PCM Mk IXe Spitfire w/Radu's Mk XIV Conversion

[nmayhew]

wow great progress Brian

 

my next project after my 109 will likely be an El Alamein Sherman in 1/35 (yes I know, it's not an airplane ) and then a Czech based Fw190 D-9, but i have to say your build is sorely tempting me to dive straight in to a Spitfire!

 

thanks for sharing

 

Nick

[Rivas]

Thanks for the pointers! Great idea the Tamiya tape tip, that was pretty clever! I saw that the stacks were different, just hoping that diferences were more due to moulding than other factors, though Radubs stacks are perfect with just a bit of cleaning and drilling it was just me being a bit lazy..! Thank's a lot for sharing the pictures of your project, the wheel well area has been partucularly helpfull at least for me!

 

A. Rivas

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks for all the kind words guys.............its nice to hear your doing something right even if its not always 100% rivet counting accurate.

 

I did put what I have together so far and compared the over all size and dimensions to my Has P-47, Trumpy F8F and my Fisher Sept Fury.............MAN this is a beautiful sleek bird, but overall (especially with the clipped wings) this was NOT a large aircraft.

 

The Mk XIV gets absolutely DWARFED by the Jug and is not much longer than the Bearcat. The Mk XIV Spit is actually similar in dimension with the clipped wings and Griffon nose moment, to an Unlimited air racer like September Fury.............very interesting. I bet this thing was a ROCKET to fly in combat!!

 

Ill have some more updates/pics this upcoming week.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

Not a huge update prolly more tomorrow but............

 

 

Got started again, this time filling and sanding. Sprayed a very light guide coat of silver to point out my imperfections and areas that need more filling and/or sanding. Even with no Mr Surfacer the resin/injection de-marks are not really visible. (Youll have to excuse all the bench dust that settled after some sanding)

 

 

Since I already fitted the larger Mk XIV chin scoop I decided it was time to glue it on for good. I cemented with CA and then filled with polyester filler and then a coat of Mr. Surfacer 500. (No sanding done on it in these yet...)

 

 

 

Next came a light coat of Mr. Surfacer 500 for all of the conversion/injection demark lines. A lot of scribing left to do when that time does start, but the joints are starting to fade and smooth nicely now....

 

 

 

 

I decided that I would dig into the prop next as It would give me a chance to use my new to toy. I started off by slightly hacking up my Fisher sea fury prop guide, but quickly discovered that there was a much better solution out there.........

 

 

I set up the blades, and just as advertised I think this will be an invaluable tool in future projects as well as this one. As anyone who has had to line up multiple bladed AM props or resin kit props, its not always the angle of the blades side to side when looking head on, its hard getting all the blades at the same angle back and forth, WHILE trying to get the pitch of each blade uniform. This is even more so on a 5 blade prop like the Mk XIV has.

 

I just flipped the PropMaster over to the left rotating side and had things set up in no time. Tis a very solid and ingeniously put together little piece of equipment.......I HIGHLY recommend to anyone putting together AM or resin projects.

 

 

Next I shot the blue on the spinner (later to be dulled down and polished a bit) and got some black on the 5 blades.

 

 

Last one for tonight.......Got the yellow on the blade tips and unmasked them.

 

 

Later tonight and tomorrow Ill be putting the under wing color on the inside of the larger Mk XIV underwing aircoolers in prepreation to attach them and fill the joints. Also will be working on the cannons as well as the gear maybe as well.............

 

Tiz all for now lads!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Harv!

 

Yeah so far the PropMaster has worked great...............

 

I would just say that exception I have found to that is to mount and glue the prop in the jig before you paint it.

 

I attempted to assemble the prop in the jig after painting and it left a little nick/scratch on each blade where it touched the edge of the jig........I assume from the adjusting I did while in the jig.

 

No worries, lesson learned. After gluing the prop together, I sanded and re-painted the blades.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

Back at it again. All of the next steps right after these are more boring priming scribing and sanding so I wont bore anyone with pics of that since that stuff doesnt lend itself too well to pics anyway. Ill save my next update after this one for final Mr Surfacer coat, Paint, decals and weathering.

 

This one is coming into the home stretch and should be ready for some Mr. Surfacer and paint in the next few days/week.

