Airfix Spitfire XVI in 1/48th Scale.Finished.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day Chums,

I'd like to join in with this one if I may.

 

 

This boxful came my way for not a lot of pennies a few years ago from the good offices of Matthew Bacon of this parish.Here's what's in the box.

 

This kit shares components with the Airfix highback IX/XVI which in turn had bits for the Vc/Seafire III on some of the frames.

 

There's going to be a little help from Eduard,ICM and Hornby Airfix 'cos I have the bits in the spares box.

 

I'm undecided which way to take this one,the kit decals for TE 199 were the choice

 

 

until I saw a photo of JF 299

 

 

but I don't have any prototype P markings.Let's see what happens as we go.

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.

Edited January 31 by Alex Gordon

[Col.]

What size of prototype P marking do you need Alex?

[bigbadbadge]

Nice, was looking at these recently on the Bay, will watch with interest to see how it goes together.

 

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,a lot of work for a little progress this time.

 

Col,thanks for dropping by old chum.I'm going to go with the kit decals for this one but I have an ICM kit that will do for JF 299 after I've tapped up Fantasy Printshop for some prototype P's.

 

Chris,thanks for chipping in old fruit.If you've ever built the Airfix IX/XVI highback this will be very familiar.It's basic,chunky trailing edges,fictional propellor but generally decent shape and,as always,a blank canvas for a few additions.If you can pick one up for not a lot of pennies it'll give you a decent run for your money.

 

I've had to make a couple of assumptions for this build.The first is that given that the cannon have been removed the seat armour probably had been too so we're going to be able to see into the rear fuselage.

The second is that the interior colour could well be green throughout,this contribution from Edgar Brooks gives me that impression.

To quote "The cockpit green stretched from instrument panel bulkhead to radio bulkhead (frames 9-12,) until very late, or post-war. At some late stage all interior was painted green, not silver (could have been due to shortages, or the plans for all exteriors to go silver. This change might have been from the 21, since, years ago, I did see an all-green 21."

 

The gen for TE 199 on http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p111.html is as follows;

 

TE199    LFXVIe        CBAF    M266    19MU 23-4-45 412Sq 7-6-45 402Sq 28-6-45 Staff College White Waltham 25-7-46 FAAC 12-9-46 ros 21GCF FTC AOC personal transport (glossy black gold trim overall) to 6603M 30-12-48 SoH FFS gate guardian 6-55.

Production of the 21 seems to have started during March 1945 so I'm going to give the green a punt.I'm happy to be proven wrong.

 

The Eduard fuselage frame seems to fit reasonably well.

 

 

There has been a bit of scratchbuilding and removal of in the way material.

 

A couple of lower cockpit sides have been copied from the Eduard kit parts to close off the usual Airfix outward spreading offering.There is more to be added yet.

 

Some semblance of the rear fuselage fuel tank seemed to be a good idea.This diagram was found here https://pwm.org.pl/viewtopic.php?t=29561&start=15

 

 

I made the front face of the tanks from the seat armour plate that I'm not going to use,I know I'm a noted tightwad but waste not etc.The instrument panel frame has had the obligatory copper wire pipework made and needs instrument decals.The seat has had the usual rework to make it look a little closer to the real thing.

 

Thanks for looking in Chums,more soon.

[bigbadbadge]

Cracking work Alex on the cockpit,  great scratch additions and good that the Eduard frame fits well.  I did a similar thing to the 1/32nd Hobbyboss Mk.Vb using scratched lower sidewalls and Revell cockpit parts which fitted really well.

Cockpit looks ace do far.

Chris

[CliffB]

A nice start and tweaks Alex 

[Col.]

Nice augmentation work there Alex.

 

20 hours ago, Alex Gordon said:

Col,thanks for dropping by old chum.I'm going to go with the kit decals for this one but I have an ICM kit that will do for JF 299 after I've tapped up Fantasy Printshop for some prototype P's.

I'm about to dig out a sheet of prototype Ps for @SleeperService so if you are thinking to do JF299 let me know the rough size in millimetres and I'll look for something suitable  

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,just a quick in and out.

 

Col,many thanks old chum.I'm not going to build JF 299 this time,I've enough on and around the bench to be going on with and no wish to lose the mojo by overloading.For anyone who is going to build that one I think the diameter is 36 inches,19mm in 1/48th scale.Edit-no it isn't,see my next post.

 

I didn't understand some of the gen for TE 199 I quoted in my last post so I've done a bit of digging.

