Kostucha

Been some time since any updates have come up on this... is there anything new? And as a question from someone not all too familiar with the Spit, but would it be a lot of work to make the Spit XIV into a Seafire XV? Cheers, Mark.

Max, You work is simply... well... no, there's no simple about it. You're not building a model, you're making a small version of the actual aircraft. From working on just the front half of the 801, I know how much of a pain it can be, but your work on the entire engine is breath taking. All around, every single thing I look at, there is no shortage of detail. And not just detail, but accurate, precise, and exact detail of what would have been found on the aircraft itself. I don't know what more to say other than perhaps the best compliment I can give - it looks like the actual aircraft. I tip my hat to you good Sir! Mark.

Well, finally there's some progress on this one. Got the frame measured out and completely cut, just a matter of getting a soldering gun and puttin the jig all together inside the wing. Work continues slowly on the wheel well as well. Most of the parts needed are ready to be painted and installed, so hopefully I can get some update pictures on here shortly. Cheers, Mark.

Thank you Derek! And to everyone for your comments. I wish I could build more on this project, as I'm off leave and back at work, my personal time is far less than I expected. But, such is life - at least I love the job, so no complaints there really. The WOW point is a very good one, in that one will be a different overall length than the other. So it's a matter of showing the WOW effect in place, while still keeping the spacing from the airborne wheel and the turf, without inducing so much 'roll' that it looks like the good Sgt. is out of control. But, a very good point though! Cheers all, hopefully an update or two soon. This weekend though I'm off to the Salinas A/S, so everything's on hold at least until I'm back. Cheers! Mark.

They didn't...

Kevin, the mock up is looking GREAT so far. The complete set of flaps, and instrument panel faces are yours (from the trumpy PE set). Want them? Mark.

Very cool. This whole build is also a good reference to the actual thing, and how it was constructed. You're not making a model here JR, you're making a tiny version of the actual thing. Cheers, Mark.

Thank you very much guys. So far I'm trying to piece together a gunsight, and as well as the front windscreen. I'm thinking it'll be scratch built, as the one with the kit is pretty fogged, but also it doesn't come with the thick armoured plate, or any internal framework at all. It really would be quite easy and simple/quick to make a new wind screen for this build, then again, it would be pretty easy to polish this one up and build the frame inside of it. We'll see. As for the Sutton harness, a combination of scratch built buckles, tape for the harness straps, and short trimmed sections of the PE set for the rivets. Then it was painted armoured tan, hit with dull coat, chalk pastels applied, another shot of dull, and that'd be it. Cheers, Mark.

But wait - there's more! A few more shots of the new hood, and the cockpit glued in: I'm fairly happy with the height of him in the cockpit, as well as his posture too. I think I got it pretty close: Cheers, Mark.

Thank you JR, hahaha... I love being an Aircrew NCO... life is grand. Though no pilot, I love being the NCO side of the house... for now, who know's what down the road... as for tonight! Progress continues... had some trouble with the instrument panel - didn't sit right, didn't sit right at all. The hood was just... well... it looked cool... but so very wrong. None the less, here's what it looked like: After some hackin' and slashin, I built up the hood much as it was... tube frame on the edge, then covered it using some THIN evergreen. This was then shaved down and smoothed out, and a trim of green tape was added to give the effect of material covering the whle thing as in the real deal: After painting:

Inside of the fuselage halves. I wanted to show the look of the panels while keeping it smooth and flat. That, combined with not much being seen and wanting to add some shade, I was messin' around and came up with this: Instrument panel: the Airfix setup with inserts works great for this. Front piece (panel face) painted and ready, along with the rear piece in gloss, and a piece of clear wrap: Clear wrap is trimmed and layed on top of the back piece loosly: Top piece is pressed in and the clear wrap is sandwiched: It's all trimmed and ready to be put in. Here's the finished panel: Cheers, Mark.

Lookin really good. Really good. This one's gonna be a gem!

Thanks Neo. What I missed out on was taking pictures of how I did it. To get the heat from the lighter (my heat source) to the thumb, I used 1/16ths brass pipe held onto the hand, and then heated the brass pipe about an inch away so not to melt anything in the cockpit. Using straight conduction, the brass pipe heats up the hand, as soon as it's a bit soft, I quickly push the thumb into place. Took a few tries, and a quick touch up in painting, but aside from that, I didn't have to glue the top of the control column where he's holding it, if that means anything. Cheers. Next is the panel and other details on the fuselage halfs, then gluin the sucker together, and that's that. Here are a few shots of the cockpit assembly as it is:

Mock up to check the sitting height of the figure in the cockpit: Work on the cockpit itself now continues. Cheers, Mark.

Thank you everyone! More work coming in tonight hopefully! It'll all make sense once the throttle control lever is put in... or I hope... it should... we'll see. His thumb will still be heated and wrapped around the control stick too once it's in place. Cheers, Mark.

Thanks Kev! Well, he's finally done. Though there are still some details to add to the seat, back plate and other cockpit area's, that's all peanuts after this figure. Here's some shots: Comments and criticisms as always are welcomed and appreciated. Cheers, Mark.

Just a few quick shots of progress as I plug along tonight: Sitting on the newly made chute: Straps from the front... Straps from the side... Yep... each one of those rediculous Sutton Straps are on there... being able to see the design of it, I could do nothing but shake my head. Anywho, chalk pastels to darken the straps and dull coat will be added soon, and then the seat will be glued to the firewall, and then, hopefully attached to the cockpit frame tonight. Cheers, Mark.

Thanks Phil! And here is the figure after pastel chalks: Again, thanks for looking, Cheers, Mark.

