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A Summer Where the Bad Light Stopped


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Ohhh lovely some spits. I’m coveting the 1/32 Tamiya one that I bought when I started modelling a few years ago and was terrified of. I think I might be about ready for her soon enough. I’ll tag along to get me in the mood. 😉

 

Johnny.

 

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9 hours ago, Procopius said:

It looks like @Tempestwulf is very kindly coming through for me on that front, as he's sold me his sheet, which lacks only Deere's "Kiwi" and Bader's machine, both of which I have decals for elsewhere. I suspect your efforts will be a bit more impressive than mine!

Depends on which of Deere's planes you were planning to build. I used Kiwi II with the Sky underside but Kiwi I is still available for kitting. If you want to do another double build I recommend kitting Deere's KL-B with Colin Gray's KL-T. They were both New Zealanders with Grey being Wingman to Deere & flying Mk.I's with the Black/White underside markings. Gray went on to be NZ's highest scoring ace with 27 1/2 victories & only retired from the RAF in 1961.

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1 hour ago, Tempestwulf said:

Depends on which of Deere's planes you were planning to build. I used Kiwi II with the Sky underside but Kiwi I is still available for kitting. If you want to do another double build I recommend kitting Deere's KL-B with Colin Gray's KL-T. They were both New Zealanders with Grey being Wingman to Deere & flying Mk.I's with the Black/White underside markings. Gray went on to be NZ's highest scoring ace with 27 1/2 victories & only retired from the RAF in 1961.

I have the excellent and sadly-OOP Southern Expo BoB sheet from 2010. I have markings to do several of Grey's later aircraft, so his MkI might as well go into the queue as well.

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Small progress tonight. I just assembled the props, drilled out more lightening holes, and put on the other bit of head armour.

 

IMG_20191022_213126

 

One of the head armour bodges turned out better than the other:

 

IMG_20191022_213150

 

Inexplicably, it's always the first one that I get perfect, and then I screw up on every subsequent thing I try. 

 

Anyway, now I need to find head cushions for these.

 

 

Also, I should know this, but were Spitfire Is interior grey-green all throughout, or was the cockpit just grey-green and then silver abaft the seat frame?

 

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43 minutes ago, Procopius said:

... or was the cockpit just grey-green and then silver abaft the seat frame?

 

I did mine Aluminium from the seat frame back, and no-one pulled me up on it so I think you would get away with it too :D 

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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I think that's right Stew :) 

 

3 hours ago, Procopius said:

Anyway, now I need to find head cushions for these.

Saw off a bit of runner?

I've got some little bits of leather punched from my daughter's belts (she's been on a diet). You're welcome to some if you can wait until your visit :) 

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If anyone wants to meet up (aside from at Telford, of course), Ced has published our itinerary for the week:

 

I reiterate that I can be a bit of a trial (and alarmingly foul-mouthed, but I'm working on myself) in person, but Ced is a delight, and I would happily trade my real brother for Cookenbacher any day of the week. And for the second week, Navy Bird, who is wise and powerful. So there's something for everyone!

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49 minutes ago, Procopius said:

I reiterate that I can be a bit of a trial (and alarmingly foul-mouthed, but I'm working on myself) in person...

... and I reiterate that you're a wise and pleasant chap with a wicked sense of humour! So there :D 

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On 10/23/2019 at 7:55 AM, The Spadgent said:

Ohhh lovely some spits. I’m coveting the 1/32 Tamiya one that I bought when I started modelling a few years ago and was terrified of. I think I might be about ready for her soon enough. I’ll tag along to get me in the mood. 😉

 

Johnny.

 

After what you've done with that monster Hurricane, a 1/32 Spitfire should be a walk in the park for you Johnny. :)

Steve.

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14 hours ago, Procopius said:

I reiterate that I can be a bit of a trial (and alarmingly foul-mouthed, but I'm working on myself) in person

Would that I could experience such delights, the girding of loins to armour myself for such slings and arrows would be such as a stroll through a sylvan wood on a fare day in spring. ;)

Steve.

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Many moons ago(the early 1970's)when one was quite a prolific modeller,the "mix" for a Spitfire's cockpit that we used,if of course,

one remembers correctly,was five parts Sky to one part Grey-Green for just the cockpit area alone,all other internal areas

were done in silver.

 

Think of the old Airfix 1/24th scale "Superkit" Spitfire Mk.1a here,a Christmas present from one's parents accompanied by the 109E

from a favorite Aunt and Uncle when they were released.

 

Once again,if one remembers correctly,once the "mix" was dry,a wash of Grey-Green was applied and finally a dry brushing of

Sky before picking out other details such as the throttle and undercarriage control boxes gave one a very close approximation

to Supermarine's own shade of "green" applied to such cockpits.

 

Needless to say of course,one can "tune" things to one's own requirements for one's particular model.