 

TE199    LFXVIe        CBAF    M266    19MU 23-4-45 412Sq 7-6-45 402Sq 28-6-45 Staff College White Waltham 25-7-46 FAAC 12-9-46 ros 21GCF FTC AOC personal transport (glossy black gold trim overall) to 6603M 30-12-48 SoH FFS gate guardian 6-55.

 

Roughly translated this means she was an LF XVIe built at Castle Bromwich and had a Packard Merlin 266 engine.

She arrived at 19 MU St Athan 23/4/45 and sat there for a couple of months until she went to 412 Sqn at Wunstorf 7/6/45.She was then moved to 402 Squadron,also at Wunstorf,28/6/45.Just less than a month later she returned to the UK and went to White Waltham where she was involved in an unspecified flying accident resulting in damage categorised as AC (FAAC).

Link to damage categories

The airframe was repaired on site (ros) and then allocated to 21 Group Communications Flight (GCF),Flying Training Command (FTC) as the personal transport of the Air Officer Commanding,one Air Commodore GH Vasse .

 

Being as 21 Group headquarters was at RAF Cranwell I would think that there is a fair chance she was stabled there,I can't see any self respecting AOC traipsing half way across Lincolnshire to get to his company supplied kite when he lives on a company supplied airfield.

 

In December 1948 she was allocated the maintenance serial number 6603M and presumably used for fire fighting and rescue training at the Royal Air Force School of Fire Fighting and Rescue (FFS) at RAF Sutton on Hull (SoH).In June 1955 she became the station gate guard.

 

All of that digging led me to this photo found here https://www.key.aero/forum/historic-aviation/63338-raf-sutton-on-hull

 

 

which nicely puts to bed the various dicussions on the lightness of the blue used for the roundels.It also shows the upper wing roundels are the same size as the fuselage ones and are set further outboard than would be usual.

 

Anyway,I've had a go at thinning the wing trailing edges.As supplied they are around 3" thick.That's the same as a house brick.

 

 

I have two thoughts on the scraping operation;

1: If you roll your own fags make sure you make enough for the next 2 days before you start and keep them sealed away from stray shavings because

2: This stuff sticks to everything it goes near,is nigh on impossible to get rid of and tastes bloody awful in a fag.

 

 The trailing edges look a lot happier though.

 

Thanks all for looking in,more soon.

Edited October 5, 2022 by Alex Gordon
Correction.

[Troy Smith]

1 hour ago, Alex Gordon said:

I have two thoughts on the scraping operation;

Evening old chum, 

Get a gooseneck scraper  

 

takes off thicker scrapings...    note, one reason they stick to blinkin' everything is I think they get a bit of static charge. 

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/152843325908

cheapest on evilbay

 

A budget option is a bit of curved flat steel, about 1mm thick,  eg curved end of steel ruler,  but the gooseneck is easier to hold, (and can be used fro carpentry) but it makes this kind of scraping job a breeze...  well, a lot faster than using a curved knife blade.

The scrapings can be used for plastic patching,  like sprue goo, but without having to make a jar.   

 

I have a leftover Airfix  Vc wing frpom one of this eras ilk, I was going to combine with something, and recall not only was it  agricultural in finesse, it was heavy duty plastic as well....  great heavy duty runners as well,  like thick knitting needles...

 

Always enjoyable to see a bit of kit upgrading, I'm sure you are a secret employee of Eduard to show how much work is required to make any other 1/48th Spitfire kit get close to what you can get OOB in a weekend edition kit  

 

cheers

T

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,a little more to show this time.

 

Troy,hello old lad,good to catch up.I have a choice of the back or edge of any of three types of scalpel blade,a 3mm graver for a watchmakers lathe and one of those little keyring penknives with a blade one side and a combined screwdriver/Action Man bottle opener on the other.For the heavy duty stuff I have some burrs to go in the dremelesque.

I have to agree that the runners are substantial but they do come in for thick rod from time to time.

If I was on pay from Eduard the wages would have to be overtrees,that'd leave me something to do.There must be plenty of these older kits in stashes and there is plenty of mileage in tweaking them in places without making things overcomplicated.My Eduard XVI will be built in the near future once this and the last remaining ICM are safely finished and on the shelf.

 

First off a correction,I thought the prototype P on JF 299 might be 36",I've had a play in Paint and I no longer think so.

The yellow ring in this image is more or less the same size as the ring around the P

 

 

To try to confirm that I put a couple of lines roughly parallel to the datum line on this photo.I'm going to punt at 30" instead.

