artoor_k Posted July 13, 2019 Share Posted July 13, 2019 Wow, Mk 9 out of Mk 5. I started this conversion 7 years ago but with Trumpeter Spitfire. Unfortunatelly never succeed. Too much scratchwork with almost no experience. This project ate me alive. I'll be watching because maybe someday I'll start it again. Keep up good work and don't loose fun out of sight KUROK 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 Thanks I'll try not to loose the fun - so far, all's good. Having built the MkI almost two decades ago I know that one of the weak point of the kit is the wing dyhedral that is way too flat if nothing is done about it.early in the built. It's barely visible in the next picture (taking at a Belgian expo last year) but it is clearly striking on most of the 1/24 finished airfix spitfire. So this time I'll try to address that problem. I sgaped a metal clothes hanger and glued it on the bottom wing before solidifying the whole with milliput. Hopefully that should provide a better angle this time and should also help on the wing/fuselage joint a bit later on…. Gazzas, R Palimaka and Greg W 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 15, 2019 Author Share Posted July 15, 2019 (edited) I though the above cartoon is pretty representative of what is to come The MkVb boxing provides the clipped wingtips and although Spit IX from the 349 had all sorts of different configurations during their activity, the one I am building has the clipped wings. So out with the saw and the default wingtips were cut. Fitting of the clipped wingtip is far from being a no putty operation, and curiously the parts fit better when I switched the parts number from the instructions. I also had to adapt the cut according to the aileron to ensure the wingtips were properly aligned with the trailing edge of the ailerons. The early clipped wings were done in wood and had no position lights - but PT723 clearly sports the light. Luckily, Airfix provided transparent parts for them. Fitting is not perfect either, but that can be very easily overcome. I'll attach them later on. The wing is now complete & ready for priming. Most of the panels were puttied, as were the clipped wingtips. The rivets were toned down by light sanding. Now I can really start this model by working on the cockpit Edited July 15, 2019 by red Dog KUROK, Starfighter, R Palimaka and 5 others 8 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chek Posted July 15, 2019 Share Posted July 15, 2019 (edited) If you make a line from the rear edge of your wing (corresponding to the rear wng/fairing junction) parallel to the aircraft centreline and make a sawcut, that will allow you to bend the wing dihedral. The inboard portion of a Spitfire wing is flat, with the outboard dihedral starting noticeably from that point, and not from the wing root The frontal view drawing extract below is based on the Monforton ones shows what's required. p.s the wheel bulges in the wing upper surfaces need to be deleted too. The Mk IX lowered the wheel position in the wing by means of using curved undercarriage doors. Edited July 15, 2019 by Chek p.s. added MikeMaben, Greg W, red Dog and 1 other 3 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted July 18, 2019 Share Posted July 18, 2019 I just cannot resist a Spitfire in any scale. It is an ambitious project, I wish you luck. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 18, 2019 Author Share Posted July 18, 2019 (edited) Merci Biggles Some more goodies received in the mail for the Spit The flaps are meant for the trumpeter kit but should work reasonably enough for the airfix kit … Well we'll find out soon enough Edited July 18, 2019 by red Dog Greg W and Out2gtcha 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 18, 2019 Author Share Posted July 18, 2019 (edited) Cockpit is very sparse from the box, so a bit of scratching is required... I'm not going into crazy detailling but just basic stuff Default offer: Some bits added And being painted .... More work required and i'll revert to the original radio channel selector (top right) which is too large. The Airfix kit part will be better. The airscale placards decals will come in handy Edited July 18, 2019 by red Dog Fanes, Starfighter, Anthony in NZ and 7 others 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 20, 2019 Author Share Posted July 20, 2019 Same work sequence on the right side which provides a bit more challenges: The kit's offering: That's rather sparse, but still better than the original 1970 kit I built above, as the gear handle assembly is already a dozen time better in the MkVb kit. Still it's very empty in there... Some stuff added during a dryfit session: and then painting and added some more details. Wires still need to be placed but I first need to work on the bulkheads. I'll do some weathering before doing that though. Alain Gadbois, Biggles87, LSP_Kevin and 6 others 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nmayhew Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 wow this is hard core stuff i admire your confidence and resilience as much as your modelling skill thanks for sharing red Dog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crobinsonh Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Nice build - this is going to look epic when finished. red Dog 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gregv Posted July 20, 2019 Share Posted July 20, 2019 Fabulous build, looking great so far! You might want to have a look at the oleo length on the landing gear; iirc they are fully extended (so they fit properly when retracted) so might look a bit tall with the the aircraft sitting on them. I noticed it in drawings, not sure how noticeable it will be in the flesh. Err plastic. Greg V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 Thank you very much gents for the comments Greg, I read that before and I compared the oleo to the tamiya ones. They are 3.6mm in 1/32. That would make them 4.8 in 1/24 I checked the SAC I have for the trumpeter Spitfire in 1/24 and they are indeed 4.8mm. The airfix ones are indeed longer : 7.8mm. So definitely something to do here. thanks for the pointer USMC Herc 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
USMC Herc Posted July 21, 2019 Share Posted July 21, 2019 A great project.1/24 with resin you are a gluten for punishment. Great start with the adishins. I will watch this as I am Building one in 1/32 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 Hehe, I actually use the same model as yours as a reference for this build. I'm building the tamiya 1/32 at the same time Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
red Dog Posted July 21, 2019 Author Share Posted July 21, 2019 With the side consoles done, the next obvious area to work with is the IP and the seat. The IP was replaced by IP upgrade from Airscale. Very easy to install & paint and giving very nice results !! (I just need to make a few corrections in the photo below) The seat demanded a bit more work because it's the Grey Matter meant for the trumpeter kit and the frame is quite different. I redid the armor plate behind the seat with thinner plasticard and cut the support frame to fit the new resin seat. The frame supporting the seat was also modified as the original part was not quite accurate. I messed up a bit the hole for the harness I had to make in the head armor plate. I'll try to correct that later on... The front part (flare round storage? ) was cut from the kit's seat and replaced on the Grey matter seat. And the whole was assembled twice (initially, I smartly glued the seat on the wrong side of the frame making the first ever Spitfire rear faced pilot seat ) The harness will be made with Eduard RAF late seatbelts. I have never been a huge fan of PE seatbelts because of the unatural pose they always end into. IMHO PE is too rigid for that. But that's what I have handy here so let's try to make use of them. I must say they made progress because compared to the very early printed seatbelts they made, These are printed on both side (that helps) and more importantly the print is much more reliable than before. Ususally when you bent the PE the print was going AWOL and never at the right spot of course. It's a problem I faced here as well, but to a much lesser extend than my past experiences. That said, I would replace them with HGW seatbelts anytime... Here are the seatbelts assembled but not glued yet. Then attached to the seat and frames: As I said, soft seatbelts anytime over rigid PE KUROK, R Palimaka, Anthony in NZ and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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