RAAF Spitfire Mk.VIII - Finished

[Dpgsbody55]

It's a new year and a new project for me, but you could be excused for thinking that I'm just continuing on from last year if you remember my last build.  Santa brought me a lovely Airfix Spitfire Mk.VIII.  So it only seemed appropriate to make a start on it today.

 

 

Santa was even generous enough to include a bunch of addons inside from Eduard for better exhausts and seatbelts, Barracuda for an improved control column, Art Scale Distribution masks and three sets from Airscale to improve the cockpit and undercarriage.  Two of the Airscale sets relate to the cockpit and comprise a set to improve the cockpit in similar fashion to my Mk.IX build last year, as well as another set to correct the left side of the cockpit, updating it to correct Mk.VIII specification which Mr Airfix forgot to do.

 

 

The Airscale set for the left of the cockpit comprises, from left to right, a new voltage regulator, Corrected electrical control box new on the Mk.VIII, and improved throttle quadrant, a reflector gunsight base and mount and lastly a new radio control box.

 

 

So I started at step one with the pilot's seat which has etch embellishment from the Airscale set, and I've also added a piece from that set to the seat mounting frame.  I've also added a bit of Green Stuff to the ribs on the back of the pilot's seat to try to "bulk up" the cushion a bit more.  This may or may not work, but we'll see if it does work after paint.

 

 

Since the kit supplied voltage regulator won't be used, I filled in the L shaped mount for that part with some stock plastic square rod and a little filler.

 

 

Here's the seat built up.  I've yet to add the armour plate behind it, and I may add the armour plate that goes under the seat base if that is appropriate.  I'll probably make my own from sheet brass as I'll be using the Airscale etch piece for the head armour, so my own effort will match that.  The plastic kit part looks bulky next to the etch head armour.

 

 

 

I've prepped the floor ready for paint.

 

 

Lastly, I've assembled the missing chunk of the rear fuselage that is appropriate to a Mk.VIII as well as start work on the changes to allow the fitment of the lower fuselage light for a Mk.VIII.  Here's the left half with the jig in place to cut that hole for the light (at the bottom of the fuselage behind the wing cut out).

 

 

The jig fits into the fuselage very precisely so you cam accurately place the light.

 

 

Then all you have to do is hack/grind/file the hole to allow for the fitment of the light housing.  Ingenious.

 

 

Sorry to add to the seemingly never ending number of Spitfire builds here, lately.  But I like them and I have a few more Spitfire projects at the top of my to do list for this year, as well as a Z-M Fw-190 build and a Macchi C.205 build and a couple others too if I can join any of this year's group builds.  Can someone double the number of days in this year to 730 days, please? 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[dennismcc]

Now who's a very lucky boy, you must have been very good for Santa to give you that.

As a Spitfire fan I will pop in now and again to keep and eye on the build.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Pete Roberts]

Watching with interest - have the same sitting in my stash.

 

Note, Michael, you will need the Airfix inner wheels for the Airscale set, as they have included four spoked wheels for the inner face of the wheels - incorrect.

[Dpgsbody55]

11 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Now who's a very lucky boy, you must have been very good for Santa to give you that.

As a Spitfire fan I will pop in now and again to keep and eye on the build.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

I don't think I've been that good. Santa did lighten my wallet considerable before he gave me this lot.    At least he provided the wrapping paper .

 

Please do drop by.  I look forward to comments and suggestions.

 

7 hours ago, Pete Roberts said:

Watching with interest - have the same sitting in my stash.

 

Note, Michael, you will need the Airfix inner wheels for the Airscale set, as they have included four spoked wheels for the inner face of the wheels - incorrect.

 

I haven't unwrapped that set yet.  I'm sure their inner wheels would have caused a raised eyebrow when I got there.  Thanks for pointing this out anyway.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

I feel like I've been very slow off the mark with this one and am only just getting my head back into a modelling groove.  I got some paint onto the insides of this only last night while having spent the last few days pfiddling and pfaffing.

 

My usual modus operandi is to get some construction done so that I can paint as much of the interior as I can in one go.  This has take a while and meantime I've been fiddling about with stuff and getting nothing done.  I guess it will all start to make some sense to me now that I have some paint I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere.  Of course, there's the usual drilling out of lightening holes which has been done.  For some reason, I started doing the engine after this, instrument panel and engine mounts all at once.  So I'll start with the engine.  The engine block has to be assembled to use as a jig to build up the engine mounts.  When I built the Mk.IX last January, I'd heard that the best way to build the engine was to build the block and attach one bank of cylinders , then attach the built up inlet and other cylinder bank later as the fit here is not brilliant.  So here's the engine mounts and famous Rolls Royce,,, errrr,,,,, slant six??? 

 

 

Looking back last years build, I built up the engine into various sub assemblies. This also allows paint spray to get in everywhere, which may not be the case if you assemble the engine then paint it.

 

 

 

 

 

Once all of the above had been sprayed in rattle can flat black, I put this lot together starting with the left cylinder head and inlet manifold, then adding the bits at the back of the engine in sequence.  It presently looks like this and will require touch up.

