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

[Hamden]

 

Very nice looking seat harness Steve will look great when fitted

 

  Stay safe        Roger

[Navy Bird]

Sweet work on the harness. Are they available in one seventy-tooth scale?    🔍

 

Cheers,

Bill

[rob85]

Oh Christ, that’s some eye achingly detailed work. Really paid off though, the belts look ace!

 

Rob

[The Spadgent]

Wowza!!! That’s some stunning work right there. 👏👏👏

 

Bravo.

 

Johnny

[perdu]

21 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

Sweet work on the harness. Are they available in one seventy-tooth scale?    🔍

 

Cheers,

Bill

Let us hope, nay pray that they aren't.

 

[Terry1954]

On 5/28/2021 at 11:15 PM, Fritag said:

You chaps have the experience and memories of one of the world’s finest little flying machines, and you’re worried about little things like that! 

Have to agree on the Chipmunk being one of the finest, but not so much of the little things if you don't mind! 😜

 

Terry

[Navy Bird]

8 hours ago, perdu said:

Let us hope, nay pray that they aren't.

 

They wouldn't be that small. You just need a pair of these Mad Max combination magnifier and welding googles.

 

 

I bet @CedB has a pair.   

 

Cheers,

Bill

[perdu]

8 hours ago, Navy Bird said:

I bet @CedB has a pair.   

 

Why not?

 

I do.

[Fritag]

So; it feels like I’m on the cusp of making real progress with spittie - and then it never quite happens 

 

Frustrating bank holiday weekend, model-wise, with real life getting in the way.

 

So with all due diffidence I present some very modest progress for your delectation and delight, not to mention general ridicule.....

 

Seat and seat support have finally mated; and with any luck will produce some harness offspring shortly:

 

 

The Aires etch has some spiffing rudder pedal foot rests.  Here primed with Mr metal primer and folded with not quite @Ex-FAAWAFU levels of metal bending skill  (well in my defence I haven’t had the practice he has ).

 

 

Curiously the folded footrests don’t have a surface by which to attach them to the rudder pedals.  So some suitably chamfered 1mm rod was required.  Now ready for painting with some Tamiya dark aluminium lacquer:

 

 

Then, I remembered that the spitfire did have what passed for 1940’s avionics; and having scratched the fuselage avionics bays (bit of a fancy term for 1940’s radio trays) I’d better populate them.

 

The IFF box can be a rescue-lump of resin (note to self clean the dust off before sticking it in place!):

 

 

But I had to knock together a crude facsimile of the VHF radio.  The mini-vice/jig was invaluable.

 

 

Add a bit of texture gleaned from diagrams:

 

 

And it can disappear into the depths to be barely seen again.   Especially as it’ll be painted black...

 

 

 

 

Then in a moment of madness I decided that neither the kit nor the Aires P8 compass mount passed muster (it is very prominent) and so decided that all that was needed was some 0.5mm, 0.3mm and 0.2mm plastic card plus a RP Toolz punch set to knock up a better one...

 

Bit of the structure:

 

 

More of the structure (if I was @hendie of @TheBaron I’d have been out with the brass and soldering iron):

 

 

Ans some sides...The carpet monster had it a couple of times but thankfully regurgitated it....:

 

 

Andy the body of the P8 came from some suitable diameter rod:

 

 

I don’t have a decal for the compass face and at present I’m not sure how best to represent it.  Thinking cap on 

 

And finally; I’ve cleaned up the Aires resin control column and voltage regulator ready for priming:

 

 

And that’s it .  I had hoped to get all the greeblies fixed in the cockpit and the fuselage zipped up this weekend.  Ah well...

 

It suppose it doesn’t  help that in the time it took Alan to build an entire internal fuselage structure in his Whirlwind, I managed to scratch a radio and a compass mount... 

 

 

Edited May 31, 2021 by Fritag

[CedB]

Nice work Steve  

That compass is going to be, like the seat, another work of art.

Well done with the harness too - that looked really fiddly.

I hate fiddly…

[hendie]

38 minutes ago, Fritag said:

It suppose it doesn’t  help that in the time it took Alan to build an entire internal fuselage structure in his Whirlwind, I managed to scratch a radio and a compass mount... 

... and a TEA URN!   Don't forget the loadies tea urn of which I am quite proud.  

