Finished – Spitfire, after 2 years. Airfix Content

You all asked for an update 😉

Whilst being a nurse for a recovering patient and getting quite bored, I decided to finish the job 🙂

Old Thread

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/i-just-bought-a-supermarine-spitfire-mkla-omg

Finished product…

Spitfire by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

Spitfire by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

IMG_20150227_214109 by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

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Really nice, but would paint in the canopy frame and since you’ve done such a good job I think it deserves the aerial “string” replaced with something you haven’t played conkers with.
Like the soot round the gun ports, nice touch

Thanks.

I’ll look out for some better string for the aerial. Forgot about the canopy… I’ll finish that in the next two years 😉 Probably scared about getting glue on the plastic..like when I was a kid.

I also forgot how tiny this model is and it’s bits and coupled with crap eyesight.. still great fun though 🙂

Nice one. Don’t use string for the Aerial. Cut up a spare bit of the plastic sprue that the bits were originally fastened to. Set fire to the end, get it molten and blow out the flame then dab the VERY HOT AND STICKY molten plastic end on some thing you dont mind burning and then pull away. The result is a thin length of plastic that works well for rigging, wires and the like.
You can vary how thin the plastic is with a bit of practice.

1:48 is a much easier scale to work with if your eyesight is anything like mine.

I tend to give mine a coat of clear gloss before doing the decals, then a coat of clear Matt afterwards for military models. Helps the decals settle into the panel lines and avoids them showing up all shiny

Nice result though. Looks like airfix have improved their game, their original 1:72 Spitfire was awful

Sounds like a good method – I’d be tempted just to use a bit of fishing line.

Did you know that the numbers are different side for side…. 🙂

the melted spar is good as it glues easily (no idea if filament would)

I’m going to use a strand of the GF’s hair 🙂

Defo going practice on some spru stretching as well 🙂

Yeah melted spar – also great for aerials on Jeeps! 🙂

Very nice

I’m going to use a strand of the GF’s hair

Defo going practice on some spru stretching as well

Best use the ones from her noggin, radio aerials aren’t supposed to be short and curly 🙂

Melted sprue is the industry standard material for things like antenna wires, rigging, etc. A mate is really into building models of tanks, the more obscure, the better. He’s built one tracked vehicle which has two little mast things on the front bumpers so that the driver can see the corners, so he used brass wire with little spherical blobs of silver on the top.
As a goldsmith, he can do stuff like that!
He’s built another, I think it’s either an Italian or Japanese tank, not too sure, but he’s scratch-built the entire interior, because he’s keeping the turret hatch open, the detail is incredible; the damn thing’s small enough to sit on my hand! 😯
Nice work on the Spit, rt, tricky to do fine detail at 1:72.

Nice. Now do a Messerschmidt. And then you’ll have to do a Hurricane. And then a Heinkel…

Fine cotton might also do for the aerial. I never really got on with stretched sprue.

if you can’t manage the sprue stretching trick, you can also buy very fine plastic ‘rod’ which might do the trick on larger scales (or shorter aerials!)

here’s a 109 I did a while back

and here’s a nice 1:35 M18 Hellcat

you will of course notice that neither of them has any stretched sprue…

Nice 🙂

Few years back took FIL to see this TR9 at Goodwood. He was shot down by a FW 190 and crash-landed his in France. First time he’d sat in one since. Pretty special day.

DSC_0044 by Jamze[/url], on Flickr

Boultbee(B) 2012_1132 by Jamze[/url], on Flickr

Yours is nicer than mine . The canopy seems to fit better. One question though why did the gun residue miss the red paint.

The red bits on the wings were actually patches of tape. This was put over the gun openings to keep out water vapour, as this might condense, freeze and stop the guns from working. So it would be replaced after each time the guns have fired.

Brilliant you learn something every day ….so looking at the model why no residue on the tape? This from the boy who builds models to amuse his toddler and keeps taking them down from over his bed to tweek a bit.

Built that same model up with my dad, about 35 years ago.

Brings back some memories. Think that may have been when I learnt to stick my tongue out when concentrating.

EZ-Line is the best stuff to use for the aerial wires and what not. comes in multiple colours and two thicknesses and is immensely stretchy. Doesn’t fray or anything.

Spitfire and Hurricane at our local farm…[/url]

Spitfire landing…

Nice work! This is the last Spitfire I built. I’m currently building a 1:24 which has taken the best part of 2 years, although I’m finally getting round to painting now that the momentum has built up, it should be finished in the next 6 months!

Here’s a Japanese and Romanian bf109 too:

on 72nd I never bothered with stretched sprue of filament, you never see it, and anything you managed would end up looking over scale anyway.

Thanks for all the comments and suggestions above :-))

I just tried some sprue stretching with mixed results.

However, I just tried a human hair between the tape dispenser and a stapler here on the desk and it works a treat IMO.

Photo later.

me109 next I think 🙂 and I already got a Revell P51b Mustang to complete which also 2 years old, at the same scale as well.

For some reason I thought this was going to be a triumph spitfire! Nice work. (Looks balefully wistfully at Airfix TR4A still in box)

This is fishing line fixed with superglue and painted . It is a right pain to do a lot but for a single span it should produce a nice control wire. You do have to wait for one end to set before fixing the other then hold under slight tension while the other sets.

Yes but how far will it fly when you throw out out the top floor window?

EZ Line, it seems very good from having played with it a bit, albeit a slightly different use case.

Human Hair option 🙂

Spitfire Aerial – Human Hair by SGMTB[/url], on Flickr

My 10 year old got one for Christmas, so we made it together. First modelling I’ve done in 30 odd years* – I tried very hard to let him do most of it 😉

* Not so secretly hoping he gets a taste for it – really enjoyed it 🙂

my boy and me are making models now, we started when he was seven, nine now. Planes are good, but fiddly, we do Armourfast tanks, he can pretty much do all of that and paint it too, no windows, or defined lines.

Great looking models! Thanks for sharing

really good thread

Jamze, the second photo is a beauty, it really tells a story.

Nice work, we should have a specific airfix thread on here.

Brilliant you learn something every day ….so looking at the model why no residue on the tape?

The tape was replaced every time the guns were fired, the wings were not, so the wings got a build-up of soot, the tape didn’t.

PSA: Aldi doing starter kits at the minute for a fiver. Got one and spent a couple of hours with the lad building a Curtiss Tomahawk (he’s only five so not sure he’s got the attention span just yet!).