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Spitfire MK.IIa


gmctaggart

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One very small observation about the control column. The MkII only had machine guns, so the gun button on the stick was round and not rectangular. The rectangular button was for cannons and machine guns as fitted to the MkV onwards.

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Thanks Maxim, Gerhard, DonH and the Mongoose. Appreciate your encouragement. DonH Thanks for the note. i.e., should have left it alone vs cutting it off the column. Easy enough to adjust. A quick update. My friend arrived and I thought I would share. 

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He arrived in a nice box and well protected. The casting was in a bag with a small colour reference guide. While no specific colours are called out, there is enough references online to sort out proper matches.

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Once out of the bag you can start to see the details. It was difficult to find reasonable images of this online so there was a lot of hope that it would be nicely sculpted and would work for my purposes. But once it was in my hands I was relieved.

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Separated and cleaned and then roughly assembled. The quality of the mold seems fine but there are some small holes from the casting. The harness looks about right but I am definitely not an expert on this and I also know this tends to be a contentious issue. I will need to add to the harness to show straps passing through the plate of he headrest and back through the fuselage.

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It looks like the scale is right and should work well with the kit. I will know for sure once start trying to incorporate everything into the cockpit. The legs do seem a bit stretched out so I am concerned that I would need to become a doctor and amputate our friend. Not sure what to do with the 'thumbs up, everything is all right look' either. I am thinking of having the AC in a 30 degree bank so he is likely not this casual. Would spitfire pilots ever use both hands on the stick? I had originally thought to have his left hand on the throttle quadrant which would definitely require the doctor. Any suggestions?

 

Gord 

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A bit more progress. I have started to build up the cockpit. I am not following the instructions in this as I am trying to run a number of wires and these travel across different assemblies which would make it difficult install later if everything was assembled as intended. Instead I am building out from the port side, layering and adding parts until I can close it all up. I know adding the wiring and pipes on the starboard side will be tricky but I am hoping it still might work. At the end of the day it is a small space and you will likely not see too much of the interior. Anyways thank for watching.

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Gord

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks everyone for your comments. Its been awhile since I lasted posted. In that time its been work trips, vacation and moving my model operations to a new space. I have not been idle though. To advance the build I worked on the base of the AC. This is wood board that has been stained black with a gloss finish applied.

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With the spitfire meant to be in a wheels up position, I realized that I need to complete the base as well as the stand and then build in the corresponding tube within the AC. This meant attaching the lower wing and the port fuselage together so that I could position the tube within the model. So far this has worked out well and I hope that I can build the rest of the AC from left to right without any fit issues. In addition I have added some more brass wire and installed the 2 other visible frames. A dash of paint and this side has come together well and thankfully the whole thing slides over the rod and into position with no issues.

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Following that, I began to paint the pilot. Still needs some work but its progressing. Building the plane this way means that the pilot needs to get mounted next and followed by the control stick.

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Seems like its going well but as always let me know if something doesn't look right.

Gord

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