Revell Spitfire FRIXc MK915 pink recon

[Fanes]

Oh my - an update is inbound

It's been a while since I last visited thsi thread and the model itself as well.

Thank you very much for the comment Andy, even if it took me nine month so read it

Now with the ICM biplane finished up and in the cabinet and finally an ende to working overtime, the pink Spit returns!

 

I had the wooden spars for the camera 3D printed by a friend, since I couldn't get an even result with the slot on styrene strips.

They then were painted in a beige base colour, followed by some oils for the wood grain and a heavy gloss to get a varnished look.

Here's the rear one already glued into the fuselage:

 

 

And with the camera cradle pinned into place. Pretty hard to get a good photo with the bright plastic and the dark hole..

 

With that done I went to test fitting the brassin cockpit and oh boy, that's a mess. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

 

The fuselage's plastic is already quite close to paper thin, but the resin cockpit still pushes the halves apart and sits too low at the front. Further thinning led to the IP fouling the windscreen's fit. The next Spit Mk.IX will be a Tamiya one for sure!

Edited October 15, 2022 by Fanes

[dennismcc]

Challenges, challenges, but it will look great once you wrestle it into submission.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Fanes]

4 hours ago, dennismcc said:

Challenges, challenges, but it will look great once you wrestle it into submission.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

That's what I did Dennis
Brute force and some smart thinking. I painted the sidewalls black on the outside, put the cockpit in while the paint was still wet and then knew where to scrape/sand more material away.

With some clamping pliers we arrive here:

 

 

That's the best I could get. Not perfect, but at least it's consistent all around.

My plan is to leave the fuselage taped together. Epoxy the port side and afterwards the starboard side. The idea behind this is to have time to make the necessary adjustments and to have a strong bond.

[Wackyracer]

Great to see you back on the pink Spit despite the issues, I'm sure it will be amazing at the end. Keep going the end is in sight.

[Fanes]

1 minute ago, Wackyracer said:

Great to see you back on the pink Spit despite the issues, I'm sure it will be amazing at the end. Keep going the end is in sight.

Thank you very much Aaron - I'm doing my best to keep up the momentum this time!

 

There's some work still ahead. For example the spinner's fit was reall bad from stock.

There's quite a gap, which can be reduced by thinning the flange on the axle - something you have to do before closing the fuselage halves.
I'm glad that I checked that beforehand.

 

 

Talking about gaps....

The Derek-B-Method for the bulged belly resulted in some nasty trenches between the upper wing halves and the wing roots.

 

 

 

Most of the issues went away with clamping the wings to the fuselage nad using some strong and thick plastic cement.

The remaining gaps werte filled with 0.3 mm styrene strips. Once fully cured, I'll start to sand everything smooth.

The next days will be mostly seam work (to make the dreams work) on the fuselage and wings.

Once that's sorted out, I'll fit the resin carb intake (more filling ahead) and spoiler alert: the horizontal stabs aren't a beautiful fit either.

 

 

 

[geedubelyer]

The effort you're putting in is commendable Fanes and she's looking fine despite your difficulties. The image of the camera looks superb and the wood efect of the mounting spar is spot on. 

 

Interesting to see the gaps at the wing join. It might be worth checking the dihedral at some point. The dihedral on the wings of the Revell IIA that I built were probably too shallow. If the Mk IX is similar, some of that gap might be taken up by increasing the dihedral? 

 

Keep up the momentum, you're doing a grand job. 

 

 

[Fanes]

11 hours ago, geedubelyer said:

The effort you're putting in is commendable Fanes and she's looking fine despite your difficulties. The image of the camera looks superb and the wood efect of the mounting spar is spot on. 

 

Interesting to see the gaps at the wing join. It might be worth checking the dihedral at some point. The dihedral on the wings of the Revell IIA that I built were probably too shallow. If the Mk IX is similar, some of that gap might be taken up by increasing the dihedral? 

 

Keep up the momentum, you're doing a grand job. 

 

 

Good point - the dihedral is indeed off. At least compared to the Tamiya parts I have at hand.

There are around 3mm missing at the wing tips

I tried spreading the fuselage to reduce the gaps and ended up with quite some anhedral.

We'll see, what can be fixed..

[MikeMaben]

Some nice clean-up work Joachim 

[Fanes]

Well, the longer I looked, the worse it got.

The port wing was more like 4 mm off from the Tamiya wing and the starboard one arounf 1.5 mm.

It really didn't look right from straight ahead.

So some drastic action was needed. I pulled/tear out all the shims on the port wing root and poured down lots of glue.

Some "gentle" force was apllied via tape and now it's curing like that:

 

 

Unfortunately this isn't the best picture since the camera is slightly off axis and the jig isn't exactly levelled, but you get the idea.

 

 

New wingroot with not much of a seam

 

 

 

[Fanes]

More seam work

With the wings glued firmly, all the annoying seams recieved a filling with black CA.
It doesn't dry as rock hard as regular CA and is therefor easier to sand and to rescribe.

The cowl had some nasty sinkmarks and an inconsistent seam. Luckily there aren't many rivets to restore.

 

 

The rear fuselage was an okayish fit. Just the antenna base was impossible to align properly.

 

The wingroot join is what it is: work. Will check how it turned out with a coat of primer.

 

Before I apply more primer, I'll fit the windscreen, since it will require a lot of filling, sanding and so on.
On the other hand, protecting/masking the cockpit will be a lot easier with it in place.

 

 

[themongoose]

Holy cow that way was a ton of work. Sure looks like you’re getting it sorted!

[Fanes]

On 12/4/2022 at 2:28 AM, themongoose said:

Holy cow that way was a ton of work. Sure looks like you’re getting it sorted!

Little babysteps - the canopy and windscreen are my current nightmares.

They will have to wait until I have sorted out all the modelling related stuff.

Started a new job last week and hadd wo move to a new home.

[Fanes]

More seam work

 

I'm still haven't finished setting up shop, but was able to do some small stuff on the pink Spit.

The rear canopy wasn't a decent fit (too narrow at the bottom) but could be forced into position with a rubber band and Tamiya extra thin.

 

As mentioned, the windscreen is a no fit (thanks to the eduard IP sitting too high. That's as good as it got with the clear aprt being sanded paper thin at the front.

 

 

Milliiput to the rescue. Quite a lot was put on around the holes and steps and was smoothed out with a wet cotton bud.

This will need some more filling and sanding to get smooth, but we'll get there,

 

The horizontal stabs recieved a similar treatment.

 

With some adhesion issues on the bottom. Will fix that with CA after the Milliput is fully cured.

 

This is taking way longer that I anticipated and yesterday I made the decision to  get rid of my second Revell Mk.IX kit. Anyone in for a cheap kit?

The second recon Spit (PR XI) will be based on Tamiya's Mk.VIII - started looking for one just now.

[Greif8]

Grüß Gott Joachim, I missed your build thread and have just read through it.  Your scratchbuilding work is very beautifully done, as is the riveting.  You have also done a fantastic job on the modifications to the base model kit.  The 3D printed cameras and frames look quite good.  Sehr beeindruckende Arbeit!

 

MfG,

Ernest

[Wackyracer]

Keep going Sir, it will all be good in the end.

 

Personally I didn't mind messing up a couple of £20 kits instead of a £100 Tamiya one.