Fanes

Not a huge haul, but I found three kits for quite competitive prices and couldn't resist. Theyre somewhat of a belated Christmas present to myself

I can - maybe - clarify that one. According to "merlin PR Spitfire in detail", the intervalometer is integrated in the Type 35 controller (in Tolga's first picture). Another bit of information that I found: The FR IXc had the camera switch on the controll column - below the gun button.

Good question, Tolga! I haven't found anything regarding the controller's position and have to admit, that I omitted it in my FR IXc build. One thing I can assure: the gun sight was present, at least on MK915. There's a photo in "Merlin PR Spitfires", where it's visible from the outside.

Will it become an early A6M5 with the exhaust system and cowl flaps from an A6M3?

I'm a little bit jealous there, Ernest! Haven't been on my gravel bike since Wednesday, even though we had perfect conditions here in Munich (sunny and dry). So hats of to you fighting the poor weather up north.

Thank you very much for the praise, Paolo. If you ever start a Revell Mk.IX, stay clear of the eduard resin cockpit! The Barracuda cockpit parts look so much better and are for sure an easier install as well. Took your advice and checked the spinner against the fuselage. It's a so-so fit diameter wise. Especially with the resin part. So removing more material from it would of course increase the diameter of the facing area and therefor worsen the issue. Shimming it is. 0.5 mm plastic seems to do the trick: Already glued on and the spinner's outline traced with a pencil (+margin of error). I didn't hesitate to long and cut all the unnecessary plastic of. It still needs some smoothing and reworking of the lost rivets Buuuut it does look consistent enough, so that I can live with the result. Yeah, it's not perfect but I think it's good enough for the overall appearance.

John, that is fantastic news! I'm wishing you to fully heal and hopefully a pain free life in a not so distant future. Cheers Joachim (huge AIMS fan)

Keeping this rolling Well, my over the weekend cycling trip got cancelled, so there was a lot of time for the Spitfire. I applied Mr. Surfacer 500 with a small brush to fill all the small imperfections around the windscreen. Here's where it's at after careful sanding. The next task will be my least favourite: rerivetting and rescribing.. The drying time wasn't left unused, so I flipped the Spit on its back and tackled the Barracuda carb intake. Since the fit is less than perfect and the glueing area rather small, shims of 0.5 mm plastic were added to ease the process. First up the rear part was attached with quite an amount of thick CA. Note the gap at the front. After a decent drying time the front part was forced into fit with a rubber band and again quite a lot of CA. The next issue is already peeking through: the Barracuda part is about 0.5 mm too long compared to the Revell nose (or the latter too short..). So, there's two options: 1. sand/shorten the resin part, which will be quite hard to keep parallel 2. shim the fuselage Not sure what to do, but I'm leaning towards the latter.

Great work Ernest. I can't say what I like best. All the fine detailing work, the subtle shading or the fine weathering. Looking to the diorama with the figures - guess, we're in for a treat.

Hehe, good to hear that from a Revell-Spitfire-conversion-expert Past me would have agreed a 100% with you, Aaron. Maybe I'll change my mind after my first Tamiya Spitfire (classic Mk.IXc in desert camo).

Thank you very much Ernest (still impressed by your German!). It's a long project and I'm learning a lot on the way. Hopefully I'll get to finish it one day. Grüße aus dem sonnigen München in die Oberpfalz!

More seam work I'm still haven't finished setting up shop, but was able to do some small stuff on the pink Spit. The rear canopy wasn't a decent fit (too narrow at the bottom) but could be forced into position with a rubber band and Tamiya extra thin. As mentioned, the windscreen is a no fit (thanks to the eduard IP sitting too high. That's as good as it got with the clear aprt being sanded paper thin at the front. Milliiput to the rescue. Quite a lot was put on around the holes and steps and was smoothed out with a wet cotton bud. This will need some more filling and sanding to get smooth, but we'll get there, The horizontal stabs recieved a similar treatment. With some adhesion issues on the bottom. Will fix that with CA after the Milliput is fully cured. This is taking way longer that I anticipated and yesterday I made the decision to get rid of my second Revell Mk.IX kit. Anyone in for a cheap kit? The second recon Spit (PR XI) will be based on Tamiya's Mk.VIII - started looking for one just now.

It's black basing and not pre-shading, but on Doogs youtube is a nicely painted P-40 with an azure blue underside. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4gdXS68xSuU Might be worth a look?

Oh my, what wonderful news! Is it too early to ask for a Hs 126?

Fantastic start Quang! I'll stick around for sure

If you create an account, the price drops to 107 €

I'd like to enter this year's raffle as a recipient only.

Not sure why, but directly on their website (https://www.axels-modellbau-shop.de/katalog/revell-04968-hawker-hurricane-mk-iib-1-32.html) it's offered for 38.5 €

Little babysteps - the canopy and windscreen are my current nightmares. They will have to wait until I have sorted out all the modelling related stuff. Started a new job last week and hadd wo move to a new home.

It does help a lot - I'm sold!

I was just waiting for Quang to write the same

Fantastic - another Falco!

Ernest, I envy your perseverance! The tape wrap looks incredibly consistent, even in the macro shot. And +1 what Gaz said

I'm a friend of subtle pin washes, so I really like what you did so far

+1 for the Nowotny scheme Maybe a stupid question: isn't that an A-4 instead of an A-8 airframe?