Hobby Boss 1/32 Spitfire Vb Trop with Tamiya Merlin engine

[Alan P]

19 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

its your model so you build it how you want.

Thanks Craig, and I always do!

[Alan P]

Bit more progress with this:

You've probably seen a bazillion photos just like this one on Britmodeller

Pleased with the instrument panel, it's just the kit panel with the instruments off the decal sheet.

Everything in there is OOB. I would like to get some fabric seatbelts at some point. No washes or any other effects done at this point.

 

One oddity of the kit is these clear gun compartment covers, not sure why you'd ever need these, but hey.

I already cut off the wingtips. The kit provides a clean indentation to make this very easy using a knife.

The kit provides complete gun assemblies and representations of the ammunition boxes and feeds. I'm not displaying these.

Nice touch - the .303 barrels are solid but drilled at the flash suppressors. One less fiddly job for me!

 

I test fitted the wing halves and they are near enough perfect. This is a very nice kit, I don't know why I didn't buy a bunch of them already! I only have one other Hobby Boss kit and it's the disappointing A-26 Invader in 1/32. 

 

Anyway...this is going together really well. I'm hoping to complete the main assembly over the weekend and then I can get started on the engine.

 

 

[modelling minion]

That really is very nice work Alan, very nice indeed.

I agree with you about the instrument panel, the kit decals and your painting are all that it needs as it looks great.

Trumpeter and others seem to like gimmicks such as clear panels, whether they be for engines or guns, but I haven't seen many models ever built like that.

16 minutes ago, Alan P said:

I only have one other Hobby Boss kit and it's the disappointing A-26 Invader in 1/32. 

Where on Earth do you plan to store that when its built!

[Alan P]

Thanks again Craig

16 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Where on Earth do you plan to store that when its built!

Probably never going to be an issue until somebody produces a proper blown canopy for the kit! Currently the kit's not really good enough for a decent build

[modelling minion]

6 minutes ago, Alan P said:

24 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

 

Probably never going to be an issue until somebody produces a proper blown canopy for the kit! Currently the kit's not really good enough for a decent build

Thats disappointing as the Invader is one of my favourite aircraft.

[Bertie McBoatface]

I’m interested to see your magic engine trick in action. 😃

[Alan P]

16 minutes ago, modelling minion said:

Thats disappointing as the Invader is one of my favourite aircraft.

Same! That's why the kit was such a crushing disappointment after their excellent P-61

 

@Bertie McBoatface the 'engine trick' is just a stolen concept which will probably make a hash of, but you only live once

[81-er]

Very nice work there, Alan  The kit cockpit detail is excellent. I wonder if the clear panels are to give you the option of showing off the guns without having the covers open? Which does seem like an odd thing to have.

 

I've only got two Hobbyboss kits in my stash, a 1/35 KV-2 tank (well, the boxing of it in captured German markings) and the 1/48 Osprey. Both look to be very nice kits indeed, and I'm particularly hoping to get the Osprey built next year as that's one of my favourite aircraft

 

James

[Biggles87]

You’ve got as far in a couple of months as I did in three years. The instrument panel looks good with the decals, my Aires panel has become  ‘ speckled ‘ over time, and doesn’t look as good as yours.

Keep up the good work.

 

John

[Alan P]

Thanks @81-er and @Biggles87 

 

This is officially a 'nice build' ™️offering generally good details and fit but leaving you enough to do so you don't feel like you're making Lego

Stuck the fuselage together. It's a good fit.

I tried hard to get a seamless fit with the stabilisers but there's still some work to do. I scraped off the rib details and riveted to match the rest of the fuselage but wouldn't normally go for so much.

Wings also assembled, again they fit together very well.

The leading edges might need a bit of mending but they don't look too bad under different light.

These are the kit-supplied clipped wingtips - as @Retired Bob reminded us earlier, these aren't the same as the local MU wingtips fitted to Gleed's aircraft, so I will be messing about with these!

 

Lastly, some more good news:

The Achilles' heel of most Spitfire kits (except Kotare's rare gem) is the wing/body joint. These look pretty damn good upon dry-fitting.

The design wisely moves the underside rear joint to just inboard of the chine edges, making it much easier to work.

 

Onwards over the weekend with any luck!

 

Cheers,

Alan

 

 

[Alan P]

The eagle-eyed among you may have noticed I've changed the title...after some hand-wringing, I've decided to shelve the Brassin engine, as the difference in detailing to the cockpit would have been too jarring to the eye. I'm going to borrow the Tamiya engine from the Mosquito kit instead and combine it with the HB engine bearers to hopefully still be able to do the interchangeable engine arrangement as planned.

Here are sprues H and P from the splendid Tamiya kit.

Though not as sharply detailed as the Brassin ones, they're not bad at all!

So it should still be a decent result, and probably a lot easier to assemble!

 

More soon,

 

Alan

[modelling minion]

She's coming along very nicely Alan and the fit does seem to be pretty good.

The engine from the Mosquito looks perfectly good enough and will look great when assembled and painted.

