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

[Egilman]

Thanks Chris, plain as day now...

[ccoyle]

Ch. 19 Wing, Pt. III

 

Wheel wells have been added, along with part of the wing radiator. Next up will be the wing's dorsal surfaces -- but I have to go back to work tomorrow after two weeks off for Christmas, so construction will not proceed as quickly. 😟

 

[Old Collingwood]

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

Ch. 19 Wing, Pt. III

 

Wheel wells have been added, along with part of the wing radiator. Next up will be the wing's dorsal surfaces -- but I have to go back to work tomorrow after two weeks off for Christmas, so construction will not proceed as quickly. 😟

 

Thats a lame excuse  - you have the evenings  - "we need you"

 

OC.

[ccoyle]

On 1/3/2022 at 12:50 AM, Old Collingwood said:

Thats a lame excuse  - you have the evenings  - "we need you"

 

Aw, thanks -- it's nice to feel needed! In the meantime, I have added the wings upper surfaces, along with its single box radiator (that particular structure required some staring at diagrams, help from images online, and meditation). I will upload a picture once I get the wing's various other bits added.

[ccoyle]

Interlude

 

Well, since I have returned to work, the pace of this build has slowed waaaaay down. Last night, I got an aileron done, as in one, singular. Hopefully I will get the other one done tonight. They are not easy, as they are triangular in cross-section and tapered along their length.

 

In the meantime, my anxiously awaited package arrived today, containing four more issues of card modeling goodness from the estate sale at Paper Modelers. Let's see what came!

 

First, there are three kits from Halinski, whoo-hoo! The first is a 2002 kit of a Hawker Hurricane Mk I. This kit is one that was published during Halinski's transitional phase, before they had fully morphed into the Tamiya of card models. It's a great kit, just not as complex as later models, e.g. it doesn't have separate control surfaces. I would consider it to be similar in many regards to kits published by Kartonowa Kolekcja. I also received the molded canopy for this kit.

 

 

 

Then we have the Halinski Macchi C.205 Veltro, a plane with great lines. This kit is similar in complexity to the Spit. No frames for this kit -- in the photo, it just happens to be sitting atop another kit that has them.

 

 

 

And last from Halinski, the Douglas SBD-3 Dauntless. As I said, this kit is a beast. It has nine pages of printed parts and a whopping eleven pages of diagrams -- not for the faint of heart! Happily, I got the laser-cut frames with this kit as well.

 

 

 

 

And finally, one kit from Orlik, a Dewoitine D.520 in Vichy markings, along with the kit's laser-cut frames. This is the same publisher that produced my recently completed Ki-43 Oscar, so it is similar in complexity, though not weathered. Curiously, the kit has optional separate control surfaces, but one of them has a handwritten note next to it that says "corrected part in MS406"; since I don't have the Orlik Morane-Saulnier MS.406 kit, it looks like I'll be building this one without the optional parts. Even without them, this is still a much nicer kit than the recently aborted Bloch MB.152.

 

 

 

That's it for now, but I still have a little bit of Christmas on the way. I'll make an announcement about that when it arrives. 

 

Cheers!

[ccoyle]

Ch. 20 Wing, Pt. IV

 

Ailerons added and wing mated to fuselage.

 

 

[Old Collingwood]

Very nice indeed  -  looks so  lifelike.

 

OC.

[popeye the sailor]

quite a bit of progress Chris.......looks superb!      good save on the wing issue.

[ccoyle]

Upon closer inspection, I discovered that the Dewoitine kit I mentioned above can be built either with or without Vichy markings. The Vichy machine would of course be more colorful -- but then it would be, you know -- a Vichy machine. It will be a tough decision, but not a soon-pending one.

[ccoyle]

Ch. 21 Wing, Pt. V: Fillets

 

As the chapter title suggests, wing fillets are done. These are always fiddly, because they curve in three different directions, so it's a relief when they are finished and haven't turned out too badly. The small port in the wing root is where the gun camera is located, and yes, the kit has separate parts for a gun camera, albeit a very simplified one -- never did a kit with a gun camera before.

 

[mtaylor]

That's first I've heard of any kit having a gun camera.  

[Egilman]

Well, you know it's not complete till it has a gun camera....

How else will we know what it's been flying around with?

[BrianK]

Chris,

"sloppy" is not a word I am thinking about looking at your beautiful work.....

 

You may laugh but you inspired me to pull the trigger on a Drafmodel paddle wheeler card kit from ebay. It will be a first attempt at a card model when I get to it.  😃

 

BrianK

[ccoyle]

1 hour ago, BrianK said:

you inspired me to pull the trigger on a Drafmodel paddle wheeler card kit

 

I know the kit, and it's a good one. Here's a link to a finished one to inspire you.

 

I mentioned in an earlier reply that this particular aircraft is one of the most famous Spitfires flown, and if to underscore that point, I saw this very aircraft depicted in a suggested YouTube video last night.

 

EDIT: I just now noticed that the video has been viewed 3.3 million times! 😮

[amateur]

and now the camera is inside the wing, and you didn't show us?

Or did you just skip the camera, knowing that nobody could ever figure out whether it is there or not?

 

Jan

[ccoyle]

5 minutes ago, amateur said:

and now the camera is inside the wing, and you didn't show us?

Or did you just skip the camera, knowing that nobody could ever figure out whether it is there or not?

The highly simplified "camera" is recessed inside the wing and not visible, much less noticeable, unless you look directly at it from head-on. Most people will not even spot it if they view the finished model later, and 9 out of 10 publishers wouldn't even include such a detail. But, you know -- Halinski.

[AJohnson]

Chris, this looks so good, I still struggle to believe these are made with card, they look that good.  

