Can we talk ICM 1/48 Spitfire?

[FZ6]

Nice model, but the landscape behind. Wasn't on Iceland that his sergeant provided the painting? Gustav Linquist landed for a refil there while flying a modified Spitfire across the Atlantic.

He did indeed acquire the nose art in Iceland but the Aircraft did resume it's journey and did end up in the UK although it didn't last long on the aircraft. The closest backdrop I could get to Iceland would have been my local frozen food outlet ;-)

Since finishing the model I have come across more research. There should be some supporting plates acting as sway braces for the drop tanks and the aircraft also had a DF Loop as well. I'll add these when I do the restoration work if I ever get round to it

And re-paint the prop while you're at it FZ,you don't get chipped paint showing baremetal on wooden cloth shielded propellers.

Yeah, I didn't realise the MK.IX prop blade was wood at the time I did the model (probably about 10 years ago now.) Will have to put it right.

And when you do get abrasion damage down to the metal on on metal prop blades, you get it on the rear faces of the blade faces and the absolute leading edges, not on the front faces.

When I made the model i didn't know any better and will be painting props a little differently in the future.....

[FZ6]

I have a tip for the ICM Spitfire.

With the Cannon bay doors, to save buying after market ones is to pick a set of doors with the correct blisters you want to use then cut them out of the panel. You now have a thicker blister.

If you then get a spare set, sand them flat and stick the new blister in the correct place and clean it up it will look a lot better and save you some ££££ which is always good.

[Otakar]

I did not want to but I did buy a YAHU instrument panel for the model $3.44. I wish I could have just had a decal. Now I will be forced to leave the canopy opened.

[Otakar]

I did not have much time to work on it this last week but managed a little. So far the hardest part was determining the exact configuration and placement of my new BrenGun exhausts. I wanted to make sure they were parallel and also that they protruded just the right amount. The last part was the most difficult. I went on line and found all the photos I could find for the "round" stubs and I think I finally got it right. This was actually beneficial, because I was forced to modify the cowl opening to place them properly and this fixed the issue which some people have with the "position" of the exhausts on the ICM. The issue actually just is that the kit stacks are just a bit too small in every direction. Replacing the stacks fixes this. The BrenGun stacks are nice, inexpensive, and come two sets to pack. I wish they also made the "fishtail" set in the same packaging. They do make them but just in the complete upgrade kit.

[gingerbob]

I'd like some detail about how (in what way) you modified the opening to fit the new stacks.

Posting pictures is a nuisance, I admit, but I'd sure like to see this as a proper "work in progress" thread, because I've got a pile of ICM kits that I still hope to make something of, despite the Eduard.

bob

[Otakar]

^{I really like the ICM kits because they offer, "just the right amount of challenge. I can never get enough of them. I just bought three more for a total of $17 for all three. At this point I don't even know how many ICMs I really have. They are like "eating peanuts, once you eat one, you can't stop" If I can get Rob Taurus to Vac form new gun blisters for these kits, it will be perfect. I am in-fact taking pictures, so I can post them if I want to take the extra time. I think, that the next thing I will post are the mods which I have done to improve the model. The way I gage the mods is; If it takes more than 45min to do, per mod (total) it's not worth doing. Since I use Loctite 411 CA with accelerator as my gap filler, there is no waiting time for drying.}

Edited August 23, 2016 by Otakar

[Otakar]

OK, I put some pictures into Photobucket so I can post them. I will start with my Propeller mod to widen the blades.

[Otakar]

Here is the finished product. It took me about 20 minutes to do this. I used Loctite 411 CA adhesive to glue the strips on and to fill in the gap. The cure time with accelerator is about 20 seconds. I added just under .5mm (.037") to the prop blade width at the tip tapering down to mid blade where the blade is the right width.That is just over 1.75 scale inches to the prop tip width. It was very simple to do.

[Otakar]

Here is the front upper engine cowling mod. That took about half an hour also using Loctite 411. All the components are only taped together with Scotch tape. The exhaust stacks are only sitting in position free-floating and they are "Brengun" stacks that are glued to a center spacer to make them the right width. The openings were enlarged to accept them and wind up being in the exact position and size as the Eduard openings on that kit. I attempted to match them to the photos of the real stacks as best as I could.Unfortunately no two photos are alike. Some even show them pointing upwards. Which I know is bogus.

[Andrew Jones]

Interesting modifications , the propellor blades certainly look much better , but your upper cowling now appears to taper towards the front , when it should be parallel over the central area .

Andrew

[Work In Progress]

The prop blade mod looks excellent, I'll give it a try.

[gingerbob]

I do like the look of the prop, but the thought of doing this mod four times per kit? I think I'd rather find a blade (prop) I'm happy with and set up a production line (resin)! Provided I can get the resin blades to stay "flat"...

Glad to see the pictures begin to appear- nice work!

bob

[Otakar]

If you will notice on the Eduard cowling, it tapers even more than mine. I did this to mimic the Eduard as much as I could but still could not push it that far. The Eduard cowling tapers much more than mine. On the top picture, the taper appears much more drastic than it actually is. The second picture is much more representative of the appearance. In everything I could find, all the pictures I could dig up, there actually is a taper in the hood. That was the whole idea behind this mod, to give it that taper. Otherwise I would have left it alone. Quickboost has a prop which I was going to use before I attempted to do this mod. I found this mod to be so simple that I saved the Quickboost prop. It was much simpler than it looks and it is also simpler to do it on the assembled prop than individual blades would because it gives you much more to hold on to. The trick is to use a piece of plastic ( I used Evergreen strips) that are wide enough to work with. I started with a very wide strip that than sanded down with no problem. As I said, it took about 20 minutes from start to finish for this mod. The trick was, using the Loctite CA adhesive. This made the curing time a non issue. I actually plan on doing ALL of my ICM props this way on the Spits and not use the Quick boost props at all. I like the look of the mod better than the Quickboost prop. Don't let either of these mods scare you. The in fact were very simple. Using a CA adhesive as an adhesive and filler was the trick to this which saved all the time in the world and eliminated all the waiting and fixturing of the parts. The cowling was cut and flexed under stress so there is no real other way to glue it than CA. It was the only adhesive which could hold and retain the flex in the plastic. I used the same on the spine of the model also. I will post this next.

Edited August 29, 2016 by Otakar

[Otakar]

I just found ten more pictures on my BlackBerry which I will post later after I have a chance to place them in my PhotoBucket.

[Miggers]

Most modelers don't realize that the four bladed props were wood bladed and about half of the three bladed ones were also.

That's where fully researching your chosen subject comes into play......

[Otakar]

I went back to post #7 and inserted some pictures of the slight mod I did to the fuselage to correct the shape. It was actually quite easy to do. The first picture is a bit hard to see but the tail was cut off at the angled panel line and re-glued at a slight "down angle" This straightened the "upsweep" of the lower fuselage and also fixed the angle of the rudder line. This is the main visual problem of the kit fuselage. Besides the upper cowling which can also be fixed as shown or just repaired with one from Quick Boost for the Eduard kit,