1:24 Airfix Spitfire Mk. IXc or is it E?- June 5th 1944

[CraigH]

Right then, let's get stuck into this little beastie (anything's little after 6 months on the Lancaster

First up.. an admission of defeat. I'm not going to be able to build it as a true representation of MK356 of BBMF simply because she's an E- wing and the MKIXc is, well,a C wing. There's no difference in shape at all, the big difference is that on the E wing the outer gun bays were moved inboard of the cannon to give a more stable firing platform. While the empty outboard bays were left alone, there's no one doing the new gun bay covers for the in board gun bays so, I'll build it as a C wing but mark it up MK356 in J Plagis colours.

 

So with that admission of failure out of the way, I mentioned earlier I took some parts off of the sprues. The fits aren't great but the detail is really good. An example here:

All that has to be carved away to get a good fit.

The magneto heads are nice but the shafts and the crappy palstic spark plug connectors are awful. They'll all be coming off and metal bar used for the fitting and silver 0.6 mm braided lead for the spark plug leads fitting into miniature spark plugs from Hiroboy.

By far the biggest problem though is with the cylinder blocks. When you fit them flush to the crankcase ( as of course they should be) then the parts that make up the top spark plug assembly should fit neatly into the V groove created by the cylinder blocks as the instructions show:

The problem is that the V is too wide leaving either a gap either side or a huge gap at one side or the other

The only cures, unless I've got a dodgy kit or my skills have deserted me, is to narrow the angle formed by the cylinder blocks and fill the resultant gap at the bottom or fill the gap at the top which I did with thin card and liquid putty.

That done, the rest of the engine is a doddle to put together. Be careful how far you build it so you can not only get in and paint it evenly but get in to dot the hundreds of silver bolt heads. So, for me, I built the crankcase, added the cylinders and upper spark plug assembly and the front part of the supercharger but I didn't glue on the reduction gear as in step 150, I just dry fitted it then stopped. Separately, I built the intercooler and the supercharger front part then sprayed all these separately. Colour wise you can go with black or grey, Merlins came in both flavours.

That done, I picked out all the bolt heads in silver then, I fixed the intercooler to the main engine block and the reduction gear onto the front of the engine, NOT forgetting the prop shaft before you glue it into place (I didn't honest!)

 

As you can see, I also add chipping at this stage. The "ROLLS ROYCE" logos are far too shallow to fill nicely in red or white but many weren't anyway. I've rubbed and faded the edges then dry brushed in silver to give a bit of pop.

Looking a bit deeper at references it's clear Airfix haven't added any of the detail of control rods and pipework at the rear of the engine where it sits next to the firewall or a lot of the pipework for the supercharger and intercooler assembly.

That will have to be added if I think the detail level of the base engine merits it after a good weather. Otherwise I'll build covers on, which I hate to do but if the detail isn't good enough I won't show it.

 

Finally a good two coats of Aqua gloss to get it ready for weathering when it's all joined together.

 

That's it on the engine for now. I'm all over sections at the minute so had a look at the wings as well. The fit doesn't look bad but there are ejector pin marks all along where open flaps will sit

Also there are three to fill if you intend having open gun bays:

Lastly, when you take the lower wings off of the sprues for heaven's sake mark where the tabs to remove are before you do it. There are two little nubbins, one on each wing that look for all the world like tabs you've just snipped. It was only a serendipitous yell of "want a cuppa?" from the wife that refocused my attention and saved a disaster. I knew I married her for some reason or other.

 

Thanks for looking. More engine next and awaiting the Airscale IP with bated breath

Edited July 17, 2023 by CraigH
Title change

[Captain Boogaloo]

That's a great start CraigH, engine looks excellent, looking forward to seeing how you do the extra details. Did you know Buchon models do an e wing conversion set? You could do an accurate model with that...

Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent build!

 

Blue Skies!

Captain Boogaloo

[LSP_Kevin]

Nice start, Craig! Glad to see somebody get this kit on the bench.

