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ICM 1/48 Spitfire IX


LSP_Kevin

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I've been scratching around trying to nail down a kit to be the next in my 1/48 Weathering Training Wheels series, and had initially settled on a Tamiya Ki-84. It's the same vintage as the Rufe I'm currently building, and a very similar kit. It looks quite nice in fact, but the cockpit is not as good as the Rufe's, and the seat at least will need replacing. SBS Models has a complete replacement cockpit for the Hasegawa Ki-84, which is very affordable, so I've decided to get hold of one, and have put the Ki-84 aside until I can (I just hope I can make it fit the Tamiya kit...).

 

It was then that I remembered this ICM Spitfire kit I bought a couple of years back at a swap meet. It was a bagged kit with no decals or instructions, but otherwise seemed complete. And well worth the $3 I paid for it! It's been sitting around in an open box for some time, so I figured it was a good candidate to tackle, before I start loosing parts. Here's the kit:

 

whUgpS.jpg

 

As you can see, I've already started it, but the interior green was actually sprayed using leftover paint from when I was building my Airfix Spitfire 24 last year. It's an odd beast, this one. It looks nicely detailed, but a bit softly moulded, with a bit of flash around the place. The plastic seems overly soft and somehow 'cheap'. One of the sprues is a different colour than the others, and is clearly a replacement, being sealed in a separate bag from "Parts Paradise". I found an electronic copy of the instructions and printed them out.

 

I tossed into the mix a little bit of aftermarket to spice things up:

 

2ShF0U.jpg

 

The seat is a leftover from the set of two that I bought for the Airfix Spitfire; it may actually be inaccurate for a Mk IX, but it's nicely detailed and has moulded-on harness straps, so I don't need to worry about sourcing seat belts. Not sure if I'll use the True Details wheels on this one or not. The kit ones aren't too bad, but these are probably better. Not sure if the spoke count is accurate though. They were originally bought for an Airfix 1/48 Mk V I have, but I can't find it!

 

Anyway, I guess I'm just in the mood for starting kits more so than finishing them at the moment, and I'll probably break out another one before too long! :rolleyes:

 

Kev

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Did some preliminary clean-up of the major parts (lots of flash!), and taped them all together to test the fit:

 

3Ucqgm.jpg

 

I had to insert the firewall to get the forward fuselage to spread correctly. It's a very fussy kit, a will pose a few fit challenges I suspect:

 

DCy4bv.jpg

 

Probably not what I was aiming for with this build, but I'll keep tinkering away with it until it's either done or I'm fed up.

 

Kev

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Guest Peterpools

Kev

Nothing like a challenge and you just may bet hooked on 48th scale kits if you're not real careful.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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Thanks Peter. I started out as a kid building 1/72 kits, before progressing to 1/48, and finally 1/32. Consequently I have a lot of 1/48 kits in the stash, and still enjoy building them - especially if they're too large for 1/32 (though that hasn't stopped anyone releasing such beasts!). I rarely build in 1/72 these days, unless they're too large for bigger scales. What I enjoy about 1/48 builds is that I feel less pressure to get them 'right', and have less invested in the outcome. I won't say they're more fun than 1/32 builds, but they can be more relaxing.

 

Kev

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OK folks, some progress with this one. Much like the Rufe, I've put a lot of effort into getting some semblance of a convincingly painted and weathered cockpit (normally what I consider one of my weak points). Side walls:

 

YAnOQW.jpg

 

tL3TXg.jpg

 

They still need a flat coat. The beginnings of the main cockpit assembly:

 

WtRtxv.jpg

 

The seat is 'in progress'. Here's the instrument panel:

 

H37cFU.jpg

 

Since I had no decals for it, but it featured plenty of raised detail, I went for the heavily drybrushed approach. I don't normally like the effect this produces, as I reckon it's a bit cartoony, but in this case I think it came out quite well. The photo doesn't really do it justice at all, so I'll try to get a better one once it's installed. I wouldn't do it on a 1/32 kit necessarily, but I think it works pretty well in the smaller scales.

 

I'm in a real 'cockpit mood' at the moment, so I have a feeling that once this one's buttoned up, I'll dig out another one and start on its cockpit. Practice makes perfect!

 

Kev

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Thanks guys. The backdrop is part of a set that came with my light tent. I started with the white one and am now experimenting with this dark blue one. Most of the colours in the set are useless though (there's even a red one - what the hell use is that?). They're all a bit useless actually. The creases from being folded up are impossible to remove, and you can't iron them since they're not real fabric (plastic-backed in fact). In the end I think I just need a trip to Spotlight to buy a few sheets of coloured fabric to suit.

