My Spitfire factory: Zumbach's Spitfire Mk.Vb

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An early get-up, an hour's procrastination over a couple of coffees and I've summoned the courage to have a go at some engine oil leak staining... for a first go I'm reasonably happy with it. I put a few dots of black and dark brown oil paint around the back of the engine compartment, poined the model at the ceiling and dabbed it with lighter fluid, letting gravity do the job of wind on the real thing. A conscientious erk has wiped the landing light clean before the next sortie. Every time I have a go at a new technique it means that future builds will be that bit quicker because I'll be that bit braver!

oil.jpg
 
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Wow. You sure managed to get some heavy oil leaks. In modern times with a leak like that the kite would probably be red lined. But of course, this is war time, so well done. :D
 
That's a daunting list. I did a couple of those schemes. When you get to the Mk XIV VC-P, check out my thread on this one and note the spinner colour is red as opposed to Airfix's yellow depiction.
 
Crimea_River said:
That's a daunting list. I did a couple of those schemes. When you get to the Mk XIV VC-P, check out my thread on this one and note the spinner colour is red as opposed to Airfix's yellow depiction.
Click to expand...

Thanks for that - just had a blast through your build thread and it's very informative. I've tried in vain to find a pic of Lazy Lady V suggesting a red spinner, but if you've had eyes on one that's good enough for me!
 
A distinctive feature of EN951 (and Zumbach's two other Mk Vb's before it) was the custom extended rear view mirror. I've used the main mirror part from the kit, but scratch built the extended mount from 5 amp fuse wire. Sent me boss-eyed, it did.

mirror1.jpg


mirror2.jpg
 
Wurger said:
Actually the mirror was flat and attached with two supports made of the metal flat bars.

View attachment 710063

View attachment 710064
the source: malowanie samolotu Jana Zumbacha
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Actually that's BM144, the Vb flown by Zumbach before he got hold of EN951, which is the one I'm building. You can tell from the different "duck" artwork and the (fewer) kill markings. the mounts are quite different on the two aircraft - the BM144 one is markedly more "triangular", pinched at the top, whereas the EN951 had two parallel bars. There may also have been a short "brace" at the front of the base but that would've been a tiny piece of 5 amp fuse wire too far. ;)

(Either way you're probably right that the mirror was flatter, just that I used the little transparency and coloured it with silver Sharpie on the back before painting in an attempt to make it look "reflective")

Edit: correcting myself here: the second of your pics is BM144 (Zumbach's first Vb), the first one is EP594 (his second). Again, note difference in the ducks - baseball bat up, baseball bat down. The mirror mounts look so similar on the two that I'd almost bet it was taken off BM144 and put on EP594 when he switched planes. For EN951 he had a whole new mount built. I wonder what the reason for the extension was anyway?
 
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