Mmmmmm, I'm struggling to. No time at all to do anything tonight. I'm now debating wether to have a go at cutting off the regulator and turning it round, even though i've sanded it a bit, scared I might make it worse though

Any tips for painting that very small strip inside the canopy? And is there anything I Can do if my brush slips and I end up with green all over the inside of the canopy? I'm going to have to mix some more interior green before I do it though, the other batch has run out/dried up. May get it done tomorrow, but no promises.

Picked up a Spitfire book yesterday in the Newcastle market, the Sovereign series by Stewart Wilson, produced in Australia, only a fiver and has some nice photos and lots of details and facts. Let's face it, you don't get much for a fiver these days Also saw a one of the Hurricane, very tempted, mainly photos, but some nice colour ones included. mmmmmmm, maybe.

Later Roger

:-) Roger, try masking that strip with Parafilm-M. Or cut a couple of strips of 3-m and mask it that way. Better to spend time masking than trying to clean up paint from the canopy.
If you trimming of the regulator has given you the clearance I wouldn't worry about cutting it off. If you do cut it off, use a new blade take it carefully, watch the angle and mind your fingers. Best of luck, learning curves come down a bit :-)
Mal
Just a heads up Roger, we need to talk about fitting the wings to the fuselage, I'll put more on here tomorrow.

OK Mal, may just double check the fit and leave it as is.

Wow, I get to have a go at the Parafilm, do you know where I can get any from? #:-)

Can I go ahead and glue the fuselage? Probably won't get that done till late tomorrow or thursday evening. Need to touch up the sanded seat parts first.

I got a bit of wire to maybe glue onto the end of the seat belt behind the seat, then just have it disappear into the rear of the plane, do you think this will be OK?

Roger

But I do make a little progress,i wait for you all to hit snags.I read the corrections,then see if they apply.That said,as I look at the instructions,there is a half moon locating peg/notch on the offending regulator.I carefully put mine together according to these guides. I haven't freed my fuselage bits from the sprue to see if I have a problem,maybe in a few.
but to date:

And

YIPPEE!
It fits with room to spare.I looked at the instructions.There is a molded rib on the canopy bit.It connects to the simu frame,at the aft edge,and stops short of the forward edge.Maybe some of the people who had problems had the connected end over the regulator,rather than to the rear.I have almost1-2 mm room
:-) :-)

Good job Carl, and well done getting the canopy on first go :-)

You know, I've looked back over the instructions and can't see how you are supposed to know which way ti fit that damn regulator

Anyway I have more pressing matters now, much much worse than fitting the regulator upside down...... I have snapped the canopy C4 with my fumbling fingers while trying to check the fit again

Talked to Tim last night about it and intend to try to glue it using white glue and maybe buff it with polishing tool. It snapped to one side of the ridge line, but did not separate into 2 halves, so maybe, just maybe, I will get away with it. Hopefully the other canopy piece over the top will hide it.

I guess it is a lesson in general building techniques..... dry fit every time, although I don't know if I would have ver thought to dry fit that far ahead. Oh well, we must move on......

Roger

:-) Carl


You may be right but if you compare the pics from you, Tim and Roger I think you can see that like me they fitted the regulator upside down. I've had another look at the instructions and they are very confusing. They show the lug on the regulator itself and horizontal. I am sure that the lug was on the frame? and vertical. Also the picture dosen't show the offset nature of the reg. On the posative side the next one we build we will know :-)

