BP85

This looks pretty exciting, will be taking notes

Minor update. Today is my first day back at work but when I work from home I work in the cabin, which also doubles up as my modelling den, so naturally I couldn't resist. Got the Humbrol filler out and went to work on the seams. I think I will leave it to dry overnight before sanding down. Would be nice to be in a position to get some primer on it tomorrow.

Hello and Happy New Year, all and apologies in advance for the long post. @rob Lyttle- thank you for the kind words. Naturally, Christmas meant not a lot of time to progress with the Spitfire but I finally managed to put some time in yesterday and the day before. As seen previously the fit is pretty non-fitting. I don't know if this is my mistake or in part the kit itself. But more on that later. As a distraction from all the gaps I thought I would get onto the most distinctive feature of this kit - the all important beer bombs since we certainly don't want the boys going thirsty after the invasion. The beer bombs come in two configurations; with or without a drag-reducing nose cone. I am going for the version without the nose cones as I think this gives a more distinctive beer barrel look. There is also an option for what appears to be a drop tank which will be added to the spares box. The barrel parts themselves look nicely tooled and detailed; I'm guessing that this has something to do with them being newer parts. The barrel bits went together nicely and will only require minor sanding before painting. Next I went on to paint the propeller and spinner. Paints used are Tamiya Sky, Flat Black and Flat Yellow. Once all was dry I drybrushed the leading edges and spinner with Humbrol Aluminium though it feels like I may have overdone it somewhat. I may tone down the wear later on. Next job was to fit the radiators. The grills were sprayed flat black and then drybrushed with aluminium again. These fit okay, however, the same cannot be said for the covers. The radiator covers were badly warped and lots of sanding and manipulation was required to get them to fit in the locating grooves, even after this the gaps/ridges were pretty bad (I forgot to take a picture of this pre-filling). I decided to give Miliput a go instead of Humbrol filler which I have used a couple of times before. First up I masked ahead of filling to limit contagion. It was interesting working with the Miliput (Standard Yellow/Grey) , I found it quite stiff and not the easiest to manipulate but this may have been down to how I mixed the two sticks. Filler applied: After sanding down the finish is a bit mixed. I think the join between the fuselage halves and the underside of the wing is as good as it will get and I'm quite pleased with the leading edge wing root/fuselage filling. It is less obvious in real life but the pictures show that the join between the fuselage halves needs some serious work so that's probably going to be this weekend's job. I think will will go for the Humbrol filler for the fuselage seams as I find this easier to work with for finer filling. Seems like a lot of work but I don't want to rush this part as I think it will be really worth it in the end. So far I'm loving this build and thank you to those of you that have taken the time to follow and comment. It is a challenging kit and it is really pushing my beginner skills but seems like you can get great results if you put the effort in and don't give up when the kit is fighting you.

Hi all. A little bit of progress made today so I thought I would share an update. Started with attaching the seat belts with super glue and over all feel pretty pleased with how it turned out. Definitely worth the effort. With the cockpit done and seat belts attached it was time to bring the fuselage halves together. The fit is pretty grim and made more difficult with the fact that there are no locating pins at all and the halves have to be fitted by eye/feel. I have found pulling masking tape tight across joins gives me better results that pegs/clamps which I sometimes find can distort the shape. As I'm going for open cannon bays, at least for the time being depending on how they turn out. The cannons were sprayed Tamiya dark iron and the bays dull aluminium which looks a bit too shiny for me at the moment, I'm hoping a bit of oil wash will help to soften it. I had real trouble with the wing sections and bringing the fuselage to meet them. Lots of scraping and filing was required to get the rear of the wing section to mate with the fuselage and still the join is horrible and stepped. The wing roots as feared with the dry fit test last week do not meet the fuselage leaving significant gaps. The wing tips didn't fit without some pretty major filing of the locator strip. All in all though she's starting to look like a Spit and I'm enjoying this build even though nothing is as straight forward as it should be. I think the challenge is adding to the enjoyment. As my first non-Airfix build I am noticing a big difference in quality but I do like the level of detail in this ICM kit. Hope all are well and that these posts aren't boring anybody too much.

In a previous life one experiment involved attaching quarter millimetre glass prisms to the end of fiber optic cables - I guess my old fellowship is finally paying off!

Today's update. I decided to take the advice and spend some real time on the cockpit. Made my first attempt at seat belts by cutting a thin strip of normal masking tape (not Tamiya yellow) and folding back on itself stick side to sticky side. Following that I cut the approximate lengths needed and sprayed Tamiya dark yellow: And sprayed: Next some buckle/adjuster bits with some wire. This was fiddly as hell and took about an hour on it's own, hope it will be worth it in the end. Test fitting suggests they are a little too wide Next everything gets an oil wash with some heavily thinned Windsor and Newton burnt umber That's all for this morning. Once everything has dried I will attach the harness ans close her up. Thank you for all the kind comments and advice so far. Sharing the progress makes the build much more enjoyable.