[Wings unlevel]

Looks like a fun and (for you!) fast build Alan.

[Alan P]

Thanks again @modelling minion and @Wings unlevel 😊👍

11 hours ago, Wings unlevel said:

Looks like a fun and (for you!) fast build Alan.

Amazing the difference a change of job can do for your work-life balance 😊

[Alan P]

So, I got started on the interchangeable nose section, as that's been keeping me awake at night

Started by removing the kit firewall mount and replacing with a plastic card template, fitted with two neodymium magnets.

At this point I'd already built up the nose panel section and fitted some metal washers on the inside face for the magnets to bite onto.

The test fit was nothing short of a triumph!  Although I think I need to use magnets on the inside face rather than just metal bits. Next job...

Then I had to drill some holes to place magnets in the firewall part. This is also a snug fit but does sit a little forward, not that I'm that bothered. The prop assembly will be detachable to fit on either prop shaft so it'll always be fitted whether the nose cowl panels are on or off.

 

So I reckon this idea will work nicely and might even become a regular feature for my builds where feasible...thank you GWH for the inspiration, as well as producing one of the great kits of our time.

 

Cheers,

Alan 

 

[Wings unlevel]

Genius!

[modelling minion]

I agree with Gerard, that is a work of Genius Alan and is going to do exactly what you want it to.

[81-er]

Beautifully done, Alan

 

James

[Geo1966]

Hi Alan, I am amazed you are taking on a project like this in a GB. It would take me a year if I was lucky and no way would it be to the standard you are producing. Keep up the great work.

 

George

[Alan P]

That's very kind of you gents 😊 though the genius in this case is all due to the designers at GWH for the simple yet brilliant idea of using magnets for interchangeable nose sections. Standing on the shoulder of giants and all that 😂 

10 hours ago, Geo1966 said:

Hi Alan, I am amazed you are taking on a project like this in a GB.

Thanks very much George 👍 this is why I like GBs, I usually build pretty quick because I don't get loads of time for modelling and tend to go in bursts, so a deadline provides the motivation to keep going!

[Alan P]

Back to this headscratcher of a build!

The engine starting to come together - this is the Tamiya Merlin 23/25 test fitted to the bearer assembly for now but it does fit after a LOT of trial and error.

A proof of concept shot - you can see the additional magnets on the closed panel nose.

The two noses all magneted up and showing the interchangeable fitting on the firewall.

With that done, I could go ahead and finish up the Merlin - ignition harnesses, coolant pipes and tank fitted. The coolant parts came from Sprue H in the Tamiya Mosquito kit which are the redundant parts from the same sprue in their Spitfire kits. The hoses and piping is made from fuse wire. The ignition parts are from the Hobby Boss kit.

So here's the streamlined nose fitted - I still need to fit the exhaust interior and exhaust pipes.

Here's the finished Merlin, with the oil tank from the Hobby Boss kit. I had to cut off part of the engine underside to fit the kit, but I'm not going to cry about that.

Very happy with this, even though it was a bit of a rush job and I had to chop up a lot of plastic to get it to fit the firewall. I used the Tamiya nuts and bolts to secure the engine to the firewall so the load isn't transmitted through the bearer arms when I take it off and on.

 

Successful chop job - really pleased how that went!

 

Alan

 

 

[Alan P]

So...here's the final fit test:

Looks a bit droopy but hopefully won't be as obvious when it's on its feet.

I can push the top edge back tighter against the fake firewall so it should straighten out nicely when finished.

 

I just realised I missed out a whole day's worth of modelling photos for the build thread  pointless me posting those now as they'll be out of synch, so here's just a quick sample showing the seatbelts fitted:

These are actually the kit photoetch seatbelts painted up with Vallejo colours. The extended harness behind the seat is just Tamiya tape doubled over and painted up.

Tail assembly complete - added a little characteristic droop to the elevators and offset the rudder very slightly for a bit of interest.

 

Anyway - really glad the engine plan worked, so now I can move on to paint. Some decent gaps in the wing roots to fill (what Spitfire kit other than Kotare doesn't need that!) but looking forward to some paint. Must give a big shoutout to Mike at MJR Models for supplying TWO rattle cans of Tamiya Fine Surface Primer when my original order for AK Primer was out of stock. Excellent service and guaranteed future custom from me!

 

All the best,

Alan

[Alan P]

Looking at it again I think the oil tank is fitted too low and too far forward

It fits quite flush compared to my effort, so I suppose the HB part was supposed to slot into a recess under the engine, which the Tamiya version doesn't have. I'll have another crack at it tomorrow.

 

[modelling minion]

That really is outstanding work Alan. The engine is looking really good and fits the bearers superbly and looks especially good when fitted to the airframe with your ingenious magnet system. The seat belt set up looks convincing too, don't worry about having missed a few photos. The wingroot gaps don't look that bad and the tailplanes look to have gone on without too much trouble. 

This really is shaping up very nicely indeed.

[81-er]

Ditto to what Craig said, this is a superb build and I really like the interchangable engine and cowlings, that's very effective

 

James