 

I thought I'd have a play with the propellor.The differences between the kit item and the Eduard offering are quite stark.The Airfix item is also 2mm greater diameter than the Eduard offering.

 

 

To find the blade shape I placed a length of masking tape on the front face of one of the Eduard blades and cut it to shape.

 

I then used it to cut four blanks from some 10 thou plastic card.

 

The shape of these was refined and then each one in turn was placed at an angle along a round scalpel handle and,making sure I'd got them the right way round, rolled against something softish which put the twist into the blade.

 

A spare Airfix propellor was dug out of the spares box and the blades cut off.

 

 

Slots were cut along the length of the spigots left behind on the hub.

 

The blade blanks were then mounted on the hub,trued up and then glued,clamped and left overnight to set.

 

This morning I filled the slightly concave rear faces with Milliput to make the blades more rigid and flat across the face.

 

While that was setting I had another look at the kit item.One problem is that both faces are convex.Because there is no twist in the blade it is fairly easy to flatten the back face with a file which I did.

 

I then put the twist into each blade by holding the root with pliers and incrementally twisting the blade along its length using fingers.Only then did I think to apply my masking tape template and discover that if I removed a bit of material from a couple of places I would find a half decent shape hidden in there and not have to mess about too much flattening the rear face.If there's a hard way I'll find it.

 

Anyway after all that I've arrived at a not too shabby result and there is another propellor in the spares box which might just make its way into this build now that an easy method has been found.The plastic card one will go to one side for now until I can refine the method of making it.

 

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.

[bigbadbadge]

Nice job on the prop, great work.

Chris

[Col.]

Clever work on the propellers Alex. Some interesting techniques in use there.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,a spot of progress now that I've finished my F 5 build.

 

Chris,Col,thanks chaps.

 

What I normally do with the old tool Airfix Spitfires is swap the rudder and tailplanes for ICM items because the trailing edges are so much finer.The rudder is usually problematic because of the shape at the hinge edge.

 

 

This time I decided to try another approach.I happen to have a saw blade that has a 0.4mm kerf so I cut most of the way through the rudder from the trailing edge.

 

It's a bit painstaking but it is now nearly thin enough to clamp and glue together and look the part without damaging the outer surfaces.

 

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.

[Col.]

Interesting solution to that issue Alex. A steady hand required but the result will be worth the effort.

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,working both ends this time.

 

Col,thanks old chum.

 

I wasn't happy with my attempt at the propellor so I tried a variation on the same theme.I cut some blanks from some 1mm plastic card and made a new template using the rear face of the Eduard item this time.

 

 

No small amount of chopping,hammering and filing later had the blade shapes roughed out.

 

Yet more filing and sanding had the convex shape on the front faces leaving the back faces flat.

 

The twist was put into the blades by fingertips and then all were mounted on the hub having enlarged the slots used last time around.This left the stub ends a bit weak so four collars were made from a bit of tube to hold it all together and make it all a bit more substantial.

 

A spot of filing out the holes in the spinner and backplate has made all close up properly.I'm a lot happier with this version,third time lucky eh?There's a bit of filling out to do at the blade roots but it's nearly there.

 

I turned my attention to the tailplanes.The Eduard items look rather good.

 

The kit mounting slots needed to be lengthened.

 

A 2mm hole was drilled for the elevator joining shaft and then the plastic behind it cut out so that they could be positioned.

 

That's when I found that the fuselage is too wide by around 1.5mm.

 

What I could have done was narrow the whole rear fuselage from aft of the cockpit all the way back to the rudder post.

 

What I have done is cut the joining shaft and insert a plastic spacer to widen the elevator span.To ensure a reasonably straight reassembly I used my PE bender as a jig to line it all up.

 

Thanks all for looking in,more soon.

Edited October 15, 2022 by Alex Gordon

[Corsairfoxfouruncle]

Impressive work on the prop, I think Id have bought a similar set or another kit. I just know I couldn't get the shape correct. 

[Courageous]

19 hours ago, Corsairfoxfouruncle said:

Impressive work on the prop,

 

Stuart

[KevinK]

Just an observation on JF299, if you choose that one as a subject: it's not a Mk XVI, it is in fact one of the rarest of Spitfires, a Mk VIII with a cut-down rear fuselage.

It's from the first production batch of Mk VIIIs and was retained by Supermarine to try out the change before it was introduced on production, for late Mk IXs and XVIs at Castle Bromwich.

