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Matchbox/Revell 1/32 Spitfire Mk 22/24


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6 hours ago, Thom216 said:

Could you pull and rotate the whole thing around, and at least get the tapers to match up? You can drill a new mounting hole for the tail wheel.

Nope, bulge would be in the wrong spot. No problem, it’s modelling. If I wanted easy, I would be building my Tamiya Spit!

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The surgery continues. The tailwheel well has the fuselage skin covering part of it at either end. This is how I am trying to duplicate it. I cut out the full size of the well and glued the “mudguard” portion in. 

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Then I glued the bulkheads on the ends and wrapped thin styrene skin around the bulkheads making sure they followed the fuselage contours. I did it two steps and used lots of liquid cement to soften the styrene around the curves. Finally wound up with this mess!

A182E622-4A04-4087-ACA1-22FC787B09B9

After carving, sanding wound up with this. Still more filling and sanding, but it is at least closer to the actual bay now. I had to add some strip to the doors because the hinge line should be at a bit more of angle than it is, I had just followed paralell to the fuselage lower line which is wrong.

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Edited by Robin-42
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Nut job? Eccentrics live longer happier lives, so thank you. I am going over the top because I spent so much on the resin. Will I succeed? Stay tuned. To be fair, the stock kit would have wound up Spitfire shaped, only massive error being the horizontal stabs and elevator. The rocker covers aren’t correct, but are not that horrible. There are more, but progressively minor, 

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Meanwhile, in the cockpit after recovering from self inflicted wounds it looks Spitfire-like. I used Airscale decals on the panel and added handles for the landing gear and canopy. The detail in the resin is a litlle soft and there are a myriad of tiny flaws with the mold, but it is still light years ahead the Matchbox effort. Control column was a scale Christmas wreath, so I shrunk it down wiping out most the detsil in the process. Still looks too big. Seat and armor plate will have to be added later after I tidy up the headrest area when the fuselage halves are rejoined. 

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Edited by Robin-42
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Hi 

This is great, the work on the tail wheel area is fantastic and the cockpit looks absolutely stunning.  I will still look forward to tackling the kit when I get round to it in the stash, although I have a few other Spitfires ahead of it.

 

Keep up the good work

All the best

Chris

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Port side correct, starboard, not so much...... As I seem to subconsciously enjoying doing things twice, I followed Matchboxes too short main gear walls, then while looking at some reference photo’s and wing structural diagrams realized they were wrong. You can see how much of the spars remain after hacking for the wells and making the resin cockpit fit. I also got to refit the flaps in the up position after removing them in my previous attempt. This was before I realized how rare it was to have a Spitfires flaps down when parked. One inner flap was lost, so got replaced with card.

9966CE87-D5F9-4449-9E3F-8F735B25AD66

 

 

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The nose is on. The datums I cared about were the lower fuel tank panel line and center line. I figured if I kept them lined up the nose would wind up in the correct postion. Problem is using cyanoacrylate glue only gives me a few seconds to line it up. I used a razor saw to cut three slots in both pieces and used some dynamo tape in the slots. As long as I lined up the slots it would stay lined up as I drew the pieces together. Note my hi-tech pattern for the nose upper line.  Resin wing roots did not survive because they sat way to high. Did I mention there will be putty? Second photo shows the amount of matierial to be removed to match the resin nose. It will have to be blended in past the cockpit because the fuselage sides there should be parallel. 

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First pass on sanding, more to remove, but the red circle shows where I am through the Matchbox plastic and hitting the resin cockpit sides, which were paper thin to begin with. I will have to be very careful with that. Yellow circle is the milliput I used for backing. Either it was too old or I did not fully mix it, but it has not fully cured. I will have to use some sprue/liquid cement “goop” to deal with that.

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The fun continues. It is my understanding that all Spitfires with internal armor glass had the same windscreen. The one on the left is from my Tamiya kit, Matchbox on the right. One is correct, one is not. No points for guessing the correct one. I cannot find any vacuform replacements. If any of you lot know, please let me know. 

Secondly, the Gray Matter canopy is much better than the kit one but does not extend far enough down to cover the canopy rails and it pinches in at the front on it’s lower edge, where I believe it should be straight. I think I can deal with those issues, but would like a better windscreen. Vacuforming one myself is a skill I do not possess, and donating the Tamiya one is not going to happen.

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Edited by Robin-42
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  • 3 weeks later...

I have been puttering away on this, nothing photo worthy today, but as I continure to get carried away, I bought a Hasegawa MKVI for the windscreen. I am going to use it and try to make a mold for a  vacuform canopy without wrecking It. After I build a vacuform machine........ In any case the kit came with a Warbird Seafire XV conversion kit, so if any of you lot have a hole in your life that could only be filled with it, let me know. I am in Ontario, Canada, so shipping will be a factor. It is missing at least a blade. I don’t know what came with the conversion originally.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Next problem.... If I seem to hop around in this build, it is because well, I do! The tailplanes are wrong.

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The leading edge is actually correct, it just sweeps back too soon.

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The solution is a diagonal cut so leading edge goes where it should and the trailing edge stays put.

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The gap is filled with a wedge of plastic sheet, plus a bit more on the tip. The elevator which is glued together at the trailing edge got a chunk of plastic sheet shoved in the tip so I can extend it and re-shape it. 

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Everything has a closer resemblance to the real thing now. Some more shaping, detailing and riveting to go, then repeat on the port side.I have been using thick cyanocrylate glue with an accelerating. Saves waiting for glue or putty to dry.

 

 

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Edited by Robin-42
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I never knew (or bothered to learn) that this kit was this faulty!

As a kid I saved my allowance for a year (well, it felt like that at least) to be able to buy one which in the end I managed to do.

It got to the painting stage before I got distracted by other stuff....the same as now 😇

 

Anyway, you're doing an amazing job with it. Keep it up!

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  • 3 weeks later...

Tail problems. Having achieved outline success on the starboard stabilizer, I started on the elevator, the two sets of drawings I have are suspiciously similar and wrong in details. First the F22 has a trim tab on both elevators, the F24 added a servo tab. The drawings labelled F22 show the servo tab, and on the wrong side! Since I am doing an F22, I removed it. The kit also has the actuator rod fairings at a slight angle to centerline. None of the drawings show that. Took a while, but I finally found a picture of an F22 from dead astern confirming they should be straight. Back to hacking away at plastic!

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Edited by Robin-42
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