airscale

In 2018 after my 1/18 spitfire won at Telford, I was approached by an aircraft restoration company acting on behalf of one of their clients (a Hollywood producer i was told) who was having a full size spitfire restored. It was for a commission quote to build 'his' spitfire to the same standard. I told them £25,000... They didn't bite, if they had, they would have got a bargain in terms of invested professional time Do not undervalue what you do provided the outcome is equivalent to a professional artisan or artist

Love it Jay - the depth you go to to get it as it should be is an example to me to never skimp on the research, and literlly build what you see or what is in the drawings just unbelievable stuff Peter

now this is something I have been waiting to see again just unbelievable wiork Pete - so glad you are back on it Peter

Thank you all Well I better do an update then Cees when I left you last, I was working on all the little bobbins in the cockpit - switch panels, control boxes etc - most of these are PE faces, custom decals & toggle switches from wire, some of the bigger knobs & buttons are modified watch parts (cogs & shafts etc)... ..these are the front cockpit right hand side.. ..and fitted - the fuse panels in the lower half were first made up, then finely chopped coloured wire dropped onto blobs of CA - a bit like decorating a cake with hundreds & thousands.. ..same for the left.. ..here the knurled wheel was a modified 1/24 tailwheel (Fw190 i think) with ribs added.. ..rear right.. and rear left.. ..the rear bulkhead has quite a lot of complex work and it's own buoy and target towing control panel - the yellow thing in the middle is a pull cord to cut the towing cable.. ..when dry fitted in the airframe it starts to look like this.. ..then as we modellers like to do, we start to cover it all up.. ..here with the upper decking.. ..and when built up the cockpit starts to look a bit busier - in all areas there is still quite a lot of cabling & wiring to add.. ..and thats it for now - until next time.. TTFN Peter

Hi Jo & welcome! to casually mention you not only know, but may bring onto LSP my all time modelling hero and source of my inspiration to skin models in metal the one and only Alan Clark is about the most exciting news I could want to hear Alan is quite rightly a legend around here and his models are quite literally the benchmark we all aspire to I can't wait to hear more! Peter

looks amazing Geoff - well done!! couple of things may help - one, don't worry too much about any rough areas or pillowing, I find with a good buck you can actually sand out many sins - the litho will take it just fine and it just unifies everything once its stuck down permanantly ..now as to sticking down, if using contact adhesive as you know you only get one shot, and with something like this where it may make contact on it's way to it's final position it will be really tricky - I suggest find a hinge point (the top maybe) where you can add a tape hinge to hold the desired position in one axis and if will slip without touching into its final spot you are onto a winner. The alternate might be to CA it once it's in place by wicking it around the edge.. I only offer this because I have had trouble in the past where something fits like a glove to the buck, but there is no way to contact stick it without bending it open to minimise the touchpoints (it can always be bent back afterwards) really enjoying watching you nailing it and I would add you probably started with the hardest part so the rest will be a breeze all the best Peter

excellent start! love to see scratchbuilt stuff and this looks a fine candidate Peter

hi again everyone & thanks for stopping by Hi Will & welcome! thank you for taking a look, I expect like me, you will find your spiritual home in LSP - this place is just wonderful to learn, be inspired, laugh and hang out Hey Torben great to hear from you and do please restart with those shelf queens, always love to follow what you get up to I have been messing around with lots of little bits, but it's ok as it's all in the cockpit and I just lurve doing cockpits ..I took a look at the seat - I started this back in 2018 and used the base part as a basis for correction ..it's made of bakelite sort of stuff and needed the sides building out for these sort of 'wings' on the sides.. ..details, seams & rivets were added and the rear cushion made from milliput - the seams on this are lead wire and my sculpting skills are not very well developed ..then they were painted - lots of the tonal stuff seems lost in the picture.. ..also made the adjustment assembly & lower mount struts.. ..and it sort of goes here.. ..then made up PE bits for various consoles and fittings - many of these are in layers, much the same as the instrument panel.. ..after paint and decals I have a lot of work ahead still to do all the switches and knobs and make up the laminates plus glazing for those with dials.. ..speaking of instrument panels, I made this one from custome PE, custom airscale decals I tacked onto a trade order and lots of bits & bobs.. ..its as close as I can make it to the one in Steve Long's care in Oz.. ..yet to make the compass that goes in the compass stand.. ..long way to go yet, but it sort of goes here.. TTFN Peter

ready when you are Rainer Peter

love it Max! I have a real soft spot for the Fury now and this one is going to be a stunner ..one of the hardest parts of modelling one is choosing a scheme and I think you have landed on a winner Peter

Hi everyone & thank you Hi Jay well, I was using 3D back then - my Spit had 3D wheels & Spinner so that was where I really started to learn how to use it - definately learned a lot of new stuff though - my last model was fully scratched and for the first time I made a basswood buck which Tigger vacformed for me, plus rigging a biplane & representing fabric was all new so plenty in the toolchest for future models I have been busying myself with the Firefly - having sorted out the upper fuselage shape I could get back to trying to make the forward cockpit fuselage walls and do it in such a way I could still get inside to detail it.. I started by skinning the walls and the cockpit coaming at the front - I figured if I just built it all first I could figure out access after.. ..then I decided to just cut away the walls and front to have one cockpit skin 'pod' and then drew up some line drawings for the structure & components.. ..after skinning the inner walls with litho (after scribing key locations) I added the station ribs from plastic or litho... ..also developed the basic floor - it was higher than when I originally cut the fuselage way back when.. ..and the basic structure starts to come together - the gaps all close up when squeezed.. ..with the basic structure done, I wanted to get down some paint as otherwise it all becomes a bit difficult to cover all the nooks & crannies - in looking at the refs I have, the bird I am doing has a 'black' cockpit, but when seen here it is quite grey - I realise this is under flash photography, but it is still not black as you can see in the contrast between switch panels & structure.. ..I had been using a tamiya rattle can of Nato black as thats quite a good tonal black, but I thought it too dark, so I mixed some MRP super matt black and blue grey and shot that over everything after priming.. ..a quick scour with 0000 wire wool to lift some detail and they are done.. ..rear walls, floor & bulkhead.. upper rear bulkheads ..rear deck.. ..cockpit pod.. ..pilots seat bulkhead.. ..cockpit floor.. ..and I am happier with the colour now.. ..now all I need to do is make dozens of detail parts like this one - the throttle quadrant.. ..it's missing it's labelling, but the custom decals are due soon so I can get stuck into the IP and stuff I really enjoy TTFN Peter

