Freightdogs 1/32 Seafire conversion with lots of extras

[BloorwestSiR]

So after picking up the Freightdogs conversion set, Iconicair's cowl correction set, Mastercasters' cockpit set and EMD's cannon barrels, it was time to finally get the base Revell(née Matchbox) base kit and add it all to the stash.

 

But after watching LSP Kevin's build of the Spitfire 22 kit and having a new workspace, I decided to start this project.

 

First, the newly renovated and cleaned up workspace:

 

 

I've finally managed to get all my kits, supplies and reference material into one spot! We also installed a ventilation fan pretty much right above the work bench so that should go a long way to improving air quality in the room too.

 

Now onto the build.

Here are all the AM bits mentioned above with most of the resin pour blocks already removed:

 

 

Going clockwise, the Freightdog bits are on the left, then the Iconicair cowl, EMD barrels, and Mastercasters's cockpit set .

[BloorwestSiR]

After reviewing everything, I decided that the most challenging part of the build would be the modifications to the wings so I started there.

 

Using a scribing tool, I cut out the upper wing gear bulge in preparation for installing the larger ones in the Seafire set:

 

 

The cut is more or less along a couple panel lines so that made it a bit easier.

 

Here's the wing with the section removed:

 

 

With such a large hole in the upper wing, I decided to glue in the gun bay inserts to act as a stiffener and also a bulkhead for the replacement panels to fit onto:

 

 

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

Using the same technique, I cut out a hole for the underwing rads. This was a bit harder since there is that slight step.

 

 

 

I also boxed in the gear bays using a strip of thin styrene sheet. I lucked out as the width I cut was perfect in height and filled the gap between the wing halves perfectly.

 

 

 

The rad is just placed into the hole to check the fit. I did better on this wing compared to the first one where the hole was a bit big.

 

That's where I left off today. Hopefully, I'll be able to keep at it over the next bit because come May, I most likely won't have any modeling time since my next child is due then

 

Carl

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice one Carl! I'm going to use the MC cockpit on my next one, and am still toying with getting the Seafire conversion. Just a tip with Derek's cannon fairings though: if I were to do it again, I'd remove the kit stubs entirely, and replace them with some of Derek's extender pieces and fair them into the wings at the time of assembly. Adding them after the fact caused me quite a few hassles due to the mismatch in size between the resin parts and kit stubs.

 

Looking forward to your progress!

 

Kev

[Guest]

GREAT ! Will watch, for sure.......Harv

[A.Wolf Grant]

Good grief Carl .... I'm a retailer and I think you've got more stock !! (looks like you're missing the Easy Eight from your Tasca Sherman range by the way).

This'll be a nice to follow - looking forward to it.

Grant.

[Guest Peterpools]

Carl

Nice job organizing the cave and workshop - impressive!

Looking forward to following the project.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

[Derek B]

Impressive start Carl - I shall be watching this with interest

 

Derek

[Daywalker]

Great start Carl, I'm REALLY looking forward to this build! Those late Seafires are bada$$.

[BloorwestSiR]

Nice one Carl! I'm going to use the MC cockpit on my next one, and am still toying with getting the Seafire conversion. Just a tip with Derek's cannon fairings though: if I were to do it again, I'd remove the kit stubs entirely, and replace them with some of Derek's extender pieces and fair them into the wings at the time of assembly. Adding them after the fact caused me quite a few hassles due to the mismatch in size between the resin parts and kit stubs.

 

Looking forward to your progress!

 

Kev

Hi Kev,

 

Thanks, combining so much AM from different sources is going to make this more interesting, that's for sure.

 

You're right about the cannon though. Derek also pointed out the same thing so I'm trying a couple different approaches to see which works the best. Either way, the kit stubs are going.

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

Good grief Carl .... I'm a retailer and I think you've got more stock !! (looks like you're missing the Easy Eight from your Tasca Sherman range by the way).

 

This'll be a nice to follow - looking forward to it.

Grant.

My wife and friends say the same thing. Or that I could open a combo hobby/bike shop. Here's part of the bike collection:

 

 

Got all frame types covered: steel, aluminum, carbon and my favourite, Ti.

 

I think the reason I don't have an Easy Eight is they were never converted into Fireflies. Every Sherman I have is a Firefly. Must be that 17pdr gun.

 

Carl

Edited January 8, 2013 by BloorwestSiR

[BloorwestSiR]

Thanks Peter, Derek and Frank!

 

Just hope I can live up to the source materials. The Freightdogs conversion is nicely done. I think I've only found one pinhole so far, the instructions are clear and straightforward. Same goes for the EMD cannon set and Iconicair cowling. The Mastercasters cockpit set would have to be the "roughest" here. By that, I mean there's quite a bit of resin flash or webbing to remove and some parts are slightly warped but that's all fixed easily enough.

 

Looks like I'll be able to get some time at the workbench later this week. I'll post MER shots when I do.

 

Carl

[BloorwestSiR]

So I've made a fair bit of progress. I can't believe I've been actually able to work on something three weeks in a row.

 

I added some shims to the top of the cannon bay frames. This will help to support the upper wing inserts:

 

 

As I mentioned, I tried a couple approaches to making the EMD cannon barrels fit. Here, I used a file to remove material from the wing halve before gluing them together:

 

 

The original stubs have not been removed but are currently paper thin after all the file work. I then repeated this with the lower wing.

 

On the starboard wing, I glued the halves together and removed the stubs. I then tried drilling out the openings to ate them larger. This was the more difficult approach as the wing kept splitting apart.

 

 

 

[BloorwestSiR]

While letting that dry, I started on the cockpit. Here's where I ran into some issues.

 

The MC cockpit is definitely based off the Tamiya Mk XVI one. There are a lot of addtional details they've added as you can see here:

 

 

 

The painted parts are from either a Tamiya VIII or IX kit I'm doing at the same time so it was easy to do the comparison.

 

But, my copy has two issues. The first is the warpage of some parts is worse than I originally thought.

 

 

The second is that the parts have some shrinkage in them compared to the original bits. This becomes a problem because the 22 fuselage is wider than the Tamiya one. I think MC tried to make up for this by increasing the height of the sidewalls to go right up to the top of the fuselage sides. This leads to a different issue. If you use them that way, the cockpit walls at the top will be really thick. You can't thin the plastics down to get it to a more scale likeness or the cockpit then won't fit! A real catch 22.

 

 

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice progress Carl. Your second approach is how I thought to go about fitting Derek's barrels next time. Are you saying that it didn't really work out?

 

Shame about the cockpit parts too. I hope you can get them installed satisfactorily! Do you think it's still a useful purchase?

 

Kev