Supermarine Spitfire LF.IX by Dan Vadas - FINISHED - Halinski - 1:33 scale - CARD

[Dan Vadas]

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

 

 

[Dan Vadas]

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

[Dan Vadas]

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

[druxey]

What you can't do with paper, Danny.... Very impressive work!

[TOM G]

wow !   you took that card stock kit to the blue max........ great work Dan.

[Old Collingwood]

Superb work danny  - what an amazing job.

 

OC.

[thibaultron]

Fantastic model!

[pontiachedmark]

Gidday Danny.

Fantastic work and an amazing level of detail.

The size of some of the parts is incredible.

Looking forward to your next build.

Wishing you all the best,

Mark.

[mtaylor]

It really is hard to believe that's card and paper, Danny.   Wonderful work.

[CDW]

A wonderful model with such fine attention to detail. Very impressive.

[Mark P]

It's amazing what skill and patience can do, starting with what is obviously a well-designed and made pile of sheets of cardboard.

 

Very well done indeed. An inspiring example. 

 

Taken together with Doris's wonderful card ship models, it is a continuing amazement what 3D masterpieces can be produced with a raw material which is, essentially, only two-dimensional.

 

Great work Dan!

[maaaslo]

Nice work Danny. One comment maybe. On the first page of the thread, a lot of pics dont show. Would you be able to reupload them so i too can admire?

[gjdale]

Congratulations on completing another fine model Danny. It looks superb.

[Mirabell61]

Wunderbar ! Danny

great work in card...

 

Nils

[Dan Vadas]

11 hours ago, maaaslo said:

Nice work Danny. One comment maybe. On the first page of the thread, a lot of pics dont show. Would you be able to reupload them so i too can admire?

They are all OK on my computer Pav. Perhaps you have a problem with your computer's Operating System. Sometimes if your Internet connection is running a bit slow it can take some time to load the pics and they only come up as the link to them at first.

 

Does anyone else have a problem seeing all the pics?

 

Danny

[gjdale]

I’m seeing them all just fine Danny - seems like the problem is at Pav’s end.

[Louie da fly]

Beautiful work, Danny. A real pleasure.

 

Steven

 

[tkay11]

Thanks a lot, Danny, for the meticulous log showing the individual steps and methods. I also appreciate your noting the time it took for several of the steps. In all a real help to others, as well as a good reminder of the attraction and skills held by card modelling which differ so much from those of wood modelling. I find I have to have a very different mindset when approaching card modelling and your log demonstrates perfectly that mindset.

 

Tony

[Canute]

Beautiful work on one of my favorite aircraft, Danny.

 

And I had no issues seeing all your photos.

[amateur]

Oops,  I missed the updates on this one. I made that up just now.

those Halinsky's are unbelievable.  Another masterpiece!

I promise: I will follow the next one more closely

 

Jan

Edited May 5, 2019 by amateur

[popeye the sailor]

I see all the pictures as well.........apparently I wasn't getting the notifications that you were posting though.   I've been in the forum for a while now....all the logs that I've been following have been highlighted..........but not this one     don't mind my other question.....after seeing the engine compartment,  there's no way you'd be able to do it.  I shouldn't speak too loudly......knowing your level of experience,  you'd probably figure a way to do it   

    wonderful model.......the level of detail is through the roof!   your truly a master of card   

[lmagna]

No missing pictures here either, but like Denis and Jan I had no idea it was being built as no updates showed up until today when the entire build appeared out of nowhere as finished!

 

I have no experience with card models but this one looks very clean without some of the squared off edges so many card kits seem to have. I am pretty much certain that is as much a result of the skill used in building it as in the model design.  Great work Dan 

[JohnB40]

Very nice Danny....Looking forward to the Merlin build

[Richmond]

Great work Danny. Puts my current efforts on the Tamiya 1/72 spitfire to shame .

[Ras Ambrioso]

While browsing the forum I came upon your Spitfire build. Dan, I don't know what to say that other have already posted.  I am building boats now but I am a fanatic of aviation and the Spitfire is one of my favorites. I have never assembled a card model and your post is showing me what can be done for reality. I just put an order on E-bay for one of the Spitfire 5V from Halsenki. I will use your post as a guide. 

Excellent work, congratulations 

[popeye the sailor]

sadly,  the master of card has passed away,  but I'm sure he's smiling,  knowing that his logs live on  

[ccoyle]

On 4/12/2021 at 6:46 PM, Ras Ambrioso said:

I just put an order on E-bay for one of the Spitfire 5V from Halsenki. I will use your post as a guide. 

 

As popeye has pointed out, Dan passed away last year, but he was indeed a master of the card medium. As a card modeler myself, and having had mixed results with Halinski (all down to my abilities, not to any faults with the kits) I cannot stress enough: DO NOT start card modeling with a Halinski kit! Halinski are the 'gold standard' of card modeling, and their kits have a well-deserved reputation for detail and realism. But that detail and realism comes at a price -- Halinski kits are probably the most challenging kits on the market to assemble. When your Mk V kit arrives (which I also own a copy of), you will be dumbstruck when you see the number of parts in the kit, especially small parts. I would advise anyone starting out in card modeling to start simple -- there is a multitude of new skills to be learned, e.g. scoring, cutting, folding, rolling, etc. You don't even need to necessarily start with aircraft; the same skills are used for ships, architecture, etc. Spend some time looking around and you can even find plenty of free models (from reputable sources, of course) to build, allowing you to booger as many attempts as needed to get your skills down pat (we have a tutorial based on one such kit in our card modeling section). Then, you can try one or two models from publishers whose offerings are still nice but less complicated, e.g. Kartonowa Kolekcja.

 

Have some fun looking around at vendor websites to get an idea of what's available in card. A few of my favorites are:

 

Paper Shipwright

WAK

Orlik

GPM

 

Have fun!

[Ras Ambrioso]

Dan:

After I read your post I went and ordered a kit. Today it arrived. It is The Kartonomy Arsenal Spitfire Vb Trop. I assume that the "trop" indicates the tropical version of the Spitfire that fought in Africa. This model can be distinguished by the blunt air filter on the nose and the kaki camouflage paint. I think that this looses a little of the beauty of the Spitfire" slick nose but, I will go along with it.

 I am at awe. I have have built Spitfire models in 1/72 scale and I figured the 1/33 would be much larger. Well, it is larger but the details are microscopic. I see myself buying a new set of pincers and really sharp scalpel blades. I am still working on my Fifie but I will definitely try to start this beauty. As soon as I do, I will start a build post. I will be following your methodology because this is my first card model

[Ras Ambrioso]

Sorry about my last post. I didn't realize that Dan had passed away. My condolences. 

[Ras Ambrioso]

Just read you reply to me Chris and I will take you advise. Sorry about the confusion on my posting but I went directly to tell Dan about my purchase. Should have read yours first. Thanks for the advise. Wilco