Spitfire VB 1/48

[Jock Tamson]

Hi, here is my latest completion Airfix Spitfire VB. It represents a Malta based aircraft from 229 squadron.

Airfix's kit looks good when it's finished but suffers from fussy engineering. The undercarriage in particular caused me fits as the connection points for the main oleos is tiny and quite fragile.

Anyway I got it finished in the end, and am relatively pleased with how it turned out. It's built out of the box with no extras, and is brush painted.

Thanks for looking, cheers Greg

 

[SaparotRob]

Awesome!

 

[36feet10inches]

That looks fantastic, great job. You're bang on about the poor oleo join though.

 

[rochie]

Very nice, just about to start that kit, was wondering about the main gear legs !

 

[Snautzer01]

Very well done!.

 

[fubar57]

Very nice and with the others about the landing gear

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Greg.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

Great build Greg and your hand painting came out perfect.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Colin L]

Very nice!
When I built that kit, I cemented the gear leg and the upper (trunion) parts together first, drilled down halfway to take a .020" brass wire, then cut them apart above the top flange, and cemented the top part into the wing solidly.
Made installing and aligning the gear legs easy after painting, with an invisible joint.

 

[36feet10inches]

That is an excellent solution, C Colin L

On my current Airfix Vb I glued to legs on and masked them prior to painting. Inevitably they both snapped off along the way, so the last act of the build will be (hopefully) sticking them back on at the correct 77 degree angle.

 

[Vic Balshaw]

OMG that is a very weak point of construction all it looks like is a locator pin and it also it looks as though the designers were relying on the glue to take all the strain of the model standing on it's legs. Easy solution as you have shown Tony.

 

[36feet10inches]

Easy solution as you have shown Tony.

Not my solution, Vic, it's C Colin L 's - I'm not nearly so accomplished!

I do think it's a bit of a letdown on the part of Airfix though... I'm thinking more of the casual modeller who might fancy building a Spitfire, shells out for the (not inexpensive) kit and then just follows the instructions. If anyone imagines that join is going to hold with just a smear of cement...

 

[fubar57]

Did the wire thang with one of my Airfix Spitfires as well. Three more in the stash

 

[36feet10inches]

Did the wire thang with one of my Airfix Spitfires as well. Three more in the stash

I have a bunch of recent Airfix Is and Vs which I presume are all moulded the same way. Also three of their XIVs, I don't know if it's an issue with these or not. What I don't have is a hand drill, disappeared during a house move!

 

[SaparotRob]

Gremlins.

 

[Crimea_River]

A fine looking model Greg.

 

[Gnomey]

Good work!