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

[N4521U]

Cutting pasting from Word to the text box is easy. Type what you want in Word and then ....

Just to expand on that....
For the less dextrus, too shaky of the hands.
"CTRL" button and the "A" button will select ALL on the page.
"CTRL" and "C" will copy.
"CTRL" and "V" will paste.

Press and hold the "CTRL" button down first, followed by the next button.

Works within and between programs.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Looks like you have the best of tutors Terry. It's the way I do it, that way my atrocious spelling is checked as I go along, trouble is spell check don't pick up the finger stutters.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much guys, I think I've got the idea now. Just got to figure out a way of curing my keyboard of dyslexia!
Problem is, due to my knackered hand, I often catch two keys at the same time, and, as I'm now restricted to using the right index finger and left thumb to type, my brain works too far ahead of the speed of my digits, resulting in some 'interesting' errors!
Bl**dy stupid arthritis !!

 

[Crimea_River]

.... I often catch two keys at the same time...

Hell, I do that with so-called normal hands!

 

[Airframes]

He He! That makes me feel better!
Got quite a bit more done, and there's only a few things to do before the first painting stage can be tackled. (made sure I stocked-up and replaced some paints before the world ends for Christmas!). That said, the 'few things' might take some time, as they include fitting and setting the tail-planes, which Andy warned me about, and finishing-off the adjustments to the gun bay covers, to prevent them showing a 'step' around the edges.
PIC 1. The radiator baths have had the shutter actuators and braces added, from stretched sprue and plastic card, and the interiors painted. Having studied the reference pics this time (!), I remembered what the set-up for the braces was like, having helped restore a bath for a Spit MkIX about 25 years ago.
PIC 2. The de-icer spray tube in the starboard radiator 'roof', again from stretched sprue bent to shape. The radiator matrices have been painted and dry-brushed, with different shades for the cooling rads and the oil cooler and inter-cooler blocks, but they need to be re-touched here. The streaky light grey paint seen here, and on other parts of the model, is a home-made 'primer/filler', used for checking seams and joints, and is used here as an undercoat for the Medium Sea Grey in the area where it will need to be brush-painted, after the model is sprayed, due to the masking requirements.
PICS 3 and 4. The completed radiator baths in place. (I had considered cutting open the shutters, but decided not to in the end). The gun camera port in the starboard wing root has been drilled out, and can be seen in one of the pics.
PIC 5. The hole for the IFF dipole antenna has been drilled, in the small panel near the aileron hinge line, and the antenna itself will be added from stretched and shaped sprue, at the end of the build. It was whilst doing this that I realised that the ejector ports for the MG spent cases have been moulded upside down! The small, angled 'slot' is for the links, and this should be at the front (leading edge) of each port, as the links were ejected out of the side of the guns' receiver, with the empty cases being ejected from the from the bottom. Had I noticed this when cutting open the slots, I could have corrected it, but it's too bl**dy late now!
PIC 6. The machine gun ports have been drilled out, and will have the 'fabric' patches added, from decal tissue, after the model is painted. The cannon fairing mounts have since been cleaned-up and 'de-seamed'.
PIC 7. The small cockpit air-intake, fitted to 'tropical' MkVIIIs beneath the windscreen, has been added, again using stretched sprue, shaped once cemented in place, and the intake opening drilled out. A small hole beneath the rear cockpit glazed area has been counter-sunk, and this is where the oxygen supply main valve was accessed, to turn on the oxygen system before flight. Something had been niggling me about the appearance of the general area behind the cockpit, and I realised that the voltage regulator, looking like two cans of beans, was not fitted to the rear of the head armour on the MkVIII, the electrical system having been modified and improved. So, out came the trusty razor saw, and off came the already attached and glued moulding. The main part of the mounting plate was left in place, and filed flush with the frame, providing a neat blanking plate over the locating slot of the 'scrapped' regulator part. The top brace was added from plastic card, after first checking clearance beneath the glazing, and then the area painted and re-touched as required.
I noticed that the rear glazing was about 1 mm too long, and would overhang the cockpit entrance hatch when fitted, so this was very carefully filed until it fitted correctly. The lateral fit was also checked, before the cockpit side wall, at the rear of the hatch, was 'nipped in', clamped, and superglued to the seat bulkhead frame, eliminating the slight gap between frame and fuselage, which looked totally wrong.
PIC 8. The wing tips were test fitted, and the locating tabs adjusted as required, in order to achieve the correct alignment before cementing in place. The gap at the joint will have a length of fine stretched sprue cemented into it, and carefully sanded down once set. This will not only take care of the gap, but hopefully will represent the thin metal strip fitted over the wing-tip joint on the real aircraft.
PIC 9 shows one of the full-span ailerons provided in the kit, alongside the MkVIII wingtip. The basic kit is the same for all the Marks released by ICM (MkIX, VII and VIII), with alternative parts provided to model the specific version. The MkVIII onwards (and late MkIXs) had the shorter ailerons fitted (as well as elevators with increased, integral mass balance, with a 'straight' outer-edge hinge line), which was to prevent aileron 'flutter' at high speed, in particular in a high-speed dive, and also to improve handling. As the Spitfire evolved and became more powerful and faster, the control forces, especially the ailerons, got heavier, and the longer-span ailerons became susceptible to 'flutter' and bounce, more so when compressibility was encountered, which had been the cause of a number of aircraft disintegrating in flight. The initial solution was to change from fabric-covered to metal-covered ailerons, which helped, but the problem was not cured until the shorter ailerons were introduced, and even then, stick forces were still on the heavy side as speed increased.
The kit parts need to be sawn just outboard of the moulded hinge reinforcing plate before fitting. The shallow sink marks just forward of the aileron hinge line have been filled using the home made primer /filler, and lightly sanded.
PIC 10. What the model looks like so far.
With a bit of luck, given that the landlord of my 'local' allows me to leave the pub at a sensible hour on Christmas eve (!), I should get some more done on Christmas Day, and maybe even get the first paint sprayed (B*gg*er all else to do!).
Until then, I hope you all have an enjoyable festive holiday.
Cheers!

