Spitfire Mk IX Tamiya - w.i.p.

[Wurger]

You'r welcome guys. Glad I helped.

I think Terry has covered this fully.However the ICM kit includes both blisters forboth C and E variants as memo serves. As It was mentined above you can use these aftermarket parts made of rasin. But the easier way can be to make these blisters consisting of two parts. One part the plate of the gun bay covering and the bulge. The gun hatch plate should be bent according to the airfoils ( upper surface of the area of a the wing) curvature.And of curse , of the correct shape looking from above.. The blister can be made of solid piece of plastic using a file and sand paper for shaping. ALso it can be heat-moulded like Terry said. The both parts can be put together.And voila.

BTW if you are going to make these gun bays open the heat-moulding for the bulges is very good idea.Because you will have to make holes of the blister shape in the hatches. If you want to show undersides of the covering certainly.

 

[al49]

Hi,
firstly I must say that, besides the very good help received from you and after I did my copy of the Hispano cannons and the gun-bay covers for "E" type wing, I decided to revert to "C" wings.

This is because I was afraid to damage the very crispy details of under-wing panels, that I glued in place in order to be able to arrange the gun bays.

I also put together the fuselage, rudder and stabilizers. as you can see the need for putty will be very minimum.

Lastly I decided to replace wing-tip light with new one made from stretch clear sprue painted on the backside following a very nice technique I found on this forum.

The second picture shows the light almost positioned; of course it will be put in place and glued on the last minute.
Any comment or suggestion on how to improve further is very welcome.
My next step, besides completing the assembly, is to decide the livery of the aircraft.
I hope British friends will forgive me, but I decided to do an Italian aircraft of post WW2 period.
I would like to do a camo one, also to show that Italian roundels were, in most cases, just overposed to the Englis ones, but I find very difficult to find good fotos to use as reference.
In facts some months after being taken in charge, Italian Spitfires were repainted silver and this is the other option I have.
Alberto

 

[al49]

Just to complete the above statement I post two examples

Unfortunately MK805, a restored aeroplane we have in Vigna Di Valle Museum, has an "E" type wing.

 

[Heinz]

Thats looking awesome! 8)

 

[B-17engineer]

Agreed sweet!

 

[Crimea_River]

Very nice!

 

[Airframes]

Very nice work Alberto, the cannons look really good.

 

[Wayne Little]

Nice work Alberto.....got to see one in the flesh today....up close and personal....this is a brilliant kit, no doubt about it...my friend Craig had one left.....I passed...for now. REALLY want to do Clive Caldwell's Mk.VIII if I'm gonna do a 1/32 Spitty!!

 

[Loiner]

I like all things Spity, and this looks like a great example. Great amount of detail, looking forward to seeing more.

 

[al49]

I was unhappy with myself because of my decision to revert to "C" wing, so I decided to forget any fear and try, I did it!
In the following photo you can see the new opening for spent cartridges and the divider:

I had already some .5 M2 machine-guns, so it was quick to assembly and paint them:

and here is how they look, just positioned with a bit of blue-tack:

Now the only visible rounds will be those going to the MG and I have to provide them, the 20 mm ones I will may be use for an other project
Having gone in this way, first I will have to make new cannon fairings (they were shorter and different in shape) but also the "E" wing meant that very likely the aircraft I'm going to replicate will have a gyro reflector gun sight, as can be seen in this picture:

So I assembled it as well and deleted the spare bulbs with their rack.

I will keep you informed on further developments
Cheers
Alberto

 

[javlin]

Some nice research and thought process there Albert keep at it.Cheers Kevin

 

[vikingBerserker]

 

[Crimea_River]

Looking great Alberto!

 

[Airframes]

Beautiful job Alberto.

 

[ozhawk40]

That is some great work there Alberto - well done!

Cheers

Peter

 

[javlin]

Anything happening here of late Al??inquiring minds want to know Cheers Kevin

 

[al49]

Anything happening here of late Al??inquiring minds want to know Cheers Kevin

Yes Kevin, I did some work. I hope to be able to post some pictures by the end of the day.
In the mean time I took my decision on the livery: I will do this:

It's the only Spitfire still existing in Italy and is preserved in the Vigna di Valle Museum.
It's a late production machine with "E" wings and, presumably with scissor type torque links.
Cheers
Alberto

 

[al49]

Yes Kevin, I did some work. I hope to be able to post some pictures by the end of the day.

Hi,
here I'm.

Wings, tail planes and rudder have been assembled. Landing gear it's almost ready while flaps and other items wait for painting.

And now some details

last two additions to the already complete engine came from reading the Tamiya booklet on how to assembly their kit.
It's funny that on pages 18 to 20 of this booklet are listed several corrections to the kit itself.

Now, besides a few little items still to be pre-assembled, I just have to wait for a few sunny days in order to be able to stay outside and start painting.
Any comments/suggestions are more then welcome.
Cheers
Alberto

 

[vikingBerserker]

Wow, that engine is tops!

 

[B-17engineer]

Oh my god...Sweet!!