Bedders Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 (edited) 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 10 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 That's great workmanship on the fuselage there! SD 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Giorgio N Posted November 15, 2020 Share Posted November 15, 2020 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 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted November 22, 2020 Author Share Posted November 22, 2020 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 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Team Aer Lingus Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 Nice work so far Justin well done thanks for sharing regards Eamonn 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bigbadbadge Posted November 22, 2020 Share Posted November 22, 2020 Very nice interior work, great job Chris 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SafetyDad Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 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 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bedders Posted November 23, 2020 Author Share Posted November 23, 2020 (edited) 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 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HOUSTON Posted November 23, 2020 Share Posted November 23, 2020 Justin .NOICE. IMPRESSIVE start. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cookenbacher Posted December 31, 2020 Share Posted December 31, 2020 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. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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