Supermarine Spitfire Mk Vb by ccoyle - FINISHED - Halinski - 1/33 - CARD - aircraft flown by Jan Zumbach as commander of No. 303 Squadron RAF 1942

[ccoyle]

Ch. 10 Cockpit Exterior Skins

 

The first two exterior skins are on, though not without some issues. The aft section would simply not fit all the way 'round the fuselage, even though there were no gaps between the inner panels. Sanding the inner skins helped some, but did not completely alleviate the problem. I ended up with about a 1 mm gap along the underside that I had to fill in with some colored card stock. The glazing in the aft section is made from an overhead transparency sheet and glued in with canopy glue (yes, I got hold of some and, yes, it seems to bond paper and plastic tightly).  Sadly, I got some glue where it shouldn't have gone and wasn't able to clean it up entirely, but it looks okay from a distance, and it will be somewhat hidden by the Malcolm hood when that is eventually added.

 

 

After that bit was done, I glued the forward sub-structure together, here seen test-fitted to the cockpit section. You can see that it is quite robust.

 

 

'Till later!

[lmagna]

43 minutes ago, ccoyle said:

but it looks okay from a distance, and it will be somewhat hidden by the Malcolm hood when that is eventually added.

I blew it up quite a bit and still can't see the excess glue so it is either on the other side or is completely invisible and only you can see it. Looking great so far.

[BrianK]

Chris that looks fantastic! I use Krystal Klear from Microscale for canopy glue but Pacer and other are similar. I believe they are all in the PVA glue family like Elmer's but not quite the same..... might explain why they work well with paper too....

 

Brian

[ccoyle]

Ch. 11 Forward Fuselage

 

This next shot doesn't convey how much work went in to getting this section done. The upper forward fuselage is wrapped in three separate sections, two sides and a top. Before adding these, the sub-structure needed to be sanded, and although the frames did have laser-etched fairing marks on them, there was still some guesswork involved in getting the shape correct (and I won't know if I got everything truly correct until the lower skins are added). The real problem, though, is that the very first frame, the round one to which the propeller will eventually be fitted, was revealed during dry-fitting to stick out about 1 mm too far. I double-checked the diagrams and part numbers to make sure I hadn't gotten something wrong (I hadn't), then removed the offending frame. After removing most of its material, I glued it into the topside skin, then glued that down to the frames, followed by the two sides. I had to do some very slight trimming and filling, but overall I think the finished structure is okay.

 

[ccoyle]

I should add that confidence is high at the moment. My last Halinski effort, the Brewster B-239, never got past the cockpit stage, so this is already a big improvement.

[BrianK]

Continuing to look amazing Chris. What do you for "filling" on these particular model types.....

 

BrianK

[ccoyle]

Dilute white glue.

[ccoyle]

Ch. 12 Vertical Stabilizer

 

Perhaps somewhat counterintuitively, following the construction sequence given in the instructions takes us next to the opposite end of the model. Unlike some other kits, this one has the aft-most fuselage section and vertical stabilizer as a single assembly rather than having a separate stabilizer.

 

Parts . . .

 

. . . and done.

[Old Collingwood]

That cardboard look almost 3 dimentional  like the rivets are popping out  - amazing work Chris.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

11 hours ago, Old Collingwood said:

That cardboard look almost 3 dimentional  like the rivets are popping out  - amazing work Chris.

 

That I can take no credit for -- it is entirely due to the skill of the graphic artist who colored the model. These nicely weathered models can ruin one's appetite for kits that aren't thusly rendered. Ask me how I know. 😬

[ccoyle]

Ch. 13 Fuselage

 

Meh.

 

That was my feeling after completing this step. I got a bit too much of the starving cow effect for my liking, and my seams let me down a bit. It doesn't look too bad in the photo below, because I purposely showed only the better of the two sides. You may notice that the worst of the seam work appears near the bottom, and that's deliberate, for two reasons. First, the bottom -- obviously -- is the least-seen part of the aircraft. Second, some of the more unsightly parts will eventually disappear beneath the wing fairings. So, if any of the seams appeared to be a bit loose, I made the upper parts tight and let the lower sides be the victims.

