Kotare Spitfire Ia - finished

[Sepp]

Greetings!

 

I was going to jump on the Anniversary group build, but I had to move this one off the shelf to get at a P-51, so here we are.

 

Usually, I like to have some idea where I'm headed, but I haven't decided what scheme to go for - might be Al Deere's ride, but I think I'm leaning towards one of AR213's iterations - either with the red, white and blue nose, or with one of the schemes it wore in the Battle of Britain movie... but, with or without four-bladed prop? Or as a "what might have been", with BoB markings, but in "official" trim?  Sky or black/white underside? If the latter, with or without 'silver' bits? Decisions, decisions...

 

Anyhoo, obligatory box shot:

 

I've collected a range of after market goodies, but I don't know how much of it will make it onto the kit.  Wheels, definitely, Yahu panel possibly. I hear good things about the detail of the kit's offerings, so we'll see about the rest.

 

Expect, as usual, big gaps between updates, you know how it is.

 

Cheers,

 

Sepp

Edited August 7, 2024 by Sepp

[Philbucknall]

looking forward to seeing what you do with this kit mate. Loved the motorbike you did recently.

[Phil88]

i will follow, i 've got this one at home too

[Biggles87]

Me too, haven’t got one yet, waiting for the Mk V.

 

John

[Shoggz]

I can follow any amount of these beauties! 

 

Built two already, with three more in the stash - and a mark Va on order.

 

Looking forward to seeing what you do with it Sepp. Any version of AR213 would be interesting, as I've not seen that one done before from this kit.

[Sepp]

5 hours ago, Philbucknall said:

looking forward to seeing what you do with this kit mate. Loved the motorbike you did recently.

Cheers, Phil, good to see you on here

 

[Archimedes]

Looking forward to this one Sepp!

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[MikeMaben]

I vote for the latter , with or without the silver bits.

 

Hi Mr. Bucknall 

[Philbucknall]

On 8/11/2024 at 8:59 AM, MikeMaben said:

I vote for the latter , with or without the silver bits.

 

Hi Mr. Bucknall 

Hello there Sir!

[Sepp]

Thoughts on options.

 

57 OTU, red/white/blue:

 

The easiest option, I can build it out of the box: good references exist for the sides, but guesswork required for top and bottom of the cowling markings.  Roughly applied second serial over the fin flash is no biggie.  Being a part of one of the later mk I batches to be delivered (as an aside, at least one reference has it as originally ordered as a Ib), I suspect AR213 had the later undercarriage lever, but I can live with that.

 

BoB:

 

Some background - in the film, Spits had serials in the range N3310 to N3445 and the Huris H3418 to H3430.  AR213 wore N3311, 12, 14, 16 and 22; all of these were, irl, allocated to BP Defiants (or in the earlier 'N' iteration, a cancelled order for the Norman Thompson NT2.b).  AR213 was at that time fitted with a merlin 35 - from what I can glean from pictures, it appears like the cowling was per the mk I, but I can't be sure.  It will require grafting on the later six-stub exhausts - no problem - and I have Mk VIII which can donate the prop as its destined for some Laminar Flow love, but if the cowling requires surgery, this option is out out as I'm not looking for "fun and games" with this build - shake and bake, as far as possible, is the order of the day. 

 

If I go for the "what might have been" option, I would rather not use a serial worn by a different, real, aircraft, so I'd go for one from a blackout block - probably X2213.  It would have a slightly-before-the-battle scheme with black/white underside, and I could use the Rotol spinner and prop, per KL-B, (the provided DH spinner was used for a headlight reflector on my Zündapp).  I would then probably give it the sqn code used by Michael Caine's character, Sqn. Ldr. Canfield, but without kill marks (enough young men died on both sides, without inventing any new ones.  I must be getting old, to think like that).

 

I'm leaning towards the latter, although it takes me far away from the original intent to depict AR213 in some way - and if I'm going to do such a scheme, it may as well be a real one. Anyhoo, there's still bags of time to decide.  Thoughts and input appreciated!

 

In the meantime, I have started, but no pix as yet. 

