Clear the Bench! It's Kotare Spitfire time.

[LSP_Kevin]

32 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

OK...     some enquiring minds minds wanted to know how the Malcolm hood fit in the open position.

The answer is...   like a dream.  Just dry fitted here...

 

 

 

How does it fit the right way around, though?

 

 

Kev

[Gazzas]

1 hour ago, LSP_Kevin said:

 

How does it fit the right way around, though?

 

 

Kev

 

I imagine just the same, but different.  It is my first Spitfire since 1978.

[Greif8]

Thank you for the photos Gary, this is a really well engineered kit.  As to the seam, I agree with Iain that a bit of work to smooth the joint line down (very little actually) and I think it would look fine.

 

Ernest

[MikeMaben]

Fill it with something water soluble or alcohol. Wipe away the excess.

[Gazzas]

Big moves in the last two days, my friends.

 

First of all...   let me show the canopy with all parts facing the correct way.

Unfortunately my Molotow chrome pen has gone to hell, so the mirror looks more like a Dali painting splashed with silver paint.

 

And the sliding canopy...   it actually has the release mechanism on it.

This reminds me...   is there any color to the small window on the Malcolm hood?  Colored fasteners, or something?

 

I've prepared both style of Prop and hub  for weathering.  I used dark gray paint so I can weather them into black.

I actually dropped one of them and lost 1mm off the length of one blade.  Can you tell which one?

 

I used oils on the LG legs, wheel hubs to give shape to the silvery masses.

They'll need a couple days to dry before I detail paint.

 

And after putting a metallic base on the resin exhausts, I tried to give them a burnt metal look with brown washes, and blue-black hot areas.  Some people paint them rusty.  But I'm pretty sure they are made of rust proof alloys.  They'll get another acrylic wash to blend the colors a little more once the oils are dry.

 

Who likes masking?

 

I've left the rudder off till last.  The aerial hook-up piece looks very fragile.

 

And finally this is what the rudder and elevator look like at factory settings.   You can cut off the tabs if you want.

 

The following pics show the model mostly complete.  Perhaps you will find info you want in the pictures...   perhaps not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I hope to decide on a scheme pretty soon.  A?  B?  Night/Day?  Rotol vs. DH? 

 

Anyway...   Happy modelling!

 

[Maxim61]

Looks like a Spit to me and nice progress. Love the early model Spits.

 

[Talon]

None of the kit options have silver gear legs, wheel hubs or inner gear doors. Should be white for starboard and night for port in both instances.

 

The exhausts were made of Inconel alloy, which did not rust and was usually a dark metallic grey/black colour

Edited March 26, 2023 by Talon

[Greif8]

Looking good Gary.  The fits seems to be quite nice and you are certainly doing the kit justice!

 

Ernest

[Gazzas]

29 minutes ago, Talon said:

None of the kit options have silver gear legs, wheel hubs or inner gear doors. Should be white for starboard and night for port in both instances.

 

The exhausts were made of Inconel alloy, which did not rust and was usually a dark metallic grey/black colour

 

Not doing an in-box version, buddy.   And thanks for the info on Iconel alloy.

[DeanKB]

On 3/19/2023 at 8:33 AM, Gazzas said:

 

Thank you.

As I haven't ever touched the Tamiya Spitfire, I can't compare.  There are a lever or three that I might have replaced with wire or a piece of photo etch.   Keeping this OOB, so I'm not looking to rebuild anything.

 

You are the first person to make the comment, though. 

Your build is coming along nicely, and I can't see any "clunky" detail. In any case, it's far better than Tamiya's Mk.I Spitfire...

 

The photos are a little bit low resolution, perhap that's giving him the impression of clunky detail?

[Gazzas]

1 minute ago, DeanKB said:

Your build is coming along nicely, and I can't see any "clunky" detail. In any case, it's far better than Tamiya's Mk.I Spitfire...

 

The photos are a little bit low resolution, perhap that's giving him the impression of clunky detail?

