Airfix New Tool Spitfire Vb in 1/48th Scale.Finished.

[Alex Gordon]

Gday Chums,I'd like to chip in with this one if I may;

 

 

The obligatory "here's what's in the box"piccie;

 

 

I decided to start with the tailplanes.The plastic felt a bit different to what I'm used to so I thought I'd start here to see how it performed with the Contacta glue that I'm going to use.

 

 

The way the kit has been stored gave me a badly bent seat pan,but for that the components look well produced.

 

 

The seat frame parts were cut from the frame

 

 

as were the rudder pedal and control column bits.Apologies for lousy photography by the way.

 

 

I started to put the seat together using the self closing tweezers to clamp the sides to the pan

 

 

The instrument panel looks good and the frame it mounts on has the pipework already moulded on so I don't have to make that bit from copper wire.

 

 

The cockpit sidewalls look rather good and the radiator shutter lever is included which is something I never even knew existed.I'm not going to rush back to every other Spitfire and Seafire that I've built so far to fit one.

 

 

There is now going to be a flurry of lightening hole drilling,test fitting and general preparation for paint,I'll be back soon.

Edited May 12, 2020 by Alex Gordon
Dyslexic keyboard

[malpaso]

Don't rush to add that radiator shutter lever to all your Spitfires, it's only on the earlier marks (up to V?), later models like the IXs had automatic thermostatically controlled rad shutters.  In fact the whole cooling system was only marginally less marginal on the ground with later aircraft, once up at flying speed the pair of bigger radiators was much better.

[Troy Smith]

2 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

 

There is now going to be a flurry of lightening hole drilling,test fitting and general preparation for paint,I'll be back soon.

a couple more are being done right now. 

 

Two 'gotcha' areas. Fit is really tight, a coat of paint,  missed seam lines and sprue nibs on the cockpit tub can mean the fuel tank will not fit properly later.  test fit to make sure before gluing together. This has caught out a few folks.

 

the UC attachment is dreadful.  Take lower part, drill down from the top by the half circle leg, through the part.  Glue leg on, then drill up from the bottom into leg using a drill bit the same size you have a stiff pin for.   Cut off leg, so it can be installed with the pin later on.     As supplied the attachment will break with any slightly clumsy handling.

 

these are discussed here

long thread, but interesting.

 

HTH

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again chums,

Malpaso,thanks for that.I've only one Vb,a Va and a Seafire Ib to retrofit with the lever,it's not uppermost on the list of things to do.

Troy,thanks old fruit.I've done a lot of reading about this kit and absorbed most of it.I'm going to try a few ideas of methods on this one just to see if they'll work.

 

There's a phenomenal amount of prep work to do on this boxful.As Troy wrote,part lines and runner nibs all need to be eliminated and that's largely what I've been doing.The fuselage looks good and the book of words recommends cutting out the door before much else is done.Oddly enough I agree with it.

 

 

The carburettor air intake is a two piece affair and can be put together without a lot of fuss.

 

 

The radiator and oil cooler components were located  and cleaned up.They are all handed but I find that it helps to have a definite identifier just in case.Part numbers in pencil somewhere out of the way works for me.

 

 

The book of words invites you to cut off the wingtips before fitting the upper portion to the lower.The option I'm intending to do requires this so that's what is going to happen.

 

 

The wheel wells will need careful alignment to avoid a serious problem.

 

 

And yes,the undercarriage leg idea really is as ropey as everyone says it is.How one is supposed to  fit this set up after major construction is a mystery to me.

 

 

Wing spars ready for fitting

 

 

The famous windscreen inserts,one for externally armoured,the other for internally armoured.The internally armoured one seems to have been moulded wonky,what you see in the photo is both inserts set up to sit evenly.The wonky one has an extra shim under one corner to make it sit without rocking.

 

 

The fuselage went together with no fuss at all.

 

 

The externally armoured insert fits nearly perfectly,there is just a little play forwards backwards which I found helpful.

 

 

The wheels and hubs need some prep work.

 

 

And phase 2 of the badly bent seat saga is under way.

 

 

I'm not going to worry about the glue mess that I've made here,it'll be well hidden once it's all put together.

 

Thanks for looking in chums,stay safe,eat well and no playing silly b's.

[Blitz23]

Had the same issue with my seat, not their best design by any means.

[JOCKNEY]

I didn't realise that the seat folded forward on a Spitfire, like cars without rear doors !

Everydays a school day.

 

Looks a nice kit, look forward to following your build, good luck.

 

cheers Pat 

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,a bit more for you to peruse.

 

Blitz,I have to agree,but then at least Airfix are trying to up their game.The other one of these I have in the stash has an unbent seat so that will probably be a lot easier.

Pat,good to have you along.As kits go I've dealt with far more challenging ones over the years.

