1:1 Spitfire K9817 Cockpit Build

[Tony Hill]

Thank you gents! Hopefully a bit more progress shortly.

I think we also solved the "Mystery Towel Rail" question too! Early Spitfire Bracket for "Instrument"

 

[fubar57]

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Geo!!!

 

[Tony Hill]

Well... What a labour of love THAT was! The Spitfire I & II Mapbox is a quite complicated bit of gear and the drawings I had made for the Mk V needed a lot of tweaking to get them right. But a mate was kind enough to provide a bucket load of information after his visit to inspect the real thing.The map box will now be as close as humanly possible to the original specifications. For those of you who don't know, the early map box drawings apparently no longer exist.

But they were quite unlike any of the subsequent marques. Even the rivet patterns are totally different. A very interesting discovery was that, unlike later boxes, the front bends around to form the sides but ALSO forms the flanges to rivet to the back plate. The back slips down inside this setup. The front riveting, hinges and box top are all secured by 6 instead of 7 rivets.

We've also found that the 90 degree bends in the wire edging that I have been torturing myself over are actually relief cut!!! (insert stream of profanity HERE).

However the box lid is not, as we thought, a flat piece but actually has a wire edge on three sides as well (flat on the hinge side) And into the bargain, there is a drawing number apparently stamped into the top but i haven't been able to find out what exactly it is yet!

More to come, as I haven't placed the spring clips or front pocket securing strap yet. I'll draw those in after placing them on the first built box.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Darryl, you're really going for absolute accuracy here !

 

[Tony Hill]

Terry


Is it a sin to count rivets if you're building full size

 

[Airframes]

Only if you're not the builder, wear an anorak, and eat veggie stuff - oh, and drive a Citroen 2CV !!

 

[Crimea_River]

Sure gives you an appreciation for the amount of labour needed to build some of these designs.

 

[Tony Hill]

Terry... no anorak, I'm building it, I don't eat ANYTHING that wasn't afoot within the last week or so and I drive a WRX STi. So, I think I'm safe!!

Andy, yes, yes it does!



After a 15 hour day, I couldn't sleep, so took the opportunity to put together a paper early mapbox. Ross gave me the best advice ever when he told me to make sure I ALWAYS transferred a plan to paper or cardboard before putting it on to metal. Various things discovered and a few changes to be made.... Unfortunately a trip out to the garage in the raging storm got it a bit damp and it has misshapen a little.

BUT..... Wait., there's more!!!! The wire edge appears to be yet another triumph of obstinacy and bloody mindedness over form....

Who the hell rolls a wire edge inwards and upwards??? Vickers Supermarine, apparently! From closer examination of some photos, the early map rolled edge did not get formed outwards and down as any normal person would and did (on the Spitfire's seat or any old car fender) but the opposite. Leaving the join in full view inside the top edge of the main box. Meaning it will have to be perfect or it will stick out like a dogs balls! The lid is, at least, formed "normally".

BUT wait...there's even MORE.....

The front pocket IS rolled out and down! So whatever flight of fancy dictated the TOP roll did not permeate to the BOTTOM one.


The best of bloody British craftsmanship and engineering... "Why roll the edge that way?..because we are the best in the world and we CAN"

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Darryl. Maybe that 'odd' rolled edge was a 'Monday morning' job !

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far!

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Terry and Hugh,

Every once in a while you have one of those occasions on which everything just drops into place. Tonight I received my full size print out copies of the 1938 RAF maps of the South, Southeast, Southwest and north of London areas.. Of course being scans, they had the original fold lines showing on them. So I trimmed off most of the white edges (I'll guillotine them at work tomorrow) and folded one of them up. In one fell swoop I confirmed the Map Box size specs I used were right, confirmed exactly WHY they were built that size AND, of course, confirmed that the maps had printed exactly to 1:1 scale.

1st picture, the folded map nestling nicely in Ross' (almost finished) Mk V map box.

Second pic is the map in my paper test rig Spitfire I/II map box.

 

[fubar57]

Very, very nice Daryl. I'd love to have a guillotine at work as there are one or two truckers I'd like to....................

 

[Airframes]

Beauty !

 

[Gnomey]

Great stuff Darryl!

 

[Crimea_River]

Very cool.

 

[Tony Hill]

Thanks Geo, Terry, Hugh and Andy.

Very pleased. And yes, Geo, there is nothing better than guillotining some trucker who desperately deserves it

 

[Grace v]

________________________________________________________________________________________________

DUE TO A PHOTOBUCKET PROBLEM please see page 44 for a "cooks tour" of the missing photos and onwards for all updates. APOLOGIES!!!!

