flarpen

I'm planning on using most of the flying colors decals 48-102 except the fin numbers. There isn't any real alternativ to those yet. But I haven't looked at them that closely, so if they are out of focus i haven't spotted that yet. As the size on the roundels wheren't SwAF standard on the S 31 (they where painted on before delivery in england) i don't think that the roundels from flying colors sheet 48-001 can be used as they are in standard sizes. Johan

I'm not quite there yet, but it's getting closer to actually get some paint on this thing. I have a small problem though, I'm not really sure which color to use. I have both the xtracrylix and white ensign models representation of PRU Blue. Here is a test paint, white ensign to the left and xtraclylix to the right. They are actually quite similar in shade, xtraclylix is a bit on the bluer side and easier to paint with. I would like your feedback on the matter and if you have any other suggestion regarding how to depict PRU Blue.

Thanks Houston, i'll do my best. Regarding my earlier post, here is a link to the 1/32 scale decals on the IPMS Stockholm site http://www.ipmsstockholm.se/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=882&hilit=spitfire+dekaler

I'm planning on doing S/N 31036, F11-36 (ex RAF PS 909) with blue squadron color on the spinner. I think that the aircrafts with blue (and green) noses are the ones that are most pleasing to look at. The red and yellow noses makes a to harsh of a contrast against the overall PRU blue finish. 31036 is one of only two aircraft (31031 being the other) that i now fore sure had blue spinner. Historical records on this matter is very hard to find since no official records exists on this. Also the color on the fin numbers is up for discussion, as both white and yellow is supposed to have existed. I'm doing mine with yellow numbers late in it's service life. From the beginning all aircraft wore a fin number that was 20+ from the two last digits of the serial e.g. no.56 for 31036, but that was changed to have the same number as the serial, and my thinking is that when they renumbered the aircraft the color was changed from white to yellow. This seems to be true for serials 31001-31040 which would have been marked (in white) with numbers 21-60, serials 31041-31050 got the later numbering from the start. Robert Bergwall (RBD Decals) is doing some remarkable research work on this matter for his forthcoming 1/32 scale decals (and 1/48 i hope) and i have to thank him for providing me with a lot of info.

Todays post i will start with the propeller shaft. I made the prop shaft from interlocking brass tubes. I'm in that category who likes to have the propeller to be able to turn, which sometimes makes for that little extra work. It has taken a lot of work to get the wing from the Heritage Aviation kit to pass as acceptable. My example was very poorly casted with lots of air bubbles and pin holes and excess resin everywhere. And on top of that it had broken in half and was warped. Here is the wing put together and treated to a hot bath after which it was straited out to the best of my ability. All panel lines are rescribed as they where so shallow they could hardly be seen and in some places non existing or in wrong places. The wheel wells where among the hardest places to fix. Here's a before shot (with some work already been made). and after The fairing over the wing fuel boost pumps comes up to short. It should extend a bit onto the landing gear covers. They had to be built up and extended with PC and then sanded to shape. In hindsight i think that converting the Academy kit wing would almost have been easier. The wing and nose have been mated (finally) to the fuselage, using 5-min epoxy glue to make sure it stays on properly and to fill out any gaps that may appear. The fit is actually very good and only a small amount of filler is needed at the wing root joint to fill out a few small gaps. With the spinner temporary in place it's starting to look like a Spitfire. to be continued //Johan

Another place that you can find Swedish aviation books is bokborsen.se. Still only in swedish though, but they currently have a Hawker hunter book available. And I agree with Z aviator that it's a graet reference for any J 34 build. http://www.bokborsen.se/Bo-Widfeldt-%C3%85ke-Hall/Hawker-Hunter-I-Sverige/1838802 //Johan

Thanks everyone for your kind words. Been working on the wings for some time know and have finaly got them attached to the fuselage. Pictures will be posted later today. //Johan

Ok, did not know that, the build is more like 50% done, so i'll have to start something new for this GB. Since I'm a notoriously slow builder, I'll go for something that goes together rather easily. Put me down for a Tamiya P-51D Mustang, or as they where called in SwAF: J 26. That gives me the chance to try out Robert Bergwalls new super looking decals. I like this banner and already using it as you can see to promote this GB (have it in my own photobucket account). One thing about it thou: wouldn't it be more appropriate to have a gripen with Swedish markings? /Johan

Tackar Ørjan. Thanks, i'll try and keep the updates at a more regular pace.

