G-IRTY Silver Spitfire - Quattro Stagioni - L'inverno

[alt-92]

Part 1:

Part 2

Part 3 

 

part 4.

 

Languishing nearly forgotten and neglected as decoy, what was left of MJ271 still looked like a Spitfire and therefore was an attractive option for a small war museum in Delfzijl, the Netherlands. 
It was sold for one Guilder (as a symbolic amount - can't have the Air Force giving away stuff after all, it's taxpayer money!) and displayed on the grounds.

Enterprising youngsters quickly employed it as a climbing rack, so to spare the worst the aircraft was moved to the roof. Not that it really worked.. 
A first restoration attempt fizzled out in the mid-70s due to lack of interest.

 

The second attempt was more successful however.

By this time the museum had closed, and thanks to the efforts of Spitfire aficionado Harry van der Meer it was sold to the National Air Museum Aviodome at Schiphol in 1978.

 

MJ271 being dismantled from the old location @ Delfzijl - Image courtesy strijdbewijs.nl 
 

MJ271 was restored by Harry (now curator at Aviodome) with the assistance and help of Fokker trainees and KLM, and instead of the standard RAF Grey/Green the decision was made to make this Spit a bit more unique.

Dutch Spitfires served with 322 Sqn in the Dutch East Indies where they were repainted in Jungle Green & light blue.
Suitably redone, MJ271 now assumed the identity of another, MH424/H-53 and as such she would be part of the exhibition up until 2006.

 

However, the move from Schiphol to Lelystad Airport in 2003 meant declining visitor numbers, and to recoup some of the losses, MJ271 was sold in 2006 into long term storage.
Unfortunately, that didn't do her much good and prospects for restoration were dim.

Until... 

Some enterprising chaps decided it was a good idea to fly a Spit around the world...

 

MJ271 was purchased by the Boultbee Flight Academy in 2016 and was offered to the Aircraft Restoration Company (ARC) at Duxford for restoration and to make her airworthy again.

That process took nearly three years, and in preparation a newer engine, larger oil tanks and extra fuel tanks were installed.
June 2019 saw her first post-restoration flight and with the civil registration G-IRTY started her travel around the world on august 5th 2019.

And the rest, they say, is history.

 

 

 

Harry van der Meer and Matt Jones @ Lelystad Airport, the last stop of the epic journey. - image via Aviodrome

 

 

 

[alt-92]

Kit:
AZmodels kindly offers a 1/72 kit of their Mk.IX range with markings for G-IRTY.

 

 

Sprue shots. There are no bumps for the wheel wells, but a 3x Joypack also includes a post-war Mk.XVI frame that has these.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Planebuilder62]

I’m following this, great stuff

[alt-92]

Small bits and cockpit parts pre-painted.

Yahu IP, which is actually too big for AZ kits - some fettling is needed, a slight thinning groove in fuselage halves and trimmed the panel slightly.

 

Also, the sprue gates aren't really flush as you can see. They need careful handling.

 

 

Everything with these kits fits, but you don't get any locating pins.

Adding tabs of plasticard helps.

 

[Johnson]

What a great story.

On 6/17/2020 at 9:23 PM, alt-92 said:

It was sold for one Guilder

Unbelievable! But things were different then.

 

Looking forward to following!

[alt-92]

1 hour ago, Johnson said:

Unbelievable! But things were different then.

Still happens today  

That 1 Guilder/Euro/Pound/Dollar is usually the 'symbolic' sale amount for the government books - because it's taxpayer's money, they can't just give it away for free.

And a sale means that proper ownership transfer is done legally binding.
 

Of course, you need to meet the cost of arranging transport, restoration, maintenance and such out of your own pocket so it doesn't really mean that much.

[alt-92]

Surgery day today...

The pit is OK for closed-canopy stuff (which is standard for AZ) , but I wanted to have something more

 

The seat and headplate are quite different from what you get in the kit, so that means plundering the spares bin and splicing an Eduard top-end on it, customise some PE and add the bar above the seat. The backrest in green and the belts made from folded tape.

I'll scrounge an extra door, and I have some vac canopies, so I can cut up the kit transparencies without too much worries.

 

[corsaircorp]

Hello Alt,

Great subject !! Thorough researches !!

Congrats that man !!

That's the kind of modelling I particularly appreciate !!

Sincerely.

CC

[alt-92]

I'm trying to work out how best to do something like the rear tank.
Meanwhile, the cockpit parts were slipped in and some polishing has taken place.
also added an extra rear frame, bar still to be added.

Gun ports pre-puttied as well.

 

More later today.

 

[alt-92]

We have what can pass for a rear fuel tank!

