John Stambaugh Posted August 19, 2021 Share Posted August 19, 2021 Never a more elegant and otherwise beautiful aircraft than the Supermarine Spitfire. Happy modeling... MikeC 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeC Posted August 20, 2021 Share Posted August 20, 2021 6 hours ago, John Stambaugh said: Never a more elegant and otherwise beautiful aircraft than the Supermarine Spitfire. Happy modeling... Indeed so. Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paramedic Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 Looking like a great choice as the first LSP. I´ll follow with interest! I started my 1/32 "career" with the Tamiya P-51D (which is soon done.. After a few years!) And with my little knowledge - those kits are outstanding and a great choice! Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
James Rademaker Posted September 20, 2021 Share Posted September 20, 2021 Welcome Will, you picked a great first LSP subject. Looking forward to seeing your progress. Jim Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland WhirlWill Posted January 2, 2022 Author Share Posted January 2, 2022 Gentlemen, first and foremost, a very happy New Year to you all. Let’s hope that 2022 brings better times than 2021! Unfortunately mine hasn’t gotten off to the best start as I am writing this from the isolation of my bedroom, having caught the dreaded COVID on the 31st. Thankfully, I’m really not feeling too bad and hopefully I’ll be back out in a week or so. Secondly, an apology for starting a build thread then not posting any progress for several months. As these things so often happen in life, things came up and I ended up being away from home in the States for several months with work. Managed to get a bit of time in at the bench when I came home for Christmas, so here is that progress finally, it's not much, but just wanted to show you guys that I have actually done something! As I mentioned in my initial post, the Tamiya kit is lovely but the cockpit in the Mk VIII kit is the same as in the Mk IX kit and therefore not accurate to the type. Now I know that with this being my first large scale build and only my second build at all since coming back to the hobby, I probably should have kept it simple and just ignored the differences… but I just couldn’t do that. So I set about trying to find some decent references for a Mk VIII cockpit, which proved to be rather difficult. In the end, the best I could find were the cockpit diagrams from the Mk VII/VIII pilot’s notes and a very nice interactive 360 cockpit panorama from the National Air and Space Museum of their Mk VIIc, which I believe is the only Mk VII left today. Here’s the link, if anyone wants to check it out: https://airandspace.si.edu/multimedia-gallery/supermarine-spitfire-panojpg I also owe some thanks to fellow LSP member Vincent who set about making many of the necessary changes to the Tamiya kit for his own Mk VIII build and linked me to a few of the photos from that build that are still up. His build photos certainly came in handy when it came to relocating and modifying many of the cockpit parts. I can only hope my work looks half as good as his by the time it’s all painted up! Anyway, on with the pictures! Port and starboard cockpit walls with some of Roy's lovely bits from Barracuda installed as well as a bit of scratchwork from plasticard. Both sides are largely done in terms of modifications and mainly just need the significant amount of wiring needed for a Mk VIII. By the way, does anyone know why the Mk VII and VIII seemed to have so much more wiring in the cockpit than the earlier marks of spit, or why it looked such a mess? Various parts have been removed and filled which makes it all look a bit rough at the moment but hopefully will be better under some primer and paint! IP has been modified to Mk VIII spec, which involved the relocating of one of the dials on the left side, addition of a few boxes and switches from plasticard and the priming pump on the bottom right. Sorry about the washed out whites, bit hard to see the detail of these parts but I only have an iphone camera and British winter lighting to work with! The instrument bezels are from Airscale's 1/48 and 1/32 sets. I've also added the fuel tank selector switches and the plumbing to the left hand side of the bulkhead. The other fuselage frames have had all the lightening holes drilled out and the one behind the seat has had the additional plating missing from the rear added. Cut off and filled various parts of the cockpit tub. The two pieces on the bluetac are plumbing/wiring protectors? that were originally moulded onto the bottom part but devoid of the characteristic waffle pattern they really had, which I replicated using plasticard, sprue