1/24 Spitfire Mk IXc, Kicked Up A Notch, FINISHED!

[Greif8]

Clean and above all precise work Chuck, the norm for you at all times.  I can never get masking agent to run as precisely as you and have to mask the outer edges with tape.  Never expected to see the nose cone of an aircraft on a car's hood - neat photo that!

 

Ernest

[chuck540z3]

Nov 15/25

 

 

A very minor update, but I thought I would share my recent experiences with the 1/24 Buchon Scale Models Spitfire Propeller compared to the kit one.  We modelers can be overly OCD at times and the following is a probably a good example of that. 

 

As shown above, there is no rivet or nose cone detail to the kit spinner, which I think is a fairly big omission, especially when the focus of this build is the beautiful Merlin engine.  To sort of fix that, I added my own detail with a scriber and a needle in a pin vice as follows.

 

 

Not bad and certainly better than nothing, but it has lots of small flaws with the rivet placement, partly due to the limitations of the kit part and partly due to the limitation of my old hands and eyes.  😉  To put it simply, it’s just not good enough!

 

I was aware that Buchon makes a 1/24 resin propeller for the old Airfix Spitfire Mk I and Mk V kits, but there was no mention of the newer Mk VIII and this Mk IX kits.  Are there any real differences?  Further, this prop is expensive, especially after shipping, with a cost of ~$70 Cdn or $50 US, so buying one to find out is not an easy decision.  After sleeping on it for a night, I just had to have one, so I bought one from Hannants 9 days ago and it arrived only yesterday, which is really good time considering it arrived through our crappy Canadian postal service.

 

Here's a pic of what you get.  The parts are cast fairly well, although there were a few air bubbles and chipped parts that were easy to fix.  The real pain was cutting the spinner off the casting block cleanly without damaging the delicate U-shaped openings that wrap around the propeller.

 

 

The instructions are just a pic on the front of the box.  Good enough I guess.

 

 

The Buchon prop blades are the same length, shape and pitch as the kit ones with the spinner covering the base, so that question has been answered.  However, the prop spindle is attached to the base, rather than having a hole for the spindle attached to the engine, as it should be for the Mk IX kit.  A check of the old Airfix Mk I and Mk V kit instructions indicate this to be the case, so that is why this kit is only recommended for them and not the newer kits.

 

 

While the spindle could be cut off the Buchon center part and a hole drilled for the spindle instead, I see no compelling reason to use the Buchon propeller parts if the spinner fits the kit prop.  The Buchon prop blades are no better than the kit ones and the kit prop parts fit the engine perfectly and have more detail, although most of that will be covered by the spinner.

 

 

In order for the Buchon spinner to fit the kit prop, the prop openings need some sanding, while the center of the spinner needs to be hollowed out.  Further, the front of the kit prop needs to be carved back with a #11 knife so that it doesn’t touch the back of the spinner,

 

 

A David Union Router or Dremel tool with a pointed grinder tip did the trick.

 

 

The two large depressions between each prop blade on the Buchon and kit spinners are not fasteners per se, but access holes to lock and unlock the spinner from the rear of the prop.  For this reason, they should be drilled out.

 

 

After lots of sanding and careful grinding, the Buchon spinner fits the kit prop almost perfectly and looks a lot better than my prior attempt of creating this detail on the left.  Is it worth $70?  Not likely, but I’m very happy with the new results, which have been enhanced with a dark wash.

 

 

Here’s a couple of pics with the prop attached to the engine.  Much better, if I do say so myself!

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

[Shoggz]

Beautiful work Chuck. I modified the kit spinner on my 1:24 Mk.IX, but didn’t do it as well as you did!

[dennismcc]

Definately the extra mile, looks loads better.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[scvrobeson]

Certainly does look sharper, but that's a high price tag for just the one piece. Guess you pay for quality.

 

 

Matt 

[chuck540z3]

Thanks Guys!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited November 17, 2025 by chuck540z3

[Greif8]

Top shelf work joining the AM prop parts to the ones, and then further detailing them Chuck.  I am pretty frugal and probably would have told myself that any detailing I had done to the kit prop was good enough, unless it looked terrible.  $50.00 is a lot of money for a prop, in my book, but you got the full value of your purchase to be sure!

 

Ernest

[chuck540z3]

Nov 21/25

 

I was planning on starting the painting process, but there’s still a lot of attachments that need to be attended to, so I thought I would get to those first.  The main task remaining is the landing gear and like most kits, there’s a seam line running through them, but on this kit, they are big and ugly.  Here’s a pic of the front of the starboard leg Part J12.

 

 

The rear is even worse, with a distinct offset to the two main clamps.  Thankfully this side will be hidden against the landing gear door!

 

 

Sometimes there are aftermarket replacements, and for this kit I can find two.  Scale Aircraft Conversions always has a set made of pot metal, which are rough, no better than the kit parts and a waste of money, while Buchon has a set made of stronger brass.  Like the Buchon prop I bought earlier, however, the landing gear is made for the earlier Airfix Mk I and V kits and the gear leg anchor does not fit this kit at all.  Further, it needs a lot of cleanup which is hard to do with metal and paint doesn’t stick to it very well, even with a metal primer, so I always avoid metal landing gear when I can.  The solution is to just deal with the kit parts and do the best I can to clean them up.