 

Next steps is adding the wings.

Clipped tips are cut off, so the standard tips can be added.
I've also been through the spares box and found what can pass for GPS antenna on top.

I do need to remember to add the iPad in the cockpit before hacking up the windshield & canopy.

 

[alt-92]

Found the iPad lookalike (leftover PE bits), so that's on.

And it has wings. Without gaps even. 

Filled the gaping holes for the cannon by inserting them the other way round, cutting them off and carefully sanding them down.

Added a bit of filler which needs to harden and then polished off.

 

Speaking of polishing...

I've grabbed the old Revell Mk.II paint mule, sprayed black base coat followed 48hrs later by AK's Xtreme Polished Aluminium.

 

Shiny! Bling!

That will do nicely  - got Chrome in the collection as well if need be.

 

Considering they're enamels and need to breathe out, I'd better get a crack on then!

 

[alt-92]

Leading edges cleaned up and polished. After the first few tries just a splash of Mr surfacer 1500 to see, and another go.

 

That tackled, I've repeated the scratchbuild wheel well bulges but this time managed to get them even more flush.

After a bit of elbow grease spent sanding and polishing, let's see how it works under a shot of primer:

 

 

 

Yeah... that'll do

Up next: hacking up the windscreen & canopy.

 

[janneman36]

I am impressed by the extreme polished aluminium on that mule...it looks like alclad! 
Do you paint the fabric covered parts in simple aluminium paint instead of bare metal?
 

cheers, Jan

[alt-92]

 

I was pleasantly surprised as well how that worked out

10 hours ago, janneman36 said:

Do you paint the fabric covered parts in simple aluminium paint instead of bare metal?

Yes, that's why the rudder isn't attached.

[alt-92]

Canopy hacking done!

The AZ canopy is one-piece, and rather squished. And not really thin.
So I've grabbed a Pavla Airfix Mk.IX vacform replacement and separated the hood and windscreen.

The aft plexiglass is the AZ bit sawn off.

The angle on the windscreen is a tad bit more sloped, but the total effect works imho - the hood is loosely perched in the pic, but will sit in the rails.

 

 

[Johnson]

On 7/12/2020 at 7:46 PM, alt-92 said:

The angle on the windscreen is a tad bit more sloped, but the total effect works imho

Looks fine, if you hadn't mentioned it we'd never have noticed, not that there is anything to notice!

[alt-92]

Full steam ahead, damn the torpedo's!

 

AK Black Base

 

I've saved the anti-glare template for use here as it's the same size measured.

So stickered on:

 

Bling! Bling!

 

 

The last bits & bobs will be added and tomorrow it's sticker time.

 

 

[alt-92]

....orrr... maybe not. 

I've managed to lose the prop.

It'll turn up somewhere, but for now that means I can't finish this one within the GB. 
I will finish this one in the regular WIP. 

[Johnson]

7 hours ago, alt-92 said:

I will finish this one in the regular WIP.

I look forward to it! 

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, hope you find the missing prop soon.

[alt-92]

Found the prop  +1

Had another look at the paintjob on the wings -1

You can tell on the last pic there's a bit of spray pattern to see, so the delay caused by the lost prop may be beneficial.

I plan on redoing the wings in the black base coat, and re-applying the Polished Aluminium but this time closer to avoid the paint drying too early. Another test-spray indicated that you can really spray wet with this stuff and it will level out very nicely.

I might even forego the kit decals and use Draw-decal's fuselage set as they do have the transparent globe.

[Johnson]

9 hours ago, alt-92 said:

Another test-spray indicated that you can really spray wet with this stuff and it will level out very nicely.

I found the same. The paint dries quickly so I guess a decent coverage is needed to ensure it levels and avoids a grainy effect.

 

Good that you found the prop!

[Mike]

I've moved this for you, and you can now have another go, hopefully with some better luck

[alt-92]

Thanks @Mike !

 

Well, where to (re)start? 
Not being quite happy with the finish as pictured above, I wiped the surface with alcohol to remove finger grease and went over the wings again with black base.

At that moment, disaster struck with heavy orange peeling and a far from smooth surface.

Ugh. 
Relegated to the Shelf of Doom it went.  

 

 

This morning, I decided to have go at removing the blobby paintwork for a complete stripdown. 
Generously dousing the model in neat Self-leveling thinner sprayed on (took me half a bottle) has blown all paint clear off, leaving the bare plastic again.

 

 

One positive thing about all this is that it does allow for some small corrections, such as filling the cartridge ejection ports on the bottom which i neglected to do first time round.

 

So perhaps, some good will eventually come out of this mishap

 

[billn53]

I have my fingers crossed for you.