Well well, what have we here? I think I got the wings smooth enough to show them in a public place These pictures were taken late night with an "idiot-camera" so I'm sorry for the quality.





I tried to dry fit the wing and the fuselage. It seems that I'll avoid the problems with the fuselage width just as shown in the Brett Green article on the Hyperscale. Rudder is from Aeroclub, glued with the patafix. Stabalizers are Airfix ones glued only temporary for adjusting geometry of the wings.

The rock is rolling...so here we go with another part of pics.

I managed to glue the wing with a fuselage and the lower engine cover. All the gaps were filled with putty, CA glue or the plastic stripes depending how big the gap was. One of the worst was on the starboard side of the fuselage.











I also tried to drill the small holes in this airintake. I think I'll have to work a bit more with this detail to get it done properly.



To get the alignment of the fuselage and the upper engine cover I had to extend the fuselage a bit, about 0,25mm, nothing special or difficult.



The machine I'm going to build was originaly produced as a mk.V but has been rebuilt in the factory for Mk.IX. So for a 99% it had an early style rudder and elevators. Unfortunatelly Airfix and Aeroclub had provided only the late style elevator. It will require some redesign. I hope that rescribing of the lines will be the only change that has to be done. Below I present a first try done on the Airfix elevator. If I'm not correct please let me know ASAP.



I have also worked a bit with the flaps and airlerons. Separate airlerons will be shown in the next update.

Great progress Michal!!

I think you can finish it this year, so keep working!

all the best

Steffen

Hi!
Thank you Steffen.
No chance for this I'm affraid...I'm working hard now on the Panzer III to finish it for the campaign on Armorama before 31st of December but I'll do my best to have the Spitfire done in January.

Hi Michal,

I have three of these kits and have just started to build kit No.1, I have to say your build is spot on. The only thing I would recommend is to get a good wing tip fit you have to remove the locating tabs as the tips were designed for the B Wing not the C wing. As the C wing is that much thicker than the B wing the tab locators are in the wrong place and make it almost impossible to fit them correctly if the tabs are left on. Try it, it works. The fuselage spreader added to the nose is also a great idea. Great build.

Doug.

Hi Douglas. I'm very glad you find my effort interesting and hope it will make your build easier.

Well, the problems with the tips was even more complicated. I thined both leading and trailing edges of the wings and used the wingtips from the Aeroclub aftermarket set due to its better shape those from the Airfix kit. The locating tabs were one of the first things I had removed. Now I think that the best way to glue it properly is to glue and align the tips first to one of the wing halves (I think that upper would be better because its more visible on display) and then try to join the wing halves together. At least you will have to putty only the one side of the wing

I have made some progress, although not very big so I'll try to post the pics this week. Now, after finishing other models, this is my main model on the workbench so I hope to give impetus to this build.

This in a model which I had to concentrate on in December due to the deadline of Campaing on Armorama.

Hi Michal,

To be honest I hadn't thought of that so will try that on kit No.2 and let you know what happens. I must say you have helped me a lot with your build report and it was one of the reasons I started the kit in the first place. I have to say I decided to build the wings first as I know they would cause me the most amount of trouble, as I had already read several build reports and all said the wings were really bad. It's a real shame that Airfix produced these very thick wings, in fact all of the trailing edges are bad as I think this really would have been a really good kit, lets hope that Hornby realise this and do an upgrade.

Anyway hope to see some more of your build as it progresses and hopefully I will add my build to the forum.

Doug.

It's been some time since I posted anything about my progress. So let me fix this now.

First few words about the Airfix kit and the Aeroclub aftermarket. Let's take a look on the spinners shape. Is Aeroclub much better?



Now let's go to the propellers blades. The difference is much more visible here. Aeroclub blades are casted together with the rear part of the spinner (looks awfull).



and a closer look



Well, the Aeroclub would be a good choose in the first moment, but let's try to put the tiles together.





As you see it doesn't look so perfect. Aeroclub has better shape, Airfix has much better fit. What to do? I decided to take the rear part of the spinner from the Airfix kit and the spinner from the Aeroclub. Then I'll chop off the blades from the Aeroclub "casting" and try to fix them somehow to the spinner. How to do that - I have no idea...yet.

And as a prove I did something with the model here are other pics.

Due to the reshaping of the wing I had to completely rework the flaps by filling the gaps with putty and sanding. There's still a second flap waiting to do.



And a bit of progress with the rear. Reshaped and backdated stabalizers from the Aeroclub.





and the in-progress pic of the second one.



Let's go back to the wings and airlerons. It was a very time consuming work here. Although the airleron itself doesn't look so bad



I'm affraid I thined it too much and it's visible when joined with the wing.



so it will have to be fixed in the following position which makes all the gaps less visible.



and the last picture showing how the airleron will the joined with the wing



All always: all critiqe and good advices are welcome.

Michal

Simply stunning work.

Hi Michal,

Just finished build No.1 out of the box, didn't do any detailing, but did try to reduce the thickness of the upper wing panels, not quite enough given the step between wing and fuselage!! Lol.
Anyway hope you don't mind me posting these here.







The decals are a mixture of Airfix kit and ICM, the Airfix ones were best!!! on with the build 2 and this time a little detailing needs to be done.

Doug.

This is a very good looking Spit Doug, even if it is out of the box. You did it in really short time. I am so slow or you are so quick?

Could you please make a close-up pic of the spinner area? How was the fit of the prop with the upper hood of the engine? The dry fitting I made was too loose to get any confidence about fitting...

