The Killer Destroyer (1/72 Xtrakit Spitfire XII)

[Procopius]

Cowl seam is sanded down:

 

20181001_221533 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I've also puttied up the spinner so I can clean it up:

 

 

Applied EVEN MORE FILLER to the wing roots, always a pain on a Sword kit:

 

20181001_222140 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

And started what will hopefully not prove an overly long and tedious process of using Mr Surfacer to fair in the gap betwixt chin and wing. 

 

 

I've been experiencing a lot of lower back pain lately, which is resulting in all sorts of issues for me; like Arthur Balfour, I've more or less gone through life in a permanent slouch, and enforced inactivity (I was only able to run once in the last two weeks), a corresponding weight gain, and the general strain of having to pick up screaming human kettlebells five thousand times a day (Winston, especially, is a serial offender, since he gets himself in a state and can only be calmed by being carted around while he screams at you -- he screams louder if you put him down, and would no doubt scream louder still if you swung him by his ankles into the nearest wall, no matter how cathartic it seems to the mind's eye -- and takes about 30-45 minutes to calm down) have all conspired to destroy my once youthful body and leave me a bitter old man, trapped in the decaying prison of my body. Which I was expecting, but in another forty years, not right now. I'm also really struggling with the powerful urge to buy things -- my resolution for 2019, after paying off my credit card via herculean efforts, was to stay within my hobby budget every month, especially given my current build rate, but there's a whole world out there...but that's life, I guess. 

 

[amblypygid]

Sending strength vibes to you, PC, along with birthday good wishes to Winnie.

1 hour ago, Procopius said:

I'm also really struggling with the powerful urge to buy things -- my resolution for 2019, after paying off my credit card via herculean efforts, was to stay within my hobby budget every month, especially given my current build rate, but there's a whole world out there...but that's life, I guess. 

 

I was doing quite well until I acquired four kits at a show at the weekend. My current psychological trick, whenever I am tempted by something on ebay, is to schedule out my next five planned builds and see how long that might take me. By the time I've agonised over that (never the same list twice), the urge to buy has usually diminished.

[06/24]

Happy birthday Winston, and don’t worry about getting old, it happens to all of us, ...if we’re lucky.

 

With me, aside from the usual aches and pains, it’s the rate at which my eyesight is deteriorating that worries me most. Modelling in the space of about a year has gone from something done with my normal glasses on, through glasses on top of the head, to cheap reading glasses so I can see close up at all. 

 

As for stopping buying, well...

[stevehnz]

Damn Edward, I'm struggling with reactions to your posts again, I want to give   for the modelling & for the woes which befall you & I can't still, so   for the woes that befall you & a big    for the XII, if I can't find one of these I might have to go after  a Brigade one seeing as a Sword one seems to be off the cards.  

Steve.

[Christer A]

You certainly don't sit about twiddling your thumbs!

Great work on the XII that's for sure.

Would the old Spitfire trick of gluing the top wing halves onto the fuselage first work any better in eliminating the wing root gaps?

[AdrianMF]

I think you are piling up a substantial body of evidence in favour of the assertion "Hell is other people".  Oh, and Sword kits.

 

You should treat yourself to an Airfix Spitfire 22 after this one - the nearest Airfix have come to "shake the box" in my view. 

 

Regards.

Adrian

 

[Procopius]

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

You should treat yourself to an Airfix Spitfire 22 after this one - the nearest Airfix have come to "shake the box" in my view. 

I agree -- a high point for Airfix in terms of detail and buildability; one of their finest kits of the 21st Century.

 

1 hour ago, AdrianMF said:

I think you are piling up a substantial body of evidence in favour of the assertion "Hell is other people". 

In general I like solitude, a great deal, but of course sooner or later one learns something interesting, and when you're alone, there's nobody to tell. 

 

2 hours ago, Christer A said:

Would the old Spitfire trick of gluing the top wing halves onto the fuselage first work any better in eliminating the wing root gaps?

I know some swear by it for Sword Spitfires, but IMO, a basic issues is that the wings and the fuselage, where they meet, are not shaped in harmony with each other. The wings are manageable (though I have some concerns about my dihedral), it's the  landing gear that worries me. 