 

Kev

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Thanks Peter. Here's the latest progress. Sidewalls finished:

 

EDmVW9.jpg

 

I added the remaining details and gave them a heavy drybrush. As artificial as it looks, I'm really starting to like this approach, especially for smaller scales where a little bit of exaggeration can go a long way. I also added some cockpit placards from an airscale set (AS48 PLA - Generic WW2 Allied Cockpit Placards). They're there for effect, not accuracy! Everything (except the compressed air tanks) has had a flat coat.

 

Seat is now done:

 

CMrME4.jpg

 

It actually looks much better in the flesh, as my camera (or its operator!) has really struggled to capture a decent rendition. If you'll recall, this is the Ultracast item with moulded-on harness.

 

The entire cockpit is actually finished now, so I should be able to close the fuselage up soon. Just gotta figure out whether I need to install the engine or not. I don't plan to expose it, so if I can get away without fitting it, so much the better.

 

I've been working on the True Details wheels, removing the excess bulges at the bottom. I had a really good before/after comparison ready, but no matter what I did the camera (or its operator!) turned them into featureless snow balls.

 

More soon.

 

Kev

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Well, I've certainly been having some adventures with this one! It's far from the quick build I was hoping for, but I've persevered. Here's the cockpit installed and the main fuselage parts glued together:

 

k4atFc.jpg

 

Cockpit doesn't look too bad, though I managed to snap the A-frame bulkhead piece behind the cockpit:

 

SiYMK4.jpg

 

YTlMKr.jpg

 

Here's the fuselage with the upper and lower forward panels in place:

 

IHueEk.jpg

 

This is where things started to get a bit ugly. The fit is pretty agricultural, and the plastic is very soft and flexible. I had to shim the top panel to spread the rear join out enough to fit properly, while the lower panel took quite a lot of finagling. I ended up gluing one side first and letting it cure before tackling the other side. It was only then that I noticed that I used the wrong version of the panel! All the options in the Eagle Strike decals I'm using feature the long intake under the nose. This happens to be moulded as part of an alternative set of panels. Oddly, the engineering in each case is completely different! For the short intake, you use the one-piece panel that I erroneously used, and add the small intake after attaching the wings. For the long intake (which I require), the lower panel comes in two halves with the intake moulded in situ. Bizarre!

 

Anyway, with the incorrect panel already secure, I decided to remove the intake from the other panel pieces and glue them together, in the hope that it will look OK grafted into position:

 

vsfdH9.jpg

 

We shall see! The rear section of the panel gave me a lot of trouble too. It features a 'tongue' that is supposed to lock into a cut-out in the wings. Well, in typical fashion, I didn't pay enough attention to the instructions and failed to notice that the lower panel is supposed to be fitted after the wings. When fitted to the fuselage before the wings, the tongue at the rear of the lower panel sits too low (or too high, technically), in that it doesn't protrude downwards enough to sit in the wing's cutout. I attempted to fix it with a hairdryer, hoping that if I heat the soft plastic slightly, I could bend it to the correct position. As usual, this didn't quite go to plan, as the plastic not only bent, but warped and twisted as well!

 

In the end I just cut the tongue section from the panel and glued it separately into the cutout in the wings:

 

nciS0e.jpg

 

In the photos above, you can see the differently coloured plastic used in the replacement sprues.

 

So, let's see what happens next, eh?

 

Kev

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Interesting effort so far, Kev. The Ultracast seat is outstanding. I may have to follow your lead here. I have a 1:48 Hasegawa car door Typhoon that's been calling my name, and I already have the Aires pit set for it too.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Well, scant modelling time these days folks, but I've been pushing on when I can. In fact this one appears to have advanced significantly since my last post. The wings are on, and are fairly straight and even. The warped port wing root is still an issue (seen in the photo below), but will be taken care of with some Milliput.

 

Also noticeable in the photo below is the apparently poor fit of the wing gun panels. This is really my fault, as the basic fit is OK, but there's nothing to stop them from being pushed in too far, which is what I did.

 

OQcCBf.jpg

 

While I plan to leave it alone for the most part, there's about a half-mm step at the rear of the port panel, and this would be too obvious to ignore on the finished model. More Milliput! I've started by defining the area with tape:

 

mGngBH.jpg

 

We'll see how that goes later! While I've got the Milliput out, I'll deal with this gap too:

 

F06a77.jpg

 

That gives you an idea of how badly out that whole section was once I warped it with the hairdryer. If you remember, the tab in the wings was originally part of the lower cowl.

 

Oddly, after gluing the horizontal stabilisers in place, I returned a few hours later to discover that one of them wasn't inserted all the way in properly:

 

Om3PZl.jpg

 

:hmmm:

 

More Milliput!

 

Hopefully my next post will show the results of all this putty.

 

Kev

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