Derek B Posted April 2, 2007 Author Share Posted April 2, 2007 Fantastic Derek, the detail you are putting in is really nice. I suppose you have some excellent drawings and photos to manage all that. Thanks Brian (your 109 is looking awesome as well, especially as you are replicating another kit!). I am using mainly the SAM Griffon Spitfire Datafile book, plus some pictures of the wheel well bay that Vasko sent to me...the rest is interpretation and common sense! Thanks Derek Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 2, 2007 Author Share Posted April 2, 2007 Undercarriage leg pintle pin. I have yet to make the pivot arm and leg uplock mechanism. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bcauchi Posted April 2, 2007 Share Posted April 2, 2007 That explains it all then Derek, you are getting info from the spitfire master. You cannot go wrong then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maarten Posted April 4, 2007 Share Posted April 4, 2007 Derek, That is some awesome work! My compliments. If you don't mind, I have a few questions for you - could you please elaborate on what could be done to fix up the original wing parts of the Matchbox kit? I'd love to pick up a set of your wings but unfortunately my budget wouldn't allow for it, hence the question. I did notice the chutes for discarded ammo bits, as well as the cannon bulges are rather hopeless OOB, but I have no clue which drawings to trust to look for any other issues - which ones are you using to make your scratchbuild wonders? I hope you don't mind the "OT" question, and many thanks for your reply. As long as I have your attention, I also plan to leave open one armament bay in the kits wings. Would you happen to have any tips on how to make some new "bulged" panels? Normally I would just glue on shaped plastic bits to form the bulges, but that would look rather hopeless from the back side with the panel open. I'd very much appreciate any pointers you might have! Best regards, thank you, Maarten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Hi Maarten, My apologies for not replaying earlier, but I have been away all last week, and my home PC hard drive has died, so I have been internetless for over a week! I shall be posting some morevupdate photo's as soon as I am able. Thank you for the very nice compliments. I do not have (or ever had) the Matchbox/Revell Spitfiure F.22, although it is one that I would very much like to get my hands on. The way I have arranged the wheel bay components within the current master pattern has been so due to the necessity of a single piece wing moulding. You can, however, represent the actual wheel bay layout more accurately by reworking the Matchbox kit item. Basically, the actual wheel bay and well area on the full size aircraft is a box structure (similar to a P-47 or Tempest). If you box in an area that roughly corresponds to the front and rear wing spars, and chord-wise at either end of the wheel well bay (the 'round part' where thell actual wheel lives), you'll generally have about the right size bay (the oleo leg part of the bay is an open in a similar way to the earlier marks of Spitfire). The majority of the area behind the front spar is taken up with the outer undercarriage door (fairing) retraction jack mechanism. There isn't really much to add to the rear spar of the bay...compared to other aircraft wheel well bays, the 20 series Spitfire ones are realatively 'clean', with few ribs or other things to clutter them. I have not examined the the Matchbox Spitfire in any detail, so I cannot comment on the cannon fairings on the upper wing surfaces. However, if you wish to make these more accurate, or even open them, there are one or two ways that you may wish to consider. From memory, one of the fairings is symmetrical in shape, the other is assyemmetrical. Probably the easiest way (and accurately repeatable way) of reproducing these would be to fashion some slightly undersized fairings from hard wood with a handle on the rear. Cut out a slightly over size fairing shape in some plywood or thick balsa sheet, and 'plunge mould' some fairings using heat formed 20 thou plastic sheet. Without overstretching the plastic, make sure that they are deeper than you need. Cut the cannon bay fairing panel out of the kit upper wing surface. Using some more of the 20 thou plastic sheet, make a new curved panel to replace the cut out item. Mark the postion of the fairings on the new panels. At this point, you can either open a reduced sized fairing hole in the panel, then trim, shape and glue the moulded fairing to the outside of the panel, finally opening the reduced hole to match the internal fairing shape, or you can open the fairing hole in the panel to full size, inserting and gluing the moulded fairing from inside the panel outwards, to the correct depth. Once dry, trim the inside of the fairing to mtch the panel. Alternatively, you could vacform the whole thing from scratch built male fairing blisters and wing panels. If the Matchbox wings have spent cartidge chutes moulded into them, drill these out, and box in the resulting apertures with plastic strip and card to give them more 'depth' (this is what I did with my master patterns for the above wings). Probably the most useful reference data for you would be the SAM Datafile modellers book for Griffon Spitfires - the plans at the back of the book are pretty accurate. HTH Derek Derek, That is some awesome work! My compliments. If you don't mind, I have a few questions for you - could you please elaborate on what could be done to fix up the original wing parts of the Matchbox kit? I'd love to pick up a set of your wings but unfortunately my budget wouldn't allow for it, hence the question. I did notice the chutes for discarded ammo bits, as well as the cannon bulges are rather hopeless OOB, but I have no clue which drawings to trust to look for any other issues - which ones are you using to make your scratchbuild wonders? I hope you don't mind the "OT" question, and many thanks for your reply. As long as I have your attention, I also plan to leave open one armament bay in the kits wings. Would you happen to have any tips on how to make some new "bulged" panels? Normally I would just glue on shaped plastic bits to form the bulges, but that would look rather hopeless from the back side with the panel open. I'd very much appreciate any pointers you might have! Best regards, thank you, Maarten Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Bit of catching up to do here. This is the start of the u/c leg fulcrum pivot arm, which is an intergral web structure at the top of the leg, and provides the means of locking the leg in the down position (it is very noticable when viewed in the u/c bay). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 This pic shows the eventual location of the pivot and down lock arm in the wheel bay of the port wing. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Additinal web detail added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Uplock head added. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Pivot arms in position. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Up lock mecanism added to pivot arms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Another view. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 As seen from outboard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Pipelines added to fairing door retraction mechanisms. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Derek B Posted April 10, 2007 Author Share Posted April 10, 2007 Pipelines and cables added to rear face connector breaks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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