As far as I can discover, the Spitfire was never fitted with the Mk.I I.F.F. (possibly because they were retained in this country, so "Pip-squeak" was the preferred option.)
Hurricanes and Gladiators did have the Mk.I., but mostly inside the fuselage, only appearing just in front of the tailplane (not easy to spot.)
Incidentally, aerials were stainless steel, and multi-strand (don't fancy trying that in 1/72, 1/48, or 1/32, thankyou.)

Hi Darren,
Your antenna is fine, if not 100% correct, so don't worry about it; the antenna is minus the triangular bracket and pulley, which is usually depicted as triangular blob. Is this the only antenna in the kit? If so Airfix have got it wrong.




Edgar, I derived my "No headrest no IFF wires" from a post of yours about (I've no idea where it was now) why the headrest was deleted. It was because a Squadron leader ditched but got dragged under when his parachute harness got caught on it? In that reply I do believe that you stated that basically the change over of the IFF type occurred at at very much the same time so, no head rest no IFF wires?

Hi Mal. They provide to aerial masts the broomstick type for the 1938 version, and the later one seen on my model.

And that's why research never stops; on a different site, that claim (about Finucane, incidentally) was made in such a way that the claimant seemed to know what he was talking about. Since then, I've read eyewitness reports, which make no mention of the headrest, in fact it was thought, by some, that (against all advice at the time) he'd loosened his straps, and been knocked unconscious in the ditching. It could have been another pilot, entirely, of course, but I haven't come across it, during my researches.

The deletion of the headrest was an in-factory-only modification, so any airframe built with the rest would have retained it.
Fitting of the new I.F.F. was considered (with the issue of the necessary leaflets) to be within the capabilities of the groundcrew, so it would have been entirely possible to see an "old" airframe with headrest and new I.F.F. (there were Mk.V airframes still in service on D-day.)

“The seats were made by Aeroplastics Ltd., a Glasgow-based (and now defunct) company”

Aeroplastics began life as the Deekay Aircraft Corporation. They changed their name and moved Glasgow when they abandoned aircraft construction to concentrate on manufacturing components from plastics. See:

http://www.northwealdairfieldmuseum.com/upload/AIRCRAFT%20MANUFACTURE.pdf

Jane's All Aircraft of the World - 1938

The Deekay Aircraft Corp. Ltd. was formed in 1937 to build aircraft using a new type of wing construction developed by Mr S.C. Hart-Still. The first machine incorporating this form of wing is the Deekay "Knight" two seat cabin monoplane, the wings of this aircraft are in wood, but developments are in hand for the use of plastic materials and as experience is gained with the plastic construction so its use will be extended to the production aircraft of the company.

They are described in the Aeroplane magazine 15th December 1939 thus:

Aeroplastics Ltd. (formerly Deekay Aircraft Corporation), Earl Haig Road, Hillington, Glasgow, S.W.2, have been engaged for eighteen months on perfecting a synthetic resin mouldable plastic material with high strength characteristics that could be used as a replacement for light alloys in aircraft construction and have produced " Aero-plastic " Grade I materials which fulfils this purpose.

They have also designed and fabricated several components, including tail-planes, pilots' seats, hand wheels, tabs, pipe-guides, engine covers, filler caps, and are projecting many others such as spinners, wing tips and fairings.
The Aeroplastics method lends itself to simplified production and enables a large amount of semi-skilled and unskilled labour to be absorbed into the aircraft industry, leaving skilled labour available for the production of major structures.



In the 1950s they are listed as a subsidury of Fairey Aviation. What happened to them after that I do not know. I cannot find any record of them being wound up in the Companies House database but there is a company in Kent that uses the same name. I have no idea if this company has any links with with the original Aeroplasics.

“ there is another, also Glasgow-based, company, which make a product which sounds similar, but an enquiry drew no response.”

You mean Tufnol. Tufnol are a well known Birmingham company, soon to celebrate their centenary. There is a history of the company here:

http://ahistoryoftufnol.org/earlydevelopment/index.html

As far as I can work out Tufnol Scotland are a warehouse and distribution centre. They also machine components for short run orders but do not appear manufacture Tufnol composites there.

