Spitfire Mk. Vc(trop)

Spitfire Mk. Vc(trop)

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shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 28th November 2014
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The motorbike build has stalled. Mainly 'cos Asda has sold out of the card I was using and I'm not heading the 10 miles to the next big one just for some card.

In the mean time, I'm attempting a kit I found on the internet.
Note: I fully intend to purchase several kits from the manufacturer, however I've had no replies to multiple emails yet - and the spitfire is out of print.


Printed out on photo paper (160gsm)


Part 1: Building the seat
Other than the fact some of the parts are numbered in no kind of logical manner,
they are tiny and there are 17 in the seat assembly alone




Seat assembly is <2cm tall, and my headache is significantly bigger. The back of the seat frame is appx 1mm wide, and it's all butt-joints.
Getting them to set square required some inventiveness.
Next up, the cockpit.

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
Eric Mc said:
I'm not saying the colour scheme is wrong but it certainly isn't typical of th colours used in the Med. Spitfire Vs tended to have "Earth/Mid Stone" upper colours.
I wouldn't be surprised if the colours are wrong - they certainly look a bit "Jolly"

I'm more interested in building this as a test for his kits - if i'm happy with the result, i'll take a look at the other ones on his list for a more accurate colour scheme.

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 28th November 2014
quotequote all
If I was painting it, id probably do a bit of research, but as a precoloured paper kit, I can't really justify spending the time photoshopping the colours prior to print out on what is effectively a 'test' kit. I hope the retail kits (of which this could well be a badly scanned version of - I know the printer is within spec) would have at least an attempt at historical accuracy.

There is a write up, I assume, with a picture of the pilot, but unfortunately my polish is not good enough

Either way, some of the subframe ahead of the cockpit has been assembled, out of double thickness for strength - pics when I'm back in the orifice

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Saturday 29th November 2014
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I'm pretty sure this one won't have a resin seat.
Thanks for the feedback on the seatbelts - they didn't look quite right to me either but it was a close-ish match to the assembly instructions.
I should be able to correct it without too much hassle. :-)

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Saturday 29th November 2014
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I assumed you meant a replacement resin model seat such as those used by Dr_gn! My bad

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Sunday 30th November 2014
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Cheers doc - that's spot on. I'll just print them again and redo the seatbelts. :-)

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Monday 1st December 2014
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New parts


New parts fitted. looks better.

Suppose I should do some work now... the "people-manager" is due in soon.


shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Monday 1st December 2014
quotequote all
Tbh, I pretty much stick to doing any cutting and sticking during breaks, unless the decks are totally clear work wise... I'd imagine they'd view me billing the client for making a spitfire as a bit of a liberty!

:-)

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Tuesday 2nd December 2014
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Somewhat multi-tasking on this, managed to get a bit done during lunch yesterday, just waited to let the glue set up before taking some pics.

Some progress has been made on the cockpit display - there were two options for this, one with a set of recessed dials, however, cutting out about a dozen 1-2mm dia holes would probably ended up looking ratty, and worse than the flat panel. This was actually the "between" step whilst glue was setting up - the main progress has been on the side.



I'm not happy with the bottles, they're just rolled tubes - I may scratch-build some better ones, depending on how visible they are going to be



There's one more part to be completed and I can sign off on this step (unless I do the bottles again)



shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Wednesday 3rd December 2014
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Both perfectly viable solutions - I love the craftrobo - but possibly too great an outlay for 1 model

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Thursday 4th December 2014
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Looking at the user manual, the program step size is 0.05mm. That's pretty small.

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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Minor update. i've completed a few bulkheads and couldnt resist placing them in to see how it was looking. The bulkheads will have the outer skin formed to them more once i've completed the rest of the fiddly bits.

cockpit is nowhere near complete, but it's getting there.

Apologies for the awful pics, the app on my phone has been "upgraded" which seems to affect the macro performance.





the whole section is appx 6cm long.

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 5th December 2014
quotequote all
Oh god... You used the W word... If she finds out there's a device that can cut intricate butterfly shaped holes in w-w-w-w-party invites I'll be ordering one before I realise my wallet has been snaffled

shortar53

Original Poster:

548 posts

274 months

Friday 5th December 2014
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Oh, I was almost thrown out of a w***ing fayre at Durham Cricket Ground. Apparently describing cricket as "just like rounders" is akin to heresy