Hi everyone Hi Thor - thanks for that - I need to check this as if it's the yellow one, I think that is an earlier Firefly with the chin scoop, but it sure would be helpful if it is a late on. in fact I expect many of the details / panels / rivet patterns were common Hi Matt - it was the F11 - I just quite liked the look of it and think I found one with quite a bit of natural metal skinning maybe one day Hi Torben - welcome back my friend - hope all is well so, I thought I would drop in a quick update even though it is partially one step backwards to get two steps forwards in parts.. I started by making up the rear cockpit sidewalls and starting to detail them with the gizmo's I can see in pics.. also the structural parts like ribs and a big angled beam that traverses each side.. ..these nestle under the rear decking.. ..also made up the basic floor & rear seat mount, with what I think are battery mount trays forward - as this is a target tug, I am not sure yet if the actual batteries were in it, but the trays certainly were.. ..painted up some of the stuff and made up some fuse / breaker boxes that live somewhere here on the sidewalls too.. ..there are a bunch of decals I am having made that have all the labels etc for the IP & gizmo's but they won't arrive until the end of August.. ..in the rear, the sidewalls are not fixed, they have spot CA to hold them in place while I shape the outsides to conform with the fuselage - I wanted to do the same at the front cockpit in adding removable walls so I can detail the interior without having to do keyhole surgery.. only problem was, when I added the sidewalls and was getting the aperture square, I noticed the entire upper fuselage between the cockpits was pissed to one side, so nothing for it but to chop out all the skin and structure and start again.. ..it was this axis that was off - all the bulkheads were not in a line so new ones added.. you can also see where the forward fuselage where the IP sort of sits was off as well - the black lined template shows where the skin should be.. ..this was all redone & reskinned - much happier now.. ..canopy rails also let into the structure.. ..seat bulkhead is now right.. same with forward bulkhead.. ..I need to work out how best to do the cockpit now - I might chop out both fuselage sides, or I may cut out one so I can get inside - the rear sides will just break away.. .. a long way to go, but at least the basic airframe is in order now.. TTFN Peter

Umm - it looks like a perfect facsimile of the real one down to about six decimal places Geoff wonderful to see not only how you are going about it, but the pace with which you are moving - really impressive It is also clear you are having a ball & with results like that, I am not surprised Bravo Peter

Forking hell - that is something VERY special just magnificent work Oliver - you are an absolute master of your craft quite incredible Peter

Howdy folks So, i looked at what I might do next and of the shortlist only a couple on my 'mildly want to' fitted in my display cabinet - a P36 Hawk, a Goshawk, a CR32, an H1 and all the ones on my 'really want to' didn't... Firefly, Sea Fury, Defiant, Blenheim and a few outliers like a Meteor, Spartan Executive and Lockheed 12 were all considered, but in the end, I did want a Firefly so I have restarted it I started by taking the balsa wings I had made and giving them a bit of skin integrity by screeding with P38 filler and a shot of primer - then started to make up the radiator sections.. ..the first bit has the end ribs and the radiator box - this is as 90 degrees to the fuselage, not running the same angle as the wing leading edge.. ..these were then shaped & primed.. ..then a top panel and the leading edge which cuts in lower than the rib profile.. ..sorted & primed - for now these are just general shapes to start me off.. ..with the wings partially sorted it was time to start on the fillet shapes - these have a distinct profile and curve upwards from the trailing edge - so this was defined with brass sheet to keep the shape no matter how hard I sand at it and will result in a sharp edge.. ..this shot reminds me of the start of the build where there is lego and all sorts making up the central fuselage block.. ..foil tape was added to the wings and they were slotted into place so i could build up to them with P38.. rough and ready, but this is the start needed before refining the shapes, the wings just break out from the filler as it won't stick to the ali tape.. ..the finished fillets can be seen here, along with the fuselage sides for the rear cockpit - there is so much to go in here, I need access so made up the sides with spots of CA so they can be broken out again once shaped.. ..the sides also had brass L shapes to hold the deck that sits on the top, and also some inside to define where the sides will sit in the aperture.. ..got some more P38 on and started shaping.. best get all this done before there is loads of delicate detail in there ..and with a shot of primer.. ..I also had the PE I originally designed remade after I made a few changes - here is the IP.. ..after lots of filler & engineering I felt like a change so made the rear bulkhead in the observers position - the tubes are for sono buoys I think.. ..it will sit in here something like this... ..so thats it - underway again - she is a big girl too... The only thing is, I can only find one late Firefly in the UK - in the reserve collection at Yeovilton. I wrote to them asking if i could get access to take pictures but they said no... the aircraft is in a hangar while they are moving aircraft around and she said it would be 'too dangerous' and to write back in March 2022... Needless to say, if anyone knows anyone in Yeovilton's staff, please let me know as I am quite a well behaved civilised individual and could likely be in and out in 30 mins TTFN Peter