Roger

Bummer, don't let it phase you, a spot of white glue and the sliding canopy will hide it. Or you could try and get areplace ment?
Your right about dry fitting, you wouldn't find this out until it was to late, as we have discovered. I don't remember this problem on the last one I built, must have been lucky and got it the right way up.
Just to let you know my thoughts on the wing to fuselage join. It may be perfect, but assuming it aint, you can test fit it. Either tape the wings and fuselage together, it dosen't matter if the fuselage is glued. Dry fit them. See how close the joint is and if the wings or fuselage wing fillets rid high. If there is even a slight missalignment it's easy to fix at this point. If there is a gap then slightly spreading the fuselsge is the answer, this is why this needs to be checked before gluing in the interior, as that would prevent the fuselage from spreding. If wing or fuselage is riding high you should, if you can identify what the cause is, use a little judicious filing to sort it. It can take a bit of investigating but it's well worth it :-)
Mal

on the frame,and the regulator is a half moon shaped locating pin and hole.I think the fit may have been sloppy enough,esp with glue softening things up,to allow anyone to put the regulator on upside down.I wonder if you sliced it off of the frame,after the glue had dried,and flipped it,It might be ok.
I am working on the LC-130 job I have,and will post more photos and comments as time permits.

Latest news - I decided to cut off the regulator and re-glue it on the right way up - and..... it went OK :-)

Touched up the paint and now it's done

Glued fuselage, and dry fitted the wings. All seems OK except for a gap at the rear of the underside where the wings join the fuselage

I presume this will fill OK with putty. All other fit of wings seems fine, so I will now fit the seat into the fuselage and then try to recover something from the canopy Laetst news on the canopy is it wouldn't stay glued with 50/50 white glue/water, and it is now in 2 pieces. I have masked it to paint the green strip but I have no green left - need to mix some more. Not quite sure how this is going to work now, but I'll have a go.

Should I use undiluted white glue to try to join the canopy halves together, and also glue the canopy to the fuselage?

Roger

:-) Hi Roger,
That Regulator has been a real pain. I would use undiluted white glue to fix the canopy. I more often than not glue fixed canopy parts with normal liquid cement. Test fit, sort out the fit if you need to/can, position it apply cement, when dry blend into fuselage. For your broken piece you might even be able to position it and glue with liquid cement, without actually gluing the halves together. If you do use ordinary liquid cement, just take care.
Yeah that small gap will be sorted with putty. I finally managed to get my interior sprayed, I'll get some pics tomorrow. Spent the day finishing off my article and trying to send it to Jim, got half sent I'll be sending the other half tomorrow.
I also started to put together an Airfix (Arii) Mustang, to try my theories on kithen foil and hope fully another article. My Corsair is coming on now so I need to post pics for that aswell.
And I will be decalling the last of the 3 Amigos. :-) Must get something finished, it's all armour on the RRB :-) P40M or maybe my Typhoon :-)
When you have the wings on, if I remember from my last on, the oil cooler sits a bit high in its recess, the radiator might as well. If I'm right it isn't just a case of sanding them flat, there's the cuvature of the wing to contend with. Not a major chore and could be left alone.
Mal

I just did a test fit on the piece Mal talked about and it did ride a little high. It sits on a flat spot specially made for it(not the curved part of the wing) so a little sanding was all it took to sit it down properly for me. Just make sure you have it all the way in the indention. They indention is exactly the same size as the part so you kind of have to gently make sure the front or back 'snaps' down into the hole instead of checking the fit with it 'resting' on the wing. You'll see what I mean when you try it. It doesn't take much pressure at all if you kind of push in and down at the same time. Or you caould gently sand the front back ever so slightly. One or two swipes of the sandpaper would probably fix it. The radiator sits up as well but not as bad.

Mine is primed and ready for painting. I will probably try to to do the wheel wells and the bottom of the plane tonight.

:-) Finally got the interior painted, I have also seperated the elevators.



Used a scalpel, with repeatedpasses to seperate them, Used a triangular needle file on the edge of the stablizer, untill the lips were as sharp as possible. Glude a piece of square section sprue the elevator and sanded it to a half round shape :-)
I'll be applying future and adding a wash tomorrow, hopefully. :-)
Mal

Interesting job on the elevators Mal, glad I'm not trying that this time I can imagine how it will make all the difference though.

I have fitted the wings and tail now, no problems, just a small amount of filing to be done when glue has fully set.


