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The antique BoB Revell Spitfire Mk.I


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And now we will have a look at the additional components.

 

This TM view is showing the ducts that were added to heat the machine guns.

 

qa9Yzq4.jpg

 

The initial Mk.Is had problems of gun freeze and an ad hoc solution had to be found quickly as this was not really a mundane issue in dogfight! Later the system was hidden in the wings and the wing structure was modified to avoid that problem. However, this must be added on Spitfires from the late Mk.I to the Mk.II and if my memory's right some Mk.V. For a mysterious reason, kit manufacturers are systematically omitting that system in spite of the fact it is quite bulky!

 

The duct and the fixing collar parts were made with my punch and die or were are made from corners of HK B-17 engine sprues! I would have preferred sprues with acute corners. However, as I'm only having large scale kits at home, I do not have a lot of thin sprues!

 

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To be 100% accurate, the angle should be more acute but with the flap, this will not be visible as you have to be under or above them to see it.

 

Here you can see them glued in the radiator.

 

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And here you can see this is quite visible:

 

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Then, I added the longer duct supporting arm with a leftover Eduard part:

 

7o0ypVq.jpg

 

 

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Then, I went back to the rear flap.

 

First, I thinned the rear edges before making a round notch with a file in the port side. The notch is actually corresponding to the heating duct they added.

 

Then, I added a reinforcing strip and two strengthening arms linking the main sheet and the sides. The last item to add was the actuating arm.

 

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It is required to dry fit a lot of times to be sure all the parts will join correctly when the final radiator assembly will be done after painting. You can see here the actuating part of the arm glued on the wall:

 

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Here's an assembly attempt intended to ensure everything will be correctly aligned:

 

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And this one is showing the arm with its actuating part:

 

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I did not really detail the actuating part of the flap arm as this will be close to totally invisible.

 

The rear end is now finished up to the final assembly of that section. A row of screw heads is very visible close to the end of the ramp but there is no way to add it now without damaging it later.

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And to end that area, we will now add the tube visible in front of the front face of the radiator:

 

o7gfwdT.jpg

 

This is just a small section of bent plastic rod added on a short length of Slater plastic strip.

 

P8lQsEB.jpg

 

Again, a row of screw heads should be visible (close the the front edge of the ramp). However, for the same reason, I will only add them later.

 

I will now look at the oil cooling system. Fortunately, this will be far easier to recreate!

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Hi folks. 

 

Correcting the oil cooling system looks to be quite simple, so I'm considering the next step: the outlets at the end of each wing heating system. I found pictures of the covers but none of what should be under such covers. As one is noticeably larger than the other one, I doubt there is simply one basic round hole in each wing. I'm rather thinking about a slot but who knows? Without looking at a preserved full scale plane equiped with such a system, it is quite difficult to know for sure! 

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Now, we will have a look at the oil cooler.

 

With regard to that area, the kit is quite simple: you just have front and rear holes! Nothing more. So, it was required to build it completely.

 

Fortunately, the actual system was simple and globally made of a cylinder with a front and a rear mesh. The oil was circulating in a duct going through the cylinder and was cooled by the air going through the meshes. Note the full scale cylinder had actually an oval cross-section but the difference is not really visible and just to prove it all photoetched sets are giving round mesh parts!

 

I was fortunate enough to have such meshes amongst my leftover Eduard photoetched parts. However, as this is too often the case, Eduard is proposing in their instructions to glue paper thin fragile parts without anything to support them! Useless to say if you dare doing that the probability to get a mess is extremely high!

 

For some reason probably linked to kit plastic thickness-based limitations, the rear mesh is smaller than the front one. Fortunately, this is not a problem as you can always see only one of the two! With regard to the support, finding the best solution asked for some head-scratching exercice but finally I went back to the shape of the full-scale part while complying with the round shape of the meshes: a cylinder! And as both meshes had different diameters, I looked after two cylinders with corresponding diameters. I was quite lucky as I found two Evergreen ones and the smaller could even slide in the larger one!

 

knyPKYb.jpg

 

This picture shows the parts in the wing.

 

BdoC88s.jpg

 

As often, it is required to sand a little bit the walls as well as the leading and trailing edges to get something that is more in line with metal sheet thickness.

 

Another problem is solved!

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