Matchbox 1:32 Spitfire Rebuild (possibly)

[dr_gn]

Inspired by the 'bubble' canopy discussion on the 'Cool aircraft Pictures' thread, I found my smashed Matchbox Spitfire (built about 25 years ago). My Dad had kept most of the bits after it fell down from it's previous resting place hanging in his garage.

I have e-mailed Revell to see if they will sell me a few missing bits, such as a propeller blade and a decal set. If they can help, I will rebuild it, use some new fangled filler on the removable panel gaps, wet'n'dry the paint down and use it for further weathering and general airbrush experimentation!

[Eric Mc]

Aviation restoration 1/32 style.

Best of luck.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

Aviation restoration 1/32 style.

Best of luck.

Thank You.

No response from Revell.de as yet, so it's either fire up the lathe and turn some cannon barrels and carve a new balsa wood blade, or...were you telling me that the new Airfix Spitfires (the PR IXI and/or the MK22/24), are excellent, reasonably priced models that have half a chance of fitting together and actually have the right number of wings etc?

[perdu]

GOOD model shops should be able to supply you with "plasticard" in various thicknesses

You can replicate prop blades (using a thick grade) make new thinner u/c doors and various other parts of the airframe with it

it (Was?) is available in many thicknesses and I used to use it for all sorts of things rather than plump for balsa wood

The narrow boat model is entirely made of plasticard (except the "chimbley") excuse the lousy reproduction, must take a few digitals of the model

Your Spit looks a perfect candidate for repairs with TLC

I have a few models left over I must repair or rebuild*

might start me off again

• narrowboat, horse and cart and an old style coal waggon

have to have a look soon

[Eric Mc]

dr_gn said:

Eric Mc said:

Aviation restoration 1/32 style.

Best of luck.

Thank You.

No response from Revell.de as yet, so it's either fire up the lathe and turn some cannon barrels and carve a new balsa wood blade, or...were you telling me that the new Airfix Spitfires (the PR IXI and/or the MK22/24), are excellent, reasonably priced models that have half a chance of fitting together and actually have the right number of wings etc?

The XI is quite nice. I've bought it but not yet built it. I've seen it built up and looks fine to me.

I'm not so sure about their 22/24 - which must be 1/48 which I don't build.
By all accounts the Airfix 1/48 Spitfires are not bad models. Airfix kits may not click together as well as some models do but dimensionally and shape wise, they are often pretty much spot on (if you ignore some of their stuff from the early days i.e. pre about 1968).

[dr_gn]

perdu said:

GOOD model shops should be able to supply you with "plasticard" in various thicknesses

You can replicate prop blades (using a thick grade) make new thinner u/c doors and various other parts of the airframe with it

it (Was?) is available in many thicknesses and I used to use it for all sorts of things rather than plump for balsa wood

The narrow boat model is entirely made of plasticard (except the "chimbley") excuse the lousy reproduction, must take a few digitals of the model

Your Spit looks a perfect candidate for repairs with TLC

I have a few models left over I must repair or rebuild*

might start me off again

• narrowboat, horse and cart and an old style coal waggon

have to have a look soon

Some painting skills involved there too Perdu! Very good. Was the narrowboat part of the scenery on a model railway?

I had a go at carving a new blade from balsa tonight. It was OK, but not quite right. The baldes are quite thick, and being 1:32, have profile, camber and twist. If one feature is not 100% it just looks wrong. Plastic card might be a bit thin.

I wondered about casting a new blade out of resin. Make a mould out of body filler and use an existing blade as a pattern? Or get some 'rubber' type stuff for the mould. Not sure what it's called.

Cheers.

[perdu]

I was having a "period" period when i built the narrow boat, and the two cart/waggons

not for a railway set though

narrow boat was 1/48th scale. Because I had some figures in that scale and a horse or two (might have been Bandai, memory is like a sieve these days) and the carts were 1/35 because I intended a Birmingham street scene in Victorian times, using predominantly Tamiya soldier and Airfix horse figures.

I built several aircraft models in plasticard, including a 1/72 scale Shorts C-23A Sherpa. Thickness wasn't an issue. If I needed thicker plastic I simply laminated a few layers of thick card to scrape and file to the required dimensions.
And I often moulded parts to suit, just as you describe

make a plasticard box and fill it with silicon and the pattern piece, then mould the new parts with Holts P38 filler mixture

allow to dry and cool (it CAN get very hot when curing) and say wotcha to uncle Bob...

Somewhere I think, I still have the moulds I used to make the two halves of the Sherpa's PT6 engines, they were moulded from a pair of laminated plasticard formers glued to the bottom of the boxes I moulded the silicon in

[dr_gn]

perdu said:

I was having a "period" period when i built the narrow boat, and the two cart/waggons

not for a railway set though

narrow boat was 1/48th scale. Because I had some figures in that scale and a horse or two (might have been Bandai, memory is like a sieve these days) and the carts were 1/35 because I intended a Birmingham street scene in Victorian times, using predominantly Tamiya soldier and Airfix horse figures.

I built several aircraft models in plasticard, including a 1/72 scale Shorts C-23A Sherpa. Thickness wasn't an issue. If I needed thicker plastic I simply laminated a few layers of thick card to scrape and file to the required dimensions.
And I often moulded parts to suit, just as you describe

make a plasticard box and fill it with silicon and the pattern piece, then mould the new parts with Holts P38 filler mixture

allow to dry and cool (it CAN get very hot when curing) and say wotcha to uncle Bob...

Somewhere I think, I still have the moulds I used to make the two halves of the Sherpa's PT6 engines, they were moulded from a pair of laminated plasticard formers glued to the bottom of the boxes I moulded the silicon in

That's impressive. I have had a book highly reccommended on this subject, it is:

"Scale Model Aircraft in Plastic Card" by Harry Woodman.

