Revell Mk. IXC

[Aptivaboy]

Okay, I'm in. The model and all of the goodies and upgrades should arrive in a couple of days. I'll post pics as soon as I can figure out a free image hosting solution.  

 

Bob

[John B]

 

IMGUR seems to work for me and it is free.

 

https://imgur.com/?campaign_name=notification_cakeday

 

Respectfully,

 

JB

[Aptivaboy]

Fairly quick going apart from one issue. The Kit's seat is an abomination. I have a Barracuda seat on order and it will hopefully arrive soon. Other than that, this beastie seems to be going together fairly well, knock on wood!  

[Aptivaboy]

[Aptivaboy]

I really envy a lot of you. My workshop is the backyard table, when I'm allowed to use it! On the other hand, the weather is nice. 

 

 

 

Edited June 8 by Aptivaboy

[vvwse4]

You would not want to be outside where I live....raining cats and dogs right now....

 

Going all the way with this one look forward to more.

[Aptivaboy]

I'm in Southern California, so its pretty nice right now; a little June Gloom in the morning, but nothing too serious. I can sit out there for an hour or so everyday and just model away!  The hummingbirds in the garden are a great distraction, as is watching my corn and berries grow. Garden, then model, then garden, then model, rinse, repeat... It's warm enough that paint dries pretty quickly, especially acrylics. 

 

I've put the instrument panel decal on, hit with it Micro Sol, and then sealed it with a coat of flat varnish. I may start annealing the photoetch later today. 

 

Bob 

Edited June 9 by Aptivaboy

[Aptivaboy]

Some more progress... I can't do much else with the cockpit until the replacement seat arrives, so I've started working on the wings, gear bays, and photoetch. First, I annealed the Eduard PE over my nice gas stove flame, which took some of the stiffness out of the metal. Then, I started clipping and bending. The PE bends very easily - you don't need any kind of bending tool. Just be careful as the gear bay tolerances are very tight! Also, Eduard messed up the bay door PE. It does not cover the whole exterior of the door, being sized more for the interior. However, then the "spine" or upper handle, if you will, doesn't fit. I'm not sure that its an improvement over the surface detailing of the kit parts, anyway. One thing I didn't consider was that the Eduard set wouldn't include a PE grille for the Barracuda late carb intake. If anyone knows a potential solution to this, I'd appreciate it! Any aftermarket generic grilles? 

 

All in all, a nice day. In between paint drying, I was able to pot up some sugar snap pea seedlings. Model, garden, model, garden... The interior was also hit with a coat of RAF interior green care of my trusty Paasche Talon. I'm not sure why people give Paasche so much hate, as an aside. They make good, solid, reliable airbrushes and obtaining replacement parts is never a problem. I still have my original Paasche VL from the mid-nineties, still giving reliable service.  

 

Tomorrow, I'll work some more on the control surfaces (I got most of them glued up this afternoon) and the wings. 

 

 

Edited June 9 by Aptivaboy

[MikeC]

3 hours ago, Aptivaboy said:

I'm not sure that its an improvement over the surface detailing of the kit parts, anyway.

There, in a nutshell, you have the problem with a lot of aftermarket, but that's probably for another thread.  However, back on topic, this is coming along nicely, look forward to seeing more.

[dennismcc]

Nice to see another Spitfire taking shape, keep up the good work.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Aptivaboy]

Okay, the wheel well PE is done and... It looks like chocolate milk left out for a few days too long. It doesn't quite fit properly, not being tall enough. If you snug it against the top of the wheel well, it leaves a noticeable step at the bottom. The same is true in reverse. I'm seriously ready to just rip it all out and order the Aeries wheel bay, not that I need to spend any more money.  

 

The other issue concerns markings. I want to use the taller pointy late tail to go with the Barracuda late carb intake. However, there are precious few decals for this later setup. I'm surmising that 1943 and early 1944 Mark IXs had the earlier smaller tail and the smaller carb intake, while later 1944 and 1945 IXs had the pointy tail and the later carb intake.  Does anyone have any ideas? I did order some decals for a Belgian Spitfire that seem to reflect this configuration, so that might work out.

 

Anyway, that's the current state of things. Still waiting on the replacement seat. Sigh...  

[Aptivaboy]

Upon further reflection, its not as bad as I originally thought, so I'm just going to go with it. I'm currently gluing the wings up and then I'll start on the landing gear. This one won't have the underwing bombs; she'll be a pure fighter version. 

 

I've ordered another seat off of the Bay of Evil since the one I ordered hasn't apparently shipped, yet.  Sigh...  

[Aptivaboy]

Okay, the seat has shipped. Waiting... 

[Aptivaboy]

The wings and gear are done, and there's a primer coat on all aerodynamic surfaces. I use black both a a preshading medium, but also because it makes picking out flaws easier. The wheels are masked and painted up, as well, in NATO Black. I'll hit the hubs with a brownish weathering wash after everything dries. I've gone about as far as I can until the doggone seat arrives. I might work on the canopy this afternoon.