Dan Vadas

There are a few small details under the wings that are best fitted now before I attach the wings to the fuselage. The kit gives you the option of either gluing a flat piece on or making and fitting a rounded one :

 
Naturally I opted for the rounded ones  :


 
I also made the intake scoop, even though it gets fitted after the wings are on. This uses a very small framework, which would have been nice to have as laser-cut but I had to make it from laminated card - lots of rather difficult cutting :





 
Danny

I've finished skinning the wings. They turned out very well, even around the wheel wells  :



 
I had to do a little bit of painting on the seams where some white card was showing. I used Acrylic paint mixed up on a palette to get the right shades :

 
Next I fitted the radiators which I'd made earlier. They were a very tight fit, but after some minor trimming to the framing they fitted very well. After looking at this pic I see I will need to do a bit of minor touching up on a couple of edges :


 
Danny

The wheels are laminated together from various diameters of card. Resin wheels are available for this model, but I didn't find that out until after I'd ordered the kit, so I'm going to have a go at making these ones. No real instructions on how to go about the process were with the kit :

 
Cutting the outer edge using a scalpel with a chopping motion, one small piece at a time :

 
The inner edge was cut out using a modified flat blade Xacto chisel. I have 3 of these - 2.0mm, 1.0mm an 0.2mm which are used depending on the radius of the cut. I used the 1.0mm for this part :

 
The axle cover is 2.0mm in diameter. I could have simply punched it out of the sheet, but instead I decided to show a bit of a trick on how I handle small parts when cutting them. Note the "handle" I've left to make it easier to hold :


 
The sidewall has a pronounced curve. I shaped it into the printed part using a 8mm washer which has a rounded inner edge and a piece of 2.5mm brass rod :


 
Rounding off the "tread" area starts by trimming with a scalpel to get most of the waste off. This is followed by sanding using 150 grit paper on a sanding stick, and finishing with 400 grit :



 
A coat of Sanding Sealer was applied and sanded down again with a 1000-grit flexible pad, then a mix of dark grey acrylic paint finishes the job. This pic was taken just after the paint was applied - the roughness disappeared when the paint dried :

 
Danny

The landing flaps have a lot of bracing ribs attached. This is the half that goes under the wings themselves :

 
Next step is to make and attach the wheel wells. The smallest parts on this model are the gussets inside them (27j), they took some careful handling :





 
The wheel wells ready to glue to the wing. This must be done before the lower skin is glued in as there is a bit of trimming to be done to some of the framing - they are a very tight fit :

 
Before gluing the wells in I thought it might be a good idea to make the wheel struts in case there were any problems with fitting them later. They actually fitted perfectly  :

 
The legs have a number of different diameter steps. A 0.8mm wire in the centre gives added strength to them. The larger wire is for the axle :


 
Danny

I made the horizontal fins and elevators next so I could fit them together. I'm leaving them off the fuselage until I have finished with the wings :



 
Some of the parts are tiny, but there are smaller ones coming up later :
 
I started the wings by gluing the widest pieces to the central brace :

 
More pics of the wing framing :



 
Skinning the wings starts with the middle piece :

 
Followed by the upper skins :

 
The fuselage with the wings temporarily in place. They aren't glued together yet :

 
Danny

I wouldn't have room to fit it Pav, but it would make a nice "stand alone" model to display alongside this one . Thanks for the offer.
 
And these pics show what I mean - here's the engine compartment sub-assembly :


 
Start of the outer covering of the fuselage :


 
The tail fin is the next stage :


 
I'm building my kit a bit differently to Halinski's method, I don't know yet whether that is a good idea or not . The kit says to glue all the fuselage sections together as a unit before attaching to the cabin section. Due to the use of the tiny tabs on the joining strips I thought it might be a better idea to build a couple of sections of inner framing for support instead, as this would strengthen the model significantly and help prevent any possibility of accidental crushing. This method is not without it's own problems - accuracy is vital :

 
The Rudder is probably easier to fit to the tail fin before attaching to the rest of the model :



 
The skinned fuselage :


 
Danny

After fitting the small details the model is FINISHED  . It was a very enjoyable kit to build, and I'm going to make the Merlin engine next as a "stand-alone" build to be displayed alongside the plane :