 

Got the cannons cleaned up and hollowed out enough to accept some stainless tubing from small parts inc

 

 

Next got the radiators glued in and put some polyester filler on them as there were substantial gaps

 

 

 

Well I actually did it............I wasnt at all happy with the PCM gear so I ordered a set of the brass G-Force Tam gear and...........hack the #$%@ out of them and painted the legs.

 

The white brass does lend itself VERY well to polishing the oleo strut

 

 

 

I took some tak clay and tacked on the pilots door, then stuck on the prop and tacked on the flying surfaces and canopy after I masked it.

 

All for now until a day or 2 and I start priming, painting, weathering and decals.......

 

Hope you like her so far.

 

 

 

 

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Cees Broere]

I love it, the Mk XIV is my most favorite mark Spit.

 

 

Cees

[Out2gtcha]

Thanks Cees!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[LSP_Ron]

Looks good Brian

[aldur]

Looks good indeed. Even though the I don't find the griffon engined spitfires as good looking as the merlin ones, you do make it look very nice indeed.

 

groeten,

Ian

[Out2gtcha]

Looks good indeed. Even though the I don't find the griffon engined spitfires as good looking as the merlin ones, you do make it look very nice indeed.

 

groeten,

Ian

 

Thanks Ian!

 

Yeah it seems the venerable Spit is so Iconic that almost everyone has a specific model that they like.

 

I do like the Merlin engined spits as well, but just from personal taste, the Merlin engined spit chins are a bit to chubby and squat looking, witch the Mk XIV Griffon nose takes care of for me.........Plus I really dig the valve bumps on the cowl and the 5 bladed prop!

 

Thanks again to all for the kind words.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[theseeker]

Brian,

Loooking great! The only thing I dislike about the XIV is the clipped wings. However, you doing this girl justice.

Rocky

[Highlandsniper]

I have to agree - I love Griffin-engined Spitfires, but there's something missing with clipped wing-tips. If I hadn't got so many projects planned I could be tempted, but the Seafire 47 is close enough for me as my main interest lies with FAA types.

 

Fantastic job, looking forward to more pix.

[Out2gtcha]

The main reason I went with clipped wings on this one is I really love the look of the unlimited Reno air racers, and the clipped wing Mk XIV just fit the bill.

Plus it seems like every single spit model Ive seen lately has the normal elliptical style full wing........was in the mood for something a bit different on this one!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Out2gtcha]

Didnt get a chance to update anything last week with the superbowl and all didnt get much modeling done...........

 

However I have managed to start the long arduous paint process.

 

Got the final coat of Mr. Surfaceer 1000 on and then shot a coat of Tamiya primer. After the primer was dry I picked out the panel lines and did my version of pre-shading with graphite:

 

 

 

Under side with graphite pre-shading:

 

 

After the primer was dry, I moved on and painted the wide white bands that wrap all the way around the top and bottom of the wings along with a band that does the same on the horizontal and vertical stabs:

 

 

While the white was drying, I moved on to the well made Radu Mk XIV exhausts. They are well molded, but they are not open all the way up and this would be visible once the model is finished. Nothing a bit of time with a small bit the dremel and some patence.

 

OOB exhaust on the right and my modified exhaust on da left

 

 

I first applied several coats bottom base color of the RAF med sea grey over the pre-shading

Next, I moved on and started picking panels out that I wanted to have some variation in. THis is my normal process, and I basically just take whatever the base color is (in this case MM RAF Medium Sea grey) and mix up variations of that color with different amounts of either black or white added.

 

Used frisket paper to mask each consecutive series of panels

 

 

This is the initial end result of that work

 

 

After all of the varied panels have dried, I take the original non-modified base color in a 90%-10% thinner/paint ratio, and go back over the whole bottom with this highly diluted base color, which unifies this stage

 

A bit hard to see in this light, as the effect is very subtle, but in person the panels show up a bit differently

 

 

Next step for this process is to take the base color again, this time mixed with a 90%-10% ratio again, only this time the base color is mixed with a bit of white, and go over the middle of each panel line. Once the lights are done I will pick out teh panel and rivets again with harder HB graphite........After that its on to the camo on top, then highs and lows on that, then wear shadows, chipping decals..............whew! I still got a ways to go on this one....

 

Thanks for looking lads!

 

Cheers,

Brian