 

Remember those tyres? Right diameter,wrong shape.

 

 

I drew a rough pencil line around the centreline and began to sand

 

 

These were then mounted on a cocktail stick ready for painting.Exhausts next,how do you do yours?

 

 

I start by drilling holes and then play join the dots first with the drill bit and then a nice sharp pointy scalpel blade.I left the part lines on the outside to represent the welds.

Rightyho,lets see if we can turn this lot

 

 

into a Sutton harness.

Components ready for paint,separated out into green,silver,grey and black.

 

 

Green and black went on first

 

 

Once dry the instrument panel was the next port of call.

 

 

If the panel had the detail then I wouldn't use the decal,but it hasn't so I did.

 

 

With the panel being all lumpy with the gauge bezels a different approach was taken.First the kettle was switched on,while that was heating a brushful of Klear was slopped on.The decal was slid from its backing paper and carefully positioned to line up with the bezels,now invisible due to the goop and the decal film and my increasingly lousy eyesight. Hot water was poured into a saucer and then a lump of bog roll was dipped and pressed firmly onto the assembly and held for a few seconds.As you can see,dear reader,I got the alignment slightly off and with this method you only get one shot at it.The fluff will be wiped away when all is settled and set.The radiator and oil cooler parts were given the pencil lead treatment

 

 

In between doing bits I've been having a bit of a tidy up and found these. Have you ever wondered just how much too short the Hasegawa IX is? 

Hasegawa top,ICM bottom,rudder posts aligned.

 

 

More soon chums,thanks for looking in.Stay safe.

 

 

 

 

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

3 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

In between doing bits I've been having a bit of a tidy up and found these. Have you ever wondered just how much too short the Hasegawa IX is? 

Hasegawa top,ICM bottom,rudder posts aligned.

 

 

Ouch ... And I was just considering the Hasegawa Mk.VII/VIII Kit. Looks like I’ll stick with the Eduard VIII kit. 

Edited May 1, 2020 by Corsairfoxfouruncle

[Troy Smith]

4 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

Have you ever wondered just how much too short the Hasegawa IX is? 

Hasegawa top,ICM bottom,rudder posts aligned.

May i suggest lining up the nose parts,  as the shortness is in the rear fuselage, though it's not just the shortness, but slimness.  If you line the noses up and do a shot from the side, that will show the problems, and the level of work need to fix.

1 hour ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

And I was just considering the Hasegawa Mk.VII/VIII Kit. Looks like I’ll stick with the Eduard VIII kit. 

Eduard basically own the Merlin 60 series now. 

 Even the nearest competitor, the ICM kit, is really not worth the bother if you want accuracy.

The main shapes are  good, but the poor wheels and undersize spinner but oversize prop blades mean, along with  narrow nose and spine, undresize cannon bulges and a basic cockpit,  not unfixable, but not worth the bother IMO.  

 In the UK an ICM Spitfire can be got for under £8, and weekend Eduard can be got for under £15 (overtrees are not available in the UK, and post from Eduard kills off any saving) ....

while that is nearly double the price,  it's less than an hour at minimum wage.....   and you get a lot more bang for the buck in comparison,  some fiddly bits and tricky cowling join. 

 

one odd little fact,  the early 1/48th Spitfires, Monogram IX, Otaki VIII, Airfix Vb old tool, Revell Mk.II,  are all good in main shapes and dimensions,  then you start getting 1/48th Spitfires that get these wrong... Hase Vb (short in front of cockpit, and basis for the Special Hobby kits it seems) Hase IX, undersize rear fuselage, Tamiya old tool I/V,  short, slab sided, wing shape wrong,  Academy Spitfire XIV (mostly wrong) , Airfix Spitfire XII and Seafire XVII, actually have most of the same problems the Academy kits are dammed for.....

 

I digress....

 

5 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

Remember those tyres? Right diameter,wrong shape.

 

interesting point.  Not seen this before.  Can leftover Eduard ones be used? 

 

neat work so far Alex

 

cheers

T

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,a little more done over the last day or two.

 

Dennis,thanks for chipping in.It's a pleasant boxful.If you want accuracy then Eduard is your way forward,the Hasegawa is an easy build.My copy of it is the Revell issue,bought from Modelzone many moons ago for not a lot of pennies.If you have one,build and enjoy.

Troy,hello old fruit,good of you to drop by.I went through all of the alignment possibilities while I had it to hand and saw that a fix isn't really an option when I have a handful of ICM in the stash.A cut and shut is feasible but will be lengthy and complex.I only recently acquired my first Eduard Spitfire,a lowback XVI (should that be XVI RV?)which will find its way onto the bench sometime next year.Possibly.