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

This seems to be the place (rather than "Basic") so here goes:

It was good to finally get the fuselage off the paper and onto some wood. The plans needed a fair bit of "managing" as they came in a single sheet of paper. That meant that the various sized frames had to be traced out and from the plan after it had been cut up, making some bits harder (having to join plan bits together). Someone more organised may have worked backwards from the biggest bits to the smallest, hacking off sections as he went……I didn't. Two reasons, really. First, hey, I'm just not that organised. Second well, er..see point one……

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The seat frame, the frame behind the instrument panel and the plan. The seat frame was extended at the bottom to be square as it is the rear frame of the sim. This forms the "feet" and is rationalised away by the fact that there is a wing at the bottom anyway. The IP frame is the correct curve at the bottom. I will probably build a "wing stub" on the left side (for mounting the sim) and leave the right side with the curved base.

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The seat frame is, at the moment cut fully rounded…this was going to be the frame at the back of the radio compartment but that made the sim too long. So now that top area will be cut down to the right shape and the angle aluminium frame above will form the canopy frame above the seat back. I actually formed it around the top of the seat frame with a rubber mallet, so it is nice and smooth and even.
I just need to cut a pattern for a curved aluminium plate to rivet onto the side which needed to be cut to allow the angle alu to bend.

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How not to draw a pattern on to wood, measure twice, cut once…but probably best to remove the markings of the first (unsuccessful) measurement. …the firewall (front frame of the sim) also with "feet". The spars on the side are the "main" spars (longerons) which run the length of the sim. There are two more which will run either side about 8 inches from ground level.

The Instrument panel full mock up is next to be made because this will determine the placement of the main spars (which are not on the plan I bought) as they pass through a small "notch" cut in the bottom edge.

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Cardboard pattern cut by my wife to be used for mapping out the short frames that make up the cockpit area and door. There are now two of these which will be cut up into the smaller sections that brace the actual cockpit seating area and mount most of the equipment.

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All of the pieces from this weekend. (the silver objects are the bracing plates..I have to make the cockpit in two halves to fit through my doors.

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A couple of detail shots to finish…the start of my IFF switch and destruction buttons unit and my brand new shiny fire engine red boost gauge. The flash made the metallic paint look blotchy and pockmarked. It is actually silky smooth after spraying a priming coat and four red coats over the already painted aluminium bezel but looks "bulky" like the original bakelite bezel was.

All in all a satisfying weekend's work and proof for the wife that I don't just spend money on parts!


I couldn't leave the pit alone last night after work. When you are on a roll, I guess it is better to keep going. I decided to ditch the wood IFF Destruction and Control Unit and build it from aluminium instead. This required a few extra things…firstly I had to draw a pattern (unheard of) secondly I had to cut metal (NOT my thing) thirdly I had to fold and file it (bloody impossible for me) lastly, I had to get over my pathological fear of working with metal, drilled into me by a sad old man who liked nothing better than to crush young boys in his class.

Here are the results, with which I am pleased enough.

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It is now all primed and ready to be painted that sickly cockpit green colour that I will have to have the local paint supplier mix especially for me.

The gauges that I have received so far are now all calibrated and are performing to the pilot's notes and various first hand sources that I have.

Finally, the guy building the controls has once again excelled himself with the control column, U/C Lever and rudders:

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The real thing:

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The rudder bars slide back and forward and the brakes will be operated from the control column "bicycle lever". Basically there will be a limit switch behind each rudder which at full travel will trigger the differential brake for that side, provided that the "bike lever" is on at least half way. If the bike lever is at less than 1/2 travel then no brakes, if it is on "full" then the "both brakes" command will be generated. Not 100% acurate but pretty close and as good a compromise as FSX will allow



.

Hi Daryl! I'm Grace Valentine, a production assistant for a WW2 film in the making, "Wolf Hound"- we're looking for spitfire cockpits as pieces that can be used in the film and were hoping you'd be open to us renting or buying your replica.

Hoping you're able to see this!

Thank you!

 

[Tony Hill]

Well, after a long period of delay, frustration, injury, "jungle" and, I admit, some small level of indifference, I have finally finished the Throttle unit. It just needs the legend engraved on the Undercarriage Circuit Switch bracket now. That was painted with four coats of white and two of black, so the black will be engraved off.

The unit is a direct copy of an early throttle held by the BBMF and includes many of the "unusual" early features. My build though will retain the original plain stainless ABCO-O plate, engraved (well, stamped actually) and red filled.

Two years and about 100 hours have gone into research, planning, getting patterns sorted, machining and banging metal.

Everything except the U/C Warning Unit (Tony's resin copy, machined out and switches added, buttons made) the U/C circuit switch (original), the throttle lever and mixture lever (laser cut) and the Throttle Knob (Ross' 3d printed) has been hand made or machined.

The only cheat is the fake 24.4mm axle which covers a 9mm threaded axle, as I did not have the tooling to thread a 24.4mm one!

Enjoy...:

 

[Tony Hill]

And more...