spitfire Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 (edited) Well while I'm waiting for the paint to dry on the P-47 I decided to have a go at this one, I bought the Paragon conversion years ago but have always shied away from cutting up the kit parts, but I may as well give it a go rather than letting them rot away in the loft. [/img] [/img] Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 (edited) OK the major surgery went OK (I hope), the only snag so far seems to be that the two halves of the resin nose are different lengths, a bit of cutting and sanding required. [/img] [/img] Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
desmojen Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I'll be interested to see how this comes out Den, I have a Paragon MkXIV set in my Spit Bits box Jen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perry Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Veeerrrrrrrrrry interesting! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted February 4, 2008 Author Share Posted February 4, 2008 I've got several more conversions lurking in the loft as well Paragon Spitfire XII, IX, XIV bubble, Warbirds XIV, IX, plus the donor kits, plus I have a Paragon Typhoon 1b conversion (bubble) for the Revell Typhoon. Hopefully if this one goes well I'll pluck up the courage to have a go at the others. Cheers Den Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palacefan Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Nice entry. Good luck with the conversion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gwart Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 Can't wait to see this one unfold. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 I think I built this kit as a kid Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
T-Tango Posted February 4, 2008 Share Posted February 4, 2008 This one could be interesting, love to see how it turns out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nev Posted February 5, 2008 Share Posted February 5, 2008 watching with intrest - I'm a sucker for a simple conversion! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 (edited) Well the re scribing took longer than I thought it would plus the P-47's have been soaking up a lot of attention, but here is an update. The wings took up a lot of time, but the resin inserts worked great, superglue them inside the existing kit cannon bulges and then sand away, made a few mistakes on the re scribed panel lines but they look good to me now. With all the Spitfire reference books I had I thought it would be be easy but the Mk VIII seems a bit elusive, in the end I had to buy a set of plans (Warpaint series by Mark Rolfe), I don't think they are 100% but as I learned with the P-47's, pick your plan and stick to it. Here's some photos Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 8, 2008 Author Share Posted March 8, 2008 (edited) Well just to bring things up to date, the re scribing is finished apart from the panel lines where the resin joins the plastic, got to figure something out for that one, most of the resin parts have been detached and cleaned up, this went very well. To enable me to get the prop right I drilled out the spinner and individual blades and inserted some plastic rod in the blades, not me being clever I copied it from a build I read somewhere else ! The cockpit turned out to be a generic Spitfire cockpit as I could not find photos nor illustrations for the Mk VIII, loads of Mk II, V and IX but no VIII, I did try to get the pilots notes for the VIII but they are out of stock, so I used the IX info. The cockpit uses Waldron placards, kit parts and some great RAF instrument decals from MDC, these went on a treat. And that's as far as it goes. Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
silverkite211 Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 That's pretty neat that Paragon gives you what I had to do myself on the Mk IX that I'm reworking, namely the inserts in the cannon bulges, I used baking soda and CA glue to backfill the ones on mine. You'd need Edgar to tell you for certain, but I'd be willing to bet that the cockpits of the Mk VIII and Mk IX are identical. If I recall correctly the Mk VIII was to have all these mdifications to it, to improve it over the Mk V, but the RAF was having a bad time with the Fw-190 and couldn't wait for the MkVIII, so the Mk IX was quickly brought out with only the most important mods done to it. Thta's why the Mk VIII has a retractable tailwheel and why it entered service after the Mk IX, as I understand it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smiffy Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Very nice. Like you, I've had this Paragon conversion lurking in the stash for years, waiting for me to work up the courage to start it. I'll be watching this with interest. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 24, 2008 Author Share Posted March 24, 2008 (edited) Still plodding on, re scribed a couple of lines on the wings, drilled out for the cannon stubs and fitted the cannon bulges, unless I see something else the wings are basically finished now apart from the cannon barrels. The fuselage halves have been closed, and the bottom of the nose fitted, this was fun as it is a different shape to the sides, I had to clamp the fuselage sides together to get it to fit, this will give me a problem fitting the wings (big gaps), but it's coming on. Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muller Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 (edited) Looking good so far, nice interior. I'd be too scared to cut sections away and replace with resin! Edited March 25, 2008 by Muller Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
palacefan Posted March 25, 2008 Share Posted March 25, 2008 I'd be too scared to cut sections away and replace with resin! Same here!!!!!!!!! I take my hat off to you Den, its coming along really well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 25, 2008 Author Share Posted March 25, 2008 Thanks for the kind words guys, the way I look at it is that if I mess up and it goes in the bin I'm no worse off than if I had left it in the loft, and in the end I may have a nice Spitfire VIII. Cheers Den Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erwin Posted March 27, 2008 Share Posted March 27, 2008 Looks very good. Nice work so far. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 27, 2008 Author Share Posted March 27, 2008 (edited) Well all the fuselage seams (and the nose) have been sanded smooth, panel lines re instated and the wings attached, clamping in the nose sides to make the underside of the nose fit has left a big gap in the wing/fuselage joint which I will have to fill with plastic card and superglue, I'll probably mess up the dihedral doing that but never mind, as long as it looks like a Spitfire VIII I'll be happy. Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 (edited) Well the wing joints have been filled, I made sure that the filling was a loose fit so that it did not push the wings down, the "tail feathers" have been attached and the air inlet fitted. The latter took a lot of work as it had a great big casting block which had to be whittled away, luckily I found a dandy curved blade to scoop it out. Now that all the big bits are assembled I'll get back to the P-47. Cheers Den Edited October 13, 2019 by spitfire Replaced blurred Photobucket photos Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
perry Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Looking great Den, keep it going! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Troffa Posted March 29, 2008 Share Posted March 29, 2008 Looking very clean so far, and nice to see the old hasegawa kit being built in any guise! I love the look of the Mk VIII as well- the retractable tail wheel does wonders for the spit. one question though, (I might have missed this in an earlier post) - are you sure the MkVIII had the headrest? I thought these went with the MK IX and subsequent marques. Keep up the good work, Troffa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
spitfire Posted March 29, 2008 Author Share Posted March 29, 2008 Yes I'm pretty sure that the MkVIII did not have the headrest, still deliberating if a razor saw moment is due ! The conversion kit did not include any cockpit parts and I could not find Mk VIII interior photos, so the cockpit is a lash up of Mk V, IX Waldron placards and MDC instrument dial decals. Cheers Den Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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