Otherwise, it's a straight Mk VIII, with shortened ailerons, 18 gal/side wing tanks, tropical filter, retractable tailwheel, etc. when compared with a Mk XVI. As it's early production, it has the rounded rudder prior to the pointed one on later production.

Edited October 16, 2022 by KevinK
typo

[bigbadbadge]

Crikey, that is some fantastic work you are doing there, the sling of the rudder, phenomenal!!! The prop too.

Very impressive 

Chris

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,a spot of paint this time.

 

Dennis,thanks old chum.I'm a noted tightwad so I won't go out of the way to buy aftermarket unless it's vital to the finished article.Making the shape isn't too complicated,it's knowing what's required as an end result and how to go about it.There is also the fascination for making things of course.

 

Stuart,thanks old fruit.

 

Kevin,thanks for dropping by old bean.You're spot on with JF 299,the gen is here http://www.airhistory.org.uk/spitfire/p045.html

 

JF299 VIII 3934 EA M61 FF 30-1-43 AFDU Wittering 8-8-43 hand trls AAEE 16-9-43 reduced rear fus and tear drop hood. jettison trls. Trop intake repl with temperate. Fitt FXII rud and extended wing tips. Casablanca 8-43 ? for trop trls. Reverted to std and return VAWD for FVIII dev 9-12-43 VAHP 5-10-44 comp trls with RM784 (FXIV) scrap 1-6-45

 

and that's what tickled my interest.When I get around to making the Spitfire prototypes this will be among them.That won't be for a while,I've the production aircraft to finish yet and then the PR marks to go round in circles about.

 

Chris,thanks old chap.

 

The fuselage inserts have been glued in and the green bits have been painted green,my usual mix of Humbrol 90 Sky and 78 Cockpit Green.

 

 

There has been silver and black too.

 

Fitting out the cockpit is next and then major assembly can commence.

 

Thanks for looking in Chums,more soon.

 

[Col.]

Everything looks to be almost ready for the construction stages Alex  

[Alex Gordon]

Hello again Chums,a few twiddly bits this time.

 

Col,thanks old chum.There's some more to do to the cockpit sidewalls yet,wiring,plumbing and control box making for which I'm trying to make the time.

 

It occurred to me that being as this aircraft is post war it probably had the wheel well roof modification and the wider wheels fitted which were more than likely treaded not smooth.I dug out the cordless drill and,with the aid of the pin vice and a drawing pin,scribed some tread into my newly painted tyres.  

 

 

I was aiming for something like this

 

 

Photo found here https://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?/topic/74606-supermarine-seafire/ in the Walkaround department.

The first one was a bit lumpy so I gave it a run with the sandpaper to get rid of the burrs and swarf.

 

 

Various levers have been made from the remains of a brass etch frame and some stretched runner,the throttle quadrant and the undercarriage selector

 

and the canopy winding handle.

 

More soon Chums,thanks for looking in.

[bigbadbadge]

Cracking job on the throttle quadrant and undercarriage selector.  Tyres look good too.  Great work. 

Chris

[Col.]

A lot of nice touches getting added in there Alex. Good work.

[Alex Gordon]

G'day again Chums,a bit more progress.

 

Chris,Col,thanks chaps.

 

The propellor blade roots have been filled out with Milliput,paint next and we'll see if I've got them right.

 

 

When I sat down at the bench this morning I failed to drum up any enthusiasm for the cockpit so this bit was more a means of avoiding that job.The main undercarriage legs need torque links so I set about making a pair from some 10 thou plastic card.I marked them out and then drilled the lightening holes.

 

They were then glued to the legs.

 

They looked dreadful.Somewhere in the recesses of the vacuum that is my mind a memory stirred that I had some etched brass purchased from Tony C of this parish a few years ago and I knew where I'd left it.

 

These looked a lot better.

 

I cut them from the fret leaving the tags on at each end and cut a couple of slots into each leg to take them.

 

That's a bit more like it.

 

The mainwheel bay roofs have the structure framing moulded into them.The snag is the moulding extends into the wing and is in the way of the bay walls so that they cannot be pushed together to close them up properly.I marked them appropriately

 

and sliced them off.

 

The E wing didn't have the outboard guns so the various associated lumps,bumps and apertures weren't there.

 

After removing the outside lumps the ejection chute holes were filled using the heated end of a length of runner.

 

A brushful of thick paint will hide the gaps and make all good.

 

Thanks for looking in Chums,more soon.