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

[Karatay]

Reply to Mike's question:

 

Hello Mike,

 

Yes indeed the MkXIV inherited the wing from the MKVII/VIII. However, this was merely a variation of the UNIVERSAL wing. As the designation indicates, it was designed to accept mods without extensive alterations and difficulties. The mark kept this wing till the end of its production run. What you call the E wing is in fact a variation of the Universal wing with the same short aileron, but adapted to carry the E-type armament in the two- compartment cannon bay (Many MKXIV C and E were sold after WW2 to Belgium and all had the short aileron).

As you well know, this armament consisted of one 20mm Hispano MKII in the outer cannon compartment and one 50. cal MG in the inner one. The wing configured for the E-Type armament still featured the access panel to the outer MG compartments, albeit without empty shell case chutes or blisters. BUT BOTH THE CANNON and THE 50. cal MG HAD CHUTES and NO BUNG OVER THE 50. cal MG BLAST TUBE!!!!!!

 

if still in doubt, please ask Edgar Brook, I consider him an expert on such subjects!

 

By the way, Radu and I produced the MKXIV conversion for the PCM MKIX, together.

 

Cheers

Vasko

[mhorina]

Reply to Mike's question:

 

Hello Mike,

 

Yes indeed the MkXIV inherited the wing from the MKVII/VIII. However, this was merely a variation of the UNIVERSAL wing. As the designation indicates, it was designed to accept mods without extensive alterations and difficulties. The mark kept this wing till the end of its production run. What you call the E wing is in fact a variation of the Universal wing with the same short aileron, but adapted to carry the E-type armament in the two- compartment cannon bay (Many MKXIV C and E were sold after WW2 to Belgium and all had the short aileron).

if still in doubt, please ask Edgar Brook, I consider him an expert on such subjects!

 

By the way, Radu and I produced the MKXIV conversion for the PCM MKIX, together.

 

Cheers

Vasko

 

Hi Vasko,

I too have one of those conversions, very nice. Thank you for clarifing the short aileron question. After looking at the few pictures I have I found a couple of in flight shots showing the short aileron, one of a Belgium lowback E wing with the short aileron (Aircam No 8) and on futher review the pics I have of the highback XIV the wing tip was washed out in the sunlight and this made the aileron look like it went to the end of the wing Thanks again for adding the info to clear this up. To bad Radu does not include this aileron info on the instruction sheet. Anyone doing the conversion would have the skill needed to fill a line and scribe another. I appreciate both your resin work and the info you have passed out here.

Mike

[Out2gtcha]

Hmmmm Interesting..........after looking at my own pics I didn't even notice the chutes for the outside cannons aren't open. . Ill correct after the graphite is added to the panel lines.

Im not sure which is which when it comes to the shorter or normal ailerons, but the pics I have of Laceys clipped wing high back Mk XIV that Ive been modeling this after show the same aileron dimensions that come OOB in the PCM spit......which is why I havnt changed anything on the OOB PCM wing.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[Kagemusha]

So....I can use both as long as I use the kit fin/rudders and the no door rear is correct?. Thanks for letting me barge in here.........Harv

 

I'm going to do an FR Mk 18, which is similar to a cutdown XIV, you'll need to cut off the Cammett tail to fit the XIV tail, also need to make cutouts for the retractable tailwheel, and I think the access panel on the port side is lower on the XIV. I'd get the PCM/G Force metal u/c too due to the weight!

[Marek]

Wow! Brian! Gorgeos model Realy fantastoc work. Will be good to see it finished.

[Tallyho]

HMMMMM---for a master foiler, you're pretty darn handy with that airbrush too.

I just can't wait till you get it finished.

 

Fred

[JRutman]

Color me green with envy over your painting skills,

J

[Out2gtcha]

Got some more good building time over the past couple of days. WHEW!!! MAN, this painting thing is every bit (at least to do it the way I have it envisioned in me heeeed!) as tedious, complected and time consuming as a good NMF kitchen foil job!

 

So far though, even though I do not consider myself any kind of nationals winning modeler, I have to say the finish is slowly turning into what I had envisioned for this spit. Yes, the later makes were kept in good nick, but all the pics I have of spits in the India/burma theater, do have significant dust, dirt, fading and most seem to have a flatter looking paint finish than some other theaters.

 

This may or may not be 100% accurate for the Ginger Laceys ship I'm reproducing at that time, but eh..............what the hey. I like the look and Im allowing myself some creative freedom here, so bear with me all you rivet counting spit experts out there!

 

I have to start out by apologizing for some of the quality of my pics here............Ive got a really decent 10MP Sony, and it gets up close and detailed very well, but if I take pics that big, I start running out of room in my web space..........so Ill save the larger detailed pics for the R.F.I. section once I complete her....

 

After I got on the base RAF earth color, I decided to work on the camo, which for me is basically just like my process on the underside with the exception of doing the highs and lows in two colors for the camo instead of just the one and variants of it.

 

I was going to use some sort of mask to do the camo, but decided instead to do it how they were originally painted with some exceptions........by hand.

 

I laid out where I wanted the RAF dk green to go with a light grey prismacolor pencil, and marked with very light x's where the green was to do............cause SURE AS THE WORLD TURNS, if I didnt, I would have put some green where it should have stayed earth

 

Next, I went over the light gray pencil outlines with the RAF green. Then went back over and filled everything in..............and YES it gets VERY cold here in Nebraska, and being inside all winter, (as well as wearing shorts inside when building) we get a bit pasty.........as evident by my pale hairy legs!

