*Finished* The First Spitfire Rareplanes Supermarine 224

[JOCKNEY]

This is my first Vacform, so with a promise to build a Contrail Blackburn Perth in the flying boat GB to come, I had better start learning.

 

This Rareplanes kit was still sealed from New with little copper staples, so it's a real blast from the past. The moulding looks very good especially compared to an ID Models kit I was looking at in the stash today that is completely smooth and devoid of any detail !

 

The first obvious challenge apart from it being Vacform is the lack of decals, if anyone can give me a clue on these it would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

My instructions below, nice and basic, so let's hope this kit wants to be built after all these year.

 

 

Painting and decal guidance, so that's Silver and find some then....

 

 

 

Whats all the little "pip" marks ? 

 

Looks like they need need to be sanded off ? I did say it was my first Vacform 

 

cheers Pat

 

 

[malpaso]

I think the pips are where the vacuum holes were.  They confused me at first too.  It means that the vacuum sucks the plastic into a female mould, so that you get surface detail.  Yes the pips need sanding off.

 

HTH

Will

[Colin W]

Great to see a full vacform buld going on.

Yes, Malpaso is correct about the pips but cut them off with a curved blade at final assembly. They make good grips to use when preparing the parts.

I would recommend finding decals, seat, a prop and wheels from either your spares bin or model shop. Cutting these out and getting usable items is very difficult. The rest is fine, just take your time and try to never remove too much plastic when sanding down.

Fit plenty of tabs into the fuselage to help joining up and give strength. Those razor sharp edges on the fuselage will not form a good bond.

 

Colin

[wyverns4]

Oh goodie, a Rareplanes! This range consisted of some of the best thought out and simplest to construct vacforms and are a great way to bust that vacform cherry

 

Take your time, test fit, go slow on the sanding and have much fun!

 

So,  and  ready to watch the fun.

 

Christian, exiled to africa

[Rob G]

 

I'm set. (It's sarsaparilla, seeing as I'm teetotal.)

[Gorby]

15 minutes ago, Rob G said:

It's sarsaparilla, seeing as I'm teetotal.

A teetotal Ozzy! It's not just the planes that are rare on this thread.

[Rob G]

5 minutes ago, Gorbygould said:

A teetotal Ozzy! It's not just the planes that are rare on this thread.

 

Actually there's a lot of us. Alcohol and I are not friends, so I've done the adult thing and just stay away.

[JOCKNEY]

1 hour ago, Rob G said:

 

Actually there's a lot of us. Alcohol and I are not friends, so I've done the adult thing and just stay away.

 

Good for you Rob, my dad was a teetotal Irishman !

 

It's amazing the effect alcohol can have on people, now living in Scotland you see it splits into a few groups :

 

1. I want to fight with anyone 

2. You've always been my best pal, you know that don't you 

3. Vomit comet 

4. Chills out so much they doze off 

 

I try to avoid 1 & 3 above.

 

cheers Pat

[TonyTiger66]

This is great Pat. Superb subject and a very nice kit manufacturer. I second Christian's views on RarePlanes kits.

 

Very nice vacforms. Some were made in a couple of versions, with greater surface detail on later versions as the technology obviously improved. I have two quite different versions of their Beech Staggerwing that attest to this.

 

Also seconding Colin's words, magpie as much as possible from

the spares box. Happy to help with looking for a prop, wheels etc if you give us measurements .

 

Good luck and enjoy; I love vac forms!

Best regards

TonyT

[zebra]

Fantastic - great to see a Rareplanes kit. Looking forward to this.

[Guest]

It's a good introduction to vacforms.   Mine was the exact same kit and IIRC I have a few more tucked away in the stash.

[Max Headroom]

Never seen one of these done so watching with interest.

 

As for stickies, Xtradecal do pre war roundels and serials which will hopefully sort you out.

 

Onwards and upwards!

 

Trevor

[Dave Swindell]

45 minutes ago, The Wooksta! said:

Mine was the exact same kit

Snap! (well the first one I finished), I still have an ID Gannet AEW conversion for the Frog kit that I started, very much a learning curve that was, the 224 was so much easier.

[JOCKNEY]

Right, let's get this build going.

 

Taking a deep breath and with a felt pen borrowed from the kids I marked around the parts to be cut out

 

 

Now the moment of truth, reaching for a knife with a new blade, I cut around the pieces.

 

Without wishing to tempt fate but after scoring along the lines, the plastic can be moved backwards and forwards along the cut till it's comes away from the part you want to keep. See below.

 

 

I haven't cut the prop or seat out yet as I am hoping to find some in the "parts department" 

 

The separated parts seem really "chunky" so this is obviously where the dreaded sanding comes in. I think I will experiment with the horizontal stabilisers as they look easy to replace if I make a complete hash of things !

 

cheers Pat

 

 

[JOCKNEY]

I found a long forgotten part completed Spitfire in the parts department, no idea of the maker.

