Revell 1/32 Spitfire Mk IIa

[Peterpools]

Thanks Phil

I haven't tried any of the Red Fox sets yet but will give them a go later this year. One thing I really appreciate about the Quinta sets are seat belts and harnesses are included and RF doesn't. For me, that is a big difference and money saver as well. The seatbelts and Sutton harnesses are from the Quinta set.

 

[Peterpools]

Kev

Just pre-ordered the Quinta set from Hobby Nut and as soon as I have then in hand, the Lanc takes over the bench for a good long while

 

[JohnB]

On 2/21/2023 at 9:05 AM, Peterpools said:

THE FRONT OFFICE

Steady work on the front office and it’s about 95% done. A full Quinta cockpit set was used and it brought the rather plain jane office to a new level. Getting all the parts to fit has been a chore and I’m still at it. The kit’s instructions are the old style and a good number of specific fit details are either not shown or are just too unclear to be of help. I’m still fussing with trying to get everything to line up and it quite doesn't. The other issue is fitting the cockpit assembly into the fuselage half so the left cockpit wall can be added and the fuselage closed up. Just a lot of tweaking and sanding but I’m getting there.

My office has a few 'goofs' but they look fine and when everything is closed up, none can be seen. Hopefully by tonight, the fuselage will be together. One small part that stills needs some TLC is the rear portion of the Sutton harness .. just a bit finicky.

As it seems, I’m getting into WWII RAF aircraft this year and after the Spit, I’m hoping to start the Border Lancaster. I’m waiting for the Quinta Detail set to be released hopefully tomorrow and then have to decide if it’s safe to order it directly from Quinta or wait for Sprue Bros to receive it.

 

Very nice front office Peter. Looking excellent!

[Peterpools]

Thanks John - the Quinta set surely took an Oh Hum office to a rather nicely detailed one.

 

[Peterpools]

COMING TOGETHER

AND TEST FITTING

Making progress as the fuselage has now been glued together and as with most of the Revell 32^nd scale kits I’ve worked on, closing up the fuselage has been a slight adventure. It seems no matter how hard I tried, the cockpit assembly was bit too wide and required a lot of sanding to fit. I was very careful to follow the instructions but to no avail, as to what I thought would be a good fit surely wasn’t and closing up the fuselage was a testy process, taking nearly a week’s time. Liberal amounts of Extra Thin was used first on the upper cowl and after three days drying time, the lower portion was glued up and left to dry for a good three days as well, with an abundance of Tamiya tape wrapping the complete nose area as an extra thin wicked off and dried.

 The wings were built up as per the kit instructions and the underwing MG cartridge chute openings were sealed up from the interior with Evergreen Styrene – will look more convincing after painting. Mr Surfacer 1000 was used where needed on both the fuselage and wings.

The story goes Revell based their kit on a Spitfire Mk IIa restoration, which had parts from different marks and thus the discrepancies in the kit itself. But the kit does represent a restored Mk IIa so, there is some justification for using the questionable kit parts.

The interior of the radiator was painted MRP RAF Interior Green Gray and the radiators with Tamiya Lacquer Light and Dark Gun Metal, followed up with Tamiya Black PL Wash.

The wings, horizontal stabilizers and windshield are being test fitted and a pair of Barracuda fabric ailerons will be added after the wings are glued into place. I spent a lot of time tweaking the wing to fuselage fit and there is only one small area remaining to adjust the fit: left rear fairing.

All the major components being test fitted with the Barracuda ailerons ready to be cleaned up and added after the wings have been glued in place. Surely wish Revell would have followed Tamiya's method of attaching the front windscreen at a panel line away from the glass - life would be so much easier and the firt so much better.

 

[KevinM]

She is coming along Nicely Peter.

[Peterpools]

Thanks Kev, hopefully this coming week I'll be able for finish the basic kit and maybe be ready for priming - just see how it goes.

 

[Spitfire]

Looking like a Spitfire now.

Cheers

Dennis

[Peterpools]

Thanks Dennis

Moving along and hoping to make some nice progress this week.

 

[DocRob]

Looks great Peter, but what a shame about the cockpit fit. Can't be so difficult to get that right. I'm not an expert with Spitfires, but the airframe looks about right. I have some Revell kits in stash, but never built one after my twens. 

Cheers Rob

[Peterpools]

Thanks Rob

Cockpit final fit is 100% my fault, as I should have kept sanding and then sanded more but I didn't. I just assumed the fit was just fine after only a few partial test fits and that lead to a few fit issues down the road. All is finally OK, just required more work I shouldn't have had to do; lesson learned.

What I feel is the real issue, is not the kit or even the aging builder but some very poor instructions. The kit is from 2014 and has Revell's older instructions, where some of the parts in the instructions do not exactly match the actual part as to how they attach, including the attachment faces and that leave two choices: the right one and the wrong one. I guess, I picked the right one only 50% of the time. The more Revell kits I build, the easier they become as you start to understand Revell's philosophy.  

Don't have any qualms on building them, as they are well worth the cost and time. For what Revell retails them at, they are just fine. 

 

[Peterpools]

MAKING SOME PROGRESS

Seems for each step forward, I’ve been taking two steps to the rear. Just so many small corrections, fixes, including issues with the Barracuda replacement fabric ailerons.

