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


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You’re a star Cookie :whistle:  Sorry :blush:  I may be needing you later...........Wish I had a cutter.  P’raps if I actually make more models I’ll be able to justify it.......

 

Internal stiffening in both wheel well bays done:

 

1C9D2C5D-DFD1-4F88-89B7-F0C17509044E

 

And both wheel bulges on,  Mr Surfacered (don’t you just hate the contemporary trend of verbification?) and micromeshed:

 

F39EEF5A-2AAE-41A2-B117-34A282FC7097

 

Pretty well blended in; probably good enough that any more blending can be done with the primer.  I’m keen to avoid the obvious ‘stuck on lump of resin’ look.  

 

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Cockpit next I guess.

 

I’m beginning to remember why I used to like this modelling lark.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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So.  Seat selection.

 

Somehow I had a choice of three.

 

Tamiya on the right.  Unidentified (Ultracast?) that I found in a cupboard in the middle;  and Aires on the left.

 

Only the Aires has the characteristic lozenge shaped depression in the seat base (for the dinghy air bottle I think) - but it (like the Tamiya seat) lacks the hole for the harness in the seat back and the leather padding extends too far down.

 

A8223723-D3A0-40D3-A49F-61B5257436FE

 

I saw how Giorgio improved the Tamiya seat on his build:

 

And borrowed the idea:

 

As presented:

 

02542091-D22F-484F-97C7-B79844C9BB40

 

And after some judicious carving and drilling:

 

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Should pass muster when ‘alf covered by the harness.

 

That’s about all the modelling that real life left time for today.

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fritag
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22 minutes ago, Fritag said:

And after some judicious carving and drilling:

 

That there is a gallus piece of whittling by anyone's standard. 

 

Admit it. You're just out to depress us all again, aren't you?

 

 

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On 15/04/2021 at 18:35, Cookenbacher said:

I do have the file for for 1942 US stars from a Dauntless build, all I have to do is scale them up to 1/48 and have the cutter go to town.

12 hours ago, giemme said:

I think you do have friends with cutters, both on your island and on the continent.

Yep. If Cookie scales up the design and emails me the file I'd be happy to cut it and post it off.

 

Nice bulges and seat Steve.

(That would usually get a 'fnaar' but I don't want to start any rumours :wicked:)

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Oooh, nice work on that seat

 

As for the other one.......

 

12 hours ago, Fritag said:

Unidentified (Ultracast?) that I found in a cupboard in the middle

 

I wish I could find nice surprises like that in the middle of our cupboards 🤪

 

Terry

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Gallus fettling indeed (though since I am a Nottinghamian, use of such words probably counts as cultural appropriation in our Wokeworld, so I anticipate a visit from the Thought Police).

 

 

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Looks like you're off to a good start. Welcome back to the fine art of styrene butchery (in my case anyway, I've been hacking away at some Hasegawa hubris with a grinder). I think you've made the right choice of seat, especially since you've volunteered to show us how that HGW textile harness goes together. Besides, how can those parts be too small? This is 1:48 scale mate.    :)

 

Cheers,

Bill

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On 4/17/2021 at 9:36 AM, giemme said:

better than my feeble attempt, anyway....

 

Ha. Feeble?  I see Italians are masters of irony, G :rofl2:

 

Cockpit musings.

 

Tamiya right sidewall.  The kit cockpit sides flare out at the bottom rather than curving inwards as in the real thing.  The moulded in equipment is ok but a bit crude and softly moulded.

 

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The Aires set provides replacement resin side walls that are fuselage shaped and with more detail.  But I’m not gonna use them.  Most model cockpit walls are too thick to start with, without adding another resin layer!  Anyways I’m not sure the overall effect is sharp or neat enough.

 

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What I think I will do is nick some of the detail bits to use like the Obottle, morse key, spare gunsight bulbs and IFF remote contactor and ditch the rest.

 

I am going to use the Aires resin lower fuselage though.  I’ve no idea how accurate it is, but it looks the biz....

