The Killer Destroyer (1/72 Xtrakit Spitfire XII)

[06/24]

After the 48hrs you’ve had, frankly I’m amazed the XII did don’t meet a fiery (or

indeed “flung-against-the-wall”) doom. I hope that even a few minutes plastic fondling, of whatever deemed quality or not, has helped restore some equilibrium. Breathe the TET fumes deeply* old son, and relax...

 

 

 

*probably not a good idea, but I was waxing lyrical 

[Max Headroom]

Kudos for carrying on under the glare of the world’s media.

 

Like others here I have Every Confidence that you will triumph both professionally and as a Modeller.

 

Looking forward to the RFI.

 

Trevor 

[warhawk]

3 hours ago, Beard said:

I don't think you're wrecking it but it will remain rare.

 

 

Milan's mail aside, If You compare the Xtrakit 1/72nd Mk.XII with any of the newer Sword toolings (i did, with PR Mk.IV and Mk.XVI),

you will see that all of them were undeniably tooled by the same guy (or team).

 

The engineering, shapes, exterior detail and finish are identical (with only Mk.XII having a slightly less-detailed (but still very convincing) cockpit.

So, I guess You can add a Mk.XII conversion nose to the Sword Mk.IX/XVI, and end up with a model exactly like the Xtrakit's rare gem.

[HAMP man]

3 hours ago, warhawk said:

The engineering, shapes, exterior detail and finish are identical (with only Mk.XII having a slightly less-detailed (but still very convincing) cockpit.

So, I guess You can add a Mk.XII conversion nose to the Sword Mk.IX/XVI, and end up with a model exactly like the Xtrakit's rare gem.

Is there a Mk XII nose-job kit out there?

 

 

Strickers

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, HAMP man said:

Is there a Mk XII nose-job kit out there?

 

There is an Airwaves one in 1/48th. Im not sure if anyone did one in 1/72nd ? I own the 1/48 version myself. 

[Killingholme]

Brigade Models did a short run injected 1/72 Mk.XII conversion. You can still get them from Hannants, at a price. Given it is designed for the Italeri Mk.V kit, I do wonder whether it might be easier to bash something together using more modern kits though!

 

Will

Edited September 29, 2018 by Killingholme

[malpaso]

For conversions you could just cut the nose off an Aeroclub XII kit.   I have 2, one is just the fuse, prop and exhausts, the other has parts for gun bulges and undercarriage; it was designed to use the old Airfix 79 Mk.I but a modern kit would work as well or better.

 

Originally I planned to stick a XIX nose on a Vb (+some reworking) but the two Aeroclubs turned up v cheap at recent shows.  The Brigade kit was v expensive and then (I think) meant to go with the Italeri IX.

 

But then I found the Xtrakits XII for less than a KP club kit...

 

Cheers

Will

[Dave Swindell]

3 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Im not sure if anyone did one in 1/72nd ?

Brigade Models as below, plus Paragon did a resin nose & radiator/oil cooler conversion to fit Hasegawa kits. You could use either the Mk VIII or Mk IX kit as your base, just like the real thing! No decals supplied though.

3 hours ago, Killingholme said:

Brigade Models did a short run injected 1/72 Mk.XII conversion.

Correct.

1 hour ago, malpaso said:

The Brigade kit was v expensive and then (I think) meant to go with the Italeri IX.

Meant for the Italeri Vb kit, I built this one when it first came out. Plastic was I think Pegasus, and the kit came with decals designed by Tim Perry (PP Aeroparts) for both 41 and 91 Sqn

[Procopius]

19 hours ago, Stew Dapple said:

Doesn't sound like it was a particularly good week then?  

It was not. 

 

18 hours ago, amblypygid said:

I think the Spitfire is looking rather good; sure that you'll deal with the forensic evidence with elan. And while I envy your skill with small aircraft, I don't envy your job in the slightest!

The advantage of it is that sometimes people go long stretches of forgetting I exist and I can hang out on model airplane forums and crack wise...and get paid to do it!

 

18 hours ago, Beard said:

I don't think you're wrecking it but it will remain rare.

I imagine Eduard have soured them a bit on making new Spitfires. Incidentally, the Sword XII fuselage seems to be the same length (before spinner) of an Eduard IX, if not a hair shorter -- not sure the spinner alone, big as it is, is enough to make up the length differential (which Ultimate Spitfires by Peter Caygill gives as 31' 10" for the XII and the euphemistic "other sources" (meaning Wikipedia) state as 31' 7", as opposed to the Spitfire IX's length of 31' 1". Hmmm. 