Also fitted a piece of wire from the seat belt back into the fuselage, not sure if this is accurate, but it tidies up the seat belt anyway :-)

The canopy..... well, I tried to glue it on using undiluted white glue, but it came off pretty easily, and when the other canopy piece was in place on top of it, it was still really visible.
Not sure of the best way forwards now. May have to try and use ordinary glue. Anyway, do I need to paint the frame of the canopy before fitting? I've done the inside strip already, used masking tape, but will probably try the parafilm method for the outside. I will have to do the 2 broken halves seperately, as even if i glue them together, i'm sure it will be a weak join.
Here is a pic of the broken canopy just sitting in place.

The break can be seen near the top of the piece.

What should the next steps be? And don't forget to keep me right with any painting which needs to be done before assembly. I'm used to doing it all at the end

Roger

I have been almost wholly unable to paint my spit. Seemseverytime I try baby kicks the crap out of me, so it's going VERY slowly... Is there a cut off date for this? If so when, if not I'll catch up when baby is born.

Favorisio,
As a rule of thumb,if you cant reach it after it is assembledto paint, paint NOW.

Holdfast,
if you are going to have the elevators pointing "down" make sure the control stick is forwards.If you position them "Up" have the stick closer to the seat.

Mal: How much do you know about this black wing Spit?? The box pic indicates that the stripe on the fuselage is Sky, but the decal given is a gold color. Any ideas? I went ahead and painted the area in question Sky as I was doing the underside so I can mask it off if it's Sky, but I don't know. I'm venturing into the web, now, for some reference pics if I can find them.

Anyway, wheel wells are green, bottom is Sky, black wing coming later tonight (maybe).

:-) Roger
Looking good. Normally I would suggest masking before fitting, and thats what I would do with the "in tact" pieces. For the broken piece I would glue it in place then mask it. If you can live with the break then I would glue it with liquid cement, if you plan on getting a replace ment then glue it with white glue. You can paint your canopy parts once they're in place, int green first.
Right next stage is the filling. I use Squadron white stuff, but any model filler will do, Revell, Humbrol and Tamiya all make their own. There are some car body fillers that you can use, but I haven't gone that route yet. What have you used on your armour? To apply I use a dental tool like a mini spatula, bumbed off an actual dentist (next time you go to the dentist , just ask if they have any old tools they want to get rid of. You will be surprised what you get). You could use the end of a hobby knife. If there is no detail in the way, just apply the filler, go carefully cos you don't need a lot (if you do then you need to take more csre when fitting parts :-) ) If there is detail, or you simply want to limit the amount of filler you apply, say around complicated joints or hard to get at places. The answer is to lay masking tape down, just either side of the area to be filled, pull up the tape (this removes the excess filler. You can now sand, this is how you can limit the amount of filler. To preserve detail lay tape down again, just outside the filler and covering the detail. sand the filler. If the detail is raised the go easy cos you could sand through the tape and still damage the detail. If you want to use tape say on the Spit wing to fuselage join, then lay a piece of tape over the join. Draw along the join with a pencil, remove the tape, cut along the line, lay the tape halves back down, either side of the join and carry on as before. If you want to preserve detail then pre-cut the second piece of tape. That was just for demo purposes as I believe the joint is on a panel line, but I hope you get the jist.
You still need to remove the projecting guns, you can fit the lower nose, the oil cooler and radiator and the carbaretter intake, also the tail wheel. When thats done I think it's ready for paint. Are you planning on priming her? Oh don't forget to paint the radiator and oil cooler matrixs' and the inside of those parts aswell.
One other thing you might consider, is drilling for the antenna wire and the IFF wires. If you want to instal them it would be better to drill now rather than after paint. You can get the locations from the painting guide.

Lady Anne Marie
Understand your problem :-) No there is no cut off date, we are just taking it as it comes. So take as long as you need. Sounds like the sprog wants to be an aircraft modeller :-) When is it due :-)

TankCarl
Yep know about the control stick, Spitfire elevators always droop at rest. Apart from I think Griffon engined marques where the elevators were up at rest. Although there isn't aproblem with building them as per the kit. Thanks for the heads up anyway :-)

Tim
Yep the ID band is sky. I'm actually thinking about doing this bird but I can't make up my mind, doh
Mal :-)

Thanks, that's the conclusion I came to. I couldn't find any definate pics of 92 Sq. Spits in color, but I found enough artists renditions and B&W photos that indicated Sky to come to that conclusion.

