Spitfire Tr. VIII in 1/72

[Bedders]

I've got @Giorgio N to blame for this really. We were discussing elsewhere on BM recently the merits of the AZ Spitfire Trainer kits and whether there are better ways to skin this particular cat. That prompted me to dig out my own attempt to produce a two-seater, using the AZ kit, but the more I looked at it, the more work it looked like it needed, and even then the result would be less than stellar. I felt I was going in the wrong direction, and began looking instead at the obvious alternative route: to combine the relevant bits of the AZ two-seater with a better base kit, namely the Eduard. As I had an Eduard Mk VIII waiting in the stash, I began marking up the potential points of surgery and with some trepidation, commenced cutting. Here's the starting point: I'd already had a go at lengthening the too-short AZ fuselage, and extending the span of the wings:

 

 

And here's the surgery in progress. AZ plastic light grey, Eduard darker. I decided to reuse the Eduard panels below the windscreen, and the AZ parts from that point aft. You can see that even with my extra 2mm added to the AZ rear fuselage, it's still shorter than the Eduard:

 

 

Here I've had a first go at filling and sanding the joins, and it's looking reasonably decent. I avoided cutting along the main Eduard panel lines as I didn't want to lose that fine detail and I also wanted to use them as reference points. 

 

On the wings I've sanded off the cannon bulges and filled and sanded the gun ports and ejector chutes, as well as the wingtip ID lamps. I've also started on the interior, moving the Eduard cockpit sidewalls forward and building up the sidewalls of the rear cockpit to match.

 

 

A dry fit just to get the juices flowing:

 

 

And this is what I'm aiming for. MT818/N32 in its original form after conversion to two seat comfiguration in 1946. It was the only one of its kind and still survives, not far from home. This is a colourised photo and I'm not relishing the prospect of spraying the yellow, but it's a beautìful aeroplane, and I simply have to have one.

 

 

More soon I hope!

 

Justin

 

Edited November 15, 2020 by Bedders

[bigbadbadge]

Great conversion work.  Very nice project, could be worse, you could have to brush paint the yellow!!!

I am currently building the AZ TR.9 and you are right there's a lot of work.   I am chickening out of the extending though. 

Good work so far

Chris

[SafetyDad]

That's great workmanship on the fuselage there!

 

 

SD

[Giorgio N]

Fantastic job here Justin! 👍

Glad to be blamed if the result is a good model! Looking forward to seeing more, this could well be the best way to get the best possible two-seat Spitfire in this scale

[Bedders]

I've been working on the interior. Photos of the original (the earliest I could find was dated around 1961, and the aircraft remains so today) indicate that the sidewalls above the datum longeron were painted black, and below that cockpit grey-green. So that's how I've done it, and I've tried to replicate the main sidewall-mounted controls (throttle quadrant, trim wheel, undercarriage selector) by copying the Eduard parts using plastic card and scrounging other bits and bobs from the AZ kit. I think the sidewalls are done now, so time to turn attention to the bulkeads, seats and instument panels. As you can see the AZ panel for the rear has come up quite nicely, using water-soluble coloured pencils to pick out the detail from the otherwise black panel. The front one will be easy as Eduard gives you some nice photo-etch, and hopefully the two will not look too different in terms of quality.

 

 

Justin

[Team Aer Lingus]

Nice work so far Justin well done

 

thanks for sharing

 

regards

 

Eamonn

[bigbadbadge]

Very nice interior work,  great job

Chris

[SafetyDad]

19 hours ago, Bedders said:

 As you can see the AZ panel for the rear has come up quite nicely, using water-soluble coloured pencils to pick out the detail from the otherwise black panel. 

Justin

 

That's a great result on the panel Justin - can you please say a little more about this 'water-soluble coloured pencil' magic? 

Sounds like a technique I should try!

 

 

SD

[Bedders]

SD,

 

These are the ones I use. I got them when I was about 13, sometime last century. But they still make them. Dry they're just normal pencils, but a touch of moisture softens the tip and it releases a bit more colour onto the surface. Great for accentuating raised detail on instrument panels, cockpit interiors etc.

 

 

Justin

Edited November 23, 2020 by Bedders

[HOUSTON]

Justin 

.NOICE.

IMPRESSIVE  start.

[Cookenbacher]

I can't believe I missed this bit of Bedder's Spitfire Surgery, on of my favourite topics - well done Justin, that interior looks amazing.