Tamiya's New Spitfire Mk I N3200 of 19 Squadron

[Crimea_River]

Sure is and thanks Darryl and all others who commented. I've repainted the IP carefully to get rid of that awful sparkle and can attend to many, but not all of the suggestions. The lime green square mods won't be done though as the knob is simply a blob of glue that dries as it sees fit and so tiny that it can't be modified. The body of the unit was moulded to the IP but I enhanced it by adding the lever and tubing. It's there on both the N3200 and P9374 pits shown earlier so I took this to be authentic.

 

[Crimea_River]

Carrying on with the pit, the control column also needs work. Tamiya provided no real detail defining the cables down the front of the column and, surprisingly, left off the brake handle.

After adding the cables and brake handle, I glued the column in place and attended to most of the other things Darryl noted above. In addition to not fixing the landing lamp lever knob, I didn't go with the burnt orange colour on the two gauges as I didn't think I could pull that off on such a small scale. The red that is there is actually part of the instrument decal. The rest of the suggestions by Darryl are done.

Apologies for the fuzzy images. I should get off my lazy butt and set up my SLR again. Thanks for looking.

 

[Wurger]

 

[Tony Hill]

Stunning work Andy!!! Very nice looking unit.

 

[fubar57]

Agreed

 

[Airframes]

Agreed - very nicely done Andy.

 

[Gnomey]

Lovely work so far Andy!

 

[javlin]

Looking very Nice Andy! Kevin

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks very much gentlemen. The next pics were taken with the SLR so should have less shake and more depth of field.

Frame 8 has been slipped into place and the piping from the hand pump has been routed:

Here's frame 11 with the seat painted and the lap belts now glued in.

Now, I've been reading about the armour plates and the timing of their introduction. According to the late Edgar brooks, the head and seat armour were introduced on the factory production lines as mods 140 and 146 on February 6, 1940. Tamiya supplies only the head armour and says to leave it off for this particular aircraft. This jives with the restored bird BUT, the restoration has included the seat back armour. Sooooo, the question is, should I be putting in the back armour? Given that N3200 was already in service well before the factory introduction of the armour, would it have been added in the field and, if so, was the detail different so that you didn't have to remove the seat?

Anyway, I finished off the starboard side wall by adding the remaining tubing, or what will be seen of it, and also some placards made up of spare bits of stencil decals.

Finally, here's a nice touch by Tamiya in which they provided the outer gun muzzles which can be seen in some photos. I drilled out the ends a bit.

Thanks for checking in.

 

[Airframes]

Nice work Andy.
As regards the seat and head armour, I'm not sure for this particular aircraft, and I don't think the cockpit area is visible enough in pics of it on the beach in 1940. That said, and from memory, without checking references, I believe armour started to be retro-fitted, around April / May 1940, to aircraft in service, and as far as I know, the restoration is extremely accurate in all details - adding the armour would probably be acceptable.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. All of the beach pics are inconclusive as they either have people in or around the seat or show the aircraft after it has been stripped. I'd actually rather NOT have to add the armour as it's hard to fish int there now as the seat's been attached to the frame. Here's another quote from Edgar Brooks that I found after I posted the question:

" The head armour was added in February 1940, but, due to the Hurricanes in France getting priority, the Spitfires didn't get it behind the seat until after Dunkirk, with those airfields nearest the Channel first."

That said, this colourized picture posted on Pinterest shows what appears to be the head armour, though the padded rest is missing:

 

[Airframes]

Yep, it has the head armour, as I expected. That should make life easier for you then fit the head armour, omit the seat armour.

 

[Wayne Little]

Real Nice Andy....

 

[Wurger]

 

[nsmekanik]

Looks good Andy

 

[Tony Hill]

Nice work ... oh...but seat cushion needs to be a very dark black/greenish/brownish colour for early, not red brown.


Hmm.... Armour. A vexed question. One of the problems with Edgar's research (and I had the greatest respect for him)was that he tended to assume that if a modification was documented on a date, that it was applied on and after that date. Unfortunately subsequent documentation that has been found and also testing of photographic evidence etc. doesn't provide any consistent evidence to that effect (and plenty the contrary). I think he came to realise that later on, particularly regarding the SRCO.

And so to armour for N3200.

The above shows a "possible" range of dates of between 9/5/40 and 7/2/40. Great stuff!

BUT.

Mod 146 (and Mod 140, the fixed parts) were advanced in Ministry LMC Meeting minute numbers 64 and 65 on 10/11/39 . Each of those went through different other processes on 6 different dates in January between them and finally were "cleared " for action on the 6th Feb 1940!!!

Both N3200 and P9374 rebuilds have rear seat armour but not head armour.

If you look at the photo below, you can see that there is definitely no head armour (the lightening holes of Frame 11 are clearly visible), and somewhere I have a photo of P9374 that shows similar. Great, decided?

Nope! Because you will also notice that the headrest is missing...so this photo is actually great evidence that there WAS a head armour plate that has been removed, as in that case IT would have the head cushion on it.

So, you pays yer money and takes yer chances....

Not to forget either that BOTH of those aircraft were no doubt MANUFACTURED without armour, so there is no need to include it unless you specifically want to represent it at the date of loss or shortly before.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks again for the excellent feedback Darryl. A couple of things.

1. In step 2) viii) of your posted mod it says that the headrest is to be re-secured to the armour plate. It seems to be commonly accepted (and you repeated the same) that once the armour was in place, no headrest would be present. If you look at your second period photo with pilot in seat, there is both back armour and head armour, and there's also the headrest.

2. You say that the colourized pic I posted shows "that there is definitely no head armour (the lightening holes of Frame 11 are clearly visible)". I'm not sure I agree with that. There are only two features that look like holes in frame 11 in that picture and these could be the knurled nuts. There would be more holes visible if there was no armour plate there.

Thanks for the info on the cushion colour. I will fix that but remain undecided on the armour. I do want to represent N3200 with the black and white undersides so could make it without the armour for January 1940.

 

[Airframes]

I agree, it definitely looks like head armour in the pic on the beach.
It's very possible / probable that when head armour was retro-fitted, the head rest did not come with the armour plate kit, relying on the existing head rest to be modified to fit. This was probably not a straightforward job, if at all even possible, or worthwhile, to do at unit level.
When head armour became 'standard', fitted at the factory, I'm assuming that this was supplied and fitted as a complete unit, including the head rest.
As we know, from the later models of the Mk.IX onwards, the head rest was not normally fitted, possibly being deemed as superfluous, and / or as a time and weight saving measure.

 

[Crimea_River]

Thanks Terry. If you read the mod that Darryl posted, it clearly indicates that the existing headrest is to be reused. The mounting plate for the headrest on frame 11 is to be removed and a new mounting plate added to the armour plate. The existing cushion is then attached to the new mounting plate on the armour.

 

[Airframes]

Yep. didn't have my reading glasses when i first read it !