Biggles87 Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 I won’t tell anyone about the Rev Counter if you don’t, oh sorry too late. The IP looks pretty splendid to me,I like that you can read the instruments, just like a Yahu panel. John Archimedes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
monthebiff Posted April 10 Share Posted April 10 Very nice progress Paul, The paintwork in your cockpit looks excellent. Looking forward to seeing you progress with it. Regards. Andy Archimedes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted April 11 Author Share Posted April 11 On 4/10/2024 at 1:28 AM, mozart said: Thoughtful and precise work Paul, and your careful evaluation of progress so far will be very valuable to those of us yet to start our Spitfires. Looking forward to the next instalment. Thank you Max. Touch ups and decal errors will be fixed and then I can button it up! Phenomenal work on your Hurricane by the way - you are showing how it is done! On 4/10/2024 at 2:59 AM, Biggles87 said: I won’t tell anyone about the Rev Counter if you don’t, oh sorry too late. The IP looks pretty splendid to me,I like that you can read the instruments, just like a Yahu panel. John Damn - I knew there was a flaw in my plan! Thank you for the kind words! On 4/10/2024 at 3:08 AM, monthebiff said: Very nice progress Paul, The paintwork in your cockpit looks excellent. Looking forward to seeing you progress with it. Regards. Andy Thanks Andy - that is very kind of you given the quality of your build is excellent! Kind regards, Paul mozart 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted April 22 Author Share Posted April 22 Evenin’ All, Some of you will be familiar with some of the ‘constructive debate’ about the accuracy of the Kotare Spitfire Mk1 kit so, whilst working on it, I took the trouble to get the Bentley drawings I have (labeled as ‘Spitfire Roughs’ by AB) reduced to 1/32. Caveat: none of the following should be regarded as in any way a definitive statement of either the drawings or the kit: it is just a rough comparison. I did check that my scaling of the drawing was accurate by taking the known measurement of the 1:1 fuselage length (29’11” or 359”), dividing this by 32 to get 11.218” as the fuselage length in 1/32. The scaled down drawing was measured at 11.22”. I call out the title of these drawings because they are clearly not regarded by Arthur Bentley as definitive and we should probably not regard them as such either. The drawings show the outlines of the various marks of Spitfire all on one sheet. The two views of interest are shown below: Port-Side Fuselage Starboard Wing top view I placed the kit port fuselage over the 1/32 drawing of the Mk1 outline and lined up on the base of the windscreen, the rear vertical edge of the cockpit door and the underside profile of the rear fuselage. Conclusion: The Kotare fuselage compared to this drawing looked to be 0.75 mm longer which equates to the kit being a scale equivalent of 0.95” at 1:1. So I turned to the wing: I was only interested in the profile because this is where one person had asserted the wing tip profile was ‘not accurate’. The wing-tip profile matched perfectly. The chord of the wing at the right hand edge of the kit aileron cut out was a measured as 1.1 mm deeper than drawn (1:1 would be 27.94 mm or 1.1” and the aileron (as drawn) was short of the space allowed for in the kit (I didn’t measure it but you can see it in the image above. What does this all mean? Not very much other than Kotare are in the ball park compared to these drawings which are labeled as ‘roughs’. So, I’ll also dig out what I can find of the Supermarine drawings for the fuselage and wing of the Mk1 and do the same exercise at some point during this build. Kind regards, Paul chaos07, Derek B, Shoggz and 7 others 9 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 Good stuff Paul. To my eye, the kit has always just looked right. It's interesting to see that the purveyor of the 'constructive debate' is making the same points in the various Kotare official and fan pages on Facebook... Archimedes, mozart and Biggles87 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mozart Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 10 minutes ago, Shoggz said: Good stuff Paul. To my eye, the kit has always just looked right. It's interesting to see that the purveyor of the 'constructive debate' is making the same points in the various Kotare official and fan pages on Facebook... What a sad character he must be! Paul, interesting about the "status" of the AB drawings, I guess it demonstrates how determined he was to get them as accurate as possible. I have his Hurricane ones and whilst I thought initially they were expensive, they have actually proved their worth time and time again. Archimedes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biggles87 Posted April 22 Share Posted April 22 Haven’t built one yet, but they look good to me in the builds I’ve watched and the discrepancies mentioned are within (my) accepted tolerances. John Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted April 22 Author Share Posted April 