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24 minutes ago, stevehnz said:

The late, much missed & greatly revered Edgar Brooks would have delighted to read of your interior colour choice @DaveWilko, he was a very keen proponent of a paler green for Spitfire cockpits, often in the face of the use of Interior Grey Green.

Steve. 

Thank you Steve,if one remembers correctly,the colour quoted in the Spit's instruction book was indeed the shade of "Sky".

 

My father at the time said the closest he could remember(looking inside a real Spitfire back in the 50's at an RAF Ternhill air display he reckoned)

was indeed "Sky" but with a touch of a darker green in it to give a colour close to the green of a "French Golden Delicious" apple(those were the days eh,are such things still available).

He was quite pedantic to get the detail"right"on such things.

(He once built a 1/32nd Spit Mk.1 in the late 60's,he'd painted the pilot as a "self portrait"with mustache and all!!,one remembers the cockpit in that paint colour mix)

 

The name of Edgar Brooks does indeed reverberate around the internet on many pages concerned with models,aviation and certainly Spitfires,

as one sees hither and thither,Mr Brooks was an expert and a goldmine of information on the type.

 

Anyway,we must not contaminate this young man's thread any more with such chatter,he has Spitfires to show us.😉

Edited by DaveWilko
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Interesting, gents. As these aircraft are both relatively "newer" Spitfire Ias, both coming off the line during the Battle itself, I'm inclined to think they'd use the standard cockpit colour with the silver abaft of it. Does the demarcation betwixt colours start after the seat armour, or further back?

 

I puttered around with the kits a little last night, but made no major progress, just some test-fitting and test-fettling. No photos.

 

A week to go!

 

 

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24 minutes ago, Procopius said:

Does the demarcation betwixt colours start after the seat armour, or further back?

 

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-spitfire-cockpit.html

 

Quote

The aircraft serving as our subject is Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb BL628 YO-D, recently completed by Avspecs Ltd in Auckland, New Zealand. Due to the fantastic quality of the restoration work which took full 30 years, the cockpit of this Spitfire conforms almost entirely to wartime production standards. For this reason, the following photographs can serve as reliable reference to the cockpit layout of the production Spitfire Mk. V.

07l628_009-640x480.jpg

 

For reference, it seems that apart from the actual cockpit, all the rest of Spitfire internals were aluminium dopes up until some point in 1943, when there was a switch grey-green.

 

look closely here, should enlarge

16804377395_8b7c604c60_o.jpgSpitfire Mk. IIA, 1941. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

Keith parks Vb on Malta

46670737505_fc561c033d_o.jpgSpitfire cockpit, 1943. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

pre war

2527521628_c192e57e81_o.jpgSpitfire Mk.I by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

for the internals, lookat the inside of the radio hatch, and the gun bay door on wing, aluminium dope. Given the colours on this are particularly good IMO, note the colour of the door hatch.

3052829500_1ce4f68d71_o.jpgSpitfire in England by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

this is also a great guide to how a BoB spitfire would look, fairly new and well cared for, note the sheen to the paint.

two more from this session

3757129355_dd7a89479f_o.jpgSpitfire II. 1941. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

 

note fading of fabric on aileron

 

4181500566_4e42df0dd7_o.jpgSpitfire in England. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

note aluminium ammo boxes lower left

8481634694_dde7ba514b_o.jpgCaptured Spitfire 1940. by Etienne du Plessis, on Flickr

check the dropped flaps, aluminium dope.

 

HTH

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Here you go mate

 

http://spitfiresite.com/2010/07/anatomy-of-spitfire-cockpit.html/07ar_fuse_001

 

I know it's a restoration but it looks to be authentic to me... 

 

I've always done the back of the seat frame Aluminium as well, looks like I got it wrong but in fairness it's not usually that visible... :D

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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Ahh Spitfires, just re read Edgar's notes and you guys are spot on, the area behind the pilots seat was not counted as cockpit so was silver, great photos.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

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Looking forward to these! I built one recently for the Blitzbuild II and it was great fun. FWIW I smeared some PPP into the non-opening panel lines, and I rather wish I'd done the same with the opening ones too...

 

Regards,

Adrian

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Lovely pics, but I don't see anything in that last one that says aluminium dope. It could just as easily be grey green. I'm not professing to be an expert at all, just saying that to me it looks grey green and therefore doesn't prove anything. 

Just throwing a spanner in....

 

Ian

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13 hours ago, limeypilot said:

Lovely pics, but I don't see anything in that last one that says aluminium dope. It could just as easily be grey green. I'm not professing to be an expert at all, just saying that to me it looks grey green and therefore doesn't prove anything. 

Just throwing a spanner in....

 

Ian

 

The back of the seat frame is Interior Grey-green; the interior of the fuselage aft of that is Aluminium.

 

Perhaps this is clearer...

 

Cheers,

 

Stew

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