 

Hi Dean,

     Thank you.  Nice to see you again.  They are just phone camera photos.  Maybe they look clunky to you guys.  My eyesight is pretty poor...   but they look normal to me.  It is a great kit.

 

Maybe I'll dig out the wife's Canon Olympus when I paint the thing.

 

 

[Greif8]

17 minutes ago, Gazzas said:

 

Not doing an in-box version, buddy.   And thanks for the info on Iconel alloy.

 

Gary I know you did not ask for the following info so please disregard if you think it is not useful.  Also this topic has probably been covered in some detail earlier on the forum, so again, please disregard anything I write below if you already know the information. 

 

I won't bore you or anyone else with all the details, but one of the capstone papers I wrote for my undergraduate degree covered the development and functioning of Great Britain's air defense system; and during my research I dug out the information below.

 

The undersides of both Spitfires and Hurricanes went through several changes to their paint schemes and the mid-production version that the kit represents could have had any of the different schemes in effect during WWII.   As an aircraft recognition measure British fighter undersides were very frequently painted with the port wing black (actually a very dark grey probably similiar to something like Tamiya's NATO Black) and the starboard wing painted white with the colors meeting at the centerline.  A great many (majority) of the Spitfires and Hurricanes had this scheme from outbreak of the war through early June 1940.  From early June the Air Ministry ordered that the undersides of fighter aircraft would be painted Sky Type S.  Like nearly everything for all combatants during WWII there was a time lag between a directive being issued and it being implemented fully - or mostly implemented.  In this case a lack of enough Sky Type S until sometime after mid-August 1940 led to a great variety in color tones as units often mixed their own versions of Sky.  Tones varied from more grey towards more blue and everything in between.  By the way the "S" in the color designation stands for "Smooth"; as the rough texture of the original camo paints caused drag through air resistance due to their slightly rough texture. 

 

As the Battle of Britain ended, many within Fighter Command recommended a return to the earlier black/white scheme as it was found to be very useful for air recognition.  The usefulness of this measure was not universally embraced and it was decided that due to the massive amount of work required to repaint the undersurfaces of all fighter aircraft that only the port wing would be painted black.  A type of coating similiar to the whitewash many of use are familiar with for armored vehicles that are modelled in a winter setting, called a DTD 441 standard, was used.  This could be fairly easily removed using hot water leaving the original paint underneath intact. 

 

Many fighters, but undoubtly not all of them, had their port wings painted a black tone with the above mix sometime during the fall months of 1940.   In early April 1941 yet another Air Ministry directive was issued ordering that the black would be removed from all fighters by the middle of the month, though that very likely took a bit longer to make the change for all fighters.   By the time the RAF began its own offensive operations over Western Europe in the May/June 1941 time frame the vast majority of its fighters had Sky colored undersides. 

 

As to the silver undercarriage, that is just as accurate as any (IMHO).  Undercarriages could have been painted, repainted or left natural metal on an aircraft for a variety of reasons at different times during its service life. 

 

TMI I know Gary, but I hope you get something useful out of the above.

 

Ernest            

[geedubelyer]

Nice work Gazzas. 

Those exhausts look awesome, great stuff

 

The rib tapes on the tail feathers appear beautifully rendered. It looks as though the guys at Kotare have created the uneven effect as per the real deal. Lovely attention to detail. 

 

You're making super progress, keep it up. 

[Uncarina]

Very rapid and impressive progress Gary! And thank you Ernest for sharing that history. I read somewhere that switching from a matte to a smooth finish added 18mph, but don’t quote me because I don’t remember the source. In any case, here are a few reference photos to help answer your perspex perplexity:

 

 

 

 

The last photo won’t help but I thought you’d like it anyway!

 

Cheers,  Tom

 

[Gazzas]

Tom,

    Thank you for the great photos!  You've been very helpful throughout the build.  I really want to batter the wings in this fashion...   but I didn't want to put anybody off buying the kit.  The plastic is quite thin.  Perhaps a subsequent Spitfire will get the treatment.  I wouldn't mind doing one of those desert spits with the huge air filter for the supercharger.