 

I’ve cut it from the casting block and fettled and test fitted and aligned it with the dry fitted fuselage sides; and it’s now just tacked in place with small drops of gators grip in case further adjustment is needed.

 

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And here’s the right sidewall again.  I’ve carved off the moulded in equipment and I’ll replace that and add to it with a mixture of the resin bits nicked from the Aires side wall and any photo etch bits that I like from the Eduard set I have and may be some scratch bits.

 

I’ve also carved off all the detail below the mid-height longeron(?) as the plan is to recreate the bottom half of the fuselage in plastic card suitably populated with plastic strip stringers etc. and cunningly sized and shaped to fit together with the Aires resin lower fuselage.

 

C3007D66-F6D3-4F27-AE27-9F1D40EF3109

 

Well that’s the plan anyway...

 

Oh and I’m doing likewise to the left cockpit side wall as well (obvs.) :D

 

Should be manageable, cos as Bill says:

 

On 4/17/2021 at 7:08 PM, Navy Bird said:

how can those parts be too small? This is 1:48 scale mate.    :)

 

Well I guess we’ll  see........

 

 

 

 

Edited by Fritag
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On 11/04/2021 at 23:19, Fritag said:

 

The Tamiya 1/48 Vb kit dates from as long ago as the mid 90’s so it’s no longer state of the art; and I know there are a few shape issues on close inspection (e.g. short fuselage, wing chord too long and a “square shouldered” look to the engine cowling).  

easier to fix than might be thought,  the wing is really easy, it's just a bit wide in chord near the middle,  mostly at the back,  take out ailerons,(they are OK)  reshape wing, fill and rescribe flap lines.  That's it.  Easy if you have a correctly shaped wing, or I can forward plans.     The fuselage is a bit harder,   you mentioned @PlaStix build,  where I did some horrible things to the kit,  

what really impressed me was even after these indignities.  it still fitted very well....  of course mine still sits in a box with not further progress , but though it was a reasonable 'recipe' for adjustment, which was the hard bit.

Quote

 

But I think it looks more than enough like a Spitfire when it isn’t sat for comparison on a set of accurate plans, so I don’t think I’ll be correcting any of those things.

from a lot of angles it looks fine, especially ones real Spitfire sat one the ground tend to get photographed from. 

 

RE decals, (may have missed if you sorted this) the new issue of the Airfix Vb has USAAF markings, I think these are Gentile's

a05125a_1_supermarine-spitfire-mkvb_pack

 

 

maybe worth asking if anyone has these spare?  Or do a dual build like Plastix....

 

HTH 

 

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I think the plan of action for the cockpit is the right one, how easy it is we will see soon. I have my beer and peanuts.........

 

Ian

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18 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

where I did some horrible things to the kit,  

 

Or as @PlaStix put it “thank you for the masterclass in kit modification/correction.” - which I think is probably rather more apposite :D  I shall peruse again and cogitate.

 

18 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

RE decals, (may have missed if you sorted this) the new issue of the Airfix Vb has USAAF markings

 

Smashing ta; I hadn’t when you posted - but quite literally as I was wondering whether to buy the Airfix kit or look for a decal swap - Jim from the 453rd BG museum emailed me to say that he’d found some decals in Canada! and they’re in the post.  Airfix Vb is now the back up plan....

 

9 hours ago, Brandy said:

I think the plan of action for the cockpit is the right one, how easy it is we will see soon.

 

🤞- looks very doable.  Tamiya 0.2mm ‘plastic paper’ (plastic card to the likes of me) fits neatly under the longeron (it’s slipped slightly just taped in place here) and slides snugly into place behind the resin floor.  it should also be rigid enough as only a few mm of it at the bottom is unsupported by the kit fuselage or the resin floor.  But I’ve also got some 0.3mm card in reserve if need be.

 

 

338B87BF-88A2-444D-9E57-BEDDD39BA5E1

 

 

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18 minutes ago, hendie said:

simplicity itself. Nice.