22 3 hours ago, Shoggz said: Good stuff Paul. To my eye, the kit has always just looked right. It's interesting to see that the purveyor of the 'constructive debate' is making the same points in the various Kotare official and fan pages on Facebook... Some people just have an axe to grind. It is a shame but there it is. I just wanted to assure anyone that saw any of those posts that the kit is pretty damned good. 3 hours ago, mozart said: What a sad character he must be! Paul, interesting about the "status" of the AB drawings, I guess it demonstrates how determined he was to get them as accurate as possible. I have his Hurricane ones and whilst I thought initially they were expensive, they have actually proved their worth time and time again. Arthur Bentley's drawings are some of the few that I do rely on. No drawing is flawless (I speak as a former draughtsman) because drawings get translated by the makers of the 1:1 objects they represent and because draughtsmen and women all make mistakes too. Arthur is however one of the most diligent researchers I have ever seen: he has captured several features about the form of the wing of the Me262 for example that have never appeared in kit form (but are entirely correct). 8 minutes ago, Biggles87 said: Haven’t built one yet, but they look good to me in the builds I’ve watched and the discrepancies mentioned are within (my) accepted tolerances. John It is beautifully engineered and highly accurate in outline as far as I am concerned - I would not have bought it otherwise. Kind regards, Paul LSP_Kevin, Paulpk, Shoggz and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azgaron Posted April 23 Share Posted April 23 Excellent work so far Paul! Looks very nice! Håkan Archimedes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 (edited) Quick update: I’m almost done with the seat. I’ve made it look worn (probably too worn) but went with a standard interior green frame and a kind of murky black-green for the padding as I suspect that is what many of the wartime seats were padded with. The pad in the seat pan looks like it was a piece of leather to prevent chaffing of the parachute rip-chord. Unlike @Shoggz really neat work with the molded-in straps, I am going with Eduard metal straps. More later this week… Kind regards, Paul Edited April 25 by Archimedes Landrotten Highlander, geedubelyer, LSP_Kevin and 4 others 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geedubelyer Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Great job on the seat I'm a little surprised that there is no indication of a slot for the seat height adjuster arm. In truth it looks a tad crude. I suppose not much will be visible once the seat is in situ. Looking forward to more before long. Cheers Archimedes 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Paul, really nice progress! (And thanks for the kind words about my belt painting ). We seem to be at about the same point - it's an enjoyable build. I must admit seeing that tin of Humbrol takes me back. Until I was about 22, I didn't realise there were any other brands that existed.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Archimedes Posted April 25 Author Share Posted April 25 (edited) 2 hours ago, Shoggz said: Paul, really nice progress! (And thanks for the kind words about my belt painting ). We seem to be at about the same point - it's an enjoyable build. I must admit seeing that tin of Humbrol takes me back. Until I was about 22, I didn't realise there were any other brands that existed.. Thanks @Shoggz, Your comment about the paint tin made me laugh: when I moved to America my wife said to me “You have tins of paint that are older than where we live now.” I had the same experience as you: I was unaware of any other brand than Humbrol until about the same age and then found Tamiya. I was agog! 6 hours ago, geedubelyer said: Great job on the seat I'm a little surprised that there is no indication of a slot for the seat height adjuster arm. In truth it looks a tad crude. I suppose not much will be visible once the seat is in situ. Looking forward to more before long. Cheers Thanks @geedubelyer - Agreed on the seat height adjuster arm; it is a bit crude but I suspect Kotare were going for ease of build. A resin and PE replacement would probably be something for the aftermarket boys. For me: I am just enjoying this virtually out of the box. there will be other Spitfires and time enough to make alterations… Kind regards, Paul Edited April 25 by Archimedes geedubelyer, Shoggz, Biggles87 and 1 other 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Hansen Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 I fell prey to peer pressure and i just ordered the Limited-Edition reboxing of the Kotare Mk I (mid), along with some resin exhaust stubs. I'm not a stranger to Spitfires but not exactly super knowlegable about them either.... Shoggz, geedubelyer and Archimedes 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shoggz Posted April 25 Share Posted April 25 Welcome to the club David! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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