 

Sepp

 

 

Edited November 6, 2024 by Sepp

[Archimedes]

Good thoughts @Sepp - I rather like the idea of you maybe doing Canfield’s bird because I like movie aircraft.

 

Kind regards,

Paul

[Sepp]

Ahoy!

 

I have actually managed to make some progress and, per SOP, out-of-the-box has not lasted very long. Caveat: there are amoebae on distant planets that know more about the Spitfire I than I do, so there will inevitably be some anomalies.  I apologise to the Spit experts in advance.

 

First thing to note is that the kit provides seat backs both with and without a moulded-in harness.  if you're going to use the part without the harness, you'll have to remove the straps from the seat sides, as only the seat back/pan is duplicated:

 

The cables for the TR.9 wireless control, as provided, end at the forward edge of the entry hatch/door, which looks a bit... odd.  I cut them off, drilled two holes through the control body and added Evergreen rod, long enough to reach back to frame 13. I trimmed the long "ears" back once it had all set up:

 

The kit doesn't include an oxygen hose (why do manufacturers not include them? They go to great lengths to depict just about eveything else) so I made up a length by wrapping 0.3mm lead wire round a 0.6mm mandrel, transferred the coil to a 0.4mm lead wire core, and tightened the coils up:

 

After some paint and some brass tube to represent the connector (awful pic, couldn't persuade the phone cam to focus):

 

I used the kit instrument panel in the end; the kit decals went down with only one hitch, which I cleared with an Airscale replacement.  The result:

 

At this point, I noticed that the airspeed indicator doesn't have a needle, and the artificial horizon doesn't have a horizon bar (which is kinda fundamental, really), so I added them with tiny fragments from more Airscale decals:

 

The various cockpit parts painted and decalled (left fuselage half not shown, mainly because I forgot to include it!):

 

Routing of the wires to the voltage regulator follows what is usually represented, although the manufacturer's drawing shows them both as disappearing into frame 11. 

 

I went as far as adding tiny pieces of styrene rod in the lightening holes on the right side - total waste of time as you can't see them once the cockpit is built up.  The lower right side of the frame is a mess because I added the wire before checking whether it would foul the battery - it did, so off it came:

 

Cockpit tub built up:

I added brass rod painted silver to represent the control wires for the undercarriage pump.

 

I wasn't going to add the elevator and rudder control cables as my wobbly old hands found it impossible to work with thread, but had a fit of enthusiasm after assembling the tub; that meant I had to use thin brass rod - I cheated with the rudder wire attachments; the cables are folded in half and slotted into short lengths of brass tube, which I slid over each rod. 

 

The resulting cables are over scale, but at least you can actually see them - and they don't look too bad in the flesh.  As I'd decided not to include the flare chutes (which I understand were often removed on the real thing) I had to knock up a frame from styrene card, which I fixed just aft of frame 16. I painted it black after taking the pic, but there was no need as it can't be seen once the fuselage is closed up:

 

I'm annoyed I forgot to remove the seam on the oxygen bottle, but hey ho - and it isn't obvious in natural light.

 

Having closed up the fuselage, I became aware of an oddity.  The kit provides the throttle quadrant for the two-pitch early prop, with the pitch control being a plunger just behind the quadrant (you can make it out in the upper of the last two pics), however the quadrant for the constant speed props has the pitch control mounted on the quadrant itself:

 

I think I can get at the offending article to correct it.

 

As an aside - others have noted that the fit of the kit's various parts is very good - and I completely agree.  I almost forgot to glue the seat to frame 11, because it happily clipped into place.  I found I had to remove paint on the joints, because it interfered with the fit.  The fuselage will only require the tiniest pass with filler here and there, and that's probably down to my heavy-handed preparation.  Well done, Kotare!

 

That's all for now, next jobs are finishing up the fuselage, and assembling the wings.

 

Cheers,

 

Sepp.

 

Edited August 27, 2024 by Sepp

[geedubelyer]

Lovely, neat progress. 

 

Good stuff. 

[Thunnus]

Love what you are doing here!  From the neat oxygen hose to adding the control wiring/linkages below the seat and even adding a needle to a dial!  Great stuff and I totally relate to the build decisions that you are making!

[LSP_Kevin]

Awesome detailing!

 

Kev