 

 

I'll come back to the engine later on.  This gives me something to do while waiting on other bits to dry after either gluing or painting.

 

The instrument panel needs some work before painting as I've removed the kit raised pipes down the left side and attached the cockpit pressure control and fuel tank levers.  The Mk.VIII has some differences in the IP in comparison to previous marks and these are two of them.  The engine primer has been moved up to the main panel and some of the other controls have been moved around as well.

 

 

Here's the IP before any painting.  Airscale have improved the detail on this panel with 3D printed parts to attach.  Some of these are very small, but I got them in place without much difficulty.

 

 

Here's some of it with a little paint on. 

 

 

My last job before painting was to make a new piece of armour plate for the pilot's seat back, for which i used a piece of 0.01 brass sheet, cut to shape.  This will better match the head armour provided in the Airscale set.  The kit piece is a bit on the thick side as you can imagine, being cast in plastic.  So here's everything painted ready for construction of the cockpit to begin.

 

 

Mt next job will be to add some of the kit decals to the cockpit parts as necessary, this being the easiest time to do this.  Then I'll finish the pilot's seat and attach it to the supporting frame.  Some Spitfire Mk.VIII's used in ground attack had a piece of armour plate on the lower part of the seat too, so I'll probably make this up and attach it as I intend building this as an RAAF aircraft.  I may also have some instrument panel progress to show as well.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

Progress!!     I spent some time yesterday finishing the seat and mounting frame, although the top seat belt will not be fitted for a while.

 

Here it is before I remembered to make the armour plate for the seat pan.

 

 

 

And after my memory recovered...

 

 

 

Of course, I forgot to take a picture or two of the decals I promised yesterday..... 

 

Next time.  Instrument panel and rudder controls next.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

Edited January 8, 2025 by Dpgsbody55

[Dpgsbody55]

A bit more progress on my Spitfire, but I seem to be running into problems I never had with the Mk.IX.  Like that model, I'm using the Airscale set in the cockpit and I had no real problems with it then, so I can only assume that the problems on this model are down to my incompetence.  Readers may recall the instrument panel from a previous update.

 

 

Well, the centre section now looks like this.  When I turned it over after gluing the back plate and decal to the front piece and acetate sheet which forms the instrument glass, it all came apart. 

 

 

That decal is totally unrecoverable.  I'm going to blame the CA glue used in this, as I can't get the one I used before.  That's my story, and I'm sticking with it.    CA glue is messy stuff.  So I thought that the best way to recover from this was to use the kit parts and add the individual decals which I've never done before as I thought it was slow and too much to go wrong.  So I made a start, beginning in the middle and working out.

 

 

I was right.  It is slow, but it turned out well.  I'd put a few decals in place, let them dry after repeated applications of decal softener, then add a drop of clear gloss to represent the glass cover of the gauge.   Then do a few more gauges and repeat.  Here's the result, which took a few days.

 

 

I've added the brass painted primer recovered from the Airscale IP, which is far better than the kit representation of this, as well as a couple of on-off switches for the magnetos.  Looking at it now, if I ever do this again, I'll paint the IP differently and paint some coloured gauge surrounds where appropriate.

 

While that was happening, I tinkered about with the IP frame and compass.  That latter part used the Aiscale addons and the compass decal was sealed in place with a big drop of clear gloss, rather than the kit clear part as I think it looks better.

 

 

Here it is completed and glued in place on the cockpit floor.  I've added some dirt to that as this plane operated in a dirty environment.

 

 

 

I used the cockpit sides to make sure it was fitted exactly in the right place, and then placed it into the fuselage sides to make sure there would be no problems at that stage.  The seat assembly was also test fit for the same reason.  Of course, the grooves in the cockpit sides had been widened to ensure a good fit when I get to mounting them to the cockpit floor.

 

 

 

Speaking of the cockpit sides, I've started assembly here as well, but more problems exist which I didn't have with the Mk.IX.  The part added here is distorted and won't sit in place at all three points. 

 

 

 

Having glued the part in place at the box/tank point, I'm now gluing the switch box in place and clamping that until dried, than I'll do the same with the bit you can see protruding above.

 

My next task from here will be the undercarriage lever and hydraulics, then I can put the right cockpit wall in place and add rudder pedals and control column then the seat. 

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[geedubelyer]

Tough progress Michael but progress nonetheless and it's all looking good. 

I had similar issues with that pipe/hose assembly and also had to glue one portion before clamping the next and forcing it to shape. 

I'm not a fan of some of the colours Airfix offer for a number of the instruments. The yellow is very bright and I can't remember seeing any photos of real instruments looking like that. 

 

It looks like you've got the alignment spot on so hopefully no alignment woes with the seam on the fuel tank armour and no filler needed 

 

Keep at it. 

[Gazzas]

Those interior details looks sweet.

[dennismcc]

Nice recovery on the IP and looking good now.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Dpgsbody55]

On 1/12/2025 at 4:02 PM, geedubelyer said:

Tough progress Michael but progress nonetheless and it's all looking good. 

I had similar issues with that pipe/hose assembly and also had to glue one portion before clamping the next and forcing it to shape. 