and Mr Surfacer. I might go back and remake them as I'm not 100% happy with them as they are. The rudder pedal assembly got its star shaped adjusting nuts added, here's a picture of one before I glued it in place with a penny for size: Had to be one of the fiddliest things I've ever cut out with a scalpel! Finally, I put together Barracuda's control column, though I had to replace the parts holding the lines in place with plasticard after I snapped one drilling it out! So there it is, that's where things stand at the moment. I know its not loads of progress, but this build will probably be a very long one as I am set to return to the US again soon and be away from my models for a while. Hopefully I'll be able to bring you at least one more update before then, if the COVID clears up and I can get out of isolation and back to the bench sooner rather than later. When I do, the next thing on the agenda is adding in all this mess of wires! Cheers! Will John Stambaugh, LSP_Kevin, scvrobeson and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scvrobeson Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 Great to see this one back on the bench. Really like the updates and details added to the cockpit. Matt Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted January 2, 2022 Share Posted January 2, 2022 Very nice work! I hope your recovery is swift and uncomplicated. Kev Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland WhirlWill Posted January 4, 2022 Author Share Posted January 4, 2022 On 1/2/2022 at 11:22 PM, scvrobeson said: Great to see this one back on the bench. Really like the updates and details added to the cockpit. Matt Cheers Matt! On 1/2/2022 at 11:37 PM, LSP_Kevin said: Very nice work! I hope your recovery is swift and uncomplicated. Kev Thanks Kev, thankfully I’m already feeling much better than a couple of days ago and am almost right, should be back to 100% very soon. LSP_Kevin and scvrobeson 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sepp Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Oooh! Missed this one, somehow... welcome aboard And - veeery nice work, there - following, for sure! Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monthebiff Posted January 4, 2022 Share Posted January 4, 2022 Excellent progress on your first LSP, you have chosen a great kit as your subject choice. Regards. Andy Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TimW Posted January 5, 2022 Share Posted January 5, 2022 Wow, beautiful work! Keep up the progress. This is another "inspiration build" for me, as I have one of these in the stash with some Eduard and Barracuda AM bits. Cheers, Tim W. Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeMaben Posted January 6, 2022 Share Posted January 6, 2022 Take your time Will, there are no schedules here. Relax and have fun ... and get well soon. MikeC and Westland WhirlWill 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland WhirlWill Posted January 23, 2022 Author Share Posted January 23, 2022 On 1/4/2022 at 12:02 PM, Sepp said: Oooh! Missed this one, somehow... welcome aboard And - veeery nice work, there - following, for sure! On 1/4/2022 at 1:14 PM, monthebiff said: Excellent progress on your first LSP, you have chosen a great kit as your subject choice. Regards. Andy On 1/5/2022 at 1:02 PM, TimW said: Wow, beautiful work! Keep up the progress. This is another "inspiration build" for me, as I have one of these in the stash with some Eduard and Barracuda AM bits. Cheers, Tim W. Thank you all for your kind comments, much appreciated. On 1/6/2022 at 12:42 AM, MikeMaben said: Take your time Will, there are no schedules here. Relax and have fun ... and get well soon. Cheers Mike, all recovered now and back at work. Just wish I had more time to build as I see all the other incredible builds on here making (at least to me) incredibly quick progress and would love to be able to do the same. With that being said here is my small bit of progress that I have managed to make on this cockpit. I’ve added all the wiring on the port sidewall, the prop speed lever, wedge plate for gun camera film counter, and the cockpit light. Not strictly spitfire model-related but thought some of you might get a kick out of this too… This is my recently acquired and fixed 1943 Omega CK2292. These were issued to RAF and FAA aircrew during the war. Manufactured to British military specifications, my one has an HS8-marked case designating it as an FAA issue so it probably never flew in a spitfire but it’s a cool piece with some real military heritage and I like to wear it when working on my own (admittedly much smaller) WW2 planes as a small nod to the thousands of brave men who served and perished in the skies from 1939-45. That’s all from me for a