 

Kev

[CraigH]

9 hours ago, Captain Boogaloo said:

That's a great start CraigH, engine looks excellent, looking forward to seeing how you do the extra details. Did you know Buchon models do an e wing conversion set? You could do an accurate model with that...

Looking forward to seeing more of your excellent build!

 

Blue Skies!

Captain Boogaloo

Hi Capn. Thanks for that! My only worry is it's geared around the old 1:24 superkit Mk. 1a which was a bucket of bolts and totally different to this one. I'll email them though and ask their advice on compatibility 

[CraigH]

It's on with the engine. I wanted a relatively beat up engine so there's nothing else for it than to go prismacolor silver pencil and a tiny brush and silver paint. I found a 3D rendering of a 1938 Merlin engine by a guy called George Schevchenko which was really useful for ideas on levels of chipping so many thanks to him:

Trying not to overdo it, I'm quite happy with the results. No oil or grease added yet so it's a bit stark.

Waiting for all this to dry before starting on the magnetos and spark plugs I started on the internal spars. Airfix haven't drilled each hole right through so I spent a pleasant 30 minutes on that

Tomorrow I can hopefully get the ignition system sorted. Thanks for looking

[CraigH]

Onto the ignition system. I really hate the ignition lines on plastic engines. The spark plugs are non existent and the lines are usually square rather than round and, if intended to be braided as the merlin's are, never are.

The Airfix merlin fits all these failings as you can see. The magneto heads are quite nice but the rest?.....urgh.

 

First thing to do with the port magneto (they're different port and starboard as we'll see)is chop the plastic at the bend. then mark the positions of the ignition leads and smooth the who;e thing off so you get a straight rod.

Paint up your magneto (some are silver with a black top, some the other way around. 

The actual magneto assembly looks like this, you can see the braided flexible line.

I used 1.8mm silver braided line. If you cut a 1mm thick strip of tinfoil and wrap it round the ends of the braid, it approximates the fittings you see here and saves a fortune on the bought 1/24 jubilee clips which are so small you can barely see them anyway.

I prefer to glue the ros to the crankcase seperately then join the two together with the braid.

The spark plug assembly on both sides use 60 degree angled fittings so that's what went on from this set from Hiroboy.

They're resin painted in chrome and given two coats of gloss varnish to seal as the paint comes off VERY easily otherwise. Then just pop en into the spark plug openings.

Then using reference photos I cut varying lengths of silver braided cord 0.8mm in diameter for the ignition cables. The same 1mm strip of silver foil was used where the cable meets the silver rod. none is needed at the union of the sparkplug and cable. Glue em all together and it looks something like this. A bit fiddly but a big improvement on the kit offering.

 

Now to the starboard magneto. I think every later merlin I've ever built has the two magnetos identical, if mirrored, but in actuality they're not. 

According to the kit, the port magneto fits and looks like this:

 

And the starboard one like this:

 

It implies that the port magneto handles the port bank of plugs and the starboard one the right......WRONG!!!!

The port magneto handles all 12 of the lower spark plugs while the starboard magneto solely controls the top 12.

I see why they do it. Its a bit of an optical illusion and easier to mould but that bar and cable attached to the head of the sartboard magneto actually passes behind it, across the engine and runs into the back of the port magneto as you can just about see on an actual merlin 61

The line running off of the top of the magneto head runs to the top of the engine, the one from the starboard plug bank runs behind it and continues on

 

Once you've got that the process is the same as for the port side

That's it for today, bit fiddly but not too bad in 1/24. Not an option in 1/72 though I don't think

 

Thanks for looking

[Anthony in NZ]

Superb!

Your engine work is brilliant!  I have often wondered why none of the aftermarket companies havent done a 3D Merlin kit series for al these big beauties.  Spitfires, Mosquitoes, Mustang, Hurricane.

 

I guess at the end of the day, they would be a very complex CAD design...but a modular Merlin in 24th scale would be amazing, even as a display with these kits on their own would be impressive.

