Tamiya Spitfire VIII converted to a VII

[Spitfire]

Looing very Spitfirish, nice work.

Cheers

Dennis

[BlrwestSiR]

Nice work on the Merlin. It's all coming together.

[denders]

Pre-shading done and the exhaust stubs are ready for painting. Hopefully none of them 'ping' off to neverland.

[PanzerWomble]

On 12/6/2025 at 5:44 PM, denders said:

I happened upon this Osprey book that I don't have. It's on the way. Looks like it should have some useful information.

 

I also found this photo on the internet.

That looks like RAF Harrowbeer in Devon to me , very distinctive dispersal pits . 

I can't say for sure but 131 Sdn were there March -May 1944 . 

[denders]

Well, I kneaded some Milliput and placed what I call the canopy master on it to make a buck. I'm going to try vacuum forming over it. it is made with the clear piece with the pieces of the fuselage that I cut off. I've thought about getting RTV mold material and resin to create a buck to use instead of this piece. Anyone have thoughts?

 

[BlrwestSiR]

I initially tried something similar when I did my VII conversion and smash moulding the canopy. I couldn't get a good enough copy so ended up just carefully bending the clear sheet to shape. It's not 100% but under the open canopy it's hard to tell. 

[denders]

I saw that in your build thread. That's why I kneaded up some milliput for under it. That is the first I've ever used milliput. I've ordered one of those vacuum forming machines from Amazon to try out. The thickness of plastic sheet may be an issue.

A long time ago I had one of the ancient Mattel machines. I wish I had kept it. I don't remember if I still have plastic sheet like was used in the Mattel machine. I'll have to look. There are only one or two places it could be. Hmmm.

EDIT: Found the sheets, first place I looked. 

[denders]

Okay, it's a while since I posted an update.

 

I bought one of these to use with the buck I made for the rear canopy section.

 

 

I bought various plastics to use and experiment with. This is noted for use making clear plastic dental retainers, so I bought a pack of plastic for that too, 5 pieces.

 

These are some of the results.

 

 

The machine comes with a baggy of steel balls, I guess to fill up the space around the buck. These are various tests with different materials. The one on the left might be like that because I didn't heat it long enough or perhaps was too slow in pulling it down and turning on the vacuum.  I found that the plastic was pulled down so well that I had to partially cut out the canopy piece to get the buck out. The second from right is the dental plastic. (black lettering). The one o the right is without the steel balls, it is 0.020" PETG and the one I used.

 

 

While I saw at it. I polished out the mold line on the top of the sliding canopy part.

 

 

Windscreen in place but I keep trying to mess things up. I forgot to take the inside masking off before I put it in place. That jig that I had built was very handy in holding the model in awkward positions while removing the inside masking. and I probably should have put the gunsight in place before the windscreen too. Ah well.

[BlrwestSiR]

That worked out nicely Dave. Probably the most critical part of the conversion.