[Procopius]

7 hours ago, stevehnz said:

Damn Edward, I'm struggling with reactions to your posts again, I want to give   for the modelling & for the woes which befall you & I can't still, so   for the woes that befall you & a big    for the XII, if I can't find one of these I might have to go after  a Brigade one seeing as a Sword one seems to be off the cards.  

Steve.

I believe a Sword XII can be made if one crosses a Seafire XV with a Spitfire Vc by them -- if you want to get really fancy, you can also get the clipped wings from their LF.IX kits. 

[825]

8 hours ago, Christer A said:

 

Would the old Spitfire trick of gluing the top wing halves onto the fuselage first work any better in eliminating the wing root gaps?

I tried glueing the lower wings on first on my Sword Seafire, then the upper wings once it was solid. It worked out OK but not perfect. My standards are lower than PC's so I'm putting up with a little bit of imperfection. The Sword Spits/Seafire are a great range and along with Admiral (which have similar wing challenges) give a great range of Marks. But the Spitfire wing/fuselage join area is seriously complex in shape on the real thing which no doubt gives rise to the challenges in model form. 

[Procopius]

Today Winston turned three.

 

It's been scary, expensive, frustrating, and often, despite what you might imagine, intensely boring. But there's a lot to love about him, too. Last night we built an Airfix quick-build Mustang that @06/24 sent him, and he was so excited to build "my own pretty airplane". He could still become anything or anyone, a statement of fact that's as much threat as promise. I'm forever torn by the desire to save him from my own childhood and early adulthood, and fearing the end result will be someone I can't understand and who won't understand me in return. Inherent in every act of creation is an element of risk, as any modeller can tell you. 

 

Speaking of risk, I dropped the Spitfire tonight, but it landed safely on a cushion of F-Bombs and seems to have been mostly unscathed (now wait and see, I bet the canopy's cracked under the mask). The wing seams were cracked a bit, so out came the TET and maybe even a chance to improve the dihedral. I also added a smidge of filler to the tip of the nose.

 

20181002_204315 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The roots have been sanded down, and I've moved to the middle of the wing-fuselage join for some more touchup work with Mr Surfacer 500. 

 

 

 

I sanded down the spinner and primed it with some decanted Mr Resin primer I had in a spare Tamiya jar...to my immense surprise, after I shook the jar to remix it and opened it, the primer came fizzing out like soda pop. I cannot for the life of me remember how the prop blades are supposed to be oriented, so I'll need to puzzle that out before I put it in the ol' prop-a-matic for real. 

 

 

I feel like we're pretty close to primer here, so I added the horizontal stabs, which are butt joins and don't fit very well -- I usually apply some TET to soften the fuselage portions up and gouge them a little with a pin to enable the tailplanes to better fit. I stabilized them with Blu-tac, as can be seen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[06/24]

Knowing your own feelings towards Mustangs, I feel I should apologise, but I am immensely pleased that he likes it. I hope he had a lovely day.

 

The Spit seems to have survived the fall remarkably well, and one can only admire your tenacity with filler and dihedral. Bravo PC!

[Beard]

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

I cannot for the life of me remember how the prop blades are supposed to be oriented, so I'll need to puzzle that out before I put it in the ol' prop-a-matic for real.  

The opposite direction to Merlin Spits.

 

Edit: (My post is of no help, if you can't remember which way Merlins go.) The propellor rotates anti-clockwise, from the pilot's point of view.

 

 

Edited October 3, 2018 by Beard

[CedB]

Happy Birthday Winnie - nice cake  

 

Good work with the Spit PC - getting there in spades  

[Tomoshenko]

On ‎10‎/‎2‎/‎2018 at 4:53 AM, Procopius said:

And started what will hopefully not prove an overly long and tedious process of using Mr Surfacer to fair in the gap betwixt chin and wing. 

Holding my breath for you PC.

[The 3rd Placer]

Proco. I love following your Flikr feed...free previews!

Ryan (the 3rd placer)

[The Spadgent]

Excelent and crafty work on the spit PC. How you managed to sneak off to the grotto midst a child’s, nay, your child’s birthday party is an amazing feat of dexterity and must be applauded. 

fast work there kid. Happy Birthday to Winston too, Looks like he had a blast. 