The eponymous material is in fact around forty different SRBPs, SRBFs (fabric) and SRBGs (glass) of different grades and purposes as well as epoxy laminates, both electical and mechanical grades.

How they are made I describes here:

http://www.tufnol-sheet.co.uk/

http://www.tufnol-rod.co.uk/manufacture.php

“The description appears in the Spitfire A.P.”

It is described as Bakelite because that is what it is, a type of Bakelite. So lets get this clearly understood from the beginning. Whatever you want to call the material, Spitfire seats were made with Bakelite, there is as much Bakelite in a Spitfire seat as there is in anything else called Bakelite, and the only difference between a Spitfire seat and regular Bakelite is that a Spitfire seat contains cellulose in the form of paper and regular Bakelite in the form of wood flour.

I call it Bakelite and I am both entitled, and more important, qualified to do so. I have a degree in Chemistry and studied the chemistry and manufacture of Bakelite. I know so much about Bakelite I could become a pub bore on the subject. I could write a book called Everything you Never Wanted to Know About Bakelite and Were Afraid to Ask In Case Someone Told You. I know exactly what temperatures and pressures are used and when they are not used. Bakelite does not require high temperatures and pressures. High temperatures and pressures are used because they are useful or expedient. High temperatures are used because they speed up the cross-linking process. A resin that takes six hours to harden at 80o C will harden in six minutes at 130o C. Hardeners and catalysts can be used to harden at lower temperatures, even 0o C. The limit is 200o C. This is because most Bakelite uses wood flour as a filler and higher temperatures affect the cellulose. Most manufactures quote gel temperatures of 150o -170o C. At around 230o C Bakelite begins to carbonise. As the condensation reaction is exothermic it is sometimes necessary to introduce cooling water at the critical point to stop it overheating.

While experimenting with the phenolic resins that would become Bakelite, Leo Baekeland encountered problems with foaming. He was unable to produce consistent results and tried several ways of overcoming it until he eventually decided on using pressure. To achieve this he built a sort of autoclave or pressure cooker which he called a Bakelizer. You can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gx7XEeIAv78&list=PLF601B6D268517022&feature=share

By careful control of the process, curing can be achieved without the use of pressure.

This abstract discusses the curing of phenolic resins at temperatures 0o C to 150o C and pressures from about atmospheric to 5 atmospheres using divinylbenzene as a hardener.

http://www.skk-banjaluckapivara.com/invent/curing_phenol-formaldehyde_resins/




In the early 1920s press moulding became the preferred method of manufacture. The nature of the process requires pressure to be used to mould the material. Up to nine atmospheres is the figure most often quoted. During the war injection moulding was introduced as it speeded up production. High pressures are required for injection of Bakelite as a viscous liquid but holding pressures are much lower. This company that manufacture injection moulding machines gives an indication of the temperatures and pressures used:

http://www.sinomould.com/Bakelite-Injection-Molding-1717.htm

That they could not manufacture something the size of Spitfire seat from Bakelite is also nonsense.



This is a Bakelite coffin made in 1938. It is larger than a Spitfire seat. Designed by James Doleman and made by Ultralite Casket Co Limited, Eagle Works, Stalybridge. The coffin was manufactured from imitation walnut phenolic resin with a wood flour filler. The Bakelite Company Ltd supplied the moulding powder. The electrically heated hydraulic press used for moulding was manufactured by John Shaw and Sons Ltd, The Wellington Street Works, Salford. Mass production was planned but the outbreak of war stopped that. Doleman died in 1944 and so the project was not resumed after the war. Weighing 90 lbs it is sometimes said to have been the largest Bakelite object ever made. In the UK probably but not worldwide. For the 1939 Worlds Fair, New York, a number of statues were manufactured from Bakelite with the commercial name Marblette. No need to explain what that was meant to imitate. They were all about 10 ft tall, weighed half a ton; one being built from five pieces and about 30 ft long. That is a hell of a lot larger than a Spitfire seat. Some were sand blasted to give the appearance of ground glass. They were cast in reinforced rubber moulds and cured for a week at 85o C. The curing regime has nothing to do with their size. It would be exactly the same for a billiard ball. High temperatures and pressures cannot be used with coloured Bakelite as it would harm the aniline dyes used to colour it. The length of time depends on the colour. The lighter the colour the longer it takes. Dark colours 3 to 4 days, light colours 7 to 8 days.

