JayW

So the canopy frame sits on top of a vac form. How thick is the canopy frame?

And he's off! Speedy you are. Right now I am slow as a tortoise. That Sea Fury 5-blade prop and spinner look awesome. Raw power. It looks as if the engine will not be seen very much. Will you be detailing it?

Status update - I just ordered a set of aft cockpit windows from Shapeways. The transparencies I made myself just do not cut the mustard. Good lord this model is getting expensive. The price of those two windows is as much as a pretty nice 1/48 kit! So was the Malcolm hood. Radio equipment - what goes in there and what does not? I got the story from the P-51B/C Erection and Maintenance manual, and the Operating manual. So WW2 fighters essentially have two kinds of radio equipment - communications and identification. For the P-51B/C, its communications radios were the familiar SCR-522 VHF equipment, and the long wave Detrola equipment. But the ETO never used the Detrola, and that equipment was removed including the long cable extending from the forward fuselage crown to the tail. Too many modelers go through the unnecessary trouble of making that wire and modeling the associated equipment in the cockpit if they are modeling an ETO aircraft. Not me. As for identification equipment, there were several versions of IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) equipment provided. Most of it resided behind the pilot armor on the lower radio shelf, and some of it on the RH side of the cockpit. BTW - it is this equipment that required the detonation switches you see in WW2 aircraft cockpits. The IFF stuff was top secret, and in the event of a survivable crash in enemy territory, it had to be destroyed. But once the fuselage tank was introduced, its volume wiped out that space for the IFF radio equipment. So, the equipment was simply removed, and everything else that was in that compartment (like the battery) was moved to the upper radio rack behind the pilot's head. Period. No IFF capability for those fighters. So just the SCR-522 stuff and nothing more. You will see some of that equipment (what resides on the RH side of the cockpit) next update.

Awesome!!! Stunned. So, I guess I could ask Peter myself, but I am so curious what plans were used to make that 3D printed canopy part? Just pictures?

Could be the best looking spit model I have ever seen Guy. There is something about most spit models where they look like....models. Don't know why. Not so this one. So I guess congratulations to Airfix too? Well done!

Oh Guy - you've been busy while was "down unda". What a beautiful Spitfire. Your black and whites gave me a double take - thought I was looking at a real spit. Congratulations!

So Peter's exposure time for .03 mm layers is 2.5 sec. Mine is 3.5 sec for .05 layers. I guess my question would be are the prints with .05 layers and 2.5 sec exposure underexposed..... I think Peter and I are using the same gray resin...... I might just experiment with .03 layers on the next batch of small parts, coming soon - with 2.5 sec exposure.

Hi OBG. Agree 100%. Wouldn't it be fun to get our hands on the kit instructions and/or drawings? I had a ball incorporating the dead cowl flap mod on the Corsair - I actually had the drawing if you will recall. It would not be difficult for the field mod to cover the holes for the light and the insulator using an interior rough contoured doubler with a rivetted patch same thickness as the skin buildup, shaped like the holes. And using the existing fastener holes with flush rivets or bolts to attach the doubler to the airplane. Same for the antenna mast hole, except it has no skin fasteners, so drill new ones. I will probably assume that to be so, and just duplicate that when I skin this beast. Will be easy. And thinking about it, that would be the Cadillac fix. The Chevy fix would be simple exterior patches, as long a there was enough clearance to the lip of the hood as it slides aft. Also correct with resto's. Pristine metal work as if the hood is an in-production feature. Here is one: No patches. BTW - the wooden antenna mast is getting replaced with a whip style antenna further aft. I will have to do that one day. Something like this: And I don't see any patched holes on that aircraft either. But its also a resto.

Hi Peter! No doubt a response to my "took all day to print" comment. My settings for standard gray resin: I actually have not been using the .03 mm thickness for anything. Always .05 mm. Perhaps I should for the tiny parts. However I would have to guess at the exposure times. What is yours? The crown skin, when turned vertical, was about 3.5 inches tall, or about 90 mm. Doing some arithmetic, I get these times (in seconds) for the steps in a single print cycle: Exposure time - 3.5 s Rest time after retract - 1 s Lift time - 4.9 s Retract time - 3.2 s That gives total time per layer = 3.5 + 1 + 4.9 + 3.2 = 12.6 seconds Total layers = 90/.05 = 1800 Total time = 1800 x 12.6 sec = 22,680 sec, or 378 minutes, or 6.3 hours. But the several bottom layers are 35 sec exposure time plus the same lift and retract times - so total time is more by about a half hour. So it was just short of 7 hours.