 
Danny

I also didn't know about the pre-molded canopy when I ordered the kit, so everything is made from 0.25mm acetate. Gluing this stuff is almost impossible without the right glue. Fortunately Loctite make one that actually works  . It comes with an activator which must be applied before the super-glue :

 
To shape the curved parts I clamped them to some scrap timber and used my heat gun on low setting to CAREFULLY bend them permanently. A couple of goes were needed before I found the right amount of heat without melting the pieces :


 
The canopy frames have an inside and an outside. The Loctite glue worked well, but a lot of care was needed to align the pieces properly. The excess was trimmed off after the glue dried :

 
The windscreen :

 
Before fitting the screen I had to fit the bomb-sight :

 
All done :



 
Danny

The completed tail-wheel which will be left off until later :

 
The two wing-mounted bombs and their mounts, another couple of day's work :



 
The two "propellors" are rather small and almost invisible when fitted, but why not  :

 
The mounts fitted. A few wire braces to be made and fitted :


 
One of the bombs fitted :


 
Danny
 
 

There are quite a few small details left to make. A lot of these will be left off until they are safe to fit. The radio aerial :



 
The wing cannons. These are rolled around a 0.5mm wire for strength :



 
The propellor and spinner took nearly two days to make :



 
The blades are reinforced with a paper tube wrapped around a wire and shaped to fit :





 
Danny

The air scoop took me most of a day to make. Some of those joins look bad in the pics, but a lot better in real life. I'll touch them up a bit when I've finished everything else :


 
The wing fillets did fit perfectly  . They were also not too difficult to fit. I used toothpicks to hold them out from the fuselage while I applied glue :


 
There is a small fillet on the leading edge of the right wing which has a tube fitted (I don't know what it's actually for). Here's how I fitted it. The brass wire locates it in the panel while gluing :



 
It's time to fit the first half of the exhaust pipes. The outer ones will be fitted later to avoid damage :



 
Danny

Now came the time to fit the wings and fuselage together. This looked rather scary when I first dry-fitted them, as the fit looked WAY off. However there are fillets to be added later between them which will cover the gaps perfectly. I cut these out and tried them before applying any glue to make sure everything was in fact OK - which it should be (we'll see ):





 
Danny

There are a few small details under the wings that are best fitted now before I attach the wings to the fuselage. The kit gives you the option of either gluing a flat piece on or making and fitting a rounded one :

 
Naturally I opted for the rounded ones  :


 
I also made the intake scoop, even though it gets fitted after the wings are on. This uses a very small framework, which would have been nice to have as laser-cut but I had to make it from laminated card - lots of rather difficult cutting :





 
Danny

I've finished skinning the wings. They turned out very well, even around the wheel wells  :



 
I had to do a little bit of painting on the seams where some white card was showing. I used Acrylic paint mixed up on a palette to get the right shades :

 
Next I fitted the radiators which I'd made earlier. They were a very tight fit, but after some minor trimming to the framing they fitted very well. After looking at this pic I see I will need to do a bit of minor touching up on a couple of edges :


 
Danny

The wheels are laminated together from various diameters of card. Resin wheels are available for this model, but I didn't find that out until after I'd ordered the kit, so I'm going to have a go at making these ones. No real instructions on how to go about the process were with the kit :

 
Cutting the outer edge using a scalpel with a chopping motion, one small piece at a time :

 
The inner edge was cut out using a modified flat blade Xacto chisel. I have 3 of these - 2.0mm, 1.0mm an 0.2mm which are used depending on the radius of the cut. I used the 1.0mm for this part :

 
The axle cover is 2.0mm in diameter. I could have simply punched it out of the sheet, but instead I decided to show a bit of a trick on how I handle small parts when cutting them. Note the "handle" I've left to make it easier to hold :


 
The sidewall has a pronounced curve. I shaped it into the printed part using a 8mm washer which has a rounded inner edge and a piece of 2.5mm brass rod :


 
Rounding off the "tread" area starts by trimming with a scalpel to get most of the waste off. This is followed by sanding using 150 grit paper on a sanding stick, and finishing with 400 grit :



 
A coat of Sanding Sealer was applied and sanded down again with a 1000-grit flexible pad, then a mix of dark grey acrylic paint finishes the job. This pic was taken just after the paint was applied - the roughness disappeared when the paint dried :

 
Danny

The landing flaps have a lot of bracing ribs attached. This is the half that goes under the wings themselves :

