1:24 Airfix Spitfire MkIXc - June 5th 1944 MK356 Just Before the Invasion Stripes

[marvinneko]

Following this is like watching Olympic marathoners after I've done my dawdle around the block. Amazing to see what you do. All those cables! 

[CraigH]

1 hour ago, marvinneko said:

Following this is like watching Olympic marathoners after I've done my dawdle around the block. Amazing to see what you do. All those cables! 

I call it stark raving mad!

[HOUSTON]

Hello Craig,

Just caught up with your AMAZING  detailed build.

Simply fascinating  to see your build which is enthralling  to see...

I like that your meticulous and methodical work keeps ME wanting to see more...

 

One epic build is what I see before ME.

Kudos ...

 

  {AWESOME  job actually}.

[CraigH]

2 hours ago, HOUSTON said:

Hello Craig,

Just caught up with your AMAZING  detailed build.

Simply fascinating  to see your build which is enthralling  to see...

I like that your meticulous and methodical work keeps ME wanting to see more...

 

One epic build is what I see before ME.

Kudos ...

 

  {AWESOME  job actually}.

Thank You !!!!!!!!!!!!🙏

[CraigH]

It's been a busy week and suddenly, as if by magic, loads seems to have just happened.

 

Firstly, unfinished business with the gun bays. I'm having them open so it was just a case of messing them up with a bit of dark pigment and some shading for cordite. I'm leaving the magazines off of the Hispanos for now so I can get the covers on for painting

 

Next, the joining together of the fuselage halves. Again, as with most of this kit, the fit is superb. Mind your work and there's no filling and minimal sanding needed. I just taped and glued the halves together at the front first then went down the join, aligning and gluing with extra thin. With the superb surface detail on this kit you don't want to be losing any because I defy the best scriber in the world to replicate it when it's gone.

 

 

Here are some shots of the fuselage joined. I saw somewhere someone described the Airfix parts on this kit as "clunky", I can't agree. I think they're excellent. Granted you can't see much of the floor and it does make you wonder about all that work that went into piping and wiring down there but, as we always say, I know it's there.

 

 

Next it was time to join the wings to the fuselage, always a tricky operation.
Airfix suggest fitting the lower wings to the fuselage then gluing on the upper wing sections. 

 

 

I went about it slightly differently and the reason why is this: 

I thought that if I glue the fuselage to the wings and then theres a gap between fuselage and upper wing roots, I'm left with a messy filling operation as I can't move the wing roots one millimetre.
If, on the other hand, I glue the upper wings on first then slide the fuselage between them, if there's a gap, I can ease the fuselage sides out to meet the wings.

As it happened, it was slightly the other way around for this kit but I can't vouch for anyone elses. The fuselage slid into the gap perfectly but I couldn't move it far enough forward to sit in the correct position. the reason was it was too wide at the back of the fuselage so I had to file a little bit off (both sides to maintain the alignment) to narrow the angle and allow it to slide further forward. It was only a millimetre short to start with so not much needed to come off. This then meant that the back of the wing fillet needed a tad filing off to allow it to nestle into the fuselage, which it did perfectly. 

 

 

Jig up and glue and again, no filling or sanding needed. HEAVEN!

 

 

As far as the leading edges go, it's up to you. I'm sure you're bored of hearing it but the fit is exquisite. You can sand smooth if you want but I was amazed to see in Monforten that there was often a gap on the lead edge and it wasn't usually filled. Now whether it was the rigours of war and the need to get aircraft out, I don't know. I'm sure they tested first to see if there was any performance loss but here's the proof from Monforten:
 

So the plane is largely together. What I always fear the most in terms of operations to perform went without a hitch. I added the wing tips (they fit perfectly too) and she's done

 

 

Lastly for this post the radiators. For me this is one of the few places I think the kit is lacking a bit. Externally the detail is flawless, even down to the nut assemblies joining the flaps to the radiator fairings. But on the internal side of the radiators. There's loads of rivet detail as well as supporting struts and actuating arms for the flaps that could have been included. Monforten is your friend again here and I used plastic card and PE to fashion a to scale representation of the flap area

 

 

The radiators are lovely. Correctly done for port and stbd, oil cooler on one, intercooler on the other. The only slight gripe, and it doesn't really matter a fig but hell I'm a Virgo, is that the radiator fairings should be identical port and starboard. They were made like that when they went from one wing radiator to two, presumably to save production time. Well on the kit you can't swap left for right. Here they are sprayed and finished. I've tried to replicate the staining on this photo which presumably comes from the flaps being up a lot of the time. Grey won't fade like the blue on this photo has so I used dirt instead.

 

 

Next time the U/C bays and thinking about markings.

 
With regard to markings, All along I've said I wanted this to be in Plagis' plane's markings but with a serial of MK3456, the BBMF Mk. IX instead of ML214. If anyone knows of a company who could do the masks as a one off I'd be eternally grateful.

As ever thanks for looking

 

 

Edited March 4, 2023 by CraigH

[HOUSTON]

EXEMPLARY  workmanship. 

