dennismcc Posted January 15, 2017 Share Posted January 15, 2017 For 2016 as usual I decided to at least complete 3 builds, the theme for the year was US operated Spitfires, the first two builds, both Hobbyboss Spitfire Mk. V's went smoothly and were finished but the Revell Spitfire through no fault of it's own lagged behind. It went that slowly that I did not start a build thread, but I did take some photos as I went along. Before I started the build I went through Edgar's list of faults and decided to fix as many of them as I could. 1/. it needs a "Mk.I" oil cooler. Barracuda detail set 2/. it needs the crowbar deleting, unless your model dates after January 1942 (the fit was retrospective.) Barracuda cockpit door 3/. 2-bar rudder pedals are o.k., but need the fabric straps over the top. Tamiya tape or similar 4/. gun button was brass, with a silver surround, not red (post-war elfin safety?)Paint 5/. Very pistol cartridge rack was normally left off, and Castle Bromwich had (red) plastic seats, not (green) metal. Use a Barracuda seat 6/. seat armour is missing. Use a Barracuda seat and armour 7/, seat backrest has an odd depression moulded in, which I've never seen. As for 6 8/. I have no idea what part 40 is (see later), and 41 (oxygen bottle) should be black, not green. Paint 41 black 9/. part 42 (compressed-air bottles) was silver, not green. Paint silver 9/. rudder and elevators' "stitching" is overdone. Sand down a tad 10/. I have no idea what the two "lozenges" (on the top of each wing) are. Remove 11/. unless your Mk.II dates from 1940, the rudder "prong" shouldn't be there, neither should the aerial. Cut off the prong and leave off the wire 12/. post 1940, IFF aerials were fitted, and the position of the discs is marked. Fit wires 13/. if you drop the flaps, the door, in the top of the wing, needs to be cut out, and opened. I will not drop the flaps, no need for action 14/. 50B is/are/were "station keeping lights," which might have been coloured like the navigation lights, but that remains a mystery, for now. Whoops see later 15/. while over-prominent, the "rivets" are nowhere near as bad as the photos appeared to show. Good 16/. the fuselage is about 2mm shorter than the Hasegawa Vb (all at the spinner end,) but it doesn't "shout," and it appears to have better curvature than the (somewhat slab-sided) Hasegawa fuselage. Leave well alone 17/, wingspan and chord (minus wingtips) are identical to the Hasegawa Vb. Good 18/. Revell have matched Tamiya, in the wheel wells, by providing back-sloping walls - very well done - but the "orifices" are too oval. Leave alone 19/. there are three oblong "protuberances" on the spinner, but Revell do tell you to file them off. No problem 20/. Revell have confused Sky with Sky Blue (oh, yes, they have.) No problem 21/. instrument panel is fixed, but is missing the landing lights control. Using Yahu IP 22/. The air scoop on top of the kit's upper cowl wasn't for the Heywood compressor which wasn't introduced until March 1942 on the Mk V, but the Spitfire already had a compressor, which was fitted once the Mk.I went from the “pump-handle†u/c retraction system to the hydraulic type. From what I can tell the early compressor had a small almost invisible scoop while the Heywood needed a larger type which was more prominent. Modify the air scoop and bulges 23/. You'll need the early (circular) HF radio controller in place of the pushÂbutton VHF type (37/38); Barracuda cockpit detail set 25/. Kit part number 25 This should be replaced by a circular item rather like the headrest. This refers I believe to the voltage regulator fitted to the fuselage frame behind the pilots headrest which on the kit and later Spitfires is a double barrel shape. 26/. 40 should be fitted to the instrument panel above the pilot's left leg, not on the starboard wall; See 8 above 27/.Ailerons should be fabricÂcovered, though that isn't as noticeable as some make out (just fine lines where the stitches go); Barracuda wing detail set 28/.there should be two fuel **** levers to the right of the compass (which, incidentally, is black inside and greenishÂgrey on the outside); Use the Barracuda cockpit detail set, not sure what to do about the levers, probably nothing. 29/.the throttle quadrant has one lever too many (the one pointing forward); Use the Barracuda cockpit detail set 30/.(probably the most difficult) replace the single fuel gauge (bottom RH corner of the instrument panel) with two smaller items; Use the Yahu Instrument panel 31/.aerials were stainless steel, not black or copper. No problem 32/.There's one other item I've since noticed, and that's the oxygen hose, which should not be moulded on the starboard cockpit wall. On the Mk. I & II, the hose was "attached" to the pilot, and plugged into a socket on the starboard wall. Sand, cut or cover. There are probably more faults with the kit but these are the ones I wanted to correct. The build will use quite a few Barracuda resin detail sets: Seat and seat armour Cockpit upgrade set Spitfire Mk.I/II wing correction set Spitfire Mk.I-V Cockpit door without crowbar Spitfire 5 slot mainwheels. Plus the amazing Yahu instrument panel and the equally amazing RB Productions Sutton Harness. More coming soon. Cheers Dennis D.B. Andrus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) In keeping with my US Spitfires theme for this year the subject of this build will be XR*D Spitfire Mk.IIa, 71 (Eagle) Squadron, I bought the Eagle Cals decals though I am hoping to use masks for the majority of markings. I also intended to use the same camouflage masks from AML that I used on the Trumpeter Mk.Vb kit but it turned out that XR*D has the B scheme camouflage pattern and the AML masks are for the A pattern. Coincidently I saw a post on Britmodeller advertising paint masks (Top Notch) and miracle of miracles one was for a B pattern Spitfire