IAF Velveta. It's a Spitfire Jim, but not as we know it.

[Christer A]

No matter how many ongoing projects I have, there is always room for a Spitfire!

For this GB I'll pry open this box

(picture shamefully stolen from Eduards website)

Just to show that I haven't started it, here are the sprues:

 

 

It's the standard Mk IXx kit, but with some resin added, in the form of wheels and exhausts:

One gets both rounded and fishtail ones as well as the main wheels, so that's a plus.

The unused exhausts will surely fit another IX that hides in my stash...

 

A very tiny etch fret and masks are also supplied, as usual.

 

The decal sheet is big an colourful, and to save my sanity I've bought a Barracuda engine cowl to help things along.

 

I intend to do this one

It's 1/48 - LF Mk.IXe, 2003 (ex TE531), 105th Tajeset, Ramat David Air Base, Israel, September 1953

 

Now, I know my way around Spitfires but Israeli ones are a bit of a mystery!

For instance, when they were repainted in the proto-IAF colors how did they paint the wheel wells?

Have the cockpit been repainted as well?

Tricky questions, and so far my Google-fu hasn't yielded any good results, but perhaps the Britmodeller Hivemind has some more insight?

[Dansk]

Can’t help you with your queries Christer but this is gonna be an awesome one to follow.

so I’m gonna pull up a large comfortable chair, no, a sofa, and get some microwave popcorn ready for the start. 

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, Christer A said:

For instance, when they were repainted in the proto-IAF colors how did they paint the wheel wells?

given the way Spitfire wheel wells are,  the outer wheel part the underside colour, the inner leg part is left alone. 

I've seen a lot 'discussion' on Spitfire wheel wells,  but the above was factory standard AFAIK,

Possibly the outer well was left the original colour,  but if you look at detail shots,  there is nothing in the outer well to mess up with paint, the inner part is the inside of the wing, and not something you want to splatter paint all over.

 

4 hours ago, Christer A said:

Have the cockpit been repainted as well?

I very much doubt it.   Repainting a cockpit is a major job,  done properly it's a complete strip out, otherwise to much stuff to mess up.   By this stage the Spitfire were getting old, and IIRC were mainly used for training. maybe some touch ups, but overall most of the cockpit is not getting much wear. 

Also, before independence,  what became Israel (Palestine) was British controlled,  one early Israeli Spitfire was made out of left behind RAF junk.....

So It's quite possible that they had stock of EX RAF paint. 

 

There is no mention of repainting Spitfire IX in Israeli Air force Service,  

 

There maybe some evidence from the few Spitfires that were recovered from Israel,  some children were lucky enough to have their own Spitfire in their playground for a while.... Or some  info from the EX Israeli Spitfire sold onto Burma....   

 

HTH?

[Christer A]

Thanks for all the info Troy!

It sounds as I can go for the Spitfire standard then with inner wheel wells in aluminium, outer round part as the underside. For cockpit standard Grey green to be used all the way to and including the rear armour but behind that it's painted aluminium.

The seat is the usual brown-red stuff, but maybe the crow-bar on the entry-door could be red this time? It's a post WWII Spitfire after all 😇

[Troy Smith]

9 hours ago, Christer A said:

Thanks for all the info Troy!

It sounds as I can go for the Spitfire standard then with inner wheel wells in aluminium, outer round part as the underside. For cockpit standard Grey green to be used all the way to and including the rear armour but behind that it's painted aluminium.

The seat is the usual brown-red stuff, but maybe the crow-bar on the entry-door could be red this time? It's a post WWII Spitfire after all 😇

 

What you need is the original British serial.   It's probably in the Israeli Spitfires book,  and I shall look later if I remember (or remind me) BUT at some point in production, there a switch to all grey green interiors.  *

It ha been postulated late 1943,  but a recent discussion showed an recovered Australian Spit VIII built in 44 still like this. It may even be related to the specific factory.  (so one may have changed earlier than another) 

 

The relevance is IIRC most/all Israeli Spitfire were built reasonably late on,

 

I think the red crowbar was a post war RAF standard.  the Israeli Spitfires were ex Czech or Italian

 

*....and a 'doh!' moment, as I now note that it is ex TE531....

http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p112.html

Quote

TE531 LFIX CBAF M66 39MU 28-5-45 313S 20-7-45 CzechAF 30-8-45

 Given this is 1945 airframe, I think we can work on it all being grey green,  that is ALL the internals, so the inner part of the UC gear leg bit.  

 

I'll stick a @Magpie22  in here,  as he may be able to shed a little more info.

 

HTH

 

PS from a maintenance film shot in May 1940 (from the markings applied) 

Spitfire Mk.I maintenance film UC well colour by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

Factory fresh machine,  only has the Sq code, PR, no individual letter.  looks to be R6693 from the small serial on the fin flash.

 

UC well underside colour, internal section alu paint,  below, open flaps in alu paint, cockpit door open showing grey green.

