Spitfire XIV Kitbash in 1/48th Scale.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Chums,

I'm intending to knock these two into a Spitfire XIV if I can.

The decals are from the Academy kit,many thanks to Chris Rope for these.The build seems to be a relatively uncomplicated business,famous last words.I started work by clipping the cockpit components off the sprues.The bits from both kits are here,there is a need for a bit of mix and match to be done.

A new frame for the back end of the cockpit aperture was made from plastic card.A bit of a tidy up will see it ready to fit.

The usual bits were done to the seat and instrument panel frames and the seat itself was made to look a little nearer the real thing by thinning the sides and a bit of scraping and hole drilling to make the handholds.

That's all for the moment,the camera batteries are on charge.More soon chums.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[PlaStix]

A very interesting looking project. Looking forward to seeing the progress on this.

[Caerbannog]

Very nice project. Have this in th eline too (though in ICM boxing). Will be watching with interest

Rene

[Arniec]

I will be watching this one.

Cheers,

[stevehnz]

One to watch for sure. Not my scale but I love these bigger scale builds, full of good ideas for the one true scale.

Steve.

[Jon Kunac-Tabinor]

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234956478-spitifre-f-mk-xive-kit-bash-148th-scale/

I hope my build might be of use.

Jonners

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,

It has been a bit of a slow start on this one.Thank you for the kind comments so far chums.Jonners,your build was one of the first that I looked at as a guide.

After a bit of looking and head scratching I have come up with a revised plan.The idea was to end up with a PR XI and an XIV out of this deal but there is just so much to be done to the Hasegawa fuselage to bring it up to snuff that I've decided to build that kit as it is and take another route with the XIV.This involves using the leftover wing from the Airfix Seafire XVII.

The fit of the wing root from the Hasegawa kit was going to take some fettling.

The Airfix root is a lot closer but the wing chord is longer than the fillet on the fuselage.A bit of creative butchery should sort this one out.

Anyway,today has been spent filling wingfold joints with stretched sprue

and no longer required underside light lens holes with the round bits that stick out sideways from the sprue.

The wing underside light locations were determined from photography,drilled out and then filled using the round bits that stick out sideways on a clear sprue.

 

The unwanted underwing antenna holes were filled with more stretched sprue.

The cockpit pressurization intake was cut off leaving a narrow slot in the side of the cowling panel.This was filled with plastic card.The camera aperture was covered with a circle of thin plastic card and will receive a kelching of Milliput in the near future.The sink marks under the canopy rails have been filled with some small bits of plastic card.

The next job is to sand all of this down,then the build proper can commence.

Thanks for looking in chums,more soon.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,

Just a small update,things have been a bit busy at this end just lately so bench time is becoming fewer and further between.The cockpit interior green has been sprayed on

and the sanding of of the various bits of filling has been done.The pressurised canopy rails have also been sanded off and the cockpit door has been cut in.

There's still some sanding and scribing to be done before construction proper starts but not much more.Thanks for looking,more soon.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[PlaStix]

Good to see more progress on this!!

[SARowl]

I love kitbashing. watching with interest.

John

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,

At last,some spare time!

Stix,hopefully progress from here will be a little less erratic.

John,hopefully this won't disappoint.

Silver paint on the appropriate inside bits,propellor,instrument panel and control column spadegrip painted black.

Fuselage taped together and glued and the upper wing sections glued on.What I didn't take a photo of was the removal of the wing trailing edge to match up with the corner of the fuselage fillet.This was a matter of 2mm or so and I used the kit upper wing parts lined up appropriately as a guide for the scalpel and to keep the shape.

Cockpit bits ready to go in,apart from the seat harness buckles which will go on before completion.

The lower wing section was offered up.There was a nice big gap at the aft end.

A piece of plastic card was cut and fitted as a backing for a spot of milliput filling work.

Anyway,all of this is now waiting for the glue to set and then the build can progress.

Thanks for looking in chums,more soon.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[PlaStix]

Hi Alex, good to see this back on the bench again! I pretty much said the same thing 5 weeks ago and then you disappeared!! I do like how you're tackling these kits - keep up the good work.

Kind regards,

Stix

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Chums,

Stix,many thanks.A little ingenuity can go a long way in this game.

A bit more done today.A dig through the spares box unearthed some canopy parts.The flaps are the open ones from the Seafire XVII and the XIX kits.

The rear portion of the canopy came from one of the Airfix Ia kit sprues,a mine of goodies if you ever need them.It needed to be lengthened slightly to line up with the rear edge of the cockpit access door.I just happened to have some square section plastic rod that was just the right size in both directions.I bent the end of this around a suitable diameter paintbrush handle and held the shape needed to match the glassware with a bit of tape.

Surprise surprise I then glued the two together.

The kit ailerons were used to make a pair of blanks to fit into the wing.I'm keeping the kit ones with the kit wing for when I build the PR XI.

These blanks,and the flap sections were fitted to the wing.

The flaps protrude aft of the wing by a couple of mils or so,this will be used to advantage.The aileron blanks were made a tight good fit protruding slightly aft as well,I have this cunning plan you see.

Hopefully more tomorrow chums,thanks for looking in.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[Andrew Jones]

Great progress so far, looking good, don't forget short MkVIII style aelirons on MkXIV and round undercarriage wells without the notches of the Seafire.

Andrew

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,

Andrew,thanks for chipping in.I sorted the wheel wells early on in the build and I have a cunning plan for the ailerons.

A bit more done today.The aileron blanks were milliputted over on Sunday.While I was at it I glued some stretched sprue into the wing trailing edges to fill the gap at the flap edges.

After a spot of sanding and cleaning up the result was starting to look promising.A couple of glue induced sink marks were taken care of while I was at it.