Sneezing Kev? Really? I thought that I'd give him a glare look, as in to say "I can't believe I'm leaving a perfectly good beer on the bar because of this Luftwaffe *ss" Surprised no one's make a comment about the commission stab I mentioned. Are we in agreement? Thank you folks! This is my first figure ever, and not only am I having A LOT of fun with it, but I'm pretty happy with the results. So, going onto the parachute itself, here's a bit of a step-by-step: 1. Cut the straps from masking tape, and then doubled over the ends and superglued them over the PE buckles, then added the straps onto the body with superglue as well: 2. The straps were painted white, buckles silver, and then the central buckle cap was made from thin sheet styrene, drilled accordingly to the reference photo's, one side sanded down slightly flat, glued on and painted silver: 3. The central tanned line I found in a lot of reference shots was roughly added, and the pull strap, and chord were also added using fine brass wire and a thin strand of silver line doubled over (I used 12 gauge electrical wire, and pulled one strand from it to use that. Then the material covering it was added and painted tan (the same armored sand paint used before): 4. Lastly, the straps were added (2 layers across the back, then the other 2 added, and both sides had a 3rd one added running down), as well as the holding cuffs (the tan squares) added, and the same brown stripe. The back wasn't focused on too much, as the lower back is flush on the seat, so I only added what would be seen while he's leaning forward: This is all BEFORE the pastel chalk is added. More pics to follow soon! Cheers, Mark.

Here's the pilot completed up to the point where the parachute straps are going to be added. The mae west had the whistle added to it (silver thingy), and the black tube to the bladder as well. The straps for the masks were painted the right colour (gray/green) and doubled over. The straps for the mae west were painted with 'armored sand', and all the straps are made using masking tape, along with the patches on the mae west shell. The goggles had the molded lenses drilled out leaving just the frame, and then the inside painted the same colour as the helmet. After that, tear-drop shaped pieces of clear evergreen were put in, and then scribed with a knife blade to give the look of the bent section in the actual goggles. The rank of Sgt. was added because, as we all know, NCO's flew better than commissioned officers (lighter aircraft and thus a little more maneuverable as there wasn't the added weight of the commission & ego that came with it). Here are the pictures: The section of yellow for the mae west that needs to be added/painted will be done AFTER the parachute straps are going to be added. I'm mocking it up, it looked like this section wasn't going to be seen... cheating a little bit... Next up... the parachute! Thanks for looking. As always, comments and criticisms more than welcome. Cheers, Mark.

Come again? Thanks Kev! I must say, working with the Airfix figure, as old as it may be, the figure was not wasted. Crisp molding made my life easier, given the depth of the eyes, they're almost like little trenches in there, so adding a dab of black really does make life simple. Thanks again Kev! Cheers! Mark.

Just a few quick shots as the pilot is progressing. This could be considered stage 2. Everything is still a high gloss. Once it's dried, tomorrow at some point hopefully it'll be cleaning up some of the lines, and adding all the small details to him, from zippers, to scribbled writing on the mae west, along with all the other details on the mae west. Once that stage is done, then the last one will be to dull the whole shoot and sha-bang down with a few coats of dull-coat & pastel chalks to give a more believable (and hopefully less plastic) look. As always, comments, criticisms always welcomed. Cheers, Mark.

JR, those wheels are lookin' stunning!!!

As an added side note, I've been asked how the Trumpeter PE set works out with the Airfix Hurricane. As this Airfix kit is many years older than I, I'm quite surprised that it took Trumpeters 1/24 Hurricane in the last couple of years to actually get anything decent for this kit with regards to AM. And yes, I'm being very specific with the 1/24 Hurricane AM items out there. The only other item that's out really, are made for this model to sit on, and if you want them I'm hoping that you're planning on a diorama with her legs still tucked inside, because the original kit pieces are a far better bit of quality, especially considering the price tag associated with them. So, that being said, even though the only 1/24 AM parts are made by the same company that gave us another 1/24 Hurricane, this 35 dollar set (CDN) is worth it. How to the parts from this PE set work with the Airfix kit? Quite well. Some of the PE inside the cockpit is stand alone items, while others require their parts. In the stand alone portion, it's quite simple, you simply either add the PE set, or shave off something that was there before. In this case of Trumpy onto Airfix, this isn't so difficult. Where parts are needed, not that often really mind you, one can either fabricate a new part (as I did with the locking levers on the sides of the seat in the post above), or modify existing ones (for example, shaving down the molded rudder adjustment mechanism off the rudder pedals off the piece and replacing it with the new one). Are there items that can't be used? Internally? Yes, there are. One needs to remember, this is for Trumpy's Mk. IIc, so your research is VERY important to ensure you don't add some extra's you don't need. Externally, from the looks of it, you could massage many parts (including the flaps) to work for you. Surprisingly, these kits are both very similar from just looking at how Trumpy set up the PE replacement/addition parts. So, all this good news, what's the down side? Their bloody instructions. There are some messed up pictures in the cockpit, where their blow-up diagrams are more confusing than anything. I'm looking into whether or not I can scan one instruction section, showing an overlap of about 6 parts total, over their landing gear selector switch. The parts are right, the reference pictures I've got finally showed me how to use it, based on the actual Hurricane cockpit. The instructions caused me to make a couple rum and cokes and many smoke breaks. Aside from that, are their any other shortcomings in using this set for the Airfix kit? Well, given the quality of the cockpit in the kit to begin with, no! Whatever the PE set may not cover, there's quite a bit already to begin with when it comes to the Airfix molds. They definitely did their homework. That being said, go with the kit instrument panel. Especially if you luck out and get an older kit like mine where the details are crisp. The kit panel is far superior to the flat faced PE set offered. Cheers! Mark.