 

Spitfire flap colour maintenance film by losethekibble, on Flickr

 

R 6693/DW-A was damaged by Me 109 from JG 26 or JG 51 over Channel near Dover, crash-landed at Hawkinge on 25th July 1940 at 15.40 and burnt out.

 

the film is up on youtube, if ypu google 'daily inspection of a Spitfire youtube' you find them all.   

these are widescreen for some reason.  and this creates some weird colour effects at points...

 

 

 

Slightly more than you need, but just showing info sources

[Christer A]

Ok, so all grey green interior areas then. Thanks for that @Troy Smith!

 

Wow, there was a lot of wiping rags being used in those videos!

[Christer A]

Let's get it on then!

Armed with the knowledge that all interior areas are painted grey green I went ahead with constructing the wings.

Fit is great, as long as you use the correct parts for the designated side for the wheel bays, otherwise it will be "interesting".
Eduard delivers a little surprise though:

One is supposed to cut off the corner between the leg part and the circular part of the landing gear bay, but this is already done right in the mold?
To do the marking alternative where this is not supposed to be cut off will lead to extra work.

I guess that's the consequence of using the E wing and include a C wing in the marking options?

 

Then I turned my attention to the cockpit:

Here we can se one of the very few areas that needs to be puttied. A small sinkmark on a tiny little part (on both sides of cockpit) that is almost hidden beneath the rudder pedal linkage.

But it's a sinkmark, and those must be eliminated with extreme prejudice!

 

Also, the two rear fremes had the lightening holes drilled out.

Port side received a little pipework too.

 

Then I have a little conundrum.

For the lower engine cowl, with the engine air intake Eduard wants you to add a solid etched flap at the front, and a fine mesh at the rear.

I guess this is part of a air filter, but to close the air intake seems a bit excessive?

On my VIII:s no etch were provided at all.

 

Well well, I guess I could pull out the flap if it wasn't used.

 

Now it's time to finish off the cockpit!

[alt-92]

On 4/13/2020 at 9:10 PM, Christer A said:

but to close the air intake seems a bit excessive?

Nope, pretty standard...

[Christer A]

Great picture!

Thanks a bunch.

[KevinK]

On 4/13/2020 at 12:10 PM, Christer A said:

I guess this is part of a air filter, but to close the air intake seems a bit excessive?

There is a filter. The way the air intake works is:

 

On the ground - door closed - air flows upward, through the filter and to the engine.

 

In the air - door opened - air bypasses the filter and goes straight to the engine.

 

This arrangement allows filtering when needed for dust/grass/debris/ but avoids the power loss of a filter pressure drop in-flight.

[Hockeyboy76]

An interesting build going on here with a great colour scheme. 

[Christer A]

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the air intake filter Kevin!

Now it makes sense in my head as well 🙂

 

I saw @trickyrich work wonders with that dreaded engine cowl so I thought why not have a go?

With a bunch of short runs and a pair of Eduard Spitfires under my belt I felt that I am an accomplished builder who can surely glue two pieces together.

Step one: add some reinforcement on the rear side.

Check alignment vs the clamped fuselage parts

Fill that darned center seam (but used tamiya putty, since I like that)

Carefully sand it and restore the panel lines

Shoot some primer on it

Yay !  Looks good!

Until you angle it....

@£#¤¤"(#€#¤% Ghost seam!!!!!🤬🤬🤬

 

Right.

Time to open up that Barracuda cowl then.

[janneman36]

You are better off using the Tamiya white putty, it is not as soft as the grey as it hardens.

I used the grey for many years in my airliner windows but after the sanding proces I always had those small dents were the windows were.

This problem was solved after using the white one and this was also applicable to my seems ..

 

Great work by the way👍
 

cheers, Jan

[Dansk]

1 hour ago, Christer A said:

Thanks for the detailed explanation of the air intake filter Kevin!

Now it makes sense in my head as well 🙂

 

I saw @trickyrich work wonders with that dreaded engine cowl so I thought why not have a go?

With a bunch of short runs and a pair of Eduard Spitfires under my belt I felt that I am an accomplished builder who can surely glue two pieces together.

Step one: add some reinforcement on the rear side.

Check alignment vs the clamped fuselage parts

Fill that darned center seam (but used tamiya putty, since I like that)

Carefully sand it and restore the panel lines

Shoot some primer on it

Yay !  Looks good!

Until you angle it....

@£#¤¤"(#€#¤% Ghost seam!!!!!🤬🤬🤬

 

Right.

Time to open up that Barracuda cowl then.

That was amazing! Until the last shot 😊

isnt that fixable after all that work?

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Christer A said:

 

Yay !  Looks good!

Until you angle it....

@£#¤¤"(#€#¤% Ghost seam!!!!!🤬🤬🤬

try using another filler on this,  as this is very fine,  try brushing on a mix of the paint with some talc mixed if,  to make a compatible filler, and then gently sand back. 

for little filling jobs like this before paint, try superglue  and/or superglue and talc,  for deeper cracks and dents,  the mix can be varied, it dries fast, sand as soon as possible, as superglue when fully cured is harder than plastic.