A bit more progress The "floor" in the cockpit is done and installed What has taken up most of my time is the vacformed canopy from falcon. It's been quite a hassle to get it to fit somewhat satisfactory. They are not really meant to fit the academy kit. Added canopy framing on the aft and fwd sections The rear section finely mounted after some trials. Still it left a step to the rear of the canopy that had to be filled up. The windscreen in its place. I've also added the sliding canopy rails that goes on the outside of the cockpit sides. To get the windscreen to fit you need to add a piece of pc at the front part of the cockpit as the opening on the academy kit is to far fwd to the real thing. I made the gel container that keeps the moisture out of the canopy from the academy kit canopy. This is how it looks like in place when closed And open (which is the way it's going to be) Also manged to add the heater exhaust on top of the fuselage I'm still not 100% satisfied, but it will have to do. In the pictures the canopies look quite smudgy, but that is after all the handling of the parts and will be polished clean later. Stay tuned Johan

Hi It's been a while since i last updated this thread. It's not lack of progress on the build. Here is what has happened. A first aid kit is added in the cockpit. Rear wheel well details added With those things done i could finely close up the fuselage When that was done i could add the final details in the cockpit From the underside /Johan

Hi Is it ok to join this GB with an already half built project? I have a Spitfire XIX S 31 which i have thread going here on BM already.

What an ambitious project. Will follow this one with interest. Question: why not use the entire fwd fuselage of the vampire NF.10? I have the aeroclub Venom NF.3 kit with some CA additions in the stash that is going to become a J 33 in the future. Lycka till med ditt projekt Andreas /Johan

Some progress on the spit. To try and do something about there not being anything behind the camera windows I've tried to simulate the cameras in an as easy way as possible. Nothing of this will be ever be seen from the outside except for the camera lenses, so i haven't made any effort to make it look good. A structure made of PC to secure the cameras to is in place. The camera window is made from clear plastic from the box that the Aires pit came in. Added some details to the outside of the camera window. Alignments for the down looking cameras added. This will also work as something to attach those camera windows to. Looks a little better with some paint on it The camera objectives are made from brass tubing of different sizes. The camera "body" is from stock resin just to act as a lid on the tubing and something to attach the tubes to the model With some paint it doesn't look to bad Since there is no landing lights in the wings on the PR XIX, I used the kit lenses for those to act as camera lenses instead for the down looking cameras. The lens for the side looking camera is from clear sprue sanded and polished. Here how it looks in place. Now there's just some minor things left then i can assemble the fuselage halves. /Johan

Tackar Bosse. Thanks a bunch Thanks Ben I made it much the same way, simply made a textbox in word with a black background and white text which i then printed on white decalpaper, i used size 3 on the text. It turned out resonebly well i think. I agree, the aeroclub conversion is a gem.

The oxygen tanks are done. They are made from the kits tanks which had to be cut down a bit plus a third that is made from sprue that luckily had the same diameter. I also managed to make some decals for the tanks. With some added details they are ready for installation. After a bit of fiddeling here they are in place And the seat harness could be installed as well. to be continued.... Johan

Thanks for your support guys. I've made some progress. The seat harness is assembled and the lap belts have been installed. The shoulder belts will be installed later when everything is in place. I had to make a slight modification to it thou, the attachment point to the bulkhead were taken from an Eduard seatbelt. The oxygen hose has also been installed. It's still quite vague were it goes but you can't see much of it anyway so i wont bother whit it. All the major components have been installed. Note that the shoulder harness is only loosely put in place to give an idea of how it will look. Next up are the three oxygen bottles behind the seat.

