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Airfix 1/24 Spitfire


JCote

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:o :)

 

Jean your the man period. :) :)

 

No realy nice work indee hacker his build is quite the dictionary on how to spice up a cockpit but then with pictures

 

Great work and I hope you finisch it one day. ps how come your masters for the canopy aren't well yet after repeated sanding and priming what was the base form made of wood?

 

Greetz STB

Frederick Jacobs

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Hello JCote

 

Absolutely stunning work! All the leavers and switches are going to work right? Sure looks like you'll be able to taxi around the kitchen floor when your finished!

 

No matter how long this project takes you, it'll be well worth the wait!

 

Regards

 

Richard :o

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Hi Jean,

 

From what I can find, there are generally two thick copper pipes, and two slightly smaller pipes emerging from the chassis lever to the clamp block on frame 8. From there, the pipe grouping runs down the back of frame 8 and under the right rudder pedal, along the fuselage bottom, forward to the centre (roughly) of the sloping fuel tank bulkhead between frames 7 & 8. They then carry on forwards through the bulkhead via connections at this point (this is for the majority of Merlin Spitfires - including the Mk.IX, Griffon Spitfires have a slightly different pipe grouping arrangement in this area).

 

HTH

 

Derek

post-596-1171073990.jpg

post-596-1171074022.jpg

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Thank you all for your very kind comments.

 

Derek, that's brilliant, thanks for the pictures and the info, the mystery has been solved!

 

Frederick, the canopies were fashioned using the same technique as the cowlings, with styrene frames and foam filling. Unfortunately I discovered rather late in the day that the forward half of the sliding hood was "undernourished", ie too narrow. As a result the aft part of the front canopy was off as well. Instead of starting over from scratch I then attempted to remedy the problem by building up layers of milliput, and that's the snag: I sand too much off here, or add too much there... Sigh!

 

Hacker, your so right that having the right equipment makes all the difference. Unlike Brian, Radub and other wizards who post here I've got very average skills, but I'm dogged, and for the first time in my life I'm properly tooled up, and that makes up for many failings!

 

Cheers, Jean

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Hi Edgar, far from being a wet blanket, you've come up with a very apposite question, one which exercised me for some time. The reference book I'm mainly relying on for my build is Czech, the photos are all of a late variant Mk IX with its original equipment, including Feranti MkII gyroscopic gunsights and throttle control with twist grip. The scale plans I use - these originate from Canada - indicate that the twist grip was a feature on all aircraft fitted with the gyro sights. According to Alfred Price, these sights were introduced starting in late 1944, and I have seen late-war photos of Mk IX Spitfires (together with e-wing and scissor link oleos) that had them - their bulkiness is unmistakable. Putting all these clues together, I thought the twist grip was a fairly safe bet for a late varianr Mk IX in service in early 1945. But it all falls apart if the assumption that twist grip and gyro sights always go together proves to be wrong!! Please tell me what you think.

 

Jean

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Scanmandan and tourist, thank you for your comments.

 

Edgar, according to my information the grip was used to vary the size of the gyroscopically contolled graticule (there was a second, back-up graticule in case the gyro failed). In bomber turrets,this was accomplished by using a pedal. Where did you read that this was for a dimmer screen? (not being sarky, I'd genuinely like to know)

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Jean absolutly beautiful work.I think you are moving in the right direction as one of those modelers people are just amazed with.I liken you're work to a gentleman that lived in Canada who recently passed who did his work in 1/12 all metal though.He was featured in FSM a couple of times and his work just made you scratch your head.I am sure someone here will recall the gentleman.But you Sir are doing some fine work,look forwrad to that finished project.

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Great work on your Spitfire.

 

If it helps, I have my own view of how the throttle setup for gyro gun sight equiped Mk IX Spitfires looked

 

Para 29 of the Mk XIV pilots notes in my collection says that:

 

"The ranging control for the gyro gun sight on later aircraft is incorporated in the top of the throttle lever, and the selector switches and ON-OFF switches are on the right-hand cockpit wall, above the undercarriage selector lever."

 

I have pictures of a XIV cockpit showing this throttle, I believe the cables ran from the twist up to the port side coming and up to that side of the gyro. This is shown as a drawing in the Mark 1 Guide on the F Mk 22/24.

 

I have no reference that shows this throttle arrangement on the Mk IX. However, as the gyro sights fitted to these aircraft in 1944 depended on the pilot adjusting the graticule to correspond to the wingspan of the target, it is a reasonable deduction that the same twist would be embodied.

 

I hope this helps, or even fuels debate, a picture of the setup on a Mk IX would be very nice to have.

 

Mark.

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