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Bu**er me Terry, you may have problems with the keyboard, but you aren't having problems with the modelling, top stuff mate.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much Vic, it's very much appreciated.

 

[Crimea_River]

You're doing a great job there Terry and have almost surpassed me on progress. I'm still fiddling with the finish myself and have another primer touchup to do before tackling the camo.

In the meantime, I wish you a very Happy Christmas Terry and I thank you for all your help this year.

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much Andy - I'm trying to stay on top of this one, to keep the momentum going. Once all the fiddly bits are out of the way, I'm hoping it'll be plain sailing. Got to admit, the front end was a lot easier than I expected, and didn't take as long as I thought it would.
I still have to tie-down a serial number, probably for HM-E, although I think I'll end up using a 'generic' serial from the batch sent to India, unless the Squadron ORB can reveal anything - waiting to hear from the National Archives at Kew, to see if they can provide just a section of the ORB for particular dates, rather than have to buy the whole years' record and possibly find there's no relevant info. (Some of it can be done on-line now, rather than personal visit, but the documents are sent by mail, as paper copies.) At least I've now established the true identity of HM-B, after the confusing photo captions in different books, although Bob only flew this a couple of times, and not in combat (if it was the same HM-B that is!).
Anyway, once the painting is done, I have to wait until the SEAC roundel decals arrive, which I'm told should be despatched next Wednesday, and the code letters will have to be hand -painted (once I settle on a colour, either MSG, Sky or the pale blue, depending on code letter), as there aren't any decals around in the right sizes. Also got to make the display base - and there's only two months left in the GB - which soon flies by as we all know!
Oops! Forgot to add - have a very merry Christmas and a boozy - doh! happy, I meant happy, New Year!

 

[Wurger]

Brilliant ,Terry. Great work so far.

 

[Airframes]

Thank you my friend. I hope to get some more done tomorrow - was going out tonight, but too stiff and tired, so going for a lie down for a while, then maybe continue later tonight.

 

[T Bolt]

You're really making progress Terry! Great work! And have a great Christmas!

 

[MaxCamps]

Its looking fantastic Terry - mind blowing detail!! We wish you a happy Christmas New Year!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks very much Glenn and Max, I try to get things right, although some things could be better.
Haven't got any more done - yet - couldn't seem to wake up today. Hopefully get a lot more done tonight, and maybe get the first paint on tomorrow.

 

[Airframes]

It's now just about ready for painting, although there are a few small areas which need cleaning and tidying, which will be done once everything has had time to fully set.
PIC 1. A trial fit of the gun bay covers showed that, although they are an excellent,tight fit, there's a tendency for them to sit low in the bays, leaving a step. So, pieces of plastic card have been cemented onto the bay walls, to support the covers once in place.
PIC 2. The gun bay covers in place, along with the cannon fairings and stub fairings. The wing fuel tank filler has also been engraved.
PIC 3.The gaps in the wing tip joints have been filled with stretched sprue, sanded down, and engraved to represent the thin metal cover strip. The wing tip navigation lights have also been drilled out, and will be coloured and glazed after painting the model.
PIC 4. The broad-chord rudder has been fitted, slightly off-set, and the tail planes fitted, with the joints sealed with PVA. The control surfaces and trim tabs have been re-defined by light engraving with a scalpel. I was prepared for some work here, after Andy's timely warning about the tail planes, but, apart from the locating tabs needing a little sanding, the fit was fine, with no evidence of a 'step' or mis-alignment.
PIC 5. Rather than have a plain, bare cockpit sill, a canopy runner has been added to the starboard side, from stretched sprue, and will be cleaned up once fully set.
PICS 6 and 7. Construction complete, with the exception of the 'sticky out' bits, and ready for clean-up, and then masking, before spraying the first coat of paint.
The entire model will be given a coat or two of Medium Sea Grey, the underside colour, which will also act as a primer for the upper surfaces.
From what I've discovered to date, the code letters were normally either white, 'Sky', or Medium Sea Grey, with some later MkVIIIs having the letters in the same 'Off White' (actually a pale blue) as the centres of the SEAC roundels. After studying the few clear photos available of MkVIIIs from 136 Squadron, the code letters appear to be a different, slightly darker tone compared to other SEAC squadrons and, although there is evidence of at least one of the Squadron's Spits having pale blue codes, I believe the rest were in Medium Sea Grey. (The tones are too dark for either white or 'Sky', and not dark enough for the pale blue).
I've searched for suitable code letter decals, even considering 1/72nd scale, but the proportions and dimensions are not suitable to match the small code letters used on Spits in SEAC at this time. Therefore, the Medium Sea Grey base colour will be masked with Tamiya masking tape, cut in strips to the required dimensions for the code letters, and the camouflage sprayed over the masks. Hopefully, this will produce the desired code letters - my hands now find it difficult to hand-paint the letters, especially in this small size (bl**dy arthritis!).
That's it for now folks, all being well, I should have some more done tomorrow, and some pics posted. Thanks once again for your interest.

 

[Wayne Little]

Lookin' good Terry!

 

[Airframes]

Thanks Wayne.

 

[ozhawk40]

Good one T, it's looking great!

 

[Airframes]

Cheers mate !

 

[imalko]

With Wayne and Peter here. Great work Terry.