**** DONE: Spitfire MkVIII, 136 Squadron RAF, Burma, 1944, Commonwealth GB.

Sounds like good weather for modelling!

Brilliant background history Terry. Thanks for all your hard work its much appreciated!!
I cant wait to se the model grow!!
Dont try any ski tricks down your pavement if you do fancy a go please fit studs!!
Take it easy

Glad you are feeling better sir! Will have to read your story here in a few. I'm getting ready to dive into decals.

Thanks chaps, and Max, glad you approve of the 'write up'! That Log Book took some reading!

Bl**dy Nora! Just spent 20 mins posting the next instalment, and when I hit 'Go Advanced' I got the 'Can't find the page ' message!! So, I'll start again!
The wings are now fitted, and thanks to Andy's pointers regarding the lack of dihedral, unless some modifications are made, I was able to get this done without any major dramas, although it required a bit of thought (hard on the brain at my age!), and a lot of faffing about ...er... I mean experimenting, then test fitting, filing, and more test fitting etc.
PIC 1. Shows where the problem lies. If fitted as per the instructions, the wing assembly is supposed to squeeze in and sit between the landing gear tunnels. However, this will create neutral dihedral, giving a very odd, 'flat' look to the wings. The answer was to cut slots in the fuselage wing root 'flange', and extend the small rear notch, over the radiator housing, forward.
PIC 2. Shows the areas where plastic has been removed, with the 'flanges' now sitting over the tunnels.
PIC 3. The fuselage wing root 'flange' was then filed back, checking the angle constantly against the wing assembly, to allow the wing, once fitted, to 'nip in', creating the required dihedral.
PIC 4. Before joining the wing surfaces, the empty case ejector ports were opened up - a job I nearly forgot to do!
PIC 5. To prevent fouling of the lower wing section, the engine bulkhead, fitted for strength and rigidity, had 2 mm removed from its lower edge, and the cockpit frames and the area under the seat were also filed down, with the slots at the edges widened and deepened. The rear fuselage to wing centre-section joint face was also filed back slightly, to allow the wing assembly to move back, thereby aligning the leading edge wing roots correctly.
PIC 6. The wing was then assembled and, after it had set, it was test-fitted to check the angle. Here, the required gap can be seen, which will allow the wing to be 'nipped in' at the correct angle to achieve the dihedral. Strange, creating a gap at a wing root, when it's normally the opposite!
PIC 7. The wing assembly was then fitted, with the leading edge of the root, where the fuselage meets the lower wing surface, being fixed with CA, before a bead of poly cement was run into each wing-root joint, and along the underside fillet and 'gull wing' joint. The wings were then set to the desired dihedral, checked with a level and ruler, before being taped in position to hold them until set.
Next step, once all this has fully set, is to align the lower cowling panel to the side cowlings and front plate, after which the inside of the empty engine bay will receive some braces, and plastic card backing for the exhausts, which will be fitted later.
Thanks again for your interest, and if you haven't already seen it, the background story is now posted on the opening post of this thread.

Nice work Terry. I went about it a bit differently, cutting the entire flange off to remove any doubt and to avoid all that filing.

Now, about those ejector ports - I DID forget!

That cockpit looks soooo nice in there. Great work to get inspired by.

