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Best / Easiest kit to build a 1/72 Vc Spitfire (Trop)?


Wombat200

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No, Tamiya don't do a Mk.Vc.

 

My personal opinion is that reshaping the bulges in the wing (B to C) and geting a neat result is more difficult than fitting an oil cooler to a Mk.IX wing.

 

Not mentioned so far would be the High Planes Seafire Mk.III, if you couldn't get their Mk.Vc.  You'd have to find new prop, exhausts and filter, but they're common enough; Hannants are still selling the Pavla set.  The difficulty of HP kits has been exaggerated: they do need more work in preparation but it is only sanding down and a little filing.

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22 minutes ago, Graham Boak said:

The Tamiya kit has a mis-shapen wing and a mis-shapen fuselage.  It does fit together very well, and also provides the Vokes filter - which are widely available anyway.  And it's a Mk.Vb, so you are stuck with having to make the changes as on other kits.  Like the Tamiya,  no-one mentioned the Italeri, for similar if non-identical reasons.

 

You didn't leave us much choice: the only out-of-the-box build with good accuracy is the Sword, which you said you couldn't find.  I'll stick my neck out and suggest that if easy/OOB is the prime driver then the SMER/Heller is probably a bit nicer than the Airfix, but you're better off with a bit of chopping around (and even cross-kitting).  Pretty well anybody's nose, prop, exhausts and oil cooler on a decent Mk.IX?

 

You leave open the question of which Mk.Vc standard.  Wide cannon blister or narrow?  Extended horn elevators or original?  DH, DH Hydromatic, or Rotol prop?  Six or twelve exhausts? (OK, I don't think I've seen the latter on an aircraft with a Vokes.  Never say never...)

 

Accuracy in terms of general shape is good - frankly I'm not getting too caught up in it beyond that. Not a big fan of raised panel lines, which probably rules the older heller/smer kits out? I know RAAF Vcs had both wide & narrow cannon blisters. Beyond that, no idea.

 

TBH, the Tamiya sounds easiest after the Sword - I'll just add the cannon / blisters. :yes:

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Don't forget to shave off the root bulges and add some rake to the undercarriage - not many kits get the bulged wheel door right anyway.  The wing shape will benefit from removing a bit from the trailing edge, tapering a maximum at about midspan, but it sounds as though that wouldn't bother you.  The Aussie ones all had the DH Hydromatic prop, so that's worth a check in case the kit only gives the thicker Rotol.

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1 hour ago, Wombat200 said:

Thanks all - I think a few have you have missed the "Easy to build  / Out-of-the-box" criteria, though ;)

 

Well, a Tamiya Vb to Vc is just as OOB than an Airfix b to c... as Graham pointed out.

 

1 hour ago, Wombat200 said:

Not a big fan of raised panel lines, which probably rules the older heller/smer kits out? I know RAAF Vcs had both wide & narrow cannon blisters. Beyond that, no idea.

 

TBH, the Tamiya sounds easiest after the Sword - I'll just add the cannon / blisters. :yes:

Original Heller had raised Details, no idea about the newly-tooled (?) parts by Smer. There is some Chance that those may be recessed, as Smer took over a number of the smaller Czech companies' moulds (Kovozavody Semily/Vista, Antares) and may have drawn in some toolmaking Expertise from there, possibly embodied in their rather good Il-2s. The fact remains that the Heller Vb isn't that impressive. Edit: Pics here. Canopy seems also newly-tooled.

 

With the Tamiya kit, you'll have to restore/alter much of the wing panelling (if it bothers you), so the Advantage I see over the Airfix is merely a bit more Cockpit (I think), and not having to rescribe the fuselage.

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1 hour ago, Wombat200 said:

 I'm guessing neither are tropicals, with the Vokes filter, though?

 

I can't remember bit Vokes filters, that will fit are included in the new AZ/ KP Spitfire Ib/ IIb/ Vb.

 

1 hour ago, Seahawk said:

Just to stress that only Seafire III boxing SW72084 has the spare Mk V fuselage and upper wing halves. 

 

I'll have to head to the loft to check but I believe that the Seafire III has a complete Vc airframe as the Seafire bits are on an additional sprue.

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1 hour ago, Wombat200 said:

 

If you look at the pics here, of Box / kit No: SW72037 you can see the Voles filter is missing from the sprues. I don't know what other boxings it is missing from. I nearly bid on this kit before I realised.

 

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Sword-1-72-Scale-Supekrmarine-Spitfire-Mk-Vc-2-Complete-Kits-/172729348608

 

Grovelling apologies: it looks as if SW72037 Spitfire Vc is indeed the exception to the rule: even there the parts are drawn on the sprue map on the instruction sheet.  But, for all the other boxings I have ( SW72038 Spitfire Vc Trop, SW72040 Seafire IIc/L.IIc, SW72043 Spitfire PR.IV, SW72044 Spitfire PR.IV Trop, SW72055 Seafire III and SW72084 Seafire III (D-Day reissue)),  I have just confirmed by visually checking that the Vokes filter is present.      