:-) Spinner is sky as well. Made my decision I'm doing DWo0, I have Aeromaster decals, from my last MkI, I thought they Had a 92 Sqn machine and I was going to modify the codes, but I was wrong. I will be using the Aeromaster codes and the Tamiya roundels, the Aeromaster codes are a better colour, don't worry about it It's not a major difference just that it will look odd next to my other one if I don't use them. :-)
Mal

Ok Mal, but not quite sure which bits you mean exactly by the "inside of those parts", could you expand please? And what colour?

Priming, mmmm, I haven't found the need to prime my armour when using the Humbrol enamels, what would your advice be?

I have gut the protruding guns off and they are sanded flush with the wing front edge, what about finishing off this?

Should I paint the tail wheel assembly before attaching it?

Drilling for the wires.....If I have this right, I need to drill a 0.3mm hole in the centre of where the large O decal goes on the side of the fuselage. And where else?

Is the underneath of the plane Humbrol 90 Matt Beige Green?

Inside of the wheel wells are Interior Green - right?

Radiator faring and Oil cooler and carburettor intake themselves painted same as wing?

I know theres a lot of questions, but just want to be sure :-)

Roger

1) By the inside I mean the part of the radiator and oil cooler from the matrix the the outside lip. To be honest I don't know exactly what colour they shoul be. They could be Int green or undersurface colour. You cant see a lot once thy're in so safe bet would likely be undersurface colour. you will see I've sprayed mine Int Green but thats cos I was undicided at the time.
2) Priming, whell I never used to prime and as you are hand painting, as long as the plastic is clean, as you know and are used to it I would stick to what you know. When you get an AB we can disciuss it then. The reason I prime will be explaned in my article on pre-shading. Coming soon. :-)
3) If you are going to cover the gun ports with a red patch then, assuming the wings have the joint lines removed, then that should be it. Apart from this:

This is supposed to represent the wheel down lock indicator, a projection painted red, better represented by a small piece of wire, angled away from the fuselage. So if you want to trim this off, drill a hole and you can add the indicator later, after painting. I will try and find a picture.
Red patches were doped fabric, to prevent fod entering the guns and to help reduce drag. Until the guns were fired, of course.
4) No, tail wheel is the underside colour.
5) Not quite, the IFF wire on the port side leads in just behind the access panel and just below the level of the elevator, so it angles down very slightly. Starboard side similar. When drilling, start perpendicular, when you have a bite angle you drill back towards the tail. For the antenna wire, drill a hole behind the mast location, you can judge the position from the painting guide. I've just had a look at the box top painting and it does look as if the IFF wire leads in through the centre of the roundel, however ignor this drill as I suggest and position the decal (when we get there) without referencing to the position of the IFF wire. :-)
6) Yes if 90 Matt Beige Green is what we said was Humbrols "Sky".
7) Yes, interior of wheel wells are Int green.
8) Yes, the outside of the Radiator faring and Oil cooler and carburettor intake themselves painted same as wing.
No problem Roger.
Here's my progress:
Interior sprayed.


Interior Washed.

I found that I haven't got any etch belts left so I'm hving to scratch build them, using port bottle lead foil and etched buckles.

Mal

eh my Digicam is being a pisser and won't download the pics to the computer. Not much to show anyway. Bottom is Sky, wheel wells are Int. Green, right wing is Black.

:-) Well things seem to have ground to a halt, I've only done a little more detail painting. Been doing some writing and job hunting. I hope to have something to show in the next couple of days :-)
Mal

Yeah, me too. I am puppy sitting for my friend so I can't airbrush with those 2 around for a couple more days.

Me to guys, computer problems, hospital visiting still, so no time for hobbies

Hopefully most of this will change for the better soon. Just when it's starting to look like a plane too

Roger