What were made using high temperature and pressure were Spitfire seats. There is no mystery as to what they were made from. They were made by impregnating paper with Bakelite and then bonding layers of the paper in a steel mould using high temperature and very high pressure. It was the high pressure used that caused the resin to creep. It literally squeezed the resin out of the paper leading to poor bonding and so weakening the material. The industrial name is Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper (SRBP). These days there are very many synthetic resins but Bakelite was the first, and at the time (1912) when SRBP, SRBF were invented, the only synthetic resin. In 1920s and 1930s Bakelite was often called synthetic resin. The temperature limit is again 200o C because of the cellulose and quoted pressures for manufacturing SRBP are 9 to 15 atmospheres. Other names for SRBP, often referring to the form it is made in, are; bakelite paper, paper bakelite, bakelised paper, phenolic sheet, phenolic plate, phenolic plastic, bakelite plate, bakelite rod, tube and on it goes with bakelite and phenolic being interchangeable.

Aeroplastic is described on page 49 of the Report of the Forest Products Mission June 1944.

http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/xmlui/bitstream/handle/1957/1473/FPL_1540ocr.pdf?sequence=1

"Paper-base plastics are not much used in British aircraft at present."

"Aeroplastics, Ltd., is moulding a pilot's seat using a Manila paper impregnated with phenol-formaldehyde resin. High pressure and steel dies are used and it is said that the product has an undesirable variation in resin content from point to point due to resin migration during pressing. A gunner's saddle and other minor parts are being moulded at other firms."

This is a straightforward description of SRBP. Any elementary organic chemistry text book will tell you that Bakelite was the name Leo Baekeland gave to phenol-formaldehyde (phenolic) resin he patented in 1907 and 1909.

In its raw, or pure state Bakelite is not of much use. Its weak and brittle. Therefore it is necessary to add fillers and plasticisers to turn it into something that can be used. Baekeland originally used rubber and asbestos. His patent has a long list of suitable fillers and almost anything you can think of has been used, particularly if it is cheap and plentiful. But the overwhelmingly most popular material is wood flour. Originally a wood mill waste product there was so much demand for it that they had to build factories to manufacture it.

Bakelite has two properties that transform it when wood flour is used as a filler. It is extremely good at impregnating, and it forms hydrogen bonds with the cellulose in the wood. If you want find out what hydrogen bonding is there should be plenty websites like Wiki that will explain. Hydrogen bonding is what makes many adhesives an adhesive.

Fans of Mythbusters will recall the episode devoted to Pykrete. For those who do not know what Pykrete is, it is simply a mixture of frozen water and sawdust. The programme demonstrated that Pykrete was a far stronger material that than ice and then produced what they called Super Pykrete; frozen layers of newspaper. Super Pykrete proved to have a marked improvement in strength over Pykrete. There are scientific papers that investigate what is the optimum ratio of sawdust to water and particle size and such like but so far I have not been able to find an explanation or theory of what is the cause of the increase in strength. I think it may be hydrogen bonding. Wood flour has the same affect on Bakelite,making it much stronger then when other fillers are used. And when paper is used the resulting material is stronger still. So good is wood flour as a filler couplers such as MAPP are added to other resins that do not bond with cellulose to get it to do so. You can read all about this here:

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/documnts/pdf2005/fpl_2005_clemons001.pdf

The invention of Bakelite laminates (SRBP, SRBF) is attributed to Daniel J. O’Conor, and Herbert A. Faber in 1912 (patented 1913) while working at Westinghouse Electric & Manufacturing Company. Some say they were chemists, others electrical engineers. They were looking to develop a substitute for mica insulating plates used in electrical machines. Their first material was made of wrapped woven fabric coated with Bakelite resin, then slit lengthwise, flattened, and cured in a press.

