Max Headroom Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 [ ]* *insert superlative of your choice here Trevor the quite frankly utterly awed 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 11, 2016 Author Share Posted June 11, 2016 evening folks BRILLIANT!!! Question: What did you form the tail light cover from? I'll bet you even made a working bulb inside! Thanks again for sharing your creative inspiration!! PR Hi PR - thanks for stopping by - I plunge moulded it by turning a brass master and pushing it through heated clear card pinned to a bit of balsa with a hole in it.. as for the bulb, I have to admit it doesn't work ... I decided not to do the tailwheel well next as it is pretty exposed at the end of the fuselage and with lots of heavy work to go yet I would be bound to damage it.. I want to do the mainwheel bays and before I can start that I need the mount points for the legs. This is a critical bit of spatial imagineering as there are many angles involved, all of which need to be right - the legs are splayed from the front at 92 degrees, they are also raked forwards the first thing to do is use many plans & drawings to arrive at a template that covers the angles from the front.. ..then the forward rake.. ..the intention is to make mounts with a plate I can epoxy into place onto which the laegs will slide later on.. ..I soldered some brass parts loosely to the angles needed, I made these the full leg length so I can see what is what when I position them, but will crop them down later.. ..I can then flood the well floor with epoxy to hold them in place.. ..I used the templates and some tape to get the positioning as near as I could.. ..added some white dots on the ends of the stubs again to aid visual alignment.. ..will let this lot go off overnight and see where we are tomorrow... ..now onto the England match TTFNPeter 12 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted June 11, 2016 Share Posted June 11, 2016 Now you are just showing off, I sill like it though. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor Rich Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Hi Peter, Thanks for the 411 on the tail lamp cover. Your solution makes complete sense -- thanks for sharing! PR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mike W Posted June 12, 2016 Share Posted June 12, 2016 Sublime. Mike 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4u Posted June 13, 2016 Share Posted June 13, 2016 Excellent !!! Guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 17, 2016 Author Share Posted June 17, 2016 evening ladies so the leg mounts set, and as far as I can tell are the right angle(s) - these have been cut down now so the real legs can slide onto the stubs.. ..I laid out some stiff brass walls where the main structural elements like spars or lateral stiffeners are - I will make detailed faces to go onto these... the false floor covers the u/c leg stub mounts (hopefully) as in real life this is the wing top skin.. ..and fixed into place... ...also added a litho well roof in three parts split where the stiffeners go.. ..the stiffeners themselves are litho sheet - I can't bend the edges like the real things (they are pressed parts I think) so I CA a very thin strip of litho and round the edges.. ..folded the bottoms and assembled - I used my new home made rivet template to mark out the fixings on another strip of litho.. ..and the inner ones are done,, ..and with the outer ones... ..and fitted in one of the wheel bays... the walls that go around the edges seem to be at an angle and are not perpendicular to the roof so these should be in the right place (he says..) ..lots more to do in here... TTFN Peter 16 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 [sigh] Beautiful... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S5 modeller Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 Stunning work peter. Ever thought of doing this for a living? 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted June 17, 2016 Share Posted June 17, 2016 excellent work!, i think this area of the spitfire is perhaps my favourite (if one is allowed to have favourite areas or a plane) as the top of the wheel well is just the topskin of the wing... showing just how steamlined the design was and all components where literally shoehorned in whatever space there was available, and at the same time it shows how fragile these planes where, with parts of the wing literally consisting of one sheet of metal. On the subject of landing gear, apparently the very plane you're making was used in ski trials, http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/494/Anything-But-Wheels.aspx(under"combat ski planes") 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob85 Posted June 18, 2016 Share Posted June 18, 2016 As all have said above, your work is sublime Rob 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F4u Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Hi Peter, You should work with ARCO at Duxford !!! Superb work really is looking great. Guy 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 21, 2016 Author Share Posted June 21, 2016 evening folks excellent work!, i think this area of the spitfire is perhaps my favourite (if one is allowed to have favourite areas or a plane) as the top of the wheel well is just the topskin of the wing... showing just how steamlined the design was and all components where literally shoehorned in whatever space there was available, and at the same time it shows how fragile these planes where, with parts of the wing literally consisting of one sheet of metal. On the subject of landing gear, apparently the very plane you're making was used in ski trials, http://www.vintagewings.ca/VintageNews/Stories/tabid/116/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/494/Anything-But-Wheels.aspx(under"combat ski planes") thank you I am enjoying this bit too.. that was an interesting story - I knew it was sent to Canada for cold weather trials but had no clue it was put on a set of ski's by a stranded pilot! as far as the build goes I seem to have been spending 75% of my time staring at reference, measuring and scaling, and trying to make sense of the layout and structures within what is quite a complex area in the wheel well... ..the 25% spent building has been a lot of making things to learn the best way and then remaking again and again until I am happy with the part.. ..here is the U/C leg mount area - a few things to cover - the big angled spigot the leg mounts on, the round inspection panel in the top wing skin, and some of the ribs and stiffners on the well roof.. ..I spent a while trying to make the round inspection panel... ..tried lots of processes before I ended up with one I was happy with.. ..I also scaled some drawings to the dimensions in the well - the rib positions are consistent