fubar57
General
Agreed
**** DONE: GB-57 1/48 Spitfire MK.XVIe Low-back - WW2 Foreign Service
- Thread starter Crimea_River
- Start date
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- Thread starter
- #102
Crimea_River
Marshal
Hope so Wayne and Geo - a ways to go yet though. Here's how she looks now with a fair amount of filling and scrubbing and a test shot laid down.
The top of the fuel tank passes inspection. Wing root lines up well now but the seam needs further scribing and filling to make it look consistent.
Port fairing gap is gone. Just a tiny amount of surface primer, smoothing, and scribing is still needed.
Same story on the other side.
On the starboard engine cowl, the scribing still looks a bit rough. The small scoop was added back on with styrene card as the moulded one disappeared with the sanding dust. There's also a bit more work needed at the leading edge/wing root joint where there was a pretty big step that needed filling.
Carb intake is looking decent but cleanup and scribing is still needed at the wing roots.
A couple of details were also added before installing the radiator housings. The starboard one saw the small de-ice pipe added using solder. This close-up reveals some ugly glue work and mould flash that will need to be addressed.
On the back side, the small braces were added in the exit louvres.
I forgot to mention that the clipped wing tips were sanded back quite a bit to make them look less rounded and I'll try to remember ot show those later. More scrubbing is to come before the paint is started so I'll update when there's something worth while to show. Thanks for checking in.
The top of the fuel tank passes inspection. Wing root lines up well now but the seam needs further scribing and filling to make it look consistent.
Port fairing gap is gone. Just a tiny amount of surface primer, smoothing, and scribing is still needed.
Same story on the other side.
On the starboard engine cowl, the scribing still looks a bit rough. The small scoop was added back on with styrene card as the moulded one disappeared with the sanding dust. There's also a bit more work needed at the leading edge/wing root joint where there was a pretty big step that needed filling.
Carb intake is looking decent but cleanup and scribing is still needed at the wing roots.
A couple of details were also added before installing the radiator housings. The starboard one saw the small de-ice pipe added using solder. This close-up reveals some ugly glue work and mould flash that will need to be addressed.
On the back side, the small braces were added in the exit louvres.
I forgot to mention that the clipped wing tips were sanded back quite a bit to make them look less rounded and I'll try to remember ot show those later. More scrubbing is to come before the paint is started so I'll update when there's something worth while to show. Thanks for checking in.
Last edited:
36feet10inches
Staff Sergeant
Beautiful. I wish close-up photography was as kind to my Spits! 
Vic Balshaw
Major General
All good stuff and your certainly keeping your eye in.
- Thread starter
- #106
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks gents.
Lovely work so far Andy!
Jock Tamson
Staff Sergeant
Man, you've used up a fair bit of elbow grease on this one Andy. Looks all the better for it.
Snautzer01
Honourably banned
- 42,434
- Mar 26, 2007
Good stuff.
Not too shabby at all mate..
- Thread starter
- #111
Crimea_River
Marshal
Soooooo, armament. I had assumed that the clipped E-wing would have had provision for the two cannon and 2MG's with the inner cannon removed and blanked off. However, looking at a picture of Chuck Darrow's earlier mount, apparently also with the E wing, where are the outer MG's? (Picture credit Robert Bracken)
EDIT: Or, is the inner "capped" fairing for one .50 mg and no outer guns?
EDIT: Or, is the inner "capped" fairing for one .50 mg and no outer guns?
Last edited:
Greg Boeser
1st Sergeant
Now I don't feel so bad about decals fragmenting. It happened on the real thing!
- Thread starter
- #113
Crimea_River
Marshal
Disregard the above question. I should have known the answer from when I built my Israeli Spit IXe. No outer machine guns. 50cal behind the cap inboard of the cannon.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
That's a great pic.
You are right Andy. The inner capped fairing is for the .5 in. gun while the protruding barel is of the Hispano 20mm gun. This is the typical armament instalation for the E wing. There wasn't the outer MG.
Ralph Haus
Tech Sergeant
I've been following, without comment until now. Andy you have had major efforts in wrasteling this kit into shape. Doing a great job I will add. Following to get the feel for ICM kits. Not to positive on getting any yet!
Given the choice of same model (spitfire-Bf ?- Yak, whatever), same size, same theme but with a selection of manufacturers, would you pick an ICM again?
