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Tamiya Spitfire Mk IX Kicked Up A Notch: Last Post


chuck540z3

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Great story Chuck.

 

I've seen that Lanc a few times, beautiful build (I judged the category).

 

Look forward to the Spit.

 

 

Hi Gary!  Long time no see. 

 

I remember that contest like it was yesterday.  I was showing off the model while my uncle was in the vendor area selling his book, "The River Rats Came Home", which tells the story of my Dad's family, how they all went to war in some capacity and they all came home safely.  As a literary effort it was not very good, but with my uncle Will's smile and charm, he sold hundred's of the books over the span of his last two years of life.  It even has a pic of my Dad sitting in a Spitfire, which I will eventually show here.

 

I bet you haven't seen this before.  I submitted that build to the "Helmo" Greek modeling site and the gentleman who runs it (forgot his name right now) was a whiz at Photoshop.  Here's my Lanc over the English countryside, complete with a pilot!

 

s2fRNy.jpg

 

 

3WCGE1.jpg

 

 

Here's a pic of the nose art during the war, which I made into a decal.  The colors, of course, were a guess and I had to put white in the "Virgin Vicky" lettering, because it wouldn't show up otherwise.

 

 

7Slnu2.jpg

 

 

 

Pretty fun thing to do with a model!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Chuck, it looks like you're going in deep on this one. What you'll have to determine is how deep you really want to go? Like me, that may change as you go along on your build, but one thing I discovered is that changes to individual machines were very fluid and no one pic or reference can be used to determine the configuration of any airframe for any length of time. The other thing I found is that it was very hard to tell whether a lot of the photos I found showed actual war time configuration as opposed to modern modifications. At times it got very confusing.

 

The Monforton book on the Spitfire is a phenomenal reference ( I used it a lot) with one big exception. It has very little information on the Merlin engine or any of the ancillary systems attached to the Merlin. It took a long long time for me to figure out what went were with regards to plumbing the beast but I think I got most of it right in the end. There's a lot of details that need to be scratch built like the inlet and outlet coolant connections that bridge between the glycol header tank and the cylinder heads. I really wish I had cast them after having scratch built 'em. One of the photos I sent you shows what they look like. Then again, it depends on how deep you want to go. At times it felt like I was in over my head :) but, for me, it was worth the effort in the end! I loves me a good Spitfire!

 

Tamiya's Spitfire is an amazing kit as you no doubt already know but be careful with the fit of the gun and cannon port openings in the wings leading edge. They were the only parts that were ill fitting on the whole build and there shouldn't be any panel lines surrounding those parts. Also, don't forget to drill out the holes in the bottom wing section for the hooks that deflected the slipper tank. There's no mention of them in the instructions although the hooks are provided in the kit as are the front slipper tank mounting brackets. The holes where the rear hooks go are flashed over on the bottom wing. Guess how I know and when I found out! ;)

 

I'm hardly a Spitfire expert but I did learn a thing or two through my own build so if I can be of help, let me know and I'll try my best. Too bad we lost Edgar Brooks as he was a great resource and helped me a number of times throughout my build. You may want to look at the RB Productions Sutton Harness as well. I think they're much nicer than the HGW belts but that's purely my personal opinion. Hopefully you also have the Airscale instrument decals as well. You'll definitely need them to replace some of Tamiya's instrument decals, especially the artificial horizon (attitude indicator) decal.

 

Did I mention I'll absolutely be following along.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

Edited by Wolf Buddee
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Right now I'm leaning toward an early Mk IX in order to avoid big black and white invasion stripes, which I generally dislike. 

 

 

Funny that, as to me those planes look "naked" without them.

 

In terms of sheer visual interest and graphic design, only planes with invasion stripes came near to be a match to the multicolored flea-bitten flying circus of the late war Luftwaffe.

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Chuck, it looks like you're going in deep on this one. What you'll have to determine is how deep you really want to go? Like me, that may change as you go along on your build, but one thing I discovered is that changes to individual ...................I'm hardly a Spitfire expert but I did learn a thing or two through my own build so if I can be of help, let me know and I'll try my best. Too bad we lost Edgar Brooks as he was a great resource and helped me a number of times throughout my build.

 

Did I mention I'll absolutely be following along.

 

Cheers,

Wolf

 

 

Hi Wolf!  Thanks for all those tips and the forthcoming info you are sending me.  I really appreciate it and if I make this Spit half as good as yours, I'll be very happy!

 

I'm really torn on the "accuracy" thing right now.  All of my prior models bogged me down with minutia that didn't really matter all that much, to make each aircraft as accurate as possible.  I think my focus will be on details, details, details and if they aren't correct for some reason, I don't care.  I'll try to make things correct for a Mk IXc, but there are so many things to worry about it might suck the fun out of this build if I do too much.  Having said that, this was my plan for my P-51D build and it wound up very accurate- or at least I think so.  Time will tell.

