USAAF 4th Fighter Group Spitfire (Tamiya 1/48 Mk Vb) * FINISHED 30 NOV (+ few extra photo’s)*

[Brandy]

9 minutes ago, perdu said:

Horses?

 

Here? 

 

Ah yes temporal dilithium, happens all the...

 

 

Only on certain threads involving carriages drawn by said animals. Can't remember off hand whose thread that was.... 

 

Ian

[Fritag]

2 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

 

 

3 hours ago, Fritag said:

altho' I did save the Buccaneer vortex generators 

 

Did you catch that one lads, looks like our grandchildren are in for a treat after the Jaguar!

 

Not even the grandkids Terry  some else had the (dubious) privilege of the (dubious) Fritag etchings….

 

 

Now - just to reset the thread from its temporal disturbance to jets with MDC and Brummagem wagons with horses, to the c. 1942 Spittie it’s s’posed to be about….Drooping tail feathers attached 

 

 

 

Edited August 31, 2021 by Fritag

[perdu]

Painted that strut yet Steve?

[hendie]

7 hours ago, Fritag said:

Alan, how about a subtle, almost diffident nod?  An archetypal British, semi-embarrassed at asking anyone to do anything, ready to pretend nothing was in fact asked for nod? - with equally semi-embarrassed and over-the-top expressions of gratitude held in reserve just in case....Phew - that was stressful......(Also - and cue more archetypal British diffidence - my guess is that it's probably too fine a task for the printer so please don't waste any time or material on it).

 

 

Ah, I see free legal advice for life in my future      

Steve, in all honesty, time for something like this will be minimal, maybe 30 minutes or so. Once the model is created the challenge will be placing supports for the structure in that they 1) don't interfere with the MDC, 2) stay attached during printing, and 3) can be removed later without destroying the MDC.  

I'm estimating that your PE MDC is a smidgen under 0.5mm wide?  My WW window rubbers were 0.7mm wide and about 0.35 mm tall and they printed without any issues.  The printer X&Y resolution is something like 0.05mm so I reckon I should be able to get down to 0.3mm or maybe even 0.2mm in width without too much trouble.  Once the initial model is built, tweaking it for different widths is a couple of mouse clicks.

 

Maybe @TheBaron can chime in here - I seem to remember Tony doing a test print to see how fine a feature could be printed and it was down in that region.  Tony's the scientific type, keeping notes and all that, and understanding what he's actually doing.  I'm more of a brute force kind of guy and just keep hammering at it until I get something that works, or thereabouts. 

 

7 hours ago, Fritag said:

And you may be surprised to hear that there's no real hurry 

 

oh, there will be when you get the parts  

 

 

 

 

[Terry1954]

Nice elevator positioning Steve, and generally a very very nice Spitfire emerging. 1/48 is starting to grow on me actually, now that I've nearly finished that Meteor. I have a nice Airfix 1/48 Seafire in the stash. Something for light relief from the glider thread maybe.

 

I tell you what @hendie if you are able to produce something marketable, you could have a winner.

 

Think of all this MDC chat that could be populating that old Hawk thread Steve. Last time I checked it was 138!

 

Terry

[perdu]

I had an overnight worry over this drift of modelling threadedness

 

Will Alan a hero have to make the MDC curved to fit inside the canopy or will the resinous shape deform into the space it needs to fit?

[giemme]

18 hours ago, Fritag said:

Drooping tail feathers attached 

 

She's looking so classy!  

 

I think I told you already, but I can foresee a bright future for you in 1/48 modelling...       

 

Ciao

[hendie]

5 hours ago, perdu said:

Will Alan a hero have to make the MDC curved to fit inside the canopy or will the resinous shape deform into the space it needs to fit?

 

No worries Bill. Fresh out of the vat those thing will be as pliable as a freshly picked booger.  They will dry out slightly over hours/days but will still be easily conformed to canopy curves, as long as they're not placed in direct sunlight to cure before sticking them in a canopy.

Once cured though, they are so thin that they will be broken very easily during handling

[perdu]

Freshly picked...?