Finally, the lower cowl fits decently, as earlier I thought a bit of Mr Surfacer and all would be good and of course, it didn’t. Sanding, tweaking and liberal treatments of Mr Surfacer and Tamiya Filler to the rescue.

The glass looks fairly nice but who in the world these days has the fret runners attach to the glass on the top face of the canopy frames and not the bottom? Just a lot more work carefully sanding the fret nibs off and being extra careful not to sand into the clear glass. ASK masks were used and on the main canopy there were a few spots on the compound curves where the masks had a hard time sitting down.

John B came to the rescue with a replacement prop hub as the kit hub was a little too small and shaped incorrectly. I widen the diameter at the base and did a bit more shaping – surely looks much better then the kits effort.

A lot of time was needed to square away the wing roots and I’m finally OK with them now. 

The Barracuda resin fabric aileron had problems: The female portion of the hinges needed to be widened, they were a little short in length and a bit too wide at the flap end. Plastic card and some very careful sanding fixed these issues.    

 

The two part windscreen, the armor glass is a separate piece and will be added after painting and the rear portion are just being test fitted and resting in place.

With any luck, the paint shop and priming is less then a few work sessions away.

 

 

[KevinM]

It does not look bad or that you had problems from my perspective Peter.I had started spaying the interior of Revell's MkIX the other night and lo an behold I found another MkIX in the cabinet last night.....another Quinta kit

[Peterpools]

Thanks Kev

I'm right with you, a Quinta addict! Right now, I'm just waiting for the Border Lancaster set to be shopped to the US, as it shows available on their site.

 

 

[KevinM]

1 hour ago, Peterpools said:

Thanks Kev

I'm right with you, a Quinta addict! Right now, I'm just waiting for the Border Lancaster set to be shopped to the US, as it shows available on their site.

 

 

Yeah I had to wait about 3/4 wks for the Arado kit when OS.

[Bomber_County]

Looking mighty fine to me, clean and precise as ever…..

[JohnB]

2 hours ago, Peterpools said:

MAKING SOME PROGRESS

Seems for each step forward, I’ve been taking two steps to the rear. Just so many small corrections, fixes, including issues with the Barracuda replacement fabric ailerons.

Finally, the lower cowl fits decently, as earlier I thought a bit of Mr Surfacer and all would be good and of course, it didn’t. Sanding, tweaking and liberal treatments of Mr Surfacer and Tamiya Filler to the rescue.

The glass looks fairly nice but who in the world these days has the fret runners attach to the glass on the top face of the canopy frames and not the bottom? Just a lot more work carefully sanding the fret nibs off and being extra careful not to sand into the clear glass. ASK masks were used and on the main canopy there were a few spots on the compound curves where the masks had a hard time sitting down.

John B came to the rescue with a replacement prop hub as the kit hub was a little too small and shaped incorrectly. I widen the diameter at the base and did a bit more shaping – surely looks much better then the kits effort.

A lot of time was needed to square away the wing roots and I’m finally OK with them now. 

The Barracuda resin fabric aileron had problems: The female portion of the hinges needed to be widened, they were a little short in length and a bit too wide at the flap end. Plastic card and some very careful sanding fixed these issues.    

 

The tw

o part windscreen, the armor glass is a separate piece and will be added after painting and the rear portion are just being test fitted and resting in place.

With any luck, the paint shop and priming is less then a few work sessions away.

 

 

Looking good Peter. The replacement spinner sure helps the looks doesn't it.

[Spitfire]

Looking good Peter, I too had a short replacement aileron and had to use some shimming.

Cheers

Dennis

[Peterpools]

Kev

It's waiting that drives me crazy at times

 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Phil, getting there slowly but surely. In the end, the Revell kit should be a good looking MK IIa and it's the only game in town. 

[Peterpools]

Thanks John and completely agree, your replacement spinner makes a huge difference.

 

[Peterpools]

Dennis, Much appreciated. Just seems hard to understand how the replacement ailerons could be off in length and width unless Roy used a different Revell wing/kit. All the other addons seem to be for the Tamiya Spitfires and have been around for a while. Still glad I bought them as I'll be using them on future Spitfire builds.

 

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice work Peter. The main seams all look good overall. The glass looks fine and the sprue attachment point isn't as bad as the one on Tamiya's 1/32 F-4 kits. Can't wait to see what it looks like under a coat of paint. 

As for the Barracuda bits, I wonder if Roy has several moulds that he uses and some may have shrunk/degraded. I have two of the Tempest nose corrections and one is way off dimensionally while the other is almost a perfect match to the fuselage. 

[Peterpools]

Thanks Carl.  This afternoon, I primed the major seams and found a few spots that need a bit of TLC and once that's done, add the glass and head for the paint shop and priming. 

You just might be right about Roy having several molds for the AM parts as in the past, all his resin was near perfect.

 

[GazzaS]

Very nice progress, Peter.  Sometimes...   Revell just makes me shake my head sometimes.  I hope my Kotare Spitfire is less troublesome and requires no AM.

About the 109 G6 ppl say:  "buy Revell, it's so much cheaper".  But then the totally necessary AM costs three times as much as the kit.  I didn't see the savings.