Hi Michal,

To tell the truth the build wasn't that quick I started it about 3 months ago but due to frustration it lived in the bin for some time, on two separate occasions I might add, and all I had done was try to build the wings!! It was only when I started to read your build that I rescued it and decided to give it a third go. I am very glad I did now as I have three more of these kits to build and I know now what to expect. To be honset Michal this build is not in the same league as yours as I attempted none of the detailing work you are attempting.

The prop is no problem at all, the blades are not quite right in shape and I think the spinner is a little oversized, well it was when compared to the ICM kit spinner. The fit is very good, but I am not quite sure that the locating stub is central as the prop assembly sits below the top of the upper hood decking, needs to be raised about 2mm on my kit. It may be advisable to cement the spinner directly to the fuselage if you want an exact fit or widen the locating hole in the back of the spinner. Obviously I used the kit spinner so I can only say how it fitted to the kit, I have no idea of the fit of the Aeroclub spinner you are intending to use.

I have no idea if my camera will be good enough for a close up shot as you requested but I will give it a go for you, if they are to blurry I won't bother posting, ok.

Anyway Michal please keep going as you are inspiring me to build another, my next one will be ZX-6 in desert camo.

Doug.

Hi Michal,

Hope these help, they are the best I can get with my camera.











My Solution to the prop fit was to widen the locating hole in the back of the Spinner then tacked it in place with some glue. I do intend to add some weathering to the kit in the near future I just decided to finish the kit and see what the finished result was before expending time and energy on the final paint job.

Doug.

Thank's a lot Doug, your pics really helped me - I have the same problems in my kit. I'm considering a bit more time consuming solution of the problem - repositioning the hole in the fuselage. Other way is to sand down the edges of the top cover. I haven't decided yet.

This week wasn't very spectacular with the progress of my build. I managed to rework the Aeroclub prop and spinner to fit the Airfix back of the spinner. Now I have to study the references and do a lot of sculpting and filling of the gaps. I hope to show you the finished prop next week.

Glad they were of use to you Michal, if you need any more just give me a shout.

Doug

Although I work everyday with my Spit for at least an hour a day I haven't made much progress last month. Most of the time I'm working with a putty, fine sanding paper and putty, and fine sanding paper, and putty, and sanding paper... in the meantime I'm rescribing the panel lines. Beside the propeller takes much more time than I could expect in the darkest nightmares. But it not the real problem, it's just time consuming. I got stuck in the other place: canopy. I got a separated vac formed canopy and another one two-pieces (windshield with the hood and the separate rear section) from Squadron but the windshield is much too small to fit the fuselage. I also have the Aeroclub vacu but the quality is poor and I don't want to use it.Taking parts form the Tamiya Mk.V kit is another option. The problem is that the best fit has the worst windshield: Airfix.

Has anyone of you strugled with the same problem?

Hello everybody.
Do you remeber this thread? I hope so, cos' here's a small update.

First pics shows the fitting problems of the windshield. I have no idea how to solve it yet so any advice is priceless.







Then we go to the exhausts. Upgraded using drill, fine file and an Eduard PE. I know it's not Mosquito quality but looks good enough for me.




Here we have the second flap done. This one also needed some care after thinning the trailing edge of the wing.


The last thing I want to share with you is the prop&spinner. I solved the problem of the clacking spinner: you just have to make a thin disc on the inside. Easy, isn't it?


These pics show how I'm going to attach the propeller blades to the spinner. Each of them was drilled, then I glued small piece of needle. I just just have to correct the shape of the blades and make a hole in the spinner a bit bigger. I hope to show you the finished propeller in the next update.

Hi again,
this weekend I managed to finish the prop. Well, although it was hard work and a lot of fitting and sanding I'm not very satisfied with the final result. I think it would be much easier to use the Airfix spinner and just try to change the props somehow or even simplier use any aftermarket, eg. Ultracast. If I can say that way I'm satisfied with the result just in 60%... could be much better. Anyway here's the result.





Because the prop is in place I also glued the upper engine cover and the fuel tank additional armour. Because I didn't have thin enough plastic sheet I have used normal paper taken from the printer, soaken with CA glue, sanded smooth and then cut to shape. It has taken about 15 minutes.

It's me again. Not much to show up for today but just to prove I'm alive and modeling here are two pictures of the modified landing gear. I have just one leg done so far, but it took me two evenings to fit it with satisfying result. The second one should be done much faster now.

Hi Michal

Looking good!!!!

Now you know why this was not very high on my to do list and your build pushes it down even more ...

all the best

Steffen

Thank you Steffen for encouregement

Nice one Michal

The undercarriage and prop look excellent!

Have you sorted fitting the windscreen yet? I'd build up the fuselage with a mix of CA and talc - It dries quickly and is strong, but sands easily and blends in very well.

All the best

Rowan

Thanks Rowan. I try to do my best. I haven't sorted the windscreen yet but your tip looks interesting. I hope this week will be the "week of windscreen strugle".

Sad news: I was told that the u/c legs in the IX's didn't have the scissor mechanism, I have to do some refference study to solve this question and probably remove it from the leg. We'll see...

Michal,

Can you vacuform? That would be the route I'd take. I'd glue strips of styrene to the bottom of the canopy and sand and polish it to make the contour correct to the fuselage then vac form the canopy. You can actually make it by heating clear styrene over a heat surce (candle) then pull it down over the canopy since it is so small. And if the first one doesn't fit or look right to you, you can always try again and make as many as you want.

Hope that helps. You're doing a fantasic job with a very hard kit!

Mark

Hi Michal
I have only just spotted this build. Wow what a labour of love or is it hate by now? The undercarriage looks fantastic.
tim