The Killer Destroyer (1/72 Xtrakit Spitfire XII)

[Avereda]

13 hours ago, Procopius said:

Oh, half the fun of building them is finding the story behind them. There's a great line in Harry Pearson's wargaming memoir, Achtung Schweinhund!, that I think about sums it up for me, though I'm separated from his childhood by thirty years and five thousand miles:

 

Blimey, I’ve read tons of Harry’s football and cricket journalism over the years, never knew he’d written something like this - might have to put it on my a Kindle for my next holiday read.

[Tomoshenko]

Another wonderful and interesting overture to what I know will be a fine build, with plenty of interesting commentary and observations: not just a build thread but a way of life.

 

13 hours ago, Procopius said:

Oh, half the fun of building them is finding the story behind them.

Reference my comment above.

 

13 hours ago, Procopius said:

The men who saved our world

What the other posters have said. No more to add.

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice introduction and backround.  Very interesting and poignant.  Lets hope we never forget the sacrifices made by all our brave heroes for our way of life and freedom.  Great choice of subject to model.  Good luck with your build PC.  I built the Airfix 48th Kit and thoroughly enjoyed it. 

 

Great start, keep up the good work

 

All the best
Chris

[stevehnz]

I'm so pleased we cajoled you into this build, it has already paid dividends beyond what I've come to expect, which is a very high standard anyway, in your back story & link to Terry Spencer's history, cripes, but what a guy. The XII is possibly my favourite Spitfire Mk, I did one a couple of years ago from a Ventura Seafire kit, I'd leap at the chance to do another, maybe Sword could update thus one & re release it.

So, in memory of brave men doing extraordinary deeds, press on PC.

Steve.

[Meatbox8]

Looking forward to watching this build.  A great background story and a terrific photo of a MkXII, one of the niftiest looking models of the breed in my view.  Curiously enough I don't really remember having any major issues with building this kit.  Not so Sword's MkXIV though, alas.

[ArmouredSprue]

That's interesting.

 

I've built the Airfix 1/48 with the same markings of yours but I had it as belongs to:

 

 

South Australian RAAF Flight Lieutnant Donald Smith. Don Smith was the Squadron Leader and it was his personal aircraft.

 

[Procopius]

2 minutes ago, ArmouredSprue said:

That's interesting.

 

I've built the Airfix 1/48 with the same markings of yours but I had it as belongs to:

 

South Australian RAAF Flight Lieutnant Donald Smith. Don Smith was the Squadron Leader and it was his personal aircraft.

Donald Smith wasn't the squadron leader; in '43, the squadron leaders were, in order, Tom Neil (3/9/42 - 25/7/43), Bernard Ingham (25/7/43 - 22/11/43), and Ian Matthew (22/11/43 - 26/1/44); rather he was "A" Flight commander from 25/9/43 - 1/5/44, leaving the squadron four months prior to Terence Spencer's shooting down of Bully Lang. As Spencer replaced Smith as A Flight commander, it makes some sense that he also took over MB882. 

 

8 hours ago, Avereda said:

Blimey, I’ve read tons of Harry’s football and cricket journalism over the years, never knew he’d written something like this - might have to put it on my a Kindle for my next holiday read.

It's a lot of fun, especially if you, like me, have ever played miniatures wargames. If you have, you'll encounter some people you know, even if their names are different.

[ArmouredSprue]

Thanks mate

[Cookenbacher]

I'm a fan of Sword Spitfires and Procopius builds, so this is really a win, win.

[Gazontipede]

29 minutes ago, Cookenbacher said:

I'm a fan of Sword Spitfires and Procopius builds, so this is really a win, win.

I'm starting to feel a little intimidated by the pair of Sword Mk.XIVs in my stash after reading commentary here and in other threads.

Hopefully I won't be too dimwitted to be able to pick up some important tips and tricks by watching this build unfold!

 

[Procopius]

So I'm puttering along as carefully and slowly as I'm able on this one, a tall order as I'm quite impulsive at the best of times. (As a modeller, anyway. In the real world I'm a coward.)

 

The big news is that the wings are closed up now.

 

20180920_223524 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Amazingly, I didn't need to file down the landing gear bay walls at all, which is the very first time this has ever happened to me, and I've built at least eight Sword Spit/Seafires of one description or another over the years. Not quite the loaves and fishes, but I'll take it.

 

Some of the cockpit parts are prepped (in the case of the IP, a great deal of plastic needs removing before it will fit in the fuselage):

 

20180920_223427 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

But honestly, I have the leftovers from an Eduard Overtree I used for spares during an earlier build, and the urge to substitute the Eduard seat is strong:

 

20180920_223403 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I mean, look at them. No comparison.

