**** DONE: Spitfire Mk. Vb Trop. BS231 “D” of No 452 Sqn defending Darwin .

[ozhawk40]

I got to try that myself sometime. Thanks for the tips Bill.

Cheers

Peter

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Nice stuff Bill, something I've not tried. I take it you get the resin mix through your contact in Adelaide.

 

[Airframes]

Good stuff Bill.

 

[N4521U]

Nice stuff Bill, something I've not tried. I take it you get the resin mix through your contact in Adelaide.

Nope, get it thru a craft supplier that handles all kinds of casting, molding materials. Just look up casting and molding in the phone book. The mold mtrl is a silicon base safe to flesh and is pink. The cast mtrl is a white one. These are both mixed 50/50. The cast is a part A and B, if you get too much B in the mix it will not set. It's pretty easy to use mate.

 

[vikingBerserker]

I think rather than trying run down a goose or black swan for a flight feather as a quill, try using an old steel pen nib. The kind you insert into the handle. Crow Quill is the finest nib for pen and ink drawing. But there are larger ones in a good art supply store. Cheap enough to give a go.

..and I happen to have some from a long time ago. Not a bad idea, thanks!

 

[N4521U]

I'm curious, have you ever tried using the quill to paint fine details such as control panels? I need an untra fine brush and thinking this might have a possibility.

Sorry VB I failed to answer this question. Goose quills were used for writing when stick ink was ground with water, like Japanese slate dish. Due to the lamp black is suspended in the water as a light solid, it has difficulty flowing from bristles. Although fine Japanese and ancient writing was done by brush, not All of the solids left the bristles. In the old manuscripts, under the the gold of the illuminated letters is a gesso mixture. This was a very viscus mixture of plaster of paris, fish glue, and rock candy ground into a fine powder before mixing all. It is much like the Mr Surfacer in consistency. This gesso mixture was put down on the vellum with a quill because all the solids will flow from it cleanly, and can be controlled into very fine lines. A brush just won't let all the solids flow out. I hope this didn't bore you, and made sense for me trying the quill. Bill

 

[T Bolt]

Nice work Bill, and a lot of good tips!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

I have some old calligraphy pens somewhere, think I'll have to give this a try

 

[N4521U]

I have some old calligraphy pens somewhere, think I'll have to give this a try

Not the calligraphy pens Vic, a "pointed" steel pen nib for the filler. The flat calligraphy type would be too bloody wide for scribed line filling. But you are getting the drift. Bill

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Not the calligraphy pens Vic, a "pointed" steel pen nib for the filler. The flat calligraphy type would be too bloody wide for scribed line filling. But you are getting the drift. Bill

Point taken mate......................

 

[Night Fighter Nut]

I think those pens are called rapidograph pens? I use to use them for graphic work.

 

[Airframes]

Or Rotring?

 

[N4521U]

OK, I will clarify this. Rotring, and Rapidograph are "technical" pens, fillable by an internal reservoir, you would never get the solids of Mr Filler up into them, no less get them to flow out of them.

What I am describing are Non-reservoir pens, see photos. One is a group of typical steel pen nibs, have to inserted into a handle. The second is a real birds feather cut into a writing pen. Rather than the broad square front edge, I used one cut a little more pointed.

I am suggesting trying the steel nibs. Cutting a quill is a bit of an art and needs instruction! Bill

 

[Airframes]

Ah, got you! I've got a number of those nibs, in different sizes/widths, which I used to use for various tasks. haven't used a quill for donkey's years - was taught how to cut them when I was a kid, fifty years ago!
Come to think of it, we used to have the steel nibs and wooden shanks at school, up until the early 1960s - when good hand writing was essential, and counted towards 'grades' in exams !!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Ah, got you! I've got a number of those nibs, in different sizes/widths, which I used to use for various tasks. haven't used a quill for donkey's years - was taught how to cut them when I was a kid, fifty years ago!
Come to think of it, we used to have the steel nibs and wooden shanks at school, up until the early 1960s - when good hand writing was essential, and counted towards 'grades' in exams !!

Ahhhh.............them were the days mate, ink blobs all over the place and on your fingers

 

[Airframes]

And using the nibs, stuck into drinking straws, to make miniature spears ......

 

[N4521U]

I am confused about the bottles behind the seat, on the port side of the Vb.
In the instructions it has these double bottles mounted in the section directly behind on the port side. I have seen Mk.1 cutaways showing them in this section.

Yet when I see a cutaway of the Vb, it shows the 35 gal aux long range fuel tank mounted in this bay behind the seat. The double bottles mounted on the port side in the section behind.

Did All the Vb's have the 35 gal aux tank? Or were they in some operational areas? Would they have been used in GB? And in the case of this Vb converted to Vc had them since it was used in GB before being transferred to Aus?

 

[Airframes]

The auxilliary tank was not a standard fitting and, AFAIK, not many MkVs had them. You can tell immediately if the tank is fitted, as the filler neck is visible under the small transparency right behind the canopy, with the cap protruding through the perspex.
The twin oxygen cylinders were normally in the location shown in the first cutaway, as they were on all Spits.

 

[N4521U]

Ahtso. They were mounted behind the sweat, and under the aux tank If it was installed then?

Velly intelestink!
Thanks for that. I can now paint and install !

 

[Crimea_River]

Here ya go Bill.