Airfix 1/72 Spit IXc- Finished

[azureglo]

After a desultory modelling performance for 2014 (rediscovered how much I love playing jazz guitar and forgetting how much practise you need), I’m throwing caution to the wind and attacking my burgeoning stash. Need to practise my canopy masking and get to grips with Xtracolor while I’m at it.

This is the victim, harmless, not very good and something I won’t weep over if I trash it. Apparently Airfix are re-issuing this – hope they put in a decent interior and do something about the wheel wells i.e. box them in and put in some detail.

Decided on this wild and crazy scheme from Wings Palette, seeing as I have some horrible smeary 1948 war decals from Lift Here to make use of.

Those Lift Here decals are horrible and a waste of 7.99 compared the sharply printed but wafer thin Techmod versions. That said, the owner emailed me on a Sunday and sent out a replacement that arrived from Serbia in two days. Sadly that was even more smeared and blurry than the original, Lift Here- great service not so great decals.

First point of call is the sparse cockpit:

I made up some crap for the side walls but got bored moving around 0.1mm rod with Mr Hobby extra thin cement so stopped after this was done and some sanity was still present. Control panel from Airfix Mk1 Spit will be added later. Hey lookit the crow bar, even flattened the ends and made it look like the one in Mk 24 I clean at Solent Sky every week!

The seat should be replaced but a back rest, a jauntily angled control column and some homemade belts are going to be Pilot Officer Abdul’s lot

The keen eyed may spot the rather gaudy green: used the wrong interior green, doh!

Next is a gunsight- according to the refs it is a flat, bronze coloured object and this is as close as I’m getting.

There were two pieces of glass but what are you gonna see through this? (And this after Future-ing!)

While various varnishes dry and glues set, a quick dry fit:

Time to go molest a Telecaster and play weird sounding chords, more tomorrow..

[Marty]

A disapointing release after the Mk.1 re-tool but with some work it can turn out a good kit. Fingers crossed for you, good luck with the paints..!

[Beard]

The Airfix Spit IX is being re-released with French decals but no interior, that'd mean a virtual re-tool. I have one in the stash and I'm going to use the interior from a AZ Spit VI (which I spilt an entire pot of Liquid Poly on). However, it's not a bad kit, it's just a little disappointing.

That's an interesting scheme you've chosen and I'll be keeping an eye on your progress.

Simon

PS. Nothing wrong with molesting a Tele... altough I prefer a Jag.

[Miggers]

The trick with Airfix IX's is to have either a PR.XIX or a Mk.1/II handy and clone the main bits in

plasticard then detail to taste.

[azureglo]

@ Miggers I was reliably told that the trick to airfix IXs is buy the AZ IX instead and leave the cloning to sheep...mmm lamb....

[VonkeyVong]

Looks like a good start there.

[azureglo]

All zipped up , seams filled (lots of them and some pretty Grand Canyon sized) but some interesting fit issues,

It seems you have to get the lower wing just right or you get these;

Some strange things happening at the wing root as well

Note the under nose shim, Tamiya fit this ain’t. Also, imaginary wheel well crap added

Plan is Mr Surfacer for the bits that can be sanded and Mr Liquid Putty wiped away with levelling thinner for the unsandable bits. Experience has shown that this may take a few days (and a few single malts to ease the pain )so to quote a certain chilly explorer, “ I may be gone for some time…”

I shall return now its time to buy more of Vonkeyvongs stash.

BTW donate to Britmodeller! I gave up a few measly shekels today to help Mish, Mike at al. This site is a treasure trove of guidance and advice and all for free. However as someone who builds mega corporate websites I can tell you that a lot of time and effort goes in to maintaining this forum as well as hosting fees, so go on skip the latest Tamigawa and donate!

Edited September 16, 2014 by azureglo

[mixup_1]

Great job on jazzing up that cockpit, sparse wouldnt be in it...very poor.

So far so good tho, look forward to seeing rest of build

[azureglo]

@Mixup. Truly dismal pit in this: no column, 60's style Frog seat and no instrument panel. At £7-8 retail this is a waste considering you can get wonderful kits like the Tam 72 109e-3 for £8-9 if you shop around or as little as £4.00 tacked on to a big HLJ order. Hell, Airfix's own lovely 72 109e-4 is cheaper than this, I remember getting a carton of them for 4.25 each from Jadlam last year and they get a decent seat, sidewalls and a decal panel.