Back from Straya as of a few days ago. What a place! And man am I jet lagged. I want to sleep during the day, and I wake up about 3 AM ready to go! Getting better though. So I got the itch to make some more skin panels and see how they look and fit. This would also make the existing panel assemblies a bit more robust and lessen the chance for breakage. Here they are fresh out of the machine, and post cured: Not sure why that side skin on the left looks so ratty, but it sanded out just fine. The side planks printed up well, not so much for the crown skin panel. It suffered a similar deformation I got on my first try with the prop spinner last year: Hard to tell in that picture, but those slanted water lines are where the deformation is. Wiggly contour. That will not do so the part is scrap. I re-oriented the part to print vertically instead of at an angle, and it turned out beautiful: I wish I understood more what goes wrong with some of my prints. Those parts took all day to print up. It was then time to install the aft side planks, and the Sta 168 and 184 full frames. I did this on the jig; here are the side panels after CA bonding, freed from the jig: Yahoo!! The crown skin panel is going to gather dust for quite a while as I further populate the insides of the cockpit, and fabricate the lower radio floor (with the fuselage tank), the upper radio rack, and the cockpit floor. These items along with the side panels will make a good robust forward fuselage assembly one day not to too long from now. Can't wait! But I just had to check out the crown panel in the jig, along with the side panels: Fit is OK not great - gonna require some massage. Starting to look alot like a P-51B. And with the hood: I also dry fit the aft glass into the crown panel and got this: That is a poor fit. Both sides. I checked a couple of dimensions on the clear parts and sure enough they are about .04 inch too short. Reminds me of my Malcolm hood adventures. Well, I was not that impressed by those parts anyway, so I think I am going to pull out my wallet again and have Shapeways make them. That way I will get a better fit, and a better transparency. Next post you will see alot of radio equipment and bracketry for the RH side of cockpit. The Rhino modeling is coming right along. And BTW - here are two questions for those who purport to be P-51 experts: 1. Did the 8th AF in Europe use the IFF (identification friend or foe) radio equipment in fighters? I have a source that says no, and if that is true there are a couple of items I will not have to make. Already I am leaving out the Detrola radio (and the long aerial cable antenna), which I know the 8th AF didn't use in their fighters. But IFF? 2. P-51B/C aircraft had a busy little area right behind the canopy on the crown - a VHF antenna mast, an insulator, and a navigation light: And the crown skin had penetration holes for all three: All three of these items had to be removed for the Malcolm hood modification, to allow the hood to slide aft. My question is does anyone have any pictures of how these holes were covered up? I would like to include that once I skin the crown (if I live long enough!). Later alligators. Thank you for looking in.

!!!! Heavy lifting indeed Chuck. I don't know where to start - let's just say I am impressed. And, I love how you are trying to keep track of config on an aircraft that has seen so much change.

Oh man - the etching primer..... So you used an etching primer on Lope's Hope did you not? Not the same stuff? On the Corsair, and also on the engine cowl of Cripes-a-Mighty, I used Tamiya x-22 clear from a bottle, thinned 50%, this upon the recommendation of Chuck I seem to recall. Sprayed from the airbrush straight onto the aluminum. And it worked at least as well as any of the etching primers, for reasons I cannot explain. And the Corsair is 100% painted. However, neither had a mirror finish. Just polished with wire wool. On Cripes, I used post-it notes for the blue-noser blue because they have a weak adhesion. Hope the next application works. Really hope.

What a wonderful project - I applaud your variety. As opposed to my own which is very narrow. Beautiful Peter. This next project - tell me are the original drawings available for it? That would narrow it down!