Given the choice of same model (spitfire-Bf ?- Yak, whatever), same size, same theme but with a selection of manufacturers, would you pick an ICM again?
T Bolt
Colonel
Looking really nice Andy
- Thread starter
- #118
Crimea_River
Marshal
Thanks a lot fellas and I aprpeciate your patience as I continue to scrub away.
Thanks Ralph. The early ICM Spitfire kits are a bit of a challenge but build up nice with lots of elbow grease as you can see. When these kits came out, they were touted as the being the most accurate 1/48 Spitfire IX/XVI's available and so that was the reason I bought three of them years ago. I didn't have as much trouble with their 109s if I recall and their detail and value is excellent. Would I buy another ICM kit? A new tool, yes for sure as they have upped their game significantly. The older Spitfire, 109 and Mustang kits have long been surpassed by much better (but pricier) kits so this will probably be my last.
Anyway, let's have a look at the state of play right now. Here are a few shots of the filling and trial painting that has been going on.
The spine of this model has an odd little shelf on it that I could not trace on the real aircarft. The only thing near there is the radio antenna but it doesn't have this odd protrusion so off it comes.
A close up of the wing tips shows how they have been filed down significantly to create a more squared off look. The nav light lenses will be painted on.
The prop blades are pretty bad. They have sink marks, flash, and are much too thick. On past builds I replaced these with resin blades but on this one I will thin these kit blades and use them rather than buy new stuff.
The gun sight has disappeared with the clear parts sprue and, in any case, would have been the wrong type anyway, so I set about scratch building a Mk II Gyro Sight. For this, I used a chunk of sprue from my Airfix P-51 as it's nice and soft. Below you can see the shape started with a file and the detail on the cockpit sill that will need to be modified.
The mount has been modified and the rough box for the sight CA glued in place.
And here we have the finished sight with the scale dial scratched in, the projector lenses drilled and painted, and the reflector glass added.
I know some of these came with a shade over the top but it seems that some don't have it so I stopped there rather than make more work for myself. Maybe this shade was retractable anyway - not sure. In any event, I need to make sure the windscreen doesn't foul this thing but it's been dipped in Future and is curing so I'll give that a go tomorrow.
Thanks again for following along. I really hope to get some paint splashed on this thing soon.
Thanks Ralph. The early ICM Spitfire kits are a bit of a challenge but build up nice with lots of elbow grease as you can see. When these kits came out, they were touted as the being the most accurate 1/48 Spitfire IX/XVI's available and so that was the reason I bought three of them years ago. I didn't have as much trouble with their 109s if I recall and their detail and value is excellent. Would I buy another ICM kit? A new tool, yes for sure as they have upped their game significantly. The older Spitfire, 109 and Mustang kits have long been surpassed by much better (but pricier) kits so this will probably be my last.
Anyway, let's have a look at the state of play right now. Here are a few shots of the filling and trial painting that has been going on.
The spine of this model has an odd little shelf on it that I could not trace on the real aircarft. The only thing near there is the radio antenna but it doesn't have this odd protrusion so off it comes.
A close up of the wing tips shows how they have been filed down significantly to create a more squared off look. The nav light lenses will be painted on.
The prop blades are pretty bad. They have sink marks, flash, and are much too thick. On past builds I replaced these with resin blades but on this one I will thin these kit blades and use them rather than buy new stuff.
The gun sight has disappeared with the clear parts sprue and, in any case, would have been the wrong type anyway, so I set about scratch building a Mk II Gyro Sight. For this, I used a chunk of sprue from my Airfix P-51 as it's nice and soft. Below you can see the shape started with a file and the detail on the cockpit sill that will need to be modified.
The mount has been modified and the rough box for the sight CA glued in place.
And here we have the finished sight with the scale dial scratched in, the projector lenses drilled and painted, and the reflector glass added.
I know some of these came with a shade over the top but it seems that some don't have it so I stopped there rather than make more work for myself. Maybe this shade was retractable anyway - not sure. In any event, I need to make sure the windscreen doesn't foul this thing but it's been dipped in Future and is curing so I'll give that a go tomorrow.
Thanks again for following along. I really hope to get some paint splashed on this thing soon.
SaparotRob
Unter Gemeine Geschwader Murmeltier XIII
"…scratch building a MK II gyro sight "…
There really should be a GB category for innards.
There really should be a GB category for innards.
Vic Balshaw
Major General
Moving along nicely Andy, those prop blades certainly are rough looking.
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