[Johnson]

Thanks Craig, your build narrative is going to be most useful! More great work.

 

3 hours ago, CraigH said:

Montforten is your friend again

Love collecting Spitfire books (as much as kits!), but £280 on Abe Books! 

[k5054nz]

Magic work Craig, I'm thoroughly enjoying your progress and it only reinforces my desire for the kit!

[CraigH]

39 minutes ago, Johnson said:

Thanks Craig, your build narrative is going to be most useful! More great work.

 

Love collecting Spitfire books (as much as kits!), but £280 on Abe Books! 

Go to Montforten website £17 in pdf

https://www.monfortonpress.com/

[geedubelyer]

4 hours ago, CraigH said:

 If anyone knows of a company who could do the masks as a one off I'd be eternally grateful.

As ever thanks for looking

 

 

Lovely work as usual Craig. 

 

You could try Here for masks. Someone may be able to help. 

 

HTH,

 

Cheers

[CraigH]

When I look back to the start of this build, it's down in black and white that I wanted to build this as MK356 the BBMF Mk.IX. 
The reasons, after much cogitation, I couldn't are basically twofold:

• There are no insignia masks for MK356 as she looked on D-Day. She was 21-V and serial MK356.
  That wasn't insurmountable actually. MK356 had been painted in the colours of one of the paint schemes in the past so I could have fudged it if someone brought out the masks for the kit schemes. All I'd need to fabricate would be the serial number.
• Much more of a problem, MK356 is an E wing and the only resin conversion was designed for the old Airfix Spitfire Mk.1a superkit and most of it was unnecessary for this kit. At a hefty £30 for two covers, I decided to give it a miss.

As I'd already made the wings up and configured them as a C wing I decided to go with the ML214 option and hope someone did the masks. To date, only one company are doing them and they've decided to do all five incarnations of the kit at another £30+. Most of us only need the masks for one plane and I honestly think they've missed a trick not issuing them singly at a cheaper price. I was a bit stuck to be honest. Using decals on a kit this size is an absolute no no as far as I'm concerned so I was in a bit of a quandary.

Then,after a plea from me, I was pointed at Maketar masks and their customisable mask store. I could do MK356 as 21-V at last...for £7 plus postage. As a passionate Yorkshireman, the British among you will realise what this meant to me.

 

I started to look at the possibility of the E wing again

• I was displaying this with gun ports open so the fact that the blisters on the upper gun covers were on the wrong side didn't matter.
  
• The machine guns on the C wing were 0.303" Brownings situated in the outer half of the wing. In the E wing they're  0.5" Brownings (so at 1:24 scale that equates to 0.2mm difference in diameter) so I could use the kit guns for an E or a C and on the E wing they simply fit into the spare slot beside the existing Hispano and the belt feeds run accordingly. 

So, all I need to do to convert to an E wing is:

• make a new ejection chute for the Hispano as it sits further back in the wing on the E wing (see above).
• The 0.5 Browning can use the Hispano ejector chute
• Fill in the ejector chutes and blisters on the old lower machine gun covers.
• Make a new blister on the lower wing for the Hispano now it's being moved from one bay to the other.

 

 

First up, ejector chutes and blisters on the old lower machine gun covers. Easy job to trim the top blister off then a bit of plasti card on the back to hold the filler. Fill sand then fill and sand again. A bit of re-scribing and riveting needed but nothing major. It's about halfway done here.

 

 

 

Then I needed to swap the guns around. To make way for the Cannon and machine gun to sit side by side in the wing, all the gun heating ducting had to come out. It was there to get hot air out to the 0.303s on the outer part of the wing so wasn't needed now the guns were all situated further inboard.

It was an easy job to take the guns and ductingout 

The little bit of plastic below the ducting will become apparent later.

 

The spare ammunition slot in the wing now services the machine gun. I've got some 0.5" ammo on order from Mig so when that comes I can have it trailing as if being filled. Busies it up a bit.

 

With regard to the upper gun bay covers. I realised that I could have a go at fitting the left cover to the right wing and vice versa as this would then put the blisters on the correct side for an E wing...hopefully.

 

What I needed to do was take the left upper gun cover and cut the angle shown on the diagram the other way so it would fit on the right hand side. The diagonal has to just clip the bottom of the blister so, of course, that  would leave the cover short at the top. plastic card again and some rescribing and riveting and I'll see what it looks like when it's sprayed. Worse comes to the worst, it can either sit on the wing if it's good enough, on the grass if it's nor great or the bin if it's awful. Here it is in situe

 

Lastly, (you can tell it snowed here today and I can't work) I put the rear clear canopy on. It's a little narrow on my kit, it may not be on others.

So I glued the port side in place, thank God for UV glue

Then eased out the starboard side and held it in place while the UV light did its job

 

Lastly, lastly, my front windscreen has a big scratch on the starboard side!. I'm not sure whether to polish it out or contact Airfix but what is clear is that the fuselage below the windscreen is missing some rivets and the de icing bar

so I added those.