 

17 hours ago, 06/24 said:

Breathe the TET fumes deeply* old son, and relax...

It's funny you mention this, as I think I've just traced my last two weeks worth of sinus troubles to leaving off the air purifier in the grotto.

 

14 hours ago, warhawk said:

So, I guess You can add a Mk.XII conversion nose to the Sword Mk.IX/XVI, and end up with a model exactly like the Xtrakit's rare gem.

Er, aren't you forgetting something? 

 

 

 

In any case, I wish I'd re-read this unusually helpful review before starting on the nose of the kit, as it points out a problem I'm also experiencing, namely, that the upper cowling halves simply don't fit. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

 

After much sanding down the nose is (probably) okay:

 

20180929_200622 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

That gives one an idea of the damage done by errant glue. CURSE YOU, CAPILLARY ACTION! 

 

 

You can also see the hideous wing-fuselage step at the nose, and that the carb intake is, as noted by others, too far back. 

 

20180929_200627 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Not really sure I want to saw it off and move it forward, y'know?

 

For the gappy, gappy wing roots, I used a little plastic card to fill in the rear, and then used Mr Surfacer 1000 applied by syringe to provide a foundation, as it were, for future filling efforts later. (Future Filling Efforts is also the name of my new wave band.) 

 

20180929_200611 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

And, as you can see, I added half the upper cowl. 

 

I took a lot of photos that sort of vaguely show it, but I'm lazy, so take my word for it: these do not fit. They're too wide, they aren't flat where they're supposed to meet with the kit, it's a mess. I've sanded and carved, and will probably insert a tiny shim as well, as seen in this test fit:

 

20180929_200358 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Sword wants you to add the exhaust stubs now, but they can go f...ind themselves in opposition to my firmly held beliefs on that one. I added a backing plate of plasticard...not entirely sure what to do with the second half, but life finds a way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

Future Filling Efforts is also the name of my new wave band.) 

Their 1st hit song ...”We have gluey fingerprints on the canopy!”

[John Masters]

Yes...that four-piece nose section is a terrible and silly design choice.  

[warhawk]

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

Er, aren't you forgetting something? 

 

You are 100% correct, my mistake. I guess it would be sensible use Sword Mk.Vc then?

 

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

I'm also experiencing, namely, that the upper cowling halves simply don't fit.

IMHO, the safer approach would have been to glue each cowling half to its respective fuselage half, get everything nice and aligned there, and only then proceed to assemble the whole fuselage

 

[HAMP man]

13 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

14 hours ago, Procopius said:

Future Filling Efforts is also the name of my new wave band.) 

Their 1st hit song ...”We have gluey fingerprints on the canopy!”

If you need a bassist........

 

B side of the first shi hit single 'the right one's bigger than the left'

 

stress not, thoughtful manipulation will win through.

 

Box on

 

Strickers

[Procopius]

Well, today was Winston's third birthday party (he was only breveted to three for the day, his substantive promotion comes through on the second) shared jointly as a first birthday party with his baby brother (14/9) and my sister's son who's two weeks older than Grant (but it must be said, of infinitely less refined feeling and more or less inferior in every way to my own progeny). Now, I'm pretty close with one of my sisters (who's just a smarter, but crueler version of me), but I'm not particularly close with this one, and Mrs P probably won't ever be after today either, as my sister (known, because of her fear of sharks, as "Sharkie") texted at the last minute to say she was cancelling her half of the party because my nephew wasn't feeling well, but we could still feel free to haul our hundreds of dollars worth of food out to the public park pavilion we'd reserved ourselves. So  Mrs P decided we'd hold it in our house (which, I mention almost incidentally, is a bit smaller and less modern than my sister's), whereupon Sharkie immediately decided nobody was too sick to go there and promptly reinvited everyone on her side (which when you think about it, since we're siblings, is also technically my side, but I'm not close with my family), so we spent three hours frantically cleaning every flat surface with bleach and then had thirty people crammed into our home for what felt like twenty years. Some moments that will stay with me: Winston standing on top of a bookshelf and falling off when he tried to evade me as I reached for him and told him he could fall and hurt himself; fortunately, he fell on a school friend, who softened the impact, and Winston getting ready to blow out his candles, and as everyone stopped singing, his husky little friend Mason came charging into the room like a suicide bomber, shouldered Winston out of the way, blew out the candles before anyone could react, and then pulled one out and licked the frosting off of it. He would later eat five(!!!) slices of cake. Salt of the earth, that Mason.