I've never seen the Monogram ,the old tool Airfix Vb is a long standing favourite but I haven't tried the thrustline modification yet.The Revell I don't remember much about but in common with the Otaki VIII (didn't Airfix release a boxing of it?) is devoid of the gull wing shape at the wing trailing edge to fuselage join.

Anyway,here's this bit of progress.Pipework picked out with Humbrol 118 to represent the copper colour that I've seen in photos

 

 

Once that had dried I adjusted the masking and sprayed silver on to all the bits that I wanted to be silver.

 

 

Now we're starting to get somewhere.Once all was dry it was time for some test fitting starting with the instrument panel.

 

 

It just wouldn't sit down into where it's intended to,this piccie hopefully shows the spots that need to be adjusted to make it do so.The next job I did was to tape the fuselage insert together with the front bulkhead and glue those together as far as the aperture for the ID lamp.This was held square with my adjustable spanner.This method would allow me to insert and remove the various components for fitting and fettling.

 

 

Silver paint in the rear fuselage.

 

 

This was taped together and glued.

 

 

The glue was left to set overnight.The following afternoon the tape was pulled off and I found possibly the best fuselage joints I have ever encountered,needing the gentlest wipe of the sanding block to make it all look spot on.

 

 

 

On a whim and with an eye on a future PR conversion I thought I'd offer up a PR XIX upper wing just to assess feasibility.

 

 

Hmm.

Anyway.in the interests of a fettle free joint the kits upper wing halves were located and glued.

 

 

Putting that aside to sort itself out the undercarriage was the next victim of my attentions.

 

 

It looks good,impressively good.The shiny bits are self adhesive aluminium tape left over from a Sun Tunnel I put in on a job at Collingham a few years ago.I've got a whole roll of the stuff and I'm only using tiddly little rectangles of it at any one time.It'll see me out unless I go in to mass production.Just how easily can they be seen? 

 

 

Fitting up the cockpit resumed.The tape strips for the lower part of the Sutton Harness were added to the seat and proceeded to be a b..... nuisance during the ensuing in out fettle repeat.To cap it all the seat was wonky.Breathe in and hold it for a count of ten...

 

 

I went back to playing with the mainlegs.A scientific wiggle through the slot will allow the assembled leg to be in the vicinity of where it is supposed to live.Fit it and glue it and I'll do the paint job with the legs in place I thought.Can't be that tricky surely.

 

 

I'm so pleased that I'm doing this now and not after the main job is done.This gap happened on both sides,one bigger than the other.

 

 

I went back to the cockpit.

 

 

 

 

I'm quite pleased with the Sutton Harness.

 

Fettling to fit into the fuselage involved chopping off the top of the front bulkhead,it's not visible so it won't be missed,so that I could see in to the back of the instrument panel.I found where it interfered with the fit and did a little butchery.It fits in place a treat now.

 

 

I then turned my attention to the rudder.I had mangled the antenna attachment point somewhere along the line so I dug out an etched brass frame from many moons ago and made up a replacement which was roughly shaped,superglued in place and then finished off in position because these sausage fingers find it easier to hold larger objects when performing fine work.I also drilled out a hole to take a rear marker lamp.

 

 

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.Stay safe.

 

 

Edited November 29, 2022 by Alex Gordon

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,I've made quite a bit of progress over the last few days.The lower wing was fitted.The front edge went in easily with no fuss,the back edge wouldn't quite sit down which was probably my fault because it went in alright when I dry fitted it before inserting the insert.A couple of strips of insulating tape sorted it out and,once set,I was left with the only real bit of gap filling so far.While I was at it I fitted the carburettor air intake.I have an odd feeling that I glued the mouth of it the wrong way up.It is handed and the map isn't wonderfully clear on this.

 

 

While the glue on the stretched runner was setting I gave the glassware a coat of looking at.There's loads of it.For cut and shut merchants there's a possibility of 3 spare rear portions,5 spare sliding sections and 2 spare windscreens.I've already pinched one of the closed options for use on another project.

 

 

I selected the relevant bits and masked them off inside and out.

 

 

The rear view mirror is tiny.

 

 

There are clear parts for the clipped wingtips too.Neat idea but masking the lights will be entertainment itself.

 

 

Tidying up my spot of fillery was not problematic.The underside ID lamp was masked off with a little circle of tape cut with my trusty leather punch.The maingear was masked off too.So far so good.Underside colour in the insides of the radiator and oil cooler housings,we're getting nearer to paint with every move.

 

 

The glassware had a hairy sticking of darkened Sky.You will notice that the rear view mirror has been glued in place.It will surprise you to note that I did not drop it once,no time spent crawling around the floor looking for it,no pinging out of the tweezers into the ether.Not like most of the rest of the components which have been dropped once and one or two that have had repeated excursions away on their own.