Just a quick post before I visit the land down unda'. I Rhino-designed two important cockpit items over the last few days - the engine quadrant and the oxygen regulator. They occupy similar regions right behind the instrument panel mounted to the upper longerons - the engine quadrant on the LH side; the O2 regulator on the RH side. Pictures: VERY TINY PARTS! 100% 3D printed. It shows what a good modern 3D printer can do. Also, for the umpteenth time, I am so thankful to Peter Castle for the decals. Just amazing. I will bond these components on later, to keep them out of harm's way as I continue to populate the cockpit sidewalls with stuff over the coming weeks (months?). Stick with me.

One of the features that so many modelers can trip up on is the rake angle of the gear struts, regardless of what the model is. Especially true if the model does not have a feature that locks down the angle well. I am not familiar enough with the Spitfire to be able to tell from your pictures if the gear strut angle (when viewed from the side) is good. If by some chance the angle is too severe, and the gear strut should be more upright, and if so, could a repair be made without compromising the model, that would solve part of the problem at least. And could get you into the territory where sanding can accomplish the rest. But, your gear angle might be right on, in which case ignore this. I also notice the lower struts are modelled almost or entirely fully extended. Many model manufacturers make this ridiculous mistake - failing to model the landing gear as they would be with typical airplane weight on them. I have seen examples of gear struts slammed down to the stops, and fully extended. Also true for tail wheels. I suspect (but don't know for sure) a nearly full gross weight Spit would be showing considerably less chrome than what you have here. In theory, if the gear were modified to cut on half (or 3/4) the amount of lower strut shown, then that would act to lessen that tire flat mismatch, although not very much. Just sayin'.....and, to make such a modification involves major surgery of that beautiful gear strut, and a total redo of the torque links. So I would fully understand a decision not to do so! Lastly, that last picture you took suggests to me that the tire flat is very slight; there could be more flat easily. Are you sure that sanding is not a good option? Personally I'd be beside myself, and greatly pissed off at Eduard for an obvious gaff. I suppose chocks are a good fix. A shame though.

I have sanded down tire flats before by gently dragging the model on some fine sandpaper. It was not difficult. Those tires look great, with a nice little flat. Hopefully the gap is small enough that it doesn't produce too dramatic a revised flat.

Wow Tom!!!

Last post I described a rather serious mistake I made, installing a LH side fuselage frame on the RH side fuselage panel, and the RH side frame on the LH fuselage panel. The big problem being the frames are not shaped the same at all, and things attach to them. The frames are located just aft of the instrument panel, so components affected are the bomb salvo quadrant on the LH side, and the spare lamp stowage panel on the RH side. I am happy to announce though that after some modifications to the frames, all is going to be OK, and even the most astute P-51 expert will probably not notice. Here is the RH side with the spare lamp stowage panel and door: Almost like a frame on top of a frame.....That is how I restored the proper frame profile. I will show the LH side a bit further down the post. But first - Did any of you see something funny about the oval shaped skin cutout for the flare gun port I posted last time? Here is my model: And a real airplane: IT'S NOT IN THE RIGHT PLACE!!!! Oh gawd - another big gaffe. How did I do that and how can I fix it? It is too far forward by a good .4 inch. Well, it turns out that I put that hole and the flare gun port between two stub frames, instead of immediately aft of the aft stub frame. Why? Cannot explain. A senior moment perhaps. What should go there instead is a small electrical panel which controls those radiator doors (coolant and oil) under the wing. That turns out to be a good thing, because that panel can largely hide the ugly fix I had to do. Here is what it looks like after I dremmeled off the existing flare gun port, and re-installed a new one in the proper place: From the outside: Plugged: Do you think I was focused? Laser focused? I was. Also I was lucky. The electrical panel, as you will see below, does an effective job of covering up the old hole from the inside. And I will skin the outside in aluminum, completely hiding the offending hole. What a dummy I am. Hopefully that is the end of the big mistakes. Along with this fix effort, I actually moved the ball forward some with completion of the control pedestal, the radiator control electrical panel, the cable guard panel directly behind the control pedestal, and the bomb salvo panel and quadrant - all this stuff on the LH side of the cockpit: Many things I can comment on. With almost no exception, everything you see there is 3D printed and designed from the original engineering drawings. Note the bomb salvo quadrant and its support panel in front of the control pedestal, which completely cover the wrongly installed fuselage frame I mentioned at the beginning of this post. I am sooo happy I got away with it. Note also the area on that cable guard with paint scraped off - that is for the flare gun stowage bracket and bag. Components I need to figure out how to make.... Note also the fabulous decals all over the place. Once again - a huge shout-out to Peter Castle aka Airscale who provided me quite a while ago with copies of the Lope's Hope special decal set. They are being put to good use here, and lots of other places as this build progresses. Finally note that there is no sign of that mislocated flare gun hole - blocked by the electrical panel. Whew! Well just getting started with the cockpit. Like any thorough cockpit effort it is going to be very involved and take alot of time. Plenty of options what to do next: RH side radio equipment mounting structure Engine control quadrant LH side Flare gun stowage bag Electrical and fuel control panels under the IP. O2 control unit RH side And one of these days I have to tackle the Malcolm hood mod stuff - drive chains, crank handle, and other trinkets. I have no drawings to help me. Just photos. Lots of photos. OK, no more mistakes!! - Next week I visit Aussieland to see my daughter in Sydney for a week and some. Never been south of the equator before. Probably no post until after that trip. Take care!

