1:24 Airfix Spitfire Mk. IXc..or is it E?- June 5th 1944

[belugawhaleman]

Impressive work! Your detail work is amazing.

[Spitfire]

It's great to see a Spitfire being built and this one is going together well, I was surprised to see the warning notice on the air bottles, as this is normal for oxygen cylinders only, maybe Airfix have got confused.

Cheers

Dennis

 

 

[Craigyboy]

31 minutes ago, Spitfire said:

It's great to see a Spitfire being built and this one is going together well, I was surprised to see the warning notice on the air bottles, as this is normal for oxygen cylinders only, maybe Airfix have got confused.

Cheers

Dennis

 

 

Dennis

Thanks for pointing that out. Looking at it your comment makes perfect sense, there would be no explosion risk with compressed air, at least I don't think so. I'll look into it. Airfix NEVER get it wrong 🤣🤣

[Craigyboy]

First big boo boo from Airfix has just been pointed out to me by Dennis. The warnings on the air tanks refer to only oxygen tanks not compressed air. Grease and oxygen don't go together, air and grease don't really care so I've had to take them off and respray plain since Airfix don't give the correct markings😪

[Craigyboy]

First up today are errors. I have to admit they've been few and far between on this kit (from Airfix I mean, not from me. Mine are legion)

Beware the decals! They'll fool you.

First are the ones that go on the air tanks behind the pilot here

The warning is for an oxygen tank and not air tanks. The oxygen tank isn't in the kit, presumably as it's out of site but beware. I had to remove and respray after it was pointed out to me.

Second the drop down entrance door on the port side

This decal is for the inside of the radio hatch door which if you haven't been daft like me and opened it up , will be of no use to you...great for me though.

 

So first today I've been messing with the armament. There's no point IMO fitting Master brass barrels as none of it is seen. I just sprayed the guns black and drybrushed with gunmetal paint. I'm dying to get hold of some Uschi Van der Rosten steel pigment powder but no one has any in stock. Must be a shortage. All the bays are duraluminum and I've simply fitted everything in then I'll dirty it up with greasy mess and pigment powder later.

 

Next, fitting the monocoque. The fit is excellent once again so all I had to do was add the little bits to the upper cockpit wall that's part of the port fuselage before gluing the monocoque in and leaving it to harden. I added a length of silver braided cord to the back of the automatic channel selector for the radio which leads aft and will fit to the transmitter as well as some wiring leading forward for the throttle.

I also did the starboard upper wall while I was at it, adding wiring for the wobble pump and an oxygen tap. I'm in love with the little spare bulbs for the gunsight upper left. They look brilliant

 

The morse key can't be added til the two fuselage halves are assembled

Next all these flipping control wires I landed myself with. If you remember, there were two from each side of the rudder bars, four from the aileron control and a couple of new ones for the harness release system. I needed somewhere to anchor them all as I could fi them once the two halves were together.

On the actual plane they run through a fairlead as they go aft

so I replicated that very roughly as it can't be seen and simply terminated them at the fairlead instead of going through it.

Simply did I say? Simply? Two hours later it was done. Never again. The worse thing is that with the transmitter in place, the only visible ones are the harness wires running aft. Oh how I cried!

So all that's needed now is to fasten the two halves together and Job done. Thanks for looking and as a sign off, If anyone had=s any idea where these bits go please let me know. They're on the sprues F mainly but there's nothing in the destructions as to where they go. I've asked Airfix to no avail

[harv]

Excellent.  Thanks for the walk through....harv 😁

[Spitfire]

Most impressive work, I don't think that I would have the patience for those cables, especially as they won't be seen.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[Craigyboy]

3 hours ago, Spitfire said:

Most impressive work, I don't think that I would have the patience for those cables, especially as they won't be seen.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

Thanks Dennis. I almost didn't 

[Peterpools]

Terrific detail work and thanks again for the 'warnings' regarding the air tank decals and the drop-down door decals. 

I've always wondered why manufactures spend so much R&D time and money and then get the small details wrong. 

 

[Craigyboy]

56 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Terrific detail work and thanks again for the 'warnings' regarding the air tank decals and the drop-down door decals. 

I've always wondered why manufactures spend so much R&D time and money and then get the small details wrong. 

 

Me too. But overall it is a lovely kit

[John S]

The two outermost parts from Sprue F that you couldn't identify are fitted at steps 223 & 224. No idea what the others are though.

John

[BlrwestSiR]

That's a lovely interior and I know the feeling about doing all that wiring and then it's not visible. At least you've got the photographic proof it's there. 

[Craigyboy]

1 hour ago, John S said:

The two outermost parts from Sprue F that you couldn't identify are fitted at steps 223 & 224. No idea what the others are though.

John

Got those now thanks

[Sasha As]

Great construction!!!

[Craigyboy]

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 MK356, 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

 

[Bomber_County]

Craig, just catching up again. There is some seriously flawless work here, congrats, I’ve only ever built one spit in my life………

[Craigyboy]

21 minutes ago, Bomber_County said:

Craig, just catching up again. There is some seriously flawless work here, congrats, I’ve only ever built one spit in my life………

One is fine....along with a hurricane lancaster mosquito etc🤣

[Peterpools]

Craig

Right with Phil, some mighty fine flawless work - looking spectacular.

 

[Craigyboy]

13 minutes ago, Peterpools said:

Craig

Right with Phil, some mighty fine flawless work - looking spectacular.

 

Many thanks

[BlrwestSiR]

Fabulous work. The extra detail on the rad interiors adds a lot to them. 

Maketar will do custom masks. They have a custom option on their website. Just pick the font and size you need. The only downside is they do them as individual letters. 

Another option is DN Models. They'll do custom as well. I've ordered several sets from them with great results. 

Carl

[Craigyboy]

5 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Fabulous work. The extra detail on the rad interiors adds a lot to them. 

Maketar will do custom masks. They have a custom option on their website. Just pick the font and size you need. The only downside is they do them as individual letters. 

Another option is DN Models. They'll do custom as well. I've ordered several sets from them with great results. 

Carl

Thanks Carl. Much appreciated

[Craigyboy]

9 hours ago, BlrwestSiR said:

Fabulous work. The extra detail on the rad interiors adds a lot to them. 

Maketar will do custom masks. They have a custom option on their website. Just pick the font and size you need. The only downside is they do them as individual letters. 

Another option is DN Models. They'll do custom as well. I've ordered several sets from them with great results. 

Carl

Maketar brilliant just what I need. I did email DN a few days ago but they never got back to me. Thanks Carl

[CANicoll]

Craig,   Just catching up with your build and it is a fantastic tutorial on the Airfix kit.  I have to admit, I didn't think the Airfix was up to Tamiya quality but I may have to go and pick one up as I love the IXc.  Really impressive work and thanks for all of the detail shots and discussion.  This is definitely one to book mark.

Chris

[Craigyboy]

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.

[Bomber_County]

Craig, thanks for the explanation, I know nothing about C, E wings so useful. My nephew lives in Sheffield and looks like you guys got clobbered. The build is amazing……..