**** DONE: 1/48 Spitfire MkVIII - Home Country Modern Aircraft/Spitfire Marks GB

[fubar57]

This is what happens when I go away for a week. Great tip with the brass tubing many posts ago Andy and the rest of the build is looking very good as well.

Geo

 

[Airframes]

Hope you can manage it Andy - it's a bit fiddly due to the angle, but can be done, and may be a bit easier for you - my hands have trouble even scratching my nose, let alone controlling a scalpel !

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks chaps. Progress continues with my having added bits of plastic card to the back of the spinner where the openings for the props are. Pics show that the openings are circular, not semi-circular and straight to the back plate. Comparison with the spinner close-up a few posts ago show what I mean [Pic 1. The spinner's been painted white now, the final colour, but the close-up shows a bit of paper towel remnants from the polishing though these aren't embedded in the paint fortunately.

While I painted the white on the spinner, I continued with the white SEAC recognition marks as shown in Pic 2. The yellow nose has also been applied, having been done along with the prop tips, however I forgot to apply yellow patches where the Chindit dragon emblem will go on the nose cowls. Oh well, later!

 

[woody]

nice start on the painting Andy.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Jerry. A tad premature as there's a bit of fiddly panel line work to fix yet. Plus, I forgot to drill out the ejector chute holes for the MG's on the underside.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nothing wrong with that, Andy...Nice!

 

[A4K]

With Wayne, good stuff mate!

 

[Airframes]

Yep, good stuff, especially the spinner back plate cuffs.

 

[Gnomey]

Coming along nicely Andy!

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks guys.

 

[meatloaf109]

Ah, those pesky shell chutes...
Lovely work on the spinner, almost makes me want to pretty mine up the same way,...

 

[Gerry]

Nice work Andy. Your build seems to be at about the same stage that mine has reached. Now that they're all buttoned up, I do wonder about my obsession with all the interior detailing I did earlier. In going back over your thread, I gather we both share an equal passion for filling, sanding and re-scribing? I definitely lack the patience and find it so tedious, but have to admit it makes a big difference to the finished product. Anyhow, keep up the good work and look forward to the finish on this one.

Sláinte,

Gerry

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Paul, Gerry.

Gerry, yes, the filling and sanding is my least favourite activtiy but I'm past that now fortunately.

 

[Crimea_River]

Question: The white stripes would have been how wide?

 

[Wurger]

Nice work so far Andy.

 

[Airframes]

I think the white ID bands were 12 inches on tail areas, and 18 inches on the wings - BUT - let me check and get back to you first !
EDIT:- Just checked, they were in fact 28 inches on the main planes (approx 14.5 mm in 1/48th scale), and 18 inches on fin and tail planes (approx 9.3 mm in 1/48th scale.).

 

[ozhawk40]

Great build so far, Andy. Looking foward to the painting on this one.
Cheers

Peter

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. (EDIT: You too Peter. I was working on this response when you posted) I was going to go with the 18 on the main wings after you said it as that's what a profile I have scales to, although I don't fully trust it. Now that you said 28, I was actually a bit skeptical and went back and looked closer at the picture of the guys sitting on the wing of Ostrander's plane (see below). Unfortunately, the guy closest to the camera has his leg right over where the edge of the white would be but on closer inspection, you can just see the edge of the band on the underside of the wing (yellow arrow) and I estimate that this would intersect the leading edge just behind the guy's knee. Then I noticed that you can see a partial wing of another Spit in the background (red circle). Although crude, I blew up the picture and calculated the ratio of the width of the white band width to the distance from the cannon to the wingtip, compared that to scale drawings I have and, guess what? - 28 inches!

Now, the band over the fin flash on the tail is another matter as making this a scaled 18 inches obliterates about half of the fin flash. Need to see if I can find more pictures. Any thoughts Terry?

 

[Airframes]

Yep - dimensions are correct - they came from the Air Ministry directives!
I think that the band on the fin/rudder was either painted over the top section of the fin flash, or the opposite - masked to show the complete flash. Again, I'll double check and let you know.
EDIT:- Checked it. I was right first time. The fin/rudder band was the full 18 inch depth, starting on the line of the horizontal joint between rudder and fin, and obscuring the upper few inches of the SEAC fin flash.

 

[Crimea_River]

Cheers Terry.