 

I suppose the booger is a fruit that can be picked from low lying undergrowth.

 

 

 

Ho hum 🐻

[TheBaron]

18 hours ago, hendie said:

I'm estimating that your PE MDC is a smidgen under 0.5mm wide?  My WW window rubbers were 0.7mm wide and about 0.35 mm tall and they printed without any issues.  The printer X&Y resolution is something like 0.05mm so I reckon I should be able to get down to 0.3mm or maybe even 0.2mm in width without too much trouble.

0.3mm for sure Alan. 👍

0.2mm is really borderline and depends on the shape involved - long thin features tend to self-destruct whereas a hole of that diameter will *just* remain visible if the gods of suction/orientation are on your side.

[Fritag]

This was probably about as good as I got from my home-brew etching efforts - and this was after a fair bit of trial and error.  it was an enjoyable but rather laborious process IIRC.  I’ve about half a dozen of this sort of quality and I would guess that the line thickness is between about 0.2mm and 0.3mm at best but is a little variable and not 100% consistent and some sections look chunkier than others.  I couldn’t do better. 

 

Obviously the cross section is square (ish) rather than rounded - and it remains to be seen how easy it would be to get them to contour and adhere to the canopy - although I managed it with the wire ones on the JP using Klear. 

 

If the printing can handle 0.2mm or perhaps even 0.3mm my guess is it’s potentially a much better looking solution.  Heck it might not even need painting!

 

 

 

Did I say my thread drift was over?

 

Edited September 1, 2021 by Fritag

[Terry1954]

12 minutes ago, Fritag said:

Did I say my thread drift was over?

 

I know, we could mosey on over to the Hawk thread and carry on there.............

 

Just an idea really

 

Terry

[perdu]

The pens are in!

 

True to the subject of the 'other' discussion I used a sacrificial tool to try out the pen's usefulness.

 

Late version Airfix Hawk starter kit 'won' as a charity competition build and which fought me all the way, scars?

 

Show you at Telford in November

 

Ah yes, pictures

 

 

It.

 

 

The pen adjacent to the piece of MDC was used to colour it.

 

OK where there is an engraved groove as in the Airfix kit but I doubt if it will be as effective on Steve's own home brewed canopies

 

That seems to be in hand now

 

(Why still on a Spitfire thread? Have you tried tracking back sixty months to the Two Hawks thread back there in pre-history?)

[Fritag]

54 minutes ago, perdu said:

The pen adjacent to the piece of MDC was used to colour it.

 

54 minutes ago, perdu said:

OK where there is an engraved groove as in the Airfix kit but I doubt if it will be as effective on Steve's own home brewed canopies

 

 

Noted - many thanks Bill.

 

S'almost like having a test team   Albeit for an undeserving somewhat moribund build 

 

57 minutes ago, perdu said:

Why still on a Spitfire thread? Have you tried tracking back sixty months to the Two Hawks thread back there in pre-history?

 

See what I mean?

 

Mind you the moral pressure to restart is building to the point of becoming ungainsayable 

 

[Terry1954]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

Late version Airfix Hawk starter kit 'won' as a charity competition build

Very timely post. Just seen nine of these beauties over Bournemouth!

 

Terry

[perdu]

3 minutes ago, Terry1954 said:

Very timely post. Just seen nine of these beaties over Bournemouth!

 

Terry

Be advised Terry, nice but a bit curate's egg for me

 

The undercarriage is a bit debatable, I'm sure our Steve has handled his whereas I just ignored the poorness on mine.

[Fritag]

4 hours ago, perdu said:

The undercarriage is a bit debatable, I'm sure our Steve has handled his whereas I just ignored the poorness on mine.

 

I tried Bill 

 

 

 

Hmm, starting to feel the need to get back to them two…..

 

 

[perdu]

Yep, that is a good shot of an imposed pair of tweezers on a photo of the real thing.

 

Nicely faked main gear shots too.

[Terry1954]

Bill's comments say it all.

 

But Steve, wait......... you do realise Spitfires don't have nosewheels right?

 

Terry

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

On 9/2/2021 at 4:03 PM, Terry1954 said:

Very timely post. Just seen nine of these beauties over Bournemouth!

