SPITFIRE GROUP BUILD 2007-2008

Well, I finally have some progress pics!  I finished up the interior aside from painting the seatbelts, which I made from lead foil from a single malt scotch and fine wire.  I don't know if they are 100% accurate, but they look good to me.  I also spent a lot of time scratching up the seat.

They sure are Marc!!

....and HOLY COW!!! That is awesome!! I owe ya big time!!! Thank you so much!!

Mike I am using those exhausts, as well as wheels, prop and spinner, too.  Sweet ain't they?

Oh yeah and

DING

You've got mail!

Have spent the last day or two filling and sanding around the wings fornt and back on the underside.  HUGE gaps.  The forward part of the fuselage is about 1/16 wider than lower engine cowling so more filing there.  Not one of Hasegawas crowning acheivements.  ANyone else bult a Hase. Mk. Vb and have these troubles?

And thanks for all the kind words re. the office.

Absolutely! Bring on more of those pics everyone!! Some amazing work on display here so far...Marc, Darren...great work guys!!!

....and ya know those 2 holes they tell you to drill out behind the exhausts on the Tamiya kit? Well, I did, but then I went ahead and bought those Ultracast 6-stack resin ones, so now I have to fill 'em again!

Minor setback....pics should be up soon.

I am really looking forward to pics of K5054 as well!

As for my Mk.46, last night I finished up the IP and the rest of the interior save the seatbelts which I hope to finish tomorrow.  I'll post some pics later this weekend!

Wow! You guys have been busy!

I am really forward to seein g some pics of K5054! Sounds great!

As for me, things with my Mk.IX are going well, so far I have dropped the elevators, allingned the wings and added the radiator cowl. I think I'll be ready for painting this one quite soon.

The Mk.47 Seafire which I'm also building over on the FAA group build is going a little more slowly, I am going to paint the wing stripes as the Airfix decalsd in my kit are not so good, so masking and painting will take a little longer than usual. I'll get some pics up when I'm done.

I'll put some pictures up tomorrow on my work so far on the 1/32 K5054.  I've filled a lot of the  panel lines on the wings that were not on the airplane before the guns were installed, and the shell discharge ports on the lower surface.  I removed the bulges above the wheel wells.  I have also done some work on the underwing radiator so the different shape of the radiator (resin) will fit properly.  On the fuselage I have separated the rudder, put Milliput inside the nose and sanded much of the squareness off in that area from the exhaust forward.  Right now I am working in the cockpit.  I made a new rudder bellcrank and removed a lot of the kit's floorboard material to get the open look that all the references I have show on the Spitfires.  I've cleaned up most of the resin pieces from the Paragon conversion set, and have the spinner successfully fit on the existing axle of the kit.  I've decided to use Tamya XF-23 for the color coat, hopefully with enough clear coat it will get a nice glossy look.

hullo chaps...Been a while since my last visit hereand wow there is so much nice work yourè doing hreI`m almost afraid to put pics of my own humble fumblin`in here;) But thats have to wait a bit as I Doesn`t have any pics as of now. but The frontoffice is done. My first resinpit sofar but not the last. Was kind of hard I thought,so instead of building the pit as a unit, I glued the sidewalls in the fuselagehalfs that was thinned popererly first and installed the seat and instrumentassembly after I`ve closed the fuselage and at last the cocpit floor.I have also fitted wings and tailplanes as I nomaly does before filing any mistakes. Today was the big day, when I was about to paint the little fu*****er....What does happen....The Fu***ng airbrush is staing to Fu***ng leak as I start to prime my beutiful Spit with Tamiya XF21 as a shortcut to Fuselageband and spinnercolour. with paint running down my forearm I swear and hisses as I complete the prming with Tamiya XF21,.

So now you allknow that my spit is on rest as I try o find out how to fix the Aztek A430 of mine..Which could be cumbersome as it is no upposed to develop leaks.

Andnw to my cry for HELP..... Some time ago,I sawan artikle on the web of how to dismantle an Azek airbrush,but I cannot or my lif remember where it was, If any of you shoul happen to know about it pleas let me know...and is there any source of gaskets for this kind of aibrses????

Thank you all in advance

Triumf

John you're right, that type of voltage regulator is found in the Tamiya Mk.V and Hasegawa Mk.V Mk.VIII & Mk.IX kits.

Marc the front office turned out a real treat, great job.

Cheers

ollie wrote:

Spitfire Voltage regulator. Does not look anything like i have ever seen in a kit.

Wonder if they put a cover over it? That might explain the appearence. 

Now that I look at the Hasegawa Mk. IX I'm building, I see that part is on there. 

Spitfire Voltage regulator.

Does not look anything like i have ever seen in a kit.

Happy 4th of July my friends!

I wish all my friends on the other side of the pond the happiest of celebrations. For some reason its not a big holiday in my part of the world...........

On this day I always recall that scene from The Great Escape when Steve McQueen and James Garner muster the men to the sound of drums and they salute the RAF CO with a cup of hooch and a shout of "Down with the British!"

The CO accepts the drink, smiles and with typical British reserve replies...."Couldn't agree more........" No matter how different we may be-will are always on the same side.

ollie wrote:

jwb wrote: Any idea what the voltage regulator looked like.... other than just the round, molded circle on kits? Any switches, wiring, etc? Thanks for the info!   I will ask for you.

please do it for all of us

Thanks

Greg 

jwb wrote:

Any idea what the voltage regulator looked like.... other than just the round, molded circle on kits? Any switches, wiring, etc? Thanks for the info!