 

 

 

BTW, if we think of the British roundel as the letter 'O', then the identification letters spell out the word 'DORF', which is German for 'village'. I have no idea if that has any cosmic significance. 🤔

[Old Collingwood]

Chris  I found this article on the actual crate.

 

OC.

 

https://wartimeni.com/article/aviation-incidents-in-ulster/supermarine-spitfire-bm144-bangor-co-down/

[Keith Black]

 Great find, OC!

[Old Collingwood]

27 minutes ago, Keith Black said:

 Great find, OC!

Thanks Keith.

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

Yep, this is among the more famous Spitfires -- been modeled oodles of times.

[BrianK]

Lots of choices with this famous aircraft, right Chris? For instance, does the kit have propeller variants? I think the Spitfire props had metal and wood variants and different lengths and blade widths.....

 

BrianK

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, BrianK said:

For instance, does the kit have propeller variants?

 

Although the Spitfire was produced in about five bazillion different marks, this kit depicts a particular aircraft at a particular point in time, so no optional parts. Other kits do sometimes have such options. I have a Fokker E.V kit that has optional parts for four different liveries, and I also have a Sopwith Pup kit that has two different liveries, each with different armament.

[ccoyle]

Ch. 14 Rudder

 

The rudder has been added. The Spitfire had only a single actuator for its rudder, mounted on the port side. On the starboard side is an actuator for the rudder trim tab. Also, the rudder should have a small navigation light; the kit has locator marks for it printed on the rudder, but provides no part for it. It is also shown on the diagrams, but without any part number.

 

 

Next up will be the horizontal stabilizers and elevators -- parts galore!

 

 

For anyone who is curious, the early marks of Spitfire differed primarily in their power plants, with newer marks of the Merlin providing increased horsepower resulting in greater aircraft performance. The three main variants of the Mk V were in turn based in the differences in their armament. The Mk Va kept the eight .303 Brownings of the earlier marks, the Mk Vb replaced four of the Brownings with a pair of 20 mm cannon whose size and ammunition drums necessitated some changes to the wing, and the Mk Vc introduced what was called the "universal wing", which could carry either combination of weapons. Both the Mk Vb and Mk Vc were produced in tropicalized versions, each characterized by having a prominent chin-mounted duct for the necessary dust filtration system.

 

Cheers!

[ccoyle]

Ch. 15 Small Triumphs

 

You know us modelers -- we take pride in even the smallest of achievements, whether it's pulling off a difficult task or adding an extra little touch to our models. Remember the missing navigation light I mentioned earlier? Here's it's scratch-built replacement:

 

Skills-wise, I wasn't particularly pleased with my work on the rudder. I got a little hasty and careless, and the rudder shows this (if you know where to look -- which I do). So, for the horizontal stabilizers, I told myself to slow down, work carefully, double-check all fits before gluing, and -- most importantly, don't use fingers to clamp flat surfaces glued over internal frames! 😬 And this is the result on the port-side horizontal stabilizer, shown with it's un-skinned starboard-side partner -- not a starving cow in sight. As my Hispano-Teutonic friends might say, "mucho besser!"

 

[amateur]

On 12/28/2021 at 4:13 PM, ccoyle said:

Ask me how I know. 

 

Nice model so far (I choose not to see your starving cows. Not nearly as starving as I breed them).

 

By the way, how do you know?

 

Jan

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, amateur said:

how do you know?

 

Since I started collecting (hoarding?) Halinski kits, I have been completely turned off to kits with very basic graphics. I still have some of the latter, but I don't get excited about the prospect of building them.

 

BTW, there were still some Halinski kits leftover at the sale going on over at papermodelers.com, so I picked up a Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless (with laser-cut frames), a Hawker Hurricane Mk. I with canopy, and a Macchi C.205 Veltro. The addiction is real. 😵

 

P.S. The Dauntless is a beast of a model -- just imagine Halinski's insane level of interior detail doubled for a two-seater aircraft. It can also be built with its split dive flaps deployed.