 

This donated its cockpit, which with some surgery has been made to fit.

 

 

The search for a replacement prop, found that all the other 2 blades are too small, however an old long dead and broken beyond redemption Avenger seem to have the right size blades. I decided I would keep the prop boss as it's very pointed and I couldn't find anything like it. However I then managed to break it in half whilst removing it from the backing sheet 

 

So as you can see below, this is the broken boss with repair glue currently drying, and one of the replacement blades compared to the original kit part.

 

 

You will also notice I have made and glued some alignment tabs to one side of the fuselage, as per the previous advice.

 

The 2 wing halves look a shocker to get together and the fixed undercarriage is also putting up a good fight,    and this is supposed to be the simple kit that was good quality......goodness only knows what a complicated poor quality Vacform is like !  

 

Right back to it, I'm missing the sandpaper !

 

cheers Pat

 

 

[AdrianMF]

It's looking good! Once the sanding is done you will be laughing...

 

Regards,

Adrian

[JOCKNEY]

Sand, fill, sand fill, repeat......

 

I know this is going to sound a bit weird but, there's something very rewarding about building Vacform kits. You feel like you are actually creating the thing rather than just gluing it together. Now don't get me wrong if the end result in a reasonable amount of time is your aim , then it's injection moulded all the way !

 

 

As you can see there are some small gaps to be filled !

 

 

However, my putty skills are improving and I'm certainly getting plenty of practice  

 

 

Its starting to look like the picture on the packet  . However the prop boss is in a shocking mess and will need more filling and sanding.....oh joy !

 

Finally perhaps I was a little premature in building this kit going by the one on offer below.... I paid a fiver for mine including postage 

 

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/YX041-RARE-PLANE-1-72-maquette-avion-1010-Supermarine-224-The-First-Spitfire-/272347253053?hash=item3f6929493d:g:-FoAAOSwZVlXt~mF

 

cheers Pat

 

[Colin W]

Looking great.

Its a bit late advice but small bits like the spinner you should fill with filler before cutting out to avoid the issues you are experiencing. Maybe you can find an old drop tank with a suitable pointy nose if you are struggling wioth the kit part.

Well done for getting as far as you have. It certainly is coing along well.  Just keep going.

 

Colin

 

[Dave Swindell]

Looking good so far Pat! Good move with the spares box cockpit.

[TonyTiger66]

I'm with Colin on the filler Pat. I also made the mistake of using a filler with a bit of 'flex' in it (Green Stuff). It started to wobble and crumble and fall out.

 

It needs to be nice solid stuff like car body filler, the 'knifing stopper' stuff can be good, but it's worth testing on scrap plastic first; some used to have cellulose or something in that would melt some vac form plastics. The filler will help with e.g, the fixed undercarriage halves.

 

This Supermarine, at the moment, reminds me of a Dewoitine D501, which is around the same era. Different wing shape, but an overall similar look.

 

You've adopted a classic vac form building technique; you're a natural  

 

Happy Easter 

TonyT

 

edit:

PS: Yes it's now one of the rarer RarePlanes. They can pass hands for small amounts, but opportunists like the one on Evilbay will be able to command high prices, if they stick it out for long enough to get the right person at the right time.

 

Its worth a few beer tokens to say the least !

T

[JOCKNEY]

Thanks Colin

 

Especially for the tips, both of which will be very useful. 

 

Thanks Dave

 

The cockpit was both very handy and also very lucky, i.e. Finding it in the first place and at the time I needed it !

 

Thanks for all the encouragement Tony, are you back to building yourself yet ?

 

Happy Easter everyone

 

cheers Pat

[Guest]

Looking good, certainly better than my sorry effort from 1990 (I may still have bits of it somewhere...)  Anyway, looking forward to seeing the final result.  

 

Heritage do - or at least did - a resin one which is just as nice as the Rareplane one.

 

I think the injection cockpit is from the Revell Hurricane.  It's definitely not from a Spitfire.

[JOCKNEY]

Thanks Wooksta

 

Your guess is as good as mine regarding the salvaged cockpit used, it happened to be in an old box with Spitfire stuff, however I'm just glad it fitted, after some knife work and of course the mandatory sanding ! 

 

Next on the to do list is the cannons, yes it had some, the ariels and the pitot tube. I was going to use a scrap tailwheel but it looks like it has a skid instead so that's another thing to make, or salvage 

 

I was going to build a Contrail Blackburn Perth in the Flying Boat GB, if this is anything to go by I had better get permission to cut out and sand the main parts or I will never get it finished in time. 

 

cheers Pat

[JOCKNEY]

Apologies for not updating for a while.

 

Currently experimenting with colours of silver and the use of a black primer, all new to me who thought it started and ended with Humbrol H11 !

 

cheers Pat

[Dermo245]

Looking good Pat and learning lots here.

In my mind, I have notions of doing a vacform build sometime...who know, you might actually put me off it!!! 

 

Cheers,

Dermot