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Made a trip to the loft and looked through the stash. Before I expire from heat exhaustion, here are photographs of the Sword Seafires and their sprues.:

 

Seafire II

20170619_143935

 

It has a Vokes filter and two types of propeller.

 

Seafire III

20170619_143548

 

As you can see, there's almost enough to make a Seafire III and a Spitfire Vc (I'm told that not all boxings come so generously endowed, both of mine did).

 

If you'll allow me a little self-indulgence, here is a Spitfire Vc I made using the spare bits:

2017-06-19_02-48-16

 

The elevators were from an AZ MkIX (I believe there are also spares in the Eduard kit), the propeller was from the new AZ/ KP MkVb, cockpit from a scrapped kit (probably an AZ MkVb) and undercarriage from an AZ MkIX. Not sure of the provenance of the canopy and cannon.

 

I know it's not the easiest way to do a Vc but you could make a Vc and keep the Seafire bits to use later.

 

The moral of this tale, if there's one, is... buy more Spitfires.

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I've built the Sword and HPM kits, and bashed together a Revell Vb fuselage to a spare CMR wing (Seafire IIc kit). Also did the Airfix Vc and converted one to a Seafire IIc...yes the wings are thick enough to lift a battleship!

 

I liked the Sword and found it quite easy. The HPM wasn't difficult, but not as easy as the Sword. The conversions were all before the Sword or HPM were available. So I've since stocked up on more Sword and HPM. Many of my builds are limited run kits so I have quite a bit of experience with the challenges they bring. 

 

If I had none today I'd try to find the Sword kits, and failing that would go for HPM. If I could wait...maybe Airfix would give us one. 

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Another option is cross kitting the Airfix Vb and IXc, as the wing from the latter will fit the former.  All you need to do, surgery wise, is remove the radiator mount on the IX wing and blank it off.

 

However, going down the Sword Seafire route is the best option, largely as you get spare bits.

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12 hours ago, Beard said:

Made a trip to the loft and looked through the stash. Before I expire from heat exhaustion, here are photographs of the Sword Seafires and their sprues.:

 

 

That's REALLY helpful - thanks!

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4 hours ago, Wombat200 said:

3 ordered :D

Great. Stuff :thumbsup: 

 

Hope you enjoy the builds 

Best regards

TonyT

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On ‎19‎/‎06‎/‎2017 at 11:25 AM, Graham Boak said:

If you do end up working from a B wing, remember that the later wing has more rake on the undercarriage - the axles are moved forward 2 inches IIRC.  Plus the doors are bulged around the leg.  I think that there may also be a different position for the inboard machine gun - have to check that.

 

Graham's quite correct - the inboard machine gun bay on a C wing is 1 rib space further outboard than a B wing . 

 

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I'm not the originator of this thread, but thanks to everyone who contributed - I'm a fan of RAAF Spit Vc's and often wondered what was out there as an option to the Sword kit (in 1/72).

Turns out I'm patient enough (due to a large collection of aircraft kits already) to wait for a Sword re-release or perhaps a new Airfix offering.

Thanks again. B)

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11 hours ago, rs2man said:

Graham's quite correct - the inboard machine gun bay on a C wing is 1 rib space further outboard than a B wing . 

 

 

So that equates to a Bee's dick in 1/72 scale!!

 

Cheers.. Dave (sorry - bad attempt at hunour!!)

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On 6/19/2017 at 6:54 AM, Beard said:

Made a trip to the loft and looked through the stash. Before I expire from heat exhaustion, here are photographs of the Sword Seafires and their sprues.:

 

Seafire II

20170619_143935

 

It has a Vokes filter and two types of propeller.

 

Seafire III

20170619_143548

 

As you can see, there's almost enough to make a Seafire III and a Spitfire Vc (I'm told that not all boxings come so generously endowed, both of mine did).

 

If you'll allow me a little self-indulgence, here is a Spitfire Vc I made using the spare bits:

2017-06-19_02-48-16

 

The elevators were from an AZ MkIX (I believe there are also spares in the Eduard kit), the propeller was from the new AZ/ KP MkVb, cockpit from a scrapped kit (probably an AZ MkVb) and undercarriage from an AZ MkIX. Not sure of the provenance of the canopy and cannon.

 

I know it's not the easiest way to do a Vc but you could make a Vc and keep the Seafire bits to use later.

 

The moral of this tale, if there's one, is... buy more Spitfires.

 

Just asking, what P-40 kit is in the Background?

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