Spitfire wing assembly - your thoughts / advice?

[Rabbit Leader]

Fellow Spitfire modellers,

The Spit in all it's glorious forms is probably a kit that we have all build at least once. I for one have built many in the past, and have many still boxed up awaiting assembly.

Not sure if this has been discussed previously, however I am asking a general question " what is the best way to assembly Spitfire wings ". Most modern-ish kits seem to offer the wings in three parts. Port upper wing, Starboard upper wing and one continuous lower wing part. All kit instructions guide you to cement the wing assembly first, then attach this to the completed fuselage.

Is it just me? Each time I have done this, I am left with a nasty gap to fill between the wing-body joint. To eliminate this, I am tempted to attach the upper wings to the fuse first ( with appropriate dihedral ) then attach the lower wing later. I am hoping that this will reduce the wing-body upper wing clean up?

So I suppose I'm asking you all which process would you take and has anyone attempted the latter technique? Probably should add that I mainly build 1/72, however I have even tried Tamiya's 1/48 kits and seemed to have got this wrong as well - pretty bad hey!

Cheers and looking forward to some response. .. Dave

[davidelvy]

I know exactly what you mean sbout gaps at the wing roots. The last Spit I built was a 1/48 Airfix Mk IX and I tried attaching the upper wings to the fuselage first. This worked a treat with the wing roots. It was those ridiculous flaps that messed things up.

[bigh827]

You mite get more responses if you had put this in the WW2 instead of the WW1 area, but as it may, putting the upper wings on first can cause way more problems when you put the bottom wing part on.

One thing that works is to put the model between two supports that hold the wing tips, if things go right the weight of the model will pull the fuselage down closing most of the gap. But be careful as you don't want the plane to look like it's flapping it's wings.

[Rabbit Leader]

Yeh - I Accedently posted this thread in the wrong era.?

Thanks for the feedback. I also think things can go wrong should you attempt to build the "wrong way around". Just interested in everyone's thoughts.

Cheers.. Dave.

[MikeC]

I do fit the upper wings first. Yes, you have to align them very very carefully and, depending on both which kit is used and how accurately you've assembled the fuselage, you do need to do more or less work. But I think it's worth it, I get better results than I ever did with the conventional approach. In the end, it comes down to whichever method you're most comfortable with.

[Rick Brown]

I do it slightly differently. I build up the wings as normal then dry fit the fuselage halves with the cockpit assemble in place. I then either slightly pack out the cockpit bottom'y or trim it to get the correct gap to the wings. It only usually takes a slight amount of adjustment to get a good seem on the wing joint without the need for filler.

Rick.

[Test Graham]

I must admit being a bit baffled by this discussion. Spitfires have a number of positions along the wing where the upper and lower parts have to align - flaps, ailerons, guns. It you glue the upper and lower wing halves together first, it becomes easier to ensure these are correctly aligned. If you then have a gap at the join to the fuselage, try checking the dihedral or (as Rick points out) the fuselage width. If this gap is due to an irretrievable fault in the kit, then gluing the upper wing to the fuselage first will mean that all the various positions along the wing will not align upper and lower.

If they do so align, then either the dihedral is odd or there wasn't a problem in the first place.

[Rick Brown]

Obviously, my method relies on a basically sound kit to start with. If the gap is too big around the wing joint you'd end up with a "Big Boned" looking Spit around the cockpit area.

I did find the Airfix Spitfire A01071A to be a bit fat. This needed a trim of the cockpit area or the dihedral would be way to flat.

Hope that helps,

Rick.

[wellsprop]

Hey Rabbit!

My method of spit wings is to glue the top and bottom wings, ensuring theyre in line, before i attach that assembly to the fuselage. Very often i then spend a while sanding filing and filling (making sure i mask to limit damage to panel lines.

Probably worth mentioning i model in 72nd scale and often I have huge gaps between wing roots and fueslage. However this is my preffered method!

Hope this helps

Ben.