niceguygriffy

Thanks guys for all your kind words of appreciation! A couple of you have suggested modifications or a version 2 with motorised power, a spinning prop and full width wings. Now I'm no expert on anyone else's kids but these 'improvements' would probably end up with me being arrested following my little boy wreaking havoc in the local area! Seriously though I did consider a perspex disc for the propeller but decided I could always add it later. Same goes for working ailerons which would be a nice touch and I could hide the mechanism under the wings. But it's a kids toy at the end of the day of course and once I have the mainwheels moved further out I will just let my son do his worse to it! As for building more, well maybe one day. A Bf 109 E might be the order of the day for when my next little'n, due in 3 months, is old enough to join battle. I just hope there is still something left of the Spit by then! Oh and nearly forgot Biggles87. I didn't touch the instrument panel on this renovation. From what I can see my Uncle must have found a large photo of an aircraft instrument panel in a magazine and cut out all the main gauges and switches. He has then glued them onto a piece of card shaped to fit the instrument panel wall, then very carefully glued a piece of shaped perspex over the top for protection. A great job and although the pictures are now a little faded I decided I would probably do more harm than good trying to replace them!

Oh and here's its big brother! I should take the opportunity to thank everyone who helped me with this project. I have already credited Hobbyrama for supplying the paint (in stages) and Bribie Island Signs for the markings but failed to mention Glenn Bailey of Glenns Custom Stuff who made up the mechanism for the rudder connection to the tail wheel. But most of all I thank my Uncle John Chorley for building it in the first place and then gifting it to my little boy. Oh and of course thanks to you guys for your advice and encouragement during the project. Tally Ho!

So what would I do differently with the benefit of hindsight? I would definitely start with more paint, a lot more! Running out several times was a real pain and nearly prevented me finishing it in time. I would also take more care with my soft edge masking. There are a few areas of overspray which could have been avoided but I guess this would improve with practice. I have also discovered a design flaw in that when taking the weight of its pilot the main wheels bow slightly but there is not enough room to prevent them fouling slightly on the undercarriage legs. This makes it harder to pedal and it is also rather slow to turn even with 'full rudder'! I am going to modify and increase the length of the main spindle to move the wheels a couple of inches further out on each side. This will prevent fouling and also improve the Spit's rate of turn. Overall though I think it looks great and thoroughly enjoyed renovating it. Of course,the last word should really come from its new owner and hopefully the pictures below tell you all you need to know!

Here she is then. Several weeks worth of effort, about 500 quid's worth of paint and other materials and plenty of worry about how the final finish will look or indeed if I even get to that stage before heading west. But I did it and it's turned out better than I could have imagined if I'm honest!

Nearly there now and once I had the rudder and undercarriage refitted it was on to the markings. As explained at the start of this topic I wanted to have the Spit in the same livery as that presently worn by The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Mk II Spitfire. I decided from the start to get the markings made up as stickers by a graphics company rather than attempt to paint them myself. I used a local company (at the time at least) called Bribie Island Signs and they did a fantastic job at a very reasonable price. I spent a long time trying to work out what size and where to position the markings as the caricature nature of the design meant that it was not simply a case of scaling down from the real thing. As such if it looks right it is right and I think I got it just....er....right!

So on to the cockpit interior. This proved really hard to do given the limited access but was well worth the effort. The original colour was black which just didn't sit right with me so I had to get some RAF Interior and do a proper job.

Hi there, Sorry about the delay, the small matter of moving to Perth from Brisbane to start my new job rather got in the way of my updating of this topic. It did not however, I am very pleased to say, get in the way of finishing the pedal plane! I had to pull out all the stops to get the old girl 'playworthy' in time but I was determined not to leave without having the Spit completed. I will continue to separate the last few progress stages as before just for clarity. So following ANOTHER two hour round trip to Hobbyrama for an uplift of paint I managed to get on with the green. BUT.....they only had one can of the original green left in stock! I couldn't wait for the next delivery for reasons explained above so had to risk using another green as close to the original and use lots of it. I knew by this time that I would likely need more Sky green for the undersides but again they only had one can left. Mmmmmm...things weren't going to plan but I just had to do my best. As it turned out the new green was a very close match and I used so much this time that it essentially completely masked the old colour. There is a little bit of a 'border' of the old green in places where I was unable to give a good re-coverage and still maintain my soft edges. As expected I quickly ran out of the underside sky despite only being needed for the wings and lower forward fuselage. You can see that the wings desperately needed at least another coat and probably two but operational necessity took precedence! I was a bit worried about the finish at this point too as it seemed patchy in places but I was hoping the lacquer would sort this.

Can't get down to get more green paint for another day so decided to do the black on the spinner, pedals and control column grip. This is after the first coat on the spinner and I need to be really careful not to put to much on and have paint runs. The spinner is made of formed plastic and has a much smoother finish compared to the wood. There were paint runs on the original paintwork which took a while to carefully sand off!

First coat of green and used up all my paint again, Doh!! Off to Hobbyrama for me it is again and I will get some more of everything, AGAIN!

Brown took only two coats but still used up all the paint I had, which included the restock I did when I needed more primer! Had a few issues with the tape forming hard angle edges at the middle of curves but will take more care masking for the green so that the dodgy edges of brown get hidden. Primer has come off with the masking tape in a few little places but on the whole my use of high quality decorators tape is working out well. Now masked up ready for green. Needing to be increasingly careful moving around my spray bay due to paint dust now. Not practicable to try to remove it as I go so heavens only knows what this will be like by the time I finish!

And here masked up ready for the brown. Wasn't quite sure how best to edge the masking to achieve a soft edge where the camouflage colours meet. Have decided to use rolled masking tape with a slight lip of paper along each edge. Hope this works!!??

You know Trevor I seriously did consider installing the cockpit door but decided against it. I didn't want to risk losing structural integrity and have the thing fold up on my son! As for the crowbar, well they were post war anyway were they not? So here is the Spit post primer. Ran out of my original grey batch so had to go and get more. They only had white but this does not matter to me! Amazed at how much paint I needed though. Will definitely need more of the other colours now too.

What about good old fashioned newspaper rolled into 'worms' and applied in the same way as you describe Spitfire Addict? As long as these are fairly tight they should lift just enough on the unsecured edge to allow a decent blend when paint is sprayed perpendicularly. Not sure where I learnt this, certainly not my own idea. Clearly this works best on larger scales which is why I am about to use the technique on my son's Spitfire pedal car restoration. Wish me luck as it's been a while since I last did this sort of thing!

As promised, see my progress in Spitfire pedal car renovation.

And here, a little delayed for various reasons, is the Spit rubbed down ready for primer. Chose not to try to remove all original paint as this would have taken forever! Hope my garage 'spray bay' walls don't come down unexpectedly and I may need to check the seal on my mask as I seem to have a slight condensation issue with my goggles.