Work on the spitfire have progressed. The Aires Cockpit has been painted with White Ensigns British interior grey-green. All the details are painted. The cockpit is weathered accordingly (a light wash, dry-brushing and flat coated). I have also managed to apply a few cockpit placards and instrument faces from airscale. Here is the left hand side with a few alterations to the Aires pit: All details where the entry hatch used to be is scratched, the oxygen bottles that where molded in are removed and replaced with new details. Also the control box below the trim wheel is a new item and wiring from led wires. The right hand side. Some alterations to the Aires pit had to be done here as well. Everything that is located at the top is scratched and the fuel booster pump box in the center is also a new item. And the "floor". Here is everything from Aires untouched except from a small addition from Eduard. The rudder pedals and control stick has yet to be installed. The rear pressure bulkhead is a entirely scratched item. The IP is as good as finished. The camera control box is made from sprue. The chair has also received it's share of paint and weathering. I've tried to get the feel of worn leather on the backrest, i think it came out ok. Unfortunately it doesn't show up as good in the pictures. The clear gel container on the rear of the bulkhead is made from clear sprue and the fixings is from leftover PE. This looks to get a bit fiddly, the seat belts from HGW is the next challenge. I'm also gonna try to make the oxygen hose for the pilot, but i have a problem whit this. I don't have any good reference material on how that is connected in the aircraft. All i can tell is that it emerges from behind the seat on the right hand side. If anyone has any info or pictures on where the hose goes i would appreciate that, otherwise i suppose I'll just have to make an educated guess. //Johan

Work on the Spitfire is slowly progressing The front have been sawed off to make room fore the new Daco replacement. Some minor adjustments was needed to make the new nose fit, but with some work it fits nicely. With the new nose the shape of the model is vastly improved. Some adjustments of the fuselage is necessary to get a correct PR.XIX The entry hatch is glued in place and blended together with the fuselage. The rear part of the cockpit opening is extended a little bit aft and the step is removed to make it line up with the forward sliding part. The rear fixed portion of the canopy was bigger on the PR.XIX The opening for the side looking camera has been drilled out and the panel lines for the hatch has been scribed. The hatch on the opposite side has also been scribed and panel lines that is wrong for the type has been removed. next up, the cockpit.

Thanks guys A bit of progress has been made. Fitting of the Heritage Aviation PR.XIX wing The general fit is quite good. Actually it's better than with their own fuselage. The only real issue is that the wing is a bit to wide And comparing with scale drawings it needs to be trimmed a bit With that done and the trailing edge thinned down, the fit is spot on. The camera insert also fits without much hassle. Now i need to clean up the wing, the casting isn't the best. There are a lot of pinholes in the front edge of the wing and the wheel wells needs a bit of attention to. But on the plus side you do get all of the XIX bumps and blisters and you don't have to get rid of all the cannon details compared to if you use the academy wing. Chris, how is the fit of the daco nose? Anything i need to look out fore? Stay tuned Johan

Hi, this is my first WIP here on Britmodeller I,m going to try to build a 1/48 scale Spitfire PR.XIX, also known as S 31 in the Swedish AF This is what i have to work with: Academy Mk.XIVc Heritage Aviation PR.XIX Aeroclub Mk.21 conversion Daco Producs Mk.XIV improvement set Aires Mk.XIV cockpit set Quick Boost nose and spinner plus eduard detail set and ultracast wheels After reading several forum discussions and build threads, it seams that the main fault with the academy kit is the shape of the nose and that the fuselage generally is to deep, otherwise i think the kit looks good. After comparing with drawings i think that that's the case. Aeroclub's Mk.21 conversion looks spot on in form, but i think that the panel lines are on the soft side and the casting is generally a bit crude (being a short run kit), so the plan is to use the Academy kit for this project. It would be a shame just to throw it away. The aeroclub set will come in handy in an other build. The Daco Production improvement set corrects the most obvious faults with the academy kit, with a replacement nose and spinner among other things. I will use the wing and lower fuselage camera insert from the Heritage Aviation kit, which will save me a bit of work not having to convert the Academy wing (i hope, the casting of the HA's wing isn't the best). The Quick Boosts nose doesn't seem to correct what is wrong with the academy kit (being about 2mm to deep), so i wont be using that. to be continued //Johan