 

A test fit of the gear legs into their respective receptacles, which were painted and glued into the wing long ago, reveals that the fit is super tight and access to opening the receptacles up is quite limited with the air intakes in the way.

 

 

Here’s a closer look at the problem with the gear leg inserted into the anchor, Part E2, on another sprue.  It’s so tight it won’t slide into the recess more than a third.  The solution, although tedious, is to carefully sand the gear leg down until it fits smoothly, so that insertion into the wing at the end of the build is easy to do.

 

 

The results, after careful trimming and sanding with thin sanding sticks.  Alclad Aluminum paint was used on the gear legs and Chrome on the oleos, although you can’t really see much of a difference in color from these pics.  I also added a couple of steel rods and vent screws to replicate several pics I found in the Montforton reference book.  According to the book, the gear leg is a big shock absorber with oil and nitrogen under pressure, which is dangerous if the castellated nut (big circular part with slots) at the top of the oleo is loosened under pressure.  To ensure that doesn’t happen, a steel rod is placed into a secondary lock safety screw into the castellated nut at the bottom, which is attached to a vent screw at the top.  In order to remove the safety screw, the vent screw at the top must be loosened in order to remove the steel rod, thereby bleeding off the pressure in a controlled manner.  Hopefully I got that explanation correct and since the safety screw is so tiny in real life (maybe 1/2"), I didn’t add one due to scale where it is labeled.  Note that I did not paint the top of the leg where it inserts into the wing anchor, which fits smoothly now.

 

 

The scissor links are fairly rough and crude, so I drilled out the holes to help clean them up.  The gear legs will be dirtied up a bit when I weather the rest of the model.

 

 

The kit landing gear wheels and two-piece tires are very simplistic and devoid of much detail, so I looked for aftermarket parts as replacements as well.  Eduard/ Brassin makes a nice set with smooth tires and 5 spoke wheels, but my subject needs 4 spoke rims.  Thankfully our friend Peter Castle makes a 4-spoke set for the Mk VIII kit in his Airscale Pro line, but they have block treaded tires and I’m pretty sure my subject has smooth tires.  The detail is outstanding though and the tires look fantastic, so I went with these instead, even if it might not be truly “accurate”. 

 

 

As with the kit parts, the rear wheel hub has a slightly wider top than bottom, to accommodate the notch at the top of the square axle.  While I dislike square axles and much prefer circular ones, it’s nice that the Airscale parts fit the kit ones perfectly without modification.

 

 

The rear wheel hub is directional, with the brake line connection at the rear, opposite to the front scissor link, so make sure you get the port and starboard side correct.  I will be adding the brake lines later when I add the gear doors, which the brake lines attach to.  Note that this side which is still a bit lumpy, will be completely hidden against the gear door.

 

 

The kit axle is a bit too long, so it needs to be trimmed flush with the axle fully inserted into the square hole, otherwise it will interfere with the front wheel hub when inserted into the tire.

 

 

Thankfully the gear door hides the worst side of the main landing gear.  The brake line is attached to the rear of the door and into the other side of the inner wheel hub.

 

 

Both wheel parts fit very tightly into the tire and if you push them in completely, you’ll never get them out!  The outer wheel should be sanded down slightly to make its insertion and removal easier, while the inner wheel should be sanded a bit more, to allow for tire/front wheel rotation when aligning the tire flat bottom to the ground.

 

 

The tire can now rotate as required and when aligned properly on the model, the two wheel halves can be glued together.

 

 

The Airscale set also includes wheel hubs and a tire for the rear.  Note that the wheel bolt pattern is different on either side and based upon pics in the Monforton book, they can be on either side.  The axle holes need to be widened slightly to fit the kit parts and like the main landing gear, the rear gear leg needs some sanding on the attachment point, since the fit is too tight otherwise.

 

 

After assembly, with a slight twist.  Parts J15 and J10 were glued together first, the seam lines were filled and painted, then the tire/wheel was carefully inserted into the opening, with ultra-thin plastic film to protect the tire from getting scratched by the axle hubs.  It worked!- without flexing the parts too much or causing a scratch.

 

 

Big seam line on the bottom is now gone.

 

 

Other than the creation and installation of the brakes lines, the landing gear is ready to just slide into place at the end of the build. 

Next up will be the cannons and the wingtip lights, since I’m finally running out of parts!  Thanks for looking in.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

[JayW]

There is some craftsmanship Chuck.  Great work on some difficult parts, from multiple sources.

[geedubelyer]

Nice work Chuck. 

Adding the extra detail helps the legs look nice and busy. 

I don't know if you considered thinning the uplock connection at the top of the leg? 

It's quite chunky on the model but quite thin on the real deals. 

 

She'll look good standing on these. 

 

[williamj]

Looking soooooo good Chuck.    

[Sam_D]

Stunningly beautiful work!

I just read this thread from start to finish, what a masterclass!

Sam

[chuck540z3]

Thank you Gents!   Sometimes I wonder if my detailed explanations are worth the effort, but your kind responses and "Likes" above confirm that they are.  My responses to these comments may not be individual very often, like this one, but I can assure you that they are all very much read and appreciated!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

[LSP_Kevin]

Excellent work as always, Chuck!

 

Kev

[scvrobeson]

Excellently precise work Chuck. Always enjoyable to follow.

 

 

Matt