 

Anyway, during all of this chaos, I managed to vanish into the grotto for a time, not once, but twice. The second counts for only half, because everyone was asleep by then, but the first time? They were searching for me, but Mrs P, a big believer in delegation, foolishly assigned the task to people who are unfamiliar with the layout of our home, and the grotto is tough to find if you don't know where it is. 

 

I masked the canopy. Nobody's ever bothered to make a mask for Sword Spitfires (infuriating), but the actual clear part is so close to that of the Hasegawa one (HMMMM) that Eduard's mask for the Hasegawa IX can be used with ease.

 

 

 

Tada! Unusually for me, I even remembered to do the gunsight.

 

Then it was time to add the other cowl half. I opted to use CA glue, food coloring, and talcum powder as a filler for the seam:

 

 

And a piece of plasticard to even out one of the quarters of the nose:

 

 

 

Then I went over the seam with Mr Surfacer 500. I'm sure more filler will be needed later.

 

20180930_212002 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I also added the cannon blanking stubs outboard, which do not fit well, at all. 

 

 

Checked to make sure the spinner could fit the prop blades when closed up (yep), and glued it to the hub:

 

 

 

Then some more filling on the wing roots:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Rob G]

It sounds rather as if Mason's parents need a swift slap upside the head for raising such a right little
 

Children's parties- I hated them when I was a child, I can only imagine the trauma that they'd cause me now. As a part-time photographer, I have been offered money (yes, actual money, moolah, spondoolicks, folding green etc) to photograph children's parties. There is not enough cash in the world, nor a friend close enough, for me to subject myself to that sort of thing, ever. I will happily scuba dive with sharks and think (almost) nothing of it. Children in groups... no way, no how. I am so glad that I am childless. Very wise of you to have escaped the bedlam for a time Mr PC, however I do hope that you aren't somehow going to pay the price for your desertion...

 

Family in general is nowt but a PITA.

 

Happy 3rd birthday Winston. If you're very, very good, Daddy will buy you a model Hurricane.

Edit. PS, the Spitfire is looking pretty good, and my shark reference has no connection to your sister! I have actually dived with sharks and they are quite amazing to see in their natural habitat. Unlike children, who are not in any way natural.

[CedB]

Birthday party - hmmm.

Cake attack - crikey.

Fall from the bookcase - arrrggghh!

 

Spitfire nose and canopy - nice  

 

Another Curate's egg of a day in the Procopius house…

[Andwil]

Happy birthday to Winston, who shares the same birthday as me, so don’t despair PC he’ll turn out fine!

 

AW

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Happy belated Birthday to Winston. 🎂 

[Procopius]

2 minutes ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Happy belated Birthday to Winston. 🎂 

Don't worry, you didn't miss it -- the actual day is tomorrow. 

 

8 hours ago, Rob G said:

It sounds rather as if Mason's parents need a swift slap upside the head for raising such a right little

No no! I love Mason. 

[HAMP man]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

No no! I love Mason.

Second names not Belushi by any chance?

 

 

I see much sanding in your near future, so pick a fine one and be gentle......

 

 

and in England we would call your grotto a priest hole.

 

 

Just got hold of the Arma Hobby PLZ11a absolute belter of a kit

 

PS happy birthing anniversary to offspring

 

 

Box on

 

 

Strickers

Edited October 1, 2018 by HAMP man

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, HAMP man said:

and in England we would call your grotto a priest hole.

Holy cow, I'd never heard of such a thing! Live and learn. 

 

2 minutes ago, HAMP man said:

Just got hold of the Arma Hobby PLZ11a absolute belter of a kit

I have a brace of them, and they really do look good, don't they? 

[HAMP man]

Just now, Procopius said:

I have a brace of them, and they really do look good, don't they? 

I was a very happy bunny at box-opening; with the impeding Hurricane I feel there should be a Polish strand running through my next few builds.

 

Strickers

 

 

[Max Headroom]

Life is never dull chez PC! You should sell the rights to Netflix!

 

Priest Holes......

 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest_hole

 

Trevor

[Cookenbacher]

Happy birthday Winston!

 

To your great credit, your build looks strikingly like a Spitfire XII, PC.

[CedB]

Happy birthday Winston from me too!