Wow Guy - very convincing chipping so far. I cannot remember - did you apply a layer of future between silver and topcoat? You must have.

Hahaha! A double-take picture. For a moment I thought I was looking at a real fort interior! So Pat - you put a decal into every single rectangle?

Beautiful masking Guy! I think I'd have made a mess out of that!

Had it not been for your post and the picture of that wonderful canopy, I probably would not have gone to Shapeways and their Accura 60 clear. Worked just about to perfection!

I see and understand almost all you are doing here. And it's a master class in aluminum skinning. Tell me - how is your wrist and forearm after pressing thousands of rivet marks? My own body was the limiting factor in many of my past skinning efforts on the Corsair.

While waiting for the Shapeways Malcolm hoods (I ordered two) to arrive, I got to work once again with Rhino. This time the control pedestal. After quite a few hours of work, I got this: I used quite a few excellent engineering drawings to model it up. Worry not about the featureless trim knobs on top - Airscale did some up for his Lope's Hope a couple years ago and I have his Rhino models of them. I will shamelessly plagiarize. The rest of the stuff - mine all mine. And then - The Malcolm hoods package showed up. Oh boy! Recall now what has transpired over the last few months with the Malcolm hood. My first couple of hoods were printed from a problematic clear resin where I got fairly close to an acceptable part, but not quite. The big issue was clarity and a slight brownish hue. My second set was from a more friendly clear resin, which gave me a nicer looking part, but alas I lost some dimensional control and they were too short causing a mismatch with the windshield frame. So what I was looking for from Shapeways was a more dimensionally accurate, and very clear part (after burnishing/polishing/Future). Here is one of the two parts fresh out of the box: Pretty rough, and I was a bit worried there would remain some cloudiness at the more curvy areas. First though, was a dimensional check for proper height. To my immense relief the parts appeared to be right on. That allowed me to print up nominal (current design) side rails without modification to account for height variation. Meanwhile, after many hours of sanding and burnishing and polishing and one Future dip, I got this: Front to back - the new part polished, the second unpolished part, and the burnishing molds. The molds were indispensable. What a difference. Thank you Shapeways! A $40 plus part right there. And to me, worth it. I will be proud for that part to sit atop Cripes A Mighty. That paved the way for another batch of 3D printed parts: Most of these parts are for the control pedestal. The tall slender parts are the Malcolm Hood side rails (two sets). Here is the new hood sporting those side rails, ready to snap onto the rollers: And (drum-roll please) fitted onto the fuselage: Fit to the windshield is nearly perfect. Whew. The Malcolm hood journey - it's been a long worrisome one. But I think the issue has been put to bed. This is going to work great. I now show you all my past and present efforts at Malcolm hood transparencies (the Shapeways polished part in front): It was a process....if you are sick and tired of the Malcolm hood, well you won't be seeing it for a while. It's going to gather dust. Next post I will be building up the control pedestal and also concentrating on addressing the reversed station 104 frames. Recall last post I put the LH set on the RH side, and vice versa, presenting a host of issues. A self-inflicted wound.... A sneak preview of the pedestal: Til next time. Thanks for looking in.

Wow!!! Great 3D print parts. I know what goes into parts like that. Alot of research on the config, and alot of digital modeling time. How is it you are going so quickly? Takes me forever.