camouflage. http://topnotch-success.net/ The camouflage masks were duly ordered and Sean also volunteered to make up a complete set of mask for XR*D. The masks when they arrived looked great and I look forward to using them. http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/235005822-new-shop-update/#comment-2488101 So hopefully with all my ducks in a row it's on with the build. Here is the box art And the Barracuda wing correction set, this set has the radiator flap missing from my first set. The YAHU IP which is pretty amazing. As usual I started by cutting parts off the sprues and mounting them ready for painting, initially all the interior green and silver parts. I'm getting quite used to the Barracuda parts for the cockpit now and the resin parts were cut off and cleaned up ready for painting. The Barracuda seat and back armour were cleaned up and the back armour painted with Humbrol 120 which is the colour that I have chosen for RAF interior green. The seat which in reality could be anywhere between red and brown and all shades of these two colours was painted with Humbrol H133 Satin Brown. The seat pad was painted with H85 satin black. The cockpit walls in the fuselage halves were painted green (H120), the green section was then masked off and the rear of the cockpit painted Aluminium (H56), note in the photo below I got it wrong and the silver should be further forward. The cockpit bulkheads, sidewalls, floor and lower wing section under the cockpit were all painted with green (H120) apart from the rear bulkhead which was painted silver (H56). The wheel wells in the upper and lower wing sections, undercarriage legs, and wheel well covers were painted silver (H56). The Barracuda resin cockpit parts were painted as per the guide supplied with the detail kit, and very good it is too, I find that a lot of resin sets do not have very good instructions or painting guides which is a waste, but the Barracuda ones are great. The RB Production seat belts were assembled using tweezers, cocktail sticks, Formula 560 glue and my magnifying lamp, without the latter though it would have been nearly impossible. More soon Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replacing Photobucket photos Shaka HI, D.B. Andrus and Rick K 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alaninaustria Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Coming along nicely!! I absolutely love Baracuda's resin/detail sets and Radu's beautifully accurate seatbelts!! Cheers Alan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 Coming along nicely!! I absolutely love Baracuda's resin/detail sets and Radu's beautifully accurate seatbelts!! Cheers Alan Thank you Alan, I think my 2016 builds are built around them ! Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) The oxygen hose that is moulded into the fuselage half was a problem, it should not be there, I could have carve it out but would then not be able to sand the surface smooth again, so I carved it out and plated over the resultant mess with some very thin plastic sheet, not perfect but better. I did try to attach the wire to the control column but failed at the first step which was drilling out the holes for the wires so I gave up and left just ran them down the side of the column. The kit electrical regulator on the frame behind the pilots seat was wrong for this Mark of Spitfire so it was changed from the kit one (double cylinders shape) to an early style round one which I bodged up from the scrap box. The rudder pedals were converted to single step ones by cutting the top step off, then some strips of Dymo tape were cut up to make the straps on the pedals. The lights (station keeping lights?) on the fuselage sides were then given some attention. I had never noticed these before on a Spitfire and Edgar was unsure of them as well so I fitted the clear parts, covered them with CA and polished them smooth ready to paint over them. Then of course I found “the†photo of my subject XR*D and there they were clear as day, so I will have to find some coloured decal to represent them once I have finished the paintwork. I should have known better and checked a bit more before acting. Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replaced Photobucket photos Shaka HI and kkarlsen 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) And on to the wings, to fit the ailerons the Barracuda instructions tell you to trim the kit wings to enable them to fit, and they were correct, there is no way they would fit otherwise, made a bit of a mess on this one will have to tidy it up a bit.. The next thing on my list of things to do was to correct the kit oil cooler, for this I bought the Barracuda wing correction set which has the oil cooler, radiator and fabric ailerons. I was a bit daunted by the idea of cutting out the radiator from the lower wing but in the end decided to give it a go. The cutting out went well and then it was just a case of dry fitting, cutting and test fitting until it all fitted. Unfortunately the radiator flap was missing from my set but I'll try and use the kit part or steal one from my other set. I fitted the resin radiator into the wing and then found that the wing halves would not close, so then it was a case of chipping away at the resin until they would. Oil cooler assembled and wing cut out to fit it. and fitted Cutting out for the new radiator And new radiator in place Some paint And finished, just a bit of Mr Surfacer 1200 to fill the slight gaps And some trimming to get the wings to fit together, once I was happy that it was a good fit the wing halves were joined and the leading edge seam was sanded smooth. Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replaced Photobucket photos Shaka HI and D.B. Andrus 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) As Spitfire pilots who taxied with their flaps lowered were fined mine will be raised, but first a little voice in the back of my head was telling me that somewhere I had read that there was a slight problem with having them closed. A test fit revealed that there are little rectangles of plastic to be removed on the upper wing to get them to fit snugly. These were removed and with some more sanding/cutting to get a flush fit with the wing they were glued in place. The wing tips were joined and the seams sanded smooth then they were test fitted to the wings, the join was not the best and took a bit of sanding and test fitting to get a good fit, the slight gaps were filled again with Mr Surfacer 1200, excess was removed with a cotton bud dipped in Mr Color thinner. Then the ailerons were test fitted, one was a bit short so some plastic card was glued to the end with CA and then I tried to sand it flush but it fell off, cleaned it up again and the same thing happened, it must be imune to CA so I will have to try and shim up the wing. Below is the test fitting Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replaced Photobucket photos Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shaka HI Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Looking forward to do this build, Dennis. You gonna do anything to tone down the rivets on this kit? I think my biggest regret was leaving them alone and even adding a dark wash which accentuated them even more... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 Looking forward to do this build, Dennis. You gonna do anything to tone down the rivets on this kit? I think my biggest regret was leaving them alone and even adding a dark wash which accentuated them even more... Hi Shaka, I hope that you do enjoy the build, as to the rivets I think I will leave them alone, though I won't be using a wash them. Cheers Dennis Shaka HI 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 16, 2017 Author Share Posted January 16, 2017 (edited) The cockpit "tub" sidewalls are finished and the fuselage side wall details are completed, the kit IP has been sanded flat and the YAHU IP installed in it's place, the RB seat belts have been fitted to the seat so it is time to assemble the cockpit. Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replaced Photobucket photos MikeMaben and Shaka HI 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wegener Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Good work Dennis That list will also be very helpful if I ever get round to tackling one but what is the 'fuel ****' in point 28? Some technical term only understood by Spitfire experts? I'm a recent convert to this LSP game, being mainly a dumb vehicle modeller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Joel_W Posted January 16, 2017 Share Posted January 16, 2017 Dennis, I just read through your build, and I'm most impressed how your addressing each issue with the Revell kit. Excellent job fitting the new wing oil cooler. The end results look as though it was molded as part of the kit. And those seatbelts and harnesses, you did a fantastic job of assembly. With all those straps, buckles, latches, etc. it has to be a lot harder then you made it out to be. Being new to 1/32 scale, I've yet have had the opportunity to try my hand at them. and that YAHU IP is stunning to say the least. Much better then anything I could do. Will have to checkout their site to see what other IPs they have. Looking forward to your next update. Joel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Peterpools Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Dennis Terrific start on the Revell Spit and I'm right with you when it comes to Barracuda sets - just love 'em Keep 'em coming Peter Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 (edited) On 1/16/2017 at 8:31 PM, Wegener said: Good work Dennis That list will also be very helpful if I ever get round to tackling one but what is the 'fuel ****' in point 28? Some technical term only understood by Spitfire experts? I'm a recent convert to this LSP game, being mainly a dumb vehicle modeller Thank you for that, the fuel levers are for the upper and lower tank, but I ignored that one, you can see them on the diagram below, 38 and 39. Cheers Dennis Edited September 30, 2019 by dennismcc Replaced Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dennismcc Posted January 17, 2017 Author Share Posted January 17, 2017 Dennis, I just read through your build, and I'm most impressed how your addressing each issue with the Revell kit. Excellent job fitting the new wing oil cooler. The end results look as though it was molded as part of the kit. And those seatbelts and harnesses, you did a fantastic job of assembly. With all those straps, buckles, latches, etc. it has to be a lot harder then you made it out to be. Being new to 1/32 scale, I've yet have had the opportunity to try my hand at them. and that YAHU IP is stunning to say the least. Much better then anything I could do. Will have to checkout their site to see what other IPs they have. Looking forward to your next update. Joel Thank you Joel, the list from the late and great Spitfire expert Edgar certainly makes life easier rather than trying to track down all the little bits and pieces myself. As it's been a long time since I delved into the world of mating resin and plastic parts together in a kit the oil cooler and radiator looked a bit daunting at first but they worked out great. The sea tbelts and harness come with some great instructions but I must admit that without my magnifier/light I would have struggled. I did buy a YAHU IP for my Fiat G50 (future build) and have just used 2 on my Spitfire Vb and Vb Trop and they are great. Cheers Dennis Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
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 accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now