 

 

Finished base color camo right outta the spray booth

 

 

 

The next order of business after the 2 camo base colors were on was to get on the panel low-lights

 

 

After the panel low lights, I went back over the green, panel by panel, with a mix of the base color with a couple drops of white added. Then, I did the same thing to the earth color, again, panel by panel, with a bit of white added, getting thehigh-lights on

 

 

Again, this however still is not quite subtle enough for the look I was going for so basically what I did next was to go over each color with a "blending" coat as I call it. I went over each color individually with a mix of the out of bottle base color with a 90%/10% thinner/paint ratio, to blend and unify the overall look of the camo.

 

Here is the end result of that process, without having touched any of the white squadron stripes yet

 

 

[Out2gtcha]

I decided to let the upper surfaces dry a bit before painting the walk way strips on the wings and the pilot walk areas under the cockpit.

 

I moved on and decided to finish up this part of the process for the underside. I still need to go over the panels with graphite, add the painted roundels, and then eventually add the decals, and clear coat the whole thing.

 

I started off by painting in the roundels, and finishing up the graphite on the panel lines.

 

 

 

Some of the subtle weathering/faded look of the paint job is lost and or hard/impossible to see with the picture quality, but a sacrifice was made in the name of space savings....

 

Again, room dictates the crappy pic quality.

 

Im going to now move on to paint the upper walk ways, roundels, and add in the fading on both the later...........All for now gents, thanks for stopping in and as always, comments welcome.

 

Cheers,

Brian

[bcauchi]

Beautiful paintwork Brian, that is really nice, i love your painting technique. Excellent result.

[Dave Pratt]

Brian I agree...very nice work on the paint job as well as the entire build.

[Marek]

Very nice painting job!

[Out2gtcha]

Small update. Actually as much of a realization as an update.........

 

I put in a bit of work on the spit this week. I got the prop done as well as some fiddly work on the gear. Not 100% happy with the spinner on the prop, so it may or may-not get redone. I also added break lines and polished the oleo struts on the gear as well.

 

I have never liked using future for clearing my models. I love it for dipping canopies but for me, when you shoot it, it seems to go on poorly, not atomize as finely as I would like, and tends to pool if your not careful, as well as leaving a thicker layer of clear on in most cases than I would like, filling surface detail. I'm not a huge fan of how long it takes to set up when used as a overall clear coat either.

 

People all over the globe seem to use it for this purpose all the time, with good results, so maybe im just doing something wrong, but I really don't like using it in that manor. That being said I usually like working in enamel and generally use things like Polly-scale semi-gloss or the like for my clears.

 

However, in this case I tried something new for the first time. Since I really LOVE how the MM enamel paint lays down and love how durable they are, I decided to try out their Model Master "enamel system" clears, in flat and semi-gloss.

 

I put enamel system in quotes because they are not enamel clears. They are actually both lacquer based clears with their own thinner. Both the thinner AND the clears themselves although lacquer, don't seem to be NEARLY as hot chemically as most any other lacquer paints ive used.

 

To most of us in the modeling world who are at least my age or older, most of us have been taught when you go to paint NEVER mix chemically hot with chemically cool paints; I.E. lacquer paint with enamel or acrylic.

 

So I was very skeptical and a bit nervous about using it. However it says right on the bottle "for use with and over MM enamel paints" as well as having "enamel paint system" on the front, so I went for it.

 

Im VERY glad I did. As scary as using lacquer clears on plastic and over enamel is, the clear went on beautifully! MAN! This stuff is amazing! It goes on SOOOOO light and atomizes perfectly. There was absolutely no hazing, it went on smooth as silk and was dry to the touch in 10 min and cured easily overnight and probably a lot sooner than that.

 

In experimenting, I have also found that because its a lacquer, and not hot at all, you can use most any/all washes over the clear lacquer and wipe off mistakes with enamel thinner or acrylic thinner (whichever paint is used for the wash) and it does not effect the clear/paint underneath.

 

I will DEFINITELY be using this stuff again!

 

On to business then....................

 

I got the upper roundels painted, as well as the fading (for the upper surface roundels only) as well as the matching colors on the vertical stab. I also got the rest of the panels and rivets done in graphite.

After going over the panel lines and rivets with graphite, I went back and completed the colored pencil/pastel part of the weathering prior to putting on the clear, as the pastels and colored pencils don't transfer onto any kind of mildly glossy surface well at all.

 

After the pastel/colored pencil/graphite part of the weathering was complete, it was time to seal all that work in, for as cool as the effects from these are, graphite, colored pencils and pastels are all extremely delicate once on, and the slightest rub or fondling will change its look or rub it off completely.

 

I then shot the whole thing with the MM lacquer semi-gloss clear to seal all of this work in. After drying (which in this case only took around 60 min or less to handle) I temp placed the prop on and the flying surfaces on to get an idea of where I stand.

 

Here is the result after the semi-gloss clear and before I move on to applying the decals and finishing the weathering.

 

 

 

 

Im going to move on to putting on the decals then finishing the weathering and installing the gear. Once the decals are on and the weathering is finished Im going to re-clear the whole ship in flat.

I like the look of flat, as it seems to look more realistic and details seem to pop. Also as this ship flew in a tropical type theater, all the ships in that squadron seemed to have a fairly weathered (but not overly chipped) flat looking paint surface.

After that its down to painting the exhaust and exhaust stains, waiting to get my 4 spoke wheels from mastercasters, and painting them, then installing the a for mentioned parts as well as some final fiddly bits, and this project will be done. Im starting to see what I believe is the finish line on this one!

 

Thanks for lookin!

 

Cheers,

Brian

[LSP_Paul]

AWSOME work all the way around ....

 

Paul

[aldur]

nice paintwork and weathering.

 

groeten,

Ian