 

 

 

Once dry they were offered up and glued in place.Once again no fuss or fettling.You might be wondering why she's not standing on her mainwheels.Guess what.They both gave way and broke off with little or no provocation whatsoever.Oh well,it's a good job that I'm in possession of thin wire and matching drill bits. 

 

 

Time to paint the leading edges yellow.I had a little plan for the wingtip lights.

 

 

While the yellow was still wet I used my smallest paintbrush dipped in white spirit to remove paint from the light glasses.Once the paint had dried it was a simple matter of taking the 4" strip mask around the corner to cover the glasses and none of that fiddly tiny little bits of tape that won't stay put if you so much as look at them.The underside had a squirt of Humbrol 165 Medium Sea Grey.Straight from the tin it dries with a lovely Type S finish which then darkens when any varnish coat is applied.My way around that is to mix it with gloss varnish which makes it decal ready and won't darken with further coverings.I went over to using Terebene as a thinner not long after I started airbrushing seriously.It guarantees paint drying (the joys of Xtracolour) and can allow for speeding up the work should I feel the need to.Nowadays I only use white spirit for brush cleaning.

 

 

 

Three hours from painting I was left with a rock solid maskable finish.This was left overnight though,it was getting late and I needed some kip.

 

 

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.Stay safe.

Edited May 10, 2020 by Alex Gordon

[TEMPESTMK5]

Good evening Alex

Very good job so far 👍

Best Regards

Patrice

 

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,a little more progress.

 

Patrice,thanks for looking in old chum,glad you're enjoying this one.

 

A quick wipe down with white spirit to remove my fingerprints was followed by a squirt of Xtracolour Ocean Grey.

 

 

Once this had dried I looked long and hard at it thinking about how much darker than the usual Humbrol 106 it looked and had I done the right thing.I had a good trawl through Google and wound up reading a post elsewhere on BM where Nick Millman reckoned that Xtracolour's rendition was about as close as we are likely to find.If it's good enough for him then it'll definitely  do for me.I pressed on with the masking for the green and then sprayed Xtracolour RAF Dark Green.

 

 

It looks a lot greener than the Humbrol 163 that I'm used to.More waiting time for drying.Something I read a little while back concerned the absence of the 12" black stripe on the underside centreline in the paint diagram.There is a decent photo of this machine here .It's not my piccie so I'll just link to it. Here is a crop from it which I think shows it present.

 

 

The Ducimus Colour and Markings book describes the stripe and its width along with a diagram,that's enough evidence for me masking here we come.Two strips of tape and a hairy stickful of gloss black later

 

 

Once dry it'll be decal time

 

 

While looking for something else I found this piccie,nice to know how the professionals do it.

 

 

More soon chums,thanks for looking in.Be good and stay safe.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,we're on the last leg of this trip.The exhausts had a bit of attention.They had a coat of Humbrol 118 as a base and,once dry,a rub over with powdered pencil lead.Right one done,left one halfway.

 

 

Must clean my hairy sticks a little more thoroughly,they seem to be moulting.Next up the maingear legs.

 

 

 

I drilled a hole down the centre of each leg and also through both mountings into the inside surface of the wing.I then inserted a length of appropriate diameter wire and fettled for length before committing to superglue.You can just see the pin going from the inside end of the mounting to the inside of the wing in this piccie.For my money this will take some of the load off the mounting.

 

 

The decals were applied on to a blob of Klear and all settled down a treat with no problems at all.

 

 

Just out of curiosity I put the kit external fuel tank next to the ICM offering of the same capacity,ICM left kit right

 

 

Hmmm.The propellor was the final bit of construction to undertake.

 

 

I like this idea and it works very well.

There has been a flurry of nitpicking and tweaking and a final coat of Vallejo matt varnish.I'm calling this one finished.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks for looking in chums,my thanks to @TEMPESTMK5 , @Enzo Matrix for their hard work organising this whole caper.

And remember folks

 

 

Stay safe everyone.

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Well done sir .. Well done. ... Im sure i missed the point of the stripe on the belly, did the ships use it as an Identifier, or was it to aid in compass directions for the gunners ? Was the plane actually pointed at the target so the stripe would indicate direction of fire ? I feel I know the answer but cant remember. 
 

Dennis

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Dennis,thanks for chipping in.The markings are those of 278 squadron whose role was Air Sea Rescue.I think that the black stripe was an identifier for that role.I'm not certain whether it was for the Navy's benefit or that of the poor unfortunate soul in the briny.

[TonyOD]

This is a great build and very helpful. I’m doing the same kit in another scheme at the moment and picked up a lot of tips. I fancy just me if these ASR Mk Vs for the Salty Sea Dog GB. The heads up on the underside stripe is a bonus.