Thanks very much CR, appreciate it. It's started to come together all of a sudden, although there's still a long way to go yet.
I got the fin and rudder smoothed out, and gave them both a coat of clear gloss enamel varnish, to check everything, and to seal and polish the Milliput. It looks like they should both be smooth and even once the primer coat goes on.
PICS 1 and 2 show the new, broader - chord rudder tacked in place on the wider fin, with the same area of a MkIX, with the 'standard' fin and rudder, for comparison.
The Griffon 65 engine in the Revell Mk.22 kit is quite a nice representation, but the exhausts are moulded as part of the cylinder heads, and are 'solid'. These were carefully drilled-out, then reamed, to thin the walls as much as possible without them cracking or splitting. The part was held in a mini vice, and each stub drilled using a pin-vice and 1mm drill bit, shown in
PIC 3.
PIC 4 Shows the first fit of the engine cowlings from the Mk.22 kit, with the as yet unpainted engine bearers and engine inside, less the exhausts, held in place with PVA adhesive, to check alignment and spacing within the cowlings. As you can see, there were some severe fit and alignment problems, mainly due to the engine itself, being designed to fit the shape of the Revell kit, not 'sitting' in quite the right place at the rear, against the firewall. So at this point, I decided to omit the engine, and fit the cowlings and exhausts only. The original intenion was to blend-in the cowlings, leaving off the starboard side cowl panel, to display part of the engine. However, only a very small part of the engine would be seen, with the Coffman cartridge starter, and the large engine berarer being the only recognisable features. All the other detail, such as the compressor and intercooler would be hidden under the top cowling, so it wasn't going to be a major loss.But this meant a re-think on which way to fit the cowlings, without them being out of line, or falling apart once sanding commenced. The last time I did this conversion, I had fitted the engine to be displayed with all the cowlings removed, so I hadn't encountered this problem!
PIC 5 shows the solution; a couple of lengths of sprue, glued inside the cowlings to act as cross-braces, with some scrap plastic blanking off the gaps at the wing roots, ready for filling later, and some pieces of plastic strip (the blue bits) to act as flanges for the remaining engine part, with the moulded on exhausts, to sit on.
PIC 6 shows the cylinder heads/exhausts being test-fitted, in order to gauge where the cowling's exhaust aperture will lie. Further pieces of plastic strip have been cemented in place, to act as flanges to help locate and support the upper cowling.
PIC 7 Is the second fit of the cowlings, with the exhausts in place. This is where any gaps were noted, along with the less than precise fit of the nose section to the cowlings. This will be sanded and filled if required later.
PIC 8 The cowlings are cemented and aligned as best they can be, and are awaiting sanding and a fair amount of Milliput filler! A small hole has been drilled where the compressor air scoop will fit, which will also be drilled out from the 'solid' part.
PIC 9. The underside looks a bit messy after all the cutting and sanding, but it's not as bad as it looks! The 'shine' is clear gloss varnish, applied after the initial sanding around the radiator baths and the filled-in MkV cannon blisters, to provide a smooth surface, and help show up any imperfections. There is still a lot of filling and sanding to be done, mainly around the supercharger intake, but the radiators are now blended correctly to the wing and are flush, and new shell ejector slots have been cut for the cannons. The small blisters have yet to be moulded and fitted.
PIC 10. The shape of the elevators have been modified, by sawing the new join line, and a cross-channel has been drilled through the fin where the elevator connecting rod would be, although it's just out of the frame in this shot. The remaining part of the original elevator join will be filled slightly - there is a fabric panel joint just visible at this line on the real aircraft.
PIC 11. Shows the forward edge of the wing root to cowling joint. In order to have some room for adjustment of the Mk.22 cowling parts, and the lower cowling panel in particular, I had to remove the lip from the upper part of the wing fillet. The area has been backed with plastic card under the wing, and inside the vertical cowling, and this 'slot' will be filled with Milliput, contoured, then sanded when set.
PIC 12. This is how the model looks to date. The spinner is only push-fitted, in order to show the overall shape, and greatly increased length, of the Mk.XIV. The gun ports for the .303 Browning MG's have been drilled out, as have the mounting points for the 20mm Hispano cannons, and the adjacent 'empty' stubs of the 'C' wing. When finished, the model will display torn, 'doped fabric' patches over the gun ports.
There is still a lot of filling, blending and sanding to be done, and the extended wing tips of the MkVI kit need to be re-profiled back to 'standard' tips, if they can be! But at least it's starting to look like the long, sleek MkXIVc originally envisaged, and it shouldn't be too long before the painting and detailing can commence.
Thanks very much again for your interest and kind comments, and I apologise for the somewhat long and involved post. But that's the worst over, hopefully the next lot will be less complex!
Terry.