Thanks Andy and Bill.
I don't bl**dy believe it! I just finished typing a whole post on the progress, clicked the 'Go Advanced' button to start posting the pics, and the bl**dy thing yet again flashed the 'Can't find the page' message, and effed off with the whole bl**dy lot!! This is doing my shed in!
Anyway, progress to date;
PIC 1. An expected gap, only at the starboard wing root, after setting the dihedral.
PIC 2. Easily fixed by dropping in some thin, stretched sprue, softening it with cement, and pressing into the joint.
PIC 3. This was followed by a bead of PVA, which is already drying clear in this shot. A thin primer coat will show up any imperfections, which will get some more PVA.
PIC 4. The wing root fillet also got some PVA thrown at it, and again, more can be added if required.
PIC 5. There was a very small gap at the centre section joint, much finer than it looks here.
PICS 6 and 7, Once again, fine stretched sprue and PVA took care of this.
PIC 8. The front plate was aligned and fitted, and a piece of sprue cemented between the side cowlings as a brace, to keep everything rigid. Strips of plastic card have been cemented inside the exhaust apertures, and the exhausts will be attached to these after the model has been painted.
PIC 9.The kit has the spare lower cowling for the MkIX, which had the early, short intake, but foe some reason the MkVIII panel, with the Vokes 'Vee' filter, has been moulded as two halves, with the filter housing as part of the moulding. I would have thought it easier just to provide a moulding for the filter, as the two halves, I suspected, could be difficult to align, avoiding an unsightly, and difficult ridge at the central joint, in a very prominent area.
PIC 10. After some slight trimming, I decided I'd rather have a small gap to deal with, rather than a ridge or step, and so each half was fitted separately, aligning with the lower edge of the side cowls.
PIC 11. The gap has been eliminated by adding fine sprue and PVA, which is almost set here, and clear, making it difficult to see the effect of the filler in this pic. A coat of primer will seal this, and any small imperfections taken care of once set.
PIC 12. With the top cowling in place, the model is starting to look like a Spitfire. There was a very fine moulding line across the top of the exhaust aperture on the upper cowling, which is a result of reproducing the slight bulbous sides, where they cover the valve covers, which is nicely done. This was easily removed, and the cowling correctly aligned before cementing in place.
So, once everything is set, and the clean-up completed, the next stage will be the radiators, and then modifying the ailerons to the shorter-span type fitted to the MkVIII (and late MkIXs), before fitting the tail planes, adding a few small scratch-built detail items, and preparing for the paintwork.
Thanks again for your interest and support, and I'll get some more pics posted, maybe tonight - if I'm still awake!

You weren't kidding when you said you would get down to it while boxed up by the snow. Some heavy work there Terry but in your capable hands, you make it look like child's play, nicely done mate.

Brilliant stuff Terry!!!!!!! As you say its starting to look like a Spit!
Bring on the next episode!!
BR Max

looks good Dogsbody and a lot neater than mine at the same stage !

Sorry about your posting woes Terry. Hope it doesn't stop you from providing the next episode.

The model is coming along nicely and you're tackling the familiar misfits nicely. I think you'll find the need to add some filler in the tailplanes as well. On mine, there wasn't really a gap but more of a step.

Terry, your plane looks fantastic.

Beautiful Terry. Looks like you're taking full advantage of the bad weather.

Airframes said:

I don't bl**dy believe it! I just finished typing a whole post on the progress, clicked the 'Go Advanced' button to start posting the pics, and the bl**dy thing yet again flashed the 'Can't find the page' message, and effed off with the whole bl**dy lot!! This is doing my shed in!

Click to expand...

I've also lost stuff I was about to post. Now as a safety precaution I highlight and right click "copy" before I post it. That way if it gets lost I can just paste it back in the text field and try again. Some tines with real long posts I do the original in Word and copy it to the text box.

Thanks very much guys.
Glenn, I would do that, but I don't know how to upload a Word document to the forum, unless it's put into PDF first. Don't know how to copy and paste either - to me, that's the traditional way of doing page make-up in the graphics trade - sticking galleys of type and half tones onto film / paper, for copying as one to go to plate!

I think he means to open Word and type your text. Once you're done with the text, highlight it all holding down the left mouse button and dragging it down all of the text. Then right click and select "copy" and it should be pasted to your clipboard. Now if you go to the posting box in the forum, right click in the text box, select "Paste" and it should drop all your word text there.

Cutting pasting from Word to the text box is easy. Type what you want in Word and then highlight the text by putting the cursor before the first word, left click and holding the button down drag the cursor down to the last word highlighting everything blue. Move the cursor somewhere on the blue field and right click which will bring up a menu box and click on "Copy". Go to the text box in the thread where you want to post and click it so a cursor appears, then right click to bring up a menu and click on "Paste" and you text will appear.

He He. Beat you to it.

I should have just posted it with out doing spell check, but then no one could have read it

Looking rather sharp there sir.