The story goes that they were paid 1$ by Westinghouse, the customary gratuity for inventing something the comany could make money from. Methinks there more to this story. They left Westinghouse soon afterwards and formed a partnership with lawyer John G. Tomlin whose role was that banker. The plan was to produce commutator V-rings in which laminate replaced mica. As the laminate was a substitute for mica the company was called Formica Products Company.

It is sometimes cited that in the 1920s Ford were manufacturing timing gears from Bakelite. That Bakelite was in fact a SRBF. They were tough and quiet and could be cut on conventional hobbing machines. By the early 1930s Formica was producing several thousand gear blanks a day for auto manufacturers.

Problems began when the General Bakelite Company would only supply Westinghouse with resin for manuacturing sheets, where all the money was to be made, only allowing Formica to manufacture other shapes. Formica then looked another company, Redmanol, to supply the resin. Formica rented a plant at Spring Grove Avenue and Alabama Street, not far from the Cincinnati stockyard, and installed a new $6,000 press. Redman himself came from Chicago to help them learn to work with his resin. The first Formica-brand sheet laminate came off the press on July 4, 1914, a little more than a year after the company started business. Formica turned a profit for the first time in 1916, then boomed with defense orders in 1917 when the Navy and Signal Corps needed insulators for their new radios. Aircraft makers also needed lightweight pulleys for control cables, and sales went from $75,000 in 1917 to $145,000 in 1918.

However Baekeland was asidious in sueing those that he believed were infinging his patents, particulary the Redmanol Chemical Products Company (founded by L.V. Redman) and the Condensite Company (founded by J.W. Aylesworth). In 1919 five years of lawsuits began over patent infringement and other issues stemming from confusion and disagreement about who had invented and patented what and when. Formica found itself pitted against Westinghouse and General Electric. The problem was finally solved in 1922 by amalgomating Redmanol and Condensite with the General Bakelite Company (founded by Baekeland in 1910) to form The Bakelite Corporation. The resulting merger was of great benefit as it would provide material and technical assistance to all, including Formica.

These days known for their decorative laminates it was at the end of the 1920s that they began their shift to these products. In 1938 Melamine resin, developed by the chemist William F. Talbot, became available. Clear and hard it had superior properties to Bakelite and soon Formica were bonding decorative papers onto the surface with melamine to produce the material everybody is familiar with. Only the top surface is Melamine, the brown substrate is SRBP. In the end Formica were using the entire production of Melamine.



The propeller second from the left is a Micarta vaiable pitch propeller. Nine feet in length it has "Bakelite Micarta" blades counterbalanced to permit the pitch to be changed in flight. Designed by McCook Field engineers for testing with the Wright-built 180-hp Hispana-Suiza engine, it was tested in 1922 at McCook Field but was not successful.



This is an advertisement for a Bakelite propeller. In says so in big letters. They really want you to know that. Read the small print and you discover that it is also a Micarta Bakelite propeller. Apparently this was more successful.
The propellers are in fact manufactured from a Bakelite laminate. Micarta and Micarta Bakelite were the commercial names that Westinghouse, Formica's main competitor, used for the SRBPs and SRBFs that they manufactured.

This paper authored by Caldwell (big name in propeller design) in 1921 may give some insight into their construction.

http://papers.sae.org/210002/

“Consideration is given in detail to steel, adjustable-pitch and reversible propellers as well as to those made of laminated construction consisting of sheets of paper fabric impregnated with bakelite as a binder.”

$24 to download it. Tempted, very tempted.

The Forest Products Mission report mentions a material made by bonding wood verniers and SRBP.

"Zebwood" is a composite material consisting of veneers interleaved with phenolic-impregnated kraft paper and compressed at a relatively high pressure. It has a specific gravity of about 1.3 and is being considered for propellers. Its primary advantage is that it saves veneer. At present further development is delayed until root-pull tests upon it can be completed. A similar material is one form of "Jabroc" produced by Molded Components, Ltd., and is used for dies for pressing aluminum sheet. It consists of veneers interleaved with a chipboard previously impregnated with phenolic resin, the whole assembly being consolidated with heat and pressure.