A bit bare, though; don't you think? 

:rofl:

 

Looking forward to sidewall detailing,  Steve :tasty:

 

Ciao 

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4 hours ago, Fritag said:

thank you for the masterclass in kit modification/correction.” - which I think is probably rather more apposite :D  I shall peruse again and cogitate.

Very kind of you, but I have seen much more advanced work on display here.  I'd say one thing,  you want to do that kind of butchery before adjustingng the inners, as I was making use of the fact that plastic does bend and flex.... so if you do a a load of cockpit work, and the try to do this, it may make a mess, or just no longer fit.    I'd still say it's not a waste of time, as they Tamiya kit has some very fine panel lines, and they are in the right places AFAIK, ,  so making good is not a major rescribe chore.   And then you get a Spitfire that won't look funny next to another kit, but in reality, this is only really noticeable to a Spitfire buff, the Tamiya kit just looks like the old girl has over done it at xmas and needs some moderations and exercise in January...

 

I could send some 1.68mm strip,  you don't need much, and it's a funny size, though 1.5mm would do,   I only had it as I got it from a Modelzone clearance.   the pre-cut strip really is the key to doing this kind of stretch, as it it is all squared up, and means as long as your cut are straight and square, it just requires adding in, and you can get it curve by running through your  fingers, as well as adding it inside, same reason, it's flat, though in this case any flat beam will do.  

one I'd worked out the modifications, a#nd this was eased by having the Airfix kit there as a 3-d reference,  i think the fuselage mods might take an hour,  bear in mind I use superglue for this kind of work, so you can chop, tidy up, curve the strip, add to one part, add the back bars, and add on the other part in minutes.  

slimming down the centre line and getting the horseshoe shape takes longer,  as well as adjusting the undercowl, and there will be some making good as well,   but I remember seeing some of your Hawk epic,  i don't think any of it is particularly advanced modelling techniques involved, though there always the 'oh crikey I've just chopped up a kit and is this going to work...' aspect of it.  

 

cheers

T

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Nice start Steve, looks good to me :) 

 

19 hours ago, Fritag said:

Jim from the 453rd BG museum emailed me to say that he’d found some decals in Canada!

Now that's what I call dedication!

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6 hours ago, CedB said:

Now that's what I call dedication!

 

That’s what I call a relief......

 

20 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

the Tamiya kit just looks like the old girl has over done it at xmas and needs some moderations and exercise in January...

 

:rofl2:

 

Ok so.  Who wouldn’t want to use this bit of the Aires set?

 

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It’s just a shame that most of it’s covered by the seat.....

 

The sidewall inserts fitted neatly into place with some judicious fettling and moderate use of TET.

 

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On 4/19/2021 at 6:49 PM, giemme said:

A bit bare, though; don't you think? 

:rofl:

 

Looking forward to sidewall detailing,  Steve :tasty:

 

Yes - and so am I

 

On 4/19/2021 at 7:05 PM, hendie said:

he's new to modeling.  I'm sure he'll pick it up as he goes along though

 

The learning curve better steepen now methinks....

 

And I’m calling (maybe prematurely) the plan a success - cos the new sidewall inserts match up perfectly on both sides to the resin floor :lol:

 

This is how the contour differs to the kit sides:

 

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And here’s how they marry up with the resin floor.

 

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Well success in principle. Success in practice depends on how well I manage to recreate the various ribs and stringers and gubbins.

 

21 hours ago, Troy Smith said:

I'd say one thing,  you want to do that kind of butchery before adjustingng the inners, as I was making use of the fact that plastic does bend and flex....

 

I’d like ideally to do something about the fat slab-sided nose - not so worried about the wing chord and fuselage length as I don’t think they’re so noticeable to the non-expert. But I think your clever mod isn’t compatible with the Aires resin floor - which is a snug fit at the front even before thinning the nose.  I’ll probably have to live with it this time (I do have a Tamiya mk 1 somewhere that I could have a go with some time tho’ :))

 

 

 

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