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USAAF Spitfire PR XI- Tamiya w/ Ali Cat conversion kit


BloorwestSiR

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Thanks for all the encouragement everyone.

 

Kagemusha. I guess I'm going to have to see if I can get the camera lens recessed a bit to match up to your photo.

 

Brad, it looks like I'm going to have some serious weathering and fading to do. That will be a new challenge for me. I hope I can pull it off.

 

I just picked up some needed paint so should have a bit more progress in the next day or so.

 

In the meantime, I pulled out the seat belts I plan to use. They're made by a Japanese firm called Wako:

 

001-1.jpg

 

Here are the parts for them. Not only are the belts made from paper but so are the buckles. I'll have to see how well they take a coat of paint.

 

002-3.jpg

 

Carl

 

 

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Those belts look quite interesting Carl. Never heard of the brand before. I'm glad they contain "Feeling parts" though, as I've never had any luck with unfeeling ones.

 

Keep up the good work!

 

Kev

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Dennis and Brady, the conversion is very straighforward even more so if you are starting with the MkVIII kit. I would easily recommend this to for someone's first conversion. 

 

So, onto assembling these "feeling" belts. The paper for the belts is quite thin so I was a bit concerned about them tearing if I crumpled them up to soften them a bit. I shouldn't have worried about that as it turns out. The buckles are quite a bit thicker and I think they may actually be a thin plastic as opposed to paper. I airbrushed the buckles silver and left the belts as is.

 

001-2.jpg

 

They are very easy to remove from their attachment points. 

The instructions themselves are a bit lacking, mostly just a parts diagram and another copy of the cover photo but with each part number labelled. There was a bit of guess work but by comparing them to the PE ones in the Tamiya kit, I figured it out. I think.

 

003-3.jpg

 

Here they are instailed on the seat

 

007-4.jpg

 

I think they work quite well. 

 

Carl

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Nice work as always Carl.

 

 

001-2.jpg

 

Where did you get the Light Sabre from?

 

Kev

 

 

LOL, that's my LED bench light. It is supposed to be a desk lamp but I've mounted over my work bench as a temporary solution to getting more light. interesting that the reflection connects them all together that way.

 

I've managed to make a lot of progress tonight. I finished up the cockpit and got it all together. This shows the camera control box that you mount in place of the gunsight on the IP. 

 

002-4.jpg

 

003-4.jpg

 

A view from the port side:

 

004-2.jpg

 

And now from the starboard one:

 

005-2.jpg

 

Once I had the cockpit done, I was able to go ahead and get the fuselage closed up.

 

007-5.jpg

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Somehow, I managed to pop the seam on the rear insert for the landing gear. I found that kind of odd since the resin bit is an exact copy of the kit part and everything went together nicely during my dry fit. It's not that big a deal since I can just glue it back together after. 

 

008-2.jpg

 

From there, I just couldn't stop as I wanted to see it with the wings on. The kit goes together so nicely that I just went ahead and glued them on.

 

009-1.jpg

 

As you can see, the fit is pretty close to perfect. There's no gaps or steps on either wing root.

 

010-3.jpg

 

011-2.jpg

 

Now to call it a night before I get carried away with things.

 

Carl

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks Haken, Doug and Maru for checking it out. 

 

I've made some more progress as well as running into a couple problems, one of which is my fault. I'll try to get some pics posted tomorrow but overall, it's moving nicely towards the finish line.

 

Carl

Edited by BloorwestSiR
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