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Although I imagine the Griffon installation is pretty different, it can't hurt! Wow, those are golden. I just finished a frenzy of right clicking and saving. Although I should have mentioned in my earlier post that I'm doing the 1/32 Tamiya Mk.IX and that I'm looking for the two stage installation. Nonetheless your pics will be very useful. Thanks!

Hi all, I'll be plumbing & wiring my 1/32 Tamiya Mk.IX Spit's engine and firewall, and although I have lots of good shots of the engine plumbing, I don't have anything that clearly shows the firewall layout. Does anybody have a few good pictures they could share? Thanks, Tony (edited to clarify the version I'm doing...)

Love it! The PR.XI has always been my favourite Spit. Something about the clean wing and overall PRU blue that just oozes grace and speed. Not to threadjack, but I did the exact same scheme on mine (Falcon/Tamiya/Otaki): I notice that your windscreen has the correct flat front. Was that provided with the Falcon conversion? The one I had was the incorrect rounded style (although correct for the PR.XIX), and I had to vacuform my own. Cheers, Tony

Thanks very much, guys! If anyone is interested, I posted the build details over on The Aerodrome It was indeed Alclad; Aluminum over Gunze Mr. Surfacer 1000. This was only my second ever rigged biplane (the other being an Eduard Albatros D.III), and although it was fiddly and time consuming, it wasn't terribly difficult. Anyway, here are some more shots. The light was good this afternoon (I like to photograph in natural light whenever possible), so I took advantage of it: Cheers, Tony

A somewhat exhausting build of Eduard's Camel, what with so much potential for messing it up. Fortunately however, in spite of my tender ministrations, there were no major stumbling blocks. I did it up as William G. "Billy" Barker's famous B6313, the highest scoring single aircraft (46 kills, IIRC) of The Great War. Does anyone know if there is a higher scoring aircraft from other conflicts? Questions and feedback more than welcome. Cheers, Tony

If you haven't already seen it, this thread over on The Aerodrome might prove useful. Cheers, Tony

I have other hairy things I could post, but trust me when I say you wouldn't want that... OK, that's just too much information!

Hi Christian, I've seen some photos of a patch over the gun camera port, and decided to add it for a bit of visual interest. Presumably it was there to keep moisture and dust from fouling the lens. I also assume it would have been manually removed just before flight. Cheers, Tony

Hi Doug, By the way, today is the 73rd anniversary of the first flight of the Spitfire. Others may know more, but I think K5054 had a rounded windscreen. The one on the PR.XI was more like the early Mk.I. Drop me a line when/if you want to borrow the vac master and I'll drop it in the mail for you. Cheers, Tony

...and here's what it looks like installed: I've also added the receiver antennae to the wingtips that someone helpfully pointed out I had missed. They're brass wire as well. There are so many sticky-outy bits on the model now that its getting hard to figure out how to pick it up without jabbing myself. The PR.XI (along with the bubbletop Mk.XVI) is my favourite Spit of them all; the clean wing, unarmoured windscreen and monochrome finish. I even think the deeper chin looks cool. One thing about the Falcon conversion, if you don't already know: the windscreen provided is not right for the XI (it is correct for the PR.XIX, though) as it lacks the flat front. It should look like a Mk.I/II/V windscreen with the external armour removed. I still have the vacuform master that I used to make the windscreen on mine and would be happy to lend it to you if you want. Cheers, Tony

Once again, thanks guys for the kind words! A small update: I wasn't too please with the look of the kit's AI antenna, so I made another one from soldered brass: I'm going to fill in the rear loops with five minute epoxy to give them the airfoil shape of the real thing. I'm also going to mount it all the way back in the gun bay bulkhead for strength. The antenna and the steel pitot probe on the tail are going to be the strongest bits on the model! Cheers, Tony

Hi Jim, I prefer to airbrush my staining, as it gives me more control over the colour depth and just looks more convincing. I have a gravity feed Iwata and I fill the cup about 2/3 with straight 99% rubbing alcohol. Next I dip a #3 paintbrush in Tamiya flat black and clean it in the airbrush cup. I do the same thing with Tamiya flat brown and then again with a bit of white. I then spray the resultant mixture at about 15 psi and gradually build up my exhaust stain over numerous passes. I tend to do very understated gun stains (if at all), as I find that they tend to look a bit contrived when there are great, long black streaks that stretch half way across the wing. Cheers, Tony

Hi Jason, Can you point me to the thread? I'd be interested to see it. There was more than one TH-M in 418 squadron, so I'm curious to know if the debate is about the subject I chose or Bob Kipp's later "Black Rufe" TH-M. As for my references, I was basically working from this one photo: As you can see, this particular example didn't carry nose guns. The decals came from one of the Aeromaster "Mosquito Raiders" sheets (which one, I'm not sure - I'm at work as I write this). Hi Will, I painted the spinner black first and, using an Olfa circle cutter, cut an arc of Tamiya tape about 1.5mm wide to mask the circle. I don't recall the radius of the arc offhand, but I derived it by trial and error (I think the radius was about 25mm). The white was Tamiya Fine White Primer which I decanted and shot through my airbrush. Thanks, Chris. The final flat coat was Vallejo Air, thinned about 50% with Tamiya X-20A thinner. Until recently I've used Polly Scale, but they seem to have changed their formula...

Thanks guys for the warm welcome. The Mossie is one of my favourite subjects (I live not too far from the plant in Toronto where they were made during WWII), but for some reason this was the first one I've ever done. Go figure... The Night and Med. Sea Grey were mixed from Tamiya acrylics, while the Dark Green was Gunze. I weathered it with post shading (heavily thinned Tamiyas), MiG pigments, and "dot" filters and washes of artist's oils . Paint chipping was done with a Prismacolor silver pencil. I airbrushed the gear legs Floquil "Bright Silver" thinned with lacquer thinner, and brushed on a "pseudo-wash" concocted from a mix of india Ink and Polly Scale clear satin. I love Alclad for doing overall NMF schemes, but find the prep to be a bit arduous for fiddly bits. Floquil is great for things like landing gear, but just isn't as durable as Alclad for larger applications. I've posted some in-progress shots over on Hyperscale: In-progress 1 In-progress 2 In-progress 3 In-progress 4 In-progress 5 Actually I was afraid that was going to happen, so I masked and painted them. Turned out not to be necessary, as a friend of mine was also doing the same kit in parallel with me, and his wing walk decals came out beautifully. Isn't she a sweetie? That's Piper, our one year old Maine Coon... Cheers, Tony

Hi Folks, Well, this be my debut posting here on Britmodeller, although I've been a lurker for some time now. Hot off the bench is my Tamiya Mossie FB.VI, done up in 418 (RCAF) Sqdn markings Ca. summer 1944. Some of the extras I added include: - Ultracast seats, tail wheel, crew door and exhaust shrouds - Thinned and detailed the mudguards, added brake lines, detailed the landing gear legs (those funky rod contraptions right by the tires) - Squadron vac canopy with interior framing fashioned from brass rod - A handful of Eduard bits including the instrument panel, carburetor screens and windshield wiper - Stainless steel hypo tubing pitot probe ...aaaand I'm done! Questions and criticism welcome. Cheers, Tony Bell Void where prohibited by law. Results may vary. See local dealer for listings. Do not taunt happy fun ball.