No brass in the WW  yet Steve though I think it will be making an appearance shortly.

I'd be tempted to use any instrument decal for the compass if you have any spare. At that scale no-one would ever be able to tell.

[Navy Bird]

Very nice and neat work. You da man!      👍

 

Cheers,

Bill

[giemme]

That's some impressive micro-engineering and scratch building, Steve    

 

Ciao

[Cookenbacher]

Yes, really impressive Steve. If it was 1/32, I'm sure you would have included a magnet in the compass!

[Biggles87]

I’m expecting that the centre ‘T’  will be fully revolving of course.  😆

[Terry1954]

2 hours ago, Biggles87 said:

I’m expecting that the centre ‘T’  will be fully revolving of course.  😆

 and appropriately gimballed?

 

Terry

[perdu]

Not got no high expectations round here, the natives, have they?

 

Looks amazing Steve, reminds me of the work that bloke making Hawks, Jet Provosts and Chipthingies used to do in tiny scale.

 

Wonder where he went off to, Scottisch Islands I understand, but maybe he'll come home soon.

 

OKAYYYYYY Piftake apart this really is making me ponder only watching (and eventually doing) 48th scale things as a change.

 

My eyes can actually see the marvels appear, on screen, on cue.

 

Lovely stuff Steve, enticing to follow.

 

 

I have some 'decals' of instrument faces in tiny size scale, pretty sure the maker does also do 48th too. wish I could remember the  guy's name.

 

And where I put my small versions too

[Brandy]

On 6/1/2021 at 2:25 AM, Fritag said:

folded with not quite @Ex-FAAWAFU levels of metal bending skill  (well in my defence I haven’t had the practice he has ).

Of course you haven't, you keep buggering off skiing or cycling! 

 

Nice progress though......

 

Ian

[Fritag]

oops - fumble finger post by mistake.  More in a bit 

Edited June 3, 2021 by Fritag

[Fritag]

On 6/1/2021 at 10:14 PM, Cookenbacher said:

If it was 1/32, I'm sure you would have included a magnet in the compass!

 

You started something there Cookie...

 

On 6/2/2021 at 9:51 AM, Biggles87 said:

I’m expecting that the centre ‘T’  will be fully revolving of course.

 

See wot I mean 

 

On 6/2/2021 at 12:02 PM, Terry1954 said:

and appropriately gimballed?

 

I still blame you Cookie!  Putting idea’s in people’s heads.  Especially notorious characters with ‘previous’  

 

20 hours ago, perdu said:

reminds me of the work that bloke making Hawks, Jet Provosts and Chipthingies used to do in tiny scale.

 

Wonder where he went off to, Scottisch Islands I understand, but maybe he'll come home soon.

 

I’m doomed...

 

20 hours ago, perdu said:

OKAYYYYYY Piftake apart

 

To be the subject of Piftake for ever 

 

12 hours ago, Brandy said:

Of course you haven't, you keep buggering off skiing or cycling! 

 

See what I mean?  

 

On 6/1/2021 at 12:08 AM, hendie said:

I'd be tempted to use any instrument decal for the compass if you have any spare. At that scale no-one would ever be able to tell.

 

That’s a thought.  See further below.......

 

20 hours ago, perdu said:

I have some 'decals' of instrument faces in tiny size scale, pretty sure the maker does also do 48th too. wish I could remember the  guy's name.

 

Well I’m glad you’ve got some Bill.......

 

As it happens.....

 

Whilst rummaging in search of some white decal paper I knew I had - to have a go at home brew printing of P8 compass face - I found some old Airscale 1/48 WW2 instrument decals I didn’t know I had  Have no memory of buying them at all....

 

Useful though!

 

 

No magnets, revolving or gimbaling I’m afraid tho’ chaps 

 

Immediately after this photo was taken the compass thingy tried to sacrifice itself to the carpet monster and most of the modelling session I’d been looking forward to this evening was spent rescuing it........finally.....

 

Then in the limited time left to me this evening, and whilst I had decals on my mind, I punched out a 1mm white disc from a spare roundel decal - to represent the white disc on the IFF remote controller (greeblie) - neater than trying to paint it in:

 

 

We’ll just forget that there’s a red quadrant on the white disk at 1:1 - Ok?