 

I now realise I've given myself another problem. LF E wings normally had the Gyro Gunsight which is OK as I haven't done it yet. But I have done the throttle quadrant and the handle is different for the GGS as well as there being another wire. Lord help me, the hole is getting deeper

 

As ever, thenaks for looking.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[HOUSTON]

Excellent  progress with EXCEPTIONAL  detailing and research.

You are doing a SPLENDID  job on your model.

You really know your spitfire details .and have done  fantastic  work so far  ..   I look forward to more of your exacting work which I think is meticulous and methodical. 

Thank yoi.

HOUSTON.

[Johnson]

An excellent plan Craig, both the markings and the e-wing.

 

Something that you may wish to consider however is the relative sizes of the .303" and .5" Browning MGs?

18 hours ago, CraigH said:

In the E wing they're  0.5" Brownings (so at 1:24 scale that equates to 0.2mm difference in diameter) so I could use the kit guns for an E or a C and on the E wing they simply fit into the spare slot beside the existing Hispano and the belt feeds run accordingly. 

 

0.2mm is correct as to the difference in the diameters of the MGs barrel bore. But the .50 cal browning had a larger receiver (the boxy back part) than the .30 cal. I haven't done the maths for 1/24, and indeed, I may be misunderstanding or not reading carefully enough your method, so this is not a criticism. But using the kit .303" brownings to represent a .50" may need thinking about. Possibly (from above) the difference at 1/24 isn't significant?

 

Hope this helps,

[CraigH]

48 minutes ago, HOUSTON said:

Excellent  progress with EXCEPTIONAL  detailing and research.

You are doing a SPLENDID  job on your model.

You really know your spitfire details .and have done  fantastic  work so far  ..   I look forward to more of your exacting work which I think is meticulous and methodical. 

Thank yoi.

HOUSTON.

Thank you, you're very kind. The wife would question my Virgo meticulousness though LOL

[HOUSTON]

6 hours ago, CraigH said:

Thank you, you're very kind. The wife would question my Virgo meticulousness though LOL

Hey Craig....

I'm a Virgo....

I can see meticulous in you !!

[CraigH]

1 hour ago, HOUSTON said:

Hey Craig....

I'm a Virgo....

I can see meticulous in you !!

🤫

[k5054nz]

As someone with a certain LF XVIe in mind to go "all out" on with this kit, this is exceptionally interesting and helpful to follow.

[CraigH]

2 hours ago, k5054nz said:

As someone with a certain LF XVIe in mind to go "all out" on with this kit, this is exceptionally interesting and helpful to follow.

Thank you. More to come. The snow's made me dangerous lol

[CraigH]

2 hours ago, k5054nz said:

As someone with a certain LF XVIe in mind to go "all out" on with this kit, this is exceptionally interesting and helpful to follow.

But the XVI has a different canopy I can't imagine  lol

[Dave Swindell]

On 10/03/2023 at 15:13, CraigH said:

The machine guns on the C wing were 0.303" Brownings situated in the outer half of the wing. In the E wing they're  0.5" Brownings (so at 1:24 scale that equates to 0.2mm difference in diameter) so I could use the kit guns for an E or a C and on the E wing they simply fit into the spare slot beside the existing Hispano and the belt feeds run accordingly.

0.303" browning vs 0.5" browning sizes - the 0.5" gun is around 50% bigger, so to use a model part you'd be looking for a 0.303" in about 1/16 scale

 

[CraigH]

On 3/12/2023 at 9:09 AM, Dave Swindell said:

0.303" browning vs 0.5" browning sizes - the 0.5" gun is around 50% bigger, so to use a model part you'd be looking for a 0.303" in about 1/16 scale

 

That's fantastic. Thanks Dave🙏

[Keeff]

Amazing workmanship and such fine detail!  

 

Keith 😁

[CraigH]

18 minutes ago, Keeff said:

Amazing workmanship and such fine detail!  

 

Keith 😁

Thanks Keith, much appreciated

[RichieW]

Apologies for not commenting for a while Craig. I have been following along quietly and enjoying the updates. Your ability to create all incredibly complicated details is amazing. The model is looking magnificent, even if some of the intricate additions are partially/largely hidden I still think they add much to the model. Plus you seem to have great fun adding them so definitely time well spent!

 

Richie

[CraigH]

13 minutes ago, RichieW said:

Apologies for not commenting for a while Craig. I have been following along quietly and enjoying the updates. Your ability to create all incredibly complicated details is amazing. The model is looking magnificent, even if some of the intricate additions are partially/largely hidden I still think they add much to the model. Plus you seem to have great fun adding them so definitely time well spent!

 

Richie

Thanks Richie. It's always nice when people find time to add a comment and even nicer when it's one like yours! 🤣. I do sometimes wonder why I put myself through it, I'm thinking of a nervy 2 hours today changing the throttle handle on the already installed quadrant purely because I've gone mad and decided on the E wing after all but it is definitely worth it.