Published in the 1970's it is (or was)the Bible for scratch building techniques. Our local library can't get it, and the ones I've seen online go for a lot of money.

Have you heard of this book?

OK, so you say use a Silicone mould. Do you mean bathroom sealant silicone?

Presumably for a blade I could use the flexibility of the silicone to spring the pattern out?

What release agent did you use?

Cheers for the advice.

[Eric Mc]

I have that book too.

Many of Woodman's techniques are still valid but the world of plastic modelling has moved on in leaps and bounds since the book was published - especially with the advent of resin accessories.

On that point, I did a quick Google search for you to see if any of the after-matket chaps do a replacement five bladed prop for a Spitfire. So far I havent't come across any. The nearest I saw was Quickboost who do a four bladed set for a 1/32 P-51D Mustang. That probably wouldn't be appropriate anyway.

[Evangelion]

I tried using bathroom sealant to make a mould and the result was a bloody awful mess.

If you're serious about resin casting, try Alex Tiranti in Reading - http://www.tiranti.co.uk/

[dr_gn]

Hmmm. The thing is I want to don't want to spend any cash on this, because it will never be spot-on. By the time I buy proper moulds or an aftermarket prop, I might as well just buy another complete kit, and that wouldn't go down too well.

Eric - regarding the book. I just wanted to read it out of interest, and hopefully learn some new techniques. Have you seen some of the scratchbuilt theads on Britmodeller?

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

Now that's modelling!

[Red Firecracker]

If you can wait a week or so, I need to do some resin moulding myself so could add a blade into the mould I'm making.

[Eric Mc]

dr_gn said:

Hmmm. The thing is I want to don't want to spend any cash on this, because it will never be spot-on. By the time I buy proper moulds or an aftermarket prop, I might as well just buy another complete kit, and that wouldn't go down too well.

Eric - regarding the book. I just wanted to read it out of interest, and hopefully learn some new techniques. Have you seen some of the scratchbuilt theads on Britmodeller?

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

Now that's modelling!

I had a quick look and that is pretty spectacular. But I am a humble kit basher and would never have the skills or time to devote so much energy and effort into the hobby.

[dr_gn]

Eric Mc said:

dr_gn said:

Hmmm. The thing is I want to don't want to spend any cash on this, because it will never be spot-on. By the time I buy proper moulds or an aftermarket prop, I might as well just buy another complete kit, and that wouldn't go down too well.

Eric - regarding the book. I just wanted to read it out of interest, and hopefully learn some new techniques. Have you seen some of the scratchbuilt theads on Britmodeller?

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

http://www.britmodeller.com/forums/index.php?showt...

Now that's modelling!

I had a quick look and that is pretty spectacular. But I am a humble kit basher and would never have the skills or time to devote so much energy and effort into the hobby.

Whether it's healthy to have the patience to hack three undercarriage legs from solid brass with a saw and file is a bit questionable though...

[Eric Mc]

I don't want to get into the "get a life" frame of mind as I was campaigning against such atitudes on another thread elesewhere. However, unless the modeller is a professional, that level of model building does indicate that he cannot have much time for anything else.

[perdu]

Not entirely sure I agree with Eric and the "time for much else" theory

when I was a'modelling to reasonable standards I had time to work as a toolmaker 45 hrs a week, be a full time dad and husband, spend time as an Air Training Corps instructor and make my models.

Yes if a competition I wanted to win was looming I'd find a little extra time for it (yes I used to be a competitive person back then, not now though) but on the whole life was varied and interesting

later my ATC unit was forced to fold so I joined the local TA, also a prime spare time using unit rather than a four drill nights per annum unit

still had time for family and anti-cold war manoeuvres

You get from modelling what you want to, was my experience

have to say since I found the internet, my available time to spare has dwindled, too long browsing so many forums (fora?)

odd huh?

dr_gn

since you only need one prop blade and are reluctant to mould one (I wouldnt either!) why not make a long ish length of plastic padding resin mixed and hardened, and roughly shaped to suit, then laid to harden on a sheet of grease proof paper or cling film. Then carve and file and polish it to replicate the curves on the blades you still have?

I did all of my carving with a small brass handled Swann Morton knife and the curved number two blade.

easy to carve both convex and concave shapes in and across a length of Pastic Padding resin (holts P38 works well too) and using a few French files it wouldnt take long to make a single blade or any other parts you are missing. PP takes sanded finishes too and can look just like the original if you give the finished item a few hours of time

simples...

[Eric Mc]

You are probably correct Perdu. It's making time rather than finding time that's the issue.

[perdu]

Eric Mc said:

You are probably correct Perdu. It's making time rather than finding time that's the issue.

to be fair Eric

I forgot to say that back then I used to "smoke" 60 to 80 fags a day too (most of every fag went up in smoke as they were usually stuck burning away in the ashtray, and a huge percentage were bummed by free loading "mates" at work too... Different world nowadays)

So, much of the modelmaking was displacement therapy, like the smoking



Bill

[Eric Mc]

You are a man of extremes obviously

I have my obsessions - but I try to spread them out a bit so I don't "burn out".

(Trying to knock an old FROG Blackburn Skua into shape is enough to put anyone off modelling).

[perdu]

I thought you'd be well on the way to completion of the Skua by now Eric

I only built one once, I loved Frog's naval slant on modelling, after all who else could be a**ed to give us a Wessex, even if it was only the older version

(reminds me, once built one of those as BN in 72 Squadron. Lots of lovely details and a hand "pulled" canopy you could look inside at the cockpit intrumentation)

Good old days

anyway good luck with the Skua, have you thought about the ex Alan Hall Roc conversion afterwards, kind of nice looking plane too

bill