 

I also sprayed the silver for the interior:

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Gazontipede said:

I'm starting to feel a little intimidated by the pair of Sword Mk.XIVs in my stash after reading commentary here and in other threads.

Hopefully I won't be too dimwitted to be able to pick up some important tips and tricks by watching this build unfold!

 

Just imagine how I feel! All these people watching me, and me liable to screw up any second now. In my head it's always like "and then I took some fuse wire and simulated cockpit wiring bundles, and picked out the dials on the IP with a brush," and then in reality it's more like "and then I accidentally ate the clear parts and glued the fuselage halves to my face." 

[Christer A]

I totally agree to your description of reality!

"Then I re-scribed the panel lines" is such a simple thing to say but it fills medwith dread all the time. How much will I scribe wrong? How will I fix that? How come all the panel lines I did look like they were done with Etch-a-sketch?

Hey, what's that ? A new fancy kit? Let's start that one and put this panel scribing on the shelf for awhile.

 

With that said, I totally agree that you should nick as much as possible from the Overtrees! All Spitfire cockpits looks the same anyway (not really) and no one will know the difference in this scale, or almost any scale...

Edited September 21, 2018 by Christer A

[malpaso]

The seat is the worst part of the Eduard kits, way more annoying than the infamous cowlings!  Perhaps someone took the seat out of the Spit Eduard surveyed for the cockpit detail.  The carpet monster got hold of it so Eduard just made something up, assuming if their seat was a different shape to every other kits, theirs must be right?

 

Nice progress on the XII.   Thanks for the warnings on Sword kits in general too.

 

Cheers

Will

[CedB]

2 hours ago, Procopius said:

In my head it's always like "and then I took some fuse wire and simulated cockpit wiring bundles, and picked out the dials on the IP with a brush," and then in reality it's more like "and then I accidentally ate the clear parts and glued the fuselage halves to my face." 

I'm like that, with extra tools... you are my tribe Egbert!  

Looking good PC.

[John Masters]

Looking very nice indeed!  

[Meatbox8]

3 hours ago, Gazontipede said:

I'm starting to feel a little intimidated by the pair of Sword Mk.XIVs in my stash after reading commentary here and in other threads.

Hopefully I won't be too dimwitted to be able to pick up some important tips and tricks by watching this build unfold!

 

Having boxed mine (FRXIVe) after it causing much angst I took it out again and removed the cockpit interior from underneath.  The main issue i have had with it is trying to get the wing sub-assembly to fit the fuselage.  With the cockpit detail removed the wings/fuselage fit is much better so what I think I need to do is seriously file down the lower parts if the cockpit assembly or maybe even permanently remove some of it.  I intend on building the model 'in flight' so, with a pilot figure it situ, I can probably live without some of the detail. 

[John Masters]

This is all very good information to have before I start in on my South African XVIe.

[Cookenbacher]

17 hours ago, Procopius said:

I'm quite impulsive at the best of times. (As a modeller, anyway. In the real world I'm a coward.) 

Me too!

 

17 hours ago, Procopius said:

In my head it's always like "and then I took some fuse wire and simulated cockpit wiring bundles, and picked out the dials on the IP with a brush," and then in reality it's more like "and then I accidentally ate the clear parts and glued the fuselage halves to my face." 

Me too!

 

16 hours ago, Christer A said:

"Then I re-scribed the panel lines" is such a simple thing to say but it fills medwith dread all the time. How much will I scribe wrong? How will I fix that? How come all the panel lines I did look like they were done with Etch-a-sketch?

Me too!

 

I feel so much better now.

 

The XII is coming along very nicely PC.

[Procopius]

On 9/21/2018 at 1:46 AM, malpaso said:

The seat is the worst part of the Eduard kits, way more annoying than the infamous cowlings!  Perhaps someone took the seat out of the Spit Eduard surveyed for the cockpit detail.  The carpet monster got hold of it so Eduard just made something up, assuming if their seat was a different shape to every other kits, theirs must be right?

I found the seat immensely frustrating the first two or three Eduard Spits I built, but after eight, it scarcely troubles me. Part of the problem, I think, is that it's very difficult to replicate the seat using injection-molded plastic, and one would die of a coronary event trying to bend PE to shape.

