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!