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Tamiya Spitfire Mk IX Kicked Up A Notch: Last Post


chuck540z3

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Hey Chuck, I havent been around much as I have been busy with work/life outside the temple of modeling aka my model room. Your build has come along considerably since I last droped in, saying "well done" feels cheap in comparison to what you have done (I woke up and writting this at 3am).

 

Thank you again for taking time to capture your build, I learn so much from your dedication to post the details of each build stage and your projects in general.

 

All the very best.

Damian

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  • 3 weeks later...

June 23, 2018

 

 

Well, it's raining on a Saturday afternoon, giving me the perfect opportunity to do a few things to push this build down the road a little further at its glacial pace!

 

Like most who build this kit, I'm going to paint the fuselage without the engine attached for ease of handling, but if there are any fit issues, the time to fix them is now.  The other thing I want to explore is the fit of the cowlings, since I have noticed in other builds that the fit is usually not great and I added the Eduard PE brass plate dampeners to the cowling frames, which likely made it worse.  I expected that I would, but I'd rather have this detail since the engine will be displayed most of the time, if not all of the time.

 

First, the fit of the engine firewall.  Not great.  In Step #55, the instructions tell you to attach the engine, “so that the cowling frames match the fuselage shapeâ€.  I'm not sure how they expect you to do this, since the cowling frames are already glued to the firewall and they really can't be adjusted any more.    Note the gaps at the bottom and the angle that the engine fits to the fuselage parts.

 

 

ioflm1.jpg

 

 

In my case, it's possible that there was some user error along the way to cause this problem, but I have no idea what it might have been, since the parts appear to fit in a certain way without allowing for adjustment.  In any event, there is a fix.  By cutting and sanding down the rear firewall and cross brace beneath it within the fuselage, you can correct this problem.  It isn't pretty, but it will never show later anyway.

 

 

tpbZrj.jpg

 

 

After at least 100 dry fits with adjustments in between, the engine fit looks good now with good alignment at the back of the firewall and cowling frames along the curvature of the wing.  In preparation for the next steps, I sanded down the top of the firewall slightly for the top cowling and deepened the grooves for all cowling tabs at the front of the engine.  One problem I did create was to add the brass Eduard plate over the kit metal plate used for the magnets.

 

 

H4lFH4.jpg

 

 

The top cowling fit isn't bad and with a little adjustment and sanding underneath it, I can make it fit better.

 

 

7OJ2Ka.jpg

 

 

The side cowlings are only so-so, partly due to the loss of magnetism with the brass plates covering the metal underneath it.  The bottom cowling could use some adjustments as well to reduce the gap at the top of it.

 

 

UpjT9j.jpg

 

 

To fix the loss of magnetism to the side cowlings, I ground down the very small kit ones then glued larger ones on top of them, making sure that there was still clearance to the cowling and engine frames.  This really helped to adhere the cowling to the engine sidewall.

 

 

JjcHCp.jpg

 

 

The bottom cowling comes in 3 parts, with the intake made of 2.

 

 

8eo9aS.jpg

 

 

According to many pics of this cowling in the Montforton book, the middle and rear seams of this intake should be filled, in this case with CA glue.

 

 

d4Rg2q.jpg

 

 

I suspect that the fit of the cowlings is problematic for most, because in the 5 builds in Brett Green's book, Brett didn't use them at all (or show them), while the other builds either glued the cowlings in place or when they were used, the fit is only so-so.

 

I had some trouble with the cowlings on my Mustang build as well, but not as bad as this kit.  With some fiddling, trimming, sanding and many hours of work, the end result can go from this….

 

 

l6GKSh.jpg

 

 

To this…

 

 

vcE3nZ.jpg

 

 

There's no use playing with the panels until the engine is solidly glued to the fuselage, so that will be a few months from now.  With the engine alignment corrected, at least now I have a chance.

 

 

Till the next rain (or snow) storm!

 

Cheers,

Chuck

Edited by chuck540z3
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Guest Peterpools

Hi Chuck

Glad you are inside for a day or two and discussing the cowling fit issues and how you solved them.

Much appreciated.

Keep 'em comin

Peter

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Great problem solving Chuck and thanks for posting all the pics of how you did it as well.

 

I think the cowl fit is hit or miss. Of the eight I've built, four still have removable cowls and two have a decent fit and toe have a couple gaps. The ones where I didn't use an engine are similarly split too. I still haven't figured out what made some go together fine and others be slightly off. Your post sheds some light on that so I'll keep it in mind whenever I get to my next one.

 

Carl

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Wish you'd posted this a few weeks ago Chuck. I'm just finishing up the mk. XVIe kit and ended up losing most of the engine detail and gluing all the covers on because of the alignment issues at the firewall. The screw that attaches the engine just doesn't seem to have enough clearance. At least they fitted in an acceptable way after all the hacking about.

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Great problem solving Chuck and thanks for posting all the pics of how you did it as well.

 

I think the cowl fit is hit or miss. Of the eight I've built, four still have removable cowls and two have a decent fit and toe have a couple gaps. The ones where I didn't use an engine are similarly split too. I still haven't figured out what made some go together fine and others be slightly off. Your post sheds some light on that so I'll keep it in mind whenever I get to my next one.

 

Carl

 

 

Wish you'd posted this a few weeks ago Chuck. I'm just finishing up the mk. XVIe kit and ended up losing most of the engine detail and gluing all the covers on because of the alignment issues at the firewall. The screw that attaches the engine just doesn't seem to have enough clearance. At least they fitted in an acceptable way after all the hacking about.

 

Thanks everyone and also for the feedback above.  Based upon my experience and what I can find on the 'net, cowling fit is a problem for most modelers.  Although I have seen some pretty good examples of cowlings over a detailed engine, I can still find many gaps that shouldn't be there with my critical eye.  I am certain that is why many pics of this kit show either no cowlings or maybe one or two fit at a time- and almost all shots are from some distance.

 

One tip I can offer when trimming the firewall is to use some masking solution on the back of the engine to see what is touching and what is not.  That way you can work on the high spots rather than other areas that down't need any more trimming.

 

Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

Edited by chuck540z3
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Guest Maxim

Nice work and really good explanation re the fix. I had read that the panels on the Spitfire were troublesome.

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  • 4 weeks later...

July 19, 2018

 

Well Boys, this is "Goodbye", sort of.  For a bunch of reasons that don't matter any more, I am taking my work back over to ARC where I started these build threads about 11 years ago.  I started posting here about 4 years ago and I have enjoyed just about every minute of it as I learned a lot from the very best model builders there are anywhere.  If I named those I would like to thank, I would forget and exclude somebody, so I won't even try.  I will miss most of you, but it's not like I'm leaving the planet.  To those I crossed swords with recently, I'd like to apologize and shake your hand.  Life is too short for conflict, especially in a hobby we all should be enjoying.

 

For those who might want to see this build to completion, and I am not recruiting anybody, the ARC link can be found below.

 

1/32 Tamiya Spitfire Mk IXc, "Kicked Up A Notch" at ARC

 

Happy Modeling and Cheers,

Chuck

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by chuck540z3
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Whaaat.....Noooooooo

Whatever has happened, you appear very gracious.  Your work is very inspiring and I want to say 'thank you' from the bottom of my heart for your posts here.

 

I try to limit going onto other forums as I just dont have the time to go through them all.  However I will go to ARC to follow this (and any others you do) through.

 

Thanks again, you will be sorely missed

Anthony

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