I mix and apply with a small flat screwdriver.

[Christer A]

I might have another go at it with some other filler, or I'll just unwrap the Barracuda cowl and be done with it.

Today I managed to finish off the cockpit. I didn't manage to snap any pictures during this journey so here are just a few.

First of all, I can't really understand why Eduard insists in folding this little thingie four times when they could have just made it in plastic and given us some etched handles?

Or maybe that was seen as too complex?

In any case, it was installed and painted grey green, as basically everything in the cockpit. I used Mission Models Grey green for this, as I have finally gotten the hang of how to use them.
All of a sudden, I arrived at this:


Tada!

Primed, painted, detailed, clearcoated, washed and semi-gloss coated all in a few days time.
Oh, I almost forgot the back belts. Well, let's add them and move on.

Was there anything else that can't be fitted later?
No?

Well, let's join the fuselage then!

I discovered that I needed to apply a lot of force to get the fuselage to close around the instrument panel, but some good clamps helped out.
Then I glued myself around the fuselage and was left with a complete item.

Off course, I couldn't just stand back and do nothing, so I brought in the wing too.

A lovely fit in the wing root, with maybe just a tiny step on both sides, but since it's symmetrical I'll just leave it.

Under fuselage/rear wing joint was basically gap free as well. This thing goes together like magic!

The bottom engine cowl has a nasty ingate mark that received some liquid sprue to disappear once and for all.

 

And here we are!

Gosh. Imagine that I could get this far in less than a week. Off course, being on short term leave might have something to do with it, as well as the fact that it's my third Eduard Spitfire.

But there was just one little thing left on the cutting mat when I finished. You might've seen that little black box in some of the above pictures.

There is a small panel right above the throttle quadrant on the port side.

It must have fallen off during assembly somehow. Apparently, Mission models paint and TETC doesn't really work that well together, since the paint is so dense that the TETC can't get a grip.

Not an easy task to get it back, and almost impossible to see in any case.

I might just leave it off...

 

Time to finish off the rest of the stuff then, so I can get on with the paint!

[Valkyrie]

A lot of great work smoothly done. I was reading and thought oooh @Christer A has caught up with me.....then boom wings on and flew right by. It’s looking brilliant

[Christer A]

Thanks! I think I need to focus on the landing gear and external stuff now instead of forging ahead with main painting...

[Christer A]

Time to unwrap my secret Eduard-Spitfire weapon!

The Barracuda resin cowl:

A lovely piece of casting which will blend in fine with the rest of the kit. The overlong Eduard Brassin items has fasteners that look completely different compared to the surrounding plastic ones.

I sawed off the casting piece and sanded it neat.

But I sanded it to much!!!!

🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬🤬

Not only too much but also skewed....

That is probably not salvageable in a nice way. I could try to fill it or add some plastic shims, but it that requires me to glue it in place and also the exhausts which I don't want to.

What to do?

 

I could try with another filler on the plastic piece perhaps?

Let's bring out my trusty smelly auto filler

This stuff does not shrink, is very resilient but a paint to sand dry.

Wet sanding is the way to go though.

So, a round of filler, sanding, neatening the panellines and rivetes and a new coat of filler later and it actually looks good!

The ghost seam is gone! 
 

Right, now we're back in business again!

Just tack it in place with some blu-tak and get on with it.

Edited April 20, 2020 by Christer A

[Hockeyboy76]

Great work, Eduard have over complicated a few items in the Spitfire range. Why do a two piece top cowling?

[Valkyrie]

8 hours ago, Hockeyboy76 said:

Great work, Eduard have over complicated a few items in the Spitfire range. Why do a two piece top cowling?

I agree, the complicated way the exhaust stacks are built up is stupid and unnecessary too, why not a one piece cowling and stacks that can be added after painting  

[Dansk]

Beautiful recovery Christer. It really looks great. 
p.s.
I coincidentally also got the hang of mission models paint this week, it seems to like low psi and mr leveling thinner i found.

 

[Ray_W]

Hi Christer,

Just catching up with your build. It's coming together brilliantly. Very tidy. Looking at your fun and games on that top cowling. I actually hate clamps. I can never get one that fits exactly how I need it unless it's solid part to solid part. I found today doing that same top cowl I needed to push down to close. Side clamping opened it up. Looks like you had a great outcome with that filler. I prefer CA on its own or more usually gel CA's with various quantities of talc trading strength and workability depending on the application. 

Ray

[Retired Bob]

Hi Christer,

I'm just behind you with my build, I have been doing the final cockpit painting, I sanded down the frame and the plastic backing to the etched instrument panel as the fuselage did not want to close up until I did, and I did not want to risk it popping open under stress.  As for the top cowl,   I bought the Eduard one, but I have managed to fix the kit parts. 

[OutcastJoel]

Wow, this is beautiful and the scheme looks like it will be superb.

I am also a little bit in love with the scheme on your first photo, I may need to go shopping...