 

Terry

Dead Sparrows, Schmed Sparrows: you also saw the return of the FAA to display flying - a Wildcat or two (just seen on local news, so I know they were there).  
 

The Typhoon looked pretty good, though, and the Chinook is always excellent (if a little quease-inducing).

 

[P.S. Gorgeous Spit, Steve, obvs]

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Ex-FAAWAFU said:

Dead Sparrows, Schmed Sparrows: you also saw the return of the FAA to display flying - a Wildcat or two (just seen on local news, so I know they were there).  
 

The Typhoon looked pretty good, though, and the Chinook is always excellent (if a little quease-inducing).

 

[P.S. Gorgeous Spit, Steve, obvs]

 

As well as glimpsing the Red Arrows on Thursday, travelling through Bournemouth, we decided to go to Shell Bay in Studland this afternoon to watch the displays from there. The Typhoon was indeed good and late afternoon what I am certain was a Griffon powered Spitfire/Seafire flew over and it looked as if it carried EDSG/Sky colouring. Bit odd as I didn't think the Mk XVII was flying again yet? Could have mis-identified as it was very bright and almost into the sun when I got the closest look, but it was definitely not a Merlin powered bird!

 

Terry

 

 

[The Spadgent]

On 31/08/2021 at 12:12, Fritag said:

 

It’s all special, but that! That is super special. 😍

[Ex-FAAWAFU]

12 hours ago, Terry1954 said:

 

As well as glimpsing the Red Arrows on Thursday, travelling through Bournemouth, we decided to go to Shell Bay in Studland this afternoon to watch the displays from there. The Typhoon was indeed good and late afternoon what I am certain was a Griffon powered Spitfire/Seafire flew over and it looked as if it carried EDSG/Sky colouring. Bit odd as I didn't think the Mk XVII was flying again yet? Could have mis-identified as it was very bright and almost into the sun when I got the closest look, but it was definitely not a Merlin powered bird!

 

Terry

 

 

Not sure whether the Seafire is flying again.  
 

However, while we’re on the subject, Navy Wings have decided that they’re going to sell the crashed Sea Fury T.20 (I think it might already have gone), and concentrate on getting the FB.11 back into the air - it’s currently airworthy but the engine needs work… and also to acquire a different airworthy FAA historic type, almost certainly a Seafire.  Hoorah!

[Fritag]

Given a somewhat tarnished history of consistent application I feel a certain pressure to give 'proof of life' (inappropriate metaphor notwithstanding) even when there ain't much to report 

 

There's a small air inlet on top of the cowling (dunno what for) that Tamiya represented only with a contemptuous splodge of shapeless plastic.

 

 

Borrowed the hendie technique of forming some softened plastic (0.2mm sheet) around a shaped cocktail stick to make a better scoop and used Tamiya quick setting extra thin (found a use Giorgio!) to fix it in place:

 

 

Whether or not it's quite a perfect shape might be open to question (I haven't checked ) but it'll look a bit better under paint than the splodge.

 

I've got a bit of a downer on canopies at the moment - unforgiving articles that they are.  So it's taken me a couple of sessions, working rather dispiritedly, to get the previously crash-moulded fixed rear section of canopy secured in place.

 

I masked and then 'painted' the internal framing using a silver sharpie (and it immediately became my new best friend as the finish was perfect), fixed it with cyano and used some some Mr Surfacer 500 to deal with some small gaps/irregularities:

 

 

Yes Bill, I did remember to paint the headrest support 

 

 

I haven't dipped the canopy section in Klear as I often end up with some slight visual distortion due to pooling - no matter how hard I try to wick of all the excess - and also because I generally prefer (as here) to polish the canopy ad-nauseam with with the finest grade wet and dry and then with car polish.

 

Gun sight and windscreen next.  Then any bits and bobs that need fitting such as the cannons, radio aerial and then (bloomin' eck) priming.

 

 

Edited September 7, 2021 by Fritag
typos

[giemme]

Impeccable! Who needs Klear?      

 

Ciao