 

Long day today, ("long days, short years" is how Mrs P describes parenthood) in which Winston's teacher dropped by for a home visit (mainly a formality, since Mrs P is also a teacher there, but we still had to clean the whole house), and we celebrated one of my sisters' birthday. To keep Winston busy and prevent him from "helping" Mrs P frantically prepare, I had him stack books for me in the study:

 

20180923_002904 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

He did a fairly decent job. The reason for the stacking, of course, is that the book to shelf ratio is again an adverse one:

 

20180923_002911 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

He was also rewarded for his complaisance by getting to assemble his very own model, unfortunately a Zvezda 1/144 Bf109F, but it's what I had, and it was an excellent kit for an almost-three year old. I would position the spruecutters and then he would squeeze them to cut, and he enthusiastically applied TET with the little brush (unfortunately the fumes caused coughing fits for him; I've either built up a tolerance or have been brought so close to death by it that I no longer notice):

 

20180922_135127 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

On to my model. I think I'm almost 100% on using the Eduard seat, which I painted tonight:

 

20180922_233803 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The cockpit "floor" in this kit joins to the bulkhead that the seat attaches to and to the instrument panel, a setup that historically has been a huge pain in that thing of your neighbor's that Exodus 20:17 forbids us from coveting. Oftentimes, I've omitted the floor piece altogether. But I'm old and if not any wiser, more willing to endlessly test fit to avoid screwing up a seriously OOP kit. 

 

20180923_001907 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I did some test fits of this today and I'm like, 90% sure it will fit properly. Maybe 80%. Okay, no worse than 70%. 

 

I also went over the wing leading edge with thinned and airbrushed Mr Surfacer 1500 to see how it looked. Not too bad, actually! Except close to the roots, so I slapped some Mr Surfacer 1000 on it to hopefully fix it up.

 

As you probably recall, there were some gaps at the roots as well, or will be, when closed up:

 

20180918_222352 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

IMO, this is probably a large part of the cause of so many of the wing root step issues people have (or I choose to imagine people have?? with Sword Spitfires, and so I got some plasticard in there:

 

20180923_001858 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

More might be needed. Or this might even be a huge mistake! We'll see.

 

 

[06/24]

On 9/21/2018 at 7:46 AM, malpaso said:

The seat is the worst part of the Eduard kits, way more annoying than the infamous cowlings!  Perhaps someone took the seat out of the Spit Eduard surveyed for the cockpit detail.  The carpet monster got hold of it so Eduard just made something up, assuming if their seat was a different shape to every other kits, theirs must be right?

I wish I'd read this before I started mine last night. Not sure if would have made any difference to the outcome but it might have made me feel better!

9 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I found the seat immensely frustrating the first two or three Eduard Spits I built, but after eight, it scarcely troubles me. Part of the problem, I think, is that it's very difficult to replicate the seat using injection-molded plastic, and one would die of a coronary event trying to bend PE to shape.

 

(Snipped)

 

On to my model. I think I'm almost 100% on using the Eduard seat, which I painted tonight:

 

20180922_233803 by Edward IX, on Flickr

Hmm, not sure mine looks like that. My steep learning curve has demonstrated that "paint first, stick after" does not work for these blighters, but if course I only learnt that by trying it the hard way!

 

IX by Jon Gwinnett, on Flickr

[amblypygid]

 Splendid work, PC and Winston! I hope the wingroot fix works out.

[Procopius]

1 minute ago, 06/24 said:

I wish I'd read this before I started mine last night. Not sure if would have made any difference to the outcome but it might have made me feel better!

Hmm, not sure mine looks like that. My steep learning curve has demonstrated that "paint first, stick after" does not work for these blighters, but if course I only learnt that by trying it the hard way!

Well, I think it's always going to look a little weird blown up to something like ten times its normal size, but there's not really an ideal way to paint and assemble the seat. My preferred method is to assemble the seat, paint it (in this case I primed it with some leftover black Mr Surfacer 1500, masked the cushion, sprayed Testor's Rust as the inside seat colour, and then brushpainted Colourcoats RAF Grey Green on the exterior), then attach it to the seat armour etc, all of which is painted in stages. It's a pain, especially since my favourite paints are enamels and one generally can't rush through as blithely with them. But with the canopy closed, I rarely worry too much about it, and you shouldn't either.

 

 

[CedB]

Great build Winnie - well done (even if it isn't a Spitfire...)  

Nice progress PC - that seat and other internals look smart  

Good luck with the wing join, fingers crossed.

[Bedders]

Watching with interest PC. OK, to be honest I'm watching with envy: wish I could lay my hands on one of those Mk XII kits! I've taken quite a liking to Sword Spitfires though they can be hard work. My Mk III Seafire went together pretty swiftly, but my XIV is taking forever. Watching your progress might help with the motivation. Good luck!