 

And also punched out a circle of black decal and cut it to shape for the label behind the fuel tank pressure switch (greeblie) to the lower right side of the IP.  Again neater than my efforts at painting it would be.....

 

 

Fitted some 0.5mm rod into holes drilled into the thicker rod I’d previously glued to thre bottom of the footrests - to make a more secure fixing to the rudder pedals.

 

 

Drilled some corresponding holes and fitted the footrests (airbrushed Tamiya flat aluminium lacquer and treated with a Flory wash):

 

 

And added my home-brew firewall and the Aires control column suitably painted and given a Flory wash (poor photo - sorry - the control column looks brighter and neater in the flesh....trust me, I’m a lawyer .

 

 

Finally, painted the scratched IFF and VHF radio boxes black, drybrushed them and fitted them.

 

 

 

To be glimpsed at best when the fuselage is zipped up.....

 

I also wasted time losing one of the HGW harness lap straps to the carpet monster for a while....talk about being clumsy tonight.....

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 4, 2021 by Fritag

[Navy Bird]

This is brilliant stuff. And never be ashamed using a sticker to represent an instrument that would be impossible to paint. It's what makes us artists - everyone will think we painted it, but the secret is safe. We protect our own.    

 

Cheers,

Bill

[Stew Dapple]

That's beautiful Steve  

 

4 hours ago, Fritag said:

....talk about being clumsy tonight.....

 

Could be you mate, or perhaps the Carpet Monster has sensed the presence of all those tiny bits and is exerting its pernicious influence upon them...  

 

Cheers, 

 

Stew

[Terry1954]

14 hours ago, Fritag said:

We’ll just forget that there’s a red quadrant on the white disk at 1:1 - Ok?

Well ................. hmmmm ............ ok, as its you!

 

The instrumentation so far and that cockpit floor are exquisite, and most inspiring. Great watching a master at work!

 

I have a question for you. In those last two pictures, I think I might spy a bottle of Mig Ammo gloss varnish, like this one on the left:

 

 

The reason I ask is I have just dusted two fine coats of this stuff onto the vallejo aluminum finish (which itself went on well) on a 1/48 Meteor F8 I am building for a friend. Now my modelling mojo has been very low over the last 6 months for all kinds of reasons, and it has now been kept there by finding that this so called fast drying gloss varnish has dried almost matt and has remained "sticky" for over a week now. The bottle was shaken much before airbrushing, and several days left between coats. I have managed to removed some form an underwing area as it also looked a little patchy, but don't relish having to try and take the lot off given that cockpit and U/C bays are nicely masked off. The underwing area almost peeled off after some rubbing with polishing cloth btw.

 

Some thinking to do but I wondered have you had experience with these varnishes, and had the same happen? I was actually a little doubtful about this one as the liquid form of even the gloss was white. Wish I'd have stuck with my trusted Humbrol gloss acrylic varnish.

 

Tnx

 

Terry

 

aka frustrated of Dorset!

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Fritag]

1 hour ago, Terry1954 said:

Some thinking to do but I wondered have you had experience with these varnishes, and had the same happen? I was actually a little doubtful about this one as the liquid form of even the gloss was white. Wish I'd have stuck with my trusted Humbrol gloss acrylic varnish.

 

This is the first time I’ve used Mig Ammo paints and I’ve been very impressed with the paint but not awfully impressed with the varnish.

 

I’ve not tried the gloss yet - and I’m not sure I’ll bother with it tbh.

 

I’ve used the satin and the ultra matt and they went on fine at 17psi through a 0.35 needle making sure that the first pass was a very light dusting to act as a key; but they don’t seem to be very durable and I’ve had some issues with minor peeling and wearing at the edges just through handling.  I’m not minded to trust them with a wash over the top and I’ve gone back to using Tamiya semi-gloss clear X-35 thinned with Mr levelling thinner.

 

The paints by contrast seem to airbrush beautifully at the same settings thinned a little with the Mig Ammo thinner - and also brush paint a whole heap better than Tamiya (what doesn’t).  Any lack of durability is less important cos I always put a clear coat on afterwards.

 

Not very helpful I’m afraid Terry; rather the reverse - as I’m gonna learn from your experience and stay away from the gloss if I can help it.

 

 

 

.  

[giemme]

Impressive job on the interiors, Steve   Too bad you have to button up everything  

 

Ciao