 

John.

[Procopius]

9 hours ago, The 3rd Placer said:

Proco. I love following your Flikr feed...free previews!

Ryan (the 3rd placer)

Can't even imagine how good the first and second placers must be in comparison to your rather exquisite-looking Morane.

 

4 hours ago, The Spadgent said:

Excelent and crafty work on the spit PC. How you managed to sneak off to the grotto midst a child’s, nay, your child’s birthday party is an amazing feat of dexterity and must be applauded. 

What can I say? I embiggen a party by leaving.

 

In any case, got bold tonight and quickly applied some primer just to see how we're doing. My bottle of Alclad Grey is old, but I think I'm about done with them. They used to be my favourite primer, but it sputtered and spat in my airbrush (I guess I should have thinned it) and left little things intermittently on the surface of the model. Grrr. Seams mostly look decent, with a few outliers. I still need to paint the canopy the interior colour, finish priming, and smooth down the coat. 

[The 3rd Placer]

8 hours ago, Procopius said:

Can't even imagine how good the first and second placers must be in comparison to your rather exquisite-looking Morane.

 

 

Eeehhh, lets not over sell it, its still unfinished!

 

Thanks though.

[Procopius]

So here we are right now:

 

20181004_215348 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I decided not to mess with the kit cannons and instead went into my spares box -- I don't have spares for anything but Spitfires, to be entirely honest with you, but this policy is paying dividends right now, so there -- and liberated a pair of cannon from an Eduard IX sprue. They fit quite well, once the locating pins were trimmed down a bit. 

 

Let's take a look at the wing seams, shall we?

 

20181004_215354 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20181004_215357 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Pretty good! My family isn't dishonoured any more than it already is.

 

As for the nose....

 

 

This is the other pesky area on every Spitfire kit I've ever built. It always needs more filler. I used to take a very shock and awe approach to this, and some of my older Spitfire builds after I discovered sanding sticks look like Dewotines around the cowl, but I'm trying to be more strategic about it now, masking before applying filler, etc. Hopefully, this will actually pan out. 

 

[John Masters]

Looking really nice!

[06/24]

Wing roots look decent young sir.

 

Cowls, I know we've all asked a million times, why not mould them separately but with the joins down the sides, not across the top! Airfix can do it in their lego quick build, and on their P40, so why not on a Spitty? (Previous comments about the cost of slide moulds noted, but if that's the problem, mould the lumpy bits as separate add ons.)

 

 

[Bedders]

That's looking great with the primer on. Full marks on the wing joins too. It's encouraging for other Sword Spitfire devotees (if that's quite the right term) to see you make such rapid progress with this kit. Paint soon!

 

Justin

[Courageous]

Looking good PC, even with the cowling setback. You'll sort it 'toot-sweet', you're a modeller after all.

 

Stuart.

[warhawk]

4 hours ago, Procopius said:

This is the other pesky area on every Spitfire kit I've ever built. It always needs more filler. I used to take a very shock and awe approach to this, and some of my older Spitfire builds after I discovered sanding sticks look like Dewotines around the cowl, but I'm trying to be more strategic about it now, masking before applying filler, etc. Hopefully, this will actually pan out. 

 

 

One possible reason why this joint keeps reappearing is, that there is a very narrow gap left, and the Surfacer keeps falling through it during setting.

I suggest running the seam with denser (or gel) CA glue first, which "plugs" the hole, making it impossible for subsequent layers of putty to fall through.

Edited October 5, 2018 by warhawk

[corsaircorp]

Hello Mr PC,

Happy belated birthday to Winston ! 👏

Congrats for your behaviour on the party !! I used to do it too... Then SWMBO sent me an invoice....

Your Spit look great ! Congrats again !

Stop buying kits or modelling items, I do not understand what all this mean ?? 🤔🤔

I did'nt buy modelling paraphernalia... I prepare my retirement...

Something like an investment.... for my future 

Life with kids is not always easy, not reproducing our parental scheme is more challenging, but you seem to do your best

And this is the only thing that really count !!

Sincerely.

CC