Maybe a few resin bits and a panel decal instead of a full re-tool wouldn't kill them, and I'm sure that the hordes of East European resin master casters would happily supply at reasonable cost and justify the relatively high retail price. Oh and a canopy you can see through would be nice.

Hasegawa do this with some kits and it works really well (especially if you don't pay UK retail prices!)

That said, the shape of thing is good but for a few pounds more you'd be mad not to get the AZ version unless you like really fiddling with 0.1mm plastic rods...

Edited September 18, 2014 by azureglo

[Miggers]

@ Miggers I was reliably told that the trick to airfix IXs is buy the AZ IX instead and leave the cloning to sheep...mmm lamb....

Probably so,but I'm far too tight for that when I have both the PR and Mk.I/II in t'stash....

Lamb?hmmm,yummy.

[wellsprop]

It builds into a very decebt kit once the cockpit issue is adressed. Looks like youre on for a winner!

Ben

PS can we have a pic of your Fender Tele?

Edited September 17, 2014 by wellsprop

[azureglo]

@ Wellsprop At the risk of incurring Mish's wrath for going off topic, here you are, the "working girls":

Got a shed load (literally) more from my session playing days in the far off 80s's but these and couple of headless Hohner Steinberger clones are mostly what I gig and session with these days, shamefully with an amp modeler going into a PA instead of lugging around horribly heavy valve amps (God I how miss having roadies..).

You're right about the AF Spit being a nice kit, it seems to have the shape and look of the thing just right, its just very badly engineered and lousy value in today's market (says he fondling a Finemolds BF109F Marseille he just scored for 7.99!) Now its off to build websites and sand, sand and sand some more.

PS I know what you mean about redheads, got one meself..

Edited September 18, 2014 by azureglo

[azureglo]

Not much bench time, dealing with an eBay con merchant most of the day: Got the air-frame finished tho', major gaps filled

Wing roots not perfect but this Mr Liquid putty is tricky stuff, the levelling thinners for removing it smell nice tho'

#

Tomorrow is canopy masking day with bare metal foil, pray for me...highlight of a wasted day was this home made goats cheese and fig tart my GF brought round:

Edited September 18, 2014 by azureglo

[azureglo]

A minor disaster as a trip to the floor mean the top seams split, filled and waiting more sanding but jazzed up the featureless wing rads with ultra fine mesh for fun. I'm having a modelling free weekend to concentrate on my St Emilion consumption which has been very low recently and may lead to serious health issues such as sobriety. See y 'all next week with next installment of Abdul's Spit.

Edited September 19, 2014 by azureglo

[wellsprop]

@ Wellsprop At the risk of incurring Mish's wrath for going off topic, here you are, the "working girls":

Got a shed load (literally) more from my session playing days in the far off 80s's but these and couple of headless Hohner Steinberger clones are mostly what I gig and session with these days, shamefully with an amp modeler going into a PA instead of lugging around horribly heavy valve amps (God I how miss having roadies..).

You're right about the AF Spit being a nice kit, it seems to have the shape and look of the thing just right, its just very badly engineered and lousy value in today's market (says he fondling a Finemolds BF109F Marseille he just scored for 7.99!) Now its off to build websites and sand, sand and sand some more.

PS I know what you mean about redheads, got one meself..

Ooooh I love the LP And quite a few people have commented on the awesimeness of redheads!

Really impressed at the way youve dealt with that silly wing fuselage gap. The radiatiors are looking fantastic as well

Ben

[Luis Alfonso]

Hi Azur:

Even tough your disenchantment with the kit, you are doing a wonderful job with this model that, believe it or not, I'm going RIGHT NOW to buy the kit at my city's Universal Hobbies hobby shop, and also congratulations, your hand to build and enhance models like this one is so great and wonderful that if you plays guitar as you build, your concerts will be sure a great success!!!

Cheers,

[azureglo]

@ Luis Thanks for the encouragement! It's a funny kit but working with it has many advantages over the AZ Spit IX, much simpler build and the detailing is not hard to do but it really does need a vac canopy, not only is the kit one thick and distorted but the fit is truly horrible as you will see later on. I'm pretty sure any MkV canopy would fit with a bit of tweaking.

