Another weekend has passed so it's high time to show some progress. I'm still working with the pilots office. This time I managed do glue most of PE details from the Eduard brass (saturday) and on sunday I have painted everything. Unfortunaltelly some places needs extra care and polishing. I hae also plan to scratch some details, especially cabels and wires on the sides. I'm affraid I will also have to start working with the intrument panel and control pedals.

Here are the pics.

Right side:




Left side:




Soldering practice:

Nice Michal ..

you're slow, but it turns out good

all the best

Steffen

I'm sorry to dissapoint you, but I have free time for modeling only during weekends when I'm near my workbench and I'm back home. So I spent max 4-5 hours a week for this Spitfire. I have also few other non-modelling project which distracts me from modelling.

Besides we still have summer so I prefer to go for a walk with a dog than stay at home than to breathe in the glue stink.

Hi Michal

you do not disappoint me ! I just hoped for a little more progress .. and being an extremely slow boulder myself I was just poking you a bit .. thus the emoticon. ... most important: Have fun and do not care hat others say!

all the best

Steffen

You Germans have a strange habit to use a rifle with a fixed bayonet for poking other people! (just re-poking ;P ).

O.k. now I am on a new page ... so you need to post some more photos soon

about German humor ... well, this German (me) is special for sure . .. I would never use a bajonet for poking .. but maybe a Klappspaten....

cheers

Steffen

..I love the smell of glues & paints ..I've often wondered if that's the reason I build models actually...
...nice work so far Michal !

Perhaps I can help a little (and confuse a lot!) here. The seat-back cushion could be slid on, or off, at will. I would imagine that it would be more comfortable, if the pilot flew in shirtsleeves, while, with warm clothing, Mae West, etc., it could have been a nuisance. A cushion has been found in the wreckage of a Battle of Britain Mk.I, so their use was pretty extensive.
That etched seat, that you're doing, is an early version; it's missing the lozenge-shaped depression in the base, for the dighy's air bottle (bl---y uncomfortable according to one pilot,) and doesn't have the kink in the left thighguard, where the parachute's pull cord went, without fouling. The small oval, in the right thighguard should be opened up into a hole, since the right strap of the Sutton harness went through it (I believe it was done to avoid the strap fouling the seat raising/lowering lever.) The oval, in the left thigh guard, shouldn't be there.
The "beefing up," of the u/c, was the introduction of the 4-spoke wheel, from around March, 1944 (prior to that, and, in some Squadrons, for some time after, the 5-spoke wheel was used.) The strengthening was to enable bomb-carrying; it was just a change of oleo that was needed for the tracking change ( the mod, for that, is dated post-war, late 1945, so wartime IXs shouldn't have the blister over the wheel wells) and torque links weren't used before November, 1944. Don't use the Malta Spitfire as a guide (I did, and got well-and-truly burned,) since the wings were a donation from an un-named source, and are definitely not the originals.
The narrow single blister, on the IX cannon doors, didn't come into use until January, 1944,
The bulged upper engine cowling, on the IX & XVI, came into use from July, 1944; prior to that, the lines of the cowling were identical to the VIII.
If I think of any more anomalies, I'll let you know.
Edgar

Sh*t, I thought this will be a fun build...just kidding. Thank you Edgar for great information, didn't know that. I have already printed your post and I'm going to do all the changes according to it.

@Neil: thank you very much.

@Steffen: you don't want to see me with bloody eyes with my Kappsspaten in da hand trying to poke you... maybe it would be better if we stop poking each other and try to build some models

It's a long time since I last published something here. I'm still working with the Spit, but because of the lack in my knowledge I spent more time on searching for the information than on modeling.

Cockpit is almost all painted already. Today I'm working with the pilots seat (doing some of the modifications sugested by Edgar). I hope to weather all a bit. I have finished today both air intakes under the wing (it was a real pain in the ***). If you give me a bit more time I'll try to post some pics soon.

Small update, quickly taken straight from the workbench as you see.





