**** DONE: GB-39 1/72 Spitfire Mk.I – Battle for France to Battle of Britain

Looks good so far!

Instrument panels look very sharp

Hi everyone. my apologies for my lack of progress to date. I don't know quite why, but Ive not been feeling quite the love . its been uncomfortably cold in these parts, and lacking those interior parts (they are still enroute) puts a limit on what I can do.

But today (its Sunday here) it was a bit warmer, though raining, and I got the motivation , finally, to make a start. it was refreshing to be honest. I had some troubles with the airbrush. It had a blockage in the needle and seat area, and for reasons I still don't know, refused to clear. I stripped the whole apparatus down twice and washed the parts in ethanol, eventually yielding a rather weak spray pattern. With a thinned down mixture I was able to a reasonable pattern eventually .

First up I will offer the following confession and apologies. There have been several renditions of this subject, one by Kevin and more recently one by Terry (in 1/48th scale). Ive utilised the skill and knowledge from those sources unashamedly. I apologise for that, but having never seen any version of a spitfire in the flesh, in particular the mk I interior, I felt I needed to tap into the knowledge bases of people more familiar with the subject.

First up I removed the superfluous detailing and added some others missing from the basic kit . Carried out some preshading in the areas around the internal frames and sidewall details, before applying a very thinned down layer of cockpit green . Retouched some of the equipment details like trim wheel and throttles in black, before applying a final top dry brushed aluminium shade (which in parts ive overdone....will have to retouch these spots)







Some touch up required I admit but overall, an adequate start for this scale.

I have a question guys. Given that my spitfire is meant to be as it might have existed May June 1940, should I be altering the back armour arrangement for pilots. ive read conflicting accounts of this. Some sources say that spitfires were built with armour fitted, others say that armour was begun to be retrofitted from April (but not all were completed straight away) and some sources state that the majority were back fitted after August. Should I be fitting back armour given the time scale of the subject?

Good first steps.........

Agreed.

Don't know the answer to your question Michael. If the dates that you have indicated are correct, then it seems that both arrangements are possible and that, without a photo or squadron documentation, it will be almost impossible to get a definitive answer.

Good work so far!

Ive received the IP on Friday, but the harness I am still waiting for...…

Despite this, ive embarked on some further fabrication of the interior, fitting the IP, fabricating the clear part for the gun sight drilling out the foot controls, fabricating the U/C hand pump lever, and cutting out the side access hatch....I intend to display this model unbuttoned.

I had to respray the interior framing as my first attempt was pretty wide of the mark. Ive decided to not fit armour to this version, on the basis of the armouring of MkIs was only just getting underway at the beginning of may. Coupled to that decision, Ive decided to go with the early seat colour and upholstery for this version, after a bit of consideration, I chose the grey green framing and .red brown leather, except the head board. This is the access hatch, after I have separated it from the port side of the fuselage. Ive removed the superfluous spanner, but their element probably needs some further clean up before re-attachment in the "open" position.


This is the port side fuselage with the access hatch removed. The cuts I have done still need a bit of cleaning up but overall im actually pretyy happy with how cleanly this all worked out.

This is the stbd side of the fuselage. ive scratch built the stbd side oxygen (???) tank as well as emulating that corrugated hosing (I don't actually know what it is) though I admit my scratch built version is not to scale.


This shot shows that ive drilled out the rear pilot seat frame and fitted the IP face . You can also see the clear gunsite reflector, though it is an unclear view. Should note that none of the component parts are yet glued.


This is a better shot of the still unassembled cockpit bath.


A side view of my cockpit....shows well the LG handpump that ive sratch built as well as the hollowed out foot pedals.

Good stuff Michael.
Couple of points - the twin compressed air cylinders on the port side should be silver.
The corrugated hose on the starboard wall is the connecting hose for the pilot's oxygen mask, from the black oxygen cylinder - at this period, it was a plain, 'braided' hose (not corrugated), black in colour, with white and yellow 'flecks' in the weave of the fabric covering (these would not be visible in this scale). The diameter of the hose was approximately 1 inch.
It is more than likely that your subject aircraft had the engine-driven pump for the undercart, meaning that the selector would be as provided in the kit, rather than the earlier hand-pump.

I agree with Terry. Also the pit inner structure seems to be al little bit twisted. It may result in getting into troubles with putting the halves of the fuselage together . So be careful, Michael. Try five times before gluing once.

Havent glued the major elements yet, though ive noticed the distinct twist you mention whilst completing the dry fit.

Ive scratch built a replacement hose using a single strand of copper thread from insulated electrical wiring. The corrugated effect is still evident, but a lot less prominent and the overall assembly is smaller diameter bringing it a bit closer to scale .

Repainted the twin oxygen tanks to silver, but I cant find information on what the cockpit mounts for the LG pumps might look like. There is nothing in the kit. do you have any details of what the cockpit pump assembly might look like and where to put it?

Based on lengthy discussions on the hand pump subject for my build of R6595 DW-O, I took the hand pump to be present on that rig during the BoB. Not sure what serial number you are depicting though.

The hand pump is not on the port side as you have shown but rather on the starboard. It was a criticism of the Spitfire cockpit layout that one had to switch hands when operating the landing gear - that is, remove left hand from throttle, grab control column, release right hand from control column and then operate landing gear control on starboard side. Here's a pic of the pump on a very early Spit:

so it is possible that a hand pump was fitted (or more to the point, that I might need to add a pump handle to the detail), but more likely that an automated pump (and switch) was fitted...…

I need to get hold of a photo or similar of the automated system.....

Michael if you want the best authority on the subject see if you can find a discussion involving Edgar Brooks. He'd probably be the best authority on what arrangement was present. As to the updated selector, this is what the kit supplies you with though the selector, if I recall correctly is in the wrong position for gear down. Here's a pic of that set up:



The pic is labelled as a Mk II but the setup would be the same. You can ignore the bars securing the control column.

EDIT: Discussions on hand pump introduction:

Spitfire K9938 SD-H April 1939 - undercarriage selector and gunsight?

Good advice here. Looking good

Lovely work so far!

slow progress but still moving forward. Have the pit and cockpit and IP more or less finished. Just about ready to join the two halves. Photos probably tomorrow (tonite is footy night, and if my team loses, I have to sing the club song of the opposing team......not something I'm looking forward to..... ).

Just say a prayer for Sth Sydney please.....

My team won!!!!

Here are some quick progress shots:

Problem in the dorsal area, the cross member does not match up very well

I initially thought it best to simply cover this area but I discarded this idea (although I modified and re-purposed the blanking card)


I hollowed out the blanking card so that it can fit into the two fuselage halves. I fabricated a new cross member ( which I am incluned to remove later, to leave just the scratch built interior framing).


This is my pilot seat and harness glued and ready to fit.

Fuselage underside


This is my IP, ready to the attached to the cockpit subassembly.