I'm not a fan of some of the colours Airfix offer for a number of the instruments. The yellow is very bright and I can't remember seeing any photos of real instruments looking like that. 

 

It looks like you've got the alignment spot on so hopefully no alignment woes with the seam on the fuel tank armour and no filler needed 

 

Keep at it. 

 

My Airfix Spitfire Mk.IX that I did a year ago was all plain sailing, but the distortion of this part is disappointing.  Not a difficult fix, but time consuming and I've got it sorted now.  I hope I don't come across any more such issues and progress over the last few days has been good.  I'd have presented another update today, but it seems Imageshack won't let me put up the photos today.  I won't mention the mess up of the Airscale instrument panel, which I'll own despite my thoughts on CA glue.

 

I agree with you about the colours Aifix has chosen for the IP decals.  The worst one is the pneumatic pressure gauge in the bottom left corner.  It was a white on black gauge, so why yellow I have no earthly idea at all.

 

On 1/12/2025 at 4:26 PM, Gazzas said:

Those interior details looks sweet.

 

Thanks Gary.  I'm hoping you'll think the details get sweeter still, especially as I add the Airscale conversion set to the left side of the cockpit.

 

On 1/12/2025 at 6:51 PM, dennismcc said:

Nice recovery on the IP and looking good now.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

 

Thanks Dennis.  I'd have preferred to use the Airscale set, but after the CA glue accident, I thought I'd try the kit IP which was new territory for me.  I don't think it came out as well as my preferred option would have, but I'm happy with it anyway and will probably go down the same route again with another model.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[Dpgsbody55]

The cockpit tub is shaping up nicely now and edges closer to being done and ready to mount in the fuselage.  I still have the fuselage halves taped together and use this to check the fit of various parts in the cockpit tub so that I can be sure the fuselage will go together properly.

 

First of all, after the last update,I needed to sort out that bent part on the right wall, which took a little time.  I'd previously glued in the reservoir tank at the bottom of the next picture, Then next the black switch box at the top of the bent hydraulic lines was glued, clamped and allowed to dry before the bit at the right of this part (D36, if my references to it are obscure) received the same treatment.  Other parts were painted and added, but the undercarriage hydraulics and operating lever got the most attention with the addition of all the Airscale etch parts and a couple of decals to lift them.  It's shown here not yet glued in place.

 

 

At this point, the right wall is attached to the floor and the instrument panel can go in, being very careful to ensure it fits exactly.  This may mean some enlarging of the mounting channels in both the floor and left and right cockpit walls.  I test fitted the left cockpit wall and shoved the lot into the taped up fuselage to ensure it fits, then removed it and taped up the right wall as you see here.

 

 

The next step is to glue in the undercarriage lever and hydraulic pipes, then the rudder pedals can go in.  Airscale etch was added to the rudder pedals to enhance the treads on the pedals as this is rather poor on this kit.  I painted these parts, then scratched off some of the paint,though it's not visible in this shot.

 

 

The next job was to add the firewall again using the methods described above to check fit, then add the control column.  I used the Barracuda part for this, which is highly detailed with all the cabling included, but it has one important error in that the elevator link pivot point is too high, as subsequent pictures will show.  I added the control column out of sequence to the instructions as it's easier to mount before the seat is mounted, and allows for the (necessary) easier addition of the elevator operating link which is not included with the kit.

 

 

 

The next picture shows the "missing link" added, which you can see at this angle will go through the cockpit floor before it connects to the elevator control pivot at the base of the seat mounting frame.

 

 

Adding the seat further illustrates this.  The elevator operating rod should be straight and passes in a straight line to the vertical pivot (not included in this model - you have to make one if you're so inclined) which would other wise be mounted vertically on that bracket behind the pilot's seat low on the seat mount frame.  I could have mounted the Barracuda provided rod a little more horizontally, but it still would have fowled the pilot's seat in order to connect to the elevator control pivot.

 

 

Above, I've also added the last two frames and again set them in place using the left cockpit wall clamped up in the taped up fuselage.  One other job I had to do is remove the under seat armour plate I made and narrow it, then refit it.  It interferred with part D36 (see above) and possible would have done the same with the left side wall details

 

The next picture shows the connecting parts D12 and D27 added and painted.  I have drilled out the front part of the X bracing in part D27, but not the back as it can't be seen, and it took me a few goes at drilling out the front of the X, fill my stuff ups, let that dry, and try again.   After that, the shoulder harness belts were built up and added.  These are Eduard etch steel, so I painted the undersides to ensure they wouldn't look unfinished.

 

 

 

I've now started work on the left side of the cockpit tub and this will be enhanced with the Airscale 3D replacement parts to properly represent a Mk.VIII.  That's for the next update.

 

 

Cheers,

Michael

[geedubelyer]

Excellent progress Michael. 

That's looking superb 

[Furie]

Informative, fascinating and beautifully painted: I like your work Michael!   

[TimW]

Looking brilliant!  Will be interested to hear how you get all the bits to fit, especially the part (fuse box/voltage regulator) on the left side interior panel.

 

Cheers,

 

Tim W.