Dry fitting of the instrument panel.



A bit overdone weathering. I used dry pastels so removing it shouldn't be difficult.





Filling and sanding in the cockpit. They would be visible so I had to take care about them

Very nice Michal!!!

but do not let us wait as long until the next update ...

all the best

Steffen

Thank you Steffen.

I hope the next update will be much faster. Beside I think I already almost done the most time consuming stage.

I had to change location of this small box on the starboard side (I moved it forward about 3mm). Compare with the previous pic:





I'm affraid Eduard screwed up the pilot seat. They changed left and right thighguard and as Eduard says there shouldn't be back-seat cushion. Anyway because it is soldered I'll leave it as it is, but how would your paint it? I have no idea...

Another quickly taken pics showing the last weekend progress. I wanted to show you how much care and attention you will have to spent working on the air intakes under the wing. Putty and sanding were necessary on both sides of the intakes. Sanding of the inner side was pretty difficult due to the lack of space and small space around.

Airfix?? (I have bulit a bf 109 1/48 airfix and i know )

Good luck

Cheers Nick

Not much change here I'm affraid


But here apeared some "things"




This took me a lot of time to build. Hope it was worth the effort.

Looks very nice Michal!!!

.. but I think you are focusing on things never to be seen again ... of course you know these details are there ....

all the best

Steffen

That's the most politely said "your're waisting your time, cos nobody gonna see it" I've ever heard. ;P Thank you very much.

Seriously I think that this detail will be quite visible as it is in the real airplanes, for example:





Although I'm really not going to super-detail the things that I think will not be visible as the pilot seat lifting lever, I'll try top show it in the next update.

hi Michal

Well, I do not want anyone that close to my model ... shoot a pic of the finished model with the same result ...

nonetheless, keep up the great work!

all the best

Steffen

Michal, your rudder mechanism is amazing! Looks more like 1/24 than 1/48. The wiring looks very effective too. I was just thinking about this build earlier today, and was going to post in this thread to see how it was going- what a co-incidence!

Thank you guys. I'll try to upgarde the rudder mechanism even more with the stripes seen here



Next update: maybe tonight if I manage to come home.

I've been working a bit with other details. Here is an Airfix control column, Eduard PE wirings, and "MSHMD*" floor detail.





* - Michal Sindera Home Made Details - TM

Then I tried to fit everything together







And suddenly I realized!

God damn it! Zie German wus recht! ;P



After putting everyting together into the cockpit and closing the fuselage halves almost nothing inside is visible.

At least I know all these details are there!

Hi Michal

and you did not even put the Airfix extra heavy armoured glass on

Looks nice! Keep up posting pix .. else only you know what is inside

cheers

Steffen

Ok, here's another question to solve: pilots' harness. The more I read about it the less I know and the less I'm sure. I found very interesting posts by Edgar Brooks on the britmodeller.com but they do not give answer to all my doubts.

I already know that I should use the Sutton Harness instead this given by Eduard in the brass (see pic below) - I think this is the late type introduced in 1946.



But the thing I don't understand is how should the belts be attached to the seat or the airframe?

Is the seat I use the "strong enough" to have the shoulder straps attached to its frame on the back? Or maybe these straps were attached to the frame No.15 with the cable?

Where the lower straps were attached to? To the seat just as shown on the pic below or to the plane airframe?



Thank you in advance for any help cos' my head is already going to soon.

Hi Michal

I do not think the belt was attached to the seat at all.

The shoulder harness was probably connected to the frame (bulkhead) directly behind the seat or as in the Eduard instructions one frame farther back. I am sorry but I cannot comment if eduard is correct or not (I glued it this way on my ICM Spit IX) .

As per your pictures the lap belt was attached to the framing that holds the seat which is connected to the frame just behind it .

Sorry i am not much of a help today. but I want to encourage you to look for a few pictures and move on with some common sense rather than the ultimate truth (which probably does not exist) ... you are doing a very good job, no matter if this detail can be solved or not!

all the best

Steffen