 

Anyhoo....great work!  Makes me want to get back to my 24th Mossie again!

 

Cheers Anthony

[CraigH]

8 minutes ago, Anthony in NZ said:

Superb!

Your engine work is brilliant!  I have often wondered why none of the aftermarket companies havent done a 3D Merlin kit series for al these big beauties.  Spitfires, Mosquitoes, Mustang, Hurricane.

 

I guess at the end of the day, they would be a very complex CAD design...but a modular Merlin in 24th scale would be amazing, even as a display with these kits on their own would be impressive.

 

Anyhoo....great work!  Makes me want to get back to my 24th Mossie again!

 

Cheers Anthony

I agree Anthony. I'd deffo grab a 1/24 Merlin or even 1/12!!

As for that mossie, I tipped a wink to NZ when I built mine LOL

"The All Blacks"

[Anthony in NZ]

That's right, I remember that!!

I ground to a halt after burnout on the nose gunbay

 

Anyway not wanting to hijack this wonderful build

 

Cheers Anthony

Edited December 16, 2022 by Anthony in NZ

[CraigH]

1 minute ago, Anthony in NZ said:

That's right, I remember that!!

I ground to a halt after burnout on the nose gunbay

Anyway not wanting to hijack this wonderful build

 

Cheers Anthony

Thaat looks better than mine! Jeez it was a tight fit as I remember

[Anthony in NZ]

3 minutes ago, CraigH said:

Thaat looks better than mine! Jeez it was a tight fit as I remember

That's an understatement LOL!

[LSP_Kevin]

Lovely work, Craig! Are you sure those hoses are supposed to be braided, however? I seem to have a vague recollection about braided hoses not being introduced on aircraft until after WW2. I very well could be wrong, however!

 

Kev

[CraigH]

12 hours ago, LSP_Kevin said:

Lovely work, Craig! Are you sure those hoses are supposed to be braided, however? I seem to have a vague recollection about braided hoses not being introduced on aircraft until after WW2. I very well could be wrong, however!

 

Kev

Hi Kev. You've got me checking again now! Every reference pic I have has braided ht leads but wartime pics are a premium. I did fing this one though which I reckon just about shows braided ht lines down towards the bottom of her skirt....I hope

What with the intercooler being slightly out of line with the top manifold, (actually the manifold is out of line with the intercooler, Airfix's fault, I'm not taking the rap for that one)if anything else goes wrong I'll be putting the covers on!

[denders]

I think some of the braided appearing lines in some of the other photos are plug wires. That was probably part of the outer jacket. Remember that Vought and Republic learned early on that the plug wires needed extra help because at very high altitude they arced over because of the thin air.

[CraigH]

So leaving the great braided line debate at arms length it's on with the top ignition wires. 

Pretty straightforward this time and the fixing of the wires should be less fiddly. I say should because I haven't fixed them yet for reasons which will become apparent in a minute.

The magneto lead was fitted as per my reference photo but I've used a piece of 1.2mm aluminium rod instead of the kit part for the connector rod. reason being it has to have a kink put in it to connect to the line properly and aluminium is much easier to bend than plastic rod.

 

Now the next thing should've been to fit the wires right? WRONG! You know how you don't notice something til someone mentions it then you can't stop looking at it to the point of obsession? Well someone mentioned elsewhere that they thought the intercooler was skewed off the centre line of the engine and they were right. It's all down to that poor fit right at the start but I said I'd have to live with it. Well. I looked, and I looked and I decided I couldn't live with it

 

So I've abandoned fitting the ignition wires, jigged the bloody thing up and got the intercooler almost ( I daren't take it any further without risking a loud crack) and it looks better now.

 

Just to finish. Anyone who knows me will know I hate kit pipework. Just for reasons like this

The pipes are molded together. I'd normally cut it off and replace it with real brass wire but there are hose connectors and other things on the line and I'm fresh out of ANYZ hose connectors so I carefully freed the piping off and it looks a bit better. I might still be ordering from ANYZ tonight though.

Thanks for looking