[ccoyle]

Ch. 16 Empennage

 

Whew! The empennage is now complete. Quite a bit of work went into the horizontal stabilizers and elevators; together, they consist of 60 parts, which is substantially more than is found in most kits.

 

 

[ccoyle]

4 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Quite a bit of work went into the horizontal stabilizers and elevators; together, they consist of 60 parts, which is substantially more than is found in most kits.

 

For comparison, I checked Halinski's F4F-3 Wildcat kit published in 1998. The horizontal stabilizers + elevators in that kit consist of only eight parts total.

[ccoyle]

Ch. 17 Wing, Pt. I

 

Whew -- 26 pieces in the framing! Actually, there are 30 pieces, because two of the pieces had their interlocking slots cut out from the bottom when they were designed to be cut out from the top. 😮 So I had to cut each into three separate pieces to glue them in correctly. The framework is pretty solid now, though early on in the construction sequence it was pretty flimsy, such that I accidentally broke two pieces. 🙄 But PVA glue works wonders in such instances.

 

[FriedClams]

Just read your log from the beginning Chris and please count all posts as "liked".  This is another great card kit and as noted by others, the graphic printing on the model is quite extraordinary and so convincing.  But it still takes a talented modeler to execute and bring the model to life as you are doing here (and as you did in your previous build.)  Very nice work!

 

Gary 

[BrianK]

Chris,

Can't wait to see skin on the wings. I am sure it will blow away my Revell P-51B plastic skin with its huge 40 grit rivets.

 

my brain continues to tell me its a card model (I have advances from using the term 'paper' 😃 ) But my eyes tell me your build is way beyond a card model..... I have never seen such a thing. I would love to have a one-question modelers quiz when you finish. I would ask: What do you think this model is made of? No way a noticeable percentage comes back "card".....

 

BrianK

[ccoyle]

Ch. 18 Wing, Pt. II -- Drama! Sort of.

 

So, skinning the wing begins with the center section -- no difficulties there. Neither were there any problems with the port-side skin (on the right in the photo, cuz we're looking at the bottom). Note the cut-out for the aileron -- all is in order.

 

 

Now on to the starboard skin. First, a dry fit -- again, look at the aileron cut-out.

 

 

Wow. That's off -- by a lot. What can be done about this? In this instance, what's required is . . . SURGERY!

 

We start by slicing the wing in half. 😵  Don't worry -- this will be fixed.

 

 

One nice thing about using laser-cut frames is that the printed templates for frames don't get used. That means we can use the printed template and a scrap piece of 1 mm beer mat to make a new piece to perfectly fit the gap created when the wing was cut.

 

 

After gluing that piece in and allowing it to dry, we attach the skin.

 

 

With the skin in place, we can determine the new position for the remaining frames and glue them in. And here's the result.

 

 

A small amount of material will need to be removed from the extra piece in order for the wheel well to fit, but other than that the repair has been a success. Onward!

[Keith Black]

 Well done, Chris. 

[Egilman]

Ok, the framing is off a bit compared to the skin... I see that.. how does one determine where to cut the framing to shift it to match the skin which I assume was checked for accuracy beforehand...

Then what I didn't see is how you reconnected the center frame/wheelwell to the wingtip frame shifted a bit... I'm not seeing it... I guess I'm blind...

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, Egilman said:

how does one determine where to cut the framing to shift it to match the skin which I assume was checked for accuracy beforehand...

Then what I didn't see is how you reconnected the center frame/wheelwell to the wingtip frame shifted a bit... I'm not seeing it

 

Determining where to cut wasn't too difficult. Only the framing that contained the aileron cut-out needed to be shifted, and the spot I selected required cutting the least amount of material. The frames were rejoined as a butt joint between the new stringer and the existing stringer. I took another picture, just for you. 🙂  BTW, the misalignment was likely just some sloppy workmanship.