 

I made some progress last night with the cockpit side walls using the Barracuda resin.  As with my Mustang, this resin is fantastic and really adds a lot of detail not found on the kit.  Unfortunately, I won't be showing too much progress for at least 2 weeks due to the complexity of the cockpit and "life" taking away all my free time these days.  The good news is that the quality of this kit is just so much fun to play with for once.  What a nice change!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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I would second Wolf's recommendation of the RB Productions seat harness. I used the American harness on my 1/24 Airfix Mustang and they look amazing and convincing. They can be draped properly, and the fibre/paper mix just looks right. They are very fiddly to build, but you clearly have the patience. Also, the Airscale products are first-class!

 

YSxVh59l.jpg

 

fC8pZZZl.jpg

Edited by R Palimaka
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Hey Chuck nice pick. I am surprised you are starting this so quickly after the last looooong project :) But I thought about it some more and figured that is probably the way to go. Strike while the iron is hot so to speak. This can be yet another book to be published some day right?

 

I am sure going to follow as I can probably pick up some tips for when I start my Spitfire in 1/48. I don't think Tamiya has a Mk.XIX in 1/48 but I live in hope. I do have Eduard's version and that should be okay for now.

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YSxVh59l.jpg

 

 

 

Now I have to comment on these! First aftermarket set that have the belts threaded the correct way! It is one of those little things that annoy the crap out of me, but no one will ever notice!

 

Actually the belts in the Bell 212 I fly are the same type, same buckles and everything. Now we have fabric loops on the shoulder harness, and the belts themselves are either black or the light grey with a slight green tinge in them. But otherwise exactly the same...

 

Cheers

H.

Edited by Winnie
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Radu's seatbelts are terriffic, and while you're at it, get the photoetched radiator matrices as well.  The seatbelt instructions tell you NOT to use superglue.  I used Gator's Grip and it worked really well with no visible glue smears at all.  These are not painted.

 

qLwkhk2.jpg

 

E4N1Up1.jpg

Jens

Edited by jenshb
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The seatbelt instructions tell you NOT to use superglue.  I used Gator's Grip and it worked really well with no visible glue smears at all.

 

Thanks for the tip, Jens! I've used Radu's belts a couple of times, but struggled with finding an adhesive that did the job. I had to resort to superglue in both cases, to the overall detriment of the result. I use Gator's Grip all the time, so will use it on my next set.

 

Kev

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This is embarrassing.  Over 3,200 views, 4 pages and not one pic of this build- yet, so here's a tiny update with a tip.

 

I'm starting on the starboard sidewall with the largest Barracuda resin piece.  This pic shows the resin and the part it replaces, which is F26.

 

 

dYIbuu.jpg

 

 

The rear portion of F26 is retained, while the front portion is replaced.  Here's a close-up to show how much more detail the Barracuda resin has.

 

 

3v0Eif.jpg

 

 

The resin doesn't just pop into the sidewall, because you need to remove all of that raised detail between the red lines, flush with the area above and below.  There's also 3 pin marks that will likely be visible later, so they need to be removed as well.  The other pin marks will be hidden.

 

 

0TjctA.jpg

 

 

The instructions suggest using a curved knife to remove the detail, but I've got a better idea.  Using an abrasive wheel in a Dremel tool, a #11 knife and sanding files, the removal of all this plastic is much easier to do.  You've got to be very careful to not let the wheel get too close to the surrounding detail, however, or you could have a mess.

 

 

hI8M2y.jpg

 

 

After more trimming and dry fitting, the resin piece slips in easily, mated to the rest of part F26 on the right.

 

 

wmcJo6.jpg

 

 

Now the tip: Buy a set of these!  I have no idea where I bought these Dremel bits, but you can see that they come in a good variety of sizes and shapes.  Each bit has fine grit attached to it (diamond dust?) and they erode plastic very quickly.  Too quickly sometimes, so you need to be careful and take it slow. 

 

The sanding files I use all the time on just about every step of a project in a variety of grits.  These are from UMM, although you might notice that they are made in Canada at Alpha Abrasives, which has a website.  Unfortunately, for some reason their website only shows a limited number of the sanding files that are available at UMM, so I just buy them at UMM in bulk.

 

 

43RGWd.jpg

 

 

That's it for now guys.  Whew!  I finally got some plastic in this build thread!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

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Guest Peterpools

Chuck

Great to see the Spit is underway and as usual, a great tip on installing the resin side wall.  Now the hunt begins for the Dremal set of Bits but at least I have a nice supply of the mini sanding sticks in a variety of grits - great stuff for sure.

Keep 'em coming

Peter

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