Kraft paper is not craft paper. Kraft is German for strong. It is what SRBP is made from these days. Has the appearance of Manila paper and you can find kraft paper in stationers in the place where you find the materials for wrapping parcels. The stuff used for laminates is often made with cellulose specially formulated for bonding. You can see what it looks like here:

http://www.electrotrans.com/

Note what it says near the bottom.

S.R.B.P. (Bakelite) Mica Tubes & Sheets and all kinds

And Wiki explains what it is:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kraft_paper

Moulding SRBP was a dead end. North American Aviation developed considerable expertise in many types of plastic and patented their method of moulding phenolic sheet but I do not know what their innovation was. They used to make such things as a ammunition containers. The main problem is that you can only mould simple shapes with the material. However Bakelite laminates continue to be manufactured in considerable quantities. SRBP is mostly used for electrical purposes. Bakelite circuit boards are electrical grade SRBP. SRPF mainly mechanical grade as it can be sawn, drilled and sometimes punched. SRPG is used for low friction bearings. And every one calls it Bakalite; the people who invented them, the companies that manufacture them and the people that sell and buy them. Everybody all over the world.


http://www.directplasticsonline.co.uk/Tufnol_Sheet.html

Our Genuine Tufnol Sheet is a very rigid product and has grades suitable for either mechanical, electrical and general purpose applications. Whale Tufnol (mechanical) is excellent for bearings, bushes, slideways and wear strips. Kite Tufnol (high electrical) is excellent for circuit boards, covers and high electrical insulation. 1P/13 Tufnol (commercial) is great for jigs, fixtures and lower voltage electrical insulation. Tufnol can also be known as Bakelite, SRBP, SRBF, Paxolin or Phenolic sheet.

Bakelite everywhere here:

http://www.made-in-china.com/Bakelite-Sheet-ns/Bakelite-Sheet-1.html

Here:
http://www.emsai.co.uk/phenolic-resin-sheets-rods.php

Cotton-phenolic sheets, paper-phenolic, bakelite, pertinax, SRBF, SRBP, textolite sheets and rods.

Here:

http://www.emsai.co.uk/pertinax-bakelite-paper-phenolic-sheets.php

Paper phenolic sheets / plates are also known as pertinax sheets or bakelite sheets/plates. The paper phenolic sheets composites (also known as pertinax, bakelite, paxoline, SRBP) are made from laminated phenolic resin sheets with kraft paper insert embedded in the sheet.

Here:

http://www.polychemintl.com/Hylam-Sheet-Bakelite-Sheet.htm

Industrial laminated sheet also know as Hylam Sheet, Bakelite Sheet, Phenolic Laminated sheet, SRBP Sheet ( Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper Base Sheet ), SRBF Sheet ( Synthethic Resin Bonded Fabric Base Sheet ), Fibre Sheet, Sun Mica.

Here:

http://www.agaus.com.au/fabric-and-paper-based-laminates.php

Here:

http://www.stug.com.au/materials/engineering-plastics/bakelite.php


Some kind of dispute of import duties here:

http://indiankanoon.org/doc/758185/

"Unvarnished SRBP Softened and Bakelite Cylinder (Paper Cylinder)".

Here:

http://www.indiamart.com/raj-bakelite-products/switch-geares-electrical.html

SRBP Square Tube.
It is also known as bakelite tube.

Here:

http://www.eplas.com.au/3129050/eplas-engineered-industrial-plastics-canvas-b.htm

Canvas Bakelite

Canvas Bakelite® is made from a Phenol Formaldehyde thermosetting resin which is impregnated into a cotton canvas cloth fabric.

And also:

http://www.eplas.com.au/3130450/eplas-engineered-industrial-plastics-paper-ba.htm

Paper Bakelite

Paper Bakelite® is made from a Phenol Formaldehyde thermosetting resin which is impregnated into Kraft paper.

Here:

http://www.eplas.com.au/3124850/eplas-engineered-industrial-plastics-bakelite.htm

Bakelite

Bakelite® is the proprietary name for phenolic and other plastic thermoset materials and is often indiscriminately used to describe any phenolic moulding material. The name is derived from that of Dr. Leo Baekeland who developed phenolic plastic in 1909.
This group of materials are also known as S.R.B.F, S.R.B.P & S.R.B.G or Synthetic Resin Bonded Fabric, Paper or Glass materials.

