Jump to content

Revell Seafire Mk 1B


Recommended Posts

Well if there is one thing that will get me fired up to get back into aircraft kit building it's doing something to honour Edgar. Edgar answered a number of questions when I was a little more active in this scene a few years back and not only regarding the Spitfire but on other aircraft types too. Always helpful, always courteous and always came up with the goods.

 

My choice of aircraft is the Revell Mk1B Seafire and built as a BoB Mk1 Spit. Sure it has a few issues but I have a few solutions to resolve most of them so will see how they pan out.

 

It's been sometime since I put knife, glue and paint to a new kit and so long since posting an image here that I'll have to figure out how to upload them again so will post some in a couple of day's time once I have this nutted out.

 

A great Group Build and a brilliant tribute to a wonderful man, thanks for the inspiration.

 

Best Regards

 

Brent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

Happy New Year one and all, I hope 2016 is a successful one for you all.

 

I've not been completely idle over the last couple of weeks, just sorting out references, some alternative parts, planning the build and trying the fit of parts. Also I think I've worked out the image thing again so I'll start by loading up the sprue shot. 

 

Whoops not quite what I wanted, try again...

 

 

RevSpitSprue5100.jpg

 

Right got that sorted, I might have to make the images smaller but it's getting late so I post what I have.

 

This is the sprue set from the Rev Mk 1b Seafire. It is the same as the two of the other Spits on this GB except the kit includes a Vokes filter housing, a crude arrestor hook and two stick 'things' that supposedly represent the cannons of the MkVb, on which the Seafire Mk1b is based. I have three of these kits, the first one cost $40 and I bought the other two some months later for $25 and $20 each respectively thinking I'll use them as cheap starter kits to practice painting and other long disused modelling techniques.

 

Please excuse the untidy work area, it's an office, spare bedroom, store room and modelling den at present!   

 

More to follow.

 

Rgds Brent

Edited by branchline
Link to comment
Share on other sites

What made me buy two more of these kits is that overall the outline of the kit parts seem reasonably accurate and once I compared this initial kit with that of one of six Hasegawa Spitfires I have the main Revell kit parts (wing, Fuselage, horizontal stabs etc are all but spot on). Here are a couple of images showing the Revell and Hasegawa kit's fuselages mated together.

 

RevSpitFuseCompare-1-5101.jpg

 

RevSpitFuseCompare-2-5104_1.jpg

 

The only area of difference is the length of the Revell fuselage at the tailplane, the shape is good, but the Revell fuse is maybe 1.5 to 2 mm longer (apologies for the blurry nature of the second one - it was the Christmas Spirit)

 

More yet to come...

Edited by branchline
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Back again. As I noted previously, I've haven't been idle, here is a view of the kit pieces taped together with my assembly of other parts I'll use (excluding the Eduard seat belts). I picked up one of my Hasegawa MkVb Spits for $15 (all costs are in $NZ) as a box of spare parts for a conversion I am intending to do on another Spitfire build one day. It had been started rather poorly (take a close look at the seat in the image and you will see a excessive amount of glue) but to my delight there was an Eduard MkVb Interior set and paint masks for roundels and aircraft lettering included, indeed good value! 

 

RevSpitandParts5126.jpg

 

 

I'll completely disassemble (decontruct?) the cockpit interior shown here and build it into the Rev kit, it fits but requires a little adjustment. I was tempted to use the lower wing to correct the gull shape but enough is enough and it won't be seen where I'll end up putting the model I may however use the radiator and oil cooler from the Hasegawa kit too. I'll also use the Hasegawa exhausts (with some modification) and as seen in the image above, the elevators and rudder. The Revell kit's rudder is pretty much the correct shape but it's just too big. 

Edited by branchline
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Evening, went and saw the movie Joy so it will only be the rewrite of what I lost last night.