while as I’m back off to the US for several months for work, but look forward to following everybody else’s wonderful projects on here until I can get back to mine again. Will MikeC, D.B. Andrus, rafju and 10 others 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Westland WhirlWill Posted October 20, 2022 Author Share Posted October 20, 2022 (edited) Well hello everyone, I’m back and I’m dragging this build back from the dead with an update after many (many) months away. I’ve realised gradually that maybe trying to make an accurate rendition of a Mk VIII spit cockpit is a tougher task than I’d anticipated as I’ve found good solid images and diagrams of wartime Mk VIII cockpits very hard to find. There also seems to be plenty of great resources on restored Mk Is, IXs and Va but very few surviving Mk VIIIs in comparison… And perhaps because I’m a little crazy, once I start down a path, I feel I have to do it completely right or not at all, which has led me adding all manner of details to the cockpit that will almost certainly never be seen. But hey, as we modellers so often tell ourselves, at least I’ll know (and you guys too I suppose) it’s in there, and it has been fun to research and scratchbuild the stuff. So anyway, here’s what I’ve done. I’ve finally finished off building the cockpit details and have started laying down some paint. I already showed the port side of the cockpit but I finished off the additional wiring on the starboard side too. I added the missing stringers and sidewall detail for the next two frames behind the cockpit and scratch build some radio racks from plasticard. Of course, I also made some radios to go in them! The radios are probably not that accurate but to be honest they won’t really be anything more than the edge of a black box when seen through the rear of the canopy if they are even visible at all! I added the cross-shaped bit of metal behind the rearmost cockpit frame where the harness attaches and the antenna mast is mounted to. This was also just made from plasticard sheet. I added quite a bit of detail to the frame just behind the seat, including the landing gear warning horn (I think), as well as the elevator controls and various hydraulics. I also replaced the blocky moulded-on bits on the cockpit floor frame with more accurate representations of the sheet metal, waffle-patterned pressings that were actually there. Everything again made from plasticard sheet or rods. I spent a good amount of time detailing the compressed air bottles, which lacked the characteristic weld lines of the actual items, any sort of mounting clamps or the mess of pneumatic regulators and such that adorned the bottom of the bottles. The weld lines were stretched sprue, the rest plasticard and copper wire. Finally, I ended up purchasing the Eduard cockpit detail set as well, but only intend to use a few pieces from it as much of the set is grossly out of shape compared to the real thing. The cockpit provided by eduard is made to fit into the tamiya parts as a whole unit so the cockpit frames are too wide and too shallow, the seat armour is completely the wrong shape and other parts such as the air bottles and O2 bottle seem too small and lack any additional detail over the kit parts. I have opted to use the seat, as you can see above as my original barracuda seat wasn’t the best-cast example and I ended up snapping off every attachment point as I fiddled around with it until it looked a bit of a mess with them all glued back on or replaced with plastic are when I inevitably lost some of them. The eduard seat is nice, but out of the box the leather back pad is way too even and looks more like pressed metal than worn leather. A scalpel blade and some sandpaper took care of that… I also added the stiffening plates around the edges of the seat with stretched sprue and mr surfacer and added the armour plate underneath. I think I’ll also use the eduard compass and gunsight when I get round to adding those in but that’s about it. I’ve just started spraying the cockpit parts so here’s a quick preview pic of the cockpit sides under some interior green and aluminium… I will have a bit of time over the next few days so will definitely get another update post out very soon so see you all then! (I’ll also try and take some better pics next time as looking over these as I’m adding them in, they’re pretty terrible - sorry!) Will Edited October 20, 2022 by Westland WhirlWill Landrotten Highlander, rafju, patricksparks and 16 others 19 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LSP_Kevin Posted October 21, 2022 Share Posted October 21, 2022 Nice detailing, Will! Kev Westland WhirlWill 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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