I will ask for you.

ollie wrote:

Re Seats, from the horses mouth so to speek: Ollie, I do not know the definitive answer to your question. The aluminium seat pan came first fitted to the Mk I and was superseded by the SRBP type. As the seats were interchangeable I suspect there was no Mk number cut off point. I would be pretty sure the MkII production at CBAF had the later seat. I will ask around. Best regards, And Re headrests: They do not go through the bulkheads. There is a voltage regulator mounted on the back   I would trust this infomation to make a correct model, my source certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to Spitfires.

Any idea what the voltage regulator looked like.... other than just the round, molded circle on kits? Any switches, wiring, etc?

Thanks for the info!  

Re Seats, from the horses mouth so to speek:

Ollie,

I do not know the definitive answer to your question.

The aluminium seat pan came first fitted to the Mk I and was superseded by the SRBP type. As the seats were interchangeable I suspect there was no Mk number cut off point. I would be pretty sure the MkII production at CBAF had the later seat.

I will ask around.

Best regards,

And Re headrests:

They do not go through the bulkheads. There is a voltage regulator mounted on the back

I would trust this infomation to make a correct model, my source certainly knows what he is talking about when it comes to Spitfires.

gzt wrote:

wing_nut wrote: I am glad I asked the question.  That's one of the things I like about a good GB... always learn something.   BTW... What is that" second" headrest facing backwards for?  Great cockpit !!! I am not sure but I think it was a voltage regulator - is it right ?? Greg

 The only thing ive noticed on the back of there on preserved examples as a cockpit pressurisation system.

gzt wrote:

wing_nut wrote: I am glad I asked the question.  That's one of the things I like about a good GB... always learn something.   BTW... What is that" second" headrest facing backwards for?  Great cockpit !!! I am not sure but I think it was a voltage regulator - is it right ?? Greg

Forget all that other stuff I wrote! You are correct Greg!

When I saw your post, I went on a new search in the GBoS for the electrical system- and bingo! That's it! It is definitely the voltage regulator!

Still..... it's black......

LOL

Now I'm really curious why that restored one doesn't have it..... guess they relocated it. 

wing_nut wrote:

So here is the painted seat with my version of the Bakelite color... MM rust with a tiny drop of red.  I have since repainted the headrest black as well as the part in the back.  BTW... What is that" second" headrest facing backwards for?

Very nice work- looks excellent!

Can't find for sure, but dealie on the back appears to be a continuation of the headrest. Several reference pics I have of Mk. Vs show it as being the same color as the forward part of the headrest. Perhaps it is secured in the middle where it passes through?

I'd always heard that these weren't introduced until the Mk. IX, but I've got quite a few pics of it all the way back to the Mk. I. Some photos show no headrest here and there, and one evn shows only the back part.... so that may mean the two are not attached.

In all the cases, front and back are the same color. Since the pics I looked at were b&w, hard to tell the exact color, but they do match.

To confuse matters even more.... here's a pic of a restored Mk. IX without the rear part.... and no indication of what the rear part was or should be mounted to. And I found pics of wartime aircraft with both, rear only and front only.

If it were me..... I'd paint 'em both black and call 'em headrests, unless the specific plane you're building has photos showing otherwise. 

wing_nut wrote:

I am glad I asked the question.  That's one of the things I like about a good GB... always learn something.   BTW... What is that" second" headrest facing backwards for?

Great cockpit !!!

I am not sure but I think it was a voltage regulator - is it right ??

Greg 

I am glad I asked the question.  That's one of the things I like about a good GB... always learn something.

So here is the painted seat with my version of the Bakelite color... MM rust with a tiny drop of red.  I have since repainted the headrest black as well as the part in the back.  BTW... What is that" second" headrest facing backwards for?

And the fuselage just before I buttoned it all snug and cozy

I hath opened the Great Book of Spitfires, and thusly having searched it's great texts forthwith, I find said book strangely silent on the subject of seats and interior color.

At least flipping through the pages over a cup of coffee.... I'm only up to the Mk. I in reading it.... it's HUGE!

I did notice that in all the diagrams of the interior, basically right up through the very last of the line (Spiteful), all the seats appeared the same as the Bakelite seat used throughout the life of the Spitfire Marks.

Didn't find any mention of the color, but everything I've ever seen indicated the brownish-red color, though on some early aircraft, they tried to paint it Int. Green but the paint did not stick.

Interestingly, the place it does mention Bakelite is in a few pages discussing experiemnts with making composite components for the Spitfire. Tests were done with several similar plastic composites.

I recall reading somewhere on the web- seems like a build report somewhere- that later Seafire marks were painted a with a dark gray interior. I can't find anything one way or the other in the GBoS, and the only pics I have of the interiors of Spitfires/Seafires are Br. Int Green, though I can't find any of them for the 46.

Now having said all that I realize it doesn't confirm or deny a thing..... most vague, I am....

Maybe I should run for office.... or maybe not..... perhaps a study.....

I think you may have that around the wrong way Ollie, Spitfires up to the Mk.IX had a Bakelite seat that was usually left unpainted.  There are a couple of reasonable shots of a Mk.IXe cockpit at the bottom of the page  http://www.spitfire.dk/chapter4.htm  Past the Mk.IX I honestly don't know what material they used for the seat, might have to do a bit of research on that one.

As for my colour of choice, I always use Tamiya Hull Red as this to me is a pretty good match for unpainted Bakelite

This is a very old build but you get the idea

Cheers