 

The first actual bit of modelling I did was to change the things Revell call wheels on this kit for ones that look like real ones. The image below shows the two Revell kit main undercarriage/landing gear (MLG) struts on the left and compared to a Hasegawa one on the right (which is missing about 3mm off the top after I broke it off my son's MkVb kit while toodling with it). The lefthand Revell strut is out of the box while the righthand one has had the centre spigott removed and the circular disk reduced in diameter to allow it to fit into the recess of the Hasegawa wheels (the ones that look like real wheels with tyres!). I'll add the uplock catch 'ring' and the brakeline but the strut itself will do for this build.  

 

RevSpitMLG5107.jpg

 

Once the wheels were attached to the strut I measured it against a Hasegawa MkVb (trop) built by one of our sons, Tim. I noted it was going to be about 2.5 to 3mm shorter and thought if this looks wrong  I'll have to extend the struts. This is the main reason I taped the kit together so I could compare the 'sit' of the Revell kit before I started. As the image below shows it looks okay beside the Hasegawa spitifire even if the Vokes filter housing may distort the visual view. Having spent over 40 years working in aviation there is only one state an aircraft can be in for me and that is serviceable! So my take on this is that it's a fully fueled and armed Spit which has slightly compressed oleos as a result. 

 

Has-RevSpits5125.jpg

 

 

And while the righthand tyre of the Revell kit looks as if the whole gear is scewed off line, it's just the black overspray is not even on the inside of the tyre (I looked at the the image and had to check the model to make sure though!). 

 

That's it for tonight, glue out for the next upload...

 

Rgds Brent

Edited by branchline
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Interesting to see the comparison of this kit with the Hasegawa version. I gave up on this build as it seemed very crude and dumbed down in so many areas.

It turns out that the silhouette at least looks reasonable.

 

Thanks for showing the comparisons Brent.

 

Cheers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Re the dumbed down nature of the kit, I built one of these for my younger brother in the early 70s and I can't remember it having recessed panel lines, I still have the prop off it after it migrated back my way some years later but that doesn't tell me much about the panel lines which on this kit I find very nicely done!

 

As I noted, all the key dimensions and shapes match the Hasegawa Vb almost perfectly and despite it's simple nature it actually looks like a Spitfire should when completed. I have a perverse eye for not so much detail accuracy as the feel of an  object's perspective and the Revell kit to me has good overall proportions and a realistic 'sit' which are key starting ticks in the box for me. However, if there is a problem with the overall shape it's the spinner that annoyes me hence why in the images above it has a Hasegawa one fitted. If like me you enjoy getting some plastic sheet and strips out to attempt to make a silk purse out of a sow's ear then this is a good starter! 

 

Off topic re the movie Joy, while it's had some odd critiques I liked it. It's about real life so if like many folk if you go to the movies to get away from reality then this is most likely not the one for you - don't get me wrong here I've seen the new Star Wars movie twice and will go again with some friends in a week's time so I enjoy getting away from it too, but having lived in the US in the early 1980s where we were put up some pretty average apartment accommodation in what I'd call less than average suburbs the setting of this movie very much struck a cord with me as I could easily relate to the environment and its characters.

 

Better get on with the gluing here...

 

Rgds Brent 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...

Hi folks,

 

Apologies re lack of progress, I'm the chief poobar for the organising committee of our biennial national model railway convention held over Easter weekend and have had to commit a little bit more time than I'd like to this but was comfortable that with the Jun deadline if things didn't line up before Easter I'd have time to complete the model after that and that's where I'm at presently.

 

I'm unlikely to complete anything this week but with the first weekend since the New Year where we're not hosting people, working or driving up country to pick up or drop off our son's grandpuppy while he and his partner are on holiday then I'll make a special effort to glue something. By the by a grand puppy is what you have when one has no grand kids so our kids pets become grand 'somethings' when you have to look after the being the closet thing one can spoil this of course is according to the boss (read the wife)!

 

Will update later in the week, take care...

 

Regards

Brent

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...