Cheers

Anil

[Val]

Awesome work so far great choice in guitars as well. I'm a tele and a strat man myself, but I've got a PRS I brake out for special occasions. Spitfires and jazz guitar is a perfect combo

[azureglo]

Awesome work so far great choice in guitars as well. I'm a tele and a strat man myself, but I've got a PRS I brake out for special occasions. Spitfires and jazz guitar is a perfect combo

PRS? Mighty fancy guitar for a working stiff like me, though I have borrowed one of their hollow bodies and marvelled how many light years they are ahead of Gibson in fit and finish.. As for Teles, every single guitar player should own one of these, the cut it for everything from country to bebop, my musical hero the late Barney Kessel even l used one for doing all the session work for the beach boys and if you haven't heard him, check out Ted Greene the Tele jazz master.

Now back to some canopy fettling...

Edited September 22, 2014 by azureglo

[Val]

PRS? Might fancy guitar for a working stiff like me, though I have borrowed one of their hollow bodies and marvelled how many light years they are ahead of Gibson in fit and finish.. As for Teles, every single guitar player should own one of these, the cut it for everything from country to bebop, my musical hero the late Baeney Kessel even l used one for doing all the session work for the beach boys and if you haven't heard him, check out Ted Greene the Tele jazz master.

Now back to some canopy fettling...

Barney Kessel is one of my all time favourite players too, along with Wes Montgomery and Django. I'll check Ted Greene out, thanks, the name rings a bell! The PRS was an investment guitar I bought before I moved out from my parents; knew it would be the only time in my life I could probably afford it. It's a brilliant instrument as well, stunning to just look at, although it can't match the tele or strat for versatility. They're my go-to weapons !

[Rick Brown]

I've popped into this thread a couple of times and I'm a little curious.

I've also built this kit and apart from the lack of cockpit detail, I've not had the issues of fit.

Is this possiblely a quality control issue with the kit?

Nice radiators btw!

Rick,

going to look at building the other one in my stash now.

[Hook]

@ Wellsprop At the risk of incurring Mish's wrath for going off topic, here you are, the "working girls":

Nice Telecaster.

*ducking for cover*

And good work on the Spit so far! - kits like these are good to get the Modeling Mojo flowing again.

Cheers,

Andre

[azureglo]

Another day of diminishing but satisfying returns: the hideously thick canopy sat at least a millimeter proud of any part of the fuselage as expected. That was OK as I planned to try a new technique (to me), using this citadel green stuff and wiping it away with water:

Worked surprisingly well:

It actually looks much better in real life as remember this is a 90mm macro lens with a ring-light at 2 inches and the real canopy is barely a fifth this size . Also quite enjoyed using the bare metal foil masking technique although it needs a bit of masking fluid touch up,boosted my confidence with 1/72 canopies. A little bit of sanding and then we're ready for primer, slow but not bad for only eight days sporadic progress. Perhaps that's the real trick of the master builders here, perseverance no matter how badly things fit or how little detail there is to start with.

If I did this kit again, I'd adapt/vac a new canopy as this one is truly shocking, you could shim it , sand it but its always going to look awful.

More tomorrow.

[azureglo]

I've popped into this thread a couple of times and I'm a little curious.

I've also built this kit and apart from the lack of cockpit detail, I've not had the issues of fit.

Is this possiblely a quality control issue with the kit?

Nice radiators btw!

Rick,

going to look at building the other one in my stash now.

Judging from the warped plastic on this as I have a pair, I'd say its pretty much QC as the canopy on the other is far better in terms of distortion and framing. I'd imagine this is an early Indian production and they're having a few material issues as there are a few short shot pieces, but hey ever seen an Anigrand masterpiece?

Nice to have people admire me radiators, its a warm feeling...

A

Edited September 22, 2014 by azureglo

[azureglo]

Nothing exciting , just the dull, un-glamorous business of priming: As this build is a test for using Xtracolor enamels, I chose to use Alclad grey primer and see if I can cure my paint lifting problems. This is lovely stuff if you remember not to try and dust it on from six inches but close in to a few inches instead. Or you spend 2 hours using micromesh 12000 to get rid rid of the desert sand effect look:

Tomorrow will be pre-shading and hopefully first coat of medium sea grey. Slow stuff but till you get all your techniques sorted, spending time on learning your paints and materials, is I think essential as opposed to spending nine months on a show winner and only showing the absolutely perfect models or only showing the best parts of any build. Through practise comes craft (or crappy models). Apologies for the lack of excitement but this is a work. In progress.

That is all.

Edited September 24, 2014 by azureglo