yes I too can find lots of shots of newer seat harnesses but not the Sutton Type in a spitfire, I know that later Mk's used more modern harnesses as seen in your picture Jess.

here is a picture of a Sutton harness in a Horsa Glider

here is a shot of a Hurricane? with a Sutton harness again showing the routing of the V shaped tension strap in the small hole in the middle of the seat.

No, even the Spitfire V (close cousin to your II) doesn't have the secondary harness. It's difficult to see because they pushed the shoulder straps down the sides of the seat back for the photos.

The harness seems to be a difficult topic. I just found this in the net. Maybe it is of some help!

http://www.network54.com/Forum/149674/thread/1295649550

Doug, great build! I will follow You with big interest, as I am building a 1/72 spitfire for the Edgar Brooks campaign.

Oliver

Well that looks pretty conclusive. When two Spitfire experts as eminent as Edgar Brooks and Roy Sutherland agree that the Y harness went through the back of the seat, that pretty much seals the discussion in my book

thanks so much Oliver, that sure does help with the question and so I will go forward with the seat as is, now I just need to decide what color to make the crow bar as there are wonderful arguments for red or other colors too. I love the community of people that are as nerdy as I am about this stuff.

seat installed and the side wall assembled and then the fuse was put together.

Doug
Mighty nice progress and the front offcie looks the part
keep 'em coming
Peter

Doug,
boy are you making excellent progress. I've always painted the crowbar RAF Interior Green, the dry brushed it with a Aluminum color.
Joel

started sanding seams on fuse and replacing the panel lines, went pretty deep on the cowling panels as they are a kinda loose fit in places.



a little primer to show any flaws and some other parts now glued on to the nose, the fit was pretty good with very little filling.

gonna use the Baracuda wheels on this one

Doug,
Great progress. Primer coat then finally the base color coat.
Joel

gun sight ready.

I love your attention to detail, great thread you have going here. Seeing well finished kits are probably my biggest buying motivator.

Hi Doug

Great progress. It's going to be another beauty!




Something to check, depending on the date of the aircraft you're building - it might not actually have a crowbar at all - see Edgar's note quoted above about them being field-installed from Feb. 1941, and only factory-fitted in 1942.

Thinking about it, that could well explain the colour discrepancies we've noted; up until the time aircraft started being delivered with them ready-fitted, squadron painters could have used any colour to hand - or equally decided "safety equipment - it's got to be red".

In my days in the ATC it would have been yellow-and-black. I'd love to have a video of a slightly apprehensive Cadet Baylis being briefed by the pilot ahead of his first flight in a DH Chipmunk: "If I shout "Bale out!", pull everything you see that's yellow-and-black and half the effing cockpit will fall off. Then jump!"

All the best

Rowan

canopy masked up and ready for the paint, I painted it the interior color first then black to make sure no light shines thru. Fuse color of course will be next.

painted the wing walk way markings and masked them off, I will paint the blue part of the wing insignia next and then mask that off. This goes slow because it needs time to dry in between colors.

Doug,
Nice job on those wing walkways. Another reason for moving up in scale.

Joel

Hi Doug,
I've bought this kit a few weeks ago as a future project, I'm really impressed with your cockpit details! I'm not on the same skill level but your topic will be a great help and source of inspiration.

Goodluck with your build,
Kind regards
Steven

Thanks guys, I am getting into the paint pretty deep now, I decided to do a lot of the markings with paint instead of decals pictures soon.

more paint on the Spit


bottom sky color on now

Doug,
I'm always interested in seeing how someone masking instead of decals turns out. I'm still a decal man, but I'm weakening little by little.

Joel

more paint, the entire upper surface is painted earth brown.

with masks applied for the camo the green color is applied

masks removed




the red circles on the lower insignia will be done with the decals as will the fuse roundels inside the yellow surrounds