Remember I mentioned a cunning plan for the shorter ailerons? I took a suitable wingtip from an ICM spitfire kit and used it to mark off where the aileron is supposed to end.

I then scribed a panel line in to represent this.Then I made a set of masking tape guides using the XIX ailerons as a pattern.These were used to mark out and scribe the panel lines into the aileron itself.

A coat of primer was brushed on to see what it all was going to turn out like.

This is the smoothest bit of milliput out of all four surfaces,the rest could just do with another couple of coats of primer and a sand off to take out the humps and hollows.This one needs my dodgy scribing addressing while I am at it.

I then turned my attention to the cowling underside and the air intake.The cowling cover fits perfectly,the intake sits slightly high.

A little scraping of the rear end joining faces made the front end sit into its recess.A wipe of milliput will sort this one out.

More soon chums,thanks for looking in.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[AnonymousDFB1]

Good progress Alex

[Arniec]

Great progress. Keep up the good work.

Cheers,

[Mark]

Wow! Now that is nice! Just in time too, as Airfix announced their new state of the art 1/48th Mk.XIV this morning....

...Only Joking!!!

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Chums,

Mish,Arnold,many thanks for the encouragement.

Mark,cheers mate! It's been so long since I last looked in on this thread that you got me again today too!

A bit more progress over the last couple of weeks.It's all been in dribs and drabs so I thought I'd hang on a bit and post up a decent amount.The rear canopy portion has the glassware down as far as the runner for the sliding bit.To raise this I cut a couple of bits of thin plastic card to a suitable size and glued these onto each side.

I'm keeping the kit undercarriage components with the wing so while I was in the mood I cut and shaped a pair of mainleg door panels.

One of the jobs I did very early on in the build was to cut the radiator matrix mountings off the kit wing.These have now come into use here,setting all the bits into an easy to use lump to fit into the fairings.All of this,having been painted appropriately,was then fitted to the lower wing.

The static canopy components were fitted.The front portion is from an Airfix IX I think,and isn't an immediate good fit.

A bit of gentle sanding,however,has taken the edge off the problem and a wipe of milliput will sort out the finer points.

Anyway,I had a fit of enthusiasm this afternoon and sprayed a bit of gloss white at her in readiness for the stripes.This is where I have found that there is a bit of remedial filling to be done in a few places.Once again I'm waiting for paint to dry.

More soon chums,thanks for looking in.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,

A bit more done today.The white paint showed up a bit of filling that needed to be redone.I brush painted some Humbrol primer over the various flaws.

The underside of the port radiator housing was showing a bit of glue damage so that was sanded off and the gaps where the housings meet the wing were filled with milliput.

Once dry the primer was sanded down and the surface made smooth.

We're nearly ready for the paint job now so there's half a chance of finishing in time.

More soon chums,thanks for looking.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[PlaStix]

Hi Alex,

It may just be me but I cannot get your photos to appear. I am on my iPad at the moment, so it may be a problem with this rather than your photos, but I can see other photos in other threads. When I click on yours I just get the loading symbol but nothing appears.

I was looking forward to seeing your progress!

Edit: okay you can ignore this now - the photos have all appeared - must have been a problem at my end! Excellent progress! Glad I can see what you've been up to!

Kind regards,

Stix

Edited September 24, 2014 by PlaStix

[wimbledon99]

Very impressive. A challenge to far for me but I'm enjoying your build

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,

Stix,glad you saw the piccies,hope it was worth the effort.

Wimbledon,thanks.It's not really that tricky if you know what you're doing.That's just answered the question of why I've dragged this out for so long.

A bit more progress today.I sprayed the yellow leading edge stripes using the new brew Humbrol 154 Insignia Yellow.I must confess to not being too happy with the colour,it doesn't look like the Insignia Yellow of old.It'll have to do however.

Once dry the yellow was masked off and the white was overcoated to even out the finish where I did the final filling.

With two days left of this Group Build I've a fair trip to finish this one.Mind you,if Bootneck can finish his LST then I'm damned if I'm not going to finish a bloody Spitfire .

More soon chums,thanks for looking.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon

[tonyot]

Very nice indeed and much better than my attempt at the same thing!

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234940087-airfix-spitfire-pr19-converted-to-spitfire-xiv-fighter-in-148th-scale-icm-wings/?hl=%2Bspitfire+%2Bxiv

Cheers

Toy

Edited October 3, 2014 by tonyot

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Chums,

Tony,thanks old chum.Your build was one I looked at before I really got going with this one.In your usual manner it was one of the more informative threads that I found.As for better,I doubt it.

A fairish push today.Stripy masking time.The method that I used on my Mustang III build ( http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/234963721-tamiya-mustang-iii-in-148th-scale/ ) was a bit long winded and unwieldy.This method is a variation on that theme.

I started by marking off some masking tape at a scale 18 inches.I then cut a few lengths at the same and set out where the stripes were going to go.I then set out the outer edges of the white and where the black stripes were going to go.

The ruler strips were then taken off leaving the outer and inner edges of the white stripes marked out but not obstructed.

Masking on following the markers and pulled round underneath using the excess hanging past the trailing edge as a guide.

Markers off and ready to paint.Working over the top of the cannon bulge needed a bit of manipulation but wasn't too tricky.

Gloss black paint thinned with Terebene was sprayed on.

Three hours later the black was set and hard enough to take masking so this was done and then the sky band and spinner were painted,using Terebene again.There is a pattern forming here,I'm going for speed.

Another three hours passed after which I masked the sky band and sprayed Medium Sea Grey on the underside.

I might be able to mask off the underside tonight,we'll see a bit later on.More soon chums,thanks for looking in.

Edited March 5, 2021 by Alex Gordon