Hi @Nikolay Polyakov-hello back and thanks for the tip. I think I'll give that a go next time. And feel free to photo bomb anytime! @Troy Smith, thanks again. I took the line to be poor moulding like is the case for most pieces. A bit too late to fix now but will remember for next time. Thanks also for the advice with the 190 - I think that's going to be my next build

Yup. Already taking a chunch out of one of the leading edges of one of the wing sections - nothing a bit of filler and sanding shouldn't fix. The super soft plastic is taking some getting used to. It is much less brittle than some of the other manufacturers which does make removing tiny parts from the sprue a bit easier without snapping them I find

Managed to get an hour in at lunchtime working from home again. Thought I would tackle some of the sub-assemblies from further on in the instructions as I don't want to be rushed in finishing the cockpit are bringing the fuselage together. The spinner and prop blades aren't in very good shape off the sprue but I have come to expect this. There is something quite satisfying though about hand carving each individual part out of a solid block of plastic. After smoothing out the spinner I took another look at the instructions and they show the ring, is this actually a feature that I have removed? Blades went together without much drama which was quite nice Next onto the landing gear and the smallest parts I have ever seen with the largest sprue connections Managed to snap one of these when doing the required bending but sort of fixed it That's all for today, will get these bits and some others primed in the morning. Done with work for the year now so hoping to get a good sift in tomorrow while the other half is working - really fancy knocking up some masking tape seat belts so we'll see how that goes. Unsure about weathering the cockpit as while it may look good in pre-assembly photos I'm not sure much difference will be seen when it is all closed up, even with an open cockpit. Also just picked this up for £15 on Ebay (Inc free postage), didn't have time to do much research but looking forward to having a crack. Has anybody had a go at this one?

Little bit of progress made today. Started out with a dry fit of the fuselage halves and the wing sections. Even after a lot of scraping of excess plastic there are still some rather large gaps between the fuselage and wing roots. Hopefully nothing a little (or a lot of) filler can't fix. Next primed the interior with Tamiya flat black And then on with some Tamiya cockpit green And then some detail brush painting with Tamiya and Humbrol Added a bit of wiring fixed with superglue. Not entirely accurate but brings a bit more life to the cockpit. It I'd like to do a bit of weathering on the inside before I close her up but not too sure as I don't want to ruin it. Thinking some light dry brushing and maybe a clear coat and a wash. Also there is no instrument panel decal, tempted to leave it as is with maybe a bit of gloss on the dials rather than making a mess painting the instruments. That's all for now. Hopefully more to come tomorrow.

Thanks, @Troy Smith. The Flickr album is a brilliant resource; will definitely be helpful when adding detail to the engine as I am indeed going for open cowling. I think I may well get one of those Eduard kits to cannibalise some parts. As they're all bits that don't need to be added later this shouldn't hold me up.

It's probably too late to remove it without making a mess now. Will keep that in mind for future builds

Thank you for the responses so far. Working from home today so thought I'd sneak an hour in. First up was removing the panels so that the engine can be exposed. The plastic is nice and soft so this wasn't too much trouble. I also removed the cockpit door as I will be doing an open cockpit. The result after quite a bit of scraping and sanding. There is a lot of plastic that needs removing on pretty much every surface/contact point Time for my first ever non-kit addition - a bit of pipe on the tanks made from 0.5mm copper wire held with super glue. Even using tweezers I struggled to get a nice right angle. A little disappointed that there are only four parts to add inside the cockpit walls. Everything fitted pretty nicely though Planning on making some seat belts so cut a hole in this bit that sits behind the pilot's head The seat and armour plating all fit together quite nicely but again a lot of scraping and sanding was required to get nice edges. That's all for now. Hopefully more progress to come at the weekend.

Thank you for sharing this. Will definitely look out for these. I would be happy for you to list the ICM glitches please. I am thinking about picking up an Eduard profipack/special edition for my next build - guess I just need to keep an eye out for good deals.

Thank you. It does look a good kit apart from the quality issues, shouldn't be anything a bit of careful work can't resolve though. All in all I think it's a really good value kit at £12. Going to take my time and no doubt will be asking for plenty of adivce as I progress.

Thank you. I've been lurking for a while and thought it's about time I got involved! Thank you. I like the sound of this technique - I will definitely give it a go on my next build.

Thank you for your comment. What size drill bit works best here?

Hi all, first post here so please go easy! I have recently taken to scale modelling and after a few practice builds on a few Airfix starter kits I thought it was time to get my teeth into something a bit more challenging. After watching this brilliant video I decided to go for the ICM Spitfire Mk.IX 'Beer Delivery', so a quick trip to eModels and about £13 and a week later the kit arrived. I hope that some of you find this build interesting and am looking forward to receiving any tips. Boxing: Plenty of parts First off I started building the engine block and cradle. The moulding is pretty poor with lots of flash and mould lines but the plastic is pretty soft so not too bad to sand down. I like the amount of detail though with about thirty parts coming together for the block alone. Interestingly there are very few locating pins on this kit meaning that the parts have to be manually aligned. Next for the firewall and engine cradle (right word?) After a good bit of sanding down the joins time to paint. Tamiya paints sprayed at 15psi and 2xpaint:1xthinner. Rubber black for the engine block and cockpit green for the cradle and firewall Exhausts sprayed with flat iron and dry brushed with Humbrol rust acrylic Bringing it together after drybrushing the engine block and cradle with Humbrol aluminium That's all for now. Any tips or criticism are equally welcomed and hopefully I will get a chance to move forward with the cockpit and post an update at the weekend

First attempt...