Here:

http://agaus.com.au/product/srbf-n-fabric-bakelite-insulation-sheet/

SRBF-N (Fabric Bakelite) Insulation Sheet

Always been called Bakalite, always will be.

Don't take this the wrong way, but this is really, really stupid.
Spitfire seats were made from a type of HPL (High Pressure Laminate) with the industrial name SRBP (Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper). SRBP is made by impregnating kraft paper with a soluble resol. Resols are single stage phenolic, that is Bakelite, resins. So called because they will cure by heating alone and do not require the addition of a hardener to cure them. Solvent would typically be alcohol and acetone. To impregnate the paper a roll is run through a series of rollers where a pressure roller impregnates the paper. The roll is then cut into pieces of the required size.

This is actually Formica being manufactured but is essentially the same process.
The idea that you could throw any old rubbish into this process is plain bonkers. The only extras in the mix would be plasticisers .

Spitfire seats were made from "Aeroplastic Grade 1," and, during the 18 months, or so, that it took to get the item right, neither Aeroplastics Ltd., the Air Ministry, Supermarine, R.A.E., D.T.D.., or even Rotol (who carried out tests on the material,) ever referred to it as Bakelite, and always talked of the "plastic" seat.
This might have something to do with the "Bakelite" company, trading in the Midlands, who had nothing, whatsoever, to do with the manufacture of the Spitfire seat; the idea of one company using the name of another, in one of their products, would have been unthinkable.
The chemical material used is only referred to as a "phenolic resin," which could well have been similar to, even supplied by, the Bakelite company, but to expect the finished material to take on the name of one of its component parts would be like calling steel "pig iron."
Aeroplastics were also involved in the manufacture of a "comfort seat," for bombers, which was also not known as a Bakelite seat, and there were plans (don't know if it was ever successful) to produce a "plastic seat" (not Bakelite, either) for the Typhoon.

[quote]

He isn't saying it was literally bakelite. But the same as bakelite. As I would say any paper tissue for the nose is kleenex. It's a question of vernacular. Whether the tissue is made by scotts or charmin it's going to be called kleenex familiarly. But likely not so in official documents and so forth.

Man flying spitfire or cleaning spitfire will see what he recognises as a product known as bakelite. And refer to it as such because he doesn't have the information to call it a heat cured resin-bonded paper seat. Or whatever. Trade names often supplant the real name in lay-speak.

Hi Antoni. None of this is stupid. It is admirable research and a fine read.

Hi Edgar. You are spot-on with the term 'vernacular.' When I was a kid, plastics were still relatively new and I always used the term 'Bakelite', something which I picked up from my Father.

[quote]

And there's a company, near here, that makes vacuum cleaners, but Heaven help the employee who refers to them as "hoovers."
I have no quibble with anyone wanting to say that it was a "Bakelite-type material," but, when none of those involved at the time called it just Bakelite, we have no right to change the name just because it suits us.
That isn't research, it's meddling, and there's rather too much going on in the modelling world.

[/quote]That isn't research, it's meddling, and there's rather too much going on in the modelling world. [/quote]

Too true Edgar, but that is the nature of the Internet. It is not important to quote references, opinion easily becomes research, popularity becomes fact.
What is Sky type S? Luftwaffe colours are a free- for-all, and people write as 'experts' when they are just revisionists.

Back to topic...

Well done Darren. It looks every inch a 'Spit.' I will be using your build as a reference when I soon tackle mine.

I'd like to add my endorsement of that, and apologise for being party to the hijacking of his thread, when it should have been raised as a completely different thread.

I have no problem with the tread hijack I've learnt about IFF and Plastic seats. And thank you for the comments on the Spit. As Edgar knows I know next to nothing on Spits (I know disgraceful). A few more shots of the completed Spit.

Yes a very nice Spitfire Darren

Thank you Mal

Darren,
Rock solid build. Your final gallery photos are very well done, especially the two B&W ones. The 1st one looks like you did it with Sepia tones rather then black & white tones, and is the most convincing one of all.
Joel

Thank you Joel. I was just messing around with the photos. And I think the sepia looks like a period image.