both sides, but the height of the spar is different due to the lax and lazy approach I took to fixing the leg mounts meaning the false roof is at a slightly different height... the drawing means I can see what goes where in terms of marking out structural and detailed elements of the main spar face that can be seen in the well.. ..and starting the detailing.. also lots of holes drilled for the bigger bolts in it - I did try embossing them, but they looked crap... ..the bolts were laboriously made by putting bits of rod through the holes and sanding them down nearly flush... ..and the basic part - I started to make the spigot so it slides over the U/C leg stub, but the angles involved mean that I meed to mount this to the gear leg rather than the spar face... ..also started to fabricate the false roof and some of the ribs - I had to reshape the back wall a bit and re-line it, but it's starting to come together in a dry fit.. ..I want to get the basic structure in there, but even that is a lot of complicated fabrication.. TTFNPeter 13 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CedB Posted June 21, 2016 Share Posted June 21, 2016 Peter I'd just like to say that my lack of comments does not represent a lack of interest; it's just that I've run out of superlatives... 'Great work' is not enough, I'll just have to make do with the like button 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nigel Heath Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Utterly awesome, as ever. Your commitment to detail is incredible. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_W Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 Extraordinary detail. I expect a video clip where you push a scale lever in the cockpit and the gear retracts... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 22, 2016 Author Share Posted June 22, 2016 Hi guys reaching out for a little help from those in the know... the rib in the gear well that separates where the tyre goes and where the leg lays seems to be different depending on the mark of Spit This is a XVI in the Montforton book - seems to be two sheets with a gap in the middle.. This is a Mk19 (I think) which seems to be two sheets again, but folded outwards from the middle.. any ideas? not sure which to do TIA Peter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lunarhighway Posted June 22, 2016 Share Posted June 22, 2016 that's a difficult one, i don't have an answer but i looked in my sam publication on the griphon spits and i could see the detail on a xix and a mk 22 and both have the second setup the other setup i can only see in e winged xvi's (looking for pictures of the cannons will sometimes give you a peek at the weel bay) where the xvi and xiv both had E wings the XIV's (and XIX) both had bigger radiators than the XVI so i imagine there would be some differneces to accomodate this, the mk22 had the "new" wing, wich was designed from the ground up, and that too seems to have the fold, suggesting this is a an improvement over the XVI setup (it does look simpler) based on what i've seen i would guess the mk 19 setup is likely correct. one way to know for sure is to track down the owner of the actual spirfire as i believe it's still in existance and airworthy and ask, if he might have pictures of this area, or at least google more pictures of XIV's 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor Rich Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Hi Peter, Contacting the owner is the path that I was thinking as you're not building just any old Spit. You're building a specific plane -- one which no doubt has been modified for racing (among other things!) I think we have to have room for artistic license, but in the end it only matters if you enjoyed the build. One thing about contacting the owner -- they may want to buy the kit. I know I would if I saw what you're doing! Still stunning! PR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 The Mk.XVIII also has the PR.XIX arrangement. In absence of confirmation of how your aircraft is, I would go with the XIX style as the most probable 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Aero Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 The wells on earlier Mk.s are totally different again. 80 was a standard Mk.XIV which is the one you want. What you term as a spigot is the U/c Pintle. John 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 23, 2016 Author Share Posted June 23, 2016 evening folks thanks for chiming in on the wing rib - I have emailed the engineer who looks after TZ138 in Canada, but am most likely going for the more complex rib from the E wing, as I have also been told the 19 has the 'bowser; wing with no cannon so likely simplified the construction here.. seems every Spit has a mystery wrapped in a question, wrapped in an enigma somewhere along the line so, only a little bit done as have been learning on my new toy... it's a micro-lathe and with the gear legs on the horizon, I thought it was about time I got one - it's a steep learning curve though.. I did make a few parts - Rib number 1 - or what can be seen of it - this is the innermost wall of the well.. ..also fixed most of the lining and a few riblets.. ..in both wheelwells.. ..and I cut out a dummy skin so I can try and limit my timewasting on things that genuinely will never be seen gonna start on those pesky linings around the tyre area next, along with the mystery rib.. TTFNPeter 11 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hairystick Posted June 23, 2016 Share Posted June 23, 2016 Oh crikey, he's got a lathe now! Just when we had been getting comfortable at the current level of quality, we're off on another journey! Very nice Peter! Keep up the fabulous work. Just check on the motor occasionally, they can get quite warm with prolonged use... I used to have a micro lathe with this issue. A small desk fan blowing air onto the lathe motor alleviated the majority of the heat issue. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
airscale Posted June 24, 2016 Author Share Posted June 24, 2016 I may have found the rib to make? this is MV293 which Warbirds Registry gives as:Serial #: MV293Construction #: 6S/649205 Model: Spitfire FR Mk. XIV Built at Supermarine's Keevil facility, late 1944 Serial #: TZ138Construction #: 6S/676505 Model: Spitfire FR Mk. XIVe Built at Aldermanston Factory seems to be the same type, was built earlier going by the serial number so hopefully represents TZ138? I hate not knowing TIAPeter 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pastor Rich Posted June 24, 2016 Share Posted June 24, 2016 Peter, Don't loose hope on positive contact with the owners! They may take a keen interest and provide input too... PR 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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