 

Love a Spitfire and extra excited today, just learned (and pre-ordered! 😆) that Airfix are releasing a 1/24 Spitfire Mr.IXc  😍 - yeah that Airfix 1970's Mk.1a mould can finally be retired! 🥳

Edited January 10, 2022 by AJohnson

[BrianK]

Thanks for the link Chris. Definitely inspirational!

 

I was trying to eat a quick dinner watching that youtube dogfight at my desk. With all the maneuvers I had to stop eating.. 😃 

 

Brian

[ccoyle]

So, as I said, work continues rather slowly. Over the last few evenings I have been working on the canopy and armored windscreen. The clear portion is a pre-formed canopy from Halinski; the armored windscreen is cut from sheet mylar using a supplied template. As many higher-end kits do, this kit came with both inner and outer canopy framing. Before fixing the frames to the canopy, they must first be edge-colored, as per usual, but with a slight twist. Because of the thickness of the clear plastic, some slight amount of the plain white reverse side of each frame will be visible, more so if the inner and outer frames are aligned less than perfectly. Therefore, the back of each frame must also be painted. What's tricky to remember is that the back of each frame should be painted with the color that is seen from the opposite side of the plastic, i.e. the backside of interior framing gets painted with the exterior color and vice versa. I don't always remember to do that last part correctly. 😬

 

Using the canopy glue from Evergreen has had its own learning curve. I have found that it adheres paper to plastic quite well, especially if it is allowed to set the entire recommended 24-hour curing time. Once cured, it resists a substantial amount of deformation, which typically happens when the flimsy canopy parts have been cut apart and require extra finishing (this flimsiness led to a few boo-boos during trimming and sanding). The glue does not dry completely clear, though, so a lot of care has to be used to not get it everywhere when applying it and putting the parts together. Its working time allows parts to be moved around a little, but not very much -- it tends to grab pretty quickly. With all that in mind, I'm somewhat pleased with the result, though I have no doubt that later efforts will be better.

 

 

I have test-fitted the canopy to the fuselage and so far it looks good, but I will not attach it until later.

 

In the meantime, I have been toying with the idea of spraying satin varnish on the model to give it a slight sheen. I have done some research online regarding just how shiny RAF wartime finishes were. As I suspected, the paints used on preserved Spitfires are applied with more of a view toward long-term preservation rather than keeping the few remaining Spits unobserved by Luftwaffe eyeballs, and glossier paints are more durable. However, I also read that the small size of scale models makes them appear to be more matte in appearance than their real-life counterparts, so a bit of shine may be in order. Not wanting to do a test spray on the model itself, I am conducting a test on the next best thing -- the kit's cover art -- and will report back on what I discover.

 

Cheers!

[ccoyle]

3 hours ago, ccoyle said:

I am conducting a test on the next best thing -- the kit's cover art -- and will report back on what I discover.

 

I discovered that after two coats of satin varnish, the matte printing still looks . . . matte.

[Keith Black]

 Chris, test a piece with gloss and see if you can tell a difference. The canopies turned out really nice, all three clear as a bell. 

[ccoyle]

It's amazing how much of a visual difference is made by killing a white spot -- compare the starboard wing to its port side counterpart.

 

 

On the real plane, the bulge you see was made necessary by the addition of the drum-fed Hispano 20 mm cannon; the bulge, along with another on the bottom of the wing, covered the gun's ammunition drum. The early cannons were not a resounding success -- while they fired a heavier shell, the drums carried only a small number of rounds -- about 10 seconds' worth, if I remember correctly. In any case, pilots rarely got the whole 10 seconds of fire thanks to the gun's tendency to jam, often after only a few rounds.

[ccoyle]

I was doing a bit of shopping this morning. I think they may be trying to tell me something. 🤔

 

 

Side note: Yes, the frames in the product photo are obviously not for a Zero. It's quite common for photos of laser-cut elements in listings to feature a generic set rather than the actual product.

[BrianK]

That aircraft looks incredible Chris. I am in the process of sanding Squadron putty seams, and unavoidably removing details in the process, on my Revell P-51B. You are in a totally different modeling world from me. 😃 

 

BrianK

[ccoyle]

A bit of further progress. All gun blisters complete, along with the oil cooler and air inlet. The latter was a booger to build. I wound up with a part left over. 🤔

 

 

Work on the landing gear is in progress. On the left are the port strut and door. On the right are the parts for the starboard strut and door, just for comparison. Not hard work, but kind of tedious. Once these are done it will be time for wheels.

 

[EricWilliamMarshall]

I trust you survived the crazy weather this weekend!

[ccoyle]

7 hours ago, EricWilliamMarshall said:

I trust you survived the crazy weather this weekend!

 

We got maybe three inches of snow. That's enough to get the locals excited and paralyze commerce, but it's less than what we were accustomed to in California and substantially less than the 8-12" in the initial forecasts.

 

I have titled this photo "The Wrath of Izzy."

[ccoyle]

Wheels (I lost track of what chapter this is.)

 

The main gear wheels are each made of five laminated discs. The outer discs were dunked in shellac to prepare them for rough handling and sanding. Here's the laminated wheels.

 

And here they are after final shaping, painting, and having their hubs added. That darn paint has a tendency to pick up all kinds of dust.

 

And here she sits on her new shoes, including tail wheel.

 

Still bits to add, but since each won't individually make a huge visual impact, I think this will be the last update until The Big Reveal. Cheers!

[druxey]

Looks great so far, Chris!

 

Note: we had to dig out (partially) from about two to three feet of the white stuff. No workshop time at all today!

[mtaylor]

Chris, don't worry about dust on the tires.  Makes the tires look used.