 
Next step is to make and attach the wheel wells. The smallest parts on this model are the gussets inside them (27j), they took some careful handling :





 
The wheel wells ready to glue to the wing. This must be done before the lower skin is glued in as there is a bit of trimming to be done to some of the framing - they are a very tight fit :

 
Before gluing the wells in I thought it might be a good idea to make the wheel struts in case there were any problems with fitting them later. They actually fitted perfectly  :

 
The legs have a number of different diameter steps. A 0.8mm wire in the centre gives added strength to them. The larger wire is for the axle :


 
Danny

I made the horizontal fins and elevators next so I could fit them together. I'm leaving them off the fuselage until I have finished with the wings :



 
Some of the parts are tiny, but there are smaller ones coming up later :
 
I started the wings by gluing the widest pieces to the central brace :

 
More pics of the wing framing :



 
Skinning the wings starts with the middle piece :

 
Followed by the upper skins :

 
The fuselage with the wings temporarily in place. They aren't glued together yet :

 
Danny

After fitting the small details the model is FINISHED  . It was a very enjoyable kit to build, and I'm going to make the Merlin engine next as a "stand-alone" build to be displayed alongside the plane :















 
Danny

I wouldn't have room to fit it Pav, but it would make a nice "stand alone" model to display alongside this one . Thanks for the offer.
 
And these pics show what I mean - here's the engine compartment sub-assembly :


 
Start of the outer covering of the fuselage :


 
The tail fin is the next stage :


 
I'm building my kit a bit differently to Halinski's method, I don't know yet whether that is a good idea or not . The kit says to glue all the fuselage sections together as a unit before attaching to the cabin section. Due to the use of the tiny tabs on the joining strips I thought it might be a better idea to build a couple of sections of inner framing for support instead, as this would strengthen the model significantly and help prevent any possibility of accidental crushing. This method is not without it's own problems - accuracy is vital :

 
The Rudder is probably easier to fit to the tail fin before attaching to the rest of the model :



 
The skinned fuselage :


 
Danny

After fitting the small details the model is FINISHED  . It was a very enjoyable kit to build, and I'm going to make the Merlin engine next as a "stand-alone" build to be displayed alongside the plane :















 
Danny

I also didn't know about the pre-molded canopy when I ordered the kit, so everything is made from 0.25mm acetate. Gluing this stuff is almost impossible without the right glue. Fortunately Loctite make one that actually works  . It comes with an activator which must be applied before the super-glue :

 
To shape the curved parts I clamped them to some scrap timber and used my heat gun on low setting to CAREFULLY bend them permanently. A couple of goes were needed before I found the right amount of heat without melting the pieces :


 
The canopy frames have an inside and an outside. The Loctite glue worked well, but a lot of care was needed to align the pieces properly. The excess was trimmed off after the glue dried :

 
The windscreen :

 
Before fitting the screen I had to fit the bomb-sight :

 
All done :



 
Danny

The completed tail-wheel which will be left off until later :

 
The two wing-mounted bombs and their mounts, another couple of day's work :



 
The two "propellors" are rather small and almost invisible when fitted, but why not  :

 
The mounts fitted. A few wire braces to be made and fitted :


 
One of the bombs fitted :


 
Danny
 
 

There are quite a few small details left to make. A lot of these will be left off until they are safe to fit. The radio aerial :



 
The wing cannons. These are rolled around a 0.5mm wire for strength :



 
The propellor and spinner took nearly two days to make :



 
The blades are reinforced with a paper tube wrapped around a wire and shaped to fit :





 
Danny

The air scoop took me most of a day to make. Some of those joins look bad in the pics, but a lot better in real life. I'll touch them up a bit when I've finished everything else :


 
The wing fillets did fit perfectly  . They were also not too difficult to fit. I used toothpicks to hold them out from the fuselage while I applied glue :


 
There is a small fillet on the leading edge of the right wing which has a tube fitted (I don't know what it's actually for). Here's how I fitted it. The brass wire locates it in the panel while gluing :



 
It's time to fit the first half of the exhaust pipes. The outer ones will be fitted later to avoid damage :



 
Danny

Now came the time to fit the wings and fuselage together. This looked rather scary when I first dry-fitted them, as the fit looked WAY off. However there are fillets to be added later between them which will cover the gaps perfectly. I cut these out and tried them before applying any glue to make sure everything was in fact OK - which it should be (we'll see ):





 
Danny