 

Justin

[Procopius]

So today I discovered that for a mere $9 a month, I could stream Magnum PI episodes on my tablet in the workroom. I firmly believe no price is too high to pay for Magnum PI, so this was welcome news. I watched two episodes and got a little done. 

 

So during the course of my repeated test-fittings, I realized that the Sword compressed air tanks (for eons I thought these were the oxygen bottles, but apparently that's a single bottle, positioned horizontally, behind the pilot's seat on the starboard side, and AFAIK, no 1/72 kit simulates it, probably sensibly, because who on earth would ever see it?) were too bulky to permit the seat bulkhead to fit in its appointed place. No problem. I had a spare one that I certainly didn't forget to put in an Eduard IX, which I used instead:

 

20180923_205212 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

The seat assembly itself is a bodge of parts: Eduard seat with the pegs clipped off, mounted on the Sword/Xtrakit seat armour, which is in turn inclined against the support framework from an Eduard kit, all resting on the Sword bulkhead/floor/IP combo.

 

20180923_211748 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Next test fit:

 

20180923_212702 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20180923_212652 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Then I got a little excited, which happens to lots of guys, I'm reassured, and spurted glue into all the crevasses of the fuselage before I could stop myself. Now, this posed some problems. I hadn't added seat belts, or done anything to the IP, or added lots of cut up bits of styrene to represent greeblies on the cockpit sides, but monster that I am, I'll mostly sleep okay tonight. Mostly. 

 

I did feel a little bad about the belts, though, so I got some of those weird Eduard superfabric belts that are made out of what feels like aspic and after much hemming and hawing (and wrecking one with my tweezers) was able to glue it into place. As you can imagine, the process of adding them to a closed-up fuselage is not terribly pleasant. 

 

20180923_215425 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Doing all of this, I managed to make a big fat glue print in the side of the fuselage:

 

20180923_212431 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Fun.

 

I ladled Mr Surfacer 1200 over it and will sand it down once it dries, hopefully erasing any evidence of the print. As for all of you, you'd better use the amnesia ray on yourselves. 

 

20180923_212645 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

I also added another strip of plasticard on either side of the front wing root, hopefully eliminating the step, Possibly I'll even need to sand it down a tadge to improve the dihedral or something.

 

20180923_215202 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Lastly, I cut a straight pin down to serve as the little strut or whatever it is going back from the seat bulkhead into the inky recesses of the fuselage:

 

20180923_220216 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20180923_220220 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Funny story: immediately after I took those two photos, the fuselage leaped out of my hands, causing me to shout a word that rhymes with the second half of "von Kluck" as gravity pulled it to the floor and destruction, only to have the clothespin catch on the side of my garbage can, leaving it suspended and undamaged. Miraculous! I shall be erecting a shrine and charging 2s. 6d. admission. 

 

Also, question for you all. Does anyone have or know of any good reference photos of a 90-gallon slipper tank on a small-carburetor intake Spitfire? It kinda looks like the large gap will necessitate obtaining one of the resin Attack Squadron tanks, which have underside detail.

 

20180923_215706 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

 

In other news, we had a nice day with the kids; we took Winston and Grant to an apple orchard, and while I'm not entirely sure Grant wasn't intoxicated by the end of it from eating approximately five hundred mushy apples left laying under the trees (and his breath smelled suspicious when we left, if you ask me), he and his older brother both had fun picking them, and even more importantly, they both went straight to sleep afterwards so dad could also nap, very important to dad, as he'd only had four hours sleep. 

 

20180923_124122 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

20180923_124607 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Yes, we tried to make him wear shoes, but he wept bitterly until they were removed. Grant does not like shoes. He's a wild beast, eating food off the ground and feeling the grass betwixt his stubby little toes.   

 

20180923_124800 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

Then Winston got to use the apple corer to make an apple-cherry pie. (Mrs P baked it and I ate a slice with gusto, but between you and me, one of the few things she can't make better than my mother is pie; my mother, after all, generally cooks the crust to completion, one of the sine qua nons of pie making in my book.)

 

20180923_163244 by Edward IX, on Flickr

 

When I was putting him to bed, Winston hauled open his bedroom window to yell at a barking dog across the street: "HEYOW! HEYOW! HOW ARE YOU? WILL YOU COME ACROSS THE STEET [sic] AND COME INTO MY HOUSE AND JUST PLAY WITH ME?" Sometimes it's fun being a parent.

 

20180923_185232 by Edward IX, on Flickr