Spitfire Mk IX Kicked Up A Notch: Last Post


chuck540z3

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'I have metal hose clamps'

You and me both.  I bought a set for the Mustang after being turned on to them thru Wolfs Spitfire thread.  The thought of trying to manipulate them into place and the extra time it would involve wore me out, so I went with decals.

 

Love your work.

 

Sincerely,

Mark

 

 

I used Wolf's "Model Car Garage" hose clamps on my Mustang build a few years ago and I will definitely do so again.  They look great!....

 

US8BV7.jpg

 

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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Thanks for the tips and tricks guys.

 

I'm on the home stretch for completion of the cockpit.  What a LOT of work, but also very rewarding at the same time.  For instance, I spent 4 hours alone putting together the seat belts and surprisingly, I used the HGW belts over the RB Productions version, because I think they are better and easier to work with, so I will show you why later.  Putting together the cockpit along with the Barracuda resin was like building a watch, with everything precise and everything fit.  What a nice change from my Trumpeter builds!  Give me a few more days and I think you'll be happy with what I have accomplished so far.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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January 20/18

 

Enough is enough, I'm calling this cockpit DONE!  As mentioned above, it has been both a chore and joy to build with so many parts that actually fit together.  With so many fantastic 1/32 Tamiya Spitfires out there, I wanted to do a good job and at least be “in the pack†for skill of execution.  It's no “Buddee†effort, but I learned a lot from following Wolf's build and the pics he supplied me with were indispensable, so thank you again Wolf!

 

First the seatbelts.  I had already ordered the HGW harnesses, but at the beginning of this thread many recommended the RB Productions belts instead, so I bought a set.  Here they are side by side, but the HGW set also has “wet transfer†stencils and a windscreen and canopy masking set for BOTH the inside and the outside of the clear parts.  I've heard mixed review of these type of decals so I'm not sure if I'll use them over the crappy Tamiya ones, but I will definitely use the masks.

 

 

ODu4Iu.jpg

 

 

Other than the extra parts, the HGW belts are microfabric, which I've used before on my P-51D and P-38L build with pretty good success.  The RB harnesses are made from paper and they need a lot more assembly, just to get them to where the HGW belts start.  Further, and this was the killer for me, the instructions for the RB belts do not recommend using CA glue because it will stain them and they recommend using a water based glue like Gator Glue.  Gator Glue works fine, if you've got all day to hold the parts together, but the HGW belts react to CA glue very well and you can use heavy doses of CA Debonder on them without staining or harming the fabric.  The RB belts do have some extra brass parts, like the circular grommets on both the lap and shoulder harnesses, but to my eye when assembled, they look to be too large for scale.  Game, set and match for the HGW belts, even though they do have a few flaws.

 

 

The Barracuda resin seat includes a leather backrest which has some interesting wear on it to make it look very realistic when painted.  For the Paxolin composite seat, Model Master Enamel “Rust†applied over the gloss black I applied to all cockpit parts turned out to be quite realistic for color.

 

 

r2BM2q.jpg

 

 

Assembly of these tiny seat belts takes forever and requires a lot of patience, but when done, they can look very realistic.  The one flaw that I could see with these belts is that the “Y†of the shoulder harnesses is too short, so the single join is threaded through the back of the seat rather than both shoulder belts.  No biggy, I still like them.

 

 

 

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With lots of detailed work, scratch building and painting, the front office looks pretty good, especially the instrument panel.  Painting the rims of a few of the gauges was very difficult, but I managed to pull it off without making a mess.  Note that the two central gauges are Barracuda replacement decals, because the kit ones are wrong.

 

 

 

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The sidewalls, using many Barracuda resin parts and decals, were no less challenging.  While the decals are very clear and very thin, they are almost impossible to move after application, which I also found on my Mustang build when I ruined several and had to buy more.  Using extra water and trying to be quick, most of the decals were applied successfully, but thankfully I had plenty of Airscale replacements for the odd screw up.  The Airscale decals are terrific and you can move them all over the place before committing to a location.

 

A weathering wash was applied, but I took it easy, because I didn't want to mess up such finely crafted parts too much.  Also, as I indicated earlier, the colors and instrument configurations are from references, but many of the references conflict with each other, so I often went with what I liked the most instead.  Those green decal bands on the oxygen and air bottles looks really off for color, but to the naked eye, they look much closer to the interior green, especially when they are parked inside of the fuselage.

 

 

hx3tam.jpg

 

 

One big difficulty with the scratch wiring and hydraulic lines was that they threaded through both the cockpit cage and the sidewalls, so you had to do a lot of dry fitting and plan ahead to get everything to fit.

 

 

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When assembled, everything comes together in very interesting chaos, just like the real deal.

 

 

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Edited by chuck540z3
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That is a nice cockpit.  Good job, Chuck.

 

'Note that the two central gauges are Barracuda replacement decals, because the kit ones are wrong.'

What does the Tamiya represent, and what does the Barracuda represent?

 

hx3tam.jpg

I groove on that little silver fastened leather wire tie-down.

 

3nF9fx.jpg

What does the P.E. handle in the foreground represent?

 

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Mark

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