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Revell Spitfire FRIXc MK915 pink recon


Fanes

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Scratch building the camera bay

 

Yesterday I discovered that the Monforten book "Spitfire Mk.IX & XVI - engineered" is available as an ebook for a bargain!

Lots of detail pictures and scale drawings but of course nothing on the FR IX or the bulkheads behind no.12.

So I'll be using my engineering skills to make this thing work.
Here's a comparison of the Monforten drawing for bulkhead no.11 and Revell's and Eduard's interpretation:

635054-34859-47.jpg

 

Both lack around 4-5mm in height and width which accounts for the thick plastic of the kit's fuselage. Also the Eudard one is noticeably short on the bottom.

To get the correct - read fbest fitting - size for my bulkheads I used Eduard's no. 12 to scale the drawings for 13 and 14 down.

The templates are then attached to 0.5mm styrene (will be backed by another layer later on)

635055-34859-58.jpg

 

After cutting them out I did a first test fitting in the fuselage (spots that need sanding were marked with a black marker). But the overall look seems quite good to me!

635053-34859-63.jpg

 

I'll add the openings to the bulkheads later today, or maybe tomorrow. I didn't find any exact drawings. The best I could get was a cut drawing from the Spitifre owner's workshop manual which shows at least the shape.
The next big thin will be scratch building the F.24 cameras and their mounts. There are some pictures out there but again no drawings.
Of course someone has done them really nicely before:

The story from my Bf 110E-3 seems to repeat itself :D. I'll be using Kent's work as a guide for my attempts.
If anyone has a good (scale) drawing - I'd be happy to take a look on that! If possible, I will try to do a CAD model of the camera for 3D printing.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Not much has happened since my last post. I was quite busy at work and my scratch builind is especially slow.

The two bulkheads are unfortunately far from perfect but not much of them will be visible once the fuselage is closed.

639218-34859-29.jpg

 

Scratch building the F24 camera and its mounting frame is (currently) out of my league. So I'm relying on 3D-printing the camera. Based on various pictures I did a CAD drawing:

639217-34859-56.png

 

The mounting frame itself is so delicate that 3D-printing isn't an option. The horrendous story of my RB50/30 frame, which is a lot more sturdy, from my Bf 110E-3 build comes to mind.

I'll try to scratch the visible frame which is attached to the camera when the printed part has arrived.

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On 8/4/2019 at 7:57 PM, Fanes said:

Scratch building the F24 camera and its mounting frame is (currently) out of my league. So I'm relying on 3D-printing the camera. Based on various pictures I did a CAD drawing:

639217-34859-56.png

I have an F24! Let me know if you need any measurements or pictures. I have a mount too, but it's boxed up waiting to be posted to a restoration house for a project.

Edited by KiwiZac
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1 hour ago, KiwiZac said:

I have an F24! Let me know if you need any measurements or pictures. I have a mount too, but it's boxed up waiting to be posted to a restoration house for a project.

That would be awesome! Let me do a sketch with all the measurements I need.

Lucky me who hesitated to order the print yesterday :D

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On 7/18/2019 at 11:54 AM, Fanes said:

Speaking of holes eeeeh rivets: Is there an easy technique for riveting circles?

I checked my plans and the wing top has a circle of rivets where the wheel well is beneath.

Hey i don't mean this answer to sound flippant but, you could cut a circle-shaped mask from Tamiya tape, lay it down in the correct position, and then make pilot holes by eyeball, using a needle in a pin vise, and then open those out a little with a #80 drill bit, or something smaller if you can find it. Sand down with 100 grit wet, then take a look and see what you think.

 

-d-

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3 hours ago, David Hansen said:

Hey i don't mean this answer to sound flippant but, you could cut a circle-shaped mask from Tamiya tape, lay it down in the correct position, and then make pilot holes by eyeball, using a needle in a pin vise, and then open those out a little with a #80 drill bit, or something smaller if you can find it. Sand down with 100 grit wet, then take a look and see what you think.

 

-d-

That's a good idea! I'm a little bit worried about the spacing - my Eyeball Mk.1 drillsight isn't the most accurate.
I'll give it a try and might come back to the MDC solution or an adaption of that via Silhouette-Tamiya tape.elbow grease.

 

Thanks a lot guys!

The camera is on hold so I started the brassin cockpit. No pictures so far - only sawing the parts from their pour blocks and drilling all those lightening holes.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Thanks to @KiwiZac I'm redesigning the F24 camera. The new CAD model should be ready for 3D printing at the end of the week.

Until then I felt the need to start construction work on the brassin cockpit.

Although it's nicely detailed there's still a lot of room for improvements. For example the frame on the cockpit floor features nice rivets but is one solid resin piece. So I started removing unnecessary structure:

644863-34859-90-1440.jpg

 

Moving to the front (a little bit blurry in the picture above) is a pipe running across the floor. Two problems here: the flash underneath and the fact that it doesnt't fit the sidewalls.
Quick fix: 0.2mm copper wire.

644862-34859-47-1440.jpg

 

Moving aft there are the two bulkheads with their ditinctive lightening holes - all solid from eduard.
After drilling an endless amount of holes here they are:

644864-34859-83-1440.jpg

 

I managed to crack the right one which is incredibly fragile. Not sure if I can live with it, or if I need to get a replacement from eduard.

 

Back to the front waits a serious problem. While trying to install the plumbing to the IP frame I discovered that the brassin part is awfully narrow. The comparison with Tamiya (left) and Revell (right) highlichts the issue.

644866-34859-19-1440.jpg

Doing some measurements with my trusty calipers revealed that the Revell one is closest to the drawings in the Monforten book. Eduard narrowed their frame down to fit inside the fuselage with the resin floor and sidewalls in place.

I'm not sure what to do now. Leaving the brassin part as is, installing thinner wire for the plumbing or crafting the lower Revell part to the brassin part (an awful amount of surgery needed)?

 

Cheers

Joachim
 

 

Edited by Fanes
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On 8/21/2019 at 9:34 AM, Biggles87 said:

I think I’d go for the last option.

 

John

Thanks John - I took your advice and went down the long road.

Here's the Revell bulkhead with the brassin IP and some additional bits and bobs:

646028-34859-78-1440.jpg

As you can see the sidewall is almost paper-thin which is unfortunately necessary to get the cockpit spread by the wide bulkhead into the fuselage. There will be more sanding and elbow grease necessary to get a decent fit but more on that later.

I started adding some of the PE to the cockpit and the next bummer wasn't too far.

646027-34859-50-1440.jpg

I have no idea what eduard wanted to replicate with that horrible part, but it for sure doesn't look like a Spitfire head armour. Tamiya's PE (no.27) instead is spot on and serves as a template for my scratch build head armour build from 0.2mm styrene.

646029-34859-53-1440.jpg

Afterwards some mor fiddling was done on the pilot's seat. All holes and openings in the seat and the frame were drilled/cut open. So far it's just a dry fit since I will paint both parts separately.

646030-34859-93-1440.jpg

Edited by Fanes
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Progress is slow but steady and so the work on the cockpit parts continues.

The voltage regulator on frame no.11 recieved its cables and I had to redo the head armour because the slot for the seatbelts was located too high.

647086-34859-83-1440.jpg

Then I went back to the seat and noticed an oddity with the eduard seat armour but see for yourself:

647085-34859-93-1440.jpg

From left to right: Barracuda, Tamiya and eduard - below my scratch build version.

The eduard PE is ridiculously oversized and doesn't even fit the seat attachments - what the heck???

The Barracuda and Tamiya plates look the part and match up the Monforten drawings. So I made my own from 0.2mm sheet.

Here it is all in place with some cleaup still necessary (the unforigiving macro shot):

647083-34859-38-1440.jpg

Note that I replaced the PE part for the ratchet cover with styrene since the PE thing didn't have any notches for the ratchet. A fine saw came to the rescue - et voilà.

I felt that it was time to see how it looks in the closed fuselage and oh boy it's a thight fit with a lot of material already removed:

647084-34859-85-1440.jpg

There are still a lot of gaps to fill. The starboard sidewall for instance: it